[Mr.Trip Williams]

In fantasy, there is a line where the fantastical becomes far-fetched. Where do you draw the line?

 

Upon another line of thought, similar to that, I was wondering when it comes to catering biblical realities and Christian truth into fantasy, how far is too far when it comes to altering truth to fit into your story?

Here’s an example of what I mean…

I’m currently debating how far to take it and whether to include a mythology into my books, but I’m considering tying my fantasy world to the real world, similar to how Ted Dekker did for his color trilogy (big fan).

My Idea… is strictly fantasy, not to be tied into Revelations… but, you know how Satan goaded (sort of) God to test Job? (I know, bad word choice, but not sure there is a good word choice option there.) Well, I had the idea that, at the end of time, Revelations, of course God wins and Satan loses big time, but for my fantasy, what if Satan, just before losing, proposes a challenge to God? Suppose Satan accuses God of interfering too much in his Creation, and that by doing so, God’s predetermination of who was His and who was going to be saved stripped us of our ability to freely choose. Of course, this is fallacious, but Satan proposes a challenge in which a new world is built in which autonomous beings had more creative ability and freedoms and only a set amount of interference allowed (ie. at the beginning only). (another way of putting this is what if this new world, the populace ate of both the fruit of life and the fruit of good and evil? . . . in a way). Then the world of Kaphar came into being and a select number of humans were elected to populate the new world, and new powers were given to the inhabitants of the new world, etc. It’s an intricate design, and there’s more to it, but that would be the gist of it… The novel series would follow an orphaned son who travels around to different ancient ruins to learn the truth, gather the ‘armor of God,’ and thwart an evil emperor from gaining ultimate power… (with lots of plot twists along the way… ;p )

I’m still not sure about it, like how other Christians would view it… but it’s an idea rummaging through my mind…

What do you think? Is that going too far, or does it make for an interesting background for a novel series?

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K.C.

[Crazywriter]

@jared-williams

Hey Jared!

Its an interesting idea, and the skeleton of the story is great. I think something you would need to ponder, however, is the biblical themes you portray. Now I know no novel, written by a Christian or not, is imperfect, but it would do Christian authors well to portray biblical truth as best they can.

 

Now maybe you should change it into more of an allegorical characterization. Maybe Satan should be called the Dark One, and God called the King, or what have you. Keep in mind that if unbelievers read it and hear explicit mentions of biblical characters, such as God and Satan, they may impute your book into their understanding of Christianity.

Perhaps changes the names and setting would help, because if I’m a believer and I hear Satan challenging God and God then accepting it, I think, oh they must be equals, for God to want to prove something to Satan. I know that’s not what you want to portray, but it’s something to think about tweaking.

Also, just curious. When mentioning free will are you trying to advocate man’s free will, or showing the futility of the will, apart from God changing it?

However I love the story idea, and I feel that with tweaking you could tell a masterful tale. Just my thoughts.

On another note, would you tell me what’s your opinion on my religious themes? That’d would be SO helpful.

In my WIP I generally am a little paranoid that I don’t portray too explicit religious themes that could be taken wrong, so that no one gets their theology from my book. But for instance, one of the biblical themes I portray is a King who is recovering from the wake of national disaster, and he begins more and more to realize that the nations God, Galrath, is nothing more than a petty statue. Thus he goes on a search for the famed King of Escalas, who, according to the old legends, created the whole world. He had given the children of men luscious lands to enjoy and a regent over them, Estenros. However Estenros soon became greedy and power hungry, for he was deceived by a dark foe(Haven’t thought Of a name yet XD)

Back to the current King, Abner, who goes on the journey. He has had dreams of a great fiery mountain, and atop it, a shining city. But as he tries to climb it, a black goo oozes from the earth, and makes it impossible to climb the slope.

When he arrives at the foot of the mountain, his dream comes true, and he is stuck in a hopelessly slippery, sticky mess of his own doing . Then from atop the mountain comes down a man, dressed in a simple brown robe, but whose face is more radiant than any face Abner had ever seen. The man picks him up, and carries him up the slope, through the slime, and through sharp rocks and thorns, and hostile terrain, and only by the actions of this man, does Abner reach the famed City of the King.

I assume you caught on to the themes, but I just wanted to portray the mountains as the requirement to be with God. And Abner by himself cannot climb it. In fact, his efforts to climb it are what causes the slime in the first place. Only the intervention of the man who Carries him is the way he can reach salvation.

 

Hope I don’t sound too critical Jared, and I love a good story, and yours certainly sounds like one!

[Mr.Trip Williams]

No, not too critical. Thank you for your considerate reply! I think your story themes sounds great! It reminds me a lot of Pilgrim’s Progress. The parallels are very easy to see, and it sounds like a really interesting story.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K.C.

[Author]

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