Monthly Archives: September 2015

JESUS’ SECOND COMING AND SCIENCE FICTION

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I started this particular cycle of wondering, daydreaming and sometimes thinking because I like science fiction. My question was: can I enjoy science fiction and believe that Jesus Christ is coming soon?

Well, I thought about it. I thought about it a lot. And I came to a conclusion. Now, I’d like you to tell me, does this make sense or am I just rationalizing—like a fat person who wants a stretch-your-mouth-out-of-shape cheeseburger. Fries and a milkshake are just part of the burger, of course.

So you tell me if I’m being logical or not.

In the first place I found that those who know much, much more about the Bible languages than I do say that “coming soon” should be translated “coming suddenly.” Jesus wasn’t using a clock or calendar time expression. He was expressing the speed of His appearing. One moment He isn’t here and then in a nano-fraction of a second, He comes, the stars fall, the sky rolls up like a scroll and the everyday world we know is gone forever. Revelation 6:14. As I understand it, that’s what “coming soon” means.

But there’s more and it concerns science, and science fiction. In Mark 13:27, Jesus said: “And then He will send forth the angels and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.”

Hmmm, the farthest end of heaven?—It’s going to take us a long time to go there. We’re gonna need something beyond rockets, even something beyond ion propulsion. And Jesus said He’d have His angels gather us from the farthest end of heaven.

And there’s the time factor. Will we have time to go w a-a-ay out yonder to the farthest heaven? I’ve decided that it’s possible and here’s why. In Psalms 105:8 we read: “He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations.”

Thousand generations is not a typo. We also come across it in Deuteronomy 7:9: “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”

This sounds to me as if humans will be coming to the Lord for a long time to come. How much time? Even if we calculate a generation as only twenty years, that amount of time would be twenty thousand years (20,000 years.) Of course, we must also remember that to the Lord, “one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.” 2 Peter 3:8

Archeologists place the time of David and Solomon as approximately the tenth century before Christ came the first time. That means if we use our current time system, we will still be here for almost seventeen thousand years.

How did I arrive at that figure?

20,000 years less 10 centuries B.C. = 19000 years. That brings us to the time of Jesus birth. (Oh, BTW, today’s best guess is that Jesus was born in 4 B.C. [When He was supposed to divide the calendar into before His birth and after His birth, how could that happen? Simple. Politicians played games with the calendar a number of times between Solomon and today. It seems that they misplaced a few years.])

The years from 0 A.D. to today is 2,100 years. From our remaining 19,000 years we now have 16,900 to go, give or take a little. (take 15 years into this new century and give the 4 years because of the calendar mistakes. As of September 15, 2015 we have about 16,889 years to go. It’s ridiculous to be that exact, of course. (I think they call that kind of nit-picky figuring, spurious accuracy.)

However, the Lord did say He would keep his covenant to a thousand generations. Since we won’t be creating more generations in heaven, (Luke 20:34-36) it does seem that we need a bunch more generations on earth.

Remember, I’m not setting dates, I’m only encouraging myself to enjoy and write science fiction.

BUT

While I’m thinking along these lines, I know several people who need confidence real bad on the issue of when Jesus returns. That’s because in the past couple of years we’ve had a few writers giving some of us the “willies” with their talk of blood moons and shemetahs. I don’t think what they’re doing is right and I don’t think Jesus will come this year or next.

Why do I not think our current set of blood moons and shemetahs are the signs of His coming? It’s simple and it’s sheer economics. I think some people who should know better are hyping their books for all they’re worth because they won’t be able to even give them away after November 1, 2015.

But there’s a much better reason than possible human greed for not taking too much notice of the blood moon stuff. There are unfulfilled prophecies concerning Jesus’ second coming.

Here’s the prophecy biggie for me: Israel has never claimed the Euphrates River as one of their national borders. The boundary God assigned to Israel is found in Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:31; Numbers 34:1-2, Joshua 1:4 and Ezekiel 47:13-20. Boundaries in addition to the Euphrates River are: the wilderness and Lebanon, Hittite country (South-central Turkey), the Mediterranean Sea, and the “River of Egypt,” We have to remember that God cannot lie and that’s what He said.

It seems to me that the only correct boundaries Israel has ever claimed are the Mediterranean Sea and possibly Lebanon. For a few years Solomon had a satellite state that bordered the Euphrates, but that’s not the same as Israel having the River as a border and besides no tribe or tribes ever claimed that satellite area as part of their territory.

The boundary of Israel isn’t the only unfulfilled prophecy, but it’s an easy one about which to say, “Yes, it happened.” Or “No, it didn’t happen.” What this means to me is that I’ll start expecting Jesus to return in the next clap of thunder when they have all the land God intended them to have—or are at least are close enough so that they might claim it in another “six day war.”

There’s more unfulfilled prophecies about Jesus’ second coming, a lot more, and maybe I’ll write on that another day. Right now, I’m only intending to tell myself that, as a Christian, I have permission to enjoy, and write, science fiction. As a side benefit I get to give a few words of hope to the nervous or anxious among us.

Now I’d like to give another word. When Jesus comes there won’t be time to make things right. We need to be making things right every day, every hour. It’s what Jesus expects of us. It’s also the reasonable thing to expect of ourselves as Christians.

Let’s make it our intention to be the best person we can be every day for the rest of our lives. When He comes, Jesus will make our effort more than worth its cost.

I really like to know. now that you know my feelings on the subject, how about you? Do you feel there is value in science fiction for a Christian?

Four Ways to Make Dialog Meaningful

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Dialog is a tricky thing that will trip up any writer who isn’t constantly working at it. These are just a few reminders.

  1. Our characters are heroes. They have important things to do. When they talk, they “cut to the chase.” If it doesn’t contribute to the story it doesn’t belong in the story. THIS MEANS: Cut all small talk and polite conversation. Be extremely careful of including banter or things not involved in the story. Our characters are welded to their goal and nothing, certainly no speaking, will come between a good story character and his or her goal.
  2. Make your characters distinct in their dialog. THIS MEANS: In cold blood plan to have person one speak only in short ‘punchy’ sentences. Plan for person two to always pepper his/her speech with the jargon of his/her work. Plan for person three to use the same word repeatedly (I have a character in one novel who frequently says “I mean—” I use this habit to show her lack of self-confidence.) You get the idea, make each person an individual by their speech patterns.
  3. Create dialog that is sufficient in itself. Well written dialog between two individuals won’t need a lot of description. An occasional, “Morgan (or whoever) said.” is enough. THIS MEANS: Just reading the dialog should let the reader know if the character is angry, sad, hurting, etc. Use your thesaurus or Word’s version of the same thing to pour anger, sadness etc into the speech the character says. Don’t write: Morgan said angrily, sadly, passionately or use any other adverb after “s/he said.”
  4. Write natural dialog. THIS MEANS: Don’t be pretentious. Don’t make your characters stuck up (Even if they are pompous or conceited, there are better ways than pretentious writing to show it.) Do use contractions and partial sentences.

Good writers eavesdrop continuously. Don’t feel guilty about it; it’s part of a writer’s toolkit; it will hurt no one. Pay attention to the tables near by in restaurants, at meetings, even listen in on your own conversations.

Be listening for the flow of words from other people’s mouths. The rhythm of normal speech is a beautiful thing. Listen for it, revel in it. Learn to transfer the rhythm, but not the usual mundane content, to the page. Our characters are heroes, their words have the rhythm of normal speech, but more momentous things to talk about.