Sowing, reaping, and Christian spec-fic

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."--Galatians 6:7-8

It's a concept that is widely accepted as truth, even by those who don't believe in Christ or in the Bible.  Some people, in an attempt to separate the concept from its Scriptural roots, refer to it as "karma."  Even as the secular world tries to deny its origin, however, there is no denying the concept: What goes around, comes around.

For those of us who are Christians, it goes even deeper.  We not only acknowledge the concept, but we acknowledge the source.  Moreover, we know that because God is in control, the law of sowing and reaping is absolute.  Whatever we sow, whether it be spiritual or sinful, whether it be right or wrong, will certainly produce its harvest in our lives.

What does this have to do with Christian spec-fic?  I see the genre being fueled by the concept of good vs. evil, of the spirit vs. the flesh, of God vs. the devil.  Christian spec-fic is a great tool for illustrating the concept for the modern world--stories whose main thrust revolves around characters reaping what they have sown.

Philippians 4:13.--SMS

What is "biblical speculative fiction," anyway?

OK, so "Zero Hour" falls into the category of Christian and/or biblical speculative fiction.  Granted, that may not be a term you hear all the time, which begs the question: What is biblical speculative fiction, anyway?

First off, let's look at speculative fiction, or spec-fic for short.  Basically, anything that is related to science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, etc. falls into this category, but with a lot more flexibility.  For instance, a spec-fic story can have some science fiction elements without necessarily having the technical explanations found in "hard" science fiction and without necessarily having to be set on a spaceship, another planet, or what-have-you.  The Twilight Zone--probably the biggest collective inspiration for what I write--falls into this category as most of its episodes have these elements without being "hard" examples of sci-fi, horror, etc.

So biblical/Christian spec-fic is just a matter of putting a Christian worldview on this genre.  It can take the form of teaching a Christian lesson through a spec-fic plot, or it can be showing how a Christian character might react to the kinds of things that happen in those stories.  Again, lots of flexibility.

So why did I choose biblical spec-fic?  I write spec-fic because I've always liked those types of stories and I wanted to write what I was most familiar with.  I put the Christian worldview in because that is my worldview, because I believe that it's only because of God that I can do this in the first place, and I want to glorify Him with my writing to the best of my ability.

If you want more details about biblical speculative fiction, this link will take you to the corresponding page on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_speculative_fiction

Thanks for stopping by, and remember, Luke 19:10.--SMS