tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4037568074224135598.post5419326181448827384..comments2023-04-27T02:38:24.236-07:00Comments on Yellow House News: Day Three - June, 2011 CSFF Blog Tour, Darkness FollowsT C Booherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076755815599489170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4037568074224135598.post-50766079815127617742011-06-23T04:04:47.690-07:002011-06-23T04:04:47.690-07:00Becky, is the message of Darkness Follows, Jesus l...Becky, is the message of Darkness Follows, Jesus loves you? Those words were there, certainly, but I don't see how they came as the message of the book. But assume those words were intended to encapsulate the message. They were devoid of content. What does Jesus love you mean? There was no unpacking of that in terms of the death and resurrection of Christ. It might make someone teary-eyed because of who said it and when, but did it really say anything significant without the cross?<br /><br />Can one say, Jesus loves you, to anyone and mean anything by it unless he has in mind that electing love he has for his people, and that explanation follows.<br /><br />Can one nilly-willy say, Jesus loves you, to anyone without qualification. He prayed for his own specifically, not the world, whom he specifically excluded in his intercessory prayer in John 17. An angel reveals to Joseph in a dream that He came to save his people, not everyone, from their sins, Matt 1:21. Christ gave himself for the Church, not everyone in the world without exception, that he might, sanctify her, and present her without any spot or blemish, but that she (alone) should be holy, Eph 5:25. The Lord is longsuffering toward us (his people, not those whom he does not intend to redeem) and not willing that any (of us) should perish, 2 Pet 3:9; and on and on.<br /><br />Jesus loves in a saving way with the intent to make us holy and equip us to fight against the forces of spiritual darkness, Eph 6:12.<br />None of this was in the book, and these pointedly Christian truths are not conveyed by the expression of a seven-year-old daughter to her father that Jesus loves him.<br /><br />I'm not saying a novel must have everything there can be said about the gospel, or that it must go into deep explanations, but it must have substance if it is going to be Christian. <br /><br />Much of what we call Christian fiction today is fluff, beats around the gospel without ever getting to it, almost as if it is trying to not offend the sinner.Thomas Clayton Booherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03236649952538269327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4037568074224135598.post-77070780568723042162011-06-22T10:46:44.917-07:002011-06-22T10:46:44.917-07:00For me, Christian fiction is not truly Christian u...<i>For me, Christian fiction is not truly Christian unless it pointedly and clearly brings in the salient truths of the gospel.</i> Thomas, I'm going to disagree with you in degree here. <br /><br />I tackled the issue of what makes fiction Christian over at <a href="http://www.speculativefaith.com/2011/05/23/imagination-and-truth/" rel="nofollow">Spec Faith</a> a couple weeks ago, and this is what I concluded: <i>And here is the point that separates Christian fiction, I believe, from all other fiction. Christian fiction speaks the truth about God. Other fiction can speak the truth about morals or the way the world works or what makes a person love or hate or live on the edge. Other fiction might be silent about God. Other fiction might speak a lie (though undoubtedly the author believes that what he’s written is true) about any of these things. Only Christian fiction speaks the truth about God.</i> <br /><br />The only way a work can speak the truth about God is if it is anchored in His self-revelation recorded in the Bible. However, I don't think there is any required amount of truth that a story needs to include. Obviously, I think deeper stories will include more, but I'm not going to say that a story whose message is "Jesus loves you" isn't Christian. The fact is, no other piece of fiction will carry that theme.<br /><br />BeckyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com