IS GOD REALLY GOING TO JUDGE THE EARTH? (Zephaniah Part 2)

 

 "The Great Day Of His Wrath" by English painter John Martin, 1851-1853.

Last week I looked at the first verse of Zephaniah last week, which merely introduced Zephaniah. As far as geneology, it was the most detailed of any prophet, but not much more than that. So what is Zephaniah's message?

 "'I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land,' says the LORD." Zephaniah 1:2, NKJV.

First question is what this is referring to. Is it talking about the near event of Babylon conquering Jerusalem? Or is it describing God's ultimate judgment on the nations in the last times before He returns as King? I believe the answer is yes.

Psalm 24:1 states the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. In both Testaments, it deals with God punishing the nations as well as His chosen people. God is capable of bringing catastrophic judgments on the earth.

But most people fall into two groups. One are those who believe a God of love cannot cast the lost into hell or send physical judgment on the earth. Others believe God will punish the wicked (meaning our enemies) but not His people (that's us).

Peter tells the believers to "conduct yourselves throughout your stay here in fear (1 Pet. 1:17). Paul wrote that we should "cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

Whenever we hear about fear from most preachers and teachers, it is to tell us to fear not, quoting "God has not given us a spirit of fear" (2 Tim. 1:7) and "Perfect love casts out all fear" (1 John 4:18). It is true through the Scripture we're to trust God to protect us and that is to not fear.

But then we read repeatedly we're to fear God, and so we take the encouraging message to not fear and apply it to those texts to say it doesn't mean what it seems to say but is really telling us to be reverent and honor Him. So we end up letting our conceptions dictate the meaning of Scripture.

The reality is that we sometimes have no fear for God in the literal sense, which may result in not having fear in the sense of reverence either. Many who oppose eternal security/"once saved always saved" claim the adherents of that view are saying we can do anything we want and still be saved (and unfortunately some of those adherents have that mindset). 

We don't expect chastisement (Heb. 12:5-11) and don't seem to tremble at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 3:10-17; 2 Cor. 5:9-11). As an eternal security advocate, I don't fear losing my salvation, because this is a judgement of works, not sin like the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). But believe me, my knees are knocking at giving an account of my life before my Lord and Savior.

I do believe that while there are applications of Zephaniah 1:2 and following having taken place when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the complete fulfillment will take place in the future. Both believers and unbelievers will face the consequences of their answers.

So if we believe that God will someday judge the world, how will that affect the way we live? What effect will it have on how we relate to others?

 

The Issue Of Sovereignty In Novel Writing.

I remember when I was doing critiques as an ACFW member. I was reading one novel where the male lead was knocked out and put in a death trap inside a house. He made it out unharmed but still bound. 

Then, he heard footsteps. Was it the bad guys to make sure there job was finished? No! God was good: it was his buddy who came to see if he was okay.

The author then submitted their synopsis of the story for feedback. When it got to the scene I mentioned, the author again mentioned God is good in allowing the hero's friend to come instead of his foes.

Is God good? Absolutely. And in the novel itself, the hero was definitely saying God is good. However, the fact that good guy showed up instead of the bad guy had nothing to do with the goodness of the Lord, but the goodness of the author. (Unless you are such a strong Calvinist that you believe every word a novelist writes has been predestined.)

In a sense, could a novelist/screenwriter be viewed as a small 'g' god? They have the ability to create a world with people in it. The places may resemble real life places (e.g. my novel takes place in Indianapolis.) Or the places are fictitious but still operate in our reality (such as my favorite coffee shop which closed half a dozen years ago in real life but still is open for business in my novel.) Or the writer is a sci-fi or fantasy writer where you have your complete world with creatures that you don't have here.

The first two books I read on Christian writing were How To Write (And Sell) A Christian Novel by Gilbert Morris and Writing For The Soul by Jerry Jenkins. Morris made it clear from the start that we shouldn't just start writing but in advance divide the book into parts and chapters. Likewise, he has a detailed list on what each character looks like as well as other info. 

Jenkins has a completely different philosophy. You may or may not know that when he and LaHaye started writing Left Behind it was supposed to be a novel, not a series. It didn't turn out that way. He also likes getting interesting characters in a room together and see what happens. Jenkins tells readers that he didn't kill off a character - he found them dead. Likewise, he keeps the descriptions to a minimum, allowing the reader the honor of deciding what a character looks like.

Now, there are times descriptions help. Remember the story I mentioned at the top of this blog? The hero's friend was named Billy Bob.  How many of you have a picture of a white guy? I did. The author was creative in having an African American with that moniker. 

However, the story I was critiquing was a sequel to a published novel. She mentioned Billy Bob's ethinicity in the first book; she forgot to mention that in book two. So I had an incorrect picture of the character as I was reviewing the second story, before I had a chance to read the first one.

Another writing book I read was Writing Killer Fiction: The Fun House of Mystery And The Roller Coaster Of Suspense by Carolyn Wheat. She mentioned that most mystery writers plot it out like Gilbert Morris, while suspense authors are more apt to just write without planning ahead.

So let me close this with two questions. The first is how you'd write. (And if I'm blessed to have any authors as regular blog readers, please tell me about your writing). The second is from those who know me which one you think I would lean towards. I'll answer the second question next week.

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN OTTE

 

I have yet to interview Allistair MacLean or Agatha Christy. Possibly because they exited from the earth's scene before I started doing author interviews. However, when I get a chance to interview on of my favorite authors, it always turns out to be a blessing, and this interview with John Otte (pronounced Ought-Tee) is an example.

I'll admit - if I ever get my murder-at-an-apologetics-conference-mystery published, John would be high on the list of people I'd like to write a blurb. One reason is because he's a very good author. The other is he's a Lutheran minister. I've had the privilege of reading both his novels and his theological non-fiction.

*        *        *   

JR: You are one of those writers that I'm not sure which I admire more: your night job or your day job (Lutheran minister). How much overlap is there between these two ministries? How does one strengthen or challenge the other?

JO: I’d say there’s a fair amount of overlap between the two. In terms of how being a pastor (specifically a Lutheran one) informs my novel writing, since I’ve primarily written Christian fiction, I definitely bring my “theological baggage” along with me in writing those stories. There are a surprising number of Lutherans in Christian speculative fiction specifically and Christian fiction in general, but we have a unique “flavor” to our theology that can serve as a counterpoint to the prevailing viewpoints that you find in Christian fiction. It’s not that I set out to layer in Lutheran stuff, it’s just a part of me and my worldview so it’s naturally going to emerge.

As for how the crossover flows in the opposite direction, members of my congregations, both past and present, will tell you that I’m an inveterate storyteller. If I can put a story in a sermon or Bible study, I’m going to. And being a writer means that I’m going to show a little more care in telling those stories, especially if it’s one that I’ve made up.

JR: While not the first novel you wrote, your first published fiction is the Failstate trilogy (also including a pair of e-book novellas). I absolutely loved that series, but I also found that the final one brought up some theological questions concerning parallel universes. What inspired that series?

JO: I didn’t originally plan for that to be a trilogy at all. I wrote the first book as a stand-alone novel. But I was certainly open to writing more. The first book was inspired by a situation at a writers conference where I felt very much like Failstate in the first novel: the loser outsider who felt that life should be treating him better, envious of other people’s successes. As I was processing my experience, my wife suggested that I should write a superhero story for our oldest boy (he was about three or four at the time, if memory serves). Everything just kind of gelled and the result was Failstate.

As for the rest of the trilogy, I originally pitched three other books with the middle two being a slow burn to what would eventually be known as Failstate: Nemesis. My publisher at the time wasn’t impressed with what I came up with for books two and three and suggested we condense it down into one. So I had to cherry pick the details that had to be in there and invent a story that they could be included in. My agent suggested including zombies. And thus Failstate: Legends came to be.

JR: You also have a two novels (I don't know if it should be
considered a series) dealing with a universe ruled by the Ministrix and the Praesidium. (Numb, by the way, was the above mentioned first novel; The Hive was written afterward.) How far are we from that basic concept in our society? What problems does our divided society face and what answers are there?

JO: I fear that we’re getting closer and closer to it each day. I see many Christians who are heeding the siren call to political power and influence, especially as our place as the center of Western society has slipped in recent years. That makes us nervous and uncomfortable and, when people get anxious, they tend to do whatever they can to find stability and security. While I’d like to think that most Christians wouldn’t fall for the Ministrix’s pitch, I worry that a surprising number might. And while I don’t think many people would be satisfied with the completely antireligious state of the Praesidium, I fear that parts of our society may be inching in that direction as well.

I’m no prophet, so it’s hard for me to diagnose the division and chart a course forward. I would say, though, that the best solution for Christians is to remember two things: our privileged position in society is an aberration and not intentional. We were always meant to be outsiders and countercultural. If the world is shifting away from us, that’s fine. We remain what God calls us to be: salt and light.

JR: A series you wrote that I enjoyed as much was a non-fiction blog titled the Lutheran Difference. Could you tell us about that? 

JO: Like I said earlier, I know that in certain pockets of American Christianity, Lutheranism is kind of a mystery. People know who Martin Luther is and they acknowledge his contribution to the Protestant Reformation. But then they try to lump us into groups that we don’t fit in, such as Protestant (technically, we’re not) or Calvinist (no way) or Arminian (the fact that I had to look this up to make sure I spelled it correctly should tell you how well we fit in this group also). We don’t hold to what many would consider “typical” American Christianity’s beliefs about conversion or baptism or communion or any of that stuff.

So I figured that, since I’m in sort of a unique position being a Lutheran pastor on the one hand and a Christian author on the other, that gave me a unique opportunity to share a little of who we are and the theology that shaped me and continues to shape us. My intention wasn’t to argue with anyone or try to convince them to become Lutheran. I just know that there’s a rich diversity of theological thoughts and traditions; it’s always helpful to understand them to enrich your own faith or, at the very least, understand where people are coming from.

JR: Thank you for your time, John, and may the Lord Jesus Christ richly bless your ministries.

JO: May the Lord bless you as well! This was great!

 

Reader, have you seen any situations where fiction and theology blend?

 

BOOK REVIEW: THE BENEDICT OPTION BY ROD DREHER

 

I first read this book the better part of two years ago. Immediately I re-read it so I could write a review on it. Why? because I thought this was a book that needed to be read. And I've just read it a third time.

This is one of the rare books that I want to recommend others to read so I can sit down and discuss it with them. I don't agree with everything author Rod Dreher proposes. But this is an important book that I want to learn how to work it into my life. Some who disagreed with this book point out it's more Orthodox/Catholic than Evangelical, but I don't consider that a problem. Rather, it is a call to stand against the real and common enemy. 

Dreher sees five historic events from the past seven centuries as being not causes but influences to the current time, culminating with the sexual revolution. He sees the solution as one more influenced by Benedict's monasticism than the typical political activism we see today. It is not that Dreher recommends withdrawing from society, but it is more on Christians unifying into strong communities in a society that marginalizes us. He deals with important issues like politics - he feels the emphasis should be local, but the major national emphasis should be on religious liberty - education, church life, community, sexuality, and not being dependent on technology.

I showed this book and another with a similar theme to one of my best friends. That friend said by looking at the back cover he could tell the other author was mad at the church and that he didn't need to read that. Not true about this one - my friend said that he thought it was worthy of reading.  

Allow me to look at this book from an apologetics persepective. I believe this strongly recommends defending the faith through orthopraxy. You are probably more familiar with the word "orthodoxy" which means "right thinking;" "orthopraxy" refers to "right living." A lot of times our priorities and worldview as Christians is too much like the world. Dreher's approach is encouraging the church to be the church, to be the alternative to society's mess.

 

 

IF YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH ZEPHANIAH, RAISE YOUR HANDS! (Zephaniah, part 1)

 If you're like me, you probably never heard a sermon preached on Zephaniah, and probably have never covered it in a Bible study or Sunday School class. I taught on it in Sunday School almost 20 years ago because I wasn't familiar with it, and memorized several passages, and learned to love this book! So I'm sharing this on Sundays over various weeks.

I'm sure that a prophet often feels like this addax from the Louisville Zoo - all alone in the open, vulnerable to attack on any front. (Okay, in reality this antelope does have some off-camera companions, and in the zoo there's no predators to worry about, but let's go with this analogy.)

One thing about the prophets (in this blog, I'm considering Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and the 16 writing prophets) is we don't know much about the prophets. 

With some, we're not sure if we know them by their name or just by a description - for example, "Malachi" means "messenger."

Occupations? We know Ezekiel was a priest and suspect Jeremiah and Zechariah were as well. Daniel was one of Babylon's wisemen, and Amos was a shepherd and fig picker. Otherwise, we're not sure.

Marital status? Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea were; Jeremiah and Daniel weren't. The other fourteen? Some are assumed to be unmarried but there's no definite record.

Finally, how about geneology? Looking at the nineteen considered prophets, we know Zechariah's grandfather's name. We know the father of nine others, and nothing about eight more. 

This brings us to Zephaniah. No, we don't know if he was married or what he did for a living. Zephaniah was definitely his name (and that of others in Scripture), but we're not absolutely certain of its meaning - it can be translated "Yahweh has concealed, "Whom Yahweh has hidden," or "Yahweh lies in wait" (which fits Zephaniah 3:8). But we do know his geneology, which goes back five generations.

The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. -  Zephaniah 1:1, NKJV

 Zephaniah has the longest lineage of any of the prophets. It also lets us know that he's of royal lineage: his great great grandfather was King Hezekiah. True, it doesn't say for sure, but to me its logical that considering it's the last name given and that it's a recognized name, as well as the time span - reigning king Josiah was Hezekiah's great grandson - it seems likely.

I mentioned the reigning king. Josiah was a good king who led in a reform. However, most consider those reforms to be superficial. Josiah had three sons (and a grandson) become king after him, and none followed his example, and the people didn't seem to be bothered.

I did make a comment of prophets feeling isolated like the addax pictured above. Zephaniah may have felt that way in his ministry, but he did prophesy in the same time as Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Urijah whose short and tragic ministry is described in Jeremiah 26:20-23).

So what was the message God gave through Zephaniah. You can wait until next week for Part 2. (Or you can read the book of Zephaniah - it will take 15-20 minutes to read the whole book.)

WHEN FICTION READING IS WORK

 For the most part, I enjoyed my reading assignments in High School. But I remember a Room 222 episode when I was in 6th grade where the students wanted to read Catch 22 instead of Silas Marner. 

Plus, I said for the most part. I had a class on Sci-Fi/Literature Of The West in High School. I enjoyed reading the assigned short stories from the Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology (and also read the unassigned ones). I struggled more with the two novels from the Western side of the semester. Both of them were deep in themes, and I found the latter pretty depressing.

I am sure being a professional book reviewer would not always be fun. I'd probably be expected to read books that don't interest me or that make my blood pressure boil.

For the most part, being a book influencer is fun. (A book influencer receives free books for the purpose of reading and then posting an unbiased review.) Yes, I put a priority on that novel so I can get the review posted early enough. But the authors that I am regularly an influencer for are ones I'd read if I wasn't doing that job.

But then there's reading for research. Most of the time, one thinks that research takes place in the non-fiction section of the library. 

However, this year I read a trio of Hercule Poirot novels back to back to back. I have seen the David Suchet adaptations of all the Poirot novels (as well as the six by Peter Ustinov and the Murder On The Orient Express adaptions featuring Albert Finney and Kenneth Branagh, but those aren't relevant to the topic). As I was thinking about part 2 of a mystery trilogy I'm writing, I realized there were some slight similarities to three of the Poirot stories. So I read the original to see what Agatha Christy did, noting the similarities and differences between what I'm doing and giving me food for thought.

In submitting book proposals, one item is a comparative analysis, where you mention what books are similar to yours and why yours is unique. I struggled with my first novel's proposals because mine is unique in theme. But it leaves me wondering if I should read two books that I never believed was worth my time reading: Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code and Jonathan Cahn's The Harbringer. Personally, I have no interest in either. But will reading them help me get my novel published?

Yes, I did have a different mindset on reading the Poirot trio I mentioned, but more often than not, I enjoy the reading that does more closely resemble work than fiction reading normally is.

Have you ever read fiction where it was to some degree a chore rather than just fun? How has that benefitted you?

INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTOPHER SCHMITZ

JR: Welcome, Christopher. You have edited a pair of devotionals out in the Faith In Fiction series. What inspired these books, and how did you line up the topics and authors (including Kerry Nietz, who I interviewed for this blog recently)? Also, are there any more of these in the works?

CS: There are definitely more in the works. It all came together as an idea that I had while at a writing conference and thinking about collaborating with authors for networking. I belong to a few writing groups and had some ongoing devotional conversations with some other writers; most of these folks I only know in an online capacity, but some of them have attended the same events as I have and we wind up getting together in real life at events (just did a few days ago, in fact.) I do as many shows as I can. I was pretty pleased to get to know Kerry and reached out a while back when an author friend (who is somewhere on the spectrum between athiest and agnostic,) mentioned that the Amish Vampires series gave him real hope and genuine interest in faith-based fiction. Kerry did the foreword for the first book and then contributed in book 2. A third book is underway as well.

JR: You have written several novels, most recently including Rise and Fall of the Obsidian Grotto, Book 1 of The Esfah Sagas. Would you like to share anything that you've written that might be used

as an example in the above mentioned devotional series you're editing?


CS: I write. A lot. So many books… and I might never get to all my ideas. Currently I’m writing Book 6 in that series and co-writing Book 5. The Esfah Sagas is actually a continuation and rerelease of an old fantasy series from the 1990s that I was a fan of and which was put out by TSR (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, etc.) and I secured the rights usage earlier this year making this the only TSR fantasy property not owned by Wizards of the Coast. In the series I lean a little more Tolkien in how I present good and evil and use archetypes… what I really mean is that it comes from the faith-based worldview that I possess, but is not directly religious. My Kakos Realm series, however, is overtly Christian in nature.

Part of what we did in the Faith in Fiction devotionals is use an existing book series with a large following/fanbase and write a series of devos around themes, characters, events, and concepts from the books which aren’t necessarily faith-based themselves. For example, in the second devo, I wrote a series of pieces on concepts from Dune (knowing that the Villenvue movie is releasing this year). Secondly, authors wrote a second set of devos around the series that they wrote. My second set, following the Dune entries, draw on my ongoing my Sci-Fi series, Dekker’s Dozen. One reviewer said “it’s like Firefly and Farscape had a baby!” Which is neat since I’m a guest at a SF convention next month where an actress from Farscape is also a guest.

JR: You also have some non-fiction titles, such as the just released Muzzling Jesus: Liberty, Faith, Politics, and the Mask Debate. I am definitely interested in hearing about this book, but I'd also like to know the similarities and dissimilarities of your approach to writing fiction and non-fiction.

CS: My nonfiction comes out from issues that I feel need to be addressed head-on and have a lot of supporting data or research that is being ignored. I originally published my first novel (The Kakos Realm 1: Grinden Proselyte) with a traditional publisher, and then set fiction aside for a long while. I was doing ministry and went back to seminary for a few years. Through a few years I had been collecting data about pastoral attrition, job retention, and transition (all christianese for pastors quitting or getting fired.) That turned into my return to writing with Why Your Pastor Left which blows open some secrets that churches keep swept under the rug. Then I launched back into fiction again.

Muzzling Jesus is borne from two things: 1) my frustrations over COVID and the illogical ways it is being used to advance political, economic, and personal agendas and 2) the theology leanings that I’ve been building upon these last 2 decades I’ve been in active ministry. I am very much an advocate of freewill and the power of choice. The book has a few word studies, lots of scripture, and something like 70 news articles cited that demonstrate the lunacy and hypocrisy of them times we live in. It’s a book that will probably make me more enemies than friends, but that just means I’ll have more time for writing J

JR: What lies in the future? Also, anything from your past writing that you'd like to mention?

CS: My magnum opus is still on the way. While I’m still continuing my Dekker’s Dozen series and the Esfah Sagas, my Shadowless series will come soon. It’s very much like Stephen King/Ted Dekker’s writings and I describe it like City of Ember meets I Am Legend. In a post-apocalyptic world where only a few hundred humans remain, they live in an underground bunker with miles of tunnels covered with light panels so that not even a shadow exists: mankind is that afraid of the dark. And then… the lights begin to go out.

JR: Thank you for your time, Christopher, and I hope you have a blessed day.

CS: Thanks for reaching out! I’d love if people checked me out on Amazon or at my website www.authorchristopherdschmitz.com