1. Autumn Grayson says:

    I think it’s fine to write about them in certain contexts. One thing to consider is that they Bible doesn’t give us THAT much detail about how demons, angels, ghosts, etc are, so we actually have a lot of room to speculate with. Even some of the Bible’s depictions of supernatural beings could arguably be seen as representation rather than what these beings would actually look like. Revelations, for instance, uses tons of representation.

    When I have supernatural beings in my Christian fiction stories, I try to have them make sense with what the Bible says, even if they don’t exactly follow every description in the Bible. And on the rare times when they don’t…I have a reason for it. Many of my demon and angel characters, for instance, have animal based physical forms, instead of humanoid ones. There are many reasons for this.

    Part of it is because I think it’s cool and I have an easier time drawing animals. But in the Bible, angels and demons often seemed to be on the earth to fulfill God’s will or, in the case of demons, their own whims. Often enough, it is easier for angels and demons in my stories to fulfill those goals if they are in an animal form. This is partly because animals would have an easier time surviving the environments of some of my story worlds, and partly because some of my worlds are inhabited solely by animal characters, and an angelic being wouldn’t want to stand out by choosing a humanoid form.

    I think we have to remember that things happened a certain way in the Bible because of the circumstances of our earth. Angels seemed to appear as humans because they came to talk to humans. In a world where there are few, if any, humans, who’s to say that angels wouldn’t look like animals or trees or rocks or something? If we want to write a fantasy story that makes sense with scripture, we have to consider such things.

    • You made a lot of good sense and actually reminded me of C. S. Lewis choosing a lion to represent Christ. He asked, essentially, how would God reveal Himself in a world that consists of talking animals? So I don’t see how you’re saying anything very different.

      Becky

  2. HG Ferguson says:

    Very good discussion, and seasonal :). I like your approach to the witch of Endor. How Christians approach “ghosts” in their fiction can be problematic, I agree. My own ghost story Jezebelle has the devil’s hand interfere with her death and that’s how she “returns,” a spirit of complete evil, to haunt a small southern town and wreak no small havoc as the story progresses. That’s what a “ghost” would be, an evil spirit over which the Christian has authority, like the demons — IF such a thing could ever occur, which again is problematic, given that the Word doesn’t tell us we fight the spirits of the dead. (I do like a good ghost story however, as a story). That being said, I must respectfully disagree with the trendy interpretation of “A ghost does not have flesh and bone,” which Jesus said (Lk. 24:38-40) — as an endorsement of the reality of ghosts. The Greek is pneuma — spirit, not ghost. Jesus is not saying ghosts are real and abroad in the world, He’s saying He has a resurrection body that can be touched. The difference here is that between spirit and flesh, not dead and living. And no matter how you slice this pie, this verse is by no means an endorsement of popular culture’s ideas of ghosts like in Ghost Whisperer et al. God calls that toevah, abomination, and He means it. Ghosts may be an acceptable “critter” in a speculative story, but not in a way that is the opposite of what God says. We do not seek the dead. Nor should our “heroes” either. Thank you for reminding us there is more to the “real world” than our eyes behold.

    • I think you’re right, HG. I think what Jesus said is less an indication of the reality of ghosts than it was his acknowledgement that his audience believed ghosts to be real. I especially like this line: //Ghosts may be an acceptable “critter” in a speculative story, but not in a way that is the opposite of what God says.//

      Becky

What do you think?