1. notleia says:

    Novelist Brian Godawa asks: “Spiritual warfare in the book of Revelation—what does it really look like?”

    I dunno, man, it looks like symbolism to me.

  2. Tracy Bergquist says:

    Brian Godawa in his book Tyrant has the best presentation ever of the “Angelic Conflict” as described in the Bible. (I personally imagine this angelic conflict to be the original “star wars” — the war involving the creatures inhabiting the rest of the universe as well as earth.) Even if you don’t believe in the Bible or have a different eschatology (Brian’s is called “preterism”), Tyrant is a great story which I recommend wholeheartedly. I liked it — I liked it very much. There are a lot of good storytellers writing good novels — I regard Brian Godawa to be the best.

  3. Travis Perry says:

    Well, I think the territorial concept of demonic powers owning certain pieces of terrain is not really Biblical–Psalm 24:1-3, the Earth is the Lord’s. Not just after the death of Christ, but long before it, God owned every stitch of every bit of creation–the only things that defy the will of God are those beings he endowed with will, human and demonic, who were and are in rebellion to him. (And of course a Calvinist would even argue God willed they resist his will…)

    It is true that there are evil spiritual powers here on Earth–which would be assigned to people, not places. The “Prince of Persia” was in charge of the people who lived there–not to pieces of geography, with rocks, hills, and trees. I’d say rather that the waves clap their hands for God in the Psalms, the mountains smoke at this presence, the rocks would cry out if human beings would not in Jesus’ words–in other words, creation is fully subjected to God, except for evil spiritual beings, often called demons but which are also the origin of Pagan concepts of gods. Oh, and also except for humans.

    The contrast between these ideas is pretty strong, I think. The ancient Pagans believed there really were holy places on Planet Earth, and holy items. And unholy items.

    The Ark of the Covenant is sometimes treated by people as an equivalent holy relic…but it wasn’t really. And the temple mount in Jerusalem a site of holy power–but no, God controlled and controls everything and could be prayed to from anywhere (please reference the book of Jonah). And the Bible is completely lacking in holy or unholy sites other than that–Elijah came out of the same kind of wilderness that some people claim the scapegoat went to in order to appease a demon. Michael Heiser claims the transfiguration happened on Mount Herman because it was a gateway to the underworld in Canaanite mythology–yet it actually was just the highest mountain around, isolated from the prying eyes of all but the select few. Oh and effortlessly under the complete control of God. Jesus fought no spiritual battle there that the Bible records–and he didn’t have to. He already owned it.

    The battle is over the hearts and minds of human beings–and the demons are active in defending what is theirs. But the ideas of Watchers and so forth that Heiser and other insert into the text of the Bible from extra-Biblical sources is really just very ancient fiction.

    Interesting fiction, to be sure, but fiction.

    So I can easily imagine that this work of fiction by Brian Godawa is really interesting, too. And there’s nothing wrong with enjoying interesting fiction. But I felt I had to at least mention that the worldview espoused in the story as presented in this article is at the very least one that a person could object to for very real Biblical reasons–as I’ve just done. (That’s putting the situation mildly, by the way.)

What do you think?