In a recent post, writing about Jesus in fiction came up with this conclusion: not every story needs to be about Jesus.

I agree. And I disagree.

I think a lot more Christian writers could write about Jesus if we chose to.

There are ways of writing about Jesus without being “on the nose.” This phrase, one screenwriters sometimes use, has slid on over to fiction and means that the dialogue and actions of a story aren’t nuanced. Author Richard Von Anderson explains it like this:

the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings are fully expressed by what the character is saying or doing. There is no nuance, mystery, ambiguity or surprise (as there is in real life). The subtext has been written directly into the text.

Comedy writer Ken Levine calls on the nose writing “a rookie mistake.”

Could it be, then, that writing about Jesus as the Savior who came to die for the forgiveness of sins is “on the nose” writing, and therefore amateurish?

Not necessarily, but maybe.

Writing about who Jesus is, can certainly come across as anything but subtle or mysterious, but I suggest it doesn’t have to be that way. Look at the Bible, for instance. Any number of people have extrapolated the truth about Jesus hidden in each book of the Bible, and yet most Old Testament books don’t even directly mention the Messiah. A few don’t even mention God.

And yet they are about Jesus?

Yes, in an oblique way or by analogous elements. Here’s one rendition:

in Genesis: Jesus is The Seed of The Woman, a descendant of Abraham, a king in the line of Judah in the order of Melchizedek. The sacrified Son (as like Isaac, Gen 22) and a rejected brother (as like Joseph, Gen 27).

in Exodus: Jesus is The Passover Lamb, the leader and deliverer out of slavery (as like Moses), the manna from heaven, the rock that gave water, the Tabernacle in the camp and every item inisde (Brazen Alter, Lampstand, Table of Showbread, Ark of the Convenant, etc.).

in Leviticus: Jesus is The High Priest, personified by the sacrifices and offering, the Jewish festivals (Passover, Atonement, Trumpets, etc.). The scapegoat and the what Christ does as our high priest.

in Numbers: Jesus is The Cloud and The Fire, the Messiah that would be King. The healer in the bronze serpent. The Water from the Rock.

in Deuteronmy: Jesus is The Prophet Like Moses, worshipped by angels. He is the cities of refuge.

in Joshua: Jesus is The Captain of Our Salvation, our leader into the promise land (as like Joshua), the commander-in-chief of the Army.

in Judges: Jesus is The Judge And Lawgiver, the true judge for the living and the dead.

in Ruth: Jesus is The Kinsman Redeemer, the descendent of Boaz and Ruth. As personified by Boaz. in

1 & 2 Samuel: Jesus is The Prophet of The Lord, exalted by God with power. A descendent of David, personified by David – the exiled King. The faithful friend (Jonathan).

in 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles: Jesus is The Reigning King, for the Millennial Reign (as like Solomon). Multipling bread and healing leper (as like Elisha).

in Ezra: Jesus is The Faithful Scribe, the builder of the temple (Zerubbabel).

in Nehemiah: Jesus is The Rebuilder of The Broken Down Walls, the rebuilder of the walls of salvation (as like Nehemiah).

in Esther: Jesus is Mordecai, the personified. The Guardian.

in Job: Jesus is The Dayspring From on High, the sufferings and the subsequent blessings (as like Job).

in Psalms: Jesus is The Lord Who Is Our Shepherd, the resurrected Son of God, that was despised and crucified; Hated without cause, rejected by the Israelites. But now seated on the right hand of God.

in Proverbs & Ecclesiastes: Jesus is Wisdom of God.

in The Song of Solomon: Jesus is The Lover & Bridegroom.

See Jesus (In Every Book Of The Bible),
6: bible nerd

in Isaiah: Jesus is The Suffering Servant. Born of a virgin, the Immanuel “God with us”. The God and Man, with 7-fold spirit upon Him. He healed the blind, lame and deaf, proceeded by a forerunner. A light to the Gentiles but despised by the Israelite nation. He was whipped and beaten; and finally die as a guilt offering for sin. But He resurrected and live forever.

in Jeremiah & Lamentations: Jesus is The Weeping Prophet, the righeous Branch, our righteousness.

in Ezekiel: Jesus is The son of Man, a descendent of David.

in Daniel: Jesus is The Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, given an everlasting kingdom. He came 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Foretold He would be kill and revealed as the stone that smashed the kingdoms of the world. The 4th Man in the fiery furnace.

in Hosea: Jesus is The Bridegroom Married to The Backslidden Woman, the faithfulness to his adulterous wife.

in Joel: Jesus is Baptized With The Holy Spirit And Fire, offered salvation to all mankind and baptize people with the Holy Spirit.

in Amos: Jesus is The Burden Bearer, that darken the day at noon during Messiah’s death.

in Obadiah: Jesus is The Mighty Savior.

in Jonah: Jesus is The Forgiving God, being 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a fish.

in Micah: Jesus is The Messenger With Beautiful Feet, born in Bethlehem and from everlasting.

in Nahum: Jesus is The Avenger of God’s Elect.

in Habakkuk: Jesus is The Great Evangelist, Crying For Revival, the Messiah that would come from Teman at His return, full of glory. With intercession and prayer for His people (Habakkuk).

in Zephaniah: Jesus is The Restorer of God’s Lost Heritage.

in Haggai: Jesus is The Cleansing Fountain, who visited the 2nd temple.

in Zechariah: Jesus is The Pierced Son, a Priest and King who ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. The Messiah who would be God and be pierced.

in Malachi: Jesus is The Son of Righteousness, Rising with Healing in His Wings, the Messiah who would be God who appear at the temple and His forerunner came in the spirit of Elijah.

in Matthew: Jesus is The King, the Song of David, the King of the Jews, the Son of God and the Bridgeroom.

in Mark: Jesus is The Wonder Worker/Servant, The Holy One of God, the Servant, the King of Israel.

in Luke: Jesus is The Son of Man, the Horn of Salvation and the Consolation of Israel.

in John: Jesus is The Son of God, the Begotten Son, the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the I AM, the Door of the sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life. The True Vine.

in Acts: Jesus is The Ascended Lord, the Prince of Life, the Judge of the living and the dead, the Just One, and the Hope of Israel.

in Romans: Jesus is The Justifier, the Rock of Offense, the Deliverer, the Lord of the dead and the living. The Root of Jesse.

in 1 & 2 Corinthians: Jesus is The Gifts of The Spirit, the First-Fruit and the Last Adam.

in Galatians: Jesus is The One Who Sets Us Free, the Lord Jesus Christ.

in Ephesians: Jesus is The Christ of Riches, the Head of All Things and the Conerstone.

in Philippians: Jesus is The God Who Meets Our Every Need, the Name above all names.

in Colossians: Jesus is The Fullness of The Godhead, the Image of the Invisible God, the Head of the body, the Beginning, the Firstborn of the dead and the Hope of Glory.

in 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Jesus is The Soon Coming King, the lord of Peace.

in 1 & 2 Timothy: The Mediator Between God And Man, the King of Ages and the Mediator.

in Titus: Jesus is The Faithful Pastor, the Blessed Hope. The Great God and Saviour.

in Philemon: Jesus is The Friend That Sticks Closer Than a Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.

in Hebrews: Jesus is The Blood That Washes Away My Sins, the Heir of all things, the Faithful High Priest, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

in James: Jesus is The Great Physician, The Lord of Glory and the Judge at the door.

in 1 & 2 Peter: Jesus is The Chief Shepherd, and the Living Stone.

in 1 & 2 & 3 John:Jesus is Everlasting Love, the Eternal Life and the Righteous.

in Jude: Jesus is The Lord Who Came Down with 10,000 Saints, the Only Wise God our Savior.

in Revelation: Jesus is The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Word of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Bright Morning Star.

This kind of summation of the Bible as a united book about Jesus is especially impressive, I think, when you hear someone recite it. But it might be more memorable when you have it in writing.

At any rate, I don’t think the books of the Bible are the only books that can be about Jesus without actually being about Him. I think novelists can do the same thing, but it seems to me, most who want to write about Jesus do so by being on the nose. Perhaps stories with more surprise or even ambiguity would have more impact.

Think about it. If you had never read about Daniel’s friends who were thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing to an idol, what would you think when you got to the part where the king gives them a second chance? Would you expect they would back down? Or die? Or that the king would extend leniency? Blaaat! None of the above.

The king became furious that the men had spurred his mercy and rejected him as the object of their worship (since the idol was a statue of him), so he ramped up the punishment for their refusal to bow. But they didn’t die, though the fire was so hot it killed the guards who forced them to enter the furnace. What a reversal! But there’s more. While the fire was not killing the three men, they were moving about freely. With a fourth person.

Was that an angel, or as some think, the pre-incarnate Christ? Ambiguity. Suggestion. Surprise.

We rarely think about those elements of the Biblical record because we know the stories so well. We don’t think about their impact upon a first-time reader.

Of course novelists don’t write inspired Scripture, but I think we can learn from the Bible. Writing about Jesus isn’t always writing the gospel account of His life or the plan of salvation. There’s more to writing about Him than writing on the nose.

Fantasy novelist R. J. Anderson shares her conversation with author and artist Stephen McCranie.

R.J. Anderson: Let’s start by talking about Space Boy. As I recall, you started drawing the comic for a contest back in 2014, and made it your goal to draw 100 pages in two months. Not only did you win a large, enthusiastic audience and the $30,000 grand prize, you’ve been posting a new chapter of the story every Thursday since. What have you learned from this project that’s worth sharing with other creatives?

Stephen McCranie: Working on Space Boy has basically inverted my entire approach to storytelling. I used to approach my comics like a screenwriter—I wouldn’t start drawing until I had finished the script and was certain I had a good book on my hands. I was like a story architect, building my stories using formulas and writing principles.

Ironically, the more I studied story formulas, the more I came to dislike stories that I could tell were pressed from that kind of mold. And yet I couldn’t let go of my formulas because I was too scared of creating something that wouldn’t be popular.

R.J.: I’ve felt that anxiety myself. The more you read about the Hero’s Journey or Save The Cat or what-have-you, the harder it is to see your story as an organic whole and not just a collection of mechanical parts. I’m fascinated to know what techniques have worked for other writers because I’m always looking for ways to improve—but I have to be careful not to take them as gospel or they paralyze me.

Stephen: I remember seeing a documentary on how the animator Hayao Miyazaki creates his work, and I was shocked to learn that his studio begins work on his films before he knows the end of them. I couldn’t understand how such a process could be possible or sustainable—here in the US no studio would ever start work on a movie that didn’t have a completed script. And yet Miyazaki has created some of the most beautiful films I know of.

Space Boy, Stephen McCranie

Space Boy forced me to let go of my old, fear-based methods of creating work and it’s given me insights into how Miyazaki creates his stuff. I didn’t have time to write the whole story of Space Boy beforehand, so instead I relied on my instincts and my taste—and the results have been so much more natural, honest and true to life.

R.J.: I’ve noticed that. For a story set in the future that incorporates fantastic technology and some pretty dramatic plot twists, Space Boy has a relaxed pace and an attention to detail that makes it both relatable and realistic. It sounds like you’ve learned a lot about storytelling just from this project.

Stephen: Someday I want to write a book about what I’ve learned—I have so much to say—but the most profound connection I’ve made is how storytelling relates to the mystery of free will.

R.J.: Oh, that’s interesting! Can you elaborate?

Stephen: From what I read of the Bible, God is in control of all aspects of reality, all the movements of time and happenstance and humanity, and yet at the same time, we have the ability to make choices that have consequence and meaning. I think that the most honest stories are the ones that capture this mystery. The characters move and breathe and make choices, and yet they are being guided by the author.

To me, this is the essence of verisimilitude. Stories where the characters are pushed from plot point to plot point feel flat, because the author has failed to acknowledge the existence of free will. Conversely, stories where there is nothing at stake and no plot to follow are at best boring and at worst full of despair, because the author doesn’t acknowledge the existence of God’s sovereign hand guiding all things. But the stories that feel the most real are the ones where the characters act according to who they are and make choices that get them into situations where there seems to be no hope of rescue or salvation, but then meet God in those moments and align with his truth, and we as the audience are surprised to discover that everything in the story happened for a reason, and couldn’t have happened any other way.

R.J.: Like Tolkien’s notion of eucatastrophe. I played with that concept at the end of my novel Ultraviolet, and it’s become one of the most frequently quoted things I’ve ever written. It really does resonate with people.

Stephen: In a way it encapsulates the whole outlining vs. free-writing debate—writing the story from the outside verses writing the story from the inside. But what really helped me was realizing that I am not the God of the worlds I create in my stories. If I insist on being the God of the worlds I create, then I am confined to making incredibly small stories. In reality, we don’t fully comprehend God or understand what he is doing all the time—so if we want to create stories that feel real, we need to let things happen that we don’t fully understand, because that’s how life is. If we want to make stories that resonate, we need to let God be the God of our stories.

This has changed a lot of things for me. At one point I caught myself praying for my characters, hoping that things would work out for them because I wasn’t sure. And yet by faith I understand that, both in my life and in my stories, God works all things for his glory and our good, and in the end, things will turn out okay.

R.J.: We feel more secure when we believe we’re in control, don’t we? It’s nerve-wracking to not be certain where you’re going next. And yet that’s life. That’s faith. It doesn’t mean not planning ahead at all — I’m sure you have ideas of what’s going to happen next for Amy, Oliver and the rest of the gang, and even specific scenes you’re looking forward to drawing. But it means being open to change and correction and redirection as you go along.

Yet if we’re respecting the free will of our characters and trying not to “play God” with our own stories, isn’t there a danger that we’ll end up with something that’s honest and believable but not as spiritually resonant as it could be? How do we as Christian storytellers stay faithful to our convictions and express our faith in a meaningful way, but also tell a legitimately good story that even those who don’t share our faith can appreciate?

Stephen: This is a great question. There’s a fantastic book called Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis, which I would recommend to any Christian creative who struggles with these pressures. In the book, Medearis questions the line we often draw between Christians and non-Christians, and points out that we as Christians have made the mistake of adopting an inside/outside mentality.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to be able to distinguish yourself and discern if someone shares your values. But more often than not I find that the Christian/non-Christian dichotomy does more harm than good. We build a wall between us and them, and as a result our only way of interracting with “outsiders” is in opposition to them.

R.J.: So instead of sharing the Good News we have with them as fellow image-bearers of God, it becomes a mentality of Setting Those Heathens Straight.

Stephen: Yes. And I don’t mean to accuse people—I think a lot of well-meaning Christians do this. But I believe we build these walls largely out of a misunderstanding of the basis of our faith.

The problem lies in the fact that many Christians think that they receive their salvation by accepting a certain doctrine into their head, or praying a certain prayer—when in fact, our salvation lies not in a doctrine, but in a person named Jesus. Yes, there is a truth we must believe, but Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” Yes, there is a way we must go, but Jesus said, “I am the Way.”

This reality should radically change how we interact with non-believers. If we believe that Christianity is something we know, then we have to approach people like salesmen—creating propaganda to sell our brand of truth. Furthermore, it puts us on a higher ground than other people. Rather than saying “I know something you don’t know, and if you were smarter you could come up to my high castle,” we should come beside people and say “There is no difference between you and me. I’m not any smarter than you are. But I know this guy—his name is Jesus and I want you to meet him!” This has been really helpful for me and given me a lot of freedom in my creative practice.

RJA: That’s an excellent point, the difference between telling people something and introducing them to someone. The question for me is, though, how do we reveal Jesus, specifically Jesus and not merely “God” in some nebulous sense, in our storytelling? Or is the revelation of Jesus Himself not something we can do well in a fictional context, and our focus should be on revealing some other aspect of God’s truth that might prepare people’s hearts for Him?

Stephen: This is a multidimensional question, so I’m going to give about four or five answers and hope that one is helpful.

First, there is a great freedom in knowing that God is the one who saves people. He doesn’t need our art to bring people to himself. He could use a rock, or a cloud or a forgotten memory from childhood. Our duty as writers and artists is simply being obedient to Jesus—and nothing more! In 1 John it says, “And this is [God’s] commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us.” This is all God asks, and it’s hard, don’t get me wrong. But the burden is so much lighter than trying to be our own God. Jesus’s yoke is light.

Seeing it this way is freeing, because it means if non-believers miss the Christian themes in our books, it’s okay. It just means God decided not to use our book in their lives. He has other plans for them because he loves them.

R.J.: That’s a good point. It’s not up to us to do the work of the Holy Spirit, but rather not to quench Him. If He gives us a story to tell, then He’ll use it as He sees fit, even if it goes right past most people. Maybe it only needs to reach one.

Stephen: Exactly! We are small and that’s a good thing.

R.J.: I think the fear comes in when we think it’s all up to us —we have to get the whole gospel in somehow, and we have to do it exactly right, or we’ve failed to honor God in our storytelling or reflect His truth to others. But Jesus’s parables, which are the closest thing to fiction we have in the New Testament, were often very limited in scope and open to interpretation. He used them to illustrate truth, challenge preconceptions, and raise questions in people’s minds, but not to teach doctrine. He used preaching for that.

Stephen: Yes. I have often felt a hunger to speak more directly about Jesus in my work, but it’s important to understand that the medium is as important as the message. This is a hard pill to swallow, since we have such a great message to share, but what we need to understand is that our tone and delivery affect how people take what we’re saying.

I recently went to a library conference and there was a guy who came to my table. He seemed genuinely excited about my work and asked me to explain my process and what my books were about—but then he turned the conversation to his own work and I realized his intention was just to promote himself. It was disappointing to learn he wasn’t really interested in me—he just wanted a chance to give me his sales pitch—or in other words—his message.

R.J.: We’ve all met people like that in one context or another. Nobody wants to be That Guy.

Stephen: When we write stories, we are not promising people a good message—we are promising entertainment. That’s why they buy our books. I’m not saying that we can’t have a message in our books—in fact I believe you can’t tell a story without revealing a worldview—but we must understand that sometimes our stories are not built to talk directly about Jesus.

There is however one practical way to talk about Jesus with our work, and that’s through interviews and fan interactions. I try to write books that get people to ask me the right questions so that I can have an excuse to tell them about Jesus. In Brick by Brick, which is all about creativity and doesn’t mention Jesus at all, I wrote an essay about the importance of not having art be your identity—and in an interview later someone asked, “Well, if your art can’t be the basis of your identity, what should be?” Similarly, in Space Boy, I ask a lot of existential questions about life—about whether truth exists or not. This has led to great conversations about Jesus.

R.J.: Is this in comments and e-mails from readers? Talking to people in person? Or both?

Stephen: Both, I’d say.

R.J.: That’s great to hear. And I really like that point about writing books that get people to ask you the right questions. Or at least to ask themselves those questions, even if you’re not the person who gets to answer them.

Stephen: Yeah—those are the kind of books that point to Jesus even if they don’t mention him.

R.J.: I think those are the kind of books we’d all like to write. Thanks, Stephen.

Stephen McCranie is the writer-illustrator of the Mal & Chad graphic novels for kids, the award-winning serial webcomic Space Boy, and a Kickstarter-funded book on creativity entitled Brick by Brick. He is also a committed Christian who loves to talk (and draw!) about living a spiritual, productive, and healthy creative life at doodlealley.com.

We’re one week into the Pokémon GO augmented-reality smartphone game fad.

I’ve seen three types of Christian-written “hot takes” on the game:

1. The Culture Academic: Isn’t it amazing how this game brings Community together?
2. The Positive Parent: I wasn’t sure about this at first. But my kids are going outside!
3. The Concerned Christian: This game is “probably harmless, but …”

I’d like to respond to that last group of Concerned Christians. Most of them are reasonable, only slightly flawed. (Some could also be called “Probably Harmless But” Christians.)

I’ll also address wackier notions, like “Pokémon are demons,” and such. They’re an even smaller minority. But unless we rebuke them, even reasonable Christians (and critics) suspect this is the default Christian view.

For concerned Christians, I have ten challenges I’d like us to consider.

1. Why assume we know what games or imagination are meant to do?

Most Christian articles about Pokémon or any other fantasy ignore this question:

Why did God provide us with popular culture? How does it fit in his plan?

Not every article can say all this. But if we don’t address it sometime, we skip truth.

Here’s an example from a ministry I absolutely love, Desiring God Ministries.

This is a mostly negative article, not just about Pokémon. Words used include: obsessed, make-believe, fanatics, on-demand, binge, encroached, escape, drug, distracts, weakens, escape (again), “never-ending pursuit to escape,” addiction, “contempt towards God,” “temporal escape,” and other uses of “escape.” Here comes the Probably Harmless But:

We’re obsessed with fantasy. The explosion of interest surrounding Pokémon Go is yet another example of our desire to escape the real world — of real people and real problems — and enter into a make-believe world, or at least an augmented one. … Our ability to access entertainment and escape from reality has swiftly and effortlessly encroached on every aspect of our lives. … Although these devices and platforms aren’t inherently evil or sinful, they become dangerous when we develop habits of defaulting to them primarily or alone.¹

Is this all lies? Not at all. Is it a half-truth? Unfortunately, yes. The writer assumes there is no humanity in games or other “entertainment” (stories, songs, and more) for Christians.

He assumes such games are at best “harmless,” but have no place for humans in God’s plan.

But let’s go back to the book of Genesis, and imagine Adam and Eve had never sinned. They and their children would have made stories and songs to glorify God. They would have made smartphones and games, or something very like them, for good reasons.

Indeed, Christians must avoid sinful abuse of anything. This is a risk because we are sinful.

But with stories, songs, fantasy, and games, we can also reflect our fantastical God today.

“Probably Harmless But”-type Christians keep skipping this truth. And we can’t go on like that. Because as Joe Rigney—a fine writer of The Things of Earth, who is with Desiring God Ministries—points out, we are not created to glorify God purely in some “spiritual” ways. God’s idea was to create us as creatures. And creatures glorify God in “creaturely” ways. We cannot “evolve” into spirit-beings to glorify Him infinitely. We are “stuck” glorifying Him as human beings, with bodies and time and cycles of work and rest. God wants us to do this!

2. Why confuse God-given work with God-given gratitude and rest?

Instead of meditating and praying, we go searching for Pokémon.²

This is a false dichotomy. It presumes an old evangelical notion: that if we have any “spare time,” we ought only to spend it meditating and praying, and not doing other things.

But this is not how the Bible portrays prayer and meditation (that is, on Scripture). In fact, 1 Timothy 4:1-5 specifically refers to prayer and Scripture as God’s means of making things, which He gives us, holy for our enjoyment. Sure, God does not design Pokémon creatures or program smartphones. Neither does he bake bread. But we thank him for bread and popular games. He “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).

Scripture also teaches that humans ought to live in cycles of work and Sabbath rest, just as God established during creation week (Gen. 1).

• The Bible promotes hard work in our job as culture-makers (Gen. 1:28)
• The Bible also frequently promotes intentional rest from our labors.

The Old Testament is full of God’s commands for his people to follow not only weekly Sabbaths, but regular and occasional feasts and celebrations that can last for days. The New Testament picks up with its verses about rest, gratitude, feasting, and living quietly.

So if someone writes about a game or other thing we can do during rest, and jumps instead to speaking about how we ought only to work, that is an apples-and-oranges comparison. There are times to encourage workaholics to rest, and vice-versa. But not every time.

3. Why call fantasies you don’t understand ‘demonic’ or ‘occult’?

Let’s explore a popular Christian article on Pokémon going back to the pre-GO days.

I do not see how allowing children to play with games that encourage fighting, reading of minds, use of poison, mimicry, taunting, teleportation, hypnosis, and evolution can be a good thing.  This is not training a child to righteousness, it is accepting the occult and secular evolution.  Is this what we, as Christians, want our children to meditate on?  Of course not.³

The author runs a Christian apologetics website. But he assumes, and does not source, his claims that any of these imaginary things are necessarily part of the occult.

“Use of poison” is perplexing. “Teleportation” does not occur in the real world.

If a Christian enjoys games or stories about fantasy creatures with special abilities, this does not automatically qualify as the occult actions Scripture warns against in passages like Deut. 18.  If someone isn’t wiling to discuss the connection, we need to stop assuming it. And we need to stop assuming “unfamiliar” therefore means “demonic.”

4. Why do you listen to professing pagan religion and accept it as true?

A Christian “mommy blogger” also shares her concerns about Pokémon GO and safety:

Does the game or toy have symbols, characters, or other characteristics that link it to New Age or occult powers?⁴

Like Slick, this writer assumes New Age or occult teachings promise people can learn to do these things in reality, and therefore we must avoid hints of this.

If a person wants to do anything apart from faith in the “final prophet” God promised to send in Deut. 18, then yes, a Christian needs such cautions.

But where are these New Age or occult materials? How would we define “link”?

If we did produce a book by a Wiccan follower promising to give us powers like a Pokémon creature, what would that prove? In Scripture, false prophets could often imitate miracles by a true prophet. Did that disqualify the legitimate prophet by association?

Let us not use “appearance” or “association” to define what sin is. That’s not what God does.

Anyway, why should we listen to religions that compete with biblical Christianity? I think there is a little too much risk in getting infatuated with the “dark side.” This is risky if we assume we know what occultists teach. Perhaps this is even more risky if we show an unhealthful interest in their beliefs about demons. Let’s listen to Scripture instead.

5. Should we take any ‘spiritual warfare’ lessons from other Christians who may not actually be qualified?

The same blogger continues with a story about how a missionary asked a Christian man,⁵ a former “witch doctor” with occult experience, about Pokémon:

Opening the book at random, showing him a picture I asked. “What do you think of this?” He looked at it, and said, “Oh, I know this one.” He suddenly had my attention!

He went on, “Oh, this is a nasty little demon. It is always underfoot, bites, scratches, screeches and what not.” I looked at the page, and on the list of attributes, the book said, “bites, scratches, screeches, claws…” and I forget what else, but it was as if Bautista was reading the page, and he does not read or speak one word of English. He made a believer out of me.

I figured that the first one could have been just a lucky guess, so I flipped the page to another picture and asked him about that one. Again, he told me exactly what it’s attributes were. He did that over and over.

There were some he did not recognize, and he said. “There are so many demons, it is impossible for any one person to know them all.”⁶

“And then the witch doctor, he told me what to do”? I’m not sure if this example counts as a trend among evangelicals, but when I was a kid I heard a similar anecdote about a newly converted witch doctor from deepest, darkest someplace. In this tale the new convert reacted with concern over a “Christian rock” cassette a missionary kid was enjoying. The former “witch doctor” said the drum rhythms reminded him of his old tribal situations.

My short response is direct: why are mature Christians taking lessons on spiritual warfare, and what is or isn’t acceptable, from other Christians? Especially when many of them can’t help but base their discernment on their own experiences or cultural associations?

Here’s a longer response: the apostle Paul doesn’t think this way.

In Romans 14 and 1 Corinathians 8–10, he explores freedom in things like holiday celebrations and foods. He says we must be sensitive to people who think what we do is sinful. (Notice he talks about real present, personal situations, not imaginary or hypothetical ones.)

But Paul might also call people like the former “witch doctor” a weaker brother, not a stronger brother. Weaker brothers do not have special knowledge of spiritual matters. In fact, they don’t know that “an idol has no real existence” (1 Corinthians 8:4)! The stronger brother does know this. Of course, that doesn’t mean the stronger brother gets to laugh at, mock, or dismiss the weaker brother. We must show love! But we must call things what they are.

If we skip this truth, we are putting tradition over God’s written word. In fact, we are the ones acting like “witch doctors,” whenever we imagine hazardous spiritual connections between a person’s old religion and imaginary creatures. (More on this in the next item.)

By the way, I asked the original author this very question. A few commenters repeated familiar lines to me about how they assume (from experience, not Scripture) that new believers who worshiped demons in other countries automatically know more than mature, biblical astute Christians in other countries (even the dreadful West).

This is a kind of spiritual “noble savage” or “magical native” trope that is common among some Christians. We must be sensitive to cultural differences and people’s backgrounds in real-life occult religions. But we must not let them override biblical theology.

6. Do we accept unbiblical mysticism or ‘white magic’  to avoid harm?

This was huge! I ran upstairs and got our youngest son, who did happen to like the pokeman [sic] cartoons (his aunt sent him VHS tapes of them). When he got downstairs, I had Bautista flip through the book again, explaining to my son what he knew about these ugly little pictures.

Well, he made a believer out of Stephen! He went back upstairs and came back down with his prized tape and while we watched, destroyed it. Bautista looked on with curiosity, not really understanding what Stephen had just done. I quickly brought him up to speed and thanked him for helping to open our eyes.⁷

This is a fun story, but notice the aside here? The writer refers to her son, who is a Pokémon fan. She dismisses his enjoyment of “ugly little pictures.” How is this a “spiritual” judgment? Unfortunately, some Christians also take one more step and call such images “demonic.” (As if demons don’t also sometimes appear as “angels of light”!)

What if we treated people themselves like that? What if the missionaries in the “witch doctor’s” country recoiled from him because he was “ugly” to their eyes? God forbid.

In this story, the parent did not interact with the child about why he enjoyed the shows. The parent did not seem interested in having a conversation with the son to check his heart, or ask if this show was actually causing the son temptation (either to contact demons, or even “smaller” temptations such as obsession with the series, acting aggressively, and so on). The parent did not engage the popular culture with the child.

Instead it appears the parent’s impulse was simply to fear and destroy the object.

Such anecdotes are also common among some Christian circles. Well-meaning Christians often think about Acts 19:19, in which new believers confess their own practice of magic arts, then burn their books. In similar old anecdotes, Christian parents literally burned their children’s music cassettes, fearing they contained a demonic presence like germs.

But the believers mentioned in Acts did not have this reason. They volunteered their “purge” as a sign of their repentance from actual sin. Is the child with a video automatically so guilty? Did the child actually practice magic arts? If not, there is no connection.

Instead of literally purging evil in obedience, parents may risk practicing a kind of “white magic” in the exact way God forbids in Deuteronomy 18. In this chapter, God tells his covenant people he does not want them to follow worldly means of trying to protect themselves or discern his will outside the means he has given us (the Final Prophet, Jesus Christ). That is why he forbids sorcery and divination. But when we try to “divine” evil presence in objects, are we not acting exactly the way pagans act? Do we distrust in His final prophet, Jesus?

7. Do we accept personal feelings as ‘promptings’ over the word of God?

Bautista added, “Tell the people from your churches, that if there are things that make them feel uncomfortable, it is probably not good. God’s Spirit will speak to them about what is right and wrong.” …

Pray. Ask God to give you His mind on the matter and to lead you. The Holy Spirit leads us into truth. Will we follow His leading?⁸

Technically I would agree with this statement. But when I read “The Holy Spirit leads us to truth,” I hear, “He leads us back to the Bible, the written word of God for all God’s people.”

Other Christians have different views on how God reveals his will to us. Some believe in a kind of “leading” from the Holy Spirit with feelings, prompts, or “nudges.”

I would disagree that the Spirit regularly leads us this way (although He certainly can).

But I would rather start by challenging the notion that all Christians should expect the Holy Spirit personally to lead this way all the time. He does not lead by our instincts, feelings, and impressions to discern God’s will. Instead, he leads by bringing us back to God’s word.

We err if we assume “follow His leading” means searching for the Spirit’s “voice,” about Pokémon GO or anything else in our culture, in any place except the Bible.⁹

8. Do we accept personal feelings or preferences as ‘convictions’?

Let’s return one more time to our previous blogger. (I am not picking on this writer. I simply found that her material most carefully and reasonably articulates this approach to popular culture and discernment among Christians.)

Believer, we need to walk in the Spirit and listen to the prompting and conviction and the leading of the Spirit of God!¹⁰

We must be careful when we use words like “conviction.”

Indeed, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to convict us. Yet the Holy Spirit will not convict us about sinful objects. He will also not convict us about “new” sins not revealed in Scripture.

As another example, some people say they have a “conviction” that they cannot have electric guitars in church. But this is not a biblical “conviction” of a sin. They are using the word “conviction” to describe something that is a preference.

We should keep the word conviction to describe the Holy Spirit reminding us about an actual biblical belief. For example:

• It’s my conviction that Jesus is the only way to reconciliation with God.
• It’s my conviction that God created marriage for one man and one woman for life.
• It’s my conviction that it’s sinful for any person to abuse alcohol.
• It’s my conviction that Jesus will return.

Moreover, we cannot use the word “conviction” about a preference that is actually against Scripture. For example, some Christians say that it’s their “conviction” not to eat pork. No, that is a preference. But it’s worse than a preference if these Christians actually try to apply this “conviction” to other people, or imply they are more spiritual for having it. Acts 10 is clear that God has fulfilled Jewish dietary laws, including the ban on pork, in order to make the point that He wants the gospel to go to people outside Judaism, the Gentiles.

9. Should we base our fears on the influence of secular media reports?

Here’s a challenge for which I don’t have a specific example. Instead I’m addressing more of a “color” in critical articles I’ve read by Christians about Pokémon GO. The writers rely on some secular media reports to gin up fears about the game. People who play it walk off cliffs! People find bodies. People are zoning out on their phones and escaping from reality.

By quoting these, the writers seem to indicate the game warrants special alarm.

I would ask: why do Christians, who suspect the “secular media” in everything (especially given media reporters’ conformity to progressivist agenda), now give up our skepticism? Shouldn’t we try to discern these reports? Shouldn’t we have a reminder for ourselves like: “Ah-ha, there they go, trying to get clicks and controversy and ratings again”?

Sure, there’s a time to laugh at silly stories, and to teach and take safety precautions.

But let’s not fall into the trap of assuming, as one especially wacky professing Christian did, that this illustrates some kind of mass demonic delusion. (He’s not linked.)

10. Are we ‘singing’ about beliefs that do not rhyme with the Gospel?

One commentator to a fairly reasonable Pokémon GO article said this:

Research who designed this game. I believe he was raised in a Christian home and rebelled and mocked and turned away from it…became anti Christ. The spirit realm is real…ask Jesus! We are to come out and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. Christians cannot afford to be ignorant of the spirit realm. Too many are! The devil and his demons love the attention they receive because of ignorance. Come out from the world, we are told! Any pluses in this thing are really a zero. This is a deception of the devil. I pray that the Lord opens eyes and minds to see the reality of this! Amen.¹¹

I’ve already responded to a lot of this:

• Rumor-spreading about the game founder—as if, even if this were true, sins can be so “transmitted” like germs.
• “Come out and be separate and touch not the unclean thing”—but actually in some cases we should touch the unclean thing, as Jesus did, and as Peter was told about pigs.
• Spirit realm, devil deceptions, and such—these are all opinions and hyperbole, not Scripture, and based on reactions to perceived “bad” Christians.

But the greatest response to this and other hyperbole is not doctrinal takedowns, mockery, or moving on and ignoring them (as if these people are not serious).

Instead our best response is: where is the gospel in all that?

“Touch not the unclean thing”—where’s the gospel in that?

Devil and demons are really this powerful—where’s the gospel in that?

Evil people can “taint” us with a thing they used to sin—where’s the gospel in that?

In closing, I will tweak some material from a recent SpecFaith article of mine:

God’s word assures us that His moral standard, His Law, serves several purposes. God’s Law shows us what He is like and what He values (justice, mercy, truth, beauty). God’s Law is an impossible standard that no one can meet. This means we must repent and call out to Jesus, the only perfect Law-keeper who also died to fulfill the demands of God’s Law.

Now Christians live by God-given faith and grace. We do not rely on fear or duty to follow the Law. Instead we are motivated by gratitude and love for Jesus. We want to be like Him, as righteous as He is, and we work out salvation as He works in us.

[Religious rule systems] might include the gospel in the system. But the system itself clashes with the gospel—like ketchup on breakfast cereal, or brown shoes with black pants. The gospel says, “Legal codes are meant to bring you to Christ.” [Religious rule systems] say, “Yes, and now that we are in Christ, let us approach all stories with a legal code.” This does not rhyme with the gospel.

So, Pokémon GO players: I’m actually not one of you. I don’t think I can be. All those things I wrote about work vs. rest and avoiding being led into personal temptation—I’m trying to apply these to myself. In my case, I have a hard enough time not binge-playing “Batman: Arkham” games on my PS3. And given other tasks I have, I can’t sign up for it now.

But if you are playing Pokémon GO for God’s glory, keeping this to your times of rest and not work, and are not being led into actual temptation to sin, I say: I’ve got your back. Jesus would have your back to. Use this gift well! And don’t forget to thank Him for this provision.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would employ a strict policy of avoiding all unusual and/or unexplained phenomena. Temporal rifts, subspace distortions, collapsing stars, expanding black holes, folds in space, a stitch in time – whenever one of these appears, I will order my crew to point the ship 180 degrees away from it and depart at a brisk speed of Warp 5. Due to forward-thinking actions such as this, I anticipate a longer, happier life for myself and all my crew.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would listen very carefully to any advice my first officer has to give. If I am ever wrong, he will be the one to tell me so.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would turn the lights in Ten Forward all the way up. I would also replace unnaturally-colored drinks that appear to be foreign substances with ice cream sundaes. This would help to lift the gloomy atmosphere that too often pervades Ten Forward.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would permanently shut down the holodeck. As I would explain to the crew, the holodeck encourages unhealthy inclinations, anti-social tendencies, denial, and extended unnecessary, pretentious scenes. Additionally, the holodeck will invariably go wrong, not to mention weird, and further encourage disconnection from reality. For the crew’s mental and physical well-being, the holodeck will be replaced by a gym, library, coffee shop, and chapel.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would disassemble the self-destruct mechanism. There is no point.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would not assure obviously hostile persons that I mean them no harm. For one thing, the fact that they are firing on my ship, menacing my officers with a weapon, or commandeering the ship’s computer indicates that they do not care. For another thing, if they do not very shortly cease to fire, menace, or commandeer, I will mean them harm.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would install seat belts at every station on the bridge. I would also install seats for those officers who, for reasons undisclosed, always have to stand up. Their jobs are perfectly sedentary in nature and will, from a sitting position, be performed with equal efficiency, greater happiness, and (due to the new seat belts) increased safety.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would launch an inquiry into what, exactly, replicator food is and where it comes from. Nothing just appears out of nowhere.

If I were a Starfleet captain, and my ship unexpectedly crossed paths with eccentric scientists, superficially harmless wanderers, or mysterious aliens traveling alone, I would immediately order them clapped into the brig and their crafts impounded. They get you every time.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would memorize the Prime Directive so that I can quote it just before disregarding it.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would memorize the following words and phrases: “Red alert;” “Divert power to the shields;” “Compensate;” “Evasive maneuvers pattern [random letter of the Greek alphabet];” “Damage report;” “Launch the torpedoes;” “Fire;” and “Retreat.” This would prepare me to meet any battle situation.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would ban the color red from all uniforms save those worn by the most senior officers. In a related initiative, I would make it a policy to send only prominent deck officers into dangerous or mysterious off-ship situations. They always come back.

If I were a Starfleet captain, and any member of my crew began to exhibit classic and incontrovertible signs of insanity, I would immediately consider that he is suffering some disease unknown to medical science, that he is being tampered with by an alien, that he is an alien, that he recently arrived from another time-space continuum. I will continue to consider all these things even in the face of a total lack of physical, statistical, and anecdotal evidence. Finally, I will even consider that he is actually insane, just in case they try to trick us.

If I were a Starfleet captain, I would lead the safest, happiest, most well-adjusted crew in Starfleet.

“I’m the Doctor and I save people.”

This has been a favorite line of Peter Capaldi’s 12th regeneration Doctor.

By Whovian standards, I haven’t watched a ton of Doctor Who (I beg forgiveness, as I’m slowly getting there), but from what I’ve seen so far, the Doctor is a unique character.

You might be thinking, “Duh! He’s the Doctor,” but one aspect of his character is particularly intriguing. His inclination toward peacefulness. Sure, he’s not above battling his enemies in spectacular displays, or offering threats to anyone who endangers his friends.

But he’s not a warrior. As a wise Gallifreyan said, “Words are his weapons.”

Words, a screwdriver (or sunglasses), and enough love for his companions to overflow his two hearts.

Capaldi’s Doctor in particular would rather save than destroy, as shown by his mantra. It’s his ultimate goal, one that took a gripping turn in an alien alley hidden from the human world.

I’ve been catching up on Series 9, and wow. Face the Raven, Heaven Sent, and Hell Bent make for an incredible trio. Eye-popping, heart-wrenching sort of incredible.

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR AFOREMENTIONED EPISODES*

We all know how much Clara means to the Doctor. They’re an inseparable, whimsical duo. Their different personalities blend in a perfect combination of jovial interaction. The Doctor loves Clara in a protective, fatherly way. Face the Raven brings this love to the forefront as the Doctor faces the reality of losing Clara. He loathes the thought of letting her go, of having her disappear from his life for good.

Her death deeply wounds him, as evidenced by his ensuing anger toward Ashildr. Anger from the one who saves people.

A Story of Love (Not a Love Story)

Image from tardis.wikia.com

The next two episodes reveal the full picture in a haunting display. At the head of the class is the Doctor’s unbending desire to save Clara, even if it’s impossible. Through Heaven Sent, the curtain slowly pulls back. The result? A tale of love so deep it can’t help but send chills through you.

Enduring billions of years, living the same futile sequence over and over, for the chance to save one person? Dedication on a mind-numbing scale.

All those years, enfolded in an endless cycle of agony. No wonder Clara’s reaction is so potent when she learns what the Doctor endured to reach a point where he could rescue her.

Who couldn’t help but be moved to tears at the thought?

A Story of Greater Love

In another tale told, one that strikes much closer to home, another sacrifice was made. In a land under Roman rule. By a simple carpenter who willingly suffered unknowable agony. Out of love for his chosen, his “companions.”

Even more startling is the fact that those same people were once enemies. In Whovian terms, we were to God what Ashildr was to the Doctor. Despicable. Unworthy. Deserving punishment (though of course God acts in perfect justice, while the Doctor was motivated by a wrongful need for vengeance.)

It makes you want to shake your head in wonder and ask, “How is this possible?”

That’s the point. The reason why it’s called amazing grace.

The Doctor and Clara were close friends, and we know, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ESV)

Though the Doctor didn’t die in the ultimate sense, he died many times. The story of his sacrifice points, intentionally or not, to the story of the greatest sacrifice in all time and space.

Those three episodes left me in an emotional wreck, in a good way. Such is the beauty and power of stories, that through their telling, they can shine light on life’s profound truths.

What stories have presented glimmers of Truth in a way that caught your attention?

The last time I posted a “Guess That Fantasy” was last March as part of a promotion a number of fantasy authors put together. They devised a different fantasy topic for each day of the month. One such was a guess that fantasy, based on quotes.

I like the idea but thought I’d give it a twist. Instead of posting a series of quotes, I thought it might be fun to post clues and see how quickly you can identify the book. It’s sort of a “Name That Tune” approach. (You do know that old TV game show, don’t you? They used to play the first notes of a song and the contestants had to give the title. There was more to it than that—predicting how quickly they could guess the title, and so on—but the essence of the game was in the contestants’ speedy recognition of the songs.

I don’t think we can create the contestant aspect of that old TV game show, but it would be fun, I think, if you would post in the comments how many clues you needed in order to guess the title.

And in the event that this book is new to you, perhaps the clues will whet your appetite and you’ll decide to pick up a copy. As it happens, the Kindle edition is free today. I’ll give the link at the end.

Soooooo, without further ado, here are your clues for today’s Guess That Fantasy.

1. This book is Christian fantasy
2. The story opens with a quote from the Scroll of Amicus
3. The story takes place in countries adjacent to the Sea of Sharss
4. A secondary character named Brother Belmir delivers the opening line of dialogue
5. The main character wants to join a religious order, much to the disapproval of his kin
6. He is the youngest in his family
7. One of his brothers sells him into slavery
8. After some time of preparation, he becomes a star known as the White Pretender in the slave games
9. Though initially introduced in the book as Eldrin, the main character’s given name is Abramm Kalladorne
10. The book is published by Bethany House
11. The author is Karen Hancock
12. The book title is The Light Of Eidon

This book is the first of the Guardian-King series, and as I mentioned earlier, it’s free on Kindle. You can also learn more about the book from past articles published here at Spec Faith: “Book Discussion – The Light of Eidon, Part 1” and “Book Discussion – The Light of Eidon, Part 2.”

So how did you do on the “Guess That Fantasy” challenge? Don’t forget to tell us how many clues you needed before you correctly guessed the title. But if this is not a book you’re familiar with, feel free to give us your reactions to this little introduction.

If you’re active in your church, know this: Pokémon Go has come to you!

In all likelihood, your place of worship hosts one or more game checkpoints—a physical representation of a GPS point that gamers can ‘see’ via their phones.

Don’t laugh. This is the biggest craze to hit America since Slip’N Slide. And Christians have a chance to build bridges of goodwill with the players who stop by our churches in their quest to “catch ’em all.”

This suddenly popular phenomenon is not new. Pokémon, the card and video game is 20 years old, but the mobile game just recently went live. I’ll explain what all the hoopla’s about and then share how we in the church can be a witness to those who are voluntarily(!) stepping foot on our property.

What is Pokémon Go?

Pokémon Go is a smartphone app, a game that falls into the category of augmented reality. This means you’re not just playing a game on your mobile device, you’re utilizing a phone to play a game in the real world. The basic premise is to capture various Pokémon (fictional cartoonlike characters) you come across in the wild, so to speak. The goal is to catch as many as you can. Or, if you don’t work and have the energy of youth, you can try to “catch ’em all!”

Players can level up and advance in the game by accessing two kinds of GPS checkpoints—PokéStops and PokéGyms. These Poké-locations are actual places in the real world that a gamer must travel to. They’re all supposed to be in public areas (or accessible from parking lots, streets, and sidewalks) and are usually represented by signs, artwork, statues, monuments, plaques, or other cultural and community oriented artifacts.

So in the case of churches, your sign or cross or stained glass window is in all probability a stop on the Pokémon Go game board. (The whole world is, in fact, a game board, which allows players to participate in practically an endless gaming experience as they travel near and far.) Throw in the fact that there are three different teams—Instinct, Mystic, and Valor—and you have what one website calls a “war zone” out there as players battle over various Gyms. That’s one reason you see so many kids congregate as they play, they’re having a blast taking over your church!

What can local churches do?

For a traditionally churched person like me who has a tendency to want everything done “decently and in order,”¹ this Pokémon Go phenomenon can provide quite a challenge.

1. Kids are walking on our nicely manicured grass! Makes me want to mimic my grandpa: Get off my lawn. You know what I’m talking about.
2. We have strangers using our parking lot for apparently no rational reason. What in the world are they doing?
3. Doesn’t anyone work anymore? We’ve got people coming by our building at all hours, day and night. (Which does cause a legitimate concern about potential theft and property damage.)

But I submit these issues are not that significant in light of the goodwill we can create by welcoming and interacting with the players who visit our worship site (albeit for their own purposes, but remember, voluntarily). I see three general approaches we can take to build that bridge of friendship.

1. At the very least, smile and wave to the players who drop by. Don’t scowl. Don’t shake your head. Don’t sigh. Say hi. Say have fun. Say see you Sunday at 11! (Seriously. A fun and simple tease about having a Poké-party Sunday morning in the sanctuary might draw a smile and plant a seed.) Our church has four checkpoints in our immediate vicinity. I put a sign out during the day when I’m in the office that says: “Welcome Pokémon Go Players. Have fun!”
2. If you want to step up your game, a pastor friend of mine suggested that maybe on a hot summer afternoon offer free bottles of water or pop, or a room with A/C and outlets for people to charge their phones. Have some brochures available and invite them to other events at the church like VBS or Youth Nights or whatever.
3. Organize your own Pokémon Go outing. Have your youth group invite their friends (and their parents too—lots of adults play this game!) and venture out into an area thick with gaming checkpoints. Or host an event at your church, especially if there’s a PokéGym on the premises.

In response to my sign welcoming players to Faith Renewal Church, I had one young person stop in wondering if we were hosting an event. I hadn’t thought about it until that very moment and said, “I think we may! Thanks for the idea. What would that look like?” And we chatted for a few moments. Here a high school student who lives down the street and has never attended our services was excited about doing something at our church!

There are tons of ideas that can bring goodwill to our neighbors and witness to the abundant joy of Jesus that should overflow from our churches. But these three general approaches seem self-evident. What thoughts do you have? What other ideas for welcoming gamers to your place of worship do you have? Please share!

Then maybe together, we’ll be able to fulfill Christ’s call to Pokémon Go into all the world …

So yesterday morning I was riding with my dad somewhere.

He was taking care of a baby while driving. He was really trying to get somewhere fast. Of course he was taking a mountain road without guardrails. Rushing through intersections. Swerving into opposite lanes. Praying we wouldn’t wreck. I don’t know why people such as my dad are frequently driving fast in my dreams. Sometimes I’m the one who’s driving fast, with the added horror that I’m also stuck in the backseat while driving.

But this time, somehow our destination had been changed.

Instead he pulled into the parking lot of some public venue, perhaps a recreation center. In the opposite parking space a convertible was just arriving. In it was a blonde woman in a short dress and a stocky, orange-haired fellow who looked remarkably like Donald Trump.

And behold, I saw in my dream that it was Donald Trump.¹

He had invited members of large, homeschool families I had known in the central Kentucky region to a private meeting. There he would persuade them to vote for him as president.

Oh, I thought. This will be good.

I tried to record the meeting. But I left my usual DVR in my computer bag, which was across the room. So I tried to get one of the three recording apps to function on my phone. One was echoing back everything it recorded, so that wouldn’t do. The other one started okay, and didn’t echo, but I knew it would quickly eat up my phone memory and sound terrible.

Sim-Trump had already begun speaking and taking questions from people. I wish I could recall what he said. I do remember he was trying to sound all Christian-y. At one point he talked about Catholicism and how fantastic it is because of all the things Catholicism does for Christians. Ha! All my old homeschool crowd were default evangelicals. Not a Catholic among them. So why go on about Catholicism? Market research misfire.

Finally Sim-Trump took a break. I retrieved my other DVR and set it recording. (In real life it can record for 12 hours straight without stopping or running out of memory, often with recording-studio quality for voices.)

When Trump says something silly, I thought, I’ll be the one to post it all over the internet.

The break went on. So I got out some job applications and began filling them out. Why not?

Also for some reason a phone was nearby with another phone connected to the handset.

Trump was about to restart the meeting. He looked down and saw me with my job forms.

As I suspected, he had a force of personality that was quite intimidating—him standing, me sitting. “You looking for a job?” he asked.

I must have told him yes.

“I could hire you,” Trump said. “But I’m not sure if I have any Christian jobs.”

I felt others’ eyes on me and the room dropped silent.

He was about to start job-interview-grilling me, perhaps Apprentice-style, I just knew it.

But first I scowled up at him. “What’s a ‘Christian job’?” I asked.

He lost his edge a bit. “Well,” he tried, “you ‘cast a vision,’ and …”

There was more that I can’t remember, but it was a ridiculously “prosperity gospel” version of faith. This part was actually realistic.

“Whoa, whoa!” I cut in. “That’s not Christianity!” And boom, off I went. And I can still recall that it felt good to shove out into the room, overwhelming his charisma with my own.

“Let me tell you what Christianity is! Christianity starts with one entity, one eternal, perfect, loving Being at the center of the universe. He created everything we see and don’t see. God created the heavens and the earth!”

An older homeschool mom interrupted: “He made the whole damn thing in six days!”

(I swear this is what she said. And moreover I can tell you she sounded exactly like an older homeschool mom would while trying to swear.)

“He created it all.” I hoped that mom wouldn’t again throw off my groove. “But something went wrong. The first humans rebelled against God. They decided to be like God. They …”

And my wife’s alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. (Right now my clock shows 6:05 a.m.)

Darn. Bother it all!

She turned it off for a snooze. Well. I kept going, trying to kickstart the dream just in case.

“They brought sin into the world. They brought sins like hatred of God. Misusing God’s name. Taking things that don’t belong to you. Lying to others. Breaking your promises. Committing adultery!” (In my head I was accenting like Ray Comfort here—a carryover from the dream.) “For generations people continued in a state of sin and hatred against God. But God himself had a rescue plan.”²

(I thought about saying something like “Jesus, the son of God,” but I didn’t want to connote multiple gods to this particular audience. I figured: leave the Trinity out of this one.)

“God himself came to Earth as a man.” (I nearly said “in the form of a man.” Bad-doctrine dodge!) “He lived a perfect life. He helped his neighbors, ministered to them through healing and teaching and story, all to proclaim the Kingdom of heaven. Then his enemies killed him. He died to sacrifice himself, taking the punishment people deserve! Then he came back to life. He is Lord and commands everyone to repent of their sins and trust in him alone for salvation and new life. Only then can …”

The dream didn’t restart. But it was great to wake up preaching. And then to remember enough to transcribe this dream even as I sit here doing unto you, gentle reader.

Anyway, not a bad way to wake up. I wish I could wake up gospel-preaching more often.

The end.

Last week, Shannon McDermott wrote a post that discussed the nature of book titles. The title of her post, “A Book By Any Other Name,” got me thinking. What if books we knew well had different titles? What would be the result?

After all, titles are inseparable from the books to which they’re attached. Hear any title of a well-known book, and it comes with an automatic rush of images, opinions, character names, and any other host of details.

Sometimes, titles describe the overall arc or theme of the book.

Sometimes they derive from the main character and his or her exploits.

Sometimes, they come from a direct quote or subtle idea addressed within the story.

To answer my question, here are 20 books (sci-fi and fantasy, of course) and potential alternate titles.

1. Hunger Games…Against the Odds
2. Catching Fire…Whispers of Rebellion
3. Mockingjay…The Sorrow of Triumph
4. The Final Empire…Beneath Tyranny’s Shroud
5. Lord of the Rings…The Quest to Mordor
6. Princess Bride…True Love Conquers (umm, yikes—sounds like an Amish romance)
7. The Hobbit…The Exploits of Bilbo Baggins
8. Eragon…Birth of a Hero
9. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe…Adventures in Narnia
10. A Wrinkle in Time…Rescue from IT
11. I, Robot…The Automaton Takeover
12. Fahrenheit 451…The Flames of Oppression
13. The Last Battle…Night Falls On Narnia
14. The Time Machine…Where No Man Has Gone
15. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea…Captain Nemo’s Wanderings
16. The Silmarillion…The Novice’s Handbook of Elves and Languages
17. Dune…Battle for Arrakis
18. Prince Caspian…Return to Narnia
19. A Game of Thrones…Death Comes Swiftly
20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone…The Magical Boy

Amazing what switching a title can do, isn’t it? Which book sounds the most different?