When Heaven intervenes

One of my favorite cable TV series, Against All Odds, details instances where God manifested his power in defense of Israel, not in the times of the Patriarchs, but in very recent history.  The video excerpt from that series illustrates this very powerfully.  Watching that series stirred my blood, there can be no other way to describe it.

I have long been dissatisfied with the way God's involvement has been portrayed in movies and particularly in books.  For years we've been subjected to a steady barrage of stories where Christian characters are either portrayed as incredible idiots for believing that an uncaring God would act on their behalf, or just as dependent on as everyone else in fighting evil though a liberal application of gunpowder and little more. 

The only real difference I could see in this latter class of story was that the Christian heroes didn't cuss or smoke or run with those who did.  Otherwise, they used the same methods with the same expected outcome. There was no evidence of God's power as a witness to an unbelieving world that He loves us and does act on our behalf.

As a charismatic Christian, I have seen the miraculous and it is mind-blowing.   I began to think about the Old Testament miracles and those in the New Testament involving direct clashes with evil. In every case, the bad guys lost big time.

So, in writing Black Flag, Black Ship, I wanted to evoke the same feeling of awe and wonder as I've felt in real life, but in a fantasy setting. I have taken great pains to be faithful to scripture in portraying both the angelic and the demonic.  I also wanted to ensure that when describing evil people and their actions that the forces of hell are not exalted. 

I did not want the reader left with a sense of fear, open to the notion that humanity is without hope in the face of evil, that somehow evil will win in the end.  It will not, because the forces of darkness have already lost.

The scripture Colossians 2:15 is my compass needle which I use to navigate my way from start to finish in my stories:  "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

Gospel accounts of Jesus and his encounters with the demonic all show his power over the devil and his minions. These scriptures also portray the absolute terror that demons felt when encountering the Jesus, and that was before Jesus' death on the cross.

Some writers just haven't gotten it that Jesus is Hell's worst nightmare.  I have.  I want to take every opportunity to state that Jesus is lord of all.