Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

After discussing this subject in another topic, I've felt compelled to post the preface of my first book, Zealot Finale: Book One here on the board.

The reason is because many of us have been exposed to the secular notion that the existence of alien life would somehow discredit the Bible, especially by attacking the notion that mankind is created in the image of God.

I wrote this preface specifically to address this claim from a biblical perspective. It's my hope that this will serve to encourage others in the body of Christ, and help provide a clear and bold mindset for those both writing and reading Christian speculative fiction.

Due to the length of the preface, I will put it in its own separate post (or posts).

On the Subject of Alien Life
Let me begin by openly stating that this story is full of biblical ideas, elements, and discussions. Let me also state openly that I wrote this story for everyone to enjoy. If you are, like myself, a born-again Christian, then welcome. I hope you enjoy the story and are encouraged by the elements of Christianity found within.

If you are not a Christian, then welcome. I hope you have fun, and I hope this may, perhaps, be used by God in your life in a good way.

However, I did not write this preface just to say hello to my readers.

I decided to write this preface some time after beginning the actual story. This is because recently a certain issue has become apparent to me. An issue that, to be honest, mystifies me as to how it can be an issue in the first place.

I speak of this concept: that aliens, if they existed, would completely discredit God and His Word.

Proponents of this argument claim that this would somehow automatically fill in all the gaps in the theory of evolution while simultaneously nullifying the gospel. A tall order indeed.

It would accomplish the former by…? Well, scoffers believe alien life would easily lend itself to their theory that everything falls into place in neat, well-organized, self-sufficient little heaps after suitably epic phenomena (like random explosions) and, of course, the accompanying epic stretches of time. The proof of this would probably come in the form of aliens telling them that they were right all along, providing some mind-bending mathematical equation proving that God can’t possibly exist, and so on.

It would accomplish the latter by directly attacking the concept that man is made in God’s image since man would no longer be special—there would be other sentient creatures, capable of the same things as man, who would not have any concept of the God of the Bible or His Son, Jesus Christ.

As for the evolution issue, I’m sure both sides can agree that the preface of a science fiction slash fantasy novel is not the forum for this debate. This subject has raged on for years, and the necessary levels of detail are beyond the scope of a few pages. But allow me to add this much—we believe that God created all things. This is no secret. Would anyone be surprised, then, that we would state confidently that aliens were created by Him as well should they be proven to exist? Look around us. He created all life in this world, diversified as it is. It is in no way a stretch of the Lord’s power to make other planets capable of sustaining life, put diversified life on those planets, and give that life the privilege of comprehending His gospel. It’s as simple as that—that He is, and He is Creator, or He is not. I, and any Christian, will testify that He is. But that brings us to the other issue—truth be told, the issue I really wanted to tackle when writing this section.

How can man be created in the image of God if there are aliens? Let me begin by asking another question: how can man be created in the image of God if there are angels and demons? Angels, other sentient beings created by God and who appear in the Bible, are powerful and intelligent—much more so than ourselves. And yet, it is man who is created in the image of God according to the account in Genesis. But what defines this?

If you are familiar with the entirety of the Bible, you’ll know that God is often spoken of as being in three separate yet unified persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14). This concept is known as “the Trinity” in Christendom. Three persons, seemingly separate, but who are in actuality one being. This is reflected in mankind as well, for we are made up of three parts—our bodies and minds, along with our own spirits (see Romans 8:16)—a concept that you will find is used in Zealot Finale. Three very different parts that come together to make one person.

While there is much science devoted to the study of the body and the mind, how does one scientifically pick apart the spirit? And how does one know the difference between the spirit of a man and an angel? Or an alien? But we have no biblical record of aliens, and God spoke of man when creating a creature in His image, not angels. According to James 1:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” This further indicates the special place held by mankind.

According to Genesis chapter 3, when man sinned, God put His curse on the ground because of him. All of creation fell under a curse, and death entered the world through sin as well (Romans 5:12), including spiritual death (see Genesis chapters 2 and 3), which separates us all from God and puts us on a collision course with hell. Thus the world entered a fallen state because of the actions of mankind.

Being loving, gracious, and merciful, God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross so that when our lives are over, we would not have to die a second, spiritual death and end up in hell if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior (John 3:16, John 8:24, Ephesians 2:1, Romans 3:20–26, Romans 10:9–10).

Now let us consider this scenario if aliens are present. The simple fact is that we are the ones who brought sin into the world, and Jesus came to earth to save us. In this case, aliens, assuming they are sentient, fall into a different category: those who are also fallen, but have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This draws a comparison to people in the world who have not heard of Jesus. They are still sinners; they are still subject to death, but they have not heard of Christ. What about these people?

Truth be told, this has always been a difficult subject, but it is one that we must consider, aliens or not. According to Jesus Himself in John 4:22, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.”

Here, Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman—a foreigner, an alien if you will—who did not know that He was the Messiah. He informed her that God’s plan for salvation was being played out through His people, the Jews, and in the case of aliens from another planet, we would say that salvation is of man—for Jesus came to this planet as a man. This further solidifies mankind’s role in this what-if scenario, as the Messiah did not go to another planet as an alien.

In John 15:22, Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”

Here we see that hearing about Jesus bears a certain responsibility. Now you know, so what will you do? Accept Him or reject Him? Before hearing about Him and what He has done, one does not have the responsibility to make this decision. Those from another world would become responsible for what they do with the gospel after hearing it.

In Romans 3:25–26, Paul, writing about Jesus, said, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” In other words, God passed over the sins people committed initially—not that He overlooked them, but He waited on judgment until Jesus had completed His work on the cross, so that He could judge those sins justly, but also justify and save those who believe on Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

This indicates that God has ways of dealing with people who are not in our circumstances (of knowing about Jesus and what exactly He has done). The verse above references those who lived and died before Jesus was sent and by extension, Paradise, where people of God who died before the death and resurrection of Jesus were sent (see Luke 16:19-31).

Finally, Romans 2:12, “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.” And Romans 4:15, “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”

God has a plan for different contingencies, and we need to have faith that He will deal justly with those who do not know what the Bible says. God would even know how to deal with aliens hearing about redemption for the first time, and those who had come before them who had already passed.

But to all reading this, the responsibility of having heard the gospel is upon us at this very moment. Proverbs 9:12, “If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.”

We all must make that choice.

With these things said, please enjoy Zealot Finale!

Thanks so much for writing this! I wish everybody who thinks aliens somehow discredit the existence of God could read this. Very eloquently and intelligently expressed.

T.K. wrote: "Thanks so much for writing this! I wish everybody who thinks aliens somehow discredit the existence of God could read this. Very eloquently and intelligently expressed."

Thanks T.K.! It's meant primarily to help anyone getting ready to write a Christian story containing those elements, or who may feel strange about a story containing those elements. However, if anyone who reads it thinks it may help them in witnessing or defense of the gospel in some way, I'd like that person to feel free to use it as the Lord directs.

J.K. Bailey:

I based my use of aliens in my YA novels on the concept you brought up. Mankind fell. Mankind needed redemption/salvation, and that was done here. Aliens are still part of creation and our role is to bring that message to them, as well.

There are some critics who’ve taken exception.

Guy wrote: "J.K. Bailey:

I based my use of aliens in my YA novels on the concept you brought up. Mankind fell. Mankind needed redemption/salvation, and that was done here. Aliens are still part of creation an..."

Of course there are always going to be critics. There are those who "take exception" simply because they don't want to hear the gospel. Let them. Their belief or unbelief is between them and God.

As for the aliens, they're just a fantasy element in a fantasy story. But all of creation is subject to God; nothing gets to be exempt by its nature, and to that end I used them in my story as a sort of parable element. If they're subject, you can be certain we are as well. It sounds like you did something similar in your writing.

First off, very well written. Bravo.

I can’t help but wonder, theoretically of course, if aliens would have been subject to the effects of the fall, being resident on the other side of the galaxy. Seems a bit unfair.

But likewise, all the animals and creation could say the same, so I suppose the question is moot. I could just imagine blameless beings coming to earth and being horrified, couldn’t you? “You ate WHAT when HE TOLD YOU not to??!!”

Kathryn wrote: "First off, very well written. Bravo.

I can’t help but wonder, theoretically of course, if aliens would have been subject to the effects of the fall, being resident on the other side of the galaxy..."

Thank you Kathryn!

Yeah, the question regarding aliens and the fall seems to kind of answer itself when you look at how all the animals and creation are fallen, as you pointed out. I think the passage in James 1:18 has everything to do with that: that we, being a kind of firstfruits of the creatures of God, begat sin and death in everything going forward with our sinful works.

Adam and Eve represented all of us, and we're all fallen because of their sin, and undeniably so, as none of us can claim to be without sin (1 John 1:8). In a setting involving aliens, the aliens are not the firstfruits of God's creatures - we are, and they're under the banner of sin because the firstfruits of God's creatures chose to sin.

It reminds me of Romans 5:12-21. Specifically, verses 12-14 read: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come."

It treats Adam's sin as being imparted to all, as if all sinned - and we all have a sin nature. That's true even of other peoples, distant as they can be from Adam, and not having his knowledge of God. In portraying aliens as sentient, like a different people, they would have that nature. And if they weren't sentient - if they were just animals - then God put His curse on the ground because of us, and as the animals are subject to death, they would be so as well.

"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:20-23.)