Christian Science Fiction and Our Vision for the Future
A leader must instill vision in his followers. It is not enough for the leader himself to have a clear picture in his mind of what he wants his family, church, school or business to look like. No, he must communicate that vision so clearly and persistently that everyone around him has the same picture in his mind! (I am assuming you already have a clear vision for yourself as a Christian individual. Go here if you have believed in Jesus, yet don’t know how to answer the question “Now What?”)
Christians are society’s best visionaries, for the simple reason that our vision is the one that is actually going to win in the end. Humanity is not going to develop into a Marxist utopia, or a socialist paradise, or a Star Trek-type culture in which humanism has made everyone happy and healthy. No, the future will look like Daniel 2. Generation by generation, the rock that struck the feet of the statue will become a mountain that fills the whole earth. All the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, resulting in a gradual cultural transformation. The islands will indeed put their hope in his law.
The more clearly Christians see what this future looks like, the more successfully they will labor toward its implementation. The vision must be communicated to believers. It must grab their imagination and fire their hearts. The vision will keep them focused in times of discouragement and safe when assaulted by competing visions.
Christian science fiction paints a picture of the future. It shows the vision being realized. Such fiction builds up the church in the same way that end-times fiction tears her down. The end-times novel strips meaning and energy from every human activity. But genuine Christian science fiction charges life with the purpose and enthusiasm needed in a life of war.
Unbelievers use science fiction to attack the worldview of covenant youth. It is time to use the genre to strengthen believers in the very areas non-Christians most hope sci-fi will tear us down. By God’s grace, we will make the Seed of the Serpent regret the day science fiction was invented!
Remember the core criteria: the story must be set significantly in the future, the story must show the church alive and well in that future.
I was thinking this:
The reporter looked hard at the alien and frowned. “Why would a sophisticated, intelligent species like the Orlan buy into a religion from a fringe world with a backwards, third-rate society?”
The Orlan took a moment to smile. “Curious.” He said. “That is exactly what the sophisticated and intelligent people of earth itself used to say about that fringe land with the backwards, third-rate society called Judea.”
-Michael
I am curious as to how you merge the two ideas just as I am interested in doing. Thanks for the post and the insight you provide here. You have given me the encouragement that what I deem possible is possible indeed.
Thank you.
V.