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118. Which Fantastical Stories Help Us Celebrate Human Life?
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Jun 28, 2022

Tilly
Reviews, Jun 24, 2022

The Wonderland Trials
Reviews, Jun 24, 2022

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Shadow of Honor, Ronie Kendig
Lost Bits, Kerry Nietz
Rats of Dweltford, Matt Barron
Vivid, Ashley Bustamante
My Soul to Take, Bryan Davis
Into Shadow's Fire, Mark Castleberry
Deceived, Madisyn Carlin
Arena (2022 edition), Karen Hancock
Kurt Nickle-Dickle of Whiskers, N. J. McLagan
"In a city where debts are paid in blood, one young man will learn that everyone needs help sometimes if they want to survive." New in the Lorehaven library: A Matter of Blood, Lauren H Salisbury
Son of the Shield, Mary Schlegel
Maxine Justice, Galactic Attorney, Daniel Schwabauer
Mordizan, Alyssa Roat
Prentice Ash, Matt Barron
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Tilly
“Written in 1986, Frank E. Peretti’s novelette Tilly may feel melodramatic to today’s readers, but remains a tearful tale of brokenness and redemption.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 24, 2022

The Wonderland Trials
“Although indebted to a classic, The Wonderland Trials is inventive and colorful in its own right, abundantly able to charm and to intrigue.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 24, 2022

Rise of the Earthborn
“Societal intrigue plus steampunk flair and a dash of romance help make Emma Buenen’s Rise of the Earthborn a solid extra-biblical adventure.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 17, 2022

Elite
“Elite explores parallels to the early Church, beautifully intertwining faith and action in this high-stakes post-apocalyptic adventure.”
—Lorehaven on Jun 10, 2022

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118. Which Fantastical Stories Help Us Celebrate Human Life?
Fantastical Truth, Jun 28, 2022

117. Why Should You Build a Fantastical Lending Library? | with L.G. McCary
Fantastical Truth, Jun 21, 2022

116. Why Do Homeschooled Students Love Fantastical Fiction? | with Ethan Nunn
Fantastical Truth, Jun 14, 2022

115. How Do Lorehaven Creators Strive to Follow Biblical Statements of Faith?
Fantastical Truth, Jun 7, 2022

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Yes, Speculative Faith Is Closed, At Least For Now
E. Stephen Burnett, Dec 30

Last Stands, Custer, General Gordon, and Being a Christian Warrior
Travis Perry, Jul 2

How Christian Must Christian Fiction Be?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 24

Gender In Fiction: The Implication Of Failure
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 10

Making a Story Visual UPDATE: Behind the Scenes of the Animal Eye Comic
Travis Perry, May 9

What Does “Woke” Culture Have To Do With Christian Fiction?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Apr 26

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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/ Magazines / Spring 2018

Popular Fantasy Chases the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Why do Revelation’s four horsemen so often feature in non-Christian stories?
Elijah David | No comments

For two thousand years, the four apocalyptic horsemen of Revelation 6:1–8 have captured the imaginations of non-Christians and Christians alike.

But these days the four horsemen seem to be almost entirely absent from Christian fiction. While non-Christian authors take these images and run with them, Christians have let their own Bible’s concept lie dormant.

In Revelation 6, God shows the horsemen to the apostle John. Each horseman is associated with one of the first four seal judgments God unleashes on the world. Each horse’s color embodies a primal force of division and destruction: Conquest, on a white horse; War or Strife, on a red horse; Famine, on a black horse; and Death, on a pale horse.

However, most fictional versions don’t strictly follow this list. Most stories usually drop Conquest. They combine this horseman with War, or replace it with Pestilence, which appears nowhere in Revelation 6. Sometimes adapters replace Conquest with Strife or make up entirely new horsemen.

You don’t have to look far to find an innovative representation of the horsemen. For example, the television show Charmed shows the horsemen as corporate agents of The Source of All Evil, bent on bringing about destruction by reaching their death goals.

Meanwhile, the TV series Supernatural gives each horseman a distinct personality. Ironically, Death seems the most personable. He’s also the most blasphemous, claiming he’ll one day reap God.

Another TV series, Sleepy Hollow, intentionally uses Revelation 6 and other Biblical passages, but also turns the horsemen into agents of a demon, bent on conquering and destroying the world.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett famously update the horsemen’s roster in Good Omens, replacing Pestilence with Pollution. Even superheroes have their own takes: Marvel’s ancient mutant Apocalypse always appears with four chosen henchpersons. In the film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), these are Storm, Archangel, Psylocke, and Magneto.

Novelist Veronica Rossi offers one version of the horsemen that is surprisingly truer to the Revelation account. Her young adult adventure novel Riders focuses on four teenagers who are temporarily given the roles and powers of the horsemen—but in order to stop a group of demons from unleashing hell on Earth.

Okay, so that last part is artistic license. Bear with it.

Still, Rossi’s horsemen follow the actual Biblical roster. Conquest is there. The horse colors are accurate. So is the fact that these figures or forces are unleashed as part of a divine plan. In contrast to the horsemen of Sleepy Hollow, who serve the demon Moloch, the heroes of Riders are chosen by God to fulfill their roles and act as his agents while they are horsemen.

So how come in the last few decades, non-Christians have speculated on the horsemen more than Bible believers?

Maybe we avoid everything in the book of Revelation, at least when it isn’t packaged in literalized form, such as in the Left Behind series. Apocalyptic literature like Revelation presents difficulties for a modern audience, because we’re separated by time and culture from its original context. So the apostle John’s inscrutable images may confuse us. (Or else, we don’t want to start up an end-times debate with Cousin Ben.)

But in this case, good fiction should encourage these friendly debates. Fiction spurs us to think about these issues, even if our question is as simple as, “Do we see these four horsemen only as symbols, or can we interpret them as literal angelic beings or events?”

Many Christians will agree the horsemen are symbols, representing literal events during a seven-year Tribulation, or more generalized moments across church history.

Or maybe we avoid the horsemen because we feel popular culture has appropriated biblical images. In fact, because the world’s ideas of angels, heaven, and even the Rapture have become entrenched in popular imagination, we as Christians may struggle to recall biblical views of these things. Can Christians find anything new in this concept?

Rossi’s novel gives me hope that the horsemen can return to their Biblical roots. But that hope will find its true satisfaction in seeing the Christian fan community embrace this part of their own culture and bring it back home. Perhaps a local pastor is brought face to face with War in his home town? Or maybe a military professional returns to her faith after an encounter she can only describe as biblical?

Remember, the horsemen are part of our story—a story that culminates with the greatest horseman—the King of Kings in Revelation 19.

The world may offer their takes on him and the many smaller parts of his story that capture the imagination. But we as Christians are best equipped to explore that story. It is after all, the story of our Savior. With a faith so filled with supernatural imagery and power, who better to explore those images with our God-given creativity?

Elijah David lives and works in the Chattanooga area. He spends far too many nights reading when he should be sleeping and frequently finds his bookshelves have shrunk overnight. He is the author of Albion Academy, the first book in the Albion Quartet, and Paper and Thorns, the first novella in the Princes Never Prosper series. Though his only magical talent is putting pen to paper, Elijah believes magic lurks around every corner, if you only know how to look for it. He and his wife are busy raising a small Hobbit and a calico cat.
Website | Facebook |
Elijah David
Elijah David lives and works in the Chattanooga area. He spends far too many nights reading when he should be sleeping and frequently finds his bookshelves have shrunk overnight. He is the author of Albion Academy, the first book in the Albion Quartet, and Paper and Thorns, the first novella in the Princes Never Prosper series. Though his only magical talent is putting pen to paper, Elijah believes magic lurks around every corner, if you only know how to look for it. He and his wife are busy raising a small Hobbit and a calico cat.
Website · Facebook ·

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.