Joy To The World

“Let Earth receive her King! / Let every heart prepare Him room / And Heaven and nature sing.”
— E. Stephen Burnett in December 2014 —

Popular Culture Is An Eternal Gift Of God

Christians who critique fantastical stories are often blind to popular culture’s eternal purposes.
— E. Stephen Burnett in September 2014 —

Dragons, Maleficent, and Echoes Of Groaning Earth

Do stories such as “Maleficent” and “How to Train Your Dragon” say “man is evil, nature is good”?
— E. Stephen Burnett in June 2014 —

No More

Christians have a hope beyond this sinful age of earth — and beyond even the present Heaven.
— E. Stephen Burnett in April 2014 —

Kingdom Come

Humans desire an ideal kingdom, a longing that Scripture promises to fulfill both spiritually and physically.
— Yvonne Anderson in October 2013 —

Resurrection, Part 4: Creation Will Rise

Jesus resurrected from the dead. Yet God’s Story also says resurrection will spread to “the creation itself,” Earth and beyond.
— E. Stephen Burnett in April 2013 —

Resurrection, Part 3: We Are Risen; We Will Rise

Christ is risen. Next comes a truth echoed by heroes such as The Iron Giant and Iron Man: human resurrection, which comes in at least two stages.
— E. Stephen Burnett in March 2013 —

Resurrection, Part 1: Prelude

Every good hero in fantasy and science fiction must experience some kind of death and rebirth. Only one Hero has truly done it. And only He can share the joy of His Resurrection.
— E. Stephen Burnett in March 2013 —

Fiction Christians From Another Planet! VII: Attack Of The Spiritoids

From the misquote “you are a soul, you have a body,” to spiritual-warfare “only unseen realities matter” assumptions, to end-times evacuation-from-Earth tropes, Gnostic spiritoids infect some Christian fiction.
— E. Stephen Burnett in February 2013 —

Incarnation, Part 1: Eternal Entity

Science fiction and false religions often insist that humans must change from physical to spiritual beings. But God the Son did the exact opposite.
— E. Stephen Burnett in December 2012 —

Reading Is Worship 11: Glory Spectrum Of Stories

If God’s multihued glories shine in all of reality, how do we find such glories in stories and be moved to worship Him?
— E. Stephen Burnett in November 2012 —

Redeeming Culture In Stories and Politics

The Church is not anti-culture or pro-culture, but a gracious proclaimer of the Biblical Story, and what in culture reflects God’s truth or does not. This applies to stories, speculative and otherwise. And this applies to politics, the governance of culture.
— E. Stephen Burnett in November 2012 —

Reading Is Worship 6: Curing Weirdness-Idolatry

How can we fight inclinations to idolize “being weird” for its own sake? We must see fantasy “weirdness” as normal in the Bible (and even in our culture), ask God to help us reach out to critics, and remember why we love fantastic stories.
— E. Stephen Burnett in October 2012 —

Reading Is Worship 2: Experience-Worship

It’s easy to break into others’ idol factories. But for most readers, including myself, the worst potential idol in enjoying speculative stories may be experience. How is this self-defeating? What is the Biblical cure?
— E. Stephen Burnett in August 2012 —

Speculative Faith Reading Group 9: From Defeat, Final Victory

Even among the greatest stories, the finale of LWW is unique. Here are echoes of Resurrection, eternal joy, and the truth that Christ’s people will reign physically over the New Heavens and New Earth.
— E. Stephen Burnett in August 2012 —

Will Fiction Last Forever? Part 5

In the New Earth, as here in the Old, we won’t worship things, but worship Christ *with* things. Those may include our speculative stories, maybe even resurrected from this world. Four more reasons why this speculation is based on Scriptural promises about the After-world.
— E. Stephen Burnett in December 2011 —

Will Fiction Last Forever? Part 4

Based on Scripture, we can know that God loves stories, we can worship Him now through stories, and we’re destined to worship Him for eternity in many of the same ways. Of course, we can’t take any thing with us after death. Yet our God is a God of resurrection.
— E. Stephen Burnett in December 2011 —

Will Fiction Last Forever? Part 3

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for God’s Word — His perfect written revelation that He has promised will last forever, even into the New Earth. What would it be like to read the Bible then? How can that eternal perspective help us enjoy His Story now?
— E. Stephen Burnett in November 2011 —

Will Fiction Last Forever? Part 2

Christians have three main views about the afterlife, all within Gospel faith. But should we even bother with studying and anticipating Heaven? What do we and don’t we know about Heaven from the Bible? Should we speculate about that world?
— E. Stephen Burnett in November 2011 —
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