The thinking behind The Third Heaven: The Birth of God
In book two we have the continuation of the story of the fall of Lucifer, more specifically what were the aftershocks to such a rift in heaven that a third of angels are now vacant?
In book two I explore how both individual characters are impacted as well as the actual realm of Heaven itself. How is life different? What happens now with Hell? And of course how does mankind play into the epic conflict. How is the portion of the Bible that Christians call the Old Testament viewed from the standpoint of the angels. This was what I tried to achieve in this work.
In book two we see the fall of Adam, the translation of Enoch, the destruction of Egypt, the kingdom conflict alluded by Gabriel in Dan 10:20. We explore how Michael transitions into his new role, and how he deals with the God given revelation shown to him of the upcoming crucifixion, and the decision in Heaven for Jesus to leave Heaven, and of course the Annunciation.
Various themes are explored such as can the fallen angels be redeemed? Self-forgiveness, fear, faith, service, and leadership selection. God’s mercy and the extent that he would surrender himself to bring man salvation. We explore characters who were introduced late in the first novel such as Iblis, and Chronos. We are introduced to new characters such as the Redactors, a group of Grigoric bounty hunters. Old favorites such as Charon the angel of Death, and of course the books antagonist Lucifer.
The challenge as before was to weave scripture in such as a way as to stay to true to its spirit, while not having always the specifics. Thus readers know that this speculative fictional work takes some creative license, and thus should not be taken as prescriptive or something to ascribe doctrine to.
The biggest challenge was to try to write for the reader what I have referred to in the book as the ‘Kenosis’. A Greek word taken from Philippians 2:7 “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” This act of “self emptying” is humbly and partially described in the book.
One of the things that did not get put into the book was Elijah’s being taken to Heaven. But rest assured I have plans for one the Bible’s most famous prophets and hope to do a free novella in the future featuring him and Enoch so stay tuned!
While various ones will see or have different experiences while reading. It was this authors attempt to show a “touchable” God. Yet a person who is powerful, wondrous, majestic and governs the universe. I hope my readers will appreciate my attempts to depict God in a way that honors Him, our faith in Christ, and our limited understanding of Him.
As my readers know I love a good epic battle, and in this book I’ve tried not to disappoint. I’ve listened to readers of the previous book and have tried to make them shorter, but still fulfilling. I hope that by the time readers get to the end of the book there is a sense of satisfaction, yet a desire to see what happens next, as some major characters story arcs will take a dramatic turn, that will be fully realized in book three.
Lord willing, we will continue to explore the fascinating back-story of the Bible, as book three takes us into the realm of the unrighteous dead. And we delve into the powerful mystery of Matt 12:40
“The Son of Man Will Be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth”
Stay tuned!