Novel on Creation now self-published

About a year and a half ago, I started writing a series of self-published novels called Gabriel's Diaries. The first one was about the incarnation. The second was about Jesus' earthly ministry to his resurrection. I'll do a second edition with notes by Advent for the first and by Lent for the second.

I've now finished the third. This one is geeky and extremely speculative. The idea was to see if it was possible to combine faith in the inspiration of the Bible, an affirmation of Christian orthodoxy, and modern science when it comes to cosmology, genetics, and evolution. I am not claiming that these latter ideas are true. I am exploring possibilities because some people's faith may be at stake.

Because these are sensitive topics, this one has a 7 page preface. Here's an excerpt:

"I am not staking any claims in this novella. It is an exploration of possibilities, not a statement of actualities. All the evidence of science could easily be accounted for by way of the 'apparent age theory.' This is the idea that God created the universe with apparent age. Indeed, as I told a class even last week, God could have created us six minutes ago with our memories intact. The question is whether such a theory is necessary or fits with the character of God. What purpose might God have had in creating the DNA sequences of all animals to look like they come from common origins? Would God really have set up fossil evidence just to test the faith of people in the last couple centuries, assuming that it reads the way most scientists say it does?

"For most of us, these issues are not central to our faith. I am a New Testament expert, not a scientist. I do not deal with scientific evidence in my daily life. I grew up taking Genesis 1 as literal 24 hour days and had no problem with the idea. I am still open to this possibility.

"I also fear that a lot of people have lost their faith over this issue. Others I fear are hindered from coming to faith because of these questions. Someone does graduate study in biology or genetics or some other scientific discipline, and they become convinced that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and the earth 4.5 billion years old. They become convinced that evolution is true. If they were taught that literal 24 hour days are a non-negotiable, they may lose their faith, not because they want to but because they just cannot fit the two together.

"Perhaps it will all blow over. What if the scientific evidence suddenly turned and older views of creation became obvious to all? In the meantime, it is worthwhile for Christian theologians, philosophers, and biblical experts to explore the possibilities. Scientists can be wrong for sure. But as an expert on the Bible, I can tell you that biblical interpreters are wrong just as often. They have to be—there are just too many conflicting interpretations out there!

"So my purpose here is to explore. May the Lord rescue any reader from any thought that might lead our trust in God astray. That is, after all, what it is all about, our faith. God is not primarily interested in our intellects, although God is truth. God is of course interested in our actions, because they have an impact on others. But it is the heart that is the center of the moral universe of humans. May the Lord protect our hearts as we try to navigate the troubled waters of our finite, fallen heads!"

So here is now Gabriel's Diary: The Creation, volume three of my Gabriel series.

Paperback

Kindle

One Week After Easter

Today's excerpt from my recent novella.
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... One week after his previous appearance, all eleven were in Capernaum at the house of Peter, including Thomas. It was Sunday night, one week after the resurrection. And he appeared to them again.

Thomas had doubted them before. He thought they must be hallucinating. “You just want him to be alive,” he said. “I’m going to need to touch the holes in his hands and side for me to believe.”

And Jesus knew his doubt. “Here I am Thomas. Touch my hands and side.”

But Thomas did not need to touch him. He fell to his knees. “My Lord. My God.” And Jesus was gone again.

The next morning they went everywhere telling anyone they found that he was risen. Philip went to Bethsaida. Nathaniel to Cana. Matthew and James the younger went to Chorazin...

Monday--Back to Galilee

Today's excerpt from my novella.
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Early the next morning, they all began the three day journey up the Jordan to Galilee. Lazarus went with them too.

The highest heaven does not have the same time as the earth or the universe. The very moment of creation was the same moment that the Logos was incarnated and glorified in the universe. And it was the same moment that Jesus was enthroned as Lord.

He is Lord. He is risen from the dead, and he is Lord. He was always Lord outside of time. He was always the Son of God from eternity past. Yet he was also exalted to God’s right hand after he rose from the dead. He was enthroned as Son of God after the resurrection. It is a paradox beyond human understanding.

From the moment of creation the LORD said to the Lord, “Sit at my right hand.” Now, exalted to God’s right hand, God said what he says in the eternal now at the beginning of time: “You are my Son. Today I have given you birth.” Christ was eternally begotten of the Father, and Christ was declared God’s Son at the moment he was exalted after the resurrection. The heir apparent took the throne that he was already sitting upon.

The disciples spread out in Galilee to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection. They were becoming his apostles, witnesses of the resurrection sent to proclaim his risen Lordship. His mother Mary proclaimed his Lordship to Jesus’ brothers. Later that year, Jesus would appear directly to his brother James...

Sunday: I've just seen Jesus!

Today's excerpt from my novella.
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For the moment, they were devastated for Jesus’ body to be missing. It was devastating to the already devastated. Many of them had already wept on the way to the tomb, and now they could not even anoint him. They had been so concerned even for his body to be buried. So many bodies of the crucified were simply tossed into the trash heap of Hinnom to burn or were torn apart by stray dogs. A sudden fear came on them that someone had simply thrown Jesus’ body away.

They quickly returned to Clopas’ house. Mary Magdalene in particular ran as fast as she could—quite an unusual sight to see a woman running through Jerusalem. They hoped someone might go to Joseph of Arimathea to see if he knew what had happened.

Peter and Lazarus were the first two disciples Mary encountered. Out of breath, she finally managed to get across that Jesus’ body was gone. “They’ve taken him,” she said. “His body is gone from the tomb.” Then after a few more gulps of air. “We don’t know where they’ve taken him.”

Simon Peter and John Lazarus bolted for the door, with Mary not far behind. They passed the other women, who were a little over half way back to the house. Lazarus got there first, with Peter not far behind. There were no more answers for them than there were for the women.

“Maybe Joseph knows something,” Peter said. “He has to still be in town. He wouldn’t travel to Arimathea on the Sabbath. We need to find out where he’s staying.”

But just before he started running again, Lazarus grabbed Peter’s arm. “What if he’s risen?” he said.

“What?” Peter said.

“He raised me from the dead. What if he raised himself?”

Just at that moment, Mary Magdalene arrived back again as well.

“We’re going to go find Joseph,” Peter said to Mary.

“Be encouraged, sister,” Lazarus also told her. “Nothing is impossible for God!” And they left again.

Mary Magdalene just sat in the garden weeping and praying. “Abba, where have they taken my Lord? Abba, have mercy on us!” At that moment Jesus appeared to her. She thought he might be the gardener. She wondered if perhaps God had answered her prayer to show where the body was.

“Why are you crying?” he said to her.

“Sir,” she said. “I am looking for the body of Jesus of Nazareth, who was set in that tomb over there right before the Sabbath. Do you know where they have taken him? Have you taken his body somewhere?”

She could not recognize him yet, although there was something oh so quieting and peaceful about him. There was something very familiar.

“Mary,” he simply said, and she knew.

Saturday--Hades

Today's excerpt from my novella.
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Two tasks were planned during his time in death. The first was to go to the “place” where one group of fallen angels were bound, near where the spirits of the faithless wait. Some of the fallen angels are already bound for all eternity.

I will share more details later in my diaries, but there was a point early in the story of humanity when most of the inhabited world was destroyed by water. The days right before then were a time of great wickedness. Since the time of that flood, fallen angels remain unseen to the human eye. But it was not always the case.

Before the flood, one group of fallen angels dared to appear as men. The wickedness they brought was swallowing up humanity. It was not God’s time. Humanity was not far enough along for the Logos to come or for God’s people to emerge. God commanded Michael to intervene and those angels were bound forever in the fourth dimension.

Jesus’ first task in death was to proclaim a definitive victory over these imprisoned spirits. With his death, their defeat was final. The earth was redeemed. It just didn’t know it yet. Satan’s power was defeated. He just had not fully experienced it yet.

Jesus’ second task was to announce freedom to the faithful. They already knew peace. They already knew hope. Now Jesus confirmed to them that salvation was accomplished. They would rise again with glorified bodies. All the sacrifices they had made in life had pointed toward this moment in history. They were only foreshadowings of this time, anticipations of a reality that only Christ could actually bring about.

Friday--Pilate's Decision

Today's excerpt from my novella.
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“So are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate said.

“That is why I am here,” Jesus finally said.

“They say you have been stirring up trouble all over Galilee. They say you healed one of the beggars over near the Pool of Bethesda. Is that true?”

Jesus did not say anything.

“You know what I think?” Pilate continued. “I think they’re jealous. I hear the people love you. The people don’t love them. Everyone knows that the money changers get rich off the people who come here to sacrifice.”

Pilate paused. “But that’s just the way the world works. The big fish eat the little fish.”

There was the smallest flicker of the Spirit in Pilate. This was his moment. At some point in every human’s life, the Spirit gives an opportunity for everyone to move toward God. For a moment Pilate felt the smallest tug of the Holy Spirit.

“Let’s see if the people love you enough to save you.”

It was customary at Passover for Pilate to release someone from his jail back to the people. He had a genuine insurrectionist in his jail, a violent man named Barabbas. So at the second hour, eight o’clock in the morning, Pilate presented Jesus and Barabbas to a crowd that had gathered outside Herod’s palace, where Pilate stayed when he was in town. Pilate genuinely thought they would free Jesus.

“Who do you want me to release?” he shouted. “Barabbas, who beat up a Passover visitor here from Egypt this week? Or do you want Jesus, who turned over some tables in the Temple this week?”

Jesus’ mother and some of his followers were in the crowd. They were distraught on the deepest of levels. Others were in hiding.

They thought the crowds would cry out for Jesus, but the priests and elders had planted their servants in the crowd. Much to the disciples’ surprise, people all over the crowd started shouting, “Crucify him!”

Then there were those in town who were bitter because they had hoped Jesus might lead an insurrection. They hoped he would overthrow the Romans. To them he was an embarrassment, a disgrace. They were angry at him because they felt betrayed. He made them feel once again like losers before the Romans.

“Crucify him! Crucify him!” the crowd shouted. Mary and Peter and Lazarus and Mary Magdalene and James and John and the others looked around in horror. What was happening? How could this be happening? Jesus was the Messiah!

Pilate was also surprised. The light of the Spirit flickered just one more time, more brightly than ever before. And then the light in Pilate went out for good. He had made his choice. He would reject the Holy Spirit.

“Then crucify him we will.”

Thursday Last Supper

Today's excerpt from my novella.
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On Thursday they prepared for the Passover meal. They had arranged to eat it at Cleopas’ house. The air was somber. Jesus knew this was the night. Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and Martha were there. Cleopas, his wife Mary, and John Mark were there too. Jesus own mother, Salome, and a woman named Joanna were there. The upper room was large enough to fit over a hundred people.

The tone was somber, especially when you consider how excited they all had been on Sunday. The kingdom of God did not erupt after he rode into Jerusalem. It did not erupt after he “cleansed” the Temple of the money changers. Each day, the tone got more serious. The venom of the religious leaders was palpable on Tuesday. On Wednesday Jesus had spoken of the desecration, maybe even the destruction of the Temple.

Now it was Passover, and there was a seriousness to Jesus they had never seen. He had never been this way. It terrified them. “This is my body, which is going to be broken for you,” he said at one point during the meal while passing around the bread. As an angel, it was amazing to see how such an important statement did not take its full weight. For some, it went in one ear and out the other.

When the meal was over, Jesus’ heart continued to be troubled. “One of you is going to betray me,” he finally said, looking especially at Judas, who was on his left side. Lazarus was on his right, and Peter next to him.

“Ask him who it is,” Peter said to Lazarus.

“I will dip in the cup with him,” Jesus told John Lazarus, and then he dipped in the cup he shared with Judas.

When Judas saw Jesus hand him the cup, his face hardened, and he immediately left the room. He was determined to follow through on his course. He would show Jesus. He was not betraying him. He was saving him.

Then Jesus took the cup. “This is my blood, which is going to be shed for you.” And he passed the cup around.

It was a strange thing to say, macabre, almost grotesque. A Jew would never drink blood. It was expressly forbidden to ingest blood.

Yet Jesus had told them several times that he was going to die. It was Passover. The Israelites had put blood on the doorposts of their houses during the exodus to protect them from the angel of destruction. Now Jesus was going to give life through his blood. He would become the Lamb, and there was power in the blood of the Lamb to redeem all humanity.

After supper and passing the cup, Jesus and the eleven made their way around the walls of Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. They were exhausted and deeply discouraged, tempted to doubt. Jesus urged them to pray, but most fell asleep trying.

Jesus especially urged Peter, James, and John to stay awake with him to pray, but they also could hardly stay awake. So Jesus prayed alone.

“Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”

Three times he prayed this to God the Father. Between each time he tried to wake up Peter, James, and John to pray with him, to no effect.

It was a real struggle for Jesus. His human will was tempted to run. His human will was tempted to escape. His divine will would never have gone through with it, but his human will did not falter. He did not want to go through with it, but he chose to submit to Trinity’s will.

The third time he came to them he felt sympathy. They were willing in their spirits, but they just did not have the will power to stay awake.

It did not matter anymore. Judas had arrived with armed people sent from the priests and elders. He had arranged to greet Jesus with a kiss on the cheek, which he did.

“So you are betraying me with a kiss, brother?” Jesus said to Judas.

Peter sprang awake, as did the other disciples. Confused but ready to fight, he lunged with his dagger at one of the high priest’s servants and actually cut off his ear. It was a man named Malchus. He would later believe. Jesus touched the ear, and the bleeding stopped.

“Put your swords away,” Jesus said to his disciples. “This is the plan of God.”

Then to the mob he said, “You didn’t want to arrest me in the Temple? Am I a violent man, a revolutionary? Nevertheless, it is your hour.”

When the disciples saw that Jesus was going willingly with them, they were stunned. They were ready to fight for Jesus and his kingdom. They were not prepared for him to go willingly. Even Judas was shocked, hoping that God would send ten thousand angels to destroy his enemies.

So the disciples scattered. Some went to Bethany, others to Cleopas’ house.

When he heard Jesus had been arrested, John Mark jumped out of bed, quickly grabbed a linen cloth to cover his naked body, and ran out of the house. Lazarus quickly got dressed and wasn’t far behind.

Wednesday Prophecy

This could have happened on Tuesday too. Today's excerpt from my novella.
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With each day, Jesus’ heart became heavier. On Wednesday, the Spirit opened his memory of the destruction that was to come to the Temple. As he left the Temple with his disciples, he remarked that he was afraid that none of the beautiful stones of the Temple would soon be left standing on each other.

After they had crossed the valley to the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter asked him privately, “When is the Temple going to be destroyed?”

As they sat in the cool of the garden, most took an afternoon nap, but Jesus unfolded a future to Peter and Andrew, James and John.

“It would not have to be the future,” Jesus said. “There is a possible future in which Israel turns to Christ. I am sending you all out as my apostles to work toward that future.”

“But there is another future,” he continued. “It is a future where Israel does not believe. It is a future where judgment comes on this Temple again.

“You remember the abomination of desolation in Daniel?”

“Yes,” Andrew said.

“There is a future where the Romans defile, even destroy this sanctuary.”

“We must stop that from happening!” Peter blurted out.

“The Son of Man will come from heaven,” Jesus answered with a smile. “I do not know the day or the hour,” he said. “But I will surely come in salvation and judgment.”

“But you are here already,” Peter said, confused. “Why not do it now?”

“Everything will become clear in its time, Peter. You still have not understood that I must die first.”

Jesus turned to look at Judas, who apparently could not sleep. He was agitated, throwing rocks at the trees. You could see on his face the festering anger. And I could see that the light of the Spirit had now gone completely out in his soul.

Tuesday Debates

Here's today's excerpt from my novella.
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On Tuesday, Jesus was back in the Temple teaching. As people who like to argue do, several religious leaders tried to best Jesus in argument. This type of person thinks that if they can win an argument, they have shown themselves superior. They do not understand that God is concerned with people’s intentions, not their intelligence.

God looks on the heart. From the standpoint of an angel, the absurdity of human intelligence is obvious. So many think they know so much when they know almost nothing. Their arguments usually blow away like a puff of wind while they almost think themselves gods. As an angel, I know my thoughts are nothing compared to God’s. Yet their thoughts come nowhere close to ours.

Humans are infinitely valuable because God loves them and because God created them in his image. Yet in body and mind they are nothing. I have seen beings around the universe that make humanity pale in comparison.

Jesus of course had a better human mind than any of them, and he was full of the Holy Spirit. Yet he chose not to access the fullness of his divine mind while he was on earth. His omniscience was still there, but it was lurking as a sort of subconscious.

“Should we pay taxes?” one smart aleck asked him. Jesus took a coin and asked whose picture was on it. The answer was of course “Caesar.”

“It looks like Caesar has lost a coin,” Jesus answered. “You had better give it back to him.”

Coinage had nothing to do with the kingdom of God. It had to do with the Roman Empire. Jesus couldn’t care less about money.

Then some Sadducees asked him about the resurrection. They proposed a woman with seven husbands without children. “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” they asked. They supposed that their thought experiment showed that the idea of resurrection did not work.

Jesus just smiled at the ignorance of the question. The Holy Spirit opened up a small remembrance of what glorified bodies are like. Suffice it to say, they make questions about gender foolish. Glorified bodies are not sexual, even if they look like earthly bodies to those who are human.

Even more, the question showed ignorance about women in heaven. Women have full equality of status with men in the kingdom. They are not “given” to anyone to lord over them.

“Those who rise are not like you ignorant souls,” he said. “They do not marry. They are not given in marriage. They are like the angels,” Jesus said, and winked directly at me.

There was one last question. This one came from a scribe. Unlike the others, the light of the Spirit had been growing steadily in him as Jesus answered questions. His question came with complete sincerity.

“Sir, what is the greatest commandment of the Law?”

Jesus answered. “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. All of God’s expectations for humanity and everything humanity needs to thrive is found in these commands.

“The person who loves God and neighbor has fulfilled all of Scripture. This person has understood that God looks on the heart, not on outward appearances. This person does not need ten thousands of sacrifices. This person has understood that God loves his enemies just as much as his friends.”

“What a great answer,” the scribe responded, and I could see that he believed. He would be part of the coming kingdom.

Monday in the Temple

Here's an excerpt for today from my novella.
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The next morning, Jesus returned to the Temple. Only his disciples were with him this time. He knew the Romans would be watching for him. They had investigated him on Sunday. They came to the Court of Israel and watched him pray for over an hour. They interrogated some in the crowd.

Today he would make a statement. He took some rope and braided it together into a whip. Then when he got to the moneychangers, he began to overturn their tables and drive the animals out with the whip. Everyone scattered, and coins flew everywhere.

“My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!” he shouted. “God has weighed Jerusalem in the balance, and it has been found lacking. Repent and believe in the good news of God’s coming kingdom, for the Son of Man is coming on the clouds!”

Then he withdrew. He did it so quickly that he had disappeared by the time the Roman soldiers rushed down from the Tower of Antonia to the courtyard.

This was the last straw for Judas. Why did Jesus leave? A confrontation between him and the Romans was exactly the kind of moment that would prompt God to come from heaven to establish his kingdom on earth. Was Jesus a coward? Was he a fraud?

Palm Sunday--Into Jerusalem

I've self-published two mini-novels. The first looks at Jesus' birth through the eyes of the archangel Gabriel.

I have just finished the second in time for Passion Week. It looks at Jesus' earthly ministry, death, and resurrection through Gabriel's eyes. Of course this is a novella, so I paint a possible world, not necessarily the way it actually happened.

As today is Palm Sunday, here is an excerpt from that part of the novel:
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Early Sunday morning, Jesus sent Thaddeus and Bartholomew to Bethphage to get a donkey colt. Lazarus had already arranged for the colt to be available. Jesus knew what he was doing. This was the day he would enact the words of the prophet Zechariah.

The image in Zechariah was paradoxical. On the one hand, it spoke of Jerusalem’s king, righteous and victorious, riding on a donkey. It spoke of encamping at the Temple, guarding against the oppressors overrunning God’s people. Jesus knew the Romans would obviously come to mind.

And yet this king in Zechariah came to take away the warhorses and the warrior’s bow from Jerusalem. This king was a Prince of Peace. This king would bring peace to the nations.

Judas would reflect deep and hard on Zechariah for the first couple days of the week. Some later verses would stick out in his mind: “Then the LORD will appear over them.” Satan would use that Scripture to manipulate Judas’ mind and try to destroy Jesus.

In Bethphage, they did indeed find a young colt tied up in one of the pathways. As they began to untie it just after dawn, its owner came out to ask them what they were doing. It was the signal Lazarus had agreed on with the owner. “The Lord has need of it.”

All over Bethany and Bethphage there was an excitement. Lazarus had told his friends that Jesus had finally revealed himself as the Messiah. He was going to march triumphantly into Jerusalem that very day.

The rumor was, even among his disciples, that God was going to break forth the heavens that very day and reveal Jesus as the Son of Man. God was going to overthrow the Romans that very day without Jesus even lifting a finger. The word had traveled all over the two villages, and the people all planned to go with him.

Jesus of course had said none of these things, except that he was in fact the Messiah. Instead, he had repeatedly told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die. They simply did not believe him. They did not have ears to hear. Everyone wanted a triumphant king, not a suffering servant.

So as Jesus and his disciples started their way toward Jerusalem, a crowd began to collect around him. Lazarus had been thinking of the psalm that says, “Open to me the gates of righteousness.” The Lord blessed him with the psalm.

He kept meditating the whole night before. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

That morning, his mind was fixed on, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” As they re-entered Bethphage, John Lazarus was near the front. Spontaneously, he shouted out, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

When they were half-way through the village, he shouted it again, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Several of the disciples shouted in return, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

As they climbed over the Mount of Olives, whenever they would approach someone or a group of people, Lazarus would shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” and the crowd accumulating around Jesus would shout it back. There were now at least three dozen people around Jesus, people not only from Bethany and Bethphage but who joined along the way.

Bystanders would ask, “Who is that man?” And the crowd would say, “It is Jesus, the one who has been healing and casting out demons in Galilee. He is the Messiah!” Then they would drop whatever they were doing and start following him.

“We need to do something to honor his entrance into the eastern gate,” Bartholomew said. “What can we do?”

“We could lay down palm branches,” Mary Magdalene finally said, “like we do for the Feast of Tabernacles.” To John Lazarus, Bartholomew, and Mary, it seemed like they were coming up with these ideas on their own. But it was the Holy Spirit. I could see it. They were being inspired to say these words and do these actions that would be celebrated for the rest of time.

The donkey moved slowly but steadily. Down the west side of the Mount of Olives, across the valley and up to the Eastern Gate. Then he entered the city.

“Hosanna to the king,” Lazarus shouted. “Blessed is the man who comes in the name of the Lord.” And the crowd would repeat the saying with a shout. They were very expectant, although Jesus did not pay them much attention.

The Temple was right there in front of the Eastern Gate. Jesus slowly made his way to the front steps, with the people shouting the whole way. Then he finally got off the donkey.