I bring up this topic because it needs your opinions. See, this is the future world, where most all traces of the present times has disappeared, (anyone got good ideas about how that happened?) However, I have an idea that the Bible survived, but only in sections. So, for example, Kari's Tribe might have the Psalms, the Prophets, and Proverbs. Katonna's could have the Mosaic Law. The Tribe of Adara might've had all the books of history. Maybe Gabriel and Judah's Tribe kept the New Testament letters, and Rhode's Tribe, Revelation. Because of this division, each Tribe tries to serve God in the way they know best, not knowing that they only have a small part of the whole truth. The clincher for this idea is that Akremia had the gospels, which in the end, they rejected in exchange for self and power-worship, basically. The leaders persecuted those who believed the gospels, and had any documents they could find destroyed. It seemed that this essensial part of the Bible was gone. Of course, there were still ones who held to it in secret...
I got this idea for the broken up Bible from Christy, actually. I had explained that I wasn't sure if I should put Christianity into the story, mainly because this future world has so little in common with the world of Israel, even less than ours does. She pointed out a story in the Old Testament, when King Josiah discovered the Book of Law. It had been lost for years, and the temple neglected while wicked kings ruled Israel. Josiah read this book to all the people, and they were so distressed and amazed they wept over it. They now knew how wicked they had been, and resolved to turn back to God.
In the same way, the Bible had been lost to the world for years, and the Tribes went about their own business. With Akremia's invasion, however, suddenly the Tribes realized their need for each other. At the same time as all the conflict raged, no one noticed the traveling messenger/bard named Rhodes who was quietly piecing together the books. Kari read it along with him, excited with the truth he was revealing. It's only at the end, at the darkest moment, that she discovers a remaining document of the gospels, and at last finds the Savior she had heard so much, yet knew so little about. I'm not quite sure if that's how it will go; I'm still brainstorming. So... thoughts? questions? ideas?
Not a bad idea, however, you'd need to explain how a culture can develop a religion from such non-theological or non-instructional systems like the books of history, or the book of Revelation. I'm not saying you can't do it, get creative. For example, the books of history have a number of characters who interact with God. Try reading their stories as if that's the only thing you've ever heard and see what sort of conclusions you might come to if you didn't know any better. Also, consider the possibility that the portions of the Bible did not survive to the present age in their unadultered form. This is a very common concern that people today have with the Bible. You will find it difficult and edifying to address this issue.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I have a question about your climax and "darkest moment." A clash of nations is a convenient avenue to drive a character into an unusual circumstance where they can develop, but is the resolution of the story focused on the personal journey or the "conflict raging"?