I'm dying to learn how to make my work Christian, while not preaching the unbelievers off the page.
The book I'm preparing now is set in another world. In this world, a major war has wiped out 90% of the population. In the aftermath, a dying king in a small kingdom chooses Therin for his throne, despite two healthy boys. This upsets the king's two sons, leading one to fail in an attempt to murder Therin, and the other, Cedik, takes enough money to live happily somewhere else.
The first scene I've written has Cedik return. His army marches right in because he bribes Merril to betray Therin by opening up the gates. Therin tells a favored soldier, Saer, to find Rakai and Aris and flee. Therin then surrenders his life.
I could go with Therin being the Savior, and have him raise from the dead. Or I could have Therin be a picture of the Savior. The former leads to much preaching, while the later allows for more subtlety.
The problem with the later is that readers like myself will be wondering the whole time, "Where is God in this story?" and "Do people in this world have hope of going to Heaven?"
These two questions seem to require the former option for Therin. I suppose I could have Therin just be a picture of the Savior that lived and died long ago in this world. Then throughout the book, Saer could just tell people, Therin was God reminding us of our Savior's sacrifice for our sins back before the war began.
After that, their quest becomes delivering a message by Therin to Lionel, a scientist risen to power through a drug that creates happiness, but steals the benefits of pain - turning us to God for help. As it is, the theme of this story is that only God can satisfy our needs. Do my main characters then go throughout this world telling everyone that they are wrong to choose this drug over the happiness that comes from salvation?
Sounds very preachy to me...
Either way, do any other Christian authors come across this same dilemma when creating worlds?
