The Lord of the Rings ends with all the bad guys destroyed and only good guys left. Why can’t my Bell Mountain series end that way? At least one reader has called for me to stop the series and cap it with some kind of “final victory.”
Sorry, but I just can’t do it. My world-view won’t let me.
In the Bible, how many times did God have to give victory to Israel and Judah over their enemies? Mesopotamians, Moabites, Philistines, Ammonites, Midianites… Lost count, didn’t you? There was no final victory. No sooner had they vanquished one enemy than they faced another.
In recent world history: We beat the Kaiser, and Hitler came along; we beat Hitler, and there was Stalin; the Soviet Union fell, and now we’ve got Red China and the Democrats. One enemy falls, another one rises.
Final victory can only be achieved, and will be achieved, by Jesus Christ. The hard part of Revelation even tells us the enemy is going to win for a while, or at least appear to be winning–until Christ Himself puts him down, once and for all, forever.
But in the meantime, God does intervene in history to guide it toward the end which He has ordained for it. So the Nazis win big for a time, but in 1943 it all goes south and by 1945 it’s over. Someday we’ll look for Red China and not be able to find it. Assyria, Babylon: nothing but ruins and memories.
Bell Mountain is a make-believe history, created to provide a new vantage point from which to view real history. I admit I haven’t gotten much traction for the newest book in the series, His Mercy Endureth Forever. But I can’t let a couple of bad reviews put me out of business. The Wind from Heaven will be published next, and I’m writing Behold!
And I’m wondering if I ought to try writing a prequel or two: to go backward into Obann’s history, instead of forward into its future. I think it would be fun to meet King Ozias and share in his narrow escapes. If I never try it, I’ll bet I wind up kicking myself.
