A Guest Post by Henry O. Arnold<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Milton of Paradise Lost<\/em> fame wrote in a letter to a friend, \u201cWhy is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book?\u201d I say it is because the stories are addressed to \u201cthe imagination, which is spiritual sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than forty writers are attributed to its authorship, and the divinely inspired literary styles and stories range from historical, poetic, wisdom, prophetic, narrative, and epistolatory to apocalyptic. Some of my favorite passages are in Psalms. Every human emotion is expressed in those one hundred and fifty psalms. Honesty at its most raw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scripture also does not shy away from revealing every distinguishing trait of human nature\u2014the good, the bad, and the ugly. Some stories are so outrageous that people can\u2019t believe they are included in such a holy book. I say, how could they not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This great quote from Bono describes one of many reasons I have such affection for the Bible: \u201cThat the scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterers, and mercenaries used to shock me. Now it is a source of great comfort.\u201d Ancient times or modern times, nothing is new under the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I began to write my biblical historical fiction series, The Song of Prophets and Kings<\/em>, I dreamed of gleaning truths from these three-thousand-year-old stories without altering any of the historical events and put them into an artistic context so a modern reader could relate to the situations and the emotional<\/a> life of the characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the publication of Crown of the Warrior King<\/em>, the second installment of this series, the tension between the characters sharpened, and the conflict between the monarchy and the theocracy has intensified. The choices made by the main characters threaten to destroy the nation of Israel and bring down the reign of King Saul before it barely had time to be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The human struggle in this novel is as relevant for the modern reader as it was for those who lived through it so long ago. We can learn from our past. It is not inevitable that we repeat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Timeless Relevance of Biblical Stories for Modern Readers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Conflict and Tension in Crown of the Warrior King<\/h4>\n\n\n\n