A Christian’s Guide to World-building: Considerations for Writing a Redemptive Experience

This article is something of a sister article to “Considerations while writing a Redemptive Plan”. I took the time before to zoom way out from our personal experience and focus instead on the intentionality with which God shared his plan, and how we might do the same. Now we zoom back in.

If you are a Christian then you have had, by definition, a redemptive experience. To use the common vernacular, you have been ”born again”. This is obviously valuable first-hand knowledge, but the problem with it is that it is only one perspective. God can, and does, use many ways to reach out. Ways that are perfect, and perfectly crafted, for the person he reaches for. Our experiences are as unique as we are. In Shadow’s Cast (the book I am working on), I have three characters who each have a different redemptive experience. One hears and jumps at the invitation. The second, is only after understanding that her choices (and no one else’s) have created the situations she’s in. The third and last has his when he comes to understand that God has been seeking and acting in his life since before he even knew of him. I use these as illustrations to point to something important. People have very different reasons and experiences that bring them to the point of saving faith.

Bearing all this in mind, it gives the opportunity to craft truly personal narratives between our characters and a personal God. How they come to know that relationship should of course be tied to their experiences in your narrative. For human characters, we already know salvation comes through Christ. He says quite clearly that nobody comes to the Father save through him. Yet that redemptive plan was designed for humanity, on our earth. If your characters aren’t human, or you are in some realm or planet the gospel cannot reach, you will have to know for yourself how that connection is made.

So let’s dive into what I think are the most important considerations for crafting a redemptive experience.

Character Flaws

If you’ve taken the time to craft believable characters, then they should already have flaws. We all do, after all, and often those core flaws are the things that get in the way of our own happiness. There are certainly some obvious choices like anger problems, greed, egotism, or paralyzing fear. These will be relatable, as all people see the issues associated. Yet for that very reason, they have been covered countless times already. That isn’t to say you can’t use them, indeed they are archetypical for good reason. But I would encourage you to go one step further. You see, the problem with having a sinful nature is that we will only feel guilty for our sin if someone can convince us it is wrong, and the entire world right now is intensely focused on validating anything and everything under the banner of self-expression and relative truth. These are not Christian perspectives. Now, I’m not saying to pick a controversy, create a straw man argument, and thump them with your narrative Jesus stick. Rather, this is your opportunity to go deep into why people do what they do, and how God uses it to draw them near. To be thoughtful and kind, as we ought to be, and show grace. What makes your character vulnerable, and how does their flaw harm what they value? What, ostensibly, is Jesus saving them from? Maybe they are addicted to validation out of insecurity, until God shows them that what is truly valuable about them isn’t something that can be earned or taken away. Maybe they use their past trauma to excuse their terrible choices, until God helps them to define their character by the choices they make and not the things done to them in their past. Whatever their main flaw is, it comes from somewhere. Through healing they often will see both God’s character and his love made personal.

The Encounter

Regardless of how your universe is set up, in order to have a redemptive experience there must be some sort of encounter. Maybe that’s Jesus himself, your allegorical representation of him, or perhaps him coming to that world in a way unique to it. Maybe they hear the gospel or some version of godly communication. Maybe they witness a miracle. The Bible says that none are left with excuses because creation itself stands in testament to God’s glory, and so maybe it is from the sheer wonder that they come away changed. I could even imagine some more spiritually adjacent race being able to perceive the indwelling of the Spirit. Whatever the encounter is, I recommend it be sourced from without, not within. This is the classic “God initiates, we respond” perspective. The encounter ought to be sourced in God reaching out, possibly in written or spoken word, but perhaps more powerfully through the circumstances of your story. God can and does orchestrate events to this end, and so it would be consistent to do likewise.

Presence of the Holy Spirit

How you have written your redemptive plan greatly influences the presence of the Holy Spirit. While all Christians experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this did not come into effect until Pentecost. Before then it was limited to situations where the Spirit of God rested upon his people, such as with Samson’s strength. The Old Testament is filled with people who served God both with and without the spirit. There is no specific necessity to have your characters experience this (depending on your redemptive plan), but it’s important to note for humanity it came only after Christ atoned for us. Whether or not it does for you is something to consider. Whatever you decide, I think there is value in deciding whether or not they have the Spirit within them. The indwelling of the Spirit offers internal conviction, whereas the Law offered external rule. The “Law written on their hearts,” or “Giving of a heart of flesh,” or even “Being born again in the Spirit” are all things we experience as modern Christians that Old Testament humanity did not. Yet they still had a relationship with God (albeit a more distant one). Depending on where your world is developmentally, you may want to consider the differences in these experiences as part of your narrative. Especially if your characters gain some sort of “magic” power from the Spirit. However you have it, the giving of a new nature goes hand and hand with receiving the Spirit of God, as does the reconciliation bought through an established atonement. If you want your character to experience a life change because of their redemptive encounter, how it plays out might be informed by where they (either characters or species) are in the redemptive plan.

Once One Way, Now Another

A redemptive experience should lead to some change in the way the character interacts with the world. There ought to be a deep, intrinsic, shift in their views. This doesn’t have to be in all ways all at once. I’ve known as many new Christians that grow slowly, as I did, and others that exploded in a desire for scripture and a revulsion of sin. Everybody is different. If you have grown up in the Church, like me, this might be hard to relate to personally. My shift into a personal faith happened so young that I didn’t get to experience the shift in life that some do, such as my friend who was Wiccan up into her forties. Maybe for your character this shift will feel like a natural progression of their life, or perhaps a drastic shift from villainy to heroics. Regardless, I would encourage thinking about how you will show this shift in them going forward. Maybe they attempt something sinful that they’ve done several times in the book so far, only now it has lost all appeal. Maybe it sparks reconciliation, or alternatively a divide between the character and aspects of their previous identity (such as giving up stealing when born from a long line of thieves).

Rejection

The offering of reconciliation does not have to be a one-and-done experience. For many of us, we are able to look back at our pre-conversion lives and see that there was no shortage of attempts by God to call us. It is not only possible, but likely, that your characters will be able to do the same. Consider writing moments where they actively reject God. Maybe that is in refusing to read a sacred text or engage in a conversation with a clergyman at a tavern. Maybe they ignore internal feelings of doubt about their behavior. Edmund’s arc in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is an excellent picture of this. His redemption is all the stronger for the fact that he is able to look back and recognize those rejections for what they were.

Writing a redemptive experience isn’t always relevant or necessary for your story. Certainly, the story can be Christian without including one. But even if you do not include one, I think there is value in contemplating how they might play out. The more inventive you are in the creation of your world, the more creative you can get with your redemptive plan, and thus the more original and story-tied a redemptive experience can be. Even if you don’t have any focus on these matters, if your universe is indeed intended to be Christian then its take on God should. Our own world is filled with non-Christian fiction that acknowledges at least the presence of the gospel in society, even if they don’t explore it. God cares about us even when we feel like the background character in someone else’s story, and so should yours.