Knowing the parts of a story are essential for getting your story straight.
- Characters What do your characters want?
- In Netflix’s Apex, the main female character Sasha proves she is invincible by constantly courting death in extreme sports.
- The lead male character is obsessed with taking revenge on his cruel mother.
- Setting – when and where your story takes place.
- Exceptional mountainous and wilderness landscapes pulling the viewer into a personal adventure experience.
- Plot – the actual story–what happens, when, how, why, and what’s the result?
- The two main characters meet their match, and are forced to confront how their internal drives are destroying themselves.
- Conflict – For a story to be interesting, there needs to be conflict.
- The essential life-or-death battle between a well-matched pair, suspense raising the viewer’s own emotions.
- Resolution – By the end of your story, all of your conflicts should have a resolution.
- Applause, applause for the victor, but more essentially, for that person’s recognition of personal flaws, demonstrated by a change in behavior focused on helping, not expressing superiority over, other people.
- Theme – your story’s main takeaway. answers the question: What’s the point? What have your characters learned? How are they changed, and what will they affect now that they are different?
- The two main characters are forced into awareness, and a rethink, of the self-obsessed motivations ruling, and ruining, their lives.
Some examples of themes include:
- Forgiveness–trying to achieve it, avoiding it, accepting it
- Death–overcoming it, processing it, fearing it
- Empowerment
- Injustice
- Good versus bad
These themes are exactly the themes in the Bible, which is why so much literature pulls from, or plays, on quotes from the Bible.
As detailed in Genesis 1, the plot of of the Bible is mankind taking dominion over creation, resulting in war between the Seed of the Woman and his hosts and the Seed of the Serpent and his hosts.
The re-establishment of humanity’s dominion over the earth is not a smooth transition of power that just happens by asking God to do it for us. It is an ongoing battle in which God’s people are expected to fight for what belongs to us, while acknowledging our unity with him.
God demands that his people do something.
“the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?…the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea…and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not…The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
“And the LORD said unto Moses…
- speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:[that would be into the sea]
- But [in contrast, you stay behind and] lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.“
God shares the honor of winning the battle WITH HUMANS who trust and obey his orders.
“And the angel [physical manifestation] of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them [joining Moses]; (Exodus 14)
In his 1994 autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”, Nelson Mandela described a leader leading from behind as a shepherd. The shepherd stays behind the flock, letting the weakest go ahead. As the others follow, all of them are unaware that they have been directed from behind.
How else does the caregiver know who needs to be picked up?
“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea…
And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And…the sea returned to his strength…and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.” (Exodus 14)
Are you catching the unity through action between Moses and the LORD?
and the people…believed the LORD, AND his servant Moses…Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD…The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation….
The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” (Exodus 14:1-5:3)
“And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel…The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb / Sinai… even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
- When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out [by decree] many nations before thee…seven nations greater and mightier than thou…
- thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them;” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2)
Ooooh. Harsh. What kind of a divinity orders extermination?! Surely that allows us to discredit the Bible’s version of God, right, or on the other hand justify modern Israel’s extermination of the Palestinians, right?
No. These are not instructions to clear the land just to give it to Israel.
These nations were intrinsically evil-spirit empowered hybrid monsters intent on destroying humanity. These instructions against only these specific people groups should not be misapplied to other people groups. There was something specifically dangerous about these seven nations which the small families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were unable to defeat, which had grown during the years the Melchizedek-led commonwealth of nations had also grown while protected in Egypt, which it now was prepared to deal with.
“And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan…And they returned from searching of the land after forty days…and shewed them the [fabulous] fruit of the land…Nevertheless…we saw…giant Amorites [from most ancient times]…all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants [ongoing breeding]:
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:17-33)
“And all the congregation [of mixed nations] lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children / followers of Isra-el / Melchizedek [who should have submitted to their spiritual leadership] murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation [followed the insubordinate example] said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain [rejecting Moses and Aaron], and let us return into Egypt [for the pagan gods’ protection and provision].” (Numbers 14:1-4)
Civilians who think we are safe if we stay out of any conflict is sheer ignorance. Twice as many civilians as military personnel were killed in World War II. Civilians are defenseless. Combatants are supplied with weapons and other resources and are surrounded by other soldiers who have their backs.
The use of volunteers explains why reclaiming God’s kingdom is taking so long. It’s much harder to recruit volunteers than to conscript slaves as the Adversary does.
“And the LORD said…as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory / victory in battle of the LORD…Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.” (Numbers 14:20-23)
Jewish records date Jacob’s family’s entrance into Egypt as 1429, BC, and the Exodus as 1313 BC. or 116 years, which corresponds to “the fourth generation they shall come hither again”. Don’t confuse this sojourn in Egypt with “they shall afflict them four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13-16). As any divorced person can tell you, affliction that began while residing together can certainly continue after moving out if the relationship is not completely severed.
The purpose for establishing dates is to
The precise cause of the Bronze Age Col63lapse has been debated by scholars for over a century…but no consensus has been reached. What is clearly known is that there was a concatenation of events of
- climate change which caused drought and famine,
- .0
- 2internal rebellions / class-based civil wars,
- invasions of desperate impoverished immigrants, primarily by the Sea Peoples,
- catastrophic disruption of trade relations with essential support systems collapse.
All of these elements are demonstrated in America in 2026. Can we read the writing on the wall?
Note that, other than uncontrollable natural catastrophes, all other causes for this first Dark Age are controllable by government: sustainable agricultural practices vs short-term profiteering, equitable distribution of wealth within society, internal unity to resist invasion, and fair-trade practices.
And YHVH’s covenant with Israel addresses all these conditions, providing protection for those who follow his regulations.
Kingdom Come 