Book Review: The Wrath Of Angels

In, The Wrath of Angels, the third novel in a series of angelic adventures written from a Christian world view, Theodore Beale has given us a fine piece of fiction.

At the core of this story is the spirit-realm throne of Albion, the ancient name for Britain, and those Fallen who would rule from it. The over-arching, pressing danger is that Diavelina, the treacherous daughter of Moloch, would come to reign upon that coveted throne. Moloch or Baal, as he is also known, is a Cannanite god who is always associated with fire and child sacrifice as he was worshiped by followers who passed their children through fire to appease him. According to Wrath mythology, it was Moloch who orchestrated Hitler's rise to power and then stoked his passion for incinerating Jews. Diavelina desires another such fiery winnowing across Europe.

What is not explained is why Diavelina would need Albion to accomplish such mortal destruction. One would think she'd be making a play for the principality of Germany, for example. A clue might be found in Prince Lucere, also called Gog Sheklah. A Shadow Sarim like Moloch, Gog is the biblical name for Russia, but is also found in ancient literature as one of two giants who protect the city of London. The giants, Gog and Magog, are Twice-Fallen. They are the offspring of Alba, the wicked daughter of a Roman emperor from which Albion is named and fallen angels. Perhaps the holocaust Diavelina desires is directed specifically at the children of London.

Whatever her reasons, Diavelina's intention is to war against the current ruler of Albion, a twisted and degenerate creature known as the Mad One, or Maomoondagh, and ascend to the throne in victory. But a winsome Fallen by the name of Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck, conspires to dash Diavelina's plans by reinstating Oberon, King of the Fae, long deposed and imprisoned, upon his rightful throne assuming that the only divinity Diavelina would fear to oppose would be the newly regenerated and at once beloved Oberon.

In Puck, The Wrath of Angels, unfolds. It is primarily his story, his effort and machinations we follow as he travels across the Atlantic searching out swords, Mortals, Fallen and Divine, enlisting their aid to restore Oberon to his throne. And it isn't until the very end that Puck's stunning motivation for restoring Oberon's throne is revealed.

Theodore Beale describes himself as a writer of Christian Fantasy, and certainly The Wrath of Angels can fit into that category. I think that if you do not consider the Bible to be absolute truth then you will enjoy this tale as fantasy. But any student of God's word will immediately recognize within the characters and story a comprehensive theology through which the doctrines of angels, sin and forgiveness are illuminated, fleshed out, and animated. And as such, The Wrath of Angels,is more Christianity-Imaginatively-Expressed than Christian Fantasy.

In one telling scene, Christopher and Holli - adorable, teen, mortal protagonists - witness angelic beings during a church service. Christopher is overwhelmed by "the great web of divine light that bound together the people of God throughout all time and place. Man and angel, rock and beast; everything in creation that had freely chosen to submit its will to that of the Most High was linked together in a glorious and unbreakable chain of power." Indeed, Beale sees the Fallen world linked with a similar unbreakable chain of power. All myths, all gods, all places, religions, and objects that oppose Heaven's Most High are categorized and classified under the great canopy of Shadow World and Eternity in, The Wrath Of Angels. It is when and where those two great, warring webs of Divine and Fallen light intersect that I find this tale most delightfully thought provoking.

In Puck, fallen-Tho-He-Be, Beale manages to create a surprisingly comfortable and familiar protagonist. And he does so without erring towards blasphemy or common disrespect. I think it is his fresh and brilliant perspective that keeps him from that trap; that maybe, just maybe, we fallen mortals are more like fallen angels than not.

According to Beale, God is not in control on Earth in the way that, or how, many Christians assume. His understanding allows angels to act according to their own judgment based upon the desires of the Most High and is what brings the mortals, Fallen and Divine together to work towards a common goal. In one pivotal scene, Khasar the guardian angel explains to Holli the angel-whisperer, "We're God's hands, my dear. And do you know what else? Most of the time, He leaves us free to do as we think best. Some angels are serious about their responsibilities, some aren't. That's why you'll be judging us one day."

I enjoy Beale's wonderfully descriptive style. His narrative is like the fluff of beautiful imagery sandwiched between hard slices of fast-paced action scenes. He has an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable vocabulary and brandishes words as deftly as The Lord Of Chaos does his sword. Thankfully, missing from his style are the ubiquitous fragmented sentences just to make a point, and the one sentence paragraphs as though every statement were a profundity, and the italicized sentences to reveal the mind of the charatcter that litter so many pages in contemporary fiction. Out of the midst of the many references from sources as varied as archaic literature to contemporary rock bands, along with the thoughtful, observant unfolding of his tale, emerges a unique and strong voice.

Finally, Beale, an entertainer at heart, does not finish his tale with the perfunctory, "The End", but with "Closing Time". To which I reply, "Good show."


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I can not mention this book without mentioning K & B Booksellers, the only place on Earth to purchase a copy of The Wrath of Angels for yourself.

"K&B Booksellers deals in used books. We carry the odd, the eclectic, and the unintentionally humorous. Being somewhat odd, eclectic, and at times unintentionally humorous ourselves, we stock what is perhaps an inordinate amount of science fiction, but are by no means limited to that genre. A good book is a good book, and when we find something interesting, unusual, and (this is important) in good condition, we will cheerfully make it available to you."

I was extremely impressed with the attention and service "k" gave to my order. I purchased my book on December 23rd and received it on the 24th. I almost fell over when I found it on my door step. I had written it off until after the New Year. She must have mailed off my book seconds after getting my order. I'm certain she'll show you the same thoughtful, professional attention.

K & B Booksellers.com can be found at The Ranting Room along with many wonderful insights, engaging conversations, fun contests and some really fine, sharp writing.


C. C. Kurzeja
2007 All Rights Reserved,

Figlio Spumoni

My son, 6 anno, has written me a Christmas Story for my present this year. It wasn't his idea. It is a tradition at the school he attends that all children write one every year in the first and second grades. They have to make a first draft, edit it (with help), and then copy it in a hard-back book where they finish it off with their own illustrations.

"What's it like being an author?" I asked him.

"Hard." He replied. "I even had to spell all the words correctly. And I think I did." He added.

I share it with you this Christmas. And I know he's my son and all, but I think the part about going cross-eyed a spark of brilliance. Merry Christmas to all and may God richly bless you in the New Year!

"For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Isreal." Luke 2: 30-32

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Thunderbolt Strikes

There once was a fireman named David. He was ten feet tall with brown hair. His eyes were blue and his skin was dark brown. David was a good man who saved a lot of people in fires. He lives in California, in the southern part.

It was the day before Christmas and everybody was getting ready. David was at the fire station waiting to go home. He wanted to spend time with his son, Cole, who was 21 years old.

David got in his firetruck and went home. He was just about to bring his son to get some ice-cream.

They got in the firetruck and picked up Cole's grandma, in from New York. They went to the ice-cream place and all of them got lemon custard with sprinkles.

They got back in the firetruck but just about then they saw a bit of lightning on the street in from of them. There was no fire on the street.

When they got home, they saw another bolt of lightning strike their house. It had a lot of static and started a big fire. First the windows came down and then the bricks started turning to ashes. Then the bolt hit the neighbor's house.

He ordered his son Cole to take out all of the water from the fire hydrant. Each moment he shot gallons of water. But the fire grew. He thought this was crazy.

He decided to drop down a water bomb on each house because each house had a big fire.

David called and told all the people to get out of their houses. He put all the fire out with the last two water bombs. David had seen many fires, but none as bad as this. As a result of the fire, three boys went cross-eyed and four girls broke their ribs.

David has a lot of gold. So, he passes out 100 bars of gold to each person. David has two bars of gold left.

He decides to take Cole and his grandma to the best hotel ever. In the hotel there is a secret passageway.

At the hotel, Graham, Kyle and Justin bumped into David. They found 100 bars of gold. David asks the boys if they found the gold in the passageway. They say, "Yes. We found gold and silver."

David asks for the gold. The boys show him where it is. David asks the boys what they want for Christmas. Sam wants a Game Cube with Star Wars. Graham wants a flying saucer and Justin wants the same. Kyle wants some Nintendo chips. David buys them what they wanted.

David takes the rest of the gold and gets a new house. He goes back to his old job to save more lives.

The End

by C. C. Kurzeja
2006 All Rights Reserved

Emily Dickinson on Winter

LXXXII
There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.

None may teach it anything,
'T is the seal, despair, -
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, 't is like the distance
On the look of death.


LXXX
The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.

A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.

by C. C. Kurzeja
2006 All Rights Reserved

More Excellent Than Equal

Paul, a Jehova's Witness, quotes scripture and points out the irrelevant: Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," and none of those words mean equal to anything.

He argues that since this verse fails to assert that Jesus is equal to God then it also fails to prove that Jesus is God. But his argument is as fallacious as it is unbiblical because he does not fully comprehend the meaning of the word "equal" and therefore misses the polytheistic implications latent in that word.

The problem with "equal" is that things can be equal and not be the same. For instance, I can have one nickel and five pennies in my hand to equal a dime in your hand. We both have ten cents. Our handfuls can rightfully be described as equal and yet they are clearly not the same. Or, a young lady can work at the watch counter in Wal Mart for ten dollars an hour and an old man can work the same exact position for the same wage. The young lady is equal to the old man in responsibility, wage, position and title but she is clearly quite different than her counterpart in every other way.

So, you see, there are many different ways a person or thing can be as great as or the same as, in other words equal, to someone or something else. However, merely asserting their equality does not explain how or in what way. And it's easy to see how confusion would ensue if a person were limited to being defined merely as equal to someone else. For instance, would a potential suitor to the young lady working at Wal Mart object if, when arriving to pick her up to go out on a date, he found the old man waiting for him instead? It would be impossible for the potential suitor to accept the old man as a substitution for the young lady. All appeals to him about their equality would be meaningless because equal does not begin to define who they are in essence. The lover is rightly concerned with who his beloved is and not what her value is compared to another.

The theological implications of this are obvious and grave. If Jesus were to be described as equal to God then, hypothetically, it would be possible for Him to be something other than God. He could then be, as the J. W's heretically conclude, a spirit being that is equal to God in authority, power, position and preeminence but not God. And if one spirit being can be equal to God than all can, fallen or otherwise. Under this scenario, God would cease to be all powerful because He could only be as powerful as His equal counterparts. This scenario destroys God as He is revealed in scripture and so can not be true.

Yet another errant possibility with a Jesus who is equal to God is that it would be possible for Jesus to be a God without being The God. As a matter of fact, being equal to God requires being separate from Him because equality exists by comparison but not by itself. In other words, if there were only one apple pie submitted in an apple pie competition, equal is one description that would never apply when grading the quality of the pie. Equal is a value in the same way more or less is. If there is only one God, as the bible clearly and repeatedly teaches, then He can not be equal to anyone as there would be no one to compare Him to. He is the only apple pie in the contest, so to speak.

But if Jesus were equal to Him, then Jesus would have to be other than Him, separate, his own God in order to be compared to Him. Instantly, we have a bitheist universe which would immediately give way to polytheism because if it is possible for one god to be equal with Him, the same would be possible for all gods. The writers of the New Testament, surrounded on every side by cultures steeped in polytheistic paganism, would have been fully aware of the trappings of equality and so wisely avoided that term.

But what we have in Hebrews 1:3 is far more excellent than equal. What we have in, "exact representation of His substance..." is a concrete definition of who Jesus is apart from any comparisons not to mention a brilliant glimpse into the Triune nature of God.

Exact means: strictly accurate or correct; precise; admitting of no deviation. Substance means: that of which a thing consists; the actual matter of a thing.

So what this verse states is that Jesus is the strictly accurate, precise, and without any deviation representation of that of which God consists or God's actual matter. It would be impossible for Him to be thus and not be God. Because God, duplicated perfectly would be God again. So what we have here is God of God, not a god compared to God. We have in this divine illumination, God and God in the second person of the trinity. We have, as Jonathan Edward's opined, God and God's thought of Himself.

And so in a few words, the writer of Hebrews by the power of the Spirit, makes an irrefutable reference to the deity of Jesus as He exists in the Trinity keeping in perfect harmony with the totality of scripture.

Truly, this goad is hard to kick against.

by C. C. Kurzeja
2006 All Rights Reserved

Justine Olawsky is Brilliant

And, furthermore, she looks dazzling in print.

If you have not already picked up the October issue of Liberty magazine, I urge you to do so before they sell out. Liberty is a smart monthly brimming with thought provoking articles and clever cartoons about the subject of freedom or lack thereof in our society and is a good read in and of itself. But when Justine contributes, this fantastic magazine is made even better.

For her debut article she treats us to, of course, a book review. Desperately Seeking Shakespeare examines the issue of authorship of the entire cannon of plays and poems commonly attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon by reviewing two books on the subject that come to the same conclusion but use widely divergent approaches to do so.

Like always, peering into her generous mind is a pleasure and the reader - I - am left both informed and, in an odd way, grateful. I love the way she fluidly links her thoughts for the reader so deftly that by the end you not only know the facts as she's presented them but you feel her passion. She leaves you with a bit of her heart beating in your hand. She is not a great writer because she can put pretty words on a page, although she can. She is a great writer because she possesses authentic, original thoughts that she expresses with the grace and panache you'd expect out of a true artist.

Here's to you Justine, and your growing readership.
by C. C. Kurzeja
2006 All Rights Reserved