Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / S7 289. Brian Godawa - The Gospel Embedded in the Stars: Daniel, the Wise Men, and the Celestial Clues

Transcript

S7 289. Brian Godawa - The Gospel Embedded in the Stars: Daniel, the Wise Men, and the Celestial Clues · Millennial Mustard Seed

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That's tough. We're in a very tough spot.
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I think that what we're doing right now is a great benefit and
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virtue because it's an end around between this whole
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corrupt informational system, media system.
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We claim to believe in a God who spoke the universe into
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existence and literally raised himself from the dead, and yet
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we are not going to believe that anything else exists in the
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spirit realm, even though His word tells us that they do.
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Their bodies weren't permitted to go to sleep like humans do,
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and they weren't permitted to go to heaven, so they wander the
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earth. You know, I've seen the eyes
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turn black to unknown tongues being spoken.
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These giants would live way up in the highland.
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The old Braves, the young men, would hide up in the trees and
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wait for one of these 12 footers to come walking down the path,
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and they would jump on them and kill them, drag them back to the
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village, and the village would feast on the body.
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Then people start to get weapons, they start to get
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armor, they start to build cities.
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They start to fortify their cities.
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Now God looks down and there's violence everywhere.
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The battle, this war that we are at, is not against each other.
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It's against these principalities and these rulers
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and these archons in the high places.
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It's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself.
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Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control because
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we have to take every thought captive and resist fear.
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You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against
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the Kingdom of darkness. This is Brian Godawa.
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Welcome to the Millennial Seed Millennial Mustard Seed Podcast.
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There you go. This is Brian Godawa.
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Welcome to the Millennial Mustard Seed Podcast.
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Brian, was that right? How you doing buddy?
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Good. All right.
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Glad to have you back. Good to be here.
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I was looking earlier, Brian, you actually the first time you
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appeared on the show was episode 13 and you're still.
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Around, yeah, you man it. Was like March of 2021.
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Yeah, you're not the only one. Yeah.
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There's a couple of people. Yeah, there's a couple of
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people. I was on their first episodes
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and they're still around and it's good.
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It's good to see you're providing content that people
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are interested in. You know, small beginnings.
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Never despise them though, right?
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And here we are. We're still here.
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We're still doing the thing. And people seem to be loving the
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show. I don't know why.
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Maybe because of the guests, Maybe because of the
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authenticity of just asking questions and trying to figure
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out what the heck is going on in this crazy world.
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Yeah, could be. Combination of both, but you got
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a new book, man, Daniel Exile and Babylon.
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And this one definitely sparked interest.
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Not many people are talking about Daniel's association with
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the wise men, about Daniel's early years.
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And so once I seen your press kit and I started looking
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through what you done here, I'm like, of course, Brian, you can
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come back red carpet, buddy. Let's talk about it.
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So let me give you a proper bio here real quick.
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We do have a new listener base and we've been growing.
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Brian Goodall was a respected Christian writer, best selling
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author of novels and biblical theology.
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His first novel series, The Chronicles of the Nephilim, has
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been in the top 10 biblical fiction on Amazon for over 10
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years. He sold an impressive amount of
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copies and he talks about Nephilim giants, fallen, angelic
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warfare, watchers, spiritual warfare.
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And he's has a popular Hollywood worldview book that has been
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used in film schools around the country.
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I mean, you're responsible for a couple of really great movies,
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screenplays. You are the one and only Brian
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Gadawa officially. Welcome back again to the MMS.
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Thanks for having me Rod. This is this is fun.
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This is this will be an interesting one.
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Welcome to Babylon, Leave your God at the gate.
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So what? What caused you to write this
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book and what should people be expecting at this point in time?
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Well, it's the first in a trilogy on Daniel, but it's the
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6th in the series Chronicles of the Watchers 5th or yes, 6th.
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I have Jezebel, Moses, Judah Maccabee and the the premise of
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the, of the series is very much the same as the premise of my
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previous best selling series, Chronicles of the Nephilim and
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what it is and, and Chronicles of the Apocalypse as well.
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And what it is, is I'm retelling biblical stories that touch upon
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the watchers and, or the giants, the nepheline or just the
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strange, you know, strange spiritual world that goes on
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behind the biblical texts that sometimes we don't, we don't see
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clearly in our English translations, but also some of
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it we do. And so I'm trying to retell
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those stories in a way that's consistent with the Bible, but
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filling in the gaps with fiction that that makes sense of it and
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entertains people and gives them a new appreciation for the Bible
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actually such that they go back and read it again.
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Because I try to root all my stories heavily oriented in
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historical research and scholarly research, not just
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into the Bible, but in history, but into the ancient Pagan
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mythology that the Bible is in conflict with.
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So in this particular story, Daniel goes to Babylon.
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So we're dealing with the Mesopotamian, the Babylonian
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deities of that day, Marduk and, and Naboo and all that.
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And the premise of the series is that the watchers are, is, you
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know, rooted in the biblical concept of the spiritual beings,
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sons of God. They are spiritual beings that
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were around God's throne, but they were appointed by God in
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Deuteronomy 32 verses 8 through 10 and in Psalm 82, we see that
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they were the sons of God were appointed to be authorities or
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inheritances of these Gentile nations.
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And in the same way that God said I will be the the
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inheritance of Jacob or Israel in in the land of Canaan.
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So the Gentile nations were given over by God at the tower
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of Babel. Actually in in some in
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Deuteronomy 32, it says, right? And so this notion of nations
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having spiritual principalities and powers ruling over them,
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they're Gentiles, they don't worship God.
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So they worship these these other beings that are appointed
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to them by God. In other words, it's sort of
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like saying, OK, if you're going to keep worshiping yourself and
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worshiping other gods instead of me, I'm going to give you over
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to them and see how you like it. That's kind of how I see the
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picture in simple terms, right? And you know, of course, in
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Daniel is the is one of the places in the Bible where it's
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one of the clearest examples of how this operates.
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So if you read Daniel 10, you'll see the Prince of Persia, the
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Prince of Greece, and the Prince of Israel, and it talks about
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them in being in conflict and battling.
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And what's that about? Well, the notion there is that
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these are spiritual. Princess scholarship pretty
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much, pretty much consensus agrees that these are spiritual
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beings. These are not earthly kings.
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That's a different phrase and word that's used in the text.
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But there's spiritual principalities over these
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nations. And the idea is that whatever
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is, they're linked. They're linked to the earthly
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authorities so that whatever happens on earth, in a sense
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happens in heaven. And therefore, you know, if, if
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you, you know, are familiar with the book of Daniel, the book of
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Daniel talks about, I think one of the major themes is that
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Israel is going into exile, right?
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And they're going to be there for 70 years.
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But because of the her disobedience, God gives Daniel a
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new prophecy that says now and that not just 70 years, but 70 *
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7 years, you will be under the rule of Gentile kingdoms until I
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bring my Kingdom in Messiah. And those kingdoms would be
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Babylon, Babylonia of Nebuchadnezzar and then Medo,
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Persia, then Greece, then Rome. And that's that's, you know,
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indicated through Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel
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2 with the statue in the different metals.
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The four beasts in Daniel, I want to say five.
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I can't, I don't know. But one of those Daniels, let's
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see Daniel 5, is it the beasts? No, that's the handwriting on
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the wall. The beast would be 7, I think.
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Yeah, yeah, the seven, the four beasts are 7.
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So this, this big picture story of Daniel is God is saying, I'm
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going you're going to be under the thumb of these gentile
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nations that are pagans until Messiah comes.
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And he'll, he's going to come in, in the days of the Roman
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Empire, etcetera. And so knowing that context,
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then when we see in Daniel 10, this is written, you know,
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Daniel, of course, was in Babylon for 70 years, right from
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King Nebuchadnezzar all the way to King Cyrus.
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Well, in the days of Cyrus, Daniel, you know, gets, you
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know, gets visions of, of the coming of Messiah, right.
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And where I was going with this was, well, I lost my train of
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thought here. So.
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So he's. Painting the picture of of
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obviously Daniel what what the word's writing about it and this
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spiritual worldview right. So you have the clash of these
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lower case G Elohim against Yahweh the One.
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Sorry about the true God, I get rambling and you know so going
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back. We're all pros at that, so no
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reason to apologize. Going back to Daniel 10 then, in
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other words, so, so we know this historically, after the Kingdom
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of Medo Persia, Alexander the Great, the the Greek Macedonian
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empire of Alexander the Great takes over the world, conquers
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Medo Persia and we know that happened in history.
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And so Daniel sees this vision where he says, oh, the Prince of
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Persia of Greece is going to come and, and conflict with the
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Prince of Persia. What's that about?
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Well, that's the he's saying that there's a spiritual battle
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in the heavens between the principalities of these nations
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that's going to reflect what's happening on earth, which is the
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Greek Kingdom will come and conquer the Persian Kingdom,
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right. And all along Michael is the is
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the Prince of Israel. And so he's the one that's sort
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of like in between all these battles.
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And, and So what I'm getting at is that that picture of these
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battling entities is not just a sort of one time thing in Daniel
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10, It's a picture of what, of what spiritual warfare is in the
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Old Testament. And spiritual warfare is not so
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much these, it may include demon possession or, you know, this
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kind of thing, but it's not like demons of lust and demons of
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envy and, and that kind of a thing.
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And casting them out like we do now in the modern day world.
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It's, it's about the higher level, higher tier level of
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these principalities and powers over nations and how they are at
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war with one another as well. So for, so I'm, I'm going to,
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I'm telling those stories. And when I tell the story of
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Daniel, I, I, you know, I, I go through his story, the
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historical side of it, but I also bring in the spiritual
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side. Now, I don't know that obviously
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the Bible doesn't reveal much at all, just gives us little teeny
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glimpses, right. So necessarily I'm speculating
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here and what, what might that look like behind the, the
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curtain of the spiritual world with these, you know, entities
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of nations battling out with one another?
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Well, I, I can see them. They're evil beings, right?
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God created them, but they fell. And so they're personal beings.
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They're not like robots, right? So person, personal beings have
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personalities. So I envision vision and very
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similar to how evil gangs or the mafia, you know, work here on
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earth. Now, they may be united in their
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purpose against the God of Israel, but within their ranks,
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they're also jockeying for power.
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They're fighting it out with one another.
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And so when you see the Kingdom of Babylon, you know, totally
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destroy the Kingdom of, of Assyria that had been there for
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hundreds of years at the battle of Carchemesh.
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Well, you also see Marduk the the God of, of Babylon
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overcoming Asher, the principality of Assyria.
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It's that kind of a picture of things, you know, and you know,
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I don't know how, how familiar, you know, your audience is with
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the concept of the gods in the Bible.
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But you know, as a, as a evangelical Christian myself,
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you know, I believe the Bible is the word God and, and, but I,
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and I also believe what it says that, you know, Yahweh is the
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one, excuse me, the one true creator God, infinite Trinity,
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you know, etcetera. And there's no other, no others
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like him. However, the Bible also uses the
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term gods of actual other spiritual beings and these
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particularly these spiritual beings who are in authority over
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these nations, right? So they're demonic and they're
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evil, but they're the the word in Hebrew for God or gods is
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Elohim. And Elohim just is matter of
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factly used of these beings. And so this isn't a polytheism,
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you know, where it's like, oh, you know, God's the highest God,
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but they're all gods too. No, no, what it means is that
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the biblical term of the usage of the term gods is very
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different from how we in our modern day Western biased,
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scientific, post scientific understanding use the term gods.
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And also within a Christian context, you know, we tend to
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mean that there's only one God, right?
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Well, there's only one infinite creator God, et cetera.
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But the Bible speaks of these other beings and he uses
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different names for them, like Sons of the Most High, Sons of
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God, Elohim, God, Holy ones, right?
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So these terms are basically terms of spiritual beings in the
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in the divine realm. Are the watchers lumped into
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that as well? Are they called watchers?
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So that's a. The term watchers is also
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another term that only occurs in Daniel.
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There is one other possible location in Isaiah, but it's a
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it's a questionable one, but I got you.
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But the term watchers where it describes these heavenly beings
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that come down and give decrees what's going to happen to
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Nebuchadnezzar, right. And that's that that happens in
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Daniel four. I think it is.
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And so those are the that's what I'm referring to as well.
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I'm equating those watchers with the the Princess of the nations.
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They're, they're, they're to me, I see them as, as the same
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different terms for the same being, right?
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So that's how I'm using the, the word.
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The watchers are considered this way.
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They're watchers over the nation's right.
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And so Deuteronomy 32 verse 8 and through 10 where it says,
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you know, at the Tower of Babel that when God separated the
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tongues, he, he placed them under the authority of these
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sons of God. Who are these sons of God?
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They are the heavenly beings from around God's throne.
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And I think that these were the ones that fell after the after
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the flood because some people believe that they were good
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angels that were given authority over Gentile nations or and then
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they quickly turned bad because, you know, God said that they
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didn't obey him or they were just already bad.
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And God gives them under, you know, he gives the Gentile
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nations to them because they're both rebellion, rebellion
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against God, right? So however you see that that's
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how I'm using the term watchers and interchangeably as well with
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the Princess of the nations. So that's, that's the big,
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that's the big picture scenario of my series and the kind of the
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spiritual warfare that I'm writing.
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But in this new book, Daniel, Exile in Babylon, I'm zeroing in
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on Daniel. And it's it's going to be one of
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my most exciting series within a series because Daniel is one of
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the most beloved characters already.
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I'm getting people just, you know, telling me, oh, this is
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the best you've written ever. But also it's my favorite Bible
17:20
character. So thank you for this.
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And also he's very important because there's a lot of
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prophecy in Daniel and it's such a big hot topic even today,
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right? And many people think some of
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Daniel's prophecies apply to today.
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But this first book, I'm not actually getting into those
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prophecies yet. And I'm what I'm doing is I'm
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focusing on the first three years of Daniel's training in
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the school of the Magi. And I use that word magi.
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It's a it's a synonym for school of the wise men.
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And Magi is simply the Persian term for I'm sorry, yeah, Magi
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is the Persian term for wise men, which is in the, in the,
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the Hebrew there. But so I, I thought, you know,
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if I'm going to attack this, this subject matter, I really
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have to deal with the, the, the elephant in the room.
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Well, there's a 2 elephants in the room. 1 is the prophecies,
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right? And, and how do those come into
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play in, in the future or not? And but the other big elephant
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is Daniel goes, is deported and becomes a captive, and he's
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forced to study the Chaldean language and literature for
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three years. And at the end of it,
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Nebuchadnezzar, the king declares him 10 times better
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than all my other magicians and chanters and, and astrologers.
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And on the one hand, I think, well, God blesses him with
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success. But wait a minute.
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The whole point of Daniel, the book of Daniel is how he doesn't
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compromise, right, His faith in, in Yahweh.
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Well, how can he be trained to become a wise man in all these
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forbidden arts that are, you know, that are forbidden in the
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Torah, astrology, divination, etcetera.
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So that was something I felt like, you know, that really has
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to be dealt with in a practical, worked out sort of way.
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And, and, and, and I kind of thought, you know, it's kind of
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feels a little like Harry Potter meets God, you know, because
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he's going to the school of magicians, right?
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And he's being taught this stuff.
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But of course there's a big difference.
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And, and how, how he, how he's able to, along with his Jewish
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friends, his, you know, 3 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
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as we mostly remember them, how, how he wrestles through those
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issues of staying true to Yahweh at the same time, learning this
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knowledge, this forbidden knowledge, you know, And so that
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was really fascinating. So he's like maybe 15-16 years
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old. And I thought this is a, you
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know, this will be a fun sort of coming of age school story,
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right? You know, you've got the school
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bullies, you've got Daniel and his friends.
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And then we've, they're all misfits, right?
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You've got the jock, you've got the, the, the nerd, you've got
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the, the autistic. One of one of I make one of his
20:21
fellow Jews is is autistic, you know.
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And it brings about a very interesting, several interesting
20:29
plot twists that are really make the story exciting to me.
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So yeah, that's my entry point into into what I'm doing with
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this story. Yeah, super exciting.
20:41
Key things going on here of interest for definitely myself
20:45
and the audience. We don't get a lot of back story
20:49
on. No.
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Daniel's involvement with the Magi, you know, it makes me
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think with almost 300 episodes and everybody that we've talked
20:59
to here over the years, just short of the late Doctor Michael
21:03
Heizer, who passed before we could get him on the show.
21:06
And we understand the worldview. Everything that, you know,
21:09
you're setting up here, this divine council worldview, if you
21:12
will. One of the things that I've kind
21:14
of noticed that I clearly I see her picking up on is these
21:20
redemptive properties right where you don't see Daniel come
21:24
out right and say all of this stuff I've learned is blasphemy
21:28
and it's worthless. But you know what I'm saying?
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Like he he operates it in such a way that every opportunity he
21:37
glorifies God and God alone submits to God and God alone.
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And the whole entire worldview and the step by step process
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that he had to go through when he entered into Babylon was
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being called, you know, marvelous.
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We're the best of my wise men by these, you know, kings and peers
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around him. It's just really, it's very
21:58
interesting about this redeeming quality where it's almost like
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the perversion of these lowercase Elohim, these these
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rebellious lowercase G gods have altered and twisted and
22:12
critiqued of some of the fabrics of this creation around us in
22:16
order to make it point in a direction that doesn't glorify
22:19
God. I mean, that's just kind of my
22:20
first overview. Would you say that's somewhat
22:23
accurate? Yeah, that is, you know, it's
22:25
interesting because you know, when you read Daniel, we see how
22:28
he's often very gracious and accommodating.
22:31
Whenever he does stand against, when he stands for obedience to
22:34
Yahweh, he does it graciously. He doesn't do it condemningly,
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you know what I mean? And there's a lot to learn about
22:40
his attitude and his spirit and, and, and, you know, look,
22:43
there's different times and places to, to behave
22:45
differently. But it was, it's just a big
22:47
lesson when you're in the midst of this, you know, godless
22:50
Kingdom, how do you, how do you behave towards those you know,
22:54
who are against you? You know, And so that's, that's
22:57
the first lesson. But yeah, learning, so learning
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that stuff. So I actually have in part of
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the story, I have them in their schooling, going through
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learning these things about divination and and astrology.
23:11
And you know, of course astrology is condemned in the
23:14
Bible by God. And you know, it's called those
23:17
who divide up the heavens type of thing.
23:20
And the idea there is that now when I say the word astrology,
23:23
though, it's not what most people think of today.
23:27
We only think of horoscopes, which are silly, right and
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right. Well, they didn't.
23:34
Have a computer app telling them what your your 2026 horoscope is
23:38
and where it associates with the stock market.
23:41
Like we're talking the ancient studying the stars, yes?
23:44
Yeah. And but they did believe that
23:46
the stars were divine, and they did.
23:48
And they did influence history, but they believe that they
23:52
basically influenced, you know, the main leaders of history, you
23:55
know, the kings and the kingdoms, stuff like that,
23:57
right? And so that's, that's the extent
24:01
of it. And they didn't believe it was
24:03
absolute. Like it wasn't like
24:04
predestination, you know, where the stars say this.
24:07
So it's you can't stop it. They actually believe, like if
24:09
there was an omen, they called them omens and they were that's
24:12
foreboding, right? And so they might say, oh, that,
24:14
you know, this eclipse, if this kind of eclipse occurs at this
24:17
time and there's a obscuring in the lower portion, then the king
24:23
is is in danger of being replaced, you know, there.
24:25
And a lot of the the omens were that, you know, you have to
24:28
remember the Babylonians had kept records of the stars for
24:34
thousands of years. So they had already saw the
24:38
regularity and they saw there was a consistency there, but
24:41
there was also some inconsistencies, the planets
24:44
which they thought were wandering stars, right.
24:47
And So what does, what does it have to do with everything,
24:49
right. And, and also eclipses and, and
24:52
solar and lunar and all that kind of stuff, all these
24:54
different phenomena in the skies.
24:56
They, they studied them and they recorded them and they
24:59
considered them to be regular because they could see that,
25:02
right? But they still thought that they
25:04
influenced. And so, you know, some, some
25:09
eclipse would, would occur and they, uh oh, you know, the, the
25:12
King's in danger. Well, they believe that that's
25:15
why they had exorcists, what they called a Shibu priests and
25:22
not, it wasn't exorcism necessarily like we think of it
25:26
today, Christians casting out demons.
25:29
What it was is they believe the world is full of evil spirits
25:32
and that people could, you know, 'cause evil to be done to
25:35
people. But it was more about casting
25:39
out the evil from whatever events are occurring and so.
25:42
Like an energy standpoint if I'm ringing a vote, right?
25:45
Like it was like some ethereal, like just energy bubbles over
25:49
this region and it wouldn't be like a demon per se from these.
25:54
Right. Well, no, no, they they actually
25:55
did have a person. I mean, I've read their actual
25:59
manuscripts and they do, they do believe they are evil spirits
26:03
and they're different kinds. They're different, many
26:05
different kinds of the Bashmu serpent spirit and.
26:07
But like elemental too like not a person.
26:10
Sure, you could, you could say that like elemental, but but
26:13
they did see them as personal beings of some kind.
26:16
They didn't know what, but anyway, so they would, they
26:19
would engage in incantations and rituals that would then, you
26:25
know, protect the king. So, so the king could be
26:27
protected by these things. You know, another interesting
26:30
thing that they did was they, if, if the king was in danger
26:35
like that, then you know that the king will fall or be
26:37
replaced. They, they had this thing called
26:40
the, the, the substitute king, the king substitution ritual.
26:46
What they would do is they would find a poor person like, you
26:51
know, that was of no consequence in the street, a beggar, right?
26:55
And they would bring him in to the palace and literally crown
26:59
him as king and give him the literal elements of royalty, the
27:04
Mace, the crown. And then they would kill him
27:08
because then they would say that that that fulfills the omen
27:12
against the king. See.
27:13
Oh. My gosh.
27:14
Yeah. And then immediately then they
27:16
could, you know, reinstitute the the, you know, the, the king.
27:19
So he'd be safe. So this is kind of the the world
27:21
that they yeah, that they existed in this.
27:24
Is definitely the foundation of superstition that we kind of see
27:27
bled out into culture today. Right?
27:30
Like these guys were taking it literal.
27:32
They're bringing a beggar in making them king because some
27:34
omen in the sky is showing some irregularity from their pattern
27:38
recognition intelligence of recording it for the last right
27:41
4000 years. And so king it's going to
27:44
Passover you right and we're it's this death ritual is going
27:47
to be applied to the beggar superstition out the wazoo.
27:50
I love the fact that you're building this into this
27:54
worldview with Daniel because once again, Daniel absolutely
27:59
beloved prophetic that we got concealed prophecies about
28:03
Daniel. Everybody knows the stories of
28:05
Daniel, but the Bible does not give us kind of this
28:09
interpersonal worldview and list of what the culture was like at
28:14
the time. Yeah.
28:15
And so when you actually dive into that and you're bringing
28:19
that out and showing people, hey, here is a standard overview
28:22
of what the Babylonian culture was like.
28:25
They had priests for these energy workings in the areas and
28:29
they were, you know, all the things that they would have did.
28:31
I think it definitely shows us that nothing's new under the
28:35
sun. First of all, you know, it's not
28:36
like today all of a sudden there's some great revelation of
28:39
like, Oh my God, there's witches and X witches now that are
28:42
coming out and telling people the truth because now they
28:44
believe in Jesus. No, it's nothing's new under the
28:47
sun. I just think a lot of the times
28:49
we get these these kind of deeper really, you know,
28:53
interconnected things are stripped away from the pulpit,
28:57
obviously. And it does require what you do
29:01
through writing books or whether that be through anime or movies
29:05
to, you know, help cultivate the culture and get them to
29:08
understand not much has changed. But the technology in our hands,
29:13
if I can say it that way, that's for sure.
29:15
What did you learn that blew your mind about Daniel's
29:19
environment or things that he was involved in that you didn't
29:22
know prior to the research of this book?
29:24
Like, what was a shifting point where you're like, holy smokes,
29:27
I would have thought that was blasphemy in my 10 year, 10
29:30
years ago, right in my basic Christian mentality.
29:33
But here it it. It's common.
29:37
Yeah. Help me with that a little bit.
29:40
Sure. Well, I think, I think one of
29:43
them, first of all, there's a lot of little historical
29:48
snippets and treasures that I find just in my, in my
29:51
historical research, you know, like finding out, you know, I,
29:54
I, studying Daniel, I had thought that there was a good
29:57
chance he was, he was a eunuch. There's a good, there's a lot of
30:00
good arguments for the fact that he might have been a eunuch.
30:03
But when I looked into it and researched it and found the
30:06
actual Babylonian manuscripts and what is required of a eunuch
30:10
and such and I, I came to the conclusion no, he definitely was
30:13
not. Made So look, let's talk about
30:15
that real quick though. So eunuch, to my understanding
30:18
and correct me if I'm wrong, means someone who has their
30:21
private part removed and they're dedicated as a temple worker for
30:25
whatever the God of that nation is is.
30:26
That or palace worker, you know, obviously they were to protect
30:30
the harem in one sense if they're in the palace, but also,
30:33
you know, they didn't want foreigners to be intermixing
30:37
with the bloodlines of the royal people in the palace, right?
30:40
So some of that makes perfect sense, you know, But when you
30:43
look into it and you find out, Oh, no, actually the wise men
30:47
was a school that was separate that they, they lived in the
30:49
city. They didn't live in the palace.
30:51
They all had families and they had whole family legacies of,
30:57
you know, wise men and their sons.
30:59
And I'm the son of the son of the son of the, you know, so
31:02
that was very common. But not only that, but they're
31:04
actual documents, which would say, you know, that that you
31:09
know, the Omanu, which is a word for the wise men are are to be
31:13
without blemish, not not have leprosy or have disfigurement,
31:18
etcetera, or be a eunuch. And so then what happened was I
31:23
discovered, Oh, that's what Nebuchadnezzar meant in Daniel
31:26
one when he said, bring me the noble sons who are without
31:29
blemish. I'm like, what's that about?
31:31
Right? Like what does that even mean?
31:32
And it's just some little throwaway word, right?
31:35
But now I realize that was literally in their definition of
31:38
wise men. They didn't want them to be
31:40
eunuchs or, or have, you know, very similar.
31:43
To how so if they're without blemish, if they were considered
31:47
to be, I don't know, maybe handsome, asymmetrical,
31:51
everything's OK on the outside and cognitively that so you're
31:56
saying a eunuch in order to protect the bloodlines because
31:59
some of these individuals would be getting close to the throne,
32:02
right. And so if you had a male worker
32:04
who, let's just say was a little bit off, you wouldn't want them
32:09
procreating with any of the, you know, the cousins, the wives,
32:13
aunts, uncles, any of the bloodline at all associated with
32:15
house. That is a fascinating catch.
32:17
I've actually never heard that before, Brian.
32:20
Yeah, but but the the the House of the tablet, which is where
32:24
the scribes and the wise men were taught, that is a complete,
32:28
completely separate institution. And so realizing that, oh, you
32:36
know, it wouldn't make sense for him to want someone who's not,
32:39
who's not a eunuch and then make them into a eunuch.
32:42
That's that doesn't make sense, right, right, right.
32:46
On the surface of that right. But also when you see that, that
32:50
it's in their their own definitions of what they're wise
32:55
men were supposed to be like, so that the wise men are separate
32:58
institution from the palace servants and such.
33:01
And that, and that that was cool because I have a, a love story.
33:05
You know, I was wondering like, could I have a love story in
33:07
Daniel if he was a eunuch? That wouldn't be a very good
33:08
love story, right? Because of course, there are no
33:11
women mentioned in Daniel. And you know, for, for whatever
33:15
theological purposes, you know, you could say, Oh, the
33:17
patriarchy or whatever, I don't care.
33:19
But but the point is, is that for God's purposes, he was
33:22
focusing in on this material. That doesn't mean there weren't
33:25
any women there, obviously. And so, but how could I make us,
33:28
How could I add a love interest that would, you know, would not
33:31
make the biblical story seem different?
33:35
And So what I came up with was that Daniel ends up, you know, I
33:39
start the story with Daniel in Jerusalem falling in love with,
33:43
he's still a young kid, but he's falling in love with his own
33:45
servant and he gets ripped apart from her when, when he gets
33:50
taken away to Babylon. And so you have this storyline
33:53
of what's going on in Babylon, what's going on in Jerusalem.
33:56
And that allowed me also to, to explore the, the storyline of
34:01
Jeremiah because it Jeremiah was a prophet that was prophesying
34:05
in the same time period as Daniel.
34:08
And that's always been fascinating to me.
34:10
It's like I like to see a story where, you know, you, we take
34:12
into consideration both of those guys.
34:14
Well, I have that storyline now and I've, you know, I've kind
34:17
of, you know, enveloped it within this love story, this
34:21
romantic story. They're trying to get together,
34:23
you know, they're separated from but by 1000 miles and, and, and
34:26
he wants to get back, but of course he can't because he's a
34:28
captive and she's a captive back in Jerusalem.
34:31
And so all that stuff is kind of it's kind of going on.
34:35
But but one of the one of the things, and I was getting to it
34:40
with this astrology is that, you know, you talk about what, what
34:44
might be considered blasphemy by, you know, when I was
34:47
younger, whatever or unknowing uneducated Christians or
34:52
something. And that is that while astrology
34:56
is condemned in the Bible, astronomy is not.
34:58
And I make that difference because we see in the Bible, God
35:04
makes a lot of references to the heavens like he talks about in
35:06
Job 38, he talks about the Mazzaroth.
35:11
And the Mazzaroth is a Hebrew term that means the
35:14
constellations. And he talks about the Pleiades,
35:17
the Orion, the bear. And he talks about, and God
35:20
basically says, you know, I am the one who created these
35:23
constellations. I place the stars and I've named
35:26
all the stars, right? And, and what he's addressing is
35:29
you, you know, you astrologers think that these stars control
35:33
the universe, but they don't. I do the king, right?
35:36
I'm the king creator, I mean, and not only that, but I put
35:40
them in their places. Well, if you, if you look at the
35:42
constellations, the constellations were given names
35:46
and we know the Zodiac is just the name of some constellations,
35:49
just 12 that are in the ecliptic, but there's many
35:52
others. But those Zodiac is not a scary.
35:55
It's not, which shouldn't be a scary term to Christians like
35:58
oh, Zodiac gets evil. No, that's just the names of
36:02
constellations so that they could remember what they were
36:05
and they could remember their various, you know,
36:07
constellational connections. So they would have the bear or
36:10
they would have the lion, they would have the virgin, the
36:13
Virgo, you know, all these things.
36:15
And over time there in some name changes and stuff.
36:17
But by and large, if you look through history there I found an
36:22
old book by a writer, Francis Crud.
36:28
I forgot her last name, but she wrote this book looking into the
36:32
Mazzaroth and basically the history of astronomy,
36:36
constellations and such, going back as far as she can and found
36:41
a consistency where she makes the argument that other
36:44
evangelical scholars and researchers have made this
36:48
argument that I find fascinating.
36:50
And that is that the gospel of the gospel is in the stars,
36:57
particularly in the Zodiac constellations.
37:00
And you see Virgo the Virgin, which is the beginning of the
37:02
year for the Jew, Jewish calendar year.
37:06
Virgo the Virgin, Well, she has the child, right?
37:09
And that child Judah is the lion, which matches up with Leo
37:14
the Lion. And you go through all the the
37:16
constellation and it's like they picture the different elements
37:20
of how Messiah will come, sacrifice himself, have two
37:23
natures and all this stuff. And this notion of the gospel
37:27
being embedded in the stars is not that it's not astrology,
37:31
right? But what it is, is the creator
37:34
God, when he created everything, placed that gospel in the stars
37:39
as a picture in pictures before man had written language, right?
37:44
And and what would be the point of that?
37:46
Well, this is one of the most fascinating passages that that
37:49
I've known for a long time. But if finally made sense in a
37:53
in a fresh new way. And that's Romans chapter 10.
37:56
And you read the verses starting by around verse 14, and he's
37:59
talking about the gospel. Everyone who calls upon the name
38:02
of the Lord will be saved and this is the gospel and how will
38:05
they call upon him? And he's talking, he starts
38:08
addressing what about the people who haven't heard the gospel
38:11
right? He says, you know, for Isaiah
38:14
says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us.
38:18
Faith comes from hearing the gospel and hearing through the
38:22
word of Christ. This is this theological notion
38:25
of the difference between special revelation and general
38:28
revelation. That is, creation reflects the
38:31
general revelation of God's creative nature and eternal
38:34
nature. But the gospel is the specific
38:37
salvific knowledge. Well, this, this Paul then says,
38:41
But I ask, have they not heard these people?
38:44
You're talking to me. They haven't heard.
38:46
Have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their
38:49
voice has gone out to all the earth, their words to the end of
38:53
the world. What is he talking about?
38:55
What voice is it that they're hearing?
38:58
He's quoting Psalm 19. And if you go back and read
39:01
Psalm 19, you see it is a Psalm about the heavens are declaring
39:06
the glory of God, the sky proclaims his handiwork, Right.
39:09
And the speech, there are no words, but there is speech.
39:12
So the idea here is that Paul is saying the gospel that I'm
39:16
telling you that saves is in the is in the heavens.
39:21
And I think this might be a reference to the constellations.
39:25
And this might be a reference to the fact that the pictures of
39:28
the gospel are there even before what they had the written
39:30
language. And I think that's the point.
39:32
God's doing that so that there's that without excuse thing.
39:35
So this is more than just in my opinion, Paul is going beyond
39:41
general revelation and saying, well, actually special
39:44
revelation, the gospel itself is in the stars.
39:46
So yes, that's some Christians may think that's heresy, you
39:51
know, but but here's the thing, when the Magi came to find
39:55
Christ in the 1st century, who were the magi?
39:59
The Magi were from the same ancient school that Daniel
40:04
became the head of 500 years earlier.
40:07
They're what are they following that tells them there's a king
40:11
coming out of Israel. It's a star and and there are
40:15
many, there are again, there are researchers that this was my
40:18
research into this that blew my mind.
40:21
That will argue that that it's, it's natural constellational
40:27
configurations that occurred in the 1st century that led them
40:30
there. It wasn't it wasn't just a an
40:34
arbitrary miracle. It was actually the
40:36
constellations and where would they get that information that
40:40
would lead them to Israel of all places.
40:42
It would be considered the armpit of the world because like
40:45
Rome is the power capital and Parthea was contrasting with
40:48
them, right? So like, why would a king come
40:50
out of Israel? That's ridiculous.
40:52
Unless they have some information from goes way back
40:57
to Daniel. We don't know what because it
40:59
doesn't say So what I did was in my story, I tried to bring about
41:04
a believable scenario for where some of that information about
41:09
the astronomical glory of God can be communicated by Daniel.
41:13
That would go down to to the 1st century where they would find
41:17
Christ. Yes, it includes Daniel's
41:20
writings on Messiah as well. His scripture right, That made
41:23
they probably had that as well. But, but that was, that was one
41:27
really cool channel of information and, and there's a
41:32
lot to it, man. Then there's a lot of different
41:34
theories about it. But there's a, there's a couple
41:37
of free, I think there's a free documentary on YouTube called
41:41
The Bethlehem, the Star of Bethlehem by a guy named Larson.
41:45
I think it is. And that's a real good starting
41:48
place if you if you want to get a get a little bit of a handle
41:51
on a Christian understanding of how the stars reflect God's
41:56
glory without being this astrological thing that God
42:01
condemns. Man, that is so well said and so
42:05
interesting. I completely agree that these
42:09
wise men, right? They're from the same school of
42:12
understanding, as you pointed out, that Daniel's from, and
42:16
they're recognizing the gospel that's written in the heavens.
42:19
You know, as you're talking, there's so many scriptures
42:22
jumping for me, Brian. All things are made by the
42:25
Christ for the Christ through the Christ, right in the Old
42:27
Testament, we have that the sun, the moon and the stars will be
42:31
there for signs, times and seasons.
42:34
And you just think about, you know, at 1st and this is
42:37
elementary really. I mean, my question and
42:39
commentary is elementary because, you know, I'm kind of
42:43
right in this Gray area of I'm a little too weird for the church.
42:47
And then I'm a little too Christ, you know, wackadoo for
42:50
the world, right? So I'm like in this Gray area of
42:53
like, come on, does anybody want to be my friend?
42:55
Is it only Brian who wants to talk to Rod?
42:58
You know it? But this is super important
43:01
because the, the, the verses that I'm being hit with are
43:06
those who are the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.
43:08
When, when the word is saying that the Holy Spirit is our
43:11
teacher. These are the things that are
43:12
confirming for me personally as this podcast goes on and I
43:16
listen, you know, it's a great work such as your own where it
43:21
kind of starts to satiate that satisfaction or that that
43:25
longing desire to be like that needs to be redeemed and put in
43:29
the correct context. And really, that's what the
43:32
biblical narrative is. It's a clash of understanding,
43:37
context, world view, right? Because everyone will say, oh,
43:40
well, the Babylonians are the Assyrians or you know, let's go
43:43
down to Egypt. Let's go to and they'll say that
43:46
this is the narrative of the Anunnaki on the ancient aliens.
43:49
And but you know, the Bible is God's storytelling perspective
43:53
of what happened. Which one's true God's, Yahweh's
43:57
is true. It's not even God at the end of
43:59
the day. We've gotten that wrong too.
44:01
But that's for another time and place, Brian, I'm completely
44:05
captivated by this story with with Daniel because once again,
44:09
back to my first question, we don't know biblically so much
44:13
about it, but it's almost as if the Bible's giving you the
44:16
license to go and obtain the understanding.
44:22
What does the Bible say? And all your getting's get
44:23
knowledge, get understanding, get wisdom, right?
44:26
All of your getting's before you're getting money, listener,
44:28
before you're getting your new car, before you're getting your
44:31
spouse or your future dream vacation.
44:34
God has a really serious thing that he's expecting of his
44:37
Bereans as people, and that's to get an understanding of these
44:42
things. And that's why I really enjoy
44:43
what you're doing here, Brian. Yeah.
44:45
And I think, you know, you pointed out this earlier, but,
44:48
you know, understanding the Pagan context of scripture is,
44:52
is one of the things that I actually think, you know, you
44:55
could call it the ancient Near Eastern context.
44:59
And that is, I think it's, we're, we're on the, the Crest
45:02
of the wave of a movement of appreciation of that.
45:05
I, I believe a lot of Christians get, get it now.
45:08
But there's, you know, for a long time growing, it's growing,
45:11
it's growing. And that is, you know, and of
45:12
course there's a danger because you have to be careful not to
45:14
be, not to. And I do see this as well.
45:17
Some Christians become so engrossed in pursuing the Pagan
45:23
context that they talk more about that than about the
45:27
Kingdom and the glory of God, right?
45:29
Listen, if they're pointing to Christ, yes, then you know, if
45:32
everything is pointing to the Messiah, the Lamb of God who's
45:35
come in the flesh, then you know those who are the sons of God
45:38
are being led by the Spirit of God.
45:40
So you're stacking that multi layered effect and reality in
45:43
favor of the greatest story that's ever been told and still
45:48
preached to this day. And the last, the Lamb of God
45:50
coming in the flesh. That's how I tell I mean, you
45:53
might have a different way or add you could add to that.
45:55
I'm sure you could. But at the end of the day,
45:57
that's my stark line in the sand where I'm like, oh, that's how
46:01
you can tell what fruit is good and what fruit's no good, right?
46:04
If it's self glorifying, self edifying versus wow, you know,
46:09
with a little bit of fear and trembling and not in some like
46:11
scary horror movie way, but like reverence, like all like wow.
46:17
What I would the heavens are pointing to the, the birth and
46:21
the death and the the resurrection of the Messiah.
46:24
Yeah, I I hope so. I I would expect that from where
46:28
I sit. But hearing you paint that
46:30
picture, it's just, it's just adds fuel to the the this
46:33
beautiful fire that we all love to watch glow.
46:35
But, and, and also the what you were saying, referencing earlier
46:39
is knowing the Babylonian context in which this story is
46:44
taking place is part of the unfolding of a richer, fuller
46:48
understanding. And it helps answer some of the
46:52
confusing things that do show up in the Bible.
46:55
Now, you know, you know, for example, I mean, there are many
46:59
Christians who just just read the Bible and I don't want to
47:01
read anything, any ancient narrations, stuff that's Pagan,
47:04
you know, and then they'll read a lot of Daniel and not a lot of
47:08
it will make sense. And it becomes this mirror,
47:11
which they then start saying, well, this must mean this and
47:14
that they make it up their own meanings and they don't even
47:16
realize it because they're not understanding it in its original
47:20
context. And I.
47:21
Profound, yes. Yeah, I can't, I can't emphasize
47:24
this enough because so I'm trying to tell this story.
47:27
What's it like in Babylon? But then also, you know, trying
47:30
to maintain that clear distinction of creator creature
47:34
distinction. They the distinction of Yahweh
47:37
from all the gods, you know, and but in my in my mind, you know,
47:41
in the end, God's glorified and yeah.
47:44
And he always is in all my stories.
47:46
You know, some people are worried.
47:47
Aren't you getting a little bit too much into the occultic
47:49
stuff? And not for me, no.
47:52
Because my whole goal, every one of my stories, God is the hero
47:56
and God wins, you know? And so I don't, I don't glory in
48:02
the evil, but I want to accurately depict the world from
48:07
which God has called his people. Because if we do not accurately
48:12
understand it, then we're not going to be very effective or on
48:16
we're not going to be very rich in, in our understanding of God.
48:20
You know, a classic example of this is Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
48:24
So Ezekiel also was a prophet of, of the, of the exile.
48:30
And you know, if you've ever read those books, you, you know,
48:33
there's some, there's some narrative in Jeremiah here and
48:36
there, but not enough to make sense of everything.
48:40
And in fact, if you study the book, you find out it's not in
48:44
chronological order. So it's if you read it, it could
48:47
be very confusing and out of context a lot of times.
48:50
So, you know, you, you read this stuff and oh, you know, well,
48:53
you kind of get the general feel God's condemning, oh, you know,
48:56
condemn you because you don't worship me, whatever.
48:58
But you don't really know what he's talking about.
49:00
And you're just getting these general vibes, but you're not
49:04
really learning the in depth story behind it, behind what God
49:07
is doing. But then so I'm taking the, you
49:11
know, what, what, what, what Jeremiah is going through.
49:14
And I'm bringing his story, placing it into historical
49:19
context and bringing out some of those scriptures from Jeremiah.
49:22
So people, as they read it, they go, oh, oh, this is when that
49:26
happened. And this is what what was going
49:28
on. And this is how it led to the
49:30
next and the next and the next. You know, for classic example,
49:33
there's a, there's a, you know, there's a passage, couple
49:37
passages actually in Jeremiah where if you read it, he says,
49:41
like, I wish I was never born. I mean, I think you read it and
49:44
you clearly see suicidal tendencies in there because
49:47
Jeremiah was so depressed because he'd been preaching for
49:50
decades and nobody believed him, right?
49:53
And that he keeps saying, you know, God's going to destroy
49:55
this, this city and temple. And he hadn't for so long and he
50:00
was depressed and he didn't even want to do it.
50:02
And so our view tends to be like all these prophets, they're
50:06
great men of God. But yeah, they're great men of
50:08
God, but they're also human and they're flawed.
50:11
And imagine Jeremiah having suicidal thoughts while he's
50:15
trying to obey God. That's the real world
50:18
spirituality that that is in the text.
50:21
But you, when you don't understand it in its context,
50:25
then you don't, you don't pick that stuff up.
50:27
So I'm trying to hopefully my stories will, and particularly
50:30
in this Daniel novel, you, I'll, I'll bring Jeremiah to life in a
50:36
way that makes sense in context with Daniel's story as well.
50:40
He's he's a, he's a secondary character, but he's still pretty
50:43
influential in in the storyline, in the plot and.
50:47
That's what I love is you're not trying to change the biblical
50:50
narrative. You're actually trying to fill
50:53
with, you know, a very kind of calculated, you know, this is
50:58
most likely what would be going on.
51:01
But here's a bit of my imagination as well.
51:03
Like, let's give him an attitude.
51:04
Let's give this guy over here a chip on his shoulder.
51:06
You know, you're building a story, I mean, within the gaps,
51:11
right? And I think that this is genius
51:12
because it does not take away from these climactical biblical
51:15
truths. And this is what a way to
51:17
inculcate the younger generation.
51:20
No wonder why you've sold so many books and you're going to
51:22
continue to do that. But all right, so my next
51:24
question then, something we got to squeeze in for the sake of
51:27
time. One of these commentaries has to
51:32
this commentary has to kind of get talked about.
51:35
We don't hear a lot of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
51:40
There's not much going on in Daniel's story, like of their
51:44
personal life. They're just kind of showing up
51:46
and they're a testament and they're friends of Daniel's.
51:49
Do you dive into that or did you do hold on?
51:53
Did you even do research from maybe the secular standpoint
51:57
that talks about them? Because I know that they have a
51:59
name in their Hebrew name. I don't know how to pronounce
52:03
it, but my God, I think a doctor, Laura Sanger brought it
52:06
up a couple years ago. And I'm like, Oh my God.
52:07
Yeah. It's not Shadrach, Kneeshach and
52:09
Abednego. That's that's our English
52:11
translation from what the Greek may be.
52:13
But no, no. What happened there?
52:16
Yeah, that was from the Aramaic, but they.
52:18
Were from the Aramaic. But which?
52:19
Aramaic was the lingua franca of that world.
52:25
Acadian was the language of Babylon.
52:27
But, you know, they Babylon is conquering all these countries,
52:31
so they have to speak one language that everyone can hear.
52:33
So that was the language. That's one of the reasons why I
52:35
think Daniel, significant part of Daniel was written in Aramaic
52:39
precisely to reflect that Gentile world theme that I
52:45
talked about earlier with those Gentile kingdoms over Israel,
52:48
Right. So the first chapter or so is
52:50
written in Hebrew. In the last few chapters are
52:52
written in Hebrew, but the middle's Aramaic.
52:54
So God has everything for a purpose, right?
52:57
But yeah, so the imagination thing so, well, first of all, I
53:01
don't, I, I, I have looked into, into the Hebrew names for those
53:06
Jewish boys, which I actually have in use in my story, which
53:10
is Hananiah, Azariah and Meshach.
53:13
And I'm not Meshach, I'm sorry, Michelle, Michelle.
53:19
And what happens is they're given, they were given new names
53:23
by their captors, which was a very common thing when you
53:26
become a captive, you it part of the way of expressing power or
53:29
control over someone is to to be the one who gives them their new
53:32
name. So that was the reason why
53:34
they're giving the Babylonian names.
53:35
But in my story, amongst themselves, when they're just
53:39
alone, they use their Hebrew names, right?
53:41
But when they're out in public, they'll use their Babylonian
53:44
names that that keeps a kind of separateness.
53:46
But yeah, we don't know anything about them.
53:48
But I'm thinking like, man, these guys were crucial to his
53:51
life, right? So we've got to have something
53:52
that some kind of storyline that gives them unique personalities
53:56
and integrates and makes sense of Daniel's story.
54:00
So that's where I picked this notion of, well, you know, make
54:03
them misfits like you you'd have in in a high school today.
54:05
And one of them's a jock, one of them's an autistic, and the
54:08
other one is the brother of the autistic guy who's always
54:10
protective of him and he's a little arrogant because he wants
54:12
to be the top scribe, right. So you've got these guys and
54:15
then Daniel, even Daniel, you know, we think of Daniel as this
54:18
perfect, right, This perfect guy who makes all the right choices
54:21
all the time. Well, he made the right choices
54:23
in those cases, but he was still a Sinner because we're all
54:26
sinners, right? And even the most holy person is
54:28
still a Sinner and has flaws. And so I try to bring in the
54:32
human flaws of these characters that Daniel grows from and grows
54:36
through. And so I see Daniel in the story
54:38
and as a kind of a, he's of the royal line of Judah.
54:41
So he has a very sort of an arrogant sense of himself.
54:44
And but when he is ripped from Jerusalem, away from his family,
54:50
he is taken away from all of that hope of royalty, right?
54:56
So he's humbled and made a slave.
54:58
And he has to face that, that that insignificance, that
55:02
inconsequence. God will, we know God will use
55:05
him in a great way, But at first, that's not the case.
55:08
He's just a nobody like everybody else.
55:10
And he has to learn what, what is that about?
55:12
How can I serve God as a nobody? So there are there are themes
55:15
that I work through in these stories that are issues I
55:18
struggle with in my own life, you know, and that was really
55:21
exciting. It's something else I wanted to
55:24
mention that, you know, you were you were making reference to
55:26
this about the imagination and filling in.
55:29
Well, one of the things that I do is I also in the spiritual
55:33
world story, I have that going on at the same time as the
55:36
earthly story. So you bounce back and forth
55:39
between these, these fallen angels and they're having
55:43
battles with each other or whatever, you know, and they're
55:45
trying to to jockey for power. I like to say, well, I also what
55:50
I do is I research into Babylonian mythology and I like
55:54
to bring in some of the mythological stories and
55:57
integrate them into the spiritual world story that's
56:00
going on. And so when you're reading my
56:02
book, you're not just, it's not just something I completely
56:05
made-up, but I integrate their mythology so that you get,
56:09
you'll have a sense of knowledge of what the Babylonian about
56:13
mythology about their gods is. So, you know, like there might
56:17
be, you know, classic case would be there's this mythology of the
56:21
Anzu bird and he steals the, he's a huge, you know, hybrid
56:26
monster. I envision him in the spiritual
56:28
world, right? But he's a cross between a a
56:31
lion and an eagle with wings, right?
56:34
And he steals the tablet of destinies from Marduk.
56:38
What's that about? Well, the tablet, this is in the
56:40
mythology of Babylon. And the tablet of destinies is
56:43
actually an interesting, I think it's a kind of a like a
56:45
covenantal document, but it represents the power over the
56:49
gods. So whoever is the chief king of
56:52
the gods has the tablet of destinies.
56:54
So Marduk has it. So Needless to say, if this
56:57
demon monster steals it from me, he's got to get it back.
57:00
So he hunts him down, kills him, and gets the Tablet of Destiny's
57:03
back. So I incorporated as one
57:05
example. I've incorporated that into my
57:07
storyline, but it's not just this arbitrary myth or story.
57:11
It's actually an expression that communicates not only what they
57:14
believe, but I integrate it into the storyline in submission to
57:20
Aslan. In other words, you know, the
57:23
storyline that's going on in the Babylonian spiritual world is
57:28
ultimately in service to Yahweh's story.
57:33
So that's been an exciting thing for me to do to, to apply my
57:38
research in a way that is entertaining, that people will
57:41
love and enjoy. So that I, I, I say, I tell
57:43
people like in a way, I kind of, I write theological novels for
57:47
Bible nerds. But, but, but that's the, what
57:51
that means is there's a lot of depth for those who some people
57:54
read my series like 3 and four times because there's so much
57:58
depth in it. But, but, but because of my
58:02
Hollywood background, my goal is it's got to be entertaining.
58:08
So I definitely write them in a way that's very entertaining.
58:11
You don't have to go deep if you don't want to kind of like the
58:14
Bible. You know, you can read the Bible
58:16
and read the stories and get entertainment and get basics
58:18
about God, but you can go so much deeper while I'm trying to
58:21
do the same thing with, with these stories because you know,
58:26
I, I just believe like if you can't bore people.
58:28
So if you want to keep people's attention, you got to, they've
58:31
got to stay entertained. So this first book is that
58:35
entertaining introduction to Daniel's first three years that
58:39
we don't get in the prophecies yet.
58:41
But fear not, for those who like who who who like to read series
58:45
books, a lot of times they want to wait till the series is done.
58:48
You don't have to wait because each one of these books covers a
58:52
different period of Daniel's life and each book is a separate
58:56
stand alone story with a beginning, middle and end.
58:59
So it's going to be very satisfying to read this book in
59:02
and of itself and get this introduction to Daniel.
59:05
You'll have no problem enjoying it.
59:08
Amazing. Brian, you're, you're doing the
59:12
things, man. People are loving it.
59:15
It's an honor every time I get to connect with you.
59:18
I know you will be back in the near future and we're going to
59:21
talk about some other things, but as far as where people can
59:25
find the book right now, let's plug that in real quick and then
59:29
actually give us a word of encouragement.
59:31
Just it doesn't have to be regarding the book.
59:35
I, I think what we'll talk about I'm, I'm going to give you a
59:38
separate invite for just some commentary on some of the things
59:42
going on today. But there is a lot of chaos,
59:45
right? So people are finding, hey, I
59:47
want to read these novel series, I want to study the Bible, I
59:49
want to have these communions. But then there's this like
59:51
sacred secular divide of like, oh, the reality of, you know,
59:56
this, this multi layered molten lava spilling and spewing from
1:00:01
every direction that people just can't seem.
1:00:06
To really deal with in probably the most healthy manner.
1:00:10
I know that I asked all of all of my guys like give a word of
1:00:12
encouragement. You never, never despise a small
1:00:15
beginning. You don't know we're going to
1:00:16
plant a seed or what seed you're going to water, but ultimately,
1:00:20
I do want to have you back just so the listeners can kind of get
1:00:22
that inside scoop. Ryan will be back in the near
1:00:25
future. We're going to have a different
1:00:26
style of conversation. First, plug in the book.
1:00:29
Where can people get it? And then give us that word of
1:00:31
encouragement. Well, all my books are
1:00:32
exclusively at Amazon. They're, but they're all in
1:00:35
Kindle paperback, hardcover, large print and audio book.
1:00:40
And so you can get everything there.
1:00:42
And you know, if you, if you know anything about Amazon,
1:00:44
there's plenty information to find out more about the books in
1:00:46
the series. If you want to go to my website,
1:00:49
gadawa.com. I do try to make it an
1:00:51
interesting and entertaining website as well with helpful
1:00:55
information, a lot of free research and stuff.
1:00:57
But something I want to note is I cast, I cast every one of my
1:01:03
novels like it's a movie. So that if you go to the Daniel
1:01:08
book on my website and you'll find one of the tabs says cast
1:01:12
of characters. Click on that, you'll see
1:01:14
pictures of most all the characters, kind of like like in
1:01:18
a movie, right? Because that's my background.
1:01:21
I love that. I like picturing these, these
1:01:23
characters, you know, including the gods and angels and all that
1:01:26
kind of stuff. And that some people like, don't
1:01:30
like to have that that help, but some people do.
1:01:32
They like to have an image that they can see in their mind while
1:01:35
they're reading. And you'll really appreciate
1:01:37
that. But yeah, straight to Amazon.
1:01:39
That's where you can find it all.
1:01:43
Oh, and one encouraging thing you said Yes.
1:01:45
Get us with the word encouragement.
1:01:47
Yeah, so, you know, I think my ministry has been my ministry,
1:01:50
my calling, my my heart's desire is, is, is as a storyteller is
1:01:56
precisely to glorify God through stories that that glorify him
1:02:01
and and elevate the Kingdom of God in a way that will excite
1:02:06
people to become a part of it. And we don't need to be A, and
1:02:10
I, we don't need to be afraid of understanding that Pagan context
1:02:16
that's in the Bible. A lot of times Christians have
1:02:19
been afraid of that. They feel that it's, you know,
1:02:22
blasphemous to even learn about it.
1:02:24
But a lot of it makes sense in context.
1:02:28
And just don't be afraid to research it.
1:02:29
Be careful to who you're listening to, of course.
1:02:32
And, you know, listen to two sides.
1:02:34
Don't just read liberal literature about it because
1:02:37
liberals will say, yeah, oh, you know, Daniel wasn't even written
1:02:44
in the days of Daniel was written by a pseudonymous
1:02:46
someone who's not named Daniel 400 years late, 300 years later,
1:02:50
right? So I mean, liberals will say,
1:02:52
oh, you know, Babylon, Jews got their ideas from the
1:02:56
Babylonians, you know, no, I don't believe that's the case.
1:02:59
But there is cross pollination that occurs with the Bible and
1:03:04
with other cultures that it's engaging in Egypt, Greece,
1:03:08
Babylon. And we should not be afraid to
1:03:11
learn that material, but to submit it and keep it in
1:03:15
submission to Aslan. That's what I like to say,
1:03:17
right? You can keep that knowledge
1:03:21
submitted within the context of Yahweh, as your, as your, as
1:03:24
you're studying it, and as you're reading it.
1:03:27
Brian Godawa, the one and only. It was a pleasure.
1:03:30
Till next time. And for the listeners out there,
1:03:33
like, share and subscribe. Pass this episode along to your
1:03:37
pastor, to your friends. If you got a young person in the
1:03:40
house who's in college, who's trying to get into, you know,
1:03:45
school for entertainment, for anime, for acting, anything like
1:03:49
that. Brian is a great resource to
1:03:51
share this up so far and wide. You guys come into you from
1:03:54
Southeastern Pennsylvania. God bless and goodbye.
1:04:24
Stay bright Daylight you stay you.
1:04:27
Daylight you. Stay you Daylight Stay bright is
1:04:36
better with you. Daylight you.
1:04:39
Headlight you Daylight. Stay bright is better with you.
1:04:44
You on the shoe, it's better with you.
1:04:52
You. If I showed you the scars, would
1:05:00
you turn away? If I lowered the walls, would
1:05:03
you come and stay? If I open my heart, would you
1:05:07
shine your light? If I let this thing start, Hold
1:05:10
me through the night, cancel it and brave Come take a ride with
1:05:14
me. Let's take a look at all the
1:05:16
things that life was supposed to be.
1:05:18
Look me in the eyes. I want to see you.
1:05:21
Light shine, beauty and passion. Just like it's the first time.
1:05:25
Oh my baby, I'm a gentleman at heart.
1:05:28
Unless you win the service of my enemy or worker.
1:05:32
Rather dark. I speak light words and happy
1:05:35
moments. Lighting my eyes, staring back
1:05:38
your dark opponents. Lord help me now.
1:05:41
You and it's you and I stay right.
1:05:45
It's better with you than I. You and you then right.
1:05:51
Stay right. It's better with you.
1:05:55
You Hon and you. It's better with you.
1:06:03
You, Hon. And you.