Episode Details

This spooky season, what’s scarier than real-world evil? Imagine that Nazis are hiding in a prison mine where they try to torture their victims—that is, until a mysterious enemy in the dark forest rises up to destroy them with zombie-like plant creatures, a granite face, and supernatural symbols. Pastor and paranormal novelist Marc Schooley, author of König’s Fire, joins us to explore the problem of evil versus the amazing grace of our sovereign God.

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Episode sponsors

1. Oasis Audio: The Mermaid’s Tale by L. E. Richmond
2. Almost Paradise by Bryan Timothy Mitchell
3. The Lorehaven Guild: join monthly book quests through the best Christian-made fantastical novels

Concession stand

• Our other episodes defend/define some stories that are called “horror.”
• As we record, it’s Friday the 13th! Yet another portent of doom, or is it?
• Clearly this episode, like reality these days, covers darker subject matter.
• “See evil for what it is” may look different for people at different times.
• Sometimes you need whimsy, happy ideas, nostalgia, even distractions.
• But other times you need to confront evil so you seek answers in Christ.
• That’s what Konig’s Fire and its author help us explore, quite in-depth.

Introducing author and pastor Marc Schooley

Marc Schooley is a Texan, Christian philosopher, theologian, and pastor of the Five Solas Church in League City, Texas. He also has twenty-three years experience in the space program for NASA Johnson Space Center, including work for the James Webb Space Telescope. His fantastical novels include The Dark Man, Konig’s Fire, and Nightriders.

1. What is the ‘problem of evil’?

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to, then He is not omnipotent.

If He is able, but not willing, then He is malevolent.

If He is both able and willing, then whence cometh evil?

If He is neither able nor willing, then why call Him God?

—König’s Fire (2010), pages 21–22

• This tributes an 18th-century write