What is Christian Science Fiction?

I am a new Christian Science Fiction author and completed my first novel a month ago. Like most people during a project, one has a tendency to just start and complete a project without doing proper planning. Although I believe I did a good job planning, developing and writing my book, I probably should have begun by asking the question: What is Christian Science Fiction?  Looking back, I just assumed I would simply write a Biblical fact based story with an important Christian message I wanted my readers to grasp and throw in some science fiction techno gadgets, a helping of fictional futuristic societies, and a sprinkling of Christian heroes and evil adversaries. To my horror, after sending my book off to be edited, I poked around several websites and blogs to try and understand how to best publish and market my book and low and behold there it was embedded in some marketing information; can your book be classified as Christian Science Fiction? Oh boy, I thought to myself, now I’ll have to modify my manuscript when I get it back from the editor to adhere to the definition of what a Christian Science Fiction book is. 

I immediately began researching on what exactly makes a novel Christian Science Fiction.  I visited several websites and blogs to get a definition or at least find a general agreement.  After a few hours of research I realized I probably wasn’t going to have to do something drastic like re-write my book. Thank the Lord!  As a matter of fact, I discovered the simple approach to writing my book, which I mentioned above, was generally on the mark.  I found references to things like Speculative Science Fiction, Christian Apocalyptic Fiction, writing Christian Science Fiction guidelines, and other type classifications, but the definitions offered on the many websites and blogs I visited were basically the same. 

Here is my summation of what I discovered; “Christian Science Fiction is the utilization of fictional scientific ideas to speculate on things that could occur surrounding Biblical facts while being careful to never compromise those Biblical facts.”  Here is an example of what I mean; the Bible states in Revelation 8: 8-9, “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” Using my self- proclaimed definition, I can speculate and write about what God will use to destroy a third of the sea creatures and ships, but I cannot compromise the Biblical fact that God destroyed a third of the sea creatures and ships. I might speculate and write that an asteroid, comet, nuclear weapon, or maybe even a gigantic space ship crashing to Earth is the culprit but I can’t say a quarter of  the sea creatures and ships were eliminated. It must be one third. Also, it should go without saying that to write good Christian Science Fiction you need to know Biblical facts and a good way to know these facts is to read your Bible daily.

I hope you’ll respond to this post and offer your comments, ideas, and questions. I attached a few of the websites and blogs I visited during my research. Check them out, after you’ve read your Bible today.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Christian-Science-Fiction,-The-Writer-and-Scripture&id=6008611

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020408/apocalyptic.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science_fiction 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/february/16.20.html?start=1