Of Caverns and Casters ✓ [TLRQ #1]

Afterword

What do you believe?

Leavi and Sean put their trust in science—but their science tells them flat land doesn't exist and magic can't be real. Aster has absolute faith in his country and his uncle—but his country has descended into war and his uncle is dead. As powerful as Agraund is, as strong as Morineaux is, as advanced as High Valley science is, none of it is infallible.

So what do you believe in? Where do you put trust in your own life? Are you confident in your skills, which, like Leavi's among the Traders, can suddenly become irrelevant? Are you confident in your money, when, like the Prince of Morineaux, you could lose every coin to your name? As scary as it is, there is nothing in this world that can't be stripped from you.

Except, that is, for God.

Many people have asked if this book is an allegory, and hopefully I can save you the mystery of wondering. It's not. There is no secret code in this story to unravel, no theological meaning hiding behind the words. That's partly why I wanted to write this afterword—I'd rather speak to you plainly about the truth.

The God of the Bible is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good Creator of the universe. He expects you to believe in Him. He knew who you would be before you were born and gives you every breath you breathe. He spoke the world into being and knows both the beginning and end of time. Every star in the sky, every leaf in the forest, every moment of every day is under His divine control. He deserves your trust.

Unfortunately, humanity doesn't trust Him—not in its natural state. We trust in what we can do, thinking that we'll be good enough to get to Heaven. We trust in our own philosophies, believing we're smart enough to judge what is right and wrong on our own. We trust in our own wisdom, deciding that the universe created itself. We trust that we can be our own god.

If we take a look at the world around us, we can see where that's gotten us. Turn on the news and you'll see tragedy after tragedy caused by people doing whatever they want to. This is not a world of people who are good.

And you know, if you look at your own life, that you can't be good enough either. God is perfectly good, and so He must punish everything that does not meet that standard. This is fair—you wouldn't want a murderer set free because he washed the judge's car or donated money to charity. A price must be paid for the murderer's crime. Similarly, a price must be paid for our crimes. We've all broken God's perfect standard by lying, hating, being disobedient to our parents, or even just being jealous of something that belongs to someone else. Even if we've only done it once—and if we're honest with ourselves, we've all done these things many, many times—we still deserve to pay a price for that crime.

The Bible says that the penalty for every crime against God is death (Rom 6:23).

This is an eternal, spiritual death, an everlasting judgment where we pay for all the sins we committed against the eternal, everlasting God. This is what we all deserve because we've all broken the law of God (Rom 3:23).

That's a heavy, terrifying reality, but that's not the end of the story. God loves His creation, even though it rebelled against Him. He loves us so much, He sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus is both truly God and truly man, and he descended to earth to humble Himself and be born as a baby (Phil 2:7). He spent a lifetime in this imperfect, chaotic, rebellious world—but He didn't break any of God's laws. Not one. And even though He never did anything wrong, He willingly died a criminal's death on a cross. He did this to pay the price for our wrongdoings—a debt that He didn't owe, but one we couldn't pay (2 Cor 5:21). He gave His life for ours, and three days later, He came back to life, defeating death. He sits now again on His throne in heaven.

Anyone who puts their trust in Jesus and turns away from their lawbreaking, He forgives completely. He wipes their slate clean, and says to the Father, "This one is mine. I paid the price for their sins with my blood. I died so they wouldn't have to." When we die on this earth and stand before God's throne, if your trust is in Jesus' death and resurrection, the Father no longer sees your sin—He sees His Son's perfection.

But those who never trusted in Jesus, who put their faith in themselves, or the good things they'd done, or some human-made god, or anything else—

When those people stand before God's throne, they will be judged, and they will be given the eternal punishment we all deserve.

We don't want that for anyone. We want you to be able to trust in the God who made you, to love the Man who loved you so much He died for your crimes. We want you to know the truth. We want you to have faith in the only One who can't fail you. If you're one of Jesus', no matter what happens, you can never be separated from Him (John 6:37-40). And when the world falls out from under your feet, when all goes wrong, when you lose everything else you love, Jesus' love you can hang onto. That you can have faith in, no matter what. God, you can trust in, absolutely.

So one final time, I ask—what do you believe?

"If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." (Rom 10:9-11)

With love,
Laine and Aria Nichols