“The written word is a powerful thing. You have to be very careful with it.” Those are the words of Mortimer Folchart in the movie Inkheart. The character, played by Brendan Fraser, can read stories aloud and bring the characters to life.
By simply reading stories like The Wizard of Oz, Mortimer (and his daughter) has a unique gift that can bring characters like Toto and the flying monkeys to life. Evil villains, witches, fire throwers, and unicorns all come to life when he reads books out loud.
Indeed, the written word is quite powerful. Some might say, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, which he wrote and nailed to the church doors, forever changed the church. The Constitution of the United States of America has been the guiding document for our nation for over 200 years. And, of course, there’s the Bible, which is thousands of years old and has impacted every nation on earth.
The written word truly has the ability to change society and ingrain doctrines that live for hundreds or thousands of years. In fantasy novels, the written word can transport us to different worlds, introduce us to crafty characters, and allow our imaginations to run wild. There’s no limit to how far the written word can take us.
As powerful as the written word is, its strength does not lie in ink or paper. Writing preserves speech. It carries the thoughts and intentions of a speaker beyond the moment in which they were first uttered. Its authority depends entirely on the one who speaks.
This is where Scripture lifts our understanding higher. We tend to think words merely describe reality. But in Genesis, we encounter something categorically different. “And God said…” is not description. It is creation. The power is not in the sound of syllables or the vibration of air. The power is in the Speaker.
Human words—whether spoken or written—communicate, persuade, inspire, and influence. God’s Word does something more. It brings into existence what did not exist before. Light does not respond to persuasion; it responds to command. The universe is not informed into being; it is spoken into being.
The written Scriptures, then, are not powerful because they are ink on a page. They are powerful because they bear the authority of the One who first said, “Let there be.” The same God who created reality by His Word reveals reality through His Word.
This is where modern assumptions quietly falter. We tend to think words describe reality. Scripture reveals that, in the beginning, words created reality.
Modern culture assumes that reality is impersonal, that matter simply exists, and meaning is something we assign to it. In that story, words are tools—ways of expressing private thoughts in a universe that is otherwise silent. But Genesis tells a different story. Reality is not impersonal; it is spoken. The universe is not self‑interpreting; it is declared into being. Meaning does not rise from below through human imagination—it descends from above through divine speech. Before there were opinions, there was a Voice.
In fact, the spoken word even creates fantasy, as we’ll see in this series.
It started simply enough. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” How did He do it? It reads, “And God said…”
There it is: The power of the spoken word.
God spoke, and out of His thoughts, His character, and His words, He created the heavens and the earth. Unlike fictional storytellers, God was not reading someone else’s words into existence. He wasn’t reading the thoughts of someone else. His thoughts were original with Him. What’s more, when Mortimer and his daughter read, they never knew what would happen. However, God knew exactly what would happen, down to every detail.
The spoken word of God created the entire universe and everything within it. This includes everything that would be created from its ingredients. For instance, God created man from the dust of the earth and woman from the rib of man. It also includes the written word, which is a part of creation.
In other words, the universe itself is the first and greatest act of “fantasy”—the invisible God making Himself visible through what He has made.
At the moment the book of Genesis was written, the world was exposed to something it had never seen before: True Fantasy. The intent of the Writer was “to make visible” the things of God, elements that were beyond our imagination. He wanted “to present to the mind” of the reader all that happened before man was even created.
But He went beyond that. He clearly showed the force behind everything that occurred. There is a God, and He desires “to make visible” His workmanship, His character, and His ability to His creations. To do so, God inspired men to write His story (history). And it is The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Human imagination can conceive of powerful beings, but it cannot invent the One who is the ultimate reality. The gods of myth rise from the human mind, shaped by fear, longing, or speculation. The God of Scripture stands apart. He is not the product of imagination but the source of it. If fantasy means “that which is brought before the mind,” then God is supreme—not because He is imagined, but because He is the One who brings all things, including imagination itself, into being. The Bible is His chosen means of making Himself known—not as a character within a story, but as the Author of reality. He is not the greatest character ever conceived. He is the One by whom all conception exists.
What’s more, God uses supernatural stories to capture the attention of man. And He uses His stories to change the mind of man.
Think about it: The entirety of the Bible was written after the fall—after sin entered the world. That means man was already separated from God and had a natural mind, that is a mind focused on the material world in front of him.
Left to itself, that mind assumes what it sees is all that is. That’s the heart of materialism. At times, his mind’s imagination can take him into a fantasy world. But, because man is fallen, which is another story for another day, his mind cannot dream up truth in his fantasies. Works such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, and The Iliad reveal that mankind has always wrestled with profound questions—death, destiny, honor, justice, and the divine. These stories carry beauty, depth, and insight into the human condition. Yet they arise from human imagination reaching upward, attempting to explain reality from below.
The Bible presents something categorically different. It does not claim to be man’s search for God, but God’s self‑revelation to man. Where myth reflects humanity’s longing for meaning, Scripture declares that meaning has broken into history. The difference is not that one is imaginative and the other is not, but that one originates in human speculation while the other claims divine initiation.
When God inspired men to write His story, the goal was different—to lead men to the truth, especially the truth of who God is, how He works in the world, and how He interacts with man. This is critical. If God is real and He wants us to know about Him, then He isn’t going to tell us myths.
If we understand the Word of God to be “True Fantasy,” we begin to see that He told us supernatural stories to make visible to mankind who He is.
Unlike other stories, which were created by men to reveal mythical gods, the Bible was created by God, who inspired men to write it, so that He might show us His reality.
No other writing has made visible the invisible God.
The Supreme Being has to be the one to tell His story.
And as He presents His reality to the mind of men, it has the power to bring mankind to the truth.
This is an astounding fact.
True Fantasy is indeed how God has designed His Word to capture our minds and bring us to His reality and His truth. As C.S. Lewis explained, knowing this intent will affect how we read the entire Bible and greatly enrich our experience.
But there is an even deeper dimension to True Fantasy. Scripture is not only written by God through human authors; it is also illuminated by God through the Holy Spirit. The words of the Bible can be read, analyzed, and studied like any other text. Yet Scripture claims that something more is required than intellectual processing. Because humanity is fallen, we are inclined to interpret reality apart from God. The Spirit does not replace reason, but restores it—opening the mind to perceive what is truly there.
When Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?” the response was honest: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30–31). The issue was not literacy, but illumination. The same God who spoke creation into existence now works through His Spirit to make His written Word living and active in human hearts.
In Inkheart, characters are brought physically into the world through reading. In True Fantasy, something greater happens. The Holy Spirit does not merely animate imagination; He forms the character of God within His people (Galatians 5:22–23). The Word that created the world now reshapes the reader.
True Fantasy is not escape from reality—it is the foundation of it. “And God said…” is not just the opening of Scripture, but the beginning of everything. If the world was spoken into being, then truth is not invented; it is received. God’s Word is the root of order, meaning, and life.
When that Word is trusted, reality holds together. When it is reshaped or ignored, distortion follows. We trade the greater story for lesser ones. We call illusion truth. And the fracture begins.
Everything begins with a voice.
“And God said…”
Keep reading: Chapter 2: True Fantasy Vs. Myth in Creation Stories