Bible teacher and popular YouTuber Daniel Maritz is now sharing his take on the battle between light and darkness as the new co-author of the biblical fantasy novel “Lightborn: Dawn of Darkness.”
Maritz, who co-wrote the book with his brother Hernu, described the novel as the first in a larger saga centered on a world before the biblical flood, where ancient history and mythology intertwine.
There, the main character — born a slave and named Uldako — seeks to uncover the deeper truths about his world, his heritage and the war behind all wars. He walks a path of survival, pursued by beasts, scorched by loss and drawn toward an ancient prophecy involving the Lightborn.
If it sounds like a video game, Maritz and his brother would likely agree. In fact, the two also plan to create a companion video game based on the book through their company, Ruach Entertainment.
“Both of which are meant to relate to what’s happening in the world today — in culture, entertainment and basically everything that’s around us,” Maritz told Fox News Digital, noting that although the story is ancient, it is still relevant today. “There is not only a battle between light and darkness in Hollywood, but also in education, religion and culture in general.”
In a recent Fox News Digital opinion piece, Maritz pointed out that darker content is actually “a distraction from the good of fantasy: the imagined worlds, heroes and adventures that call fans to a higher ethos.”
Maritz, who is from South Africa, grew up as the youngest of five children. He has spoken about two of his brothers who died, including one who was murdered in Johannesburg and another who was killed following a car crash.
It was while sitting by his brother Etienne’s side in the hospital that Maritz experienced an awakening of sorts. He recalled hearing a voice ask him, “Daniel, where would you have gone if you died?” That’s when he knew he wanted to create stories for today that look back to the lessons of the Bible in a world oversaturated with violence and darkness.
“So entertainment changes not just the West, but culture as we know it today. And so we have a lot of shows like ‘Game of Thrones‘ and other shows that bring a lot of vulgar scenes into them and a lot of cussing,” Maritz explained.
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Maritz modeled his book after works such as C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which is deeply infused with Christian theology while serving as a rich Christian allegory and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which is also rooted in Christian theology.
According to Maritz, today’s society is addicted to entertainment and what he describes as “the evil side of it.”
“It’s through entertainment, through politics and education that they mostly try to change culture as we know it,” he said. “And I think people are waking up and getting tired of it — especially when they start changing stories that we know were written by great writers like C.S. Lewis. We know that he wrote the character of Aslan to represent Jesus in this world.”
In terms of adapting “Lightborn: Dawn of Darkness” into an interactive experience, Maritz, whose YouTube channels include DLM Christian Lifestyle and DLM Christian Perspective, wants it to serve as an alternative to more violent video games.
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“We’ve got to share the Gospel because there are 3.5 billion gamers in the world. This industry is bigger than the music and film industries combined. But there’s just darkness in there,” Maritz said, noting that many young people use video games as an escape. “Today’s games are just a different form of storytelling, but they let you engage with it.”
As he wrote in his Fox News Digital piece, “The question, then, is not whether evil exists, but whether fantasy creators ask their video game players to fight it or practice it, whether fantasy authors craft stories that expose darkness or train an audience to enjoy it.”
“To every storyteller reading this: The desire for wonder without wreckage is enormous. We need to craft worlds worth losing ourselves in for an afternoon, with heroes worth following into the dark because we trust they’re going to lead us back into the light,” he wrote.