Let's get this over with

Okay, by now you know that I think it is stupid (and dangerous for Christians) to read novels about vampires and other similar fare. Yet, millions of people are going to do it anyway. They can think that my hobbies are stupid and we'll be even.

There is one more argument from the Twilight-o-philes that I want to answer. I confess that this is probably the weakest answer I have for you folks, but I'm gonna stick by it at least for now. The argument is, "If its not okay to read/watch Twilight, Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, etc. then why is it okay to read/watch things like The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and so forth?

Great question. Obviously, I think that the "bad" ones offer glimpses of, and connections with, the occult that Christians should avoid. As for the "good" literature, my first thought is that these take place in completely fictitious universes. Narnia and Middle Earth are imaginary places, although they contain symbols, types if you will, of things that are real.

That leads to the second point. Narnia and Lord of the Rings were written by Christians who wanted to teach spiritual truths in creative ways. They are parables or allegories that teach real spiritual truth. They bring us in line with scripture rather than out of line with it.

Works for me. That's all I've got to say about that.

Twilight ad nauseum

I'm bored with this Twilight stuff so I can only imagine how bored you must be if you are reading this. However, I need to finish it because I said I would.

I left off with I Timothy 4:7 which says, "...have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales..." However, we need to understand the context. Paul is teaching Timothy his job as a pastor and there were a lot of false doctrines circulating back then. By false doctrine I mean things that people were teaching as truths which scripture would teach us are not. A current example would be the modern practice of feng shui in which people try to arrange things in their home or workplace in such a way as to funnel the energy of the universe in order to benefit them or help them achieve their goals. People practice and teach this as truth.

So Paul starts the chapter by admonishing Timothy:

1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 6If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

Later in the chapter he tells Timothy what it is he should teach the church. I will readily admit that most stories about vampires and werewolves are not taught as doctrine; they are stories meant to entertain (although, we must be aware that occult practitioners can use these stories to teach their ways). Therefore, they don't really fall within the realm of the strict interpretation of this passage. On the other hand, anytime one dabbles in the occult whether it be ouija boards, seances, horoscopes or whatever, one opens oneself up to the enemy. For that reason, for my own life, I take I Timothy 4:7 at face value and avoid all that stuff including vampire type literature, even for entertainment.

Should all mature adult Christians think the same way? Maybe, maybe not, as Jimmy pointed out in the comments. I surely would urge you not to let your children and teens use this kind of entertainment. Most of them are still working out their world views and still immature in their faith. Reading stuff like that has great potential to harm their relationship with Christ by distorting their views of spiritual reality and opening them up to oppression from demonic forces.

Let me give you a sort of challenge to close this post and then I will just have one post to go to finish out this topic. Someday we will all stand before Christ and our works will be judged (see I Corinthians 3:12-15). This is not where our sins will be judged, they were judged on Calvary and removed when we were born again. This is where God piles up all the time we spent playing Freecell, watching football, reading Twilight, playing golf, hunting, fishing, shopping for frivilous wants, watching worthless TV & movies, worshipping, serving, praying, witnessing, etc., etc., etc. and shoots it with his celestial flamethrower.

In a moment the only things left will be what we did for him. So, what do you want left in your pile? My challenge is, for every hour that you spend reading Twilight (or something similar) this week, spend an hour in prayer, Bible study, worship, or some similar activity. Do that for a couple of weeks and see if that affects your attitude about vampire stories. I'm not making an assertion that it will or will not; I'm just saying give it a try.

A Shepherd's Prayer

We'll return to the Twilight ideas later. For now I want to share this song from Evie. You can hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsulPG6dWeM . It is a great reminder of what our goal should be for Christmas and all year. I love her voice too. I first heard this song on the way home from the deer lease about four or five years ago. I always find it touching and helfpul for getting refocused. Hope you enjoy it.

More on the "Twilight" issue

The last post ended with the question, can vampire stories, even when clearly identified as fictitious be harmless entertainment for the Christian? First, it would probably be helpful for Christians to ask themselves a few questions about entertainment in general. When we consider how to spend our discretionary time, energy, and money we need to be sure that our choices will be pleasing to God. So here are a few thoughts that, in my opinion, Christians ought to apply to their recreational choices. Am I wasting God's time right now, is there some Kingdom activityI should be doing, or is this okay for now? Will this activity honor God? Will this activity help me become more Christ-like? Will this activity be a positive witness for Christ to the lost world? Will this activity be a stumbling block to any of my weaker brothers and sisters in Christ? Of course there is also the notion that Wachsman Family brought up in her comment on the last post, i.e., would Jesus participate in this with me?

Assuming you agree that Christians should scrutinize their recreation as outlined above we can now apply those ideas to Twilight (if you already disagree then we're kind of stuck). We have established that the whole vampire thing is demonic in origin so does using them for entertainment honor God?

Does it make us more Christ-like? One argument I have heard from the pro-Twilight side is that Edward exhibits many Christian virtues and so we can learn from him how to live the Christian life. Well, why would we not just learn it from Jesus? Why would we want to learn it from a counterfeit. You know the Bible says that the devil masquerades as an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14). Does that mean we should look to him as our example?

Does reading Twilight improve our witness for Christ? Is reading Twilight a stumbling block for weaker saints?

I'm running out of time so I'll leave these questions up to you. Let me just close with I Timothy 4:7 which says, "Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly." and which I'll explain a little more next time.

Should we or shouldn't we?

So, I've sort of gotten myself into this debate--imagine that, moi in a debate--and I'm going to use this forum to discuss it. I need to let you know a few things up front. First, I tried to keep my mouth shut about it (I know, it is hard for me to believe too) because this general idea about what is acceptable entertainment for Christians has been beaten to death in cyberspace and other media, but I've heard enough falsehood that I feel the need to respond. Secondly, I'm addressing these thoughts to Christians. Third, its going to take more than one post to explain my position. Fourth, I realize that in some ways parts of this discussion involve gray areas; those things for which we might exercise Christian liberty. I don't want to break fellowship with those of you who disagree with me on this. I don't want us to look down on each other because of our differences.

So, what the poooh am I talking about? Well several of the females in my life have become big fans of the Twilight books. Someone in that population actually questioned whether it was a good thing for Christians to be reading a book about vampires. Naturally, the rest of them are trying to legitimize the books and their infatuation with them. Rather than argue with all of them about it, I've decided to just write my thoughts here and be done with it.

Right off the bat let's establish that the person who said this is not part of the occult is wrong. According to Merriam Webster Online occult is defined as: " matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them —used with the ". Clearly, vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, witches, fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. all fall within the realm of the occult.

So, how should we think about such issues? We should go to God and his word for guidance. Deuteronomy 18:10-13 says, "10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God." In this text God is preparing the Israelites to enter the promised land and is giving them a lot of rules and principles to live by. The tribes that would become the Israelites new neighbors were completely pagan and God knew that if his children picked up any of the pagan practices that it would be to their own detriment. He was trying to keep his children pure for their own good and for the good of his larger plan in the world.

Admittedly, vampires are not specifically in that list. However, the vampire legends and occult practices are in the same vein as these things; especially, the idea of consulting the dead. I know people don't consult vampires, but they fall into that idea that if the dead are interacting with the living it must be a demonic deception.

These kinds of things are condemned in the New Testament as well. Revelation 21:8 says, "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Many of the things listed in this passage are still practiced today in occult circles. They are essentially ways of investigating the supernatural world or trying to use the supernatural to manipulate the natural. They are all void of God. The only sources available to us regarding the supernatural are God and his angels and Satan and his angels. Since the practices listed here are an abomination to God we must conclude they come from Satan.

The first argument I heard from the Twilight-ophiles was that vampires are not real so this literature cannot be condemned along with the things these verses are condemning. I will admit that is a pretty good argument. Personally, though I don't feel like it works.

First, there might be a sense in which vampires are real. Historians think that the vampire legends got started when people observed corpses that had not decomposed as much as expected. The superstitious people explained this by coming up with ideas about soul-less bodies who had somehow come back to life to torment the living. That may be how the myths came about. But what if there were other cases of demon possession that caused people to behave in ways that we would associate now with "vampire" behavior. After all, Satan is in the business of counterfeiting God. It would be like him to want humans to think he could cause a body to be alive.

Also, we know that there are occult practitioners who have taken the vampire legends and tried to animate them. There are folks who sort of adopt the vampire lifestyle so to speak as part of their spiritual lives. I guarantee you these people are not worshipping God. And as you can see from the verses above, God is not pleased when we substitute other spiritual entities for him because he knows that it will end in our destruction.

So I think that even though vampires are probably not real, the idea of vampires is real. There are people who place vampires above God. In general vampires are representative of evil, they are antithetical to Jesus in most vampire mythology, they represent a demonic rip off of true life and the true God. They are not something to glorify. But can they simply be harmless entertainment? I'll continue rambling about that another day.

Little Help Here, Please

The older I get the less I like cold weather. However, there are some things about the cold that are fun. One of my favorites is making a fire and letting the boys roast and eat marshmallows. The relish with which they eat a toasty marshmallow is a lot of fun to witness.

Now, here's where I need your help. Its always fun to sacrifice a marshmallow just to watch it burn up. Have you ever noticed that it flames up and burns quickly for a few seconds and then there is a little bit of it that stays on the coat hanger and burns for like an hour or something? Why is that?

My hypothesis is that there is a lot of air whipped into those things and the oxygen makes for quick combustion. Once the oxygen is gone you are left with just sugar or starch that takes longer to burn. That's what I think but I really don't know. So if any of you out there understand this phenomenon I'd really like to get your answer. Thanks!

BTW, yes I do have better things to do with my time than wonder about incinerating marshmallows, but being an underachiever I really don't care.