Sort of like this guy:
Posted on 08/18/2009 11:43:02 AM PDT by pastorbillrandles
Twilight - Giving heed to fables…
By: Pastor Bill Randles
Why “Twilight” is spiritually fatal, and what it shows us about the state of
Christian youth.
“…and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:4)
If someone would have told me 25 years ago, that one day a popular series of “vampire romance” books would be accepted and promoted by evangelical ministries, I wouldn’t have been able to believe it. That’s why I was shocked to read this article by Christian documentarian and researcher, Caryl Matrisciana and Paul Villanueva, http://carylmatrisciana.com/x2/content/view/81/1/ which documents the glowing reviews of the occult book series by evangelical publications such as: Campus Life, Focus on the Family, Christianity Today, Christian Teen, and Christian Stay at Home Moms Magazine. All gave glowing testimonials, and some even suggested that the "Twilight” series could become the basis for Bible discussions and studies!
My purpose isn’t to merely echo Caryl Matrisciana and Paul Villanueva's excellent article, exposing the occult roots of this book series. Rather, I have a burden to show you why I believe that this literature could have a completely soul deadening effect on those who are fascinated by its dark vision.
First of all, consider what the ‘vampire’ myth really is - nothing less than an obscene parody of the precious gift of God - which is eternal life through the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and by the gift of His blood, offered to God for us. To God blood is sacred, those who drink it are an utter abomination to Him, because of what blood represents. We obtain eternal life by accepting in faith our share of the offering of the blood of Jesus, termed precious by God, ”…As of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:19)
In the pagan myth, ‘vampires’ are those who obtain ‘immortality’ by sucking other’s blood. The ‘immortality’ they gain, is literally a damned existence. They live in the night, they cannot endure light, they feed on the blood of innocence. Far from just a harmless thrill, Vampirism is the basis for all sorts of pagan spiritualities. Blood drinking and blood sacrifice is an everyday reality among animists all over the world.
The vampire fable is nothing less than an all out assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Consider this, a young person can go to a theater on a Saturday evening and vicariously fall in love with a vampire, and his 'coven'(family), and then go to church on Sunday morning and partake of the Lord's supper. That same person on Saturday evening could conceivably root for a girl to forfeit her own mortal soul, to be the lover of a vampire, and the next morning go to church and eat the bread and drink the cup of eternal life! Can one eat at both the Lord's table and the table of demons? Did you know that this book series was 'given' to a Mormon woman in a dream, and that she was visited in a subsequent dream by the vampire figure?
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” (I Cor 10:21)
Ah but Pastor it is only a movie! Lighten up! But this is more than a movie - it is a pagan myth which is a perversion of the only Gospel that can save us. The movie presents vampires as being attractive, in fact so attractive that the young lady in the story is willing to become a vampire to be with her lover. In order to be with her vampire lover, she submits to being an eternally damned soul! This movie skillfully plays on the emotions in such a way that the viewer pulls for the mortal young woman to be with her “lover”, a 110-year-old vampire in the form of an attractive and well-mannered teen.
What the popularity of this film, even among evangelical youth, says about the state of the church is that we have forgotten what we once knew very well. That is, you can’t fill your mind with all of this paganism without injuring your relationship with God. We used to know that it is very possible to “lose your soul”, to so jade ourselves by constant, undiscerning exposure to worldliness, that we render ourselves unable to pray, to hear the Word, or to live for God.
We once knew that to voluntarily expose ourselves to blasphemy and sexual sin - not to mention something as blatantly spiritual as Vampirism - was something to be shunned, avoided, that it was soul deadening, and injurious to our Christian walk.
Another thing the popularity of this movie shows us is the loss of the sense of the sacred among Christians. I believe in gospel liberty. We don’t need Christian guru’s telling us what books not to read and what movies to avoid, we have the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, Paul warned the Christians in Ephesus, to:
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)
Where is the sense of the sacred? The idea of the sacred is that there are some things in life that are ‘other’, they are above us, they are not to be ‘profaned’, for they are above us. For example, marriage is sacred, so is sexuality, as well as life itself. The purity of children is to be held sacred, that is why there is a special warning to any who would cause them to stumble.
The Gospel itself is sacred. I believe that “Twilight” is a direct assault on the gospel, an obscene parody of the good news of salvation, the salvation we obtain by partaking of the precious blood of Jesus, offered as a sacrifice for us. Jesus is the one who has brought “life and immortality to light” through the Gospel. I don’t believe it is possible to read or enjoy “Twilight” without spiritual defilement.
Of course we must remember, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…for the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.” (I John 1:7-9)
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I get what you’re saying and again all I can say is my main concern is my kids. I have no control over anyone else or how anyone else parents their kids.
I know adult moms who read these books and love them and hate that I call Bella an insipid little twit. Or that I don’t find Edward or any of the male characters the least bit attractive (physically or otherwise).
I don’t know if the majority reading these books and watching the movie(s) think and feel that it’s “romantic” or will end up seeking this once they become adults.
Fables. In a work of fiction.
Shocking.
Yes, one can turn this into a net positive. However, unless the parent also reads the 4 books before the teenager, the parent cannot be fully prepared to have that discussion with the teen. There are so many other issues along the way in these books that you almost have to discuss each chapter with the teen.
I use teachable moments a lot with my daughter because although she’s only 13, she’s so much more mature than that. For example, we watched the movie Taken with her to expose her to the things that can happen to young girls when they lie to their parents and put themselves into dangerous situations. It was quite a lesson. In fact, after our discussion, she said “And you’re not a kick butt former CIA hitman who could rescue me from human slave trading.”
We said, “Exactly.”
I could hardly sit through the tension in Taken.
Your daughter is very strong.
Sort of like this guy:
I’m sorry, I’m a fantasy fan too. We are really into the Harry Potter series. I thought you may have read them. The later books are just as much for adults.
Sorry.
I’m getting the impression that fantasy and reality are hard for you to distinguish.
These books are probably not for you.
Stick to the weather channel.
“Just like magic in many fantasy books, vampirism is used a storytelling tool in the series. It has it’s own rules and internal consistancies. The moral lessons are set upon the foundation of rules that the writer constructs, and while in real life vampirism is evil, it is used as a neutral construct for telling the story.”
Well said.
The teens like reading about and seeing that and all the romantic stuff or what they think is romantic at that age.
I think the same could be said for the books I read and movies I watched way way way back when I was a teen or tween.
The baseball scene was probably my favorite of the entire movie.
Back up your assertion please. Quotes from me will be necessary.
I agree 100%.
The real danger is the false idea of “love” these romance novels propagate. That’s much more dangerous than anything a books says about vampires.
Just cut and paste your post on this thread.
It’s pretty clear you’re not very sharp.
It started because a few adapters of the Dracula story decided there should be a romantic link between Mina and Dracula, some even built that link on Mina resembling Drac’s long lost love from his human days. Then Ann Rice (and a few others, the creators of Forever Knight come to mind) comes along and thinks this “forever love” thing is cool and runs right off the deep end with it, along the way they realize vampires don’t age, and of course “forbidden creature of the night” has so many superficial similarities to your basic “bad boy” romantic figure. And walla, vamps are romantic undead demigods.
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Come to think of it, boys had Vampirella, so girls can have "Twilight." |
I guess I’m lucky I missed all that stuff.
I think we need to add Frank Saberhagen to the list to, for his Dracula tapes.
Oh well.
I’m not saying the girls can’t have Twilight, I’m just pointing out how vampires turned into romance novel fodder. So long as I don’t have to read them (or any non-vampiric romance novel for that matter) I don’t really care. But the cycle from Nosferatu to androgynous Edward is kind of funny.
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