Posted on 11/15/2002 2:23:23 PM PST by RJCogburn
The movie adventures of child-wizard Harry Potter will continue on November 15. Far from being an agent of the occult, as his critics contend, Harry Potter is the kind of hero children should be encouraged to read about and emulate, said the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.
"It is true that Harry lives in a magical, fantastical world, but what's important is that he is a hero who wins through intelligence, effort and courage," said Dr. Yaron Brook. "Throughout the series, Harry has developed his talents through hard work and has learned to think for himself, to be honest and to be self-confident. He has friends who share his values and he earns the respect of his teachers. Aren't these the character traits all parents want their children to possess? I know they're qualities I actively try to instill in my two boys."
Dr. Brook said that the critics' focus on the supernatural aspects of the Harry Potter stories is completely non-essential. What is fundamental is the abstract meaning being conveyed during the course of Harry's magical adventures. "The books are, in short, fuel for a child's maturing mind. As vitamins and minerals are essential to a child's healthy physical development, so literature with this view of the world is essential to a child's healthy mental development."
In your case shouldn't it be ROFLMH(head)O...they do appear to be interchangeable, at least in your case...
But surely the reason that we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did. . .we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did."
So which is it? Are witches real, and should we burn them - or are they either fictional or lying practitioners of a false religion? If the later, shouldn't we give them the same 'respect' we give, say, Buddhists?
Of all the false religions in the world, very few are straightforward about what they really do. At least with Satanists you know where you are.
So which is it? Are witches real, and should we burn them - or are they either fictional or lying practitioners of a false religion? If the later, shouldn't we give them the same 'respect' we give, say, Buddhists?
Of all the false religions in the world, very few are straightforward about what they really do. At least with Satanists you know where you are."
Hi again Jen. I have very little respect for CS Lewis.
What DID C.S. Lewis REALLY believe?
Was C.S. Lewis a strong Bible believer? By no means. Christianity Today noted that he was "a man whose theology had decidedly unevangelical elements" (Ibid.).
Lewis was turning to the Catholic Church before his death. He believed in prayers for the dead and purgatory and confessed his sins regularly to a priest.
He received the Catholic sacrament of last rites on July 16, 1963 (C.S. Lewis: A Biography, pp. 198, 301).
Lewis also rejected the doctrine of bodily resurrection (Biblical Discernment Ministries Letter, Sept.-Oct. 1996)
and believed there is salvation in pagan religions.
Lewis denied the total depravity of man and the substitutionary atonement of Christ.
He believed in theistic evolution
and rejected the Bible as the infallible Word of God.
He denied the biblical doctrine of an eternal fiery hell, claiming, instead, that hell is a state of mind: "And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind--is, in the end, Hell" (Lewis, The Great Divorce, p. 65).
D. Martin Lloyd-Jones warned that C.S. Lewis had a defective view of salvation and was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal view of the atonement (Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963).
In a letter to the editor of Christianity Today, Feb. 28, 1964, Dr. W. Wesley Shrader, First Baptist Church, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, warned that "C.S. Lewis... would never embrace the (literal-infallible) view of the Bible" and "would accept no theory of the 'total depravity of man.'"
So I wouldn't be impressed with anything he said regarding witchcraft. My final authority is the Word of God.
Also, C.S. Lewis has no right to call for the death of anyone. The Bible is very clear that we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Along with other NT verses regarding the occult, it proves two things.
1. Yes, there are witches. 2. We are not to kill them, but we are not to fellowship with them.
If Scripture says that witchcraft and sorceries are real, then they are.
And the Grace of God is extended to all people. Regardless of what Clive Staples Lewis believed, witches do not deserve death at the hands of anyone because they are witches. (I don't think that is what you are suggesting :-)
God however has decreed that all sin brings forth death, to all men. So let's let God be in charge of that. Not CS Lewis.
Witchcraft isn't an either or proposition. Just like in any religion, it has it's poseur's and fakirs. But there are people practicing WWPism that really believe in what they do.
As I have said before, if there is any power in their spells or other works of darkness, it is a demonic power, just as God says.
Satanist are different from witches btw. Most witches do not believe in Satan at all.
I had asked you before if you could find any Scripture that would in anyway suggest that God would have his people involved in such things. Were you able to find any?
1 Corinthians 14 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults
2 Peter 3 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
Matthew 18:12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninetynine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?
Matthew 21:28 "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'
Matthew 22:42 "What do you think about the Christ[ 22:42 Or Messiah] ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied.
Matthew 26:53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Luke 12:51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
Luke 13:2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?
And one last one to show that only God can know our thoughts.
1 Corinthians 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Yeah, and there are people practicing Scientology who really believe in Xenu the Galactic Overlord, but that doesn't make it true.
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