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. (We see two profound issues in this
article – First that for the most part young people that are currently currently
brought up in Evangelical and Fundamentalist church system 1) Have never come
into a vital personal relationship with Jesus Christ 2) These churches have refined their
preaching and teachings until everything pertaining to spirituality, godliness,
and redemption have been removed. Second that in this vacuumized rot of soul
and spirit, that these young people farmed through lifeless evangelical and
fundamentalist churches have now become their preachers and teachers – who now add
fables, to the burgeoning load or doctrines and traditions of men that they
aready teach in place of the word of God.)
So in a
great irony here a Pastor decries the addition of “The faux spirituality of Twilight”
and cries for a return to the doctrines and traditions of men that created this
new generation of preachers and teachers that so offend him and those of his
generation.
And men
shall wax worse and worse [falling from one set of fables to another]
“…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 (Goth
fantasy series) 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! (Like Harry Potter, like the Matrix etc etc etc)
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 (Personally
I find it obscene that this preacher finds vampires to be a parody of Salvation
and Eternal life. As if the eternal
death of Hell and The
In
the pagan myth, ‘vampires’ are those who obtain ‘immortality’ by sucking other’s blood. (Dracula and
Vampires are largely modern literary myth – This rant looking to blame
evangelical and fundamentalist woes on something else is not even worth any
further reading – as it does nothing to solve the underlying failures of these
churches and denominations. Nuff Said!) ‘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
“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)