Why Twilight is spiritually fatal, and what it shows us about the state of Christian youth.
… they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. (2 Timothy 4:4)
If someone had 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 believed it. That’s why I was shocked to read this article by Christian documentarians and researchers 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 (1 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 an all out assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Consider this, a young person can go to a theatre 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 influence 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. (1 Corinthians 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-yearold vampire in the form of an attractive and wellmannered 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 theWord, or to live for God.
We once knew that to voluntarily expose ourselves to blasphemy and sexual sin - not to mention something as blatantly spiritistic 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 gurus 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 loftier than 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. (1 John 1:7-9)
About the Author
BILL RANDLES came out of the Word of Faith Movement and is the founder and pastor of Believers in Grace Fellowship in Marion, Iowa which has been in existence since 1982. He is the author of 4 books: Making War in the Heavenlies, Weighed & Found Wanting, Beware the New Prophets, and Mending the Nets. He has travelled to Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Russia and the Philippines preaching the gospel and contending for the faith that has been delivered to the saints. He and his wife, Kristin, have 6 children and 10 grandchildren.
