Book Comment: Conquer. Your Battle Plan for Spiritual Victory

 

In his book, Conquer. Your Battle Plan for Spiritual Victory, Michael Youssef says of the Devil, “… as Christians we find ourselves constantly at war with him. If that is not your experience of the Christian life, then something is wrong.”

Youssef asserts that the Devil exists but that obedience to the Lord pushes him away. You have many doors to your soul and you need to close those doors to prevent illegal entry. You must lock as many doors as you can. You do this by prayer and Bible study.

The Devil is a liar and deceitful, but he does not (cannot) break and enter. Like the famed fictional vampire Count Dracula, he can only enter if you invite him in. If you resist him in God’s name, he will run away. The battle is already won.

As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself.

Information you will need to search for this book: Youssef, Michael, Conquer. Your Battle Plan to Spiritual Victory (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2015)

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A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Film Comment: Sinners (2025)

 

Sinners is a movie which is intended to be about racism, cultural oppression, colonialism, black culture, anti-religion, and anti-Christianity. As usual, I can make Christian observations about the film which are probably unintended by the director.

“Son, you keep dancin’ with the Devil, one day, he’s gonna follow you home,” from a pastor father to Sammie, nicknamed Preacherboy, who is aching to become famous for his outstanding blues guitar and singing talent. Sammie hooks up with two morally fluid brothers who are opening a juke joint. This sets up a conflict when two white men and a woman show up that night wanting to join in the fun. The problem is that they are vampires.

One man about to be killed/turned into a vampire begins to loudly quote the Lord’s Prayer. All the vampires join in and help complete the quotation. This seems to be intended to show that Christianity has no power against evil.

A Christian response: the frightened man’s words were just that, words, and they did have no power. There is a difference between knowing and believing. The power is not in the words. They are not a Magick spell. God is not our genie in a bottle. The words have power only as they are used by the Holy Spirit.

The theologian, Martin Luther, noted that "The Devil can quote scripture to his own ends." Satan quoted Psalms 91:11-12 while tempting Jesus to misuse his authority (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Jesus responded to Satan's attack by quoting scripture back to him, Matthew 4:7, which quotes Deuteronomy 6:16..

Film Comment: The Twilight Series

The Twilight series of films is based on a highly successful five book young adult romance fantasy series by American author Stephenie Meyer.  The films are:

Twilight (2008)

Twilight: New Moon (2009)

Twilight: Eclipse (2010)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (2011)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (2012)

To date (25 November 2012) the series has grossed over $2,500,000,000 worldwide.  The basic plot is this: Bella, a lonely teenager, displaced by divorce to a boring small town on the United States northwest coast, becomes attracted to a strange but handsome boy at her high school.  She eventually comes to realize just how strange he is.

Edward is a member of a vampire family which lives in one location until it becomes difficult to disguise the fact that they are not aging.  The “family” members are not biologically related but were collected together by the patriarch, whom they recognize as their father.  The family long ago stopped hunting humans for food and lives off the blood of forest animals.

Edward proves to be a sensitive and protective boyfriend for Bella and he strongly holds to his Nineteenth Century values of sexual abstinence and chaste love until marriage.  That presents the problem: a vampire cannot marry a human.  Because he loves her, Edward is reluctant to “turn” Bella though she begs him to.  He realizes that he would be damning her to become a monster like himself.

Stephenie Meyer, the writer of the Twilight novels, is a Mormon and some believe this is the origin of the series’ emphasis on family and chastity.  Feminists have complained that the novels and films present Bella as a helpless female, with her life revolving around her man.  Edward must continually protect Bella from other vampires (and werewolves!) who disapprove of their relationship.  Feminists also object to the relationship’s violence, as Bella is seriously injured when she and Edward eventually do consummate their relationship.

Bella eventually becomes a powerful vampire with a beautiful half-human half-vampire child.

I see all these things, but what I really see is perhaps a message which Meyer did not originally intend.  The message is this:  to succeed, to really get what you want in this world, you must submit.  Adapt to the world.  Adjust what you believe.  Buy into the system, and you may find love, success, wealth, and maybe even power.  The darkness is very seductive.

Film Comment: Catch That Kid

Be very careful to screen the movies you let your children watch.  Just because a film is labeled as a “children’s movie” does not mean it is actually a fit film for them to see.  Children do ingest the ideas and worldviews of the things to which they are regularly exposed.  Just think of how quickly they pick up and begin to use “bad words” from adults.

Catch That Kid (2004) is a remake of the 2002 Danish film, Catch That Girl , and is an almost scene to scene copy of the original film.  Both are billed as “kid-friendly” thrillers.

Catch That Kid stars Kristen Stewart (b. 1990, California, USA) who was thirteen at the time the film was made.  Stewart is best known for her role as the young daughter in Panic Room (2002) and in the Twilight Saga films, as Bella Swan, a human teenager who falls in love with a vampire who was born in 1901 and made into a vampire in 1918.

The plot of Catch That Kid is actually quite simple.  Thirteen year-old Maddy (short for Madeline) is a talented young rock climber whose father suddenly needs a terribly expensive experimental surgery  for which the family has no resources.  She recruits two thirteen year-old eighth-grade boys (both of whom love her, of course) to help her rob an impregnable bank using their computer and mechanical skills.  The plot is thickened because Maddy must also babysit for her one year old brother on the night of the robbery.

The movie is touted as a fun “kid-friendly thriller” and it does have thrills and suspense.  It also has plot holes, logical inconsistencies, silly slapstick level humor, and glosses over or skips entirely legal consequences which would be caused by the events depicted.  It also contains a science fiction element with technology not yet available and especially not available in 2003.   What this all means is that the events in this film could not actually happen.  The children would have been captured, injured, or possibly killed.

Several of the reasons why this film is inappropriate for children include:

1.     Number one, the children rob a bank, committing a major crime.  One of the boys opines, “I wonder if we can finish the eighth grade in prison.”

2.     The children engage in mild profanity.

3.     The children lie to adults to manipulate them and obviously enjoy doing so.

4.     Maddy manipulates a bank executive to steal his access codes.  In doing so, she commits theft of intellectual property.

5.     Maddy lies to both of the boys to get them to help her.  She tells each of the boys that she loves him, manipulating his emotions.

6.     Maddy has to babysit her one year old brother on the night of the heist.  Since she cannot just leave him at the house, she takes him along on the robbery, thereby exposing an infant to great danger.

7.     Maddy’s mother lies to keep the three twelve year olds out of trouble.

The film seems to teach children that, as long as everything works out well in the end, it is acceptable and even smart to lie or to steal or to endanger an innocent.  What you want is more important than what is right.  The glorification of the self, the essence of this fallen world, the essence of sin.

You Have to Have Faith

If you have seen many vampire movies you know the often repeated scene where a scared out his wits victim grabs a crucifix and holds it up to ward off an advancing vampire.  Of course, the vampire grabs and crushes the crucifix, and then says, "You have to have faith!" Then the biting begins.

There is a story in Acts 19:13-16 where two unbelieving Jewish exorcists attempted to use the name of Jesus as if it were a powerful magic incantation.  Their idea was to use the magic to cast a demon out of a possessed man.  Instead of being cast out, the demon had its slave beat the two men and chase them away.


"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew,and chief of the priests, which did so.  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." Acts 19:13-16

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Andrew Stanton: (b. 1965, Massachusetts, USA) Film director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor. Two Academy Awards (Best Animated Feature) for Finding Nemo and Wall-E.

Vladislaus III Dracul: (b. 1431, Wallachia (Romania) – d. 1477; aka: Vlad Dracula; Vlad the Impaler; Vlad Tepes) Prince of the Romanian principality of Wallachia.  The family crest was a dragon hanging down from a cross.  In Latin “draco” means dragon, in Romanian it means “devil.”  Romanians and others in the region remember him as a Christian prince who repelled the Ottoman advance into Romania.  He was praised for this by Pope Pius II, who also criticized his methods.

When Ottoman envoys refused to remove their caps in his presence, he had their caps nailed to their heads and sent them back to their Sultan, Mehmet  II.  When mehmet II lead his forces to the outskirts of Tirgoviste, he saw “the Forest of the Impaled,” 20,000 Turkish prisoners impaled through their bodies on sharp poles sticking up out of the ground.  He signed his name as “Drakula” or “Drakulya.” To much of the world ,he is considered to have been brutal and sadistic and he is the real-life inspiration for the fictional vampire character, Count Dracula.  Roman Catholic.

http://www.bucovine.com/en/pages/vlad_tepes.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vlad_Tepes_002.jpg

Y-Ben Hok: In 2008, Y-Ben Hok, the pastor of a 132 member Ede tribe Christian congregation, was arrested in Vietnam and died in police custody.  The official report was that he committed suicide.

Johann von Staupnitz (b. ca. 1469, Saxony – d. 1524)  He was the vicar general of the Augustinian Order in Germany and a personal friend of the monk, Martin Luther.  He never became a Protestant and complained of the uproar the movement caused within the Roman Catholic Church.

Kim Shin-Jo: In 1968, North Korean Kim Shin-Jo was a member of a thirty-one person assassination squad sent into South Korea to kill President Park Chung-Hee.  Kim was the only one of the assassins to survive the attack.  North Korea executed his parents after he became a South Korean citizen in 1970 and converted to Christianity.  He eventually became the pastor at Sungrak Sambong Church in Gyeongg- do.

Temple of the Vampire

I had an experience a few years ago which was somewhat unnerving at the time, though I soon realized that the people actually meant me no harm.  I work a second job on the evening shift and, one night on my way home, I stopped at a red light.  Suddenly beside me was a black hearse with darkened windows.  Then they appeared; white faces pressed against the inside of the hearse's windows,  mouths open with fangs exposed, and white eyes with pinpoint pupils.  When the light changed, I drove away.  I imagine they had a very good laugh. 

They were probably members of a subset of the Goth culture which has an ultra-dark look and worldview with its own traditions, music, clothing, literature, etc.  Many are "closet" Goths, only dressing up in their makeup and costumes to be with their friends.  The more hardcore really live the lifestyle.  Not all Goths consider themselves to be vampires and not all vampires consider themselves to be Goths.

The Temple of the Vampire (http://vampiretemple.com/) is a religious organization founded in the United States in 1989.  It is officially recognized by the United States government as a religion.  The group has members in the United States, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, England, and Australia.

The group claims that its members learn to gain real control over their lives by understanding the higher powers of the vampire.  The group promises that members will gain willpower and mental strength, learn how to influence and control other people, achieve improved health,experience financial freedom, and attain a prolonged lifespan.  The philosophy is similar to but not the same as the Church of Satan: neither God nor the Devil actually exist; the self is exalted; we are better and stronger than mere humans. 

The Temple strongly rejects one misconception about themselves; they do not engage in physical blood drinking or criminal assault.  Members do openly declare that they are an elitist secret society and consider themselves to be living Gods.

Some other vampire churches: Order of the Dragon, The Vampire Church, House of Kheperu,and  The Vampire Grove.  There are several types of vampires: Lifestyle Vampires (Real Vampires would classify these as "Vampire Lite"), Real Vampires (some consume real blood, others say they consume the life energy of others), and those who claim to be actual Undead Immortals.  There are estimates that the number of vampires worldwide is about 300,000.

Book Comment: How to Be a Vampire

This book is obviously trying to cash in on the current pop culture interest in vampires caused by the popularity of the Twilight series of books and films by Stephanie Meyer.   The series takes the romantic/tragic vampires of author Anne Rice and raises them to a new level of romantic fantasy.  Many hardcore horror fans think that the Twilight vampire stories are strictly gothic romance. 

How to Be a Vampire is clearly just a commercial venture, pointed out by the fact that it discusses television series bloodsuckers along with all the varieties of the Undead from folklore throughout history.  The cover of the book features a smiling vampiress with blood-tipped fangs.  Where the book actually becomes dangerous is that it also presents itself as a guide about how to become a vampire and asks, "Are you food or a companion?"

For impressionable, lonely young people this fantasy can become an all-encompassing lifestyle and even become, for some, a religion. (See tomorrow's post.)

"A world of power and beauty awaits.   Fearsome and irresistible, the vampire's realm entices. ... to assume the mantle of a deity ... beyond the mundane triviality of their fragile human brethren ..."

The book tells its readers where to look for vampires, the signs of their presence, and how to act once a vampire is found.  The chapters include: How to Be Turned; Finding the Perfect Sire; Powers: What You Can do; The Hunt Is On: How to Feed; Alternative Foods; Vampire Trackers: The Mortals; Supernatural Foes; How to Form Your Own Coven; Living the Undead Lifestyle; Vampire Etiquette; and Should You Date a Mortal? 

This book is a cynical cashing in on a fad.  The author might claim that it is "tongue-in-cheek."  The danger is that some young people may take it seriously.

Gray, Amy, How to be a Vampire (Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press, 2009)

Quitting Christianity

On 28 July 2010, novelist Anne Rice posted this on her Facebook page, "In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen." She made her decision because she says she refuses to be opposed to homosexuality, feminism, and artificial birth control.

Rice was raised as a Roman Catholic but left the church as an adult. She is best known as a writer of gothic and vampire-themed novels, especially Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned. In 2008, she released her memoir, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, about her return to Roman Catholicism. She apparently is not renouncing Jesus but organized religion.

Film Comment: The Big Picture

We've all realized after the fact that we have missed opportunities for witnessing to people; people who were obviously "ready," under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The one who was not ready was us.

The Big Picture (2000) is a short film apparently available only as an extra on the DVD release of Daybreakers (2010), a vampire film with a twist.

In The Big Picture, a young woman politely but firmly rebuffs the supper invitation offered to her by her nerdy neighbor, who sadly walks back home in the rain. He has brought her a flower and obviously has worked for hours, perhaps days, to build up enough courage to speak to her.

At first to her distress, and then to her growing delight, the woman is astonished when her television begins showing her a progression of images taking place in her living room. She sees images of the nerd becoming her boyfriend and then her husband and then the father of her beautiful children. She sees herself, in the living room, with her teenaged daughter and sees herself happily growing old with her devoted husband. Of course, she decides to go across the street to accept her neighbor's supper invitation. It's then that she learns the truth: one must respond to opportunities when they become available or they may no longer be available.

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" 1 Peter 3:15

"...put me on a cross ..."

Kristen Stewart, the star of the Twillight series of films is quoted about her fans in US Weekly for 28 June 2010 on page 14.

"I ... hope that I don't run off at the mouth and say something stupid they'd put me on a cross for."

Ms. Stewart meant no disrespect to Christianity. That was probably never in her mind. What her statement does reflect is the casual way in which our modern culture views religion and the sacred. There is little or no understanding of the holy.

In contrast, to the ancient Jews, the very name of God was too holy to even pronounce. When they came upon it in the uninterrupted strings of consonants in which their scriptures were written, they said "Lord" instead. When, later, vowel marks were devised and added to the texts, the vowels for adonai ("Lord") were added to the consonants HWHJ (Hebrew is read right to left, so we would see this as JHWH, the Tetragrammaton, commonly pronounced today as "Jahweh"). This combination of consonants and vowels was unpronounceable in Hebrew and was spoken as "Lord."

Centuries later, German translators misunderstood and transliterated the name as "Jehovah."

Another light bulb joke

How many vampires does it take to screw in a light bulb?
None, they like to work in the dark.

Film Comment: Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter

The sacriligious comedic film, Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter, an otherwise almost totally worthless piece of anti-Christian garbage, gets this one point right.  The resurrected Jesus, a kung-fu master and all-around cool guy, tells one of his followers, "My death was never the end of the story."