Sunday, April 10, 2005
Someone has challenged me to write my thoughts down on Harry Potter. Be forewarned that these thoughts may be somewhat jumbled. For time’s sake I skipped through most of the revision process. Don’t skip down until you read the introduction :)
But before I start, I have to stress that none of this is of any importance to YOU unless you are born again and saved by Jesus Christ. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please email me and I will gladly share with you. This is of the uttermost importance to everyone, whether they are debating the value of Harry Potter or not.
The Bible tells us to instruct one another in love. The Bible says we will be an offense, but because we do good, and not evil. I pray that I have spoken out of brotherly love, and not offended anyone by words I spoke carelessly.
The Bible is God’s Word, and it is fit for correction, teaching, rebuking.
Does the Bible say anything about Harry Potter? True, there are no verses in the Bible that say “Do not read Harry Potter.“, but there is much to be learned from applying Biblical principles to our entire lives. God doesn’t spell out each situation we will encounter in life, and then give exact prescriptions for each one. You say to your child “You are not allowed to go out that front door and walk down the street without permission.” Would you be shocked if your child walked out the SIDE door, UP the street, got on a plane and flew to Mexico? Yeah, probably. But you didn’t tell them not walk UP the street, or not to fly to Mexico, so you can’t really say they were disobedient. This is acceptable behavior? No. They knew they were asked to not walk up the street for a reason. Looking at the Bible and saying “how far can I get with this?” is foolish! We should strive to please God in everything that we do. We should strive to be Godly examples to others.
We cannot say that there is a grey line on everything, and that in every matter we can judge our actions by our conscience. Adultery will never be right, it doesn’t matter how many people think their consciences are telling them that it’s right. Magic arts will never be right.
In the Old Testament God told us how He does not want us practicing magic arts.
Leviticus 19:26 “…Do not practice divination or sorcery.”
Leviticus 19:31 “Do not turn to mediums or spiritists, for you will be defiled by them.”
Leviticus 20:27 “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.”
And in the New Testament He reaffirms that.
Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.“
Revelation 22:15 “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
We have it established that “magic arts” are things that God does not want us practicing.
Hebrews 12:1-3 “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
He says to throw off things that hinder, and the sin that so easily entangles. Things that hinder are not necessarily sin. I am not making the case that to read the Harry Potter books is to sin. But Christians seem to be taking a lackadaisical look at Harry Potter, and it is effecting especially children who read Harry Potter because of their impressionable minds.
Suppose there was a book written about a boy who owns an *adult* shop. However, it takes place on the ocean front beach in Kansas, and they do not pay for the material in money, but in fish heads. The owner of the shop is a liar, he cheats people, and but in the end he saves a girl from drowning. This is a world where children rule the world as adults do in our own, and everyone’s face has blue stripes. It is obviously make believe. Pure fantasy. Granted, the book has some minor problems, but it’s said to be very well written. The descriptions given of the material sold at the shop is unbelievably detailed, but when they interviewed a real shop owner, he said it doesn’t resemble the real stuff at all. And besides, the book is acclaimed for it’s morals, the boy actually puts his life on the line for someone else, an expression of true love. And they have sold millions of the books, so how could something that popular be so bad.
Then there are a few freaks who say something about God hating immorality. But it IS complete fiction, and the things described are just not the real thing. Kids know the difference between truth and fiction! Besides, it doesn’t bother my conscience.
Do you have any objections to that book being given to your child in school to read as an assignment? Why in the world would you? Can’t your kid tell the difference?
Children are curious, and they are extremely impressionable. Let me add from personal experience that if you are exposed to the right things, the occult looks very inviting, especially at a young age. The same as many other things that we wouldn’t think of exposing our children to. Yet for some reason the way magic is described in Harry Potter is not one of them that we worry about. Why not? Are we afraid of our peers? Do we simply refuse to look at black and white evidence?
If you
(1). Disagree there is any magic that resembles real magic in Harry Potter books that is displayed in a positive light
(2). Disagree that children are curious and impressionable
(3). Contend that there is no likelihood that young children could be influenced to explore and initiate contacts with witch/occult related material.
Then I don ’t think you have really considered any Harry Potter material. That there is some sort of magic in Harry Potter books is universally accepted, and it may not be as fake as we think. The principle of spells, incantations, etc, are real in the occult world. The second is obvious. As for the third, it has already occurred.
If you
(1) Agree there is some sort of magic that resembles real magic in the Harry Potter books that is displayed in a positive light
(2) Agree that children are impressionable
(3) Agree that there is a chance that young children could possibly be influenced to explore real witchcraft or initiate contacts with witch/occult related material
(4) Witchcraft and sorcery are an abomination to God
Then I contend that your logic is twisted by accepting the Harry Potter books as “great”, and passing them off as a harmless book that is well written and fit for consumption.
Leave comments :)
And if you have questions…by all means post them. I wasn’t able to put down my complete thoughts down here for two reasons. They are very jumbled, they make sense to me because they are organized in my head, but when I start writing them down they don‘t jump out in order. Second, it would take a while for me to get them organized.
But before I start, I have to stress that none of this is of any importance to YOU unless you are born again and saved by Jesus Christ. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please email me and I will gladly share with you. This is of the uttermost importance to everyone, whether they are debating the value of Harry Potter or not.
The Bible tells us to instruct one another in love. The Bible says we will be an offense, but because we do good, and not evil. I pray that I have spoken out of brotherly love, and not offended anyone by words I spoke carelessly.
The Bible is God’s Word, and it is fit for correction, teaching, rebuking.
Does the Bible say anything about Harry Potter? True, there are no verses in the Bible that say “Do not read Harry Potter.“, but there is much to be learned from applying Biblical principles to our entire lives. God doesn’t spell out each situation we will encounter in life, and then give exact prescriptions for each one. You say to your child “You are not allowed to go out that front door and walk down the street without permission.” Would you be shocked if your child walked out the SIDE door, UP the street, got on a plane and flew to Mexico? Yeah, probably. But you didn’t tell them not walk UP the street, or not to fly to Mexico, so you can’t really say they were disobedient. This is acceptable behavior? No. They knew they were asked to not walk up the street for a reason. Looking at the Bible and saying “how far can I get with this?” is foolish! We should strive to please God in everything that we do. We should strive to be Godly examples to others.
We cannot say that there is a grey line on everything, and that in every matter we can judge our actions by our conscience. Adultery will never be right, it doesn’t matter how many people think their consciences are telling them that it’s right. Magic arts will never be right.
In the Old Testament God told us how He does not want us practicing magic arts.
Leviticus 19:26 “…Do not practice divination or sorcery.”
Leviticus 19:31 “Do not turn to mediums or spiritists, for you will be defiled by them.”
Leviticus 20:27 “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.”
And in the New Testament He reaffirms that.
Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.“
Revelation 22:15 “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
We have it established that “magic arts” are things that God does not want us practicing.
Hebrews 12:1-3 “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
He says to throw off things that hinder, and the sin that so easily entangles. Things that hinder are not necessarily sin. I am not making the case that to read the Harry Potter books is to sin. But Christians seem to be taking a lackadaisical look at Harry Potter, and it is effecting especially children who read Harry Potter because of their impressionable minds.
Suppose there was a book written about a boy who owns an *adult* shop. However, it takes place on the ocean front beach in Kansas, and they do not pay for the material in money, but in fish heads. The owner of the shop is a liar, he cheats people, and but in the end he saves a girl from drowning. This is a world where children rule the world as adults do in our own, and everyone’s face has blue stripes. It is obviously make believe. Pure fantasy. Granted, the book has some minor problems, but it’s said to be very well written. The descriptions given of the material sold at the shop is unbelievably detailed, but when they interviewed a real shop owner, he said it doesn’t resemble the real stuff at all. And besides, the book is acclaimed for it’s morals, the boy actually puts his life on the line for someone else, an expression of true love. And they have sold millions of the books, so how could something that popular be so bad.
Then there are a few freaks who say something about God hating immorality. But it IS complete fiction, and the things described are just not the real thing. Kids know the difference between truth and fiction! Besides, it doesn’t bother my conscience.
Do you have any objections to that book being given to your child in school to read as an assignment? Why in the world would you? Can’t your kid tell the difference?
Children are curious, and they are extremely impressionable. Let me add from personal experience that if you are exposed to the right things, the occult looks very inviting, especially at a young age. The same as many other things that we wouldn’t think of exposing our children to. Yet for some reason the way magic is described in Harry Potter is not one of them that we worry about. Why not? Are we afraid of our peers? Do we simply refuse to look at black and white evidence?
If you
(1). Disagree there is any magic that resembles real magic in Harry Potter books that is displayed in a positive light
(2). Disagree that children are curious and impressionable
(3). Contend that there is no likelihood that young children could be influenced to explore and initiate contacts with witch/occult related material.
Then I don ’t think you have really considered any Harry Potter material. That there is some sort of magic in Harry Potter books is universally accepted, and it may not be as fake as we think. The principle of spells, incantations, etc, are real in the occult world. The second is obvious. As for the third, it has already occurred.
If you
(1) Agree there is some sort of magic that resembles real magic in the Harry Potter books that is displayed in a positive light
(2) Agree that children are impressionable
(3) Agree that there is a chance that young children could possibly be influenced to explore real witchcraft or initiate contacts with witch/occult related material
(4) Witchcraft and sorcery are an abomination to God
Then I contend that your logic is twisted by accepting the Harry Potter books as “great”, and passing them off as a harmless book that is well written and fit for consumption.
Leave comments :)
And if you have questions…by all means post them. I wasn’t able to put down my complete thoughts down here for two reasons. They are very jumbled, they make sense to me because they are organized in my head, but when I start writing them down they don‘t jump out in order. Second, it would take a while for me to get them organized.
