From the Pages of My Heart: ~*~Twilight~*~

Lady Jess

WARNING: This article, while written from a Biblical perspective, contains graphic information about subjects that are not suitable for everyone here. Please get your parent's permission before reading any further.

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I have heard a whole lot of talk about Twilight. I see this book/movie paraphernalia everywhere right now and I decided to do a little researching. I found out that it's a lot more than what it's talked about. Some people might say that they think it's just a romance story. This is what I found. Teenage girl falls in 'love' with a hundred and something year old vampire. Well, let's start out with a few definitions.

*Love- To have benevolence or good will for.

*Vampire-In mythology, an imaginary demon, which was fabled to suck the blood of persons during the night.

Now, look at those two definitions and tell me if they look like they could go together. I don't think so. Vampires are
a supernatural being. Even though in today's culture, we are familiar with the vampire ideology, there's a biblical identity that Christians should see right off. If vampires do exist, the translation of 'vampire' for Christians is 'demon'.

This movie goes right along with the culture today. It's called Gothic. Why do people like black, blood, death, and chains so much?

Why is black so cool? The Bible says in Genesis 1:2-4 "2And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters. 3Then God said, Let there be light: And there was light. 4And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness."

God didn't want everything to be dark, so he created light. He also divided the light from the darkness. The Bible says in 2 Cor. 6:14 "...for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" Why would we want to have communion with darkness when it is associated with unrighteousness? In the definition of vampire it says 'during the night'. In the dark. Many horrible things happen in the night.

It says in James 1:17 "Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God is called 'the Father of lights'. If you feel that you have spent to much time in the dark, come to the light. Come to the Father of lights. He will protect you.

My next question was: "Why is blood so cool?"

Why is it that so many girls feel like they need to cut themselves? When I thought about this, it brought someone to mind. The maniac of Gadara. He was possessed with a legion of demons. The Bible says in Mark 5:5 "And always both night and day he cried in the mountains, and in the graves, and struck himself with stones." I wonder if he had some emotional problems with, maybe, depression or self punishment of guilt. Maybe the demons thought he was easy prey. He might have already had some problems that the demons wanted to prey on. God loves us and Satan hates us. Since Satan can't hurt God, he sometimes hurts us to get to God. God promised

us in 1 Kings 8:57 "The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers, that he forsake us not, neither leave us," Also Psalm 23:4 says "Yea, though I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." God wants to comfort us and be with us, all we have to do is obey his commandment and ask.

He was in the mountains and the graves. We see by 'graves' that this man had a fascination with death. Part of this 'gothic culture' is death. Isn't that what a vampire is? It's someone who has, in a sense, died.

Here it is speaking about Jesus when it says in Hebrews 2:14 "Forasmuch then as partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part with them; that he might destroy through death, him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;"

Right here in this verse it says that the devil has power of death, but Jesus has the power over the devil. Therefore, Jesus has power over death. If you have developed a fascination with death, Jesus can help you over come that. He is that Tree of Life.
"he cried in the mountains, and in the graves, and struck himself with stones." I don't think that he was crying just because it hurt physically. He probably was going through some serious emotional pain as well. When Jesus came, he helped this man. Jesus can help you too.

Why does today's culture like chains so much?

The Bible says in Mark 5:3-4 (speaking of the maniac) "Who had his abiding among the graves, and no man could bind him, no not with fetters: 4Because that he was often bound with fetters and chains, he plucked the chains asunder, and brake the fetters in pieces,neither could any man tame him." Does living in the Gothic life style have anything to do with our spiritual walk? Yes, it does. It says in Mark 5:6 "And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him," We see here that not only physically was Jesus afar off, but because of the legion of devils, he was spiritually far away. If you have ever been obsessed with the Gothic lifestyle were you seriously studying your Bible during that time? Mark 5:13 "And incontinently Jesus gave them leave. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran headlong from the high bank into the sea, (and there were about two thousand swine) and were choked up in the sea." I see two things here. One is that the demons did not 'love' this man. As books like 'Twilight' project, the vampire/ demon "loved" this girl. I don't know if the demons told this man that they wanted to help him or that they loved him. But I know, from what happened, that they didn't, because they wanted to go into a herd of swine. They had about as much respect for him as they did for the pigs. Remember that when they entered the swine they ran over the cliff to their death.

The second thing I see here is that there were 2,000 demons in this one man. When did all this start with him? Before the demons he had friends, we see that in verse 19 "...Go thy way home to thy friends, and show them what great things the Lord hath done unto thee, and how he hath had compassion on thee." It appears that when the demons came into his life, his friends left.

Is this what we want occupying our hearts and minds, even in a fantasy world? Romantic obsession with a demonic being? The Bible says in Phil. 2:5 " Let the same mind be in you, that was even in Christ Jesus,"

The idea of a vampire sucking your blood really should concern us. I believe there are spiritual issues involved. Vampires take your blood, and drain you of your life, they don't give their life to save your soul. Jesus gave his life blood for us on the cross, but he didn't ask for ours in return! Here we are with books that focus almost entirely on the heroine's blood. How awful! No fantasy should twist such an infatuation into "love". This sounds a lot more like the invitation to a demonic presence.

I know what many might say- "It's only a story, it's only fantasy." But, have you ever seen teen girls once they become fascinated, even on a fictional character? It does have an effect on them. Today we are being pushed with Harry Potter when we're twelve and vampires when we're fifteen. These interests shape ideas of the kind of relationship we will seek. We are setting ourselves up to be, at the very least, disappointed with the reality of an ordinary, but nice, non-vampire-ish guy. At worst, we may tolerate abuse as the normal part of a really “passionate” relationship. I would not want to have a relationship with someone when I am worried if I am going to live through the night. I do not know what was running through the fictional girl's head about this demon wanting to kill her in the night, but I would not feel safe. I would run to my parents and to Jesus as fast as I could for protection.

Again, some might say "It's only a story, it's only fantasy." Fantasy has a spiritual aspect to it, which even Christians dismiss in this media time. Wicked, Twilight, Phantom of the Opera, and Lord of the Rings just to name a few. Spending lots of time fascinated with romance involving demons is not becoming for the Bride of Christ preparing for her Bridegroom's return.

We pray your desire to know Christ and have a deep covenantal relationship with Him will begin to grow and that you will find the peace that only He can bring.