Continuing with last months’ topic, you may remember that I listed some interesting comparisons between Vampires and Christ (see “Vampires as Heroes?” entry from last month if you don’t remember).  But there is one very important thing that Vampires and The King of Kings shares that I did not mention.

Do you know what that is?  (don’t worry I’ll wait…..)

Ok, I can’t wait anymore, it’s the Cross!

Christ died for our sins on the cross and vampires can’t bear to look at the cross (at least in the original movies).  That’s because they are demons not heroes!

Then there is the fact that vampires have always been susceptible to holy water (susceptible meaning it burns them painfully of course) – again because they are abominations of evil or demons — not heroes!

Since I didn’t get any responses to a request for statistics of children knowing more about the Twilight Series than Christ, I did a little research on my own.

In trying to find some of my own statistics (keeping in mind there are not too many people trying to make this type of correlation) as an example I discovered the following:

• The TWILIGHT SERIES Stephenie Meyer Facebook Pages had a 6 month following of about 289,424 fans. (That’s just one Facebook page out of thousands)
• At one time TWILIGHT was one of the top movies searched for on the internet as well as the cast making up about 1/2 of the 30 most popular searched people online.
• Chelsea, a 21 year old fan had this to say about Twilight: “sigh…I hope it really does turn out as big as we want it too. I LOVE Twilight and it DEFINITELY deserves some serious attention (which it’s been getting). Definitely noteworthy.”
• During the opening weekend, The Twilight Saga: New Moon premiered from 4024 movie theaters and earned a whooping $140.7 million – more than four times as much as the first runner up, The Blind Side (box office earnings of $34.5 million) or second runner up 2012 (box office earnings of $26.5 million).

Well that’s about all I am going to cover in this entry.

If you have a related topic or area of interest you want to discuss on this blog then please post a comment or send an email to roger@bible-stories-on-dvd.com

Thank You!

We’ve all seen the movies. Vampire movies have been around for decades – along with Werewolf movies, Zombie moves and good old Frankenstein’s monster.

I emphasized “monster” in the last sentence because that’s what these creatures where viewed as when they were first envisioned by their makers – monstrosities of nature! They were supernatural creatures of the dark — inherently evil – designed to scare us – “horror” stories.

At what point did Vampires become heroes?

Two of the earlier shows that I can remember that portrayed at least a few vampires as good, misunderstood creatures, were Buffy the Vampire Slayer, followed closely by the spin-off of Angel (played by David Boreanaz). Then there was the movie series Blade (played by Wesley Snipes) which was in fact based on a much older comic book series.

That being said let me point out a tangent between Vampires and Christ that you may have not ever thought about.
1. Christ (and Vampires) both claim to have the power of life after death
2. Both claim immortality or eternal life.
3. Both are more powerful than the average human on earth.
4. Both involve the sacrifice or drinking of blood for everlasting life (in a twisted correlation)

Now if there are not alarms going off in your head I suggest you go get a cup of coffee and wake up! Sorry to be so blunt about this subject but it just amazes me about the growing cult following of our kids and young adults and how the media continues to market and glamorize the whole Vampire craze.

I don’t have any statistics to give you but I bet there are more young adults, teens and kids that know about the Twilight series than know Christ! (I would truly appreciate if a reader does have any statistics related to this that they post them for all to see.)

I could probably continue this blog topic for quite a few pages but I think this is a good starting point and look forward to feedback on the subject thus far.

What do these three heroes (and I use the term loosely) have in common?

They are all related to the devil.

That’s not just a far-fetched Christian opinion either — you can get that information straight from the storylines of these (originally comic book inspired) heroes.

Ghost Rider is a man that makes a deal with Satan (sells his soul) so that he can have supernatural powers in exchange for exacting Satan’s revenge on demons that escape from hell. When he’s done Satan is supposed to take back these powers, but the Ghost Rider decides he can combat evil and refuses to let Satan take back his power.

Spawn is actually a man that has done wrong, dies and goes to hell and literally becomes a demon-spawn. Again Satan sends him to earth to do something evil for him and again our “hero” decides he should use his hell-given powers to exact justice (for the good of mankind).

Hell Boy is in fact supposed to be the devil, but; he was rescued by a kindly old man who tries to teach him that he can resist his evil desires, not do what history says he will do, and instead fight demons for the sake of mankind.

We all love a great story about the underdog rising to overcome his weaknesses and triumph over evil. But these stories are in fact about people or creatures given life or powers from Satan. We are then supposed to believe we can make a deal with the devil then resist him and decide we will be a demon (of sorts) that will fight for the good of mankind.

The bible warns us to be wary of the prince of lies and his twisted words. How he makes things seem attractive and good to us.

These movies (and comics) about heroes that are created or spawned from hell or the devil can be…well, OK. The stories want us to believe that these are just misunderstood creatures and we should sympathize with their misfortunate lives. They’ve been treated unfairly, they are just misunderstood, and they really aren’t bad people. Hey in fact they care about mankind.

Another lie that the real Satan wants us to believe is that we (humans) have the power to rise up and resist him and fight him and defeat him and his demons.

I know what you’re thinking, but be careful. We can resist them but it’s only with and through God’s glory and grace. We “ourselves” cannot do this. Satan is a higher angel — One of God’s most powerful creations.

These stories plant the seed in our minds that we can accept powers from Satan, resist his temptations, and defeat him ourselves.

Does anyone else see a problem with this kind of hero?

We live in very dark times, in a very dark world, filled with dark people, living dark lives, with dark motives and dark moods.

We are so entrenched into accepting darkness in our everyday lives that we have even created a hero named: The Dark Knight!

He is supposed to be one of the good guys, even though he is a “vigilante”.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a vigilante as:

“a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) or more broadly: a self-appointed doer of justice.”

Thus what it means is that such a hero can “punish” another person as he sees fit. Oh he saves people sure, but he also has the ability to decide it’s ok to punish, even kill and take revenge on “evil doers”.

Of course I don’t want to single out The Dark Knight (who is merely a more modern day contortion of the original crime fighting hero Batman). As I mentioned there is also: The Punisher, Vigilante, Ghost Rider, Spawn, and Hell Boy to name just a few!

And yes, you are reading right, there is actually a cowboy hero on the “Justice League” who goes by the very name of Vigilante!

As a kid I know I was taught such things as “do unto others” and “whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers, that you do unto me”, etc. Most super heroes – even “Batman” were originally based on the idea that it was never right to do what the bad guys did to others – exacting justice — because it would make them no better than the bad guys.

When did we decide that this idea was outdated and unsound?

In the coming months we’ll look at:

• Vampires as heroes?
• Demons as heroes? Ghost Rider, Hell Boy and Spawn!
• The original Superman (a model of Christ)?

Imagine first that you lose all your possessions to, let’s say bankruptcy (or divorce or a house fire or flood). Then your wife leaves you. Maybe your children are killed in a car crash.

On top of that you come down with some highly contagious disease.

You’re homeless, starved, cold and living on the street. People pretend they don’t know you. They look away or even cross the street when they see you.

Worst of all, your friends keep coming around and telling you that you have really messed up your life. Whew!

I can’t image any of us going through all that and having the faith to keep trusting in God?

I know many of us have experienced similar events in our lives (bankruptcy, divorce, death of a loved one, terminal illness, etc.) but can you image going through all of those things pretty much one after the other?

Through all that, Job never lost his faith in God. That is why Job will always be one of my favorite bible heroes.