By Deborah Teat
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Reproduction of any means prohibited without permission from author
Adventure. Mystery. Morals. Good versus evil. These things and more make up one of the most famous and popular trilogies of all time: The Lord of The Rings.
It�s no wonder LOTR is so well-liked; virtues such as courage, honor, doing what is right no matter the cost, loyalty, friendship, and many others run riot throughout these amazing adventure books. The movies only help to bring them all to life in a bigger way.
But amid all these wonderful qualities, there sits an underlying falsehood that I believe needs to be addressed.
Before I begin, let me say I was once an extreme LOTR fan. I read and loved the books, saw the movies dozens of times, and was drawn to the action, adventure, cleanliness, and good morals that created the kind of story I loved. I absolutely adored LOTR! So to all LOTR fans, please know I�m not looking down on you. I�m not condemning you. Rather, I hope to provoke thought through sharing my story.
God begin to prick my conscience about these stories. Were they really something to endorse? I pushed that aside. Of course of they were! They were allegories to the Christian life, weren�t they?
I somehow managed to convince myself that I was just being overly picky. So the issue was buried: I kept on loving LOTR, and promoting them. That is, until I attended an AWANA workshop. The lady who spoke was saved out of a satanic cult, and told her story of being in witchcraft, what it is really like, and things of that nature. I saw, in a way I hadn�t before, why God condemned any occult practice. I was convicted hard. How could I continue loving something that had the occult at the very core of it? I went home and looked up every verse in the Bible I could find on witchcraft or wizardry. My results were an eye-opener. Again and again, God condemned any sort of these things. There were no good wizards in the Bible. There was no good magic in the Bible. It was all an abomination to Him; God condemned everything that even hinted at witchcraft or sorcery. The question remained in my mind; if God condemns it, why am I condoning it? I knelt by my bed and cried, ashamed and repenting of my lack of discretion and willingness to listen to what God was saying to me.
My question for you is this: If God so severely condemned witchcraft, sorcery, or anything of the occult in Bible times (the penalty for practicing these things was death), what makes us think that He approves of it now? Remember, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means that His hatred of sorcery is the same today as it was in Bible times.
His standards have not changed; ours have.
Oh yes, I know all of the excuses for LOTR. I use to use them myself.
�But LOTR is just an allegory of the Christian walk. It�s not supposed to be real.�
Tolkien never intended his story to be an allegory. He said so himself. Even if he had, do you really think God is pleased that unbiblical means were used to portray a biblical relationship with God? Do you think that Jesus is pleased that a wizard was chosen to represent Himself, when He hates wizardry? Whether or not it�s supposed to be real is not the issue. The issue is the ends don�t justify the means. God is not just concerned with the destination. He�s concerned about the journey as well. We cannot use something God has condemned to teach biblical truth. This is a contradiction.
�But look at all of the spiritual meaning in LOTR, good versus evil is clearly defined.�
Pardon me, but I don�t believe it is. Using a wizard as a "good guy" blurs the line as to what is good, and what is evil. It�s like saying you have to get drunk to win your unsaved drunkard buddies to Christ. Doesn�t matter what you do, so long as the end turns out right, and you are still faithful to what�s right at the end. This is totally opposite Scripture.
"Tolkien wrote LOTR to be in another world. It isn't in our world."
Perhaps Tolkien did intend for it to be in another world. But where in Scripture do we read that witchcraft is okay in any world? Why would setting a story that uses something God has condemned, make it okay, in another world? Would writing a story that contains immorality be alright, as long it's in another world? Of course not. So why does the fact it's supposed to be in another world make a difference?