Having grown up in Europe where castles exist in real life, open fields and forests abounded, and many streets were made of stone, these stories came to life and filled my imagination long past their first reading. They sparked an interest in all things from the Middle Ages, especially knights, siege towers, and the Crusades. They also opened a world to me filled with adventure, myth, and legend.
I’ve never quite gotten over my obsession with this sort of thing. My favorite video games have swords and spells, not guns and grenades. My favorite history books predate Colonial America and the Industrial Revolution. And my favorite Christmas movies are still the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the extended edition being a must.
I’ll leave it up to the Inklings to explain to us why these sorts of stories are so captivating. There is no question however that this love for fantasy, dragons, and wizards is not a phenomenon that belongs to homeschoolers and Dungeons and Dragons fans only. From Skyrim to Harry Potter to The Rings of Power show, fantasy fiction is here to stay for a while.
While most Christians I know have some level of appreciation for the books or film adaptations of Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling, what concerns me is the fascination I see among Christians with series like Game of Thrones and The Witcher.
My only experience with Game of Thrones was in high school where I checked the first book out at the library. The cover looked cool and I thought I had discovered a new series to scratch that Middle-Earth itch that only a homeschooler could understand.
I read the first few chapters and was disappointed. My dad looked the book up and he was too, but for different reasons.
I was an atheist at the time, and was disappointed that the kinds of stories I had grown to love had been hijacked for people to be entertained by graphic violence and explicit depictions of sex (including rape). It seemed to cheapen the wonder of places like Middle-Earth and Narnia.
My dad was upset because of curse words and sex scenes. At the time my moral compass pointed just about anywhere but North, but I am glad my dad had the wisdom to return the book and encourage me to read better things.
Before I began to follow Jesus I took issue with this mixture of fantasy-fiction and literary porn because it missed the mark of what I came to expect from stories about knights and dragons. It was only after my conversion that I began to see the deeper sense of what was wrong with Game of Thrones (and now the Netflix series The Witcher).
Tolkien and Lewis created stories filled with beautiful places, interesting characters, and great battles that pointed away from themselves and to a greater reality. They opened up a literary world of wonder and beauty, where good and evil do battle, and choices matter. Their stories made you wish that our world was a little bit clearer, that the enemy was understood to be a foe greater than we could ever imagine, and yet that we could have hope because choices still matter and heroes can still come from nowhere and change the course of history… these stories pointed to the Kingdom of God breaking into the kingdom of darkness through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The choices of Christians make an eternal impact on the landscape of human history.
What C.S. Lewis laid out as “true myth” is hollowed out of all its Gospel beauty in Game of Thrones and similar stories.
While much more could be said in line with the kinds of stories that Christians ought to tell, there is a much simpler reason (more in line with my dad’s response) to not read or watch these books and series… choices still matter.
I was raised in pretty stereotypical legalistic and independent churches. I have first hand experience in trying to earn my salvation and approval before God. I am the last person who wants to add to the Gospel, to reach further than Scripture allows, or to bind the consciences of fellow believers where I ought not. Where Scripture is not clear, I want to be charitable and affirm that disagreement is possible. But where Scripture is clear, I want to be charitable and love others by pointing them to their ultimate good which is found in the majesty of God.
You don’t have to find some obscure blog for the evidence of graphic violence and sex that takes place in these books and shows. Popular sites, like IMDb, are happy to tell us (see IMDb’s parental guides to Game of Thrones and The Witcher).
There is just no getting around the fact that both of these shows seek to entertain their viewers through nudity, sex, graphic violence, and suicide.
Hebrews 12:14-17 says,
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Tom Schreiner leads us through this passage in his commentary on Hebrews,
Holiness is not optional, for apart from it "no one will see the Lord." Seeking holiness is the opposite of falling away or apostasy. Holiness should not be understood in terms of sinlessness but describes those who continue to seek and pursue the Lord. The reward is described here in personal terms. Those who seek holiness will see the Lord, i.e., they will "experience eternal life." Revelation says that saints will see God's face in the new creation (Rev 22:4; cf. 1 John 3:3; 1 Cor 13:12). A similar thought is found in Matt 5:8, "The pure in heart are blessed, for they will see God"
Continuing on the right pathway and pursuing holiness are not optional. According to the author, life and death are at stake. Hence believers should "watch over" one another, exhorting one another not to "[fall] short of the grace of God." Those who fall short commit apostasy since they don't continue in God's grace. The bitterness here could be understood literally, and certainly bit- terness defiles and stains when it spreads. But it is more likely that the root of bitterness is metaphorical here, which means that the author has in mind a bitter root that produces terrible consequences. The author draws on Deut 29:18-19,
Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you to- day whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt, thinking, "I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart."
The bitter and poisonous root refers to those who abandon the Lord and worship other gods. They abandon the Lord, and yet think they will be safe and secure from judgment. The author of Hebrews worries that his readers will fall into the same trap. He assures them that they won't be safe from judgment if they abandon the Lord. The word "defiled" in the OT refers to those who are unclean (cf. Lev 5:3; 11:24, 43-44; 13:3, 8, 44; 15:31; 18:24-25, 27, 20:3: 21:1; Num 5:3, 14; 6:7; Deut 21:23; Hos 5:3: 9:4: Ha 2:13, Isa 43:28; Jer 2:7; Ezek 4:14; 7:24), and the defilement is sometimes ceremonial and sometimes moral. In Hebrews, however, the defilement is moral, signifying that those who have given themselves over to apostasy are unclean and outside of the covenant.
Believers should be on guard so that no one would be sexually immoral or profane like Esau. "He is the foil of the faithful described in 11:1-40.” The word "immoral" always refers to sexual immorality (Sir 23:17; 1 Cor 5:9-11; 6:9: Eph 5:5:1 Tim 1:10; Heb 13:4; Rev 21:8; 22:15), and thus it likely has that mean ing here as well. But how was Esau sexually immoral? Perhaps in his decision to marry Hittite women (Gen 26:34). His lack of concern for holy things is evident in his disdain for his birthright. It was so trivial to him that he sold it for one meal (Gen 25:29-34) and hence he "despised his birthright" (Gen 25:34). "God did not take Esau's blessing from him; Esau traded it away. And God let him bear the consequences of his action." The author is concerned that the readers will fall into the same trap as Esau. As Koester says, "Esau gave up the promise in order to ease his physical discomfort, listeners might consider giving up the promise in order to ease their social discomfort." They have been given something precious and beautiful in the gospel and must not forsake it for the comforts or joys of the present evil age.
Conclusion
While there is much more to be said about truth, beauty, and goodness in storytelling (and that we need more Christian storytellers), I will close with a few things to consider by highlighting a few things from Hebrews 12.
First, as Schreiner says, “holiness is not optional.” No, the degree of your sanctification on this side of eternity does not determine the degree of your security on that side of eternity. However, Scripture is clear from start to finish that those who claim to belong to the people of God but deny Him by following the way of the world were never members of the covenant to begin with.
Second, it wasn’t that Esau committed some heinous immoral act (that we know of) that led him to abandon his birthright. What seems clear is that Esau so disdained his own inheritance that it played no role in how he made decisions. He was happy to give away the inheritance for temporary pleasure.
Holiness is not optional, and we should be charitably eager to pursue the holiness without which we will not see the Lord. The “we” here is important. We pursue holiness together as members of local churches. Esau traded temporary pleasure for eternal joy. May we, unlike him, seek repentance with tears before it is too late. Schreiner writes, “[we] have been given something precious and beautiful in the gospel and must not forsake it for the comforts or joys of the present evil age.”
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