Magic Usage in Games

[Anon]

Actually that's a very good object lesson...

[Guest Guest]

If you are looking for a blunt answer, yes. I do not believe their books would pass the Philippians 4:8 test, and the narnia series contains some serious false doctrines as well.

[kevinmiller]

I agree with you Suzy, having a standard for your family that makes it easy to separate what you don't want influencing your kids. I think once they're older, though, and when it comes to other people, it's best to let people discern for themselves as the Holy Spirit leads them. Many people have different standards. You may like some movies that other Christians would find offensive. Some Christians would find movies, in general, offensive. I think it's just as important for us not to judge them as it is for them not to judge us, who feel more free to watch movies that we deem to be clean. Each person has to follow the Holy Spirit's leading in their lives that might tell them to abstain from Lewis or Tolkien material altogether or to distinguish between the two.

[Anon]

I agree with you Suzy' date=' having a standard for your family that makes it easy to separate what you don't want influencing your kids. I think once they're older, though, and when it comes to other people, it's best to let people discern for themselves as the Holy Spirit leads them. Many people have different standards. You may like some movies that other Christians would find offensive. Some Christians would find movies, in general, offensive. I think it's just as important for us not to judge them as it is for them not to judge us, who feel more free to watch movies that we deem to be clean. Each person has to follow the Holy Spirit's leading in their lives that might tell them to abstain from Lewis or Tolkien material altogether or to distinguish between the two.[/quote']

We just have to remember that its not really "discerning for themselves" as much as "comparing with Scripture" and being "sensitive to the Holy Spirit".

[kevinmiller]

Certainly. Spirit-led discernment. :lol

[deafnva77]

Is there a difference between gathering some eye of newt, tail of rat and performing a dark ritual, and something like playing a video game where a wizard uses magic?

Or maybe playing a card game based on The Lord of The Rings, which contains magic?

Does this extend to reading books, such as The Chronicles of Narnia, that contain magic usage?

Tell me what you guys think.

apparently, you don't know very many IFB. We are the type of people who more likely to get rid of our tv.

I think it depend on their message or agenda. Narnia was meant to tell a story to send a christian message while Harry Potter was not. Personally, I would just stick with non-magic stories. I like some sci-fi (not all of them) involving future technologies (think Jetsons) as long as they don't have those weird talking creatures.

I think everyone read a fairytale or two before.

[HappyChristian]

Actually, Narnia wasn't written to tell a spiritual truth.

Lewis said:[quote]Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I?d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn?t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory and the author of The Allegory of Love, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This indicates Lewis' view of Narnia as a fictional parallel universe. As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs Hook in December 1958:

If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all.
[/quote]

Lewis incorporated all kinds of ideas in the books. Including paganism. If Christians can claim that the books have a Christian message, pagans can claim the same thing (with more accuracy, considering the types of characters he used).

Are the books interesting to read? Yes, they are. But are they what kids [u]should[/u] read, are they [u]best[/u]? I think there are a lot of much better adventure books, that are more true to life - and that don't contain a mingling of things that shouldn't be mingled. God doesn't want us mingling Christianity with the world.

[Rebel Prince]

[quote="Kitagrl"]I for one can handle reading those, or fairy tales, or etc.[/quote]

Same here. My friends can all handle it too.

:saint

[Anon]

[quote="Rebel Prince"][quote="Kitagrl"]I for one can handle reading those, or fairy tales, or etc.[/quote]

Same here. My friends can all handle it too.

:saint[/quote]


LOL let me elaborate...

Old fashioned Grimm or Anderson fairy tales....and Narnia BUT personally I do not enjoy Narnia. I'm just saying if I had to, I could read it without being deceived into thinking its a good thing, and without being drawn into deeper things.

[Guest Guest]

kitagrl. I was raised on "Old fashioned Grimm" and "Anderson fairy tales." Thank the Lord I was NEVER interested in the Narnia "mania" that was so popular when it first came out. :amen:

[Marcus2Israel]

My personal testimony is when I got saved God's Holy Spirit constantly convicted me of the wrong of all such things involved with witchcraft. Every Christian that is in the Word of God should have the discernment to tell that magic and witchcraft are an abomination in any form. I was obsessed with Warcraft, Zelda, Harry Potter, all of that stuff. When I got saved I knew it was wrong. That stuff is fun, but is certainly isnt abstaining from all appearence of evil by being involved with that stuff. Who needs Narnia and LOTR and T.V. and video games when we have God and His Word anyway? Shouldn't we be fixed on heavenly things rather things of Earth?

[Guest Guest]

My personal testimony is when I got saved God's Holy Spirit constantly convicted me of the wrong of all such things involved with witchcraft. Every Christian that is in the Word of God should have the discernment to tell that magic and witchcraft are an abomination in any form. I was obsessed with Warcraft' date=' Zelda, Harry Potter, all of that stuff. When I got saved I knew it was wrong. That stuff is fun, but is certainly isnt abstaining from all appearence of evil by being involved with that stuff. Who needs Narnia and LOTR and T.V. and video games when we have God and His Word anyway? Shouldn't we be fixed on heavenly things rather things of Earth?[/quote']


What an AWESOME testimony---Marcus. I know many Christians with similar testimonies as yourself. :goodpost:

[kevinmiller]

My personal testimony is when I got saved God's Holy Spirit constantly convicted me of the wrong of all such things involved with witchcraft. Every Christian that is in the Word of God should have the discernment to tell that magic and witchcraft are an abomination in any form. I was obsessed with Warcraft' date=' Zelda, Harry Potter, all of that stuff. When I got saved I knew it was wrong. That stuff is fun, but is certainly isnt abstaining from all appearence of evil by being involved with that stuff. Who needs Narnia and LOTR and T.V. and video games when we have God and His Word anyway? Shouldn't we be fixed on heavenly things rather things of Earth?[/quote']
Who needs computers and ice cream and other fun things when we have God and His Word? If that is your preference, stick to it. What you've been convicted about doesn't necessarily apply to others who may not have been, though.

[deafnva77]

I've always been into magic stuffs. When I was little, I used to hope sooo much there there would be an enchanted garden somewhere in my backyard woods. I would enter it, and proof, I would be perfect and all my problems are gone. I could do anything that I couldn't do in the real world. I had a quite an imagination. When I was a teen, I was into little bit in witchcrafts. I looked up all kind of spells, thinking they must work. I even tried spells for revenge (I had some very cruel people in my high school who picked on me everyday) or make someone to have a crush on me. I loved reading fantasy books (LOTR, yep, I read those), watching fantasy movies,, etc. I loved games involving magic as well.

And it all came down to it. I wanted to be perfect and a perfect world. I liked magic because it mean more control of my life. Then I read about Satan who thrived the same thing as I did. Then, I realized what I was doing. I learned to appreciate God and accept the who I am. I no longer had the need for all this magic stuffs anymore. I also realize the real magic is the Lord himself, and that when I go to heaven, I will have a glorified body anyway, far more better than than I dreamed of in my childhood's enchanted garden.

[Marcus2Israel]

I was just saying why waste your time on games rather then being busy about God's work? That's the ideal that christians should strive for. Though i'm nowhere near there and I don't know many who are.