The Gospel of Twilight?

 Many of you have probably read the books in the Twilight saga and many more have 

probably seen the movie.  But perhaps none of you would imagine that there could be lessons for Christians to learn from vampires.  Well, I am here to tell you that the Cullens have much to 

teach you about being a Christian.  No one could possibly understand better than the Cullens 

what it means to be just and sinful at the same time.  After all, they are the “good guys” aren’t 

they?  But at the same time they are the “good guys” they are also still monsters.  They are 

vampires.  Regardless of how many times they suppress the desire to drink human blood, they 

still have that desire.  They burn for a drink of that forbidden liquid. 

 The Christian is very much the same.  Sure we don’t want to drink blood, but we are 

driven by our natures to do other things.  Sinful things.  You see, just as the Cullens could not 

help being vampires, we cannot help being sinners.  We inherited this sinful nature from our first 

parents just as the Cullens inherited their vampire natures from the one that bit each of them.  

They didn’t ask for it, but they received it.  They simply had to learn how to deal with the 

situation in which they found themselves.  But the Cullens weren’t all bad were they?  They were bad, but they did not allow themselves to become as bad as they could have been.  No matter what, they were monsters, that would never change.  The Christian’s situation is a little different.  

We are also bad, we are sinners.  We will always be sinners as long as we live on earth.  But that 

is not the end of the story for us.  You see, the Christian is always a sinner, it is his nature, he 

cannot help it.  But as one of the baptized children of God he is also justified.  At one time the 

Christian is both sinful and justified.  The Christian has no redeeming qualities, just like a blood 

sucking vampire has no redeeming qualities, both are monsters in their own way.  In the books, 

the Cullens attempt to redeem themselves by use of their self control.  Such an idea is surely 

fiction.  The Scriptures clearly tell us that we cannot help ourselves.  Every thing in us is inclined 

toward evil.  We will always be sinners just like the Cullens will always be vampires.  But that is 

not the end of the story.  

 In the books we are told that Carlisle refused to drink human blood because he refused to 

become enslaved and debased by his nature.  We cannot refuse to sin.  We are too weak. But the 

bond that was once upon us is now broken.  We are no longer sons and daughters of darkness.  

We are the baptized children of God.  What does this mean?  It means simply that we will always 

be sinners just like the Cullens will always be vampires.  But the price for our iniquity has been 

paid.  In the sight of God we are justified.  How can this be?  It can be and it is because in the 

waters of Holy Baptism the stain of original sin and guilt was washed from our souls and the 

righteousness of Christ our Lord was imputed unto us.  Maybe the Cullens can try to become 

better by the exercise of their own wills but we can’t and we don’t have to try.  Christ made us 

good when we could be nothing but sinful.  So is the whole idea behind the goodness of the 

Cullens wrong?  I don’t think so.  There is one point that we do well to note.  Though they 

cannot stop being vampires, they don’t have to give themselves over to the wicked desire that is 

ever with them.  They may be vampires by nature but they are not as far gone as they could be. 

 Some believe that just because we cannot stop being sinners, we should not try to stop sinning. 

“Christ has paid for this so I can do what I want”, they say.  Absolutely not!  That was St. Paul’s

 answer to a similar question.  “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means”!   

So which way is it then?  Can we stop sinning or can’t we?  We cannot stop being sinners.  We will always be inclined to sin, but that does not mean we should stop trying to avoid it.  We do not have to give ourselves over to evil entirely.  Baptism frees us from that bondage.  We should remember that avoiding sin is not counted as merit for us.  We will see heaven only because of Christ’s merit.  But avoiding as much  sin as we can pleases God, so we should strive for holiness as an act of worship and expect nothing in return  knowing that we have already been given more than we could have ever earned or even hoped for. 

Note: This article was published in Higher Things magazine in the summer of 2009. 

To Burn or not to Burn: That is the Question

Everyone wonders whether or not it is ethical or Christian to share music by burning copies of cd’s which they do not own or by illegally downloading music from the Internet. Even if one disagrees with the laws, we as Christians are commanded by the Bible to submit to the laws of the land which God has established. This is plainly spelled out in the first two verses of Romans 13 which say, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment”.  If the law of man is set in place through the authority of God then, for us to go against such a law is clearly unchristian and it is not only an offense to the state but to God as well. So then, it is established that human laws bind the Christian. We should also consider whether or not the Bible says anything else concerning this. The seventh commandment admonishes men not to steal. So we should also consider if such acts are really stealing.

Suppose that you have been working very hard for five years to build an invention which is all your own and you are about to get a patent on it and begin to gain an income from all of your very hard work. Someone comes along and copies your pattern without your knowing it and passes the pattern around so that every one can have their own version of your invention without paying for it. That would not only upset you, but it would be against you and your own good and benefit. That is to say, that it would hurt you financially and it would mean that you had wasted your time which you gave to the project, expecting to gain profit from it. So that future income which you expected was taken from you. It is in a sense as if they stole from your future. They took what was yours from you before you even got to enjoy it.  Music is very much like an invention because every time it is played it is slightly different.  Even if sheet music is used, there can be many interpretations of the same piece of music, which are quite different from one another. So each recording that a musician makes is his or her own invention. No one else can play it quite like they do. Their style and abilities are unique to them, just as any invention is the physical outflow of the inventor’s unique thoughts and mind. This can be seen in the various bands that have their own distinctive sound and in various singers who have a style like no one else does. For example, no one sounds quite like Frank Sinatra or like Elvis or The Beatles. While they can be imitated, they can never be replaced for they are each special and have a sound which it particular to them and to no one else. It is not just the way that they play that is individual to them, but they have practiced and worked very hard to develop their own musical style and skill with what ever instrument they play or even with their voices. So, they are working with the hopes of gaining a profit. How is this different than a person who goes to work in a department store and expects his or her wages? In fact, the cases are not quite the same because anyone can do the job at the store, anyone can be trained and there is not really much individuality needed. On the other hand, the musician is quite the individual and cannot really be replaced by anyone else, because no one else can play quite like they do. The music is much more dependent upon personality and individuality than most other kinds of work. So then, it seems that it would be worse to deprive a musician of his wage than it would be to deprive a common worker of his wages. He, after all, has probably done more work to become a musician than the person has done to get their job at the mall. That being the case, it truly is stealing to take that which a musician has produced without paying for it knowing that they have worked and prepared with the hope that they will earn wages in return for their work.

There is the argument that it is ok because they do not really need all of that money, but that very same logic could be used to justify robbing a bank since banks do not really seem to need all of that money and no individual would be hurt by the robbery. None the less, it is wrong. The appeal of stealing music lies in that it is easy to do and there are not often consequences to pay and it usually goes unnoticed. But just because one does not get caught, does not necessarily mean that they are not doing wrong. As cliché as it might sound, God is watching. Not only that, but when a Christian borrows cds from his heathen friends and burns them he is making a confession to that friend. That is, he is saying “I serve God and obey him in so far as it does not inconvenience me or keep me from having what I want”. At that point the heathen wonders why you would even bother to be a Christian if you are not at least going to make the attempt to act like one.

So then there are three strikes against the practice of sharing music. First of all, it is against the law of the land and so consequently against God’s law because according to St. Paul, stealing because the musician is working with an expectation of being paid for it just as the person who works in a store works for wages. The musician in some way seems to have even more of a right to demand payment because his work is a product of his own preparation and personality where as the department store worker cannot necessarily claim that.  In Dr. Luther’s explanation of the seventh commandment he writes, “ . . .we should not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” It is good to note that he never mentions how rich the neighbor is, but only that we ought to be honest toward him and protect his interests. Finally, the third strike against sharing music is that the person who does so makes a confession to all of those around which will hinder them from coming into the Church because they do not see you honoring God in your life. The evidence seems conclusive. We as Christians should make every effort to see to it that all of the music which we own was obtained through legal means both out of a concern for pleasing God and out of a desire to set a godly example to those around us.


Note: This article was published in Higher Things magazine in the summer of 2007.