Narnia Part 2: A Four-legged Creator of Many Worlds

Narnia – Part 2 A Four-legged Creator of Many Worlds by Berit Kjos –  December 2005 See also The Abolition of Man | Mere Christianity | LILITH Warnings – How mysticism & the occult are changing the Church Emphasis in bold letters added throughout

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• I am the Lord your
  God…. You shall have no other gods before Me.

• You shall not make for
  yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in
  heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath… you shall not bow
  down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a
  jealous God….

• You shall not take the
  name of the Lord your God in vain….”
  Deuteronomy 5:6-11

---

With
eager anticipation, churches across America prepared for the great event of
the year. Many encouraged parents to read The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe to their children. Some held seminars to train families in constructive Narnia dialogue. Pastors used the book instead
of the Bible for Sunday morning inspiration. They rented buses to transport
their congregations to reserved theaters. Rick Warren treated Saddleback
Church as well as pastors from across the country to a full length preview a
week before the December 9 opening. And the tidal wave of praise has silenced most contrary voices.

Christian Narnia fans may have forgotten a major lesson in
Genesis 3: By blending partial truths with an enticing lie, the serpent
presented Eve with a catastrophic deception. Yes, there are allusions to
truth in the Narnia stories. But there are many more contrary messages, and
the over-all context is pagan, not Christian. Keep in mind, what looks like
truth makes the deception more palatable!

Whether Lewis intended it or not, the main “Christian”
justification for filling minds with Narnian suggestions is that a
four-footed mammal helps us to better understand Jesus and to respond emotionally to
His sacrifice. Through digital realism, this
animal representation of our indescribably holy Lord is becoming more vivid to our imagination than any Old Testament idol ever was! Paul’s letter to the
Romans makes it abundantly clear that God doesn’t want to be pictured in
this way:

“For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were
thankful, but became futile in their thoughts [or ‘vain
in their imaginations’], and
their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals….”
Romans 1:20-23

Those
who see Aslan as Jesus may also see Genesis 1 through the filter of C.S.
Lewis’ creation myth. Not only did Aslan give birth to Narnia,
he created a myriad of other “worlds” as well. Stretching far beyond any
Biblical parallel, that creation story is told in The Magician’s Nephew,
the book that precedes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the
seven-set
Chronicles of Narnia. Ponder its view of the “creator” and his
universe. Would these images be right (or righteous) in the eyes of God?

“One moment
there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand
points of light leaped out — single stars, constellations and
planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world….

“…the Lion was quite silent. He was going to and fro among the
animals. And every now and then he would go up to two of them… and
touch their noses with his…. The pairs which he had touched instantly
left their own kinds and followed him….  At last he stood still and all the
creatures whom he had touched came and stood in a wide circle around
him…. [T]he deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: ‘Narnia
awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts.’…

“Out of the trees wild people
stepped forth, gods and goddesses of the wood; with them came
Fauns and
Satyrs
[man & goat]…. Out of the river rose the river god with his
Naiad daughters. And all these and all the beasts and birds in their
different voices… replied: ‘Hail, Aslan. We hear and
obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We speak. We know.”

“‘Creatures,
I give you
yourselves,’ said the strong, happy voice of Aslan. ‘I give you
forever this land of Narnia…. Laugh and fear not,
creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not
always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.’…

“I
will call some of you to my council. Come hither to me, you the chief
Dwarf, and you the River-god.… For though the world is not five
hours old…. a force of evil has already entered it; waked
and brought hither by this Son of Adam.’ The Beasts…. all turned their
eyes on Digory…. ‘And as Adam’s race has done the harm, Adam’s race
shall help to heal it.'”[1]
 [Read
more]

This creation story is part
of the background needed to understand Lewis’s theology.
Those who read The Magician’s Nephew years ago may
naturally fill in the blanks. It, like the current book,
suggests that good works, rather than faith, will bring
salvation from the curse.

While this man-centered message threads
through the new movie, we may never give it a thought. Yet, the impact of the
dramatic
images we see will imprint
them in our minds whether we are conscious of it or not. They often stir cravings
or obsessions that drive people toward more and ever stronger
emotional stimuli.

But the Old Testament psalmist knew how to
deal with this problem. “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes,”
he wrote. “I hate
the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to
me.”
Psalms 101:3

In stark contrast,
C. S. Lewis and his myth-loving friends in the
Inklings steeped
their minds in occult fantasies,
magical worlds and fabled mysteries. The compromising stories they wrote were swallowed by
the Christianized world. Like ancient Israel, the public
was hungry and thirsty — not for what was true and right — but for the pagan powers that tantalized their imagination.
“You love evil more than good,” warns Psalm 52:3.

The lifelike digital images in the movie magnify
these suggestions. An early scene shows Lucy looking into a friendly faun’s fireplace.
When Tumnus, her newfound friend, began to play a flute-like instrument, the

flames seem to rise up in dance. For a moment, ghostly figures — apparently a horned deer,
someone riding a broom, and a
centaur or horseback rider
— were circulating in the fire.

The scene reminded me of a bonfire used for divination in
Pocahontas — another
Disney movie that merged fact and myth into a mind-changing pagan promotion.
The ghostly images in the smoke from the shaman’s magic fire warned the
tribe to shun the European newcomers who “prowl the earth like ravenous
wolves.”

In an article titled “C. S. Lewis—Who He Was & What He Wrote,” Tony Zakula
wrote this warning:

“C. S. Lewis himself experienced the dangers of ‘crossing the line’
into obsession with the occult. In Surprised by Joy, he writes
that, partly because of a school matron who dabbled in the occult, ‘for
the first time, there burst upon me the idea that there might be real
marvels all about us, that the visible world might be only a curtain to
conceal huge realms uncharted by my very simple theology.

“That
started in me something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of
trouble since—the desire for the preternatural, simply as such the
passion for the Occult. … It is a spiritual lust; and like the
lust of the body it has the fatal power of making everything else in
the world seem uninteresting while it lasts.’”

[2]

[1 Kings 18:20]
Years later they were still pursuing their double-minded ways. They “feared
the Lord, yet served their carved images…”

2 King 17:41

How can we stand firm and
stable in this time of “continual change” and unceasing assaults on the
Bible? We can put on God’s armor — an outline of vital truths that bring victory in
this intensifying spiritual war! Let’s look at the second part of that armor
— and share it with our children and grandchildren.

The Armor of
God: Continued from
Narnia Part 1: A Four-legged Creator of Many Worlds

2. God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS in
those who trust and follow Him

Matthew
6:33)  This God-given
righteousness involves an understanding of both what is
right and
what is wrong in God’s sight. It doesn’t minimize sin (rebellion,
immorality, corruption, blasphemy, etc.). For His Truth — revealed in His Word and
made alive in us through His Spirit — shows us the mind and will of God. It
tells us what God loves and what he hates. It also shows us what we
will love or shun, if indeed we are “born again” and “have the mind of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-16

Through the blood of Jesus, we are washed and
given “right” standing in God’s sight when we, by faith, are joined to Jesus
through the cross. But living in that righteousness means making daily choices to
renew our minds with His Truth, not with the popular myths or fantasies that focus our hearts on
pagan mysteries and counterfeit powers.

“Take careful heed to
yourselves,” explained Moses, “for you saw no form when the Lord spoke
to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly
and make for yourselves a carved image in the  form of any figure:
the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is
on the earth….” Deuteronomy 4:15-17

“Take heed,” warned Jesus. “Watch and pray,
lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak.” (Mark 13:33; Matt 26:41)

“Be sober, be vigilant,” wrote Peter,
“because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith….”
1 Peter 5:8-9

Find the rest of the Armor here:
Narnia Part 3:
Christian allgory + Mythical gods = Deception

Throughout history, people would hear but
not heed.  “And this is the
condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light
and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light….”

John 3:19-21

When we, by faith, “put on the
breastplate of righteousness,” we won’t need to hide from that
light. Instead, we will seek and delight in it! But we will
run from any darkness that would cloud or replace that
light. And today’s enticing fantasies do just that. Tony Zakula
explained it well:

“A child reading the book, is, as advertised, ‘stepping into
another world’—a world of fantasy. Lewis, like Disney, was a New Ager.
He built entire surrealistic worlds for our children to
escape into—escape from reality and from real life. These
worlds invariably contain creatures of every sort endearing
our children, performing heroic feats, and displaying often
greater powers than our Savior displayed when He was on
earth.

“Who will our children most readily identify as having
awesome power—Lewis’ characters, Disney characters, some
time-space traveling hero, or the almighty Jesus? Is it any
wonder that we have a very difficult time convincing our
children to give their all to Someone so far down the totem
pole of their experience?”[2]

Those are good questions. They point to the heart
of one of Satan’s strategies: offer counterfeit images of God’s creation.
Introduce forbidden lures. Present enticing promises of pleasures that feed the flesh, not the Spirit.
Make evil seem good and good seem evil.
(Isaiah 5:20)
Stir cravings that blind
victims to God’s truth and make mystical fantasy worlds ever more enticing.
Prompt them to hate the Light. Train
the masses to chase man-made dreams and mythical visions that captivate
hearts but can never satisfy.
[3] See
The Nature and Tactics of Satan

God has a better plan for us.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,”
said Jesus, “for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6

   
Part 3 

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