Harry Potter, Letting the Devil In

righteous into eternal life. The Greek word there for eternal in both cases isious, and both the same words, so there's no reason to think that one is speaking about eternity and then the other one's not. So it's almost like you wish fulfillment to say, well, no, when it's talking about eternal life, it means eternal life. But when it's talking about eternal punishment, it's not really talking about eternity. God's just going to either make them cease to be

or God's going to bring them into heaven. Has God won everybody in heaven? Absolutely? But a clear but often misunderstood answer to this deals with me being in the garden of Gathsemone and I'm in the garden and if you remember, I'm praying to the Father and I say, if this cup can pass from me? And essentially God says, no, it can't. But what am I asking? Am I saying just I don't want to have to go to the cross. It seems like a hassle.

beautiful notion. But universalism even has its own problems. It sounds like, oh gosh, but it receives all things. No, it doesn't. It doesn't receive those things in which it disagrees with. So it isn't as universal as you think. It does have a point where it says, no, you're wrong, and if there is, because even if you say there's you know, universalism is wrong, they'd say, no, you're wrong, which implies that there is a wrong. And if there

is a wrong, then you're accountable for it. So why are they not looking to see if they are accountable for what they're staying or saying, or the statements they're making. It's becoming really popular and you'll find people, even very well educated pastors and leaders right about this. I think that the weight of the concept of eternity weighs on people, and people say, but God is loving God, Yes, but love comes with consequences. True love is telling somebody they

have something in their teeth. True love is letting somebody giving them the freedom to make decisions even if they're bad. You protect them as you can. But you can't protect someone from themselves. And to take that away or to somehow say that, oh, well, it's just you know, it doesn't matter what you do, it really starts wreaking of satanism, which is due as thou wilt as the whole of law. If you do whatever you want and you'll get in

and it doesn't matter, then none of it matters. Then there is no pattern, no otness, nothing you should do you should not do, that plays a part in it at all. It doesn't matter. If there are no scoring mechanisms in a game or sport of any kind, and there are no rules, it is no longer a sport, it is no longer a game, it's no longer worth watching. There must be consequences, if for no other reason, then man is an intellectual being created with intellect, will and emotion,

and knows the difference between right and wrong. If you know the difference between right and wrong, that implies that there is a oughtness, there is something that you should do or should not do, And if there is something that you should do and should not do, there is going to be a reward or a consequence. That's in everything. That's not unreasonable. If you build something wrong, it falls apart. If you say something wrong, it's not understood. If you

reject the medicine, you die. I know that people run around saying that the concept of God is a fairy tale, But what is a fairy tale is the desire to believe that there is no consequences. The fairy tale is that you don't need the medicine and you'll self heal. Yet, when somebody does it in the spiritual sense, when somebody in the spiritual world says, you know what you get in now, I'm reducing and using reductionism. I'm reducing the

universalist's belief for the sake of conversation. But really it has no place in the Bible at all. The Bible talks about reward and consequence, and the punishment of hell is where people get confused. It's not as much about being punished as it is God allowing you to go to a place that you've chosen to go. You've said I want to go here. I want to be in a place where God isn't because I have rejected that

God for the entirety of my life. You want to know hell to a person who has rejected God and doesn't want to be with God for the seventy eighty ninety measly years you're on. You know what hell is to somebody who rejects God. Hell would be heaven to sit with God and be in his present and worship him for eternity. So God, out of his love, allows you to reject Him to the point of death and go to a place where his salvation is no longer.

The pain of hell is knowing, is now knowing what you already knew, that you need God, but you rejected it. But it's done. Universalism is the equivalent of picking up a loaded gun, pointing at another human being, shooting them, and then somehow saying, you know what, I can see that they're dead. Now I don't want that consequence. I want to do over. I want that bullet back and it's not going to happen. You're smarter than that. You know more than that. It's not based on ignorance. It's

based on rejection, and there's a difference. Norma, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, Hi, well, yes, do you have a question.

are talked about are concerns to us as Christians. If it's a Christian household, and talk about those and explain those. I think that it that it's perfectly fine. It's like anything else. It's a it's a wonderland. And then there's people that say, well C. S. Lewis always had the

backdrop of Christianity, but you wouldn't know that. You wouldn't know it if you weren't a believer, if you weren't a Christian, you'd be reading it that it's dealing with, you know, mystical lands and mystical creatures and all of these things. So really it's about you putting it in the context and protecting yourself that way, and if there's something questionable in it, explain why it's questionable, and set an age limit if you'd like for for the children

to read it. There are some some things in the Harry Potter series that I think a little interesting for the younger set and probably not the best for them to consume. But there's other things that I think teach a lot about friendship and loyalty and right and wrong, and those are those are wonderful principles no matter how they're seated. You just have to take the time to know what your children or reading and explain it to them.

not a part of that household. But there are things, for instance, there are things that are said and described in scripture that are not prescribed. They would not be something that a Christian should do. Even I said at one point, don't use the word raka, which was a dirty word. Now I said it, but I was saying it in a context not to say it. So there, and there's even Paul even quotes non Christian sources at times that are quoted now in scripture. So it's a

matter really of context. It's very easy for people to get, you know, fly off the handle and say, oh, it's evil and this and that. Am I thrilled about that?

And this is why I think is a legitimate jumping off point into the conversation that witchcraft exists, and there are those, and there's arguments people going between white witchcraft and black witchcraft, to white magic and black magic and all that. You know, are you a good witch or are you a bad witch? And all this business. Scripturally, it's all the same, regardless of the person's heart, it's all the same. No to witchcraft across the board, to incantations,

to casting spells, all of that across the board. Bad Scripture does not contone and condone it. But there's going to be stories of it, and there's even stories of it in scripture, And if you made a movie of scripture, there'd be so much stuff that Christians couldn't even see. Yet it's in the Bible. So really it's not about whether they come in contact with it or not. It's whether you explain it well enough and that they have a good understanding of what it is in their life

and how it affects them. Unice, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

So my question is, how do we protect ourselves from those influences of evil, say, through the movie, through books like Harry Potters, and through what people say.

prescribing them. It's describing that they're taking place. Okay, so you want to read about incantations and stuff like that that exists in scripture. It talks about sorcery in scripture. It talks about witchcraft in scripture. It talks about those things. So what you don't want is anything that is prescribing. You should do this. Also, if it's prescribing it, then absolutely you put it aside or you read it academically

as an adult. And what I mean by that is that there are going to be some people that you know, there's some people that have better physical balance than others, and they may be an acrobat, but your average person can't do that well spiritually. There are people that have different strengths and weaknesses as well, and there are some people units I wouldn't have get near certain things because

it's not in their spirit to do so. The fact that you limit yourself shows me that you're a mature Christian who says, this is not what I want in

my life. Period. It may be okay for me to read I may have the liberty in Christ to read it, but I'm not going to And you need to have that discernment and that ability, which is why I tell parents to be active and participatory in their children's life, especially the things that they read and consume in life, because it seems that parents barely watch what their children are consuming physically with food, let alone the spiritual and

the intellectual. Having said that, the way you would defend yourself where the Christian would defend themselves is really Ephesians breaks it down in Ephesian six about putting on the full armor of God and having being girded in your loins with the truth, so everything is bound by the truth first and foremost, saying, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, that the very core of who you are should be based on doing the right thing as you

understand it. As Scripture says, there is a truth and it is universal. Should be living life based on that righteousness, not on what you know will get you this, or what will get you that, or what the quick way is or what the you know the easier way. It's about doing the right thing, having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. So your your very footing should be based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That should be the very footing of everything. And then it goes on to say and then taking on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So those are the things that you protect yourself with. And if in using those things, you come to the decision, I do not want to participate in this, or I do not want to participate in that, so be it. Then do not keep that protect yourself from that. If you know where your strengths

and weaknesses lie. But it doesn't mean that another Christian might have different strength, and it might not bother them. Because somebody has to read these things and see these movies to tell you not to read them or see them.

the Holy Spirit. But to me, the lady who asked the question, you are on the radio and we're asking all these questions. That means you haven't understanding and you were in position to answer all these questions. She asked her child wants to read the Harry's Potter, the Harry Potter's book. So I would just know that she has not reached that point where she would say draw the line and say no, I have children. I would tell

my child. If my child is living in my house and he wants to read the Harry Potter, I would say no, and I'll tell her the reasons why I don't want my child to do that, because I believe in I agree and believe in everything that you have just told me about ehisions. But some people are not there yet.

the Church is really great on this. The Church wants to continue to say do this, don't do that. But there are but there are some things in scripture where it doesn't say, and you're going to have to use that discernment. How much of that wine becomes being buzzed or being drunk is going to be different on the individual. So if I said only drink half an ounce that that doesn't play for everyone, and in this case it wouldn't neither. The mother, the parent in this case is

going to have to play a part. And I say that is reading it, understanding it, and participating in your child's consumption of it. That's a healthy rule across the board for all books, not just that, but Christians tend to feel comfortable with certain things because they feel comfortable.

It's social, it's cultural, whatever it is. And that is where I think there's a problem, because if you say, well C. S. Lewis was a Christian, therefore his fantasy books are okay, even though they may have this, that and the other, yet these are not I think that's a good rule of thumb. But just because someone's a Christian doesn't mean they're going to be good at other things or that there isn't going to be something in there.

So ultimately, outside of scripture its own self, you should be explaining and understanding and parsing these things with your children. And to make the fantasy of Harry Potter out to be the devil, I think causes major problems. And usually it comes from people not wanting to understand it or read it for themselves or take the time to read it with their children, so they just say no to all of it. And if that's your choice, that's fine.

I'm saying that is not the only choice. There are ways to look at these things, and to even take lessons out of them all. Truth is God's truth. Now what I prefer you get it through a purer source. You're not having to, you know, have the sense of an old cow and eat the hay and leave the sticks. Yeah, but I have met many wonderful, wonderful, godly children who are caught up by the characters in the fantasy and not the witchcraft, and they should be allowed, in the

context of parental guidance, to explore those things. Otherwise, the repression of those things causes a gross curiosity that when the child gets of an age where they're allowed to read or do whatever they want, they go in whole hog head over heels and start seeing it from a much less fantasy point and now is a more practical point, and you get people dabbling in witchcraft, whereas a child who's seeing it as pure fantasy less likely to if it's explained to them. So the balance of these things

is what I want. Jason, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

mankind by which we must be saved. So imagine it this way, Jason, that if you read that everyone needs to go to jail, and then you read that everyone needs to go to jail unless they have a million dollars. That would automatically state that anyone with a million dollars willing to pay it wouldn't go to jail. So the sins that are done in life are sins against God. All sins are sins against God. So God is the

one that sets the stakes. And because the justice of sinning against a holy, righteous, and eternal God have to be eternal by definition, that the only thing that can pay for that would be something eternal as well. In this case, it would be the holy and righteous, sinless Lamb of God taking on the sins of the world through the death and the Cross and resurrecting into glorified resurrection. And to those who believe and accept that and live

for God, the payment is made on their behalf. To those that reject God, don't believe you exists, don't care once to do whatever they want, continue to live in the pattern of sin without the acceptance of the redemption, there is.

fine because of the act in which he did. And let's say it's ten thousand dollars. You would justly say that he owes the court ten thousand dollars. But then you might take off your robe, stop being the judge for a moment, and be the father of that person, and pay that ten thousand dollars. Therefore, justice is served, justice is consistent, and it still stays righteous. But that only would happen for those who are the child of

that judge. The judge didn't stop being a judge. The jud judge didn't change the laws or any of those things. The payment that has to be made is so great that a man or a woman could not make it. So the only way for that payment to be made would be this bridge, this opportunity, this payment by way of God himself, and people either accept that or reject it, and by accepting it will be redeemed. By rejecting it, no, they can't be redeemed. They continue to live in the state of being sinful.