"Twilight" and The Apple

One of the most popular teen (and older-than-teen) book series out today is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. There is much that can be said about this series (none of it is good, in my opinion). I have not read the books themselves, but have researched and read synopses in order to be informed of the plot, and of the writer’s purpose. I encourage others to not read the series, but to learn and teach of the dangers within and to keep it away from our children – you can start by taking a few minutes to read this excellent Christian perspective, or my daughter’s recent blog on the subject.

I simply want to comment on the cover of the first book – and what it implies about where our culture is today. The picture that appears on the cover is shown above.

You see, a long time ago, at the very beginning of human history, God created a perfect world in which to live. There was no death, no ruin, no decay…and no sin. God created things to work perfectly and without breakage. Most importantly, this system honored God and revealed His ability to create perfection. He created Adam and Eve and placed them in a Garden to enjoy His creation and live for His glory. Only one rule was set down – do not eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. And as we all know, after a while that rule was broken, and sin entered the world for the very first time…with the result that mankind fell away from the perfect relationship that he had enjoyed with God.

The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is often referred to as an apple. And that apple represents the temptation that brought mankind to be separated from God, and brought death back into the world. From Genesis 3:17-19:

‘To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”’

Nothing worse has ever happened to mankind than this separation. Because of that event, God had to send his Son several thousand years later to die and save mankind from making this separation permanent. The fall of Adam was the darkest moment in human history.

Yet, I fear that the weight of this event has been lost by a modern generation. Witness the very words that Stephenie Meyer uses to describe the photo on the cover of her book:

“The apple on the cover of Twilight represents “forbidden fruit.” I used the scripture from Genesis (located just after the table of contents) because I loved the phrase “the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” Isn't this exactly what Bella ends up with? A working knowledge of what good is, and what evil is. . . . In the end, I love the beautiful simplicity of the picture. To me it says: choice.”

So, the choice between good and evil is a good thing? To Meyer, the moment of the apple and the resultant fall of man is “beautiful”. She has forgotten God’s original purpose – that God wants a perfect relationship with us – and yet hundreds of thousands of teens fail to question the premise and position of her book. They think they are reading a “love story”. Yet, it was God’s intent that we never have to experience the ravages of evil and disease and death. This is the original love story! I would love to live in a place where I did not have this “choice”, but where God’s goodness was the only option available. Someday, we will know this existence again!

I appeal to our generation – train your children to understand the importance of that moment when we were separated from God. Help them to know that “choice” is not always a good thing. And help them to understand that our culture desperately needs to be restored to God again, back to the perfect design He had in the beginning. Mankind is not “evolving” by being granted more choices – instead, it is the very existence of our choice between good and evil that points to a brokenness. God has the cure. If you are reading this and want to know more, please write me.

Brokenness Over Sin, Acceptance of Grace, or Somewhere In Between

In a recent men’s Bible study, we talked about the sensitivity of our world to sin, and whether or not this view has changed in our lifetime. I know in my own life, I am much more sensitive to bad language or immorality in movies than I was when I was a teenager. I cannot watch some of the movies that I did when I was younger – and I cannot believe that some of the scenes I watched back then did not bother me more at the time – even though I was a Christian.

In my experience among Christians, I have found an entire spectrum of views toward both sin and grace. At one extreme, there is the person who struggles constantly under the weight of sin – one who never feels truly forgiven and is continually broken by their inability to live a perfect life.

At the other extreme is the person who, once they obtain the grace promised by God, never has a care for their actions because they know they are forgiven. The weight of sin is never on their mind, and they go through life happily and without regret, proclaiming that this never-ending feeling is exactly what Jesus wanted us to have.

But I wonder if either extreme is really what God has in mind.

There is certainly a movement in today’s modern church toward the second extreme. The grace movement abounds in this country because it is popular in a culture that strives to be constantly moving forward, and which is rarely reflective about what has gone on before. Let’s face it – we live in a country where the idea of preaching “hellfire and damnation” has passed (mostly). I grew up in the South in the 60’s and 70’s and there was absolutely no fear about preaching to people that they needed to, 1) accept Christ, and 2) change their lives, or else they would be in danger of experiencing hell for all eternity. Has anyone else noticed that the second part of this message – changing your life - is not emphasized as much in churches today? It’s now much more palatable to simply say “accept Christ” and leave out the rest. After all, America wants to get back to our normal lives – television, cars, and vacations – after church services are over. We don’t want to be too bothered about changing our lifestyle, or dwelling on our own lives to change them in some uncomfortable way. Hey, I’m guilty of these feelings as well.

So many questions come to mind. Are we called to live at one of these two extremes? Or are we supposed to be in the middle somewhere, loving grace while at the same time experiencing brokenness over our sin? Is life supposed to be a movement back and forth along this spectrum? Is the answer the same for everyone?

I could speculate all day on the right combination, but instead of relying on my own broken wisdom, I’ll turn to the Bible for answers. I see two approaches in play. In Psalm 6, David speaks of experiencing both extremes. Verse 6 says, “I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.” But then in verses 8 and 9, he concludes with, “…the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” Clearly, David was moving along the spectrum, from being broken over trials he was experiencing to giving thanks that God was able to grant mercy to him.

Paul goes through the same progression in his treatise on sin in Romans 7. In verse 14, he says, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” But right after speaking of his constant struggles with sin, he says in Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

I once had a church leader who chided me for saying “I am a sinner” in front of a group of leaders. He told me that since my sin was forgiven, I was no longer a sinner. That moment has stuck with me for years, and I now believe that he was only partially correct. I am a sinner, just as Paul claims that he was unspiritual. But through Christ’s blood, God does not recognize my sin as a condemning feature.

So how should we live? I believe that we may move along the entire spectrum in experiencing the weight of sin – sometimes feeling overwhelmed with our inability to overcome it, and sometimes feeling only thankfulness that we have been forgiven. This back-and-forth movement will keep us striving for good, while at the same time we will be reminded of the sacrifice that Christ made for us – and how we cannot achieve heaven and God’s grace alone.