Harry Potter can't save your soul, but Jesus can!

Last night I finished Harry Potter... I have a few things to say, but I won't go into any great detail. Here are a few observations from the book:

Harry Potter book 7 references Christianity both subtly and overtly.

While visiting the graveyard where his parent's graves are located Harry reads the headstone: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." referencing 1 Corinthians 15: 26. This will be important later in the book. There is also another bible verse read in the graveyard, but it's importance in the book is too difficult to explain in a short space.

JK Rowling lays down the subtext that beyond the magic that her characters use, there is a deeper and more fundamental Spiritual reality. In another part of the book Ron and Harry get into an argument about whether or not Dumbledore (who had died in the last book) was still alive - Harry says that he has surely moved on from this world. Ron has a hard time understanding what he's saying, because he's thinking about the world from a magical point of view, but Harry is thinking about the Spiritual world, which Ron is not aware.

Later in the book there is also a conversation about the differences between soul, body and mind -one of the Characters is quite oblivious to the difference, but again, the author presents a subtle push towards a Christian world view by expressing that there is a difference between soul and mind.

Later in the book, the meaning of the verse on his parent's headstone becomes clear. Harry must face his own death in order to save his friends and defeat Voldemort (who just so happens to be described with serpentine features). Dumbledore has known all along that Harry will have to make this choice... to willingly go to his death in order to destroy Voldemort.

Harry leaves secretly to sacrifice himself for the sake of those he loves, he is killed, but because of his willingness to die for the sake of his friends he does not die. Voldemort suspects that he has won and has one of Harry's friends carry his body back towards the rest of the cast. As Harry lay there in his friend's arms, another one of the casts attacks Voldemort (who has his snake Nagini around his neck). His friend slices off the serpent's head and Harry awakens to save his friends from Voldemort, who is eventually killed when Harry reveals that because of his sacrifice any spells that Voldemort does will backfire on him.

There is rich Christian symbolism in the end of Harry Potter. And as I've suggested earlier, they give us an opportunity to share with those who are reading it about the Savior who had done this on the cross for the sake of the world.

I have looked through several interviews with JK Rowling looking for this reference that everyone says she says that she practices wicca, and haven't found it -it's an urban legend. She may not be a conservative evangelical Christian (she claims to be a Presbyterian) but she has denied in several citable interviews that she does magic, endorses wicca or wrote this to corrupt our children.

I found what I was looking for in this book. A way to talk about Jesus through it. This book can be a pulpit to proclaim the power of Jesus to save. I hope you do not dismiss it without reading it discerningly.

Today I had a wonderful time of prayer with the Lord, I don't think He was displeased with me for reading Harry Potter because I was looking for Him the whole time. I cannot claim that I didn't have mixed motives for reading the book, it was a delightful book, but Christ purified my motives thismorning by showing me how to use this to proclaim His name.

Another aspect of the seventh book that supports a biblical worldview is the revelations concerning the character of Dubledore. Throughout the previous six books, Dubledore has been the kind hearted, gentle smiled, inspirational leader of Hogwarts School and The Order of the Phoenix. However in this book we learn that Dumbledore wasn’t as perfect as he had seemed, but had a very dark and mixed past.

Just like the bible’s brutal honesty towards it’s subjects, concerning David’s infidelity or Abraham’s cowardice, or Jacobs avarice… the seventh Harry Potter book deals frankly with several of it’s characters, most notably Dumbledore.

We find out through the book, that as a young man Dumbledore was ambitious, talented and most of all proud. His pride actually caused a division between him and his sick younger sister and rebellious brother. After his mother dies tragically he is forced to leave his path of fame in order to take care of his family –but he isn’t content, he is resentful of having to take care of them. Although he loves them as family, he comes to see them as a burden that stand between him and the power that he feels he rightly deserves.

At the same time another character Gringewold is introduced into the story. Both him and the young Dumbledore form a fast friendship –although Dumbledore can sense that the other young man has some fundamental darkness in him. Their friendship revolves around finding three magical items that they feel will give them the power to establish a new world order run by wizards and witches.

However Dumbledore’s younger brother confronts him about his neglect of their sister… and Gringewold reacts with violence. He attacks Dumbledore’s younger brother, Dumbledore joins the fray and in the midst of their duel, his younger sister is mortally wounded.

Gringewold sensing that this could cause trouble for him and his plans leaves immediately. Leaving Dumbledore with his guilt and remorse. Dumbledore repents for his pride and his lust for power… and sets his life in an entirely different direction. On his sister’s headstone he wrote the words from Matt 6: 21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” He realized that his treasure had been his own pride an ambition, and that his sin had led to the death of his own sister, and his estrangement from his younger brother.

In penance he went on to defeat Gringewold who had gone on to be something of the Hitler of the wizarding world. He had taken a humble position as a teacher at Hogwarts, turning down many offers to be the ‘minister of magic’ because he knew that he could not be trusted with power.

This is a picture of repentance in the book of Harry Potter. In the end, Dumbledore explains to Harry that there is a Spiritual world beyond that of magic, and that implicitly is Christianity (since Dumbledore was prone to referencing bible verses in this book). Dumbledore had repented, and spent his life working to defeat the ‘dark arts’ of whose main user was Voldemort, a striking picture of Satan.

This is just one of many ways that we can find biblical significance in a fictional book such as Harry Potter. [b] This is ripe for Apologetics![/b]