Churches using 'Chronicles of Narnia' as preaching tool

We all need to be somewhat aquainted with this Fine work by CS Lewis so that we may seize the oppurtunity when the movie releases. Rember how short lived the window of oppurtunity was for Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Also it would be good to not have our expectations to high in the accuracy of this Disney Motion Picture, but rember that the public won't care about accuracy and if we make it a big issue we might just lose any advantage we might gain by just allowing it to be a spring board for personal evangelism. So lets load up and be ready to use this tool/oppurtunity to reach the lost. :-) :-) God Bless Bro. Daryl

I must say I do not care for at all the use of things such as the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and such as evangelistic tools. Unless, of course, you are planning to preach on Isaiah's famous "woe to those who call evil good and good evil." A lot of these movies/books are hardly what I would call "Christian." If they put things such as magic and the like in the positive, as being good things, when in fact, they are not good, and are inheriently evil-- even if highly mythologized and allegorized-- then I believe we are actually doing diservice to God. Fact of the matter is, we are only jumping at such movies because of the "Christian" background of some of those who penned the story. It seemed to matter not to us that J.R. Tolkien was not a Christian, and was in fact, Catholic. Yet, for trying to find "common ground" with the heathen, we were willing to compromise a bit, simply because Catholicism falls under the banner of Christendome, and promote Tolkien as being a Christian for the sake of mentioning it to somebody as a hope of making some sort of bridge.As far as I can tell, CS Lewis seemed very much to be a Christian. He had some wonderful insights, and is ever quotable. However, I think sometimes we toss discernment out the window, and because of the popularity of some of these authors and their works, we tend to embrace a lot of rubbish that some of these authors brought into their works. For example, "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis has a lot of powerful imagery, and is extremely thought provoking, yet is something how the Christian Lewis decided to pepper the book with a bit of profanity! As a literary work, it is no doubt brilliant, and philosophically, it is amazingly stimulating, but as far as providing edification for the Christian, I think such stuff should be strongly avoided. Yet, The Great Divorce and such is considered essential reading by many for Christians, when in fact, it's containing entirely unjustifiable profanity makes it a non-Christian work.Brothers, let's use a little more discernment. It's sad that we have to water down and compromise for the sake of a chance of witnessing. If a movie or book or song glorifies something contrary to the gospel, there is nothing Christian about it. It only contains the forms of Christianity. If you really want to reach the loss, go stand in front of your local cinema and preach against the ungodly parade of images and sounds that people are are gazing upon in the name of entertainment, things which people declare are good, yet God says "woe" to. As Keith Daniel once said, if you try to win the world by becoming like the world, the world will only win you. (note: I'm not against Christians going to the movies, just against Christians seeing movies that glorify ungodliness)

Is the Chronicles of Narnia commended SI? A guy from church said to me "I can't believe you haven't read it". I told him I never even heard the book, let alone read it.

I have to agree with you KingJimmy, wholeheartedly.I must say I do not care for at all the use of things such as the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and such as evangelistic tools. Unless, of course, you are planning to preach on Isaiah's famous "woe to those who call evil good and good evil."

if paul had our religious attatude on mars hill, he would have told those idol worshipers they were all going to hell unless they burned those idols; especially the idol to the unknown god. jimp

But Paul did. Paul preached to them on the sin and folly of idolatry, and the judgment to come. Paul was neither entertained by the idol to the unknown god for that matter, rather, the Scriptures say he walked about and in felt provoked in his spirit by the many idolatrous images. Nor did he go about promoting this idol either, and encourage people to go out and see it.

the unknown god who i declare unto you... paul used the sinful, worly idol as the open door to preach the truth. what is the question in this forum? God has used me to lead many catholics to a saving knowledge of Jesus by using the jerusalem bible (catholic as it is) this comforts those who otherwise would be afraid of anything not blessed by the church. i also use non-rligious sounding(protstant) language. be all things to all people so you win some. its up to the Holy Spirit anyway, he is the convictor of sin ; not me. jimp

I've seen allegories to familiar secular things used to help non-christians understand the Gospel, but I've also seen many Christians slip on crucial issues because of attempts to do this.Lately, I've become a huge supporter of people like Ray Comfort, Paris Reidhead, and Leonard Ravenhill because of this simple fact: THEY TELL IT LIKE IT IS. They don't need anything other than the Word of God to help a person understand their condemned position, and their need for Christ.Also, I look at a family that I know. They were an awesome hard-core, sold out for Christ family. Well, they watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and thought it was great. After all, it's supposedly all about our battle as Christians, right?Well, the last I talked to them, they were getting ready to watch "harry potter". After all, it's just a harmless kids movie, right? Everyone knows it's just pretend.Here's the problem. It can give one of two very serious ideas: (1)sorcery is made up, like the movies, and it won't ever hurt anybody, or (2) you find kids that are running around outside pretending that they are themselves a witch or wizard, wishing they were one.Whey you offer up satanic things like this, and call them innocent because there's another [hidden] message that proclaims God, YOU MISLEAD PEOPLE!I don't support the use of these things as evangelic tools, let alone as entertainment for our families. Now, I don't know about the "chronicles of Narnia" series. I haven't read them. But how do they create an alligory? How do they portray what God calls evil? How do they portray God? And do the books/movie lead people to the Lord, or are they created meerly for our entertainment, weather deceptively or not?Grace and Peace...

We can discuss this till the cows come home, but we'll never come up with a clean-cut solution. God is the one who changes hearts and draws them to himself and he is the best one who knows what will get the message across. Christ never promoted any particular method. He used all kinds of imagery - wind, seeds, swords, doors, bread, water, etc etc. He, like Paul on Mars Hill simply took what the people (person) COULD understand and then made a spiritual parallel. We cannot underestimate God's ability to use anything he wishes - even if it is a book with swear words that are offensive to some Christians. I have a friend who got saved watching the disputed movie, "Jesus Christ Superstar". She was totally outside the influence of evangelicals at that time - and so ended up with a far purer faith than those who were infected by legalistic Christians - BECAUSE GOD TRANSFORMED HER MIRACULOUSLY Churches always seem to get on band wagons - eager to grab onto gimmics. So I'm not really impressed that they are doing that again. To me it's like cheating. Instead of letting Christ work within them to transform them into living letters radiating Christ through their lives, they'd rather use a method - that in the long run merely supports the movie industry. It's good to use imagery in our "evangelism" but if we are not working in sinq with the Spriit, we won't get results. God's timing is critical. But, having said that, we mustn't underestimate the ways of God - who may indeed use the movie. He can do that just as well (or better) outside the influence of the church. Diane

Just a thought, Tolken(sp?) Lord of the Rings seris was required reading in the public schools when I was a boy, along time ago :-) . And If you listen closely you know that people like Ravenhill, Tozer etc... have read C S Lewis who btw is the author of the Narnia Chronicles. I believe personally that the Lord is using these media's because the church isn't getting the job done :-( If this meat is offensive to a certain type of christian though , when in his/her presence I will refrain from eating it in order not to injure the one with a weaker conscience :-) I supose that would be a good precept to apply and stay with.

Jesus used parables, does this differ THAT much to make the main theme or message unbiblical? Ive never actually came across someone who thought C.S Lewis' writings didn't line up with scripture, but thats your conviction then stand with it. dohzman, that was well said, lets not get caught up on something that will make others stumble.btw, Ray Comfort's site has a tract about Lion witch and Wardrobe here :-)

That was a good tract. I'm going to send for some to hand out. :-)

Have you ever the the reference to something being 'like the curate's egg'? The phrase is stilll sometimes used in the UK. It comes from a cartoon in a humourous magazine called 'Punch' and must be well over a hundred years old.The curate, a trainee priest, has been invited to breakfast at the Bishop's palace. They sit next to each other at a long table eating thier boiled eggs. The cartoon shows malodorous fumes rising from the curate's egg which threaten to overpower him but he is conscious of the honour at being at breakfast with the bishop.The bishop notes the curates reluctance to start his egg and asks “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones”, to which the curate replies, in a desperate attempt not to give offence: “Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!”.Forgive the long explanation but I wanted to explain why I regard Lewis's writings "as something of a curate's egg". :-) ps you can see the actual cartoon here,

Hey there is a new tract at Living Water Publications that is made directly for the release of the movie "Chronicles of Narnia" I happen to work for Living Waters Publications... Here is what the tract looks like and a short description. Peace. God bless!

lets not get caught up on something that will make others stumble.Just curious: Who would be prone to stumble, and how? So, if we leave the movie outside the church, would that avoid the potential problem?Diane

An observation about the tract. It starts out by using an episode in the movie as an allegory to explain our need for a Redeemer. (Aslan) That makes sense. Then it goes on an uses another word picture: being "born again", but it doesn't explaining what that really means. Jesus used that phrase "born again" once (actually meaning born FROM ABOVE) and when he did it was in context with the conversation with Nicodemus. In this case, it seems like these words in a way that would mean nothing to to those unfamiliar with Jesus full conversation with Nicodemus. Then there is a prayer for someone to copy. I am troubled by that because I've been through that - said that prayer etc etc, and meant it, and many years later discovered that I was just following the words of man, trusting in man, and had yet to be born FROM ABOVE - in God's timing. Jesus said, the way is narrow and few find it.Again, I say, the Holy Spirit does the work. The Bible gives no set prayers for people to copy, so we shouldn't either. If someone really wants something, do they have to be told how to ask it? Doesn't God read the real intent of the heart? Having said that, I don't doubt that God may use it in some way. Diane

I think sometimes we forget that the tract is really only meant to stop them so that we can actually do the witnessing. Statiscally if 1/2 of 1 % of all tracts are actually read , it's a sucess. The fact is that according to most marketing surveys I've read on any form of hand out or direct mail the read to distribution ratio is 1 to 1000. Its still by our personal efforts (preaching)that God choses to save lost mankind.

I think sometimes we forget that the tract is really only meant to stop them so that we can actually do the witnessing. Statiscally if 1/2 of 1 % of all tracts are actually read , it's a sucess. The fact is that according to most marketing surveys I've read on any form of hand out or direct mail the read to distribution ratio is 1 to 1000. Its still by our personal efforts (preaching)that God choses to save lost mankind.I can see what you guys are talking about. But if you want to here something really encouraging about those who pass out tracts and use a simple witness check this story out...Also Living Waters has unique tracts. I believe that Living Waters alone ahs boosted that precentage up. We constantly have people that call us about our tracts and their content. I have personally witnessed hundreds reading our tracts. I think that we need to seize this opportunity since the movie is out and pass out as many as we can.