Twilight (Christian Perspective)

Mike Connell

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Mike Connell Ministries

http://mikeconnellministries.com

Audio Transcripts of regular Sunday Sermons

A Christian perspective is offered on the hugely popular fictional Twilight series, discussing its roots in both the Occult and also the Mormon religion, and the potential effects that this type of "chick-porn" can have on real world relationships.

Sun 5 Dec 2010

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A Christian perspective is offered on the hugely popular fictional Twilight series, discussing its roots in both the Occult and also the Mormon religion, and the potential effects that this type of "chick-porn" can have on real world relationships.

I want to speak tonight on Twilight, and I want to just open our eyes a little bit to gain understanding on it. I want to first of all just set a bit of a context like I did - how many enjoyed the message I did on tattoos, opened their eyes on tattoos? So I want to pick up with the same kind of slant on it. I don't want to be into: forbid people to do this, forbid people to do that, and bring people under the law. That's not really what we want to do. I want you to have understanding so you can make choices, and choices we make determine our destiny. You don't just suddenly arrive anywhere. You make a lot of little choices on the way, and as a result you arrive where you've directed your life to go.

I want you to look with me in Acts, Chapter 2. In there is an outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and we're still in that outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Notice what Peter says, as he describes the outpouring the spirit of God. He speaks prophetically some things. This is that which is spoken of by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days - that's when this happened, until now and beyond. The last days, we're in the last days - I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Now notice what he says: your sons and daughters shall prophesy, young men shall see visions, old men shall dream dreams. On my man servants and maid servants I'll pour out my spirit. In those days they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath.

So we see here God prophetically declares, that in the times of the New Testament Church until the time we're living in, and in an increase - I believe an increasing, accelerating pace, we're going to see more and more of the supernatural. There is a hunger for the supernatural. You are in a generation called to flow in the spirit and power of God. When we were in early days as a Pastor, it was the only gifts of the spirit we saw in any consistency, was the gift of prophecy, but now gifts of the spirits flow readily. Miracles happen readily. I'm hearing of miracles in the church, miracles people prayed. Some were sitting in the church just last week, they came in with pain in their feet. They'd damaged their heel for some long time, just suddenly woke up the next day, totally healed. Miracles are happening. We are in a river of God's spirit.

Now that river of God's spirit is to go to people, and draw them to encounters with God, so you and I are called to carry the spirit of God, and bring people to encounter, so you are called to flow in the things of the supernatural. Now there are principles upon which it bases, and which it operates, so corresponding to the church being called to arise, and to flow in the supernatural, there is an immense awakening of hunger everywhere in the world for the supernatural. Hollywood is pumping it out and making mega bucks on it. Anything that's got supernatural in it, is a seller. About a year ago or two years ago I picked that after the vampire thing had run a bit of its course the next thing that would be out would be werewolves. Sure enough they're out there, and they're starting to make movies about werewolves. There is a fascination with this realm of the spirit, and we need to understand that the realm of the spirit operates on spiritual laws.

So if we violate the laws of God, we can find ourselves connected to the occult realm, and not even know it. What that does is it sabotages the life of a person who's passionate to serve God. You are called, not to an ordinary life, you are called to a life passionate for Jesus Christ, passionate for advancing the kingdom of God, and so what you don't want is baggage around your life, that stops you running your course, finishing your race. You don't want to be a half-baked, half-hearted Christian. You want to be passionate, on fire, God's speaking to you, God's working through you. You experience the joy, the life, of fulfilling your destiny, so at the same time that God is raising up such a generation, at the same time there are many, many subtle entanglements coming, and their goal is to compromise your life, to cause you to get involved in things that take away your passion for God, and your love for His presence. So some of the things like we talked about the tattoos, we opened up and showed you the occult realm, and the occult dimension, and how you actually open up your life into the occult realm through the taking of tattoos.

But I want to look at this whole area of this series of Twilight. We're going to talk a little bit about it, and for those who don't know I'll have to explain a bit about it. Before I do that, let me just explain the power of a story. In Matthew 13, Verse 34, the Bible says that Jesus spoke, and He spoke to them in parables or stories. Stories carry emotional impact. When you hear a story, you have an image in your mind. The better the story is told, and the more emotional the story, the more it impacts you, so when you hear the testimony of someone, and how God has worked in their life and they were broken and damaged, you feel empathy for that person. You enter into the story with them, you're listening, and then you kind of have feelings and emotions that stir up as you hear the story.

When you listen to your friend, and they tell you about the break up of a relationship, and they're weeping on your shoulder, you get caught into the feeling and the stories. Stories are powerful ways of conveying images into our mind, impressing us, and shaping how we think, for example, how many saw the movie Titanic? I loved it. I saw it the first day it opened up. As soon as I saw it, this is going to be a winner, and there was almost no one came for about the first week, and then it just took off. Then it became a best seller and the rest is all history, so what are the things in there? There's certain things in the story that had an appeal to people. I won't go into that story. I want to get into the Twilight, and look at what's in the Twilight. Interesting the name Twilight, it's the period between when the sun's gone down and it's not yet dark, it's neither light nor dark, it's in between - the Twilight Zone.

So stories have power to affect our lives. Don't think that what you read, doesn't affect you. TV puts out millions and millions and millions of dollars into advertising, to create pictures and images to get an impact in your life, to make you feel like you're unhappy with what you have, but what they're offering on the advert is just what will make you happy. So you see the images, and many young people will buy stuff straight off the images they see on the TV, so that brings us to the stories. The Twilight series is a series of four books. There's four of them, and it's a publishing and a movie phenomena. What that means is, unbelievable, unbelievable response - over 17 million of the books sold, huge response, millions of dollars taken in the sales of the movies. It is not just now a movie, it's become a phenomenon, that's affected primarily young girls, girls pre-teen, tweens, and teens and - would you believe it - older women as well!

One of the things when something is a phenomenon, there must be some reason for it being such a phenomenon. There must be a reason, there must be some kind of reason for it, so Twilight has got people all over the world reading it, waiting for the next story, wanting to watch the next movie.

Essentially it's a love story between a girl, a fairly plain girl, ordinary girl, and really a classy guy who's actually a vampire - so it's a love story. Stories create an image about how you see relationships. They create an image about how you see relationships, so when people read the book, images are created about what relationships look like, and what I want to do is, I want to go through - I won't go into all the story, I don't want to tell all the story. You can find that out yourself. I'll just give you enough of the first one to know what it's about - but what I want to do is, I want to unlock what is behind it. If you think it's just a story, why is it so popular? If it's just another story, why has it sold so many millions? Why are so many people buying it? Why are so many millions of young girls in love with Edward in the story? You've got to ask the question; they're really in love with it, they're obsessed with it, and that's one of the fruits you'll see with this thing, is it's obsessive.

So if you're an addict and you love these stories, you may not be happy with everything I have to say today. You may not be happy at all [laughs] so there's four books; the first one's called Twilight, the second one New Moon, the third one's Eclipse, the fourth one is Breaking Dawn. There's a reason it's so popular. They follow a sequence of ideas right through from this young girl meeting this vampire. He actually looks like he's 17 years old or 18 years old, or something like that. Actually the reality is he's over 100 years old, and I'm going to show you what that's all about just shortly. There are things in this story you have no idea, of course it's, you know, girls love it. They read the story - how many guys have read the book by the way? Yeah, right - guys, how many guys have read it? Yeah, like I thought, no one. [Laughter] How many guys have seen the movie? Yeah, well that's - okay, two of us. [Laughter] Good on you, there's three guys saw the movie. Good on you. I wanted to see it, to know what it was on. I watched it on a plane, otherwise I can't talk about something I haven't seen. You've got to know what it's about.

So what is it about? Well it's actually a Gothic or dark romance. The whole thing's really about the story of a love relationship between - and it involves vampires and werewolves. You think how could anyone get involved in that? You know what? When I first saw the picture of it, you know what I thought? I don't like you! When I saw the next one come out, and it had the other guy on it, Jacob, I thought I don't like you either! They had these advertising brochures up everywhere, and every time I'd see one: I don't like you. I'm thinking I wonder why I've got such a reaction inside, I actually don't like you. I'd see this, and the stuff was up in the bookshops, its up in the movies, anywhere. You can't go anywhere without this blimmin' picture of this eclipse, and Edward and Bella looking out of her tree [laughter] and this other guy, Jacob with his shirt off and all the abs and so on - and there it is. I looked, I thought: I don't like you!

Every time I go past one, I thought I don't like you! Then I thought man, this is a phenomena and I don't like it, I wonder why? It's because I'm older, must be because I'm older, and I don't have abs like that. [Laughter] Maybe it's something like that you know, kind of think that sort of thing, and I thought about it for a while and I realised actually, there's something in me is reacting, and reacting strongly. Every time I go past a poster, I'd look at it - I don't like you. I had no intentions seeing the movie. I saw it on a plane. I thought it was a chance to see the thing quietly, I might as well find out what this is up to, so at least I've got some information. But I realise now that there was a spirit reaction in me to the whole story, and I think anyone who has any spiritual discernment of any kind, on looking at it at first glance, would automatically have the alarm bells go off at the thought of vampires and werewolves, and that's it, they switch off.

Now if you have spiritual discernment like that well great, because you know exactly what to be involved with, and what not to be involved with. But we live in a generation where this has become a culture phenomenon, and if you're going to be relevant to a generation you've got to know what's going on, and then how to address it. What is it that's causing the pull? We shared with you about the Harry Potter stories. I shared with you when they came out, what is the pull that's involved in there? The pull is a pull to the occult. It's a fascinating draw into the occult, so this thing is really very, very popular. So the heroine Bella Swan lives with her father, marriage has broken up, so she lives with her father in a small place in Forks, Washington. She meets and falls in love with this guy Edward Cullen and he's a sort of a sombre, moody, broody - oh I don't like him, I so don't like him. He's moody, broody and he has a cold dark secret, he's a vampire, over 100 years old. You think God, how could anyone, any of these girls fall in love with this? They do, believe me. They fall in love - and there's a reason.

So they're part of a family of vampires, who's origin goes right back to the 1600s. Now I'll connect all this information just shortly, and I'll show you what lies behind it - so the origin of the family with the senior father Cullen and it's like a family, and the family are all loyal to one another. Anyone who comes against family comes against them all. They all stand together, they're all one family, they come from one father, and this father decided that they would not eat human blood, they would drink the blood of animals. So the whole family has tried to stay true to the father's teaching. Now you're going to see this when you discover the roots of it, that there's far more in the story than is apparent. So this family has lived over these hundreds of years, and they're quite a close community until this girl falls in love with the guy Edward. So the drama goes on, and there's a romance going between the two, but there's some extremely disturbing things in it.

He is presented very powerfully as strong, fast, got supernatural power, supernatural abilities. He's caring. He's tender, he honours her, he doesn't have sex with her. There's a whole range of things about him, which make him sort of a kind of a guy that you think well, where would you find anyone like him - apart from the fact he's a vampire. She sort of has very little going for her in many ways, in that she's quite ordinary, she's a very insecure girl, and she gets totally wrapped up in this relationship with this guy. That's the basic core of the story. So this particular family are the goodies, and there's another group of vampires which are baddies, and they want to kill Bella, so it's a fight between the goodies and the baddies, and the goodies win - that's the story, something like that.

Of course each story that goes on adds a bit more in. The next story, you get a young guy Jacob turns up, and he's a werewolf, and she's caught in the eternal triangle - which is the better person, the vampire or the werewolf? That's kind of the story of it. Now what I want to do is to go into what's really behind it. Is it just a harmless story? Is it just a love story? Is it just sort of some kind of thing that happens to be a buck maker, or is there more to it? Many people encourage people to read it, because they say it's essentially a teen romance, whos theme is having no sex before marriage. So some people say really good book because young people get the message about not having sex before marriage, but actually there's far more to it than that.

When you read a book, like when you watch a television program, this is what happens; you go into a realm of imagination. When I was growing up I was extremely dysfunctional and disconnected, and the way I coped with the emotional need in my life was to read fantasy books, and to go and live in a fantasy world, and disconnect from real relationships. So books that have fantasy stories stimulate your imagination, and take you into an imaginary world. When you go and read a book or watch a TV program, you actually enter into the whole story, you go into the imagination of the author. So for example you watch a TV program, you are watching some author's imagination, and you're seeing it in a visual form. You can actually go into the story, and live in the story, in a way you could never do in real life, like you're peeping on everything they do. It's just kind of unnatural to be that close.

When you read a love story or a romance like this, your imagination then goes with you, and depending on how clever the writer is, right into the story, into the characters to begin to connect with them. Now here's the reason why - we'll get into it in a moment - there's some problems in it. There are two primary areas of problems. When you read the book, it begins to shape - now remember it's not just one, there's four - it begins to form pictures and images about how relationships ought to work. In other words, you come out of it with views about relationships, and so the two places that this has got major problems is this; the first one, it is rooted in the occult and steeped with the demonic, filled with the demonic. Right from one end to the other you are into an occult world, and it's filled with demonic and supernatural power. That's the first problem, and we'll show you, I'm going to explain to you some things about that in a moment.

The second thing about it is, the story itself is a highly emotionally - it's written to appeal to emotions, and it's written with young women in mind, to appeal to their emotional side of their being, and to portray some images about relationships. The problem is, the relationships that are represented there, between Bella and Edward, is totally, totally, totally dysfunctional. Any girl who I heard was getting into a relationship with any guy like him - even if he's not a werewolf or a vampire [laughter] - I would come with alarm to them, and tell them you are about to wreck your life. You have no idea what you're about to get into. I'll explain that in just a moment. Now of course those of you who loved it, and are wrapped into it are getting angry at the moment. Don't worry about it, just stay open will you?

First of all I want to look at the influence of the occult in the books. Now the word occult means covered, or secret, or hidden. It's because anything that's involving the occult involves the spirit world, but the nature of it is hidden, so the occult has to do with the hidden spirit world's supernatural power, supernatural information and so on. So the Bible warns us, in so many different places - Deuteronomy 18:9, when God's people are coming out of Egypt and going into the Promised Land, one of the major warnings they were given was: don't get involved in the occult. If you get involved in the occult, you'll be defiled, you'll become demonised. You will fail to enter into the Promised Land. When they said also about going into the Promised Land, when you go in the Promised Land, they're involved in the occult, clean it up, get rid of everything, leave nothing there, get rid of everything involved with the occult. Why? Because when you get involved with the occult, you are drawn into relationships with demonic spirits.

Now most of the time, demonic spirits don't come to you and say: can we have a relationship? They come to you in a subtle way, that you are not aware of. That's the nature of deception. Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light, so I would describe Edward in this story as an angel of light, classic, straight out of Corinthians, demonic spirit masquerading as an angel of light. You'll see he presents himself as being extremely attractive and seductive, powerful and strong and mysterious. He relates in a way that stirs the emotions in Bella, until she just wants to give herself over to him - but actually, the core of his nature, is demonic. Think about it. A love relationship between a girl and a demon? That's what this is about. That's what this is about. It's a love relationship between a young girl and a demon.

So in Acts, Chapter 19, when the church had revival, one of the things they did was they totally got rid of everything associated with the occult. They got rid of their books, they got rid of - in Verse 18 through to 20 - they got rid of $50,000 worth of stuff they had involved with the occult. Why did they do that? Because the move of God's spirit would be hindered by attachments to the occult, so they had a clean out, and everyone who'd been involved in the occult, everyone who'd been involved with any kind of spiritism, they came forward, they confessed what they'd done, burnt their books, burnt their tarot cards, burnt their Ouija boards, burnt the whole deal - burnt it, and there was about $50,000 pieces of silver, which is millions of dollars worth of occult materials. That's what revival looks like. You clean up your act and you get rid of the stuff you've got hidden in the cupboard. You get rid of the secret stuff, and you come clean with God, and you walk in the light.

I can guarantee if you're addicted to Twilight, you are not walking in the light, and you've got some troubles - guarantee it. I'm just waiting to get my hands on someone to pray for someone and see what manifests. So throughout the Bible, there are continual conflicts between the power of God and the people of God and sorcerers, so for example Moses, Elijah, Paul, all of them had these kinds of issues and involvements. Now let's have a look at Twilight. Where does the demonic come in? Well actually far more than you realise. You just can't imagine. I read on the internet, I've been searching around getting as much as I could find, got heaps of stuff. Here's the first thing. The first thing is, its demonic origin. The first thing is that the novels were inspired by a dream that Stephenie Meyer got in 2003. She had this dream - note this; she got two dreams. The first dream, she saw two people, and they were standing in a meadow. I'll explain - you'll see the significance of all these things shortly as I pull it all together.

They were standing in a meadow, and there was this young ordinary, average girl, and there was this fantastic sparkly vampire, and they were discussing a difficulty they had; one, they were in love with one another, and two, he's attracted to the scent of her blood and wants to kill her. That's the dream she had, and from that dream, she began to formulate the books, so the books were inspired by a dream. Now she wrote about this guy Edward. Later on she had a second dream. In the second dream, Edward came and spoke to her, and terrified her, and this is what he said. He spoke to her in a dream and he said, she'd got it all wrong. He really did exist, and he couldn't live off the blood of animals, had to live off the blood of people. How about that? She was terrified, because the Edward that appeared in the dream was not the one she'd been writing around, but the source was demonic.

So the source of it is demonic. It's not surprising the book is full of it. You're going to see a few more things in just moment. I'll quickly go through these things. If the roots are demonic then you can absolutely be certain the fruit will be something similar. You can't dabble with the occult, and with the demonic, and not become defiled and affected, you just can't do it. So here it is. The first thing is, the books are filled with the occult, so I'm going to go through and I'll list you just some of the occult things that are in the book. First thing, the vampires. Notice they've got supernatural powers; they've got supernatural speed; supernatural strength. They can read people's minds; they can control people's feelings; they can see at great distances - so those are all in the books, all in the stories. It's actually all in the movie. You can see them knowing all these things, seeing all these things and whatever. That is all occult. It's strictly from the occult. It has to do with divination and sorcery, and the occult is a realm of darkness.

Second thing that's in there are werewolves. Werewolves are people that can change shape. They change shape from a person into an animal, and that animal destroys people and kills people, whereas vampires suck their blood out. We'll get to that in just a moment - but the werewolves are different. The werewolves tear people apart. Are they real? Oh yes. There are people who can change shape. They are involved in the occult, and they're well known, not so much in the west, but in countries which are very open to the occult, it's not infrequent that people have to deal with sorcerers who can change their form, and turn into an animal at will, turn into a serpent or a python, turn into a wolf, or in one case in a revival recently in Fiji, there were a whole group of sorcerers turned themselves into bats, and came and sat up and made a noise and interrupted one of the meetings this guy was preaching at. But he preached the gospel anyway. Later on all these guys came and repented of their sins. They said we heard your message, and he said where did you hear it? He said we came and visited you.

Now I won't go into too much detail around that. I don't want you to be fascinated with it. It's no surprise that these things can happen, but it's people highly into the occult. Now it's dramatised, so the guy looks really handsome and very attractive. Make no mistake the root is evil, absolutely and completely, but it's presented in a beautiful form that a young teenage girl could fall in love with very easily. So you've got a whole following for this guy Jacob, who's a muscly, handsome, good looking guy. I don't like him! Actually happened - turns out he's a werewolf, and so he can bite you too. Notice that also associated with it is the drinking of blood. Drinking of blood is closely connected all over the world with the occult, so when people are involved in the occult, blood sacrifices, blood letting, blood drinking are part of that.

It's so much a problem that in Leviticus 19:26 God forbade the drinking of blood, and believe it, in the New Testament Church, Acts 15, they also forbade the taking of blood, so what was in the Old, was also forbidden in the New. Not many laws we got to keep in the New, but one of them is don't drink blood, don't drink blood - and yet the picture portrayed there in the movie, now I'll get to another thing in a moment - the picture in the movie is that, if he is to drink her blood he'll put a venom in her, and she will turn, and she will die to her humanity, and become like him, living forever. Don't tell me there aren't spiritual pictures in that, that are very, very powerful - so drinking of blood.

Another thing that's in there is, there's a total reconstruction of what is evil becomes good, and what is good becomes evil. Now one of the - I haven't got time to go into any of that, but normally if we think of vampires, you think of real evil things. Suddenly you've got a story in which the vampire's a good guy. What to make of that? Now the Bible has something to make of it. It says: woe to them, in Isaiah 5, who call evil good and good evil, so woe to - in other words, there is a curse comes on people, who call things which are evil good, and call that which is good evil. Now you notice in this book they're portraying evil, someone who's a vampire, as being a good guy. It's a total distortion, that speaks of that in the books. Here's another thing you may not know that's interesting, that salvation, how you get saved is distorted.

So daddy Cullen, in the year 1640 or thereabouts, turns his son Edward, who's 17, into a vampire who lives for hundreds of years or whatever. Now here's the thing. He did this to save him, so he turned him from being human into being this cold-blooded supernatural being, and he saved him. This is what they called the experience; they called the experience New Birth. How about that? And born into the family, so he's had a New Birth, he's come into a family, and now he's part of a very special family, and they've got this thing that they all follow their father. Now you're going to get the reason for this in a moment. Another thing, if you read the book, you'll see on the first page or the cover of the book, you'll see an interesting thing, a scripture verse. It talks about eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil - though shall not eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden, Genesis 2:17, and it's got a picture of a woman or two hands holding out the fruit of the tree to eat. I mean you can't get a more blatant - it actually points - anyone who's got eyes to see, can see this thing ain't going to a good place.

Now when you actually look at how the whole series, you'll find that Bella longs to live forever, and what she needs to do to live forever, is let Edward put the bite on her, and then she'll die to being human, and she'll be as wise, and be as Gods, and live forever. I tell you, talk about Genesis 2:17 just being fulfilled, just in the whole theme of the story - but there's more to it than that, and I'll just finish the last bit of it, then we'll finish the emotional bit. How many are finding this a bit disturbing, this part of it? Okay, well here's the next thing is, is that the lady who wrote the book is a Mormon. [Laughter] Now you say well what's the deal about that? If anyone has read all four books you'll find, interestingly enough, that all four books, the primary action takes place in a meadow. Not only that it's a meadow up in a mountain, or Mountain Meadows.

Now you would think that doesn't mean anything. Oh, yes it all does. You find out you see, if you follow through and understand anything about the Mormon Church, and look at their history, the first thing is Mountain Meadows. Mountain Meadows was the scene in America in the 1800s, of the worst massacre of white settlers by Mormon people. There was a group of white settlers travelling through Utah to go to California, and the Mormons had been under some persecution at that time. What they did was they dressed up as Indians, and they incited the local Indians, they attacked this particular wagon train, and the wagon train circled. They had it under attack for four days, and after the four days the Mormons dressed themselves up and came and said listen, we've got a way out of here. If you just lay down all your guns, and you walk away and leave all your stuff, we'll protect you, we've got a deal with the Indians, and you'll be safe. So they all agreed to do it. They laid down their guns, they left all their things, they walked out each one accompanied by a Mormon, who was supposedly guarding them against the Indians.

At a predetermined signal they turned on them and shot the lot of them, 120 people died. There was an outrage. It was sanctioned by the leader of the Mormon Church at that time. There was an outrage against it, and so this Mountain Meadows became a scene in history of tremendous reproach against the Mormons. Now have a look at the whole story. Now you begin to see that right through this story, there is a thread of Mormon belief right through the whole story, their way of viewing salvation. It starts off - now get this - the family started with the father started off, who started this family, Cullen Senior, started off in the 1600s and exactly the time when Joseph Smith came and founded the Mormon Church, and got his so-called revelation. Not only that, the wife of this guy in the book is even named a similar name as Joseph Smith's first wife, who rebelled against the whole thing of multiple marriages. Notice this - the family is a special family, who stays true to the father's vision, which is what the Mormons believe. Think about it.

See, not only that, they proclaim chastity, but they also have this thing that the woman is saved through marriage and childbearing, which is the theme of the story. It's extraordinary how this stuff comes through. Notice this: they also promoted child brides, a very controversial practice, young girls being married to old men. Now have a think about this - how old is Edward really? See, the subtleties of the story are there right through it. He's over 100 years old guy, with a 17 year old girl? Give me a break. Come on, think about it. It's a story of her conversion into his family, and ultimate salvation. This is what goes right through the whole thing. It's full of the occult, it's full of it. So that's just that aspect of it. What about the relationship aspect? This is the bit that's really got a - this nails it to the tree.

I was stunned when I did the research, and found out just how much of the occult is steeped through the whole deal. I mean it was obvious vampires and werewolves, but it was far more subtle, far deeper than that, and so people form concepts about relationships. Now the thing is Twilight's a love story on steroids. It's a love story amped plus, and this is why girls love it, and guys think oh yeah. Guys who read it think oh man, there's too much, you know, it describes in detail her first kiss, and all the feelings and emotions. So although the book on the one hand says it's got a stance of pro-chastity, actually it's full of lust and a spirit of seduction. When you read the thing girls, you just go into fantasy world plus! It is fantasy plus! There ain't no Edward. [Laughter] He's a demonic delusion. What happens is, you get an idea of a relationship, and there's no such thing, and even if there was, you wouldn't want the kind of relationship he's got with her. It's horrendous.

Now of course there's some nice qualities he's got. He's really strong, and really fast, he's sensitive, and he's caring, and he listens to her - that's good. But what about this? He sneaks into her bedroom and stands there watching her while she sleeps. That is creepy. [Laughter] Hey, if you did that you'd be arrested, you know that. [Laughter] He eavesdrops on conversations - what is that about aye? He encourages her to deceive her father. Well that's really honouring your father well, isn't it? He takes her out of the truck and kidnaps her, separates her from her friends - notice this. This is all the signs of a totally dysfunctional relationship. Girls, if you ever have a guy, who's listening in on your conversations, tells you and teaches you to deceive your parents about what's going on, and takes you away on his own, separates you from your friends, you have got a big, big problem here.

Here's some other things. Of course, so she's got no self-confidence, she puts herself down, and she treats the boy as a superior being, and she really looks down on her humanity, wants to be like him. Now here's the thing that's the biggest problem in it, is emotional dependency. They are linked in a co-dependent emotional relationship that's incredibly unhealthy. They can't live without one another - [in a whiny voice] I can't live without you. The second story, when she departs from him, or he breaks the relationship up, she's just like a zombie. You want to see the pictures of her, she really looks really, really bad, and so see, emotional dependency means this. It means you're not emotionally stable. You aren't secure in yourself. You need someone else to make you feel good. Any relationship where you need someone else to make you feel good about yourself is doomed, totally doomed. It's totally doomed. Relationships do not work like that in real life. This is FANTASY!

You know for boys, now boys have got a different problem. Boy's problem is pornography, and now you turn on pornography; what have you got in pornography? What you've got is women that are unreal, they don't really exist. They're hired and paid to do something to create a fantasy, so some guy will get all aroused and excited. That's what pornography is. It's an illusion. Ain't no one that's like that. It just isn't true. It's a fantasy with a hook, to get you caught into and become addicted into the images and pictures, until you live in an unreal fantasy world, and can't for real relationships. Pornography's incredibly destructive to young men, and pornography is to men, what this is to women. This is emotional pornography. That's exactly what it is, because you get caught into a fantasy. It appeals to women's emotional needs, so you get caught into fantasy.

Oh they think about it, dream about it, have pictures up. It's an absolute disaster really see, so emotional dependency is another way of saying: you are the one who'll meet my needs in life. This is called relational idolatry. There is no person. Girls, there's no man can meet your needs. You need to know it now. You need to let Christ meet your needs, become a whole person, and come into relationship with something to give. You can't run any relationship, hoping some guy will make you feel good about yourself, and feel loved. He's not responsible for your feelings, and there's no guy like Edward. He's not a real guy. He's a fantasy. Real guys aren't like that. Real guys aren't like that at all, I'm sorry! [Laughter] They're just not - so what you're doing is, as you get into that, you get caught up into an image, and it begins to be addictive. That's why you notice you can't stop reading the book. Mum tells you to go to bed, light's on, I'm going to read, read, read, I've got to read. What's happening? Something's going on inside you. You're hooked and addicted.

So people get addicted to it, so emotional dependency is a form of idolatry, you give yourself to another person, hoping they'll meet your need. So here's another aspect of it. So first of all, it's just weird the way he carries on. Secondly, there's relational co-dependency and idolatry. Here's the third thing. He could kill her at any moment, and so the tension in this thing is, he's a vampire after her blood, and he's trying to restrain himself, so she never knows whether he's going to love her, or bite her to death. Huh? Now let me tell you this. I've counselled and Lyn counselled heaps of people, where the man - you never know, one minute to the next, whether he's in a good mood, or angry and aggressive and violent move. You never want to be in a relationship with anyone like that, who is moody and unpredictable, and you never know when this thing is going to go off. This is totally dysfunctional. You need to see it. People who enter a relationship - and Jacob, well he's no better. He's the werewolf, he's just as likely to bite her and devour her too, and turn her into a werewolf.

So she's on tenterhooks all the time around both guys, making sure she doesn't upset them. Girls, that is no way to have a relationship. You've got to be secure in yourself, you've got to have a secure guy, and you've got to work out the fact that in that relationship there's going to be stuff to work out. This is total fantasy. It's just unreal. [Laughs] It's just unreal. Now the thing is it's supposed to be pro-abstinence, but get this. Edward, now he's the main character, this is what he said. He said the book is based on the virtue of chastity, but it seems to have the opposite effect on the readers. I have eight year old girls come up to me and say bite me, I want you to bite me. Girls, there's a feeding frenzy on this guy. The Bible says - 2 Timothy 2:22 - flee youthful lusts. Run away from things that stir up passions you can't control.

Fantasy creates unrealistic expectations. Real life, it just don't work like that, so here's the problem with the bottom line. The bottom line, it portrays evil as good, and good as evil, and it leads to you being engaged in the occult, and having images of relationships which are totally dysfunctional, and yet you think they're ideal; I wish I had someone just like him. No way do you want anyone just like him! You'll be in for counselling before you know it, and be crying on the altar there; oh, it's terrible, I don't know what to do, he's at me all the time. It's just not going to work. Real relationships don't work like that. Real relationships, you are whole and strengthened, and founded in Christ. You're secure in who you are. You have something to put into relationships, you have strong boundaries, and you also have friends beyond the relationship. You also know how to honour your parents. A strong relationship, the guy needs to be strong in himself, have his own connection with God, his own self, be able to stand up for himself. He's not going to meet all your needs, you're not going to meet all his needs. Together, you add something in that builds a strong relationship. You have problems, you work them out on the way. That's real life. This is real life.

The other is a seductive fantasy, and the Bible says: in the last days there will be seducing spirits, doctrines of devils, all kinds of things like that. When good is called evil, and evil is called good, something's really wrong. When millions of girls are obsessed - here's the fruit of it. People become obsessed. I'm not even going to ask who's got the pictures up. We won't go there, but you need to ask, if you're obsessed, if you've got a problem with obsession, you need to deal with it. If you've got a problem with romantic idolatry, you need to face this thing and put it right.

Why don't we just close our eyes right now shall we? If you've got children, and children want to read the books, you've got to decide what you do in your own home. I wouldn't want those books in my home if my kids were young, but if you've got a child in their teens, early teens, then you need to sit and talk with them about it, and then if they still are going to read it you've got to decide what standard you have in your home, and what you allow them to read and not read, and what areas you'll go. But if you're going to say don't read it, talk to them about the whys. Talk to them about keeping themselves for God, about being a special generation, about learning godly values, about how to build success in relationships, and how these things are seductive and they lead you away from truth, they lead you away from wholeness. They lead you away from Jesus Christ, who knows how to help you succeed in life.

If they're going to read the book I suggest you say well, I'm going to read the chapter with you, we're going to have a bit of a talk afterwards and going to interact over the ideas, we're going to look at what this says, and what the Bible's like. They say oh, you're being so boring! No, no, no, I'm trying to engage with you to protect you from something that will open the door to the demonic for you. Let's close our eyes right now. Father, we just thank You. Lord, we thank You we live in a great hour and a great day, when Lord we're able to access heaven in an unprecedented way, see Your miracles, see Your presence, see Your power, see things happen. Father, tonight we thank You, that we're alive in such a day. I thank You for this generation that's alive in such a day, what a day to be serving Jesus Christ. Oh, we've dreamed of it all our lives and here it is, the dawning of a new day. Lord, we see the up rise of so many other things as well, that are seeking to capture the hearts of a generation, and Lord, we want this generation of our young people, and our Lord our older people, we want everyone to arise and fulfil their call. So today Lord, I ask that You'll help people, help individuals in here who are struggling.

I want you just with your eyes closed right now, I want to ask you just a few questions. Firstly, for those who read that book - there'll be some who read it, some who don't. When I shared about this, has it opened your eyes to the reality of the occult in it? Have you found a fascination with this thing, and you find you're drawn in and obsessed with it, and can't get it out of your mind? Listen, I've just done this study for this meeting, and I've had all I can stand of it. I just want to go home and just read the word of God and wash my mind, get the thing out of my mind and just have it on tape. It's a defiling thing. It is defiling. If you find that thing you've got it in your mind, you've got it in your emotions, why don't you say tonight, I just want to get it out. I feel God speaking to me about letting go of something that just sabotages my relationship with God. I really want to be close to God, I don't want to be close to demons. I want to be close to God. I really don't want to continue with this thing. I'm glad that I've got the truth tonight. Even though I don't like the truth, I'm going to respond to what God is saying. Don't compromise your relationship. You know you can't feast off the table of the spirit of God, and the table of idols and demons, you just can't do it, so when you get involved in this stuff, it affects you and you don't even know it.

Listen, tonight if you find that there's a fascination, obsession with these books, perhaps you are fantasising about relationships as a result of it, why don't you tonight come up and say: I need some help, I really want to get free. If you find that you're fantasising, and having dreams, and thinking about this thing, and it's got a hold of you, then you need prayer to help you break out of that. You've got to make a decision - I'm not going to be attached, I'd had no idea this thing was hooking into me like that. You've got a need, and it's a valid need, but it won't be met that way. That becomes addictive, it becomes fantasy, it becomes idolatry, and it brings you into bondage. Why don't you come up tonight and say: I want to be free of this thing, I don't want that stuff in my mind and emotions. If you know you're spending time daydreaming and fantasising about romances and stuff, it's taken you where you don't want to go. Listen, don't fantasise about some romance, and some kind of thing from a book. Begin to read the Bible, find out what God says about relationships, and grow up as a believer. This is just sapping your energy at a time you really need to be focussed.

Perhaps there's others, and you're troubled, you've been reading this stuff, and you've got trouble in your mind with spirits. You may have been into blood covenants, blood cutting, or any things like that. If you've been into that, or made agreements, or spoken words of making agreements, or you know, even saying words of being in love with this guy, people do all kinds of crazy stuff when they've got their emotions stirred, but the devils listen to it, and they lock you in on it, and these things begin to come through an open door in your life. Why don't you say tonight: Jesus, I want to be cleaned up, I want to be free, I don't want this stuff around my life? Perhaps there's others of you, and you've been involved in other kinds of areas; there may be guys here and you're struggling with images in your mind, and you're glad tonight I've been talking to the girls, but really you've got your own struggle in your own life, and you say man, I've got images that just burn in my brain, I can't seem to get them out. Listen, you can just have those things broken off your life very simply, break the soul ties attaching you to them. You've got to just repent of that thing.

See, these things are all fantasy, escape, they bring you into the world of imagination, and then into the world of the spirit. God wants your imagination, men and women free, so His spirit can bring prophetic dreams and creative ideas. You've got to have your mind and imagination clean and clear. It's the gateway, the doorway into the spirit world. If anyone wants to access the spirit world, they focus their mind and imagination, and it opens a gateway. Listen, this is a gateway for the spirit, but you want the right spirit to come. You want to set your mind and imagination aside for the Lord. Perhaps there's some of you tonight, and you're struggling in relationships of different kinds. Perhaps you're struggling with grief or depression, or feeling a bit suicidal, or down inside. It'd be a great night to come forward and say God, I want to become whole, I want to be restored. Just while the musicians are playing people, I know God's been speaking to you, why don't you just come tonight, just come and stand in front of me and lift your hands and say: Jesus, I want my life to be clean for You. I want to be in love with You and passionate for You. Man, You're my Edward, You're my man. Man, You're supernatural, You're strong, You're wise, You're smart, You're beautiful. You're eternal, and if I will drink from You I will live forever, and that's the real thing. He's the real deal this Jesus Christ. Man, this Edward's a counterfeit, he's a substitute. He'll bite you and console you, confine you to cold death. Tonight Jesus Christ offers you life.