The Menace Behind Twilight

“I’m the world’s most dangerous predator. Everything about me invites you in. My voice, my face, even my smell… I’m designed to kill… I wanted to kill you. I’ve never wanted a human’s blood so much in my life… Your scent, it’s like a drug to me. You’re like my own personal brand of heroin.”

So says the handsome vampire, Edward Cullen, to his star-struck 17-year-old lover, Bella Swan, in the hit movieTwilight (2008) now the rage of teenagers the world over. New Moon , the second film of a four-part series, strikes theaters on November 20, 2009. Next is Eclipse , slated for June 2010, to be followed by Breaking Dawn . While many Christian parents have never even heard of The Twilight Saga, this blockbuster sequence of vampire romances has become bigger than Harry Potter.

It all started one dark night – June 1, 2003 to be exact – when a virtually unknown Arizona stay-at-home mom named Stephenie Meyer had a strange dream. On her official website, Meyer testifies,

I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately.¹

This dream was so compelling that when Meyer awoke she wrote like a woman struck by lightning. In a relatively short time, to her family’s great surprise, her compulsive writing not only produced four full-length novels, but she also landed a huge deal with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, one of the largest young adult book publishers in America . Amazingly, her novels quickly rocketed to the number one slot on the New York Times bestseller list. On November 21, 2008, Twilight: the Movie hit theaters, grossing nearly 70 million dollars opening weekend. At this moment, the juggernaut appears unstoppable.

As with Harry Potter, most consider The Twilight Saga to be perfectly harmless entertainment. After all, Edward Cullen is a vegetarian vampire; that is, he only drinks the blood of animals, not humans. He also protects his beloved Bella from murderous vampires who crave her blood. “Sounds like a healthy romance to me!” Twilight fans often reply. Yet if one peers discerningly beneath the surface, there’s more to Twilight fever than meets bloodshot eyes.

First of all, “Harry Potter” is a “good guy” too, yet the net result of sticking a magic wand in the hero’s hand has been soaring interest in Wicca, covens and spells among teenagers. It’s the same with the TV series’ Medium and Ghost Whisperer whose female heroes talk to dead people. The result? Increased interest in dialogue with the deceased. How about Twilight, vampirism, and drinking blood? You’re joking! you may be thinking. No, I’m not. A few days after Twilight sunk its fangs into theaters in November of 2008, both Fox News and ABC News featured special reports noting explosive interest in real vampirism around the world.

Just do a Google search for Sean Hannity’s report, ” Night Neighbors: Members Of America’s Vampire Subculture Could Be Living Right Under Your Nose,” or the ABC News story, ” Real Life Vampires: Who Are They?” You’ll be amazed at what you find. Believe it or not, real vampirism has sprung out of the coffin.

So what does the Bible say about ingesting blood? Surprisingly, it says quite a bit. Shortly after the flood, the Lord told Noah:

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you… But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood(Genesis 9:3,4, emphasis added)

In other words, if meat was to be eaten after the flood, its blood must first be drained out of the carcasses of dead animals. God repeated this counsel to the Israelites through Moses in Leviticus 17:10, and this was later reaffirmed by the early Church in Acts 15:21. Thus the command, “No Blood!” applies to all ages.

Significantly, the Bible also connects blood ingesting with the mystical world of occultism. Moses told the Israelites:

You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying (Leviticus 19:26, emphasis added)

“Divination” and “soothsaying” are occult practices. Thus blood ingesting and occultism are linked together, and for good reason. In Bible days, blood drinkers often practiced sorcery, and the same camaraderie exists today. InTwilight, Edward has psychic abilities, reads minds, and levitates. These are occult practices. Thus vampirism and occultism go hand in hand in Twilight too.

It’s the same old story.

Moving beyond prohibitions, the Bible’s main message also centers around blood, but in an entirely different way. In fact, blood is at the heart of the Great War between God and Satan.

The night before Israel left Egypt, the Lord declared, ” Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood [of slain animals on your doorposts] I will pass over you: and the [10 ^th ] plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13, emphasis added). On the Day of Atonement, God told His high priests to slay animals and to “sprinkle some of the blood” (see Leviticus 16:14) on the golden mercy seat above the Ten Commandments. Here blood was at the very heart of God’s temple service.

Finally, on a fateful Thursday night beneath a full Passover moon, Jesus Christ distributed the juice of crushed grapes to His disciples. He alone understood the full meaning of the sweet elixir. “For this is my blood of the new covenant,” Israel’s true Messiah declared, “which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

The next day He was crucified between two criminals on a hill called Calvary. As Christ hung dying on that cross, drop by drop, stain by stain, His blood soaked the wood of the tree supporting His beaten body. What does it all mean? Why the blood of lambs on Egyptian doors? Why were crimson drops sprinkled by Jewish High Priests in the Most Holy Place? The Bible alone can explain its own mystery. In the New Testament, Paul explained,

“…we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7, emphasis added).

The book of Revelation identifies those who beat the devil. Don’t miss it:

And they [God’s people] overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11, emphasis added)

When you put all of these verses together, it becomes clear that salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is Heaven’s battle cry in the Great War. No doubt, Satan hates the blood of Christ. He knows that no matter how guilty we stand in the sight of a Holy

God, we can still find hope, healing, and full salvation through that royal, crimson substance.

“Aghh! How can we stop lost sinners from discovering the power of that blood?” dark demons ask their master in secret council meetings. “Through diversions,” the Prince of Evil whispers slyly. “Through magick, occultism, vampirism, and whatever else we can think of to divert minds from that hated blood!”

Shockingly, after Stephenie Meyer’s unexpected rise to stardom, she later confessed,

I actually did have a dream after Twilight was finished of Edward coming to visit me — only I had gotten it wrong and he did drink blood like every other vampire and you couldn’t live on animals the way I’d written it. We had this conversation and he was terrifying.²

I’m convinced that the “Edward” who appeared to Stephenie Meyer in her two dreams was a demon with a secret, diabolical agenda. What agenda? Based on what God’s Book says in Revelation 12:11, it was to keep sinful mortalsfocused on the wrong blood. Judging by the public’s response to the Twilight novels and movies, there’s no doubt that his hellish plot has been successful.

Twilight’s appeal is twofold. First, it’s a captivating tale about vampires and werewolves; and second, it’s a heart-stirring love story about Edward and Bella. “You may be fictional,” wrote one Edward Cullen fan, “but you’ve already stolen so many girls hearts – including mine!”

Dear reader, someone else wants to steal your heart today. His name is Jesus Christ. Vampires take blood, but He shed His blood for you. Three days later, He rose from the dead. Believe me, His love is better than that of vampires, including Edward’s.

His blood alone can save our souls.

In these last days before He returns, don’t let Lucifer divert your heart to the wrong blood.

1. See http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html
2. See http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/11/06/iron-man-my-chemical-romance-x-men-cartoons-among-twilight-author-stephenie-meyers-inspirations