I'm sure that, unless you've been living in an alternate universe, very little of the information listed above is new to you. Whether you like these movies and shows or not is irrelevant to the point that you have probably heard of at least one of these. So why am I wasting your time talking about the impact of modern comics when many of you know that Batman has been around for over 100 years? That Superman had a TV show in the 1970s? And that the X-Men cartoon was a staple of a good 90s childhood? Well, when trends grow so rapidly, there is actually a lot to glean.
For example, my wife is an 8th grade Language Arts teacher. She loves teaching. I know this because I watch her spend hours searching for new material most nights as she tries her absolute best to find new ways to engage her students. She's always asking me what I think kids would like and if I think alternative methods could help them learn. One of the resources she has applied with some success to her classroom is... you guessed it: graphic novels and comic books. Why? Because young people like them. And, I don't need to do a Doctorate level research paper to know that people read more when they are interested in the material assigned. And I don't need to tell you that reading more, especially in the 8th grade, is a good way to improve reading skills. If it isn't clear, I think my wife is a pretty darn good teacher!
Side note: I know it became very popular in the mid 2000s to chastise people for reading Biblical translations other than the New King James version. Some thoughts on that...King James was British from the time around William Shakespeare, meaning 1500 years after the life and death of Jesus. The King James text is not the original text. Many people struggle reading Shakespearean English because it is complex, and it causes them to feel frustrated and/or confused when reading their Bible. This causes them to stop enjoying it. This causes them to stop reading it. This is a problem. The solution? Stop being mean to people who are trying to do a good thing. Stop putting rules and regulations on things you aren't in charge of. Have a little faith that the Holy Spirit will guide the reader regardless of the translation. After all, God is, by my thinking, powerful. If you prefer the poetry of the King James version, good for you. Others may not and, wait for it... wait for it... that's okay!
Now that we've cleared that up, let me get back on track. I used the Holy Spirit portion of the Holy Trinity when referring to God's guidance in the previous paragraph on purpose and for good reason. I find that the spiritual aspect of the world, the Bible, and Christianity in general, really makes people uncomfortable. I don't understand that because the gospels are very clear. Jesus was in the desert for forty days and was literally tempted by Satan (Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). Jesus literally came across demonic spirits who trembled at the sight of him and he literally cast them into swine (Matthew 8:31-32). Jesus was literally healing the sick and casting out demons (Mark 1;34). Beyond all of that, at the very core of Christianity, is that we believe in Jesus, the living God, though we cannot physically see him. So where do we think he exists if not in spiritual places?
Side note #2: My wife and I were watching the movie "Heaven is for Real" on Easter and a line of dialogue burned me to my very core. Not a good burn, the kind of burn that raises your blood pressure and causes you to shake. I was mad! The line was, (I'm paraphrasing) Heaven and Hell have always been concepts that we use to scare, manipulate, and control people... Basically, the point being made was that people don't really believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell. The movie goes on to do a good job of changing the mind of the woman who made the statement, but it confirmed a belief that I have. There are people in this world who have attended church their entire lives that don't believe a large portion of what the Bible has to say. (Or, perhaps, even scarier than that, that don't know what a large portion of what the Bible says.) They don't have faith in the power of God, they don't believe in the afterlife, and I wonder if they actually believe in Jesus at all. That absolutely terrifies me!
I want to pause again and apologize for how I circle from topic to topic. I know it can be hard to follow...But, of course, I appreciate your long-suffering.
Back on track...I heard the most amazing message on Sunday by Pastor Joseph Prince, who I absolutely love. If you have not ever seen his ministry, I highly recommend it. He understands God's grace on a level that very few people on Earth do. It was sermon # 286 if you want to find it on his website, and it was called "His Resurrection, My Justification." In the message, he went to a topic that is likely avoided in most ministries, because it is hard to fathom, and very hard to explain. He explained the entire conflict between God and the Devil very clearly. It was so good, and I think the sermon itself would have made a tremendous graphic novel, because of the imagery and because of the systematic way that it was presented. (I am aware that the entire Bible has been presented in illustrated and graphic novel forms, but I'm talking about graphic novels that follow specific teachings. Smaller, less cumbersome, easier to comprehend).
Here is my best attempt at a summary:
Pastor Prince opened from Matthew 27:50-53, when the saints of old rose from their graves and walked the streets of Jerusalem for 40 days AFTER the Resurrection. He explained that all of the blood sacrifices of the old testament were merely promissory notes that couldn't be cashed in until Jesus' blood was shed and he was raised from the dead.
Next, he explained that the Bible states that God made man (mankind) in his own image, but it never states that angels were made in God's image. Because of this, Satan, or Lucifer as he was known in heaven, is extremely jealous of mankind and makes it his goal to destroy humanity.
He goes back to the beginning, Genesis, where the serpent convinces Adam and Eve to eat the apple from the tree of good and evil, and their high treason causes their fall from God's grace. Then he explains the prophecy to Satan, that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and that, at the cross, the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed. From this point forward, Satan knows that man will destroy him if he does not destroy man first.
Adam and Eve originally have two children, Cain and Abel. Satan turned Cain against Abel, convinced that Abel might be the one that God spoke of in the prophecy. Later, when Satan believed that Moses would be the one to destroy him, he convinced Pharaoh to throw all Hebrew(Jewish) first born children into the river to die. Later, when Satan knew that Jesus was coming, he convinced Herod(Jewish leader) to kill all first born Jewish first born sons. Jesus is the ONE, and at the cross, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. This LITERALLY happened. This isn't a fairy tale!
Then, he read from 1 Peter chapter 3...Jesus LITERALLY went into Hell and proclaimed victory to the SPIRITS in prison. Those spirits, who God was long-suffering with in their disobedience in the time of Noah, made it to where God was only able to save 8 souls from the flood! Only 8!
And finally, he crossed back to Genesis chapter 6, where the sons of God mated with the daughters of men and their descendants were referred to as the mighty men of old. Meaning, Satan's legion of fallen angels tried to destroy God's greatest creation--humanity--by corrupting the bloodline. They created a super species known as the Nephilim. (In the King James, they are called giants). This was Satan's attempt to destroy humanity in its entirety. God wasn't pouring out wrath by flooding the earth; he was showing mercy on humankind by preserving it. He saved humanity through Noah and his family in the Ark.
My final side note (I swear): I was in college around 2006. I remember a good friend of mine and I were studying this chapter because God's destruction of the Earth through the flood seemed A.) out of character B.) drastic, C.) hard to wrap my mind around... And the passage about the Nephilim seemed random. (It's never a bad thing to question your faith. That's what makes it strong.) My friend consulted his minister at the time who told us that there was no special meaning to the Nephilim (meaning sons of God merely referred to followers of God and daughters of men referred to non-followers of God), that they had no bearing on the story of Noah (despite being the setup to the entire story), and that we didn't need to waste time focusing on it. Apparently, he wasn't aware that God thought so much of that species (Nephilim) that he (Jesus Christ) felt it necessary to seek them out in Hell to proclaim victory over them. But yeah, no big deal really. I wouldn't waste much thought on it...
Anyway, I guess as I heard this powerful message on Easter Sunday, I thought of all of the incorrect teaching, and all of the delicate subject matter of the Bible that many are afraid to study and address. And then I thought about the spiritual nature of the message, and I thought of my wife and her 8th graders. Many of them would not only be fascinated by a graphic novel or a comic that followed the train of thought in this sermon, they would understand it completely, because it would be told in a way that would engage and entertain them. How much easier teaching would be if we would just try. Education shouldn't be reserved for certain people, or learning styles, but is a right of all humanity. Maybe it's time that we use new types of materials (and by "new," I don't mean things from the 1990s) that appeal to more types of people. And maybe, we (the Church) might start to really make an impact on a broken world. Not to entertain, but to better inform. Just a thought.
Side note #2: My wife and I were watching the movie "Heaven is for Real" on Easter and a line of dialogue burned me to my very core. Not a good burn, the kind of burn that raises your blood pressure and causes you to shake. I was mad! The line was, (I'm paraphrasing) Heaven and Hell have always been concepts that we use to scare, manipulate, and control people... Basically, the point being made was that people don't really believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell. The movie goes on to do a good job of changing the mind of the woman who made the statement, but it confirmed a belief that I have. There are people in this world who have attended church their entire lives that don't believe a large portion of what the Bible has to say. (Or, perhaps, even scarier than that, that don't know what a large portion of what the Bible says.) They don't have faith in the power of God, they don't believe in the afterlife, and I wonder if they actually believe in Jesus at all. That absolutely terrifies me!
I want to pause again and apologize for how I circle from topic to topic. I know it can be hard to follow...But, of course, I appreciate your long-suffering.
Back on track...I heard the most amazing message on Sunday by Pastor Joseph Prince, who I absolutely love. If you have not ever seen his ministry, I highly recommend it. He understands God's grace on a level that very few people on Earth do. It was sermon # 286 if you want to find it on his website, and it was called "His Resurrection, My Justification." In the message, he went to a topic that is likely avoided in most ministries, because it is hard to fathom, and very hard to explain. He explained the entire conflict between God and the Devil very clearly. It was so good, and I think the sermon itself would have made a tremendous graphic novel, because of the imagery and because of the systematic way that it was presented. (I am aware that the entire Bible has been presented in illustrated and graphic novel forms, but I'm talking about graphic novels that follow specific teachings. Smaller, less cumbersome, easier to comprehend).
Here is my best attempt at a summary:
Pastor Prince opened from Matthew 27:50-53, when the saints of old rose from their graves and walked the streets of Jerusalem for 40 days AFTER the Resurrection. He explained that all of the blood sacrifices of the old testament were merely promissory notes that couldn't be cashed in until Jesus' blood was shed and he was raised from the dead.
Next, he explained that the Bible states that God made man (mankind) in his own image, but it never states that angels were made in God's image. Because of this, Satan, or Lucifer as he was known in heaven, is extremely jealous of mankind and makes it his goal to destroy humanity.
He goes back to the beginning, Genesis, where the serpent convinces Adam and Eve to eat the apple from the tree of good and evil, and their high treason causes their fall from God's grace. Then he explains the prophecy to Satan, that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and that, at the cross, the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed. From this point forward, Satan knows that man will destroy him if he does not destroy man first.
Adam and Eve originally have two children, Cain and Abel. Satan turned Cain against Abel, convinced that Abel might be the one that God spoke of in the prophecy. Later, when Satan believed that Moses would be the one to destroy him, he convinced Pharaoh to throw all Hebrew(Jewish) first born children into the river to die. Later, when Satan knew that Jesus was coming, he convinced Herod(Jewish leader) to kill all first born Jewish first born sons. Jesus is the ONE, and at the cross, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. This LITERALLY happened. This isn't a fairy tale!
Then, he read from 1 Peter chapter 3...Jesus LITERALLY went into Hell and proclaimed victory to the SPIRITS in prison. Those spirits, who God was long-suffering with in their disobedience in the time of Noah, made it to where God was only able to save 8 souls from the flood! Only 8!
And finally, he crossed back to Genesis chapter 6, where the sons of God mated with the daughters of men and their descendants were referred to as the mighty men of old. Meaning, Satan's legion of fallen angels tried to destroy God's greatest creation--humanity--by corrupting the bloodline. They created a super species known as the Nephilim. (In the King James, they are called giants). This was Satan's attempt to destroy humanity in its entirety. God wasn't pouring out wrath by flooding the earth; he was showing mercy on humankind by preserving it. He saved humanity through Noah and his family in the Ark.
My final side note (I swear): I was in college around 2006. I remember a good friend of mine and I were studying this chapter because God's destruction of the Earth through the flood seemed A.) out of character B.) drastic, C.) hard to wrap my mind around... And the passage about the Nephilim seemed random. (It's never a bad thing to question your faith. That's what makes it strong.) My friend consulted his minister at the time who told us that there was no special meaning to the Nephilim (meaning sons of God merely referred to followers of God and daughters of men referred to non-followers of God), that they had no bearing on the story of Noah (despite being the setup to the entire story), and that we didn't need to waste time focusing on it. Apparently, he wasn't aware that God thought so much of that species (Nephilim) that he (Jesus Christ) felt it necessary to seek them out in Hell to proclaim victory over them. But yeah, no big deal really. I wouldn't waste much thought on it...
Anyway, I guess as I heard this powerful message on Easter Sunday, I thought of all of the incorrect teaching, and all of the delicate subject matter of the Bible that many are afraid to study and address. And then I thought about the spiritual nature of the message, and I thought of my wife and her 8th graders. Many of them would not only be fascinated by a graphic novel or a comic that followed the train of thought in this sermon, they would understand it completely, because it would be told in a way that would engage and entertain them. How much easier teaching would be if we would just try. Education shouldn't be reserved for certain people, or learning styles, but is a right of all humanity. Maybe it's time that we use new types of materials (and by "new," I don't mean things from the 1990s) that appeal to more types of people. And maybe, we (the Church) might start to really make an impact on a broken world. Not to entertain, but to better inform. Just a thought.
P.S. If anyone has ideas and would like to illustrate this message...I think that would be amazing and I would happily post those images (giving credit to their creator, of course). 😂
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