Ey bro,

So basically you are saying that even with the possibility of it being good (Narnia, or something else for example) you decided to leave it alone so you don't have to worry about it?

The good thing about this, (if I didn't misinterpret your post, otherwise ignore it :-)) is that you won't ever see bad stuff you rather not wanted to see afterwards. I think that its very confusing and tiring to define a border. Everytime something new gets released you need to checkup on it again.

My fear is that you can unintentionally cross a border, but making the border less 'fenced' for the next time, having the risk that you keep giving in.

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Jonathan Veldhuis

Hey crsschk,

I've never heard that old cliché (perhaps cause I'm pretty young still :-)) but I can very imagine (?) that there is only one Truth and many fiction. Truth is defined while fiction is not, unlike non-believers we can't 'bend' or 'redefine' the truth unless God changes (it). Fiction is not ment to be real if I'm correct. Still it can be based on the truth, but it would never imply to be the truth.

Just some thoughts..

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Jonathan Veldhuis

PreachParsly:

What you have in Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian walk (hence the reason why the main character is Christian). All the characters have obvious titles (such as the Interpreter, Brave Heart, Mercy, etc.), as well as the places being also named in such a way that you understand Christian's journey to be the journey through faith that we also go through (only, of course, having an image of the spiritual being played out in a physicial picture; i.e. he goes up a hill called "Difficulty", is beat by a man called Despair, etc.)

I don't want to ruin it for you, and I highly recommend the work (esp. if yours has the scriptures printed in the margins to show where Bunyan was writing from). God gave such an unlikely man an uncanny way to relate God's truth. May we all allow the Lord to do the same through us.

Blessings,
Benjamin

Crsschk:

You're right to use that cliche'. But here's another one: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...You can, however, salt his oats". In other words, if you season everything (including fiction) with the salt of God's Word and His truths, the world will soon become quite thirsty; that's what Lewis envisioned.

He once remarked that if Christians could create a book company that rivalled Penguin, filling the stores full of books that contained Christian litany, atheists would despair when all that was presented in newsstands and bookstores all pointed to the Most High, not their lofty thoughts.

Yet, I agree, the vague degrees that some go to are quite questionable. If one really looks at works like Lewis' [i]Chronicles of Narnia[/i], there are a plelithra of Christian inferences; indeed, Lewis was surprised himself with the number of them.

There are other writings that can be compared as well--including Christ's parables (that'd make a great thread to discuss on); however, this only creates a continuous cycle of digression.

Perhaps, the question itself of whether fiction is acceptable or not can't just be cleared by a simple answer. Indeed, there have been several strong posts from both sides of the issue.

Let us always hold up this founding principle, though: [i]"whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10:31)[/i]

In Christ,
Benjamin