Updated 11:59 pm.EST, Sun November 22, 2009

Ministries|Fri, Nov. 21 2008 02:50 PM EST

A Christian Cullen?

By Lane Palmer|Christian Post Guest Columnist

BELLA SWAN has always been a little bit different. Never one to run with the crowd, Bella never cared about fitting in with the trendy, plastic girls at her Phoenix, Arizona high school. When her mother remarried and sent Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she didn't expect much of anything to change. But things do change when she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful EDWARD CULLEN. For Edward is nothing like any boy she's ever met. He's nothing like anyone she's ever met, period. He's intelligent and witty, and he seems to see straight into her soul. In no time at all, they are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance — unorthodox because Edward really isn't like the other boys. He can run faster than a mountain lion. He can stop a moving car with his bare hands. Oh, and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. That's right — VAMPIRE. But he doesn't have fangs — that's just in the movies. And he doesn't drink human blood, though Edward and his family are unique among vampires in that lifestyle choice.

“To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for — a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.”*

Of course the vast majority of you reading this already knew about the highly anticipated Twilight movie - right? Kind of like a combo of Dracula and Romeo and Juliet, this story has captured the attention and hearts of literally millions of teens.

And you also know about the unique choice the Cullens have made in terms of being vegetarian vampires - i.e., not drinking human blood. Sure, it smells great to them, but on moral principle they abstain because of the harm that comes from partaking.

So what about the idea of a ‘Christian Cullen’? No, obviously not a decision to abstain from drinking human blood - I’m kinda assuming most if not all of you don’t really have an issue with this area.

But there is another area that is definitely an issue with teens. In a word…sex. Whoa - just wait a second! Am I saying that having sex is like a vampire drinking blood? Well, if it is taking place outside of marriage, yes.

Actually it’s not me saying it. It’s God’s Word:

Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

I’ve heard many Christians claim that all sin is the same in God’s sight. While technically true in the sense that all sin breaks God’s standards for life, this passage makes an obvious category distinction:

No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

In other words, when you violate God’s perfect design for sex in terms of it being made for marriage only, it is like draining your own spiritual blood and the blood of another. Just like you cannot jump out a window and expect gravity not to kick in, you also cannot have sex outside of marriage and not expect very serious and permanent consequences. I’m not just talking about the risk of disease - because that is minor compared to the guarantee that you murder a part of yourself and someone else when you ‘hook up.’ Continue »

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  • Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:27 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    Mr. Palmer,

    I absolutely agree with the point you are making and your appeal for keeping sex within God's boundaries for it. I appreciate the way you take movies and tie them in with God's Word. Please keep doing it.

    My only question concerns one small part of how you got there. When quoting 1 Cor. 6:18 above, you didn't say what translation you used, so I looked up the Greek, and I'm not sure how your translation arrived at that conclusion. Throughout the Bible God makes it clear all sin is equally bad: see Zeph. 1:9 where God likens superstition to violence and fraud, or Mal. 2:16 where God compares divorce with violence and being unfaithful.
    Rather than "this passage makes an obvious category distinction" as you wrote, perhaps we should say "this translator makes an obvious distinction."

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