“I am dragged
along by a strange new force. Desire and
reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow
the wrong.”
-- Ovid, Metamorphoses
Richard Russell Riordan, Jr., aka Rick Riordan, put out
his first book Big Red Tequila in
1997. He attended the University of
North Texas (Denton), where I have taken some exams. How then should we evaluate The Lightning Thief?
Besides attacking Math Teachers, chapter one is "I
Accidentally Vaporize My Maths Teacher," I have concerns regarding
stealers of lightning. Consider how the
story starts:
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you
might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you
about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in
painful, nasty ways. If you're a normal
kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none
of this ever happened. But if you
recognize yourself in these pages - if you feel something stirring inside -
stop reading immediately. You might be
one of us. And once you know that, it's
only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you. Don't say I didn't warn you.
For youngsters who have flights of fancy, how might
Riordan's literature affect them? I have
a vivid imagination, in my younger days I was Calvin & Hobbes. My imaginary friends were based on characters
from the Saturday morning cartoons on TV.
Here is a token of my more recent creative writing, "The Book Eater." George Reeves (d. 1959) starred in the early
TV Superman series which originally aired from 1952 to 1958 and went on for
many years as reruns. As a child, I
thought I was Superman, although I never jumped off a roof. Christopher D'Olier Reeve (d. 2004) also
played Superman. I recall that in many
of my dreams I was flying - it seemed totally real.
We read this exchange on page five of The Lightning Thief:
[Percy Jackson] "That's Kronos eating his kids,
right?"
"Yes," Mr. Brunner [Percy's Latin teacher]
said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."
"Well ..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos
was the king god, and"
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.
"Titan," I corrected myself "And ... he
didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a
rock to eat instead. And later, when
Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and
sisters ..."
Not very edifying, is it?
One might say, "gods, gods everywhere, and not a verity to
drink." What can we learn from the
battle between the god Dagon and the true Creator of the cosmos?
When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they
brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and
brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the
next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark
of the Lord [YAHWEH]. So they took Dagon
and put him back in his place. But when
they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on
the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands
were lying cut off on the threshold. Only
the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This
is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread
on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day (1 Sam. 5:1-5).
Nebuchadnezzar the Great (d. 562 BC) worshiped the false
gods of Babylon.
After Daniel had interpreted his dream about the statue
of gold, bronze and iron, Nebuchadnezzar gave glory to God and said: “Surely
your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries,
for you were able to reveal this mystery” (Dan. 2:47). Because of Nebuchadnezzar's pride, the Lord
sent him into the wilderness to live like an animal. However, by God's grace, he experienced a
conversion and gave this confession of praise to the Lord:
... His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom
endures from generation to generation. All
the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of
heaven and the peoples of the earth. No
one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” ... Now I,
Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because
everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in
pride he is able to humble (Dan. 4:34,35,37).
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became King of
Judah. He sinned grievously by promoting
foreign gods, but later repented:
In his [Manasseh's] distress he sought the favor of the
Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved
by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem
and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew
that the Lord [YAHWEH] is God. ... He got rid of the foreign gods and removed
the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built
on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city (2 Chr.
33:12,13,15).
Should we not follow Manasseh's example and reject the
fake gods of the pagan world?
On a positive note, Percy rightly condemns a "Pass
The Loot" style preacher who is being led to punishment in the Underworld:
I did remember now. We’d seen him on TV a couple of times at the
Yancy Academy dorm. He was this annoying televangelist from Upstate
New York who’d raised millions of dollars for orphanages and then got caught
spending the money on stuff for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats, and
an indoor putt-putt golf course. He’d
died in a police chase when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" went off a
cliff.
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 18 AD), better known as
Ovid, was a Roman poet who wrote Metamorphoses
(8 AD) which is composed of 15 books and more than 250 myths. Consider his account of creation:
When he, whoever of the gods it was, had thus arranged in
order and resolved that chaotic mass, and reduced it, thus resolved, to cosmic
parts, he first molded the Earth into the form of a mighty ball so that it
might be of like form on every side … And, that no region might be without its own
forms of animate life, the stars and divine forms occupied the floor of heaven,
the sea fell to the shining fishes for their home, Earth received the beasts,
and the mobile air the birds … Then Man was born:… though all other animals are
prone, and fix their gaze upon the earth, he gave to Man an uplifted face and
bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven.”
Ovid is right in that all animals appeared at the beginning,
in contrast to Darwinism. He also
teaches that Man is special. The Bible,
on the other hand, tells us who created
all - the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator:
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the
prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom
also he made the universe. ...
But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last
for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom."
(Heb. 1:1,2,8)
When Paul spoke at Mars Hill, he found out that Greek myths
and a real resurrection don't mix:
"For he has set a day when he will judge the world
with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to
everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard
about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We
want to hear you again on this subject.” (Acts 17:31,32)
When Jesus appeared to his disciples after the
Resurrection he came in the same body that was on the cross, but transformed:
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself
stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and
frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled,
and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I
myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I
have.” (Lk. 24:36-39)
I his introduction to Plato's Statesman, Benjamin Jowett says this:
There was a time when God directed the revolutions of the
world, but at the
completion of a certain cycle he let go; and the world,
by a necessity of
its nature, turned back, and went round the other way.
For divine things
alone are unchangeable; but the earth and heavens,
although endowed with
many glories, have a body, and are therefore liable to
perturbation. ... there are two cycles of the world, and in one of them it is
governed by an immediate Providence, and receives life and immortality, and in
the other is let go again, and has a reverse action during infinite ages.
The genealogical chronologies in Genesis 5 and 11 teach
us that the world is thousands of years old, not billions. Tim Chaffey (Old-Earth Creationism on Trial) provides an excellent summary of
the young earth position. The argument
is easy to catch:
Adam to Abe
==> ~2K years
Abe to Jesus
==> ~2K years
Jesus to Now
==> ~2K years.
Thus, you get 6K years.
Janie from the "Redeemed Reader" drops the
Kraken on the Percy Jackson saga:
... the author must do more than resurrect the gods of
Greek antiquity; he must imagine a world in which Yahweh never spoke from Mt.
Sinai and a virgin never conceived and bore a son. Riordan is unapologetic in his admiration for
the West, which “represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did” [Annabeth]
... while begging the question of
whether western civilization, with its skyscrapers and charitable institutions
and United States of America, would be even possible without a Christian
consciousness.
Kendra Tierney, whose interests range from baking, sewing,
crafting, party planning to home remodeling, had this to say on the Percy
phenomena: "I didn’t like this book because of its relativistic approach
to religion, its matter-of-fact presentation of extra-marital relationships,
and its celebration of Percy’s mother’s murder of her husband."
Tierney continues ...
In the original myth, Aphrodite is married by her father
Zeus to the crippled blacksmith Hephaestus, despite her love for Ares. She continues having relations with Ares
after having consummated her relationship with her husband. Hephaestus sets a trap and catches the lovers
in the act. His agony and the shame of
the entrapped lovers are a big part of the story ... NONE of that happens in
the book [The Lightning Thief].
Tierney provides some very thoughtful discussion
questions:
[1] What are the consequences for the people
and gods in this book who are involved in affairs outside of marriage? For instance Percy’s mother, Poseidon, Ares,
Zeus? What about all the children at
Camp Half-Blood, none of whom has an intact family? Do you think this is a good situation for
them?
[2] What happens
when we die? Is it possible, as we read
in this book that “Humans see what they want to see” after they die? Would this be a dangerous thing to believe?
[3] Poseidon
tells his son Percy “I am sorry you were born” and calls him an “unforgivable
mistake.” Do we believe that there are
children who should never have been born?
Does OUR God ever make mistakes?
[4] Percy’s
mother thinks that her life wouldn’t “mean anything” if she let someone take
care of her. Do you agree with this?
[5] Percy
decides not to kill his stepfather. But
he leaves the head of Medusa for his mother, and she uses it to kill her
husband, since he is very mean and beats her.
Is it morally acceptable to kill someone under these circumstances? Did Percy help his mother by leaving this
weapon for her?
The stories of Greek gods becoming humans via a virgin
birth came after Christ's earthly ministry.[1]
Francis Schaeffer (How Should We
Then Live?) gave an apt contrast between the Greek myths and a Biblical
Worldview:
The victory of Christianity over paganism was the
greatest psychic revolution in the history of our culture. ... By gradual
stages a loving and all-powerful God had created light and darkness, the
heavenly bodies [... He also made the stars - Gen. 1:16], the earth and all its
plants, animals, birds, and fishes. Finally, God had created Adam and, as an
afterthought, Eve to keep man from being lonely. Man named all the animals,
thus establishing his dominance over them. God planned all of this explicitly
for man's benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose
save to serve man's purposes. And, although man's body is made of clay, he is
not simply part of nature: he is made in God's image. Especially in its Western
form, Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen. ...
Man shares, in great measure, God's transcendence of nature. Christianity, in
absolute contrast to ancient paganism ... insisted that it is God's will that
man exploit nature for his proper ends. At the level of the common people this
worked out in an interesting way. In Antiquity every tree, every spring, every
stream, every hill had its own genius loci, its guardian spirit. These spirits
were accessible to men, but were very unlike men; centaurs, fauns, and mermaids
show their ambivalence. Before one cut a tree, mined a mountain, or dammed a
brook, it was important to placate the spirit in charge of that particular
situation, and to keep it placated. By destroying pagan animism, Christianity
made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of
natural objects. [2]
What did Dame Olivia Newton-John (d. 8-8-22) think of the
Lightning Thief or the Grease Thief for that matter?
Notes:
1) Baker
Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman Geisler (Baker
Books, 1999), p. 518.
2) Complete Works
of Francis Schaeffer by Francis Schaeffer (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 1982),
Vol. 5, pp. 63, 64.
#DropTheKraken
#ConfirmedReformationalProtestant
#RickRiordan #LightningThief #Lightning
#GreekMyths #Resurrection
#Jn14_6 #Schaeffer #Worldview
#God #Jesus #Bible
#Geisler #Apologetics #Creation
#Genesis #OliviaNewtonJohn
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