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Killing … Original Intent


HighBeamMinistry.com

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say…?’” (Genesis 3:1 CSB)

 

I came across a fascinating video the other day. It was titled “The REAL Reason Meryl Streep Shouldn’t Voice Aslan” (source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5kmSmwAQg).

 

The host showed a video of a man, henceforth known as the Whiner, trying to make an argument about why Christians are objecting to Meryl Streep possibly voicing Aslan the Lion in a new movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, you heard that right. A woman voicing the metaphorical stand-in for Jesus in C. S. Lewis’ inspiring work, which depicts the gospel as a children’s story.

 

What is the Whiner’s point? Since Christians are fine with Jesus being represented by a talking animal, why would all those Neanderthal Christians draw the line with Aslan speaking with a woman’s voice? As the Whiner so thoughtfully and eloquently puts it, “So divine redemption can metaphorically come from a mythological predatory mammalian, but not from a woman!” The Whiner’s conclusion? “Y’all (Christians) just hate women.”

 

Right.

 

Can we please make classes on critical thinking skills mandatory for everybody in the U.S.?

 

The host rebuts, “Folks, this is what happens when bitterness and animosity towards a group of people, in this case, evangelicals, completely clouds your inability to think clearly.”

 

BAM!

 

The host goes on to target the real reason with precision. Because we Christians love the Chronicles of Narnia, “We care when a beloved character is rewritten in a way that contradicts the author’s original intent. C. S. Lewis created Aslan as a male lion on purpose…a symbol of Jesus Christ who was incarnated as a man…For Lewis, this is central to who Aslan is…This is about loving the Chronicles of Narnia and honoring the incredible story that Lewis intended to communicate…This isn’t an ‘evangelicals hate women’ thing. It’s a respect the author’s work thing.”

 

That got me thinking.

 

Yeah, I get it. Throughout history, artists have frequently challenged traditional ideas to gain new insights and perspectives. Most of the time, it works. Mostly. Sometimes, it falls abysmally flat. I’ve noticed that the reverse concept clunkers often occur because a well-meaning (or malevolent) artist steps on a work that we hold dear. Therefore, stepping on something we hold dear offends us. Ah, such is art.

 

I have a B.A. in Theater and have been a musician most of my life. As a young man, I found it hilarious when “Professor” Peter Schickele (“head of the Department of Musical Pathology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople”) created P. D. Q. Bach, “the 21st son of J. S. Bach’s 20 children.” Through this imaginary character, Prof. Schickele did to classical music what Weird Al Yankovic does to today’s pop music. Prof. Schickele smashed the most traditional musical conventions hilariously. It was especially amusing to us musicians because he violated the composer’s original intent, and we were all in on the joke.

 

It’s this idea of undermining a creator’s original intent that the YouTube host raises as the issue.

 

Besides the “Meryl Streep as Aslan” issue, an even more egregious original intent violation is in the works. When I was in junior high (1971), a new rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, took Broadway by storm. The music was outstanding, but the concept behind the show raised a ruckus amongst Christians. Some thought it was a thought-provoking reimagining of the gospel. Others proclaimed it an abomination. GotQuestions.org provides an excellent summary of why JCS is off-base.

 

“To summarize the theme of Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus was not divine but was a fascinating and magnetic man of good intentions who let things get out of control. Overwhelmed by His own fame, He desired to return to a simpler, more sincere life, but He couldn’t. Of the disciples, only Judas recognized what was happening. He hated what Jesus had become but still loved Him and wanted to help Him. Jesus saw only one way out of His predicament: to die as a martyr; then, perhaps, some of His good teachings might be remembered. Of course, this is not biblical” (www.gotquestions.org).

 

No kidding.

 

Many Christians rejected the 1971 JCS production precisely because it violated the author’s—God’s—original intent. The newest production will take that original intent violation and amplify it. Ready for this? Jesus will be portrayed by Cynthia Erivo, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the movie “Wicked.”

 

The new JCS will step on the Divine Author’s original intent of Jesus manifesting as a man (gender-bending, anyone?) and Jesus’ holy salvation mission. And to add insult to injury, Cynthia Erivo is also a very outspoken LGBTQ activist lesbian. Hmmm, a straight male Jesus will be played by a lesbian. The reimagining concept screams, “Let’s see how far we can violate God’s original intent and destroy the glorious message of God’s love through Jesus’ crucifixion-wrought salvation.”

 

Oh, and Judas will be played by Adam Lambert, the out-and-proud gay man who recently fronted the rock group Queen in place of Freddie Mercury. Disturbing, yes, but it doesn’t surprise me.

 

I find it ironic that the crowd who is so into a forced acknowledgment of a person’s preferred and contrived pronouns has no problem ignoring or insulting other peoples’ personal and deeply-held preferences. You know, like an author’s original intent. I guess a person’s pronouns and perceived gender matter until they don’t.

 

Let me be clear. My objection is not about what I prefer. It’s about destroying “original intent,” especially when it comes to God’s original intent. The above two examples of Narnia and JCS are symptoms of a culture that seeks to undermine God’s original intent in order to confuse, insult, or alter what should not be changed.

 

But we’ve read about this before. Satan whispered in Eve’s ear, “Hath God said…?” Satan’s question was the original affront to the most excellent Author’s original intent.

 

That’s the fruit of cultural Marxism today. Karl Marx classified class and economics into a “haves and have-nots” opposition, where those who have are the oppressors and the have-nots are the oppressed. The cultural Marxists of today have subverted Marx’s original intent to establish the same opposing camps. However, these camps are now defined by race, gender, sexual preference, and ethnicity.

 

In short, it’s the straight, white male Christian versus everyone else who is not. That certainly explains why it’s so important to cultural influencers to change male lion Aslan’s voice to a female voice, which transitions his perceived gender to female or neutral, anything but male. Sadly, the movie will be marketed to children. But noooo, that won’t confuse kids at all. And it certainly won’t warp C. S. Lewis’s original intent or the biblical gospel at all, right?

 

But that’s what the wicked world wants to do—undermine and destroy foundations in order to make the world in our image, not God’s.

 

God conceived and created the very foundation of the world and humanity, and it all belongs to Him. “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers” (Psalm 24:1-2). But fallen humanity wants it all for Himself. Therefore, the warped drive to subdue and rule the world becomes Conquer and Dominate and strive to take it all from God’s hands. Of course, people can’t do that.

 

But delusional humanity still tries. Foolish people think that if they can seize and destroy the foundations of society, they can gain control over the masses. Psalm 11:3 says, “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

 

Isn’t it interesting that as cultural Marxism began to rise in the 1960s, so did the attacks on nearly every institutional foundation—the Bible, the Constitution, History, Science, etc.? The Bible was undermined to remove God’s original intent for humanity’s morality. The Constitution was undermined to allow for societal and governmental violations of fundamental human rights in our nation. History has been distorted to justify accusations and radical solutions that aim to effect social change. Even science’s objective truths have been undermined so that subjective truth can declare that men can become women and vice versa—actually, more vice than anything else.

 

Worst of all, the egregious undermining of God’s original intent is most often displayed in liberal seminaries where the Bible isn’t God’s word any longer. It only “contains” God’s word (if acknowledged at all), and people alone have the authority and “wisdom” to ferret it out. We can even change God’s word if we want to because, as everyone knows, culture evolves. From the 70s to the 2000s, I watched how the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America undermined God’s word until they could comfortably and easily justify gays and lesbians in same-sex marriages to serve as pastors in ELCA congregations.

 

Talk about nuking God’s original intent.

 

Apostle Paul had to fight against altering the Lord’s original intent as well. See? Staying true to the original intent isn’t just a modern-day problem.

 

When confronting the issue of spiritually perverse interlopers, Paul declared in the strongest terms, “As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:9). This follows Paul’s dismay at how quickly the Galatians left the original intent and foundational truths of Jesus’ movement. “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:6-8). Alternate manuscripts have the phrase, “let him be condemned, or let him be condemned to hell.”

 

When it comes to the original intent of God’s truth, Paul didn’t pull any punches with his divinely inspired “eternal damnation” declaration.

 

Turning an original intent on its head can be fun, especially if it’s done in the right spirit and without malice. But there’s a different spirit on the loose in our culture today, one that seeks to obscure and destroy God’s original intent. What can the righteous do? Fight such attempts through prayer, social action like boycotts, and proclaiming the truth in love.

 

That is, after all, what Jesus intended for us to do.

 

Sources:


Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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