A few more things on my mind...

• First, A general comment about movies. Movies like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings don’t bother me at all, and I have no trouble letting my 12 year old see them. The battle is over and the good guys won: … greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4).

I do want to mention one awful movie: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s apocalyptic End of Days. I saw that movie because I read the book, which was just as bad. But the book had one great line that I wanted to see in the movie. And guess what—they didn’t put it in the film. I watched it for naught.

The line I really loved (and this will be from memory so don’t quote me) was in the scene where Arnold’s character fights the devil in his (Arnold’s) high-rise apartment, which is on at least the 20th story. Eventually Arnold pushes, or throws, the devil out and he falls from this great height and lands spread-eagled on a car, smashing it. Of course, he gets up, unharmed, and walks away. In the book, there was a man standing by the car and when the devil gets up the man is astounded and says “That was some fall!” The devil, nonplussed, wipes dust off his shirt and replies, “I’ve had worse.” Great line—and they left it out. Must have thought nobody would get it. Maybe they didn’t get it.

• Just a clarification from yesterday’s post. I wrote about a bible study public school text book from 1954. I didn’t actually use the text book, I bought it at a church book sale. Even though I have clothes older than some of my fellow moderators at blogs4God, I’m not that old. (Not that there is anything wrong with being that old.)

• I also wrote a bit about lust yesterday, and in thinking about it some more I decided to add some comments regarding this famous verse:

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:28, NASB)

This verse is often misinterpreted as teaching that lusting after a woman is the same as committing adultery. It doesn’t say that, and it doesn’t mean that. It’s not my intention to diminish the fact that lust is a sin, and the scriptures liken it to committing adultery in your heart, but that is not the same as committing actual adultery. A man who has lusted after five women in the course of a marriage is not the same as a man who committed actual adultery with five women. If lusting, vile as it may be, were truly as heinous as adultery, then it too would be legitimate grounds for divorce and most likely all Christian marriages could be terminated with impunity.