"For the life of the flesh is in the blood"
(Lev. 17:11, ESV)
Since this is October, the time of the year where Halloween is celebrated at the end of this month by many people. I thought I would write a blog on Vampires. No doubt this is an interesting topic, especially for many young people. Books, movies, T.V. shows, and magazines about vampires is a multi-million dollar business. Unfortunately in recent years, some young people have taken a very unhealthy interest in vampire lore. So much so that a number of them believe they really are vampires. This of course raises a question, "Do vampires really exist?" Below is a picture of the three vampiress's from the movie "Van Helsing."
So do vampires really exist today, or are they nothing more than myth and bed time stories? Well, yes and no. No, the Hollywood version of vampires who possess superhuman strength and can turn into a bat, rat, wolf, or even mist is certainly not true. However, yes, there are those people today who really do drink blood and call themselves vampires. But they certainly don't possess superhuman abilities. They are just regular people like ourselves who just happen to have a taste for blood. Authors Donna Howell and Nita Horn wrote this interesting assessment about the appeal of vampires among young people today:
As you can see from the research the authors had done for the chapter entitled, "Interview with a (Modern) Vampire" for the book "God's Ghostbusters." The two authors raised some concerns about the false claim to eternal life without a Savior that has appealed to many young people who are seduced into wanting to become a vampire. However, this claim to eternal life is only physical in contrast to Christianity's offer of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. Vampires can be killed, whereas Christians can only be killed physically, for they live on spiritually. Modern vampirism offers salvation apart from Christ. In a sense, you become your own god, answerable to no one. Is not this the same lie Satan said to Eve in the Garden of Eden. "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3: 4-5). did you catch that, "you will be like God." So when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the consequences were quite devastating to the entire human race. Man never became God, instead he came to know the misery and ravages of sin and death. Sadly, many young people have bitten into the forbidden fruit of the modern vampire craze. Again, authors Donna Howell and Nita Horn give this revealing insight on one of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels:
"Vampires have gone from being inferior, damned, subhuman creatures of the night hunted by mad mobs with pitchforks to superior beings who no longer have to hide. They're macho. They're cool. They're envied by many young people. They're faster, stronger, and physically perfect, shedding away the mortal imperfections of their days as a human, not sharing in the weaknesses that mankind suffers for merely being mortal such as cancer, sickness, loss of loved ones, and here's a biggie, imperfect bodies. (Whether it's true or not, many of the stories I heard from these chat sessions, and several of the online testimonies on vampire sites, claimed that after they discovered what they were meant to be and officially became a vampire, they lost all their weight or their cancer disappeared or they believe they truly "became immrtal," etc. If they are giving themselves over to dark influences, the changes they face after their initiation doesn't surprise me at all. They are dealing with powerful, deceptive forces that can mimic miracles.)"More frightening than anything else, there was the perk of obtaining eternal life without accountability to God (everlasting life without a SAVIOR?).”[1]
"The brilliant contrast of the black background with the pale, white hands holding the bright, red apple (admittedly said by Stephenie Meyer to represent the "forbidden fruit" of the Book of Genesis, symbolizing the "forbidden" relationship between main characters Bella [human] and Edward [vampire], similar to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Bella's deliberate choice to partake of the said "forbidden fruit" by choosing to be with Edward) is eye-grabbing, even amongst all other titles across the visually chaotic and colorfully competitive layout of your average local book retailer."[2]
1. Historical vampires: Elizabeth Bathory, the infamous Blood Countess of Hungary (August 7, 1560 – August 21, 1614), Anastasie Dieudonne of Haiti (November 27, 1927), and Fritz Haarman, in Hanover, Germany (around 1945-46) were all true vampires from history.
2. Vlad Tepes: Or Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476), or sometimes Vlad Dracul, where the original term came for the name Dracula as he was called by his comtemporaries of his time. He was the emperor of Romania who was both a villian and hero.
3. Psychic vampires: These vampires drain energy rather then blood and are homo sapiens biologically speaking.
4. Sanguinarians: Humans who simply drink blood. (To be Continued...)
[1] Donna Howell and Nita Horn, God’s GhostBusters, (Defender Publishing, Crane, Missouri, 2011), pg. 58.[2] Donna Howell and Nita Horn, God's Ghostbusters, Ibid., pg. 32.
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