TOLKEIN AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS (David Cloud can't even spell TOLKIEN right when he attacks him!)

February 5, 2002 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) -

The Lord of the Rings movie has made more than $260 million since its release on December 19; and in spite of its PG-13 rating and its occultic imagery, it and its literary counterpart are being praised by some professing Christians. The Lord of the Rings is the first in a proposed fantasy trilogy based on the books by J.R. Tolkein. The movie edition of the trilogy was filmed at a cost of $300 million, but as we have seen, that amount was almost fully recovered a mere two months after the release of the first episode; and the second and third parts of the trilogy are yet to appear. The television rights to the trilogy were recently purchased by WB network for $160 million.

Christianity Today ran a positive review of the books and the movie entitled "Lord of the Megaplex." Focus on the Family praised Tolkein's fantasies and promotes the book "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings" by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware (Tyndale House). The glowing advertisement at the Focus on the Family web site calls fantasy a "vehicle for truth" and says: "In Finding God in the Lord of the Rings, Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware examine the 'story behind' the stories the inspirational themes of hope, redemption and faith that Tolkien wove into his classic tales." World magazine's review is titled "Powerful Rings" and claims that the "movie version of Tolkien's book speaks to today's culture." There is no warning in these reviews about Tolkein's occultic imagery.

Is the Lord of the Rings harmless fantasy or perhaps even a wholesome Christian allegory? We think not. I read The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Ring in 1971 when I was in Vietnam with the U.S. Army. I was not saved at the time, and, in fact, I was very antagonistic to the Christian faith; and had the books contained even a hint of Bible truth, I can assure you that I would not have read them at that particular point in my life. Though I have forgotten many of the details of the books, I can recall very vividly that they are filled with occultic imagery. The books were published in inexpensive paperback editions in the late 1960s, and they became very popular with that generation of drug headed hippies.

The author of the Lord of the Rings, John Ronald Reuel Tolkein, was born in South Africa in 1892, but his family moved to Britain when he was about 3 years old. When Tolkein was eight years old, his mother converted to Roman Catholicism, and he remained a Catholic throughout his life. In his last interview, two years before his death, he unhesitatingly testified, "I'm a devout Roman Catholic." J.R. Tolkein married his childhood sweetheart, Edith, and they had four children. He wrote them letters each year as if from Santa Claus, and a selection of these was published in 1976 as "The Father Christmas Letters." One of Tolkein's sons became a Catholic priest. Tolkein was an advisor for the translation of the Roman Catholic Jerusalem Bible.

As a professor of literature at Oxford University, Tolkein specialized in Old and Middle English and loved ancient pagan mythology. His first fantasy novel, The Hobbit, appeared in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings, in 1954-55. Several others were published later, some posthumously.

One of Tolkein's drinking buddies was the famous C.S. Lewis. They and some other Oxford associates formed a group called the "Inklings" and met regularly at an Oxford pub to drink beer and regale about literary and other matters. Tolkein, in fact, is credited with influencing Lewis to become a Christian of sorts. Like Tolkein, though, Lewis did not accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God and he picked and chose what he would believe about the New Testament apostolic faith, rejecting such things as the substitutionary blood atonement of Christ. And like Tolkein, C.S. Lewis loved at least some things about Catholicism. He believed in purgatory, confessed his sins to a priest, and had the last rites performed by a Catholic priest (C.S. Lewis: A Biography, pp. 198, 301)

J.R. Tolkein died in 1973 at age 81, two years after his wife, and they are buried in the Catholic section of the Wolvercote cemetery in the suburbs of Oxford.

The setting for Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings is in "Middle Earth" and the hero is a little creature (a hobbit) named Frodo Baggins who accidentally becomes possessor of a magical ring that is the lost and greatly desired treasure of the "Dark Lord Sauron." The story line revolves around Frodo's action-filled journey to take the ring to the Cracks of Doom where it can be destroyed. The individual titles of the trilogy are "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers," and "The Return of the Ring."

Though the aforementioned reviewers would have us believe that Tolkein's books contain simple allegories of good vs. evil, Tolkein portrays wizards and witches and wizardry as both good and evil. There is white magic and black magic in Tolkein's fantasies. For example, a wizard named Gandalf is portrayed as a good person who convinces Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit to take a journey to recover stolen treasure. The books depict the calling up of the dead to assist the living, which is plainly condemned in the Scriptures. Though not as overtly and sympathetically occultic as the Harry Potter series, Tolkein's fantasies are unscriptural and present a very dangerous message.

In his last interview in 1971, Tolkein plainly stated that he did not intend The Lord of the Rings as a Christian allegory and that Christ is not depicted in his fantasy novels. When asked about the efforts of the trilogy's hero, Frodo, to struggle on and destroy the ring, Tolkein said, "But that seems I suppose more like an allegory of the human race. I've always been impressed that we're here surviving because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds: jungles, volcanoes, wild beasts... they struggle on, almost blindly in a way" (Interview by Dennis Gerrolt; it was first broadcast in January 1971 on BBC Radio 4 program "Now Read On…"). That doesn't sound like the gospel to me. When Gerrolt asked Tolkein, "Is the book to be considered as an allegory?" the author replied, "No. I dislike allegory whenever I smell it."

Thus, the author of The Lord of the Rings denied the very thing that some Christians today are claiming, that these fantasies are an allegory of Christ's victory over the devil.

Tolkein's books single-handedly created the vast and spiritually dangerous fantasy role-playing games that are so influential today. Dungeons and Dragons, which appeared in the early 1970s, was based on Tolkein's fantasy novels. One fantasy-game web site makes this interesting observation: "The whole fantasy adventure genre of books came into play when J.R. Tolkein wrote his The Lord of the Rings books. From his vivid imagination and creative thinking he created the fantasy adventure genre. Tolkein probably got his ideas from ancient religions. Peoples of different civilizations were writing epic's way before Tolkein was even born. They wrote epics about people with superior strength, about gods that punished people and, travels to the underworld. Tolkein is accredited to being the man who started it all but if traced back even further you'll see that he wasn't the one that created it, just the one that pushed it forth."

This secular writer better understands what Tolkein's books are about than the aforementioned Christian publications. Tolkein certainly did get his ideas from pagan religions, and the message promoted in his fantasy books is strictly pagan.

Tolkein has influenced many rock and rollers. The song "Misty Mountain Hop" by the demonic hard rock group, Led Zeppelin, was inspired by Tolkein's writings. Marc Bolan, of the rock group Tyannasaurus Rex, created a musical and visual style influenced by Tolkein. The heavy metal rock group Iluvatar named themselves after a fictional god from Tolkein's novel The Silmarillion. Others could be mentioned.

The world knows its own; and when the demonic world of fantasy role-playing and the morally filthy world of rock and roll love something, you can be sure it is not godly and it is not the truth.

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Got this in my e-mail today. Apart from formatting for HTML and some boldfacing, I did nothing else to this article. It appears exactly as I received it.

David Cloud has sunk to an entirely new low. And he was already pretty darn low.

Heaven forbid. and those satanic messages in Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast (with implied carnal beastiality), and the idol worship implied in Pinichio, the whorish behavior of Snow White (living with 7 male unmarried dwarves), the S&M implications of Sleeping Beauty, and the unforgiveable sins of elevating animals to human status in 101 Dalmations. (/sarcasm)

David, see what happens when you stop taking your Zoloft?

fantasy trilogy based on the books by J.R. Tolkein.

Maybe he really thinks Tolkien is Jewish?

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! What a maroon.

FMCDH

The writer of this article obviously has a bone to pick with Catholics. At least half of the article is spent pointing out Tolkien's various Catholic connections.

What is it with fundamentalist Protestants hating Catholics so much? Aren't they both of the Christian faith? The wars of the Reformation are centuries behind us, and this guy acts like they are still going on.

Notforprophet

Though I have forgotten many of the details of the books, I can recall very vividly that they are filled with occultic imagery.

Translation: Although I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm going to tell you what I think anyway.

I never cease to be amazed at how I can be embarrassed by my "fellow" Christians...

Had to ping some of my Tolkien-friends. Let's say it's a very good thing you make it obvious that you disagree with this moron.

First off, D&D is not evil or Satanic. I don't play RPGs but there's nothing evil about them, science fiction, or fantasy novels.

Second, Tolkien said LotR was not allegory, true, but he did say it was applicable. (This is taken from the Introduction.)

Third, good is Good, bad is Evil, and never the twain shall meet... Tolkien shows clearly what evil does, and why it must be opposed. There's plenty of other stuff but I think I'll leave some for the other Tolkiendil (a possible name for 'lovers of Tolkien'?) who are here!

Tolkein has influenced many rock and rollers. The song "Misty Mountain Hop" by the demonic hard rock group, Led Zeppelin, was inspired by Tolkein's writings. Marc Bolan, of the rock group Tyannasaurus Rex, created a musical and visual style influenced by Tolkein. The heavy metal rock group Iluvatar named themselves after a fictional god from Tolkein's novel The Silmarillion. Others could be mentioned.

The world knows its own; and when the demonic world of fantasy role-playing and the morally filthy world of rock and roll love something, you can be sure it is not godly and it is not the truth.

No, seriously tell us how you feel.

This reminds me when I went to a maranatha meeting in college, and they tried to convince me that that a rock music was the debbil!

This guy has probably never read the Lord of the Rings. I bet he would be a laugh riot at a cocktail party.

The writer says that Tolkien was a Catholic...like its a BAD thing. OH MY GOODNESS HE WAS A C A T H O L I C ! !

And Tolkien begat LOTR which begat Led Zepplin which begat D&D which begat pop rocks which begat cocaine which begat....

You shouldn't give your e-mail address to mentally unstable people

I'm subscribed to his e-mail list with another address. There's all kinds of nutty nuggets that come in from him.

He's also against people enjoying themselves while watching the Super Bowl, anything having to do with the Beatles, and anyone who dares suggests that any version of the Bible other than KJV is a real Bible also.

Well, there's your problem, Mr. Cloud. You do a critique of a movie based on the books you read 31 years ago, when you weren't a believer. Your impression of the Tolkien books are based on your own particular grid of preconception from 31 years ago, in your pre-Christian life, and it came out negative. I watched Christopher Hitchens on CSPAN this past weekend, attempting to talk about religion, and from his perspective, the crucifixion of Christ is a horrific doctrine: "What God would supposedly save the world through human sacrifice?" That's all he, through his twisted perspective, can see within the death of Christ: senseless human sacrifice.

Mr. Cloud, do yourself a favor and read the books again. The fact that the movie and books were given glowing endorsements by Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, Word magazine, not to mention numerous other Christian writers and publications, should have tipped you off that something was wrong with your narrow perspective.

had the books contained even a hint of Bible truth, I can assure you that I would not have read them at that particular point in my life.

Okay, you BACs: Explain to me, please, what is "Bible truth" compared with just plain, ordinary everyday "truth."

Just for the record, I am what many would consider a "fundamentalist Christian" -- I believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. But I have great respect for many Catholics. In fact, some of the most influential books on my life were written by Catholics: St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Francois Fenelon, Thomas Merton....

On second thought, maybe I'm not that much of a "fundamentalist Christian..."

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