Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Steve Wohlberg
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000419
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00:01 Today books, movies and TV programs are invading society
00:08 promoting vampirism, romanticizing evil. 00:12 Is this just harmless fiction or is this a demonically 00:16 inspired plan that is going to lead our youth into evil? 00:20 Stay tuned for Issues and Answers and we will give you 00:24 some surprising answers. 00:29 Music being played. 00:51 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and we're so glad that you could 00:54 join us today because this is a topic that we need some 00:59 information on. You know, the Bible says in Psalm 34:14: 01:04 Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. 01:09 But this vampire craze that has captured the hearts of teens 01:15 around the world is something that we as Christians need to be 01:21 aware of and that we need to know how to address. 01:24 Our very special guest today is Pastor Steve Wohlberg and he 01:29 is the speaker/director for White Horse Medias. 01:32 Steve, you've written, what, 24 or 25 books now haven't you? 01:36 Something like that. Yes and the Lord has blessed. 01:38 We're so glad that you're back on 3ABN. 01:41 Thank you, Shelley. It's great to be with you and to be here. 01:44 Well you know you've got a small book out called The Darkness of 01:48 Twilight. This is just one of those little pocket books and 01:51 you've addressed this issue. It seems to me Steve... I know that 01:55 you were one of the first in our church to address the Harry 01:59 Potter issue. Seems like God has called you to a ministry of 02:03 identifying things that are happening out in our world 02:09 and this is a craze, this vampirism and this Twilight 02:15 series, is a craze that is even becoming more popular than the 02:21 Harry Potter series. What is spawning, if you will, the 02:25 vampire craze. Right, you're right. It is more 02:27 popular than Harry Potter right now. Potter is kind of on the 02:31 downslide and Twilight is on the rise. I think as I look at the 02:34 phenomenon I think that the reason why Twilight... there are 02:38 many reasons. It's a multifaceted subject but a 02:41 couple of main reasons why Twilight has become so popular 02:44 is because... Now let's explain first what 02:46 is, because some people may not even know. 02:49 Sure, sure. The Twilight series is a four-part series of books, 02:53 of novels, fictitious novels, somewhat comparable to the 02:57 Harry Potter novels, but instead of the hero being a wizard like 03:02 Harry Potter, in Twilight the hero is a vampire and the hero 03:07 falls in love with an average normal teenage girl, a regular 03:11 human and it's basically what they are calling a series of 03:15 vampire romances between this boy, who is a vampire, and 03:19 this girl, who is normal, and the drama that surrounds their 03:23 relationship. What's happened is that the books have become so 03:26 popular. They were authored by Stepnenie Meyer, who is a 03:30 Mormon woman from the Phoenix area. These books have become 03:34 so popular that a production company decided to make the 03:37 first book into a movie to see if it would fly and the results 03:41 were about 70 million dollars that rolled in opening weekend 03:45 when the first Twilight movie hit the theater. Then they 03:49 decided well this is so great we've got to make the last three 03:53 into movies. So the second movie came out and it was 240 million 03:58 dollars that rolled in during opening weekend, which 04:01 catapulted Twilight to number three as far as all-time box 04:05 office openers. So there are more movies to come. They are 04:09 making one based on every novel and it has really become the 04:12 rage of teenagers, not just in North America, but around the 04:17 world. So It's a big issue and the reason why I believe God 04:21 has led me to address topics like Harry Potter and Twilight 04:25 is because one reason is that I'm a father, I'm a husband 04:28 and a father. I've got two little kids and I'm concerned 04:31 about young people and for some reason the Lord has just led me 04:35 to focus on this because there are very real dangers that are 04:39 underneath this series that parents and young people need to 04:44 be aware of and need to avoid. 04:46 When we think about the dangers and the issues, let's just go 04:49 back for just a second to the Harry Potter series, we have 04:53 seen across the nation, and I'm not sure about the statistics 04:57 around the world but I'm very familiar across the nation, we 05:01 have seen a very high rise in Wicca, the religion of Wicca. 05:07 I know that in our own area in a town not too far from us there 05:12 is a university and there are more youth who are following 05:18 the Wiccan religion that there are who are Christians. 05:23 so this is something that sometimes... you know I can 05:28 remember watching many programs on regular networks, news 05:32 programs where they would talk about the Harry Potter craze 05:36 and they would say well I don't know why anyone could be upset, 05:41 it's only fiction. But fiction has its effect and especially on 05:46 young impressionable minds. What kind of effect... you know there 05:51 may be someone that's watching us and saying, Big deal, these 05:55 are fiction novels, fiction movies... what kind of effect 05:59 is this Twilight series, all of this... and it's not just the 06:04 Twilight series what are some of the TV programs? 06:05 There's the Vampire Diaries, there's True Blood, there's a 06:09 whole series of vampire-related movies and television shows. 06:12 And, as you mentioned, if you go back to the Harry Potter days 06:15 when Potter first took off, it wasn't just Harry Potter that 06:18 helped to fuel the witchcraft trend, but it was definitely 06:22 a big part of it. As you've mentioned, witchcraft has 06:26 become increasingly popular among young people and now 06:29 instead of witchcraft in Harry Potter, it's vampirism in 06:33 Twilight and I'm prepared to offer solid evidence that 06:37 vampirism itself is on the rise among young people and what we 06:41 are seeing, Shelley, is a trend toward the occult whether it's 06:45 witchcraft, whether it's vampirism, it's a trend toward 06:48 the occult and the way these movies and books are packaged 06:52 it seems like it's just fun and fantasy and fiction and there's 06:54 just nothing to worry about, but the reality is there are forces 06:58 working behind the scenes that are luring kids into the occult 07:01 and they're getting involved in record numbers and the public 07:05 generally doesn't see what's happening behind the scenes and 07:08 the damage that's being done as young people open their hearts 07:12 up to being invaded by dark forces, by Satan and his angels, 07:16 and what's happening with the occult. It's very real, it's 07:19 very powerful and it's dangerous. 07:20 Why would you think the Lord would even be against vampirism? 07:26 Well, in the Bible the ingesting of blood is strongly forbidden. 07:32 In the book of Genesis, after the flood, God told Noah and his 07:36 family no blood. If you go to the book of Leviticus, it was 07:40 very clear when God Israel out of Egypt and he gave them 07:44 certain restrictions that the ingesting of blood was to be 07:47 absolutely forbidden. Because the life is in the blood 07:51 he said. That's right. Leviticus 19:26 07:53 talks about that. Then in verse 28 right after that it talks 07:58 about staying away from occultism and God knows that 08:02 if you go back to pagan societies the ingesting of blood 08:07 the drinking of blood, is often connected to occult rituals; 08:12 they go together. When you look at the Twilight series there is 08:16 also blood drinking, there's vampirism and we'll talk more 08:19 about the kind of blood drinking that's involved in it, but there 08:23 is also a lot of occultism there as well, even though it's very 08:27 sanitized in many ways, but it's still there and it's still very 08:31 dangerous. Twilight itself, I'm totally convinced, is a very 08:34 pleasant gateway to the occult. I also want to make something 08:38 plain right here, Shelley, that I'm sure that there are probably 08:42 people that are watching this program that are Twilight fans. 08:45 There are a lot of them out there. There are all kinds of 08:48 teenagers that love Twilight; they've seen the movies and they 08:51 love the characters. They're just absorbed in this. I want to 08:55 make it very clear that I am not on a crusade to take a stake 08:59 and pound it into the hearts of Twilight lovers. You know, I 09:03 recognize what's going on and I'm here to sound a sensible 09:06 warning and to try to open people's eyes to the dangers 09:09 that are lurking behind the scenes to this whole craze. 09:12 That's why I wrote my book, that's why our ministry is 09:15 addressing the subject head on. 09:16 In fact, you have a new book coming out on this and I believe 09:20 that... What is that title? 09:23 Well, it's called the Trouble With Twilight. This little book 09:25 published by Remnant is a small book, it's a pocket book, it's 09:28 The Darkness of Twilight, but there's a bigger book in the 09:31 that will be published shortly that will be in Christian book 09:35 across the country and it just expands upon the information 09:39 that's in that little book and it really hits the issue head-on 09:42 It was even eye opening to some people who worked in the 09:47 publishing house because there are even Christians who have 09:51 been caught up in this Twilight phase. 09:54 There are a lot of them, in fact yes, it's sort of, I don't how 09:58 to say it, inside information, but there are people even 10:02 within the publishing house of the larger book... you know 10:04 they've loved the Twilight series and so when they looked 10:07 at my manuscript, they critiqued it very carefully and they gave 10:11 me some very practical suggestions on how to improve it 10:14 because they're looking at it from a very sympathetic point of 10:17 view because they like Twilight and there are lots of people 10:19 that do. Well, and this is the point is 10:21 that when Satan presents sin he never puts it out looking like 10:27 it really is. He gift wraps it, if you will. 10:30 That's exactly right. He sugar coats it. 10:32 And he puts it in this foil paper and he puts a shiny bow on 10:36 it and he hands it off to us and it's so entertaining, but it's 10:40 nothing more than gift wrapped garbage. What kind of effect 10:44 is this fiction? I mean, why should parents or grandparents 10:48 who may be watching this program why should they be concerned 10:52 about their teen if they are, what do they call them, 10:57 Twihards, Twifans? And you know it's a franchise 11:00 right now. I mean, there are Twilight conferences, there are 11:04 movies, there are the books, there are countless websites, 11:07 the list goes on and on. There are T-shirts, buttons, 11:10 lunch pails, posters, I mean, it's just a huge rage among 11:14 teenage. A lot of parents have never heard of it but if they've 11:17 got kids just ask the young people, have you heard about 11:20 Twilight and they all know about it. 11:22 And it doesn't matter whether they're Christian or non 11:25 Christian, it's so has pervaded their atmosphere they can't 11:30 help but know. That's right. I've done all 11:31 kinds of radio interviews, you know that I do radio interviews 11:33 radio interviews. When the last Twilight movie came out, we sent 11:35 out a press release and I was booked on over a dozen shows 11:39 discussing this. A couple of them were national shows and 11:42 the phone lines opened up, people called in and it was just 11:44 quite a buzz of different kinds of responses to our ministry and 11:50 the book that we've dealt with, but the majority of those, at 11:55 least on the Christian shows that I've been on, they call in 11:58 and they're very positive. On some of the news and talk 12:00 secular shows they just don't quite get it, but on the 12:03 conservative Christian shows the hosts and the callers know 12:07 that there is a real danger in the occult world and we're 12:11 trying to help kids to not get involved in that. 12:13 How do we know that fiction is really influencing the behavior, 12:19 other than entertainment, how do we know that fiction is 12:22 influencing the behavior of our children? 12:24 Sure, that's a great question. A lot of parents and young 12:28 people too will say, Hey, this is just fiction, it's just a 12:31 story, what are you worried about? Well I have an article 12:35 here that came out from the Canadian Press and the title is 12:39 Twilight Franchise Takes Bite Out of Bronzer As Youth Get 12:43 Ghostly. Here's a picture of the lead actress in the Twilight 12:47 series. What happens in the movies is that the boy, Edward 12:51 Cullen, that's his fictitious name, and the girl, Isabella 12:56 Swan, they wear very pale makeup. They're in the Forks, 13:01 Washington area where there's a lot of rain and it's cloudy and 13:04 their makeup preferences, especially the Cullen family, 13:08 who are the family of these vampires, they definitely move 13:11 in the direction of pale white faces. So this article says that 13:16 because of Twilight you've got teenagers all across Canada who 13:20 have changed their makeup preferences and that article 13:24 says that they have adjusted or adapted to what they're calling 13:28 vampire influenced makeup and so the bronzed look is out and 13:33 now they want more of the pale look because these kids who have 13:37 been watching the Twilight movies want to look more like 13:40 Edward and Bella. So when people say, Hey, it's just fiction, it 13:44 doesn't really affect their lives, this is just one simple 13:49 example about how fiction does influence people's lives. Even 13:53 though it's just a story, you've got all these teenagers that are 13:57 changing the way they put makeup on because of Twilight. I'm not 14:01 really that concerned about makeup, no, I'm just using this 14:05 as an illustration of the fact that people's lives are being 14:08 influenced and I can guarantee you there are all kinds of web 14:11 sites out there and chat rooms where people are discussing 14:15 vampirism as well and that's one of my concerns for sure. 14:19 There is a Bible principle and it's really well illustrated in 14:22 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we become what we behold and 14:27 let me ask you this because I have heard reports that there 14:32 are real vampires. To me I always thought a vampire was 14:37 just a fictitious character, but I've heard reports that there 14:43 are real vampires and vampirism is on the rise so explain what 14:47 a vampire is because there may be someone like me that was out 14:52 there who at one point in time thought this was just something 14:57 from a fiction story we saw when we were young. 14:58 It used to be that way predominantly although now it 15:02 has changed and just as Wicca is a growing religion so real 15:06 vampirism is on the rise. When the first Twilight movie came 15:10 out Shawn Hannity on Fox news ran a major story called Night 15:13 Neighbors about the growth of real vampirism. ABC news ran a 15:17 story. 20/20 has recently done a story and the title was 15:21 If You Love Twilight, Meet Real Vampires. The Washington Post 15:24 did a story and so there are all kinds of media reports that are 15:28 coming out that are looking at the growth of real vampires. 15:31 I think one of the reasons why this is happening is because in 15:35 Twilight the typical or the stereotypical creatures of the 15:39 night, which is what the vampires used to be like, 15:42 is very different in Twilight. Edward Cullen is the main 15:46 fictitious hero-boy character who falls in love with this 15:50 teenage girl. He's a 108-year- old vampire, he's handsome, 15:54 he drives a flashy car, he lives in a high vaulted ceiling house 15:58 contemporary home, he can handle some sunlight, he's very cool, 16:02 he's handsome, he's got super natural powers and in the 16:05 Twilight saga he's a good vampire. He's what they call a 16:08 vegetarian vampire, which means he has overcome his natural 16:12 inclination to drink human blood and he's resisted that and he 16:16 just subsists on animal blood. He protects Bella, he uses 16:20 his powers to guard her against evil vampires and he's the good 16:25 guy and when you portray the good guy as a vampire still 16:29 what happens is the whole idea of being a cool vampire, it just 16:33 gets into people and they want to know more about it and the 16:37 reality is that vampirism is on the rise. Here's another article 16:41 that I have that came out of Australia and it came out from 16:45 a publication called the Sunday Mail. It came out four days 16:49 before the last Twilight movie hit. I'll just read you a few of 16:53 these quotations here. The title is called Fangs for Tickets: 16:57 Vampire Film Frenzy and it says it's bigger than Star Wars, Lord 17:01 of the Rings and Harry Potter. It's the largest film release in 17:04 Queensland history, it's only four days away. It talks about 17:07 how big Twilight is and the incredible hysteria and then 17:10 it says here at the end of the article: Twilight hysteria is 17:14 also being blamed for a plethora of clans appearing in Australia. 17:18 Groups of self-professed blood thirsty vampires conduct rituals 17:22 once a month across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. 17:25 One member, 40-year-old Mark, who did not want his surname 17:28 published claims to consume blood on a regular basis. He 17:31 says, We're real, we're alive, we live, we work in cities, we 17:35 hold jobs, we're your next door neighbor, we have families, but 17:38 we just have a different understanding, he said. 17:40 And that's the way this article finishes and I can document 17:44 all kinds of other reports that there is a strain of vampirism 17:49 that is becoming popular in our world. It's just like Wicca. 17:54 Wicca says we only practice white magic, we're the good 17:58 guys, we're not doing dark magic just white magic. We're trying 18:02 help people and the main form of vampirism today, many times they 18:06 refer to it as ethical vampirism and what happens is 18:09 it may sound bizarre to a lot of us, but somebody wants to drink 18:14 blood and so they find a donor, they have a consensual 18:18 relationship where the donor says it's okay. They sign a 18:22 document. They test the donor's blood to make sure that she 18:26 doesn't have AIDS or some disease, he or she, and then 18:29 they sanitize their instruments and then they poke the skin 18:33 and take a little bit of blood, maybe an ounce a week and the 18:38 vampire will drink this blood for the purpose of trying to 18:42 enhance his or her well-being to feed some kind of a 18:45 deficiency in their diet, to make themselves healthier 18:49 and happier and more energized. So you've got ethical vampirism 18:55 that's growing and these articles say... and there's 18:57 research out there that's available to the media where 19:00 many of these people are doctors and lawyers and professionals 19:03 and they're doing this on a regular basis and they don't see 19:06 anything wrong with it and they have come out as they say, 19:10 witches came out of the closet, now vampirism is coming out of 19:14 the coffin and they are trying to sanitize it and make it 19:18 something that's okay. 19:19 Steve, it occurs to me that what we have going on here is 19:24 I think part of the reason that teens were so taken by Harry 19:28 Potter, and youth, they're looking for a power in their 19:34 lives and the people with the vampirism who are drinking blood 19:39 they're looking for a power, something to empower them, and 19:43 the reason we should be as Christians concerned other than 19:47 it is... they call it ethical, it sounds unethical to me 19:50 other than the fact that it is against the scriptures that say 19:57 not to partake of blood, the reason we should be alarmed 20:01 and recognize that this is Satan's working in our society 20:05 is it seems that in both cases the authors of these books have 20:11 been relatively obscure women who had never published anything 20:15 before and there's almost like a demonic power. They both got 20:18 them through dreams, I know you're going to back and we'll 20:21 talk about this, but they both got them through dreams and they 20:27 just absolutely were catapulted and the trajectory into the 20:31 public and there's something supernatural about what happened 20:37 there, but instead of looking for power from God, the Spirit, 20:44 the Holy Spirit in his power, it's like the devil has them 20:49 turning toward these end times looking to someplace else for 20:54 power. It looks so much more exciting than what we're talking 20:59 about. That's right. Well, most people 21:02 out there generally they don't know what the Bible says. We 21:06 live in a society where atheism, at least among the scientific 21:09 community, is in the majority. Evolution is the dominant 21:13 belief system in the public schools and the biology text 21:16 books and in the national parks. So kids are growing up in this 21:20 environment not knowing. They don't really know God and they 21:23 are searching for something and they're searching for 21:25 supernatural power, they're searching for help in their 21:28 lives and so they read the Twilight novels, they watch the 21:31 movie, they see Edward Cullen, this super cool, attractive, 21:35 handsome vampire boy who can climb trees faster than Spider 21:38 Man, who's got all these super natural powers, who can read 21:41 minds and they look at that and they think, Hey, you know, 21:45 that is really cool, and he's a good guy. Shelley, it is very 21:48 easy to go from a book to a movie to a website and then 21:52 to checking out real vampirism. It's happening all the time. 21:55 Kids are being lured into this thinking, Hey, I'm going to 21:57 check this out. You know, that looks cool, that looks fun, I 22:00 want spiritual power and what they don't know is that they're 22:03 stepping into the occult world and Satan is right there luring 22:06 them on and his goal is to invade their hearts, invade 22:09 their lives, lead them away from Jesus Christ entirely and to 22:13 possess their souls and I'm totally convinced without 22:17 question that Twilight is part of a Satanic strategy that is 22:21 going on behind the scenes of an ancient being whose name 22:25 used to be Lucifer, now it's Satan, and who is working to 22:28 lure kids into the occult and Twilight is very much a part of 22:32 his plan. Our little book that I have written and our ministry 22:36 is designed to sound the warning and that it's to direct young 22:40 people, young and old, away from this kind of craze and to direct 22:45 them to someone else and someone else's blood. We can 22:48 talk about this later on in another program about the blood 22:51 battle, but I think we're in a blood battle and Satan is 22:54 directing people to the blood of vampirism when God is trying 22:57 to direct people to the blood of Jesus Christ his son, because 23:00 that's the only blood that can cleanse us from sin, that can 23:04 result in a clean conscience and forgiveness and it's only His 23:08 power that can come into our hearts and give us real peace 23:11 and joy and love. Behind the scenes we're in a battle 23:14 between God and the devil and Twilight is part of that battle. 23:19 Amen. I'm so thankful that God has raised you up. You know, 23:23 we always need someone who's going to respond because I 23:29 realize that... I was on vacation not too long ago for a 23:35 few days off and was in an area where my eyes were opened. 23:41 Because it was like I had stepped out of my protected 23:44 bubble into an area that was very modern and just totally a 23:50 different culture and I realized Lord don't let me get so 23:55 spiritual minded that I am of no earthly good because 23:59 it's so easy for us Christians to spend our time in church, we 24:04 spend our time associating with one another. It's easy for us to 24:09 forget that there is a real world out there that really 24:12 needs our help. That's right. You know, some 24:15 people think well what in the world are you doing talking 24:18 about vampires. But the reality is that a lot of kids are 24:21 getting into this and we need to address it and to try to open 24:24 their eyes and sound a sensible warning. Like I said, that's why 24:28 we have the book, that's why we have our website that deals 24:31 with this, that's why I've been on all these radio and 24:33 television shows, that's why we are here and we're trying to 24:36 sound a sensible warning to open people's eyes. I'll just 24:39 tell you one quick story. I got a phone call from the school 24:43 board chairman of a Christian school not far from where I live 24:48 and what happened in class in this school was a 14-year-old 24:54 girl fell down on the floor in class and went for two hours 24:59 exhibiting signs of demonic possession. The kids were 25:03 just amazed, they didn't know what was going on. The teacher 25:05 was amazed. They started praying for this girl and two hours 25:08 later the spirit left her and she returned to her sanity. 25:11 Come to find out a lot of the kids in the school were reading 25:14 Twilight and some were experimenting in the occult. 25:16 So this school board chairman called me and said, Steve, can 25:19 you come and talk to our kids? Because you know about the 25:21 occult and we want you to talk to them. So I came. We went 25:24 through some Bible scriptures, talked about Mark 5 about the 25:28 legion of demons that had entered into this man and how he 25:31 was cutting himself and doing all kinds of things, which, by 25:34 the way, is another practice that's growing among teenagers. 25:36 It's called cutting where they are compelled to cut themselves 25:39 and to draw blood and it was going on with all these kids. 25:44 You know the one thing I learned from Sherie Peters was that once 25:46 they begin cutting it really does release endorphins and 25:51 it becomes an addiction. That's exactly right, it becomes 25:53 an addiction just like Twilight has become an addiction. It's an 25:56 obsession, it's a craze. It's very easy to be fascinated by 26:01 blood and then to be wanting to check out blood and then to 26:04 eventually try blood and then to become addicted to blood. 26:07 In my little book, I document that there's a dark side to 26:10 vampirism, a real dark side. I mean, the whole thing to me is 26:13 dark, but even when they say it's kind of sort of like white 26:16 vampirism, it's very easy to go from the white to the dark and 26:19 to actually get involved in crimes and there are documented 26:23 of people who have murdered for blood. They call themselves 26:26 vampires and they kill people. You know, I don't focus on that 26:30 much in the book but I just mention it briefly with a little 26:33 bit of documentation to help the readers know that this is a real 26:39 dangerous trend in our society and we're trying to help kids 26:41 to get away from it, as far away as possible. 26:43 If someone wanted to get your little pocket book, The Darkness 26:46 of Twilight, what is your website? 26:50 Yes, we have one main website which is avoidtwilight.com. 26:54 It's easy to remember: avoidtwilight.com. 26:58 And we have a phone number: 800-78Bible for those who don't 27:01 have internet access. It's just a little tiny book. When the 27:04 Twilight movie came out people have been buying this book by 27:07 the hundreds at a time, giving them out at theaters, giving 27:10 them to their friends, giving them out at youth groups and it 27:13 is just a little resource to open people's eyes to the 27:17 dangers of the occult, the dangers of Twilight and to point 27:20 people ultimately to Jesus Christ, his shed blood, his 27:22 death on the cross, his resurrection and his desire to 27:25 come into our lives, into our hearts and to change us and give 27:28 us the power that the occult really can't give us. 27:31 Amen. Well you know they try to differentiate between dark magic 27:37 and white magic or white vampirism. 27:40 It's a convenient separation. 27:41 There is no separation as far as God is concerned 27:44 That's right. Not in the Bible. 27:46 Okay. Steve we want you to come back so that we can kind of go 27:49 into this a little bit further. Thank you so much for being here 27:53 today. Sure, you're very welcome. 27:55 You know, the Bible tells us that we have been bought with 27:59 a price and that price is the precious blood of Jesus and that 28:04 is the blood that we should put our focus on because there is 28:08 our salvation. I pray that this program has been eye-opening 28:12 for you. Thanks for joining us |
Revised 2014-12-17