God in the Lord of the Rings

Is The Lord of the Rings a Movie for Chistians?

By Aaron

January 24, 2005

The Lord of the Rings, rated PG-13 for violence and scary images, is one of the best trilogies ever to hit theaters. This five star epic, in many people’s opinion, points to God. The story line comes from a book written by J. R. R. Tolkein, a well-known Christian and friend of C. S. Lewis.

To fully understand the meaning of this video you have to start at the beginning. In a book, also written by Tolkein, called the Silmarillion, a tale is told about how middle earth was formed. It says that in the beginning there were Ainur playing a song to Iluvatar. As the beautiful music flowed one of the Ainur, Melkor, started to alter his part. In Melkor’s mind his allotted piece was not glorious enough, so he tried to add to it. Some of the other Ainur around him started playing a different tune to match his. When the music finally ended Iluvatar said: "Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Iluvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth that ye may see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined." Then Iluvatar took all the Ainur and showed them a world full of life. He told them that they formed it with their music. If you ask me, this is an allegory of the "real" creation, where God is Iluvitar, Satan is Melkor, and angels are Ainur.

Many people believe that Gandalf, a character in the movie, is a sorcerer. But, if you study the books, you learn that he is not. Sorcery is "the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world." Yes, Gandalf mutters strange words that heal people, sets off fireworks, keeps doors closed with spells, and does other stranger things. But, this is using wisdom and power given to him by Iluvitar. Gandalf could be better compared to an angel working a miracle for God. In the Silmarillion it states: "Even as the first shadows were felt in Mirkwood there appeared in the west of Middle-earth the Istari, whom Men called the Wizards." It goes on to state: "It was said by the Elves that they were messengers sent by the Lords of the West (angels)to contest the power of Sauron (demon), if he should arise again, and to move Elves and Men and all living things of good will to valiant deeds." Furthermore, in the first book of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf fought a Balrog (another lesser type of demon). In this battle he shouted out saying: "I am a servant of the Secret Fire (Creator), wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udum (hell). Go back to the Shadow!" From this we learn that Gandalf is clearly not a sorcerer, but a servant of the creator.

Yes, The Lord of the Rings is full of both sorcery and miracles, but the Bible is too: King Saul went to the witch to have Samuel come back from the dead, Elijah brought back the widow’s son from death, and Jesus made the fig tree wither. Similarly, the Bible is the great story of mankind’s struggle with good and evil.There are many places in the Bible where evil sorcery is used, but there are also places where God’s power is used to do miraculous deeds. So, logically you cannot say that this trilogy is evil just because it contains sorcery.

In another example of Christian fantasy, the series called The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, there is a book named The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The fourth word is ‘witch’. You can’t deny that the evil lady in this book is a witch, seeing as the title states it. Yet many Christians watch and read this and think it’s a wonderful Christian story. Some people say that it is okay for the witch to be there because you know she is bad. Well, in The Lord of the Rings you know Gandalf is good and you know who the bad guys are. But C. S. Lewis’ book is not the only example. There are other classics with witches and wizards: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, The Sword and the Stone, The Wizard of Oz, and many more.

Another issue people have a problem with is the violence in The Lord of the Rings. How can all this violence honor God? It is true that killing is not something that we should love, focus on, and see all the time. But, how many battles are there in the Bible? How many times does God kill hundreds of thousands of people? The answer is "many times." I am not saying that killing is fine, but if it is so horrible that we should not even hear about it, then stop reading the Bible. If the movie glorified killing then it would be wrong, but it treats war as a necessary means of fighting evil. Another movie came out recently that was rated R for violence. It was extremely graphic and there were some evil ghostly spirits in it. Millions of people, many of them Christian, went to see this movie. It was called The Passion of the Christ and it was taken from the Book written by God Himself.

One of my favorite things about the movie The Lord of the Rings is the hobbits, small peace loving folks, and their willingness to lay down their lives for their friends. Sam and Frodo are together the whole movie. Frodo must bear the Ring and its evil power is corrupting his mind causing him to say and do things he would not normally do, just like sin corrupts us. But because Sam loves Frodo, he goes through rejection and pain, just to stay by his side. Likewise, Merry and Pippin are always getting in harm’s way to save others. At one point in the movie Merry goes into a battle, even though he is expecting to die, just to try to save the people of Minis Tirith. The hobbits and their love for one another and their willingness to lay down their lives for their friends parallels God’s love when he sent Jesus to die for us. The Bible states in John 15:13: " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

A story full of black magic that dishonors God, or an allegory that shows us God in an exciting way? The choice is yours. But for me, I choose to watch a movie full of friendship, love, and adventure that will keep me on the edge of my seat, laughing and crying, till when it ends I just stay seated in awe at what I have just seen.