TOLKIEN AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS
David W. Cloud & Posted by
Permission
(Pictures added David L. Brown)
 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.R. Tolkien. 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 Tolkien’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 Tolkien’s occultic imagery.
- HARMLESS FANTASY, WHOLESOME ALLEGORY?
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 Rings 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
 The author of the Lord of the Rings, John
Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was born in South Africa in 1892, but his family
moved to Britain when he was about 3 years old. When Tolkien 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.
Tolkien 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 Tolkien’s sons became a Catholic priest. Tolkien was an
advisor for the translation of the Roman Catholic Jerusalem Bible.
As a professor of literature at Oxford University, Tolkien 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 Tolkien’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. Tolkien, in fact, is credited with influencing Lewis to
become a Christian of sorts. Like Tolkien, 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 Tolkien,
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. Tolkien 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 STORY OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS
The setting for Tolkien’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 Tolkien’s books contain simple allegories of good vs. evil,
Tolkien portrays wizards and witches and wizardry as both good and evil.
There is white magic and black magic in Tolkien’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, Tolkien’s
fantasies are unscriptural and present a very dangerous message.
- TOLKIEN SAID THE BOOKS ARE NOT CHRISTIAN
ALLEGORIES
In his last interview in 1971, Tolkien 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, Tolkien
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 Tolkien, "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.
- TOLKIEN SPAWNED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
Tolkien’s books 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 Tolkien’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. Tolkien
wrote his The Lord of the Rings books. From his vivid imagination
and creative thinking he created the fantasy adventure genre. Tolkien
probably got his ideas from ancient religions. Peoples of different
civilizations were writing epic’s way before Tolkien was even born. They
wrote epics about people with superior strength, about gods that punished
people and, travels to the underworld. Tolkien 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 Tolkien’s books are about
than the aforementioned Christian publications. Tolkien certainly did get
his ideas from pagan religions, and the message promoted in his fantasy
books is strictly pagan.
- ROCK AND ROLLERS LOVE TOLKIEN
Tolkien has influenced many rock and rollers. The song "Misty Mountain
Hop" by the demonic hard rock group, Led Zeppelin, was inspired by
Tolkien’s writings. Marc Bolan, of the rock group Tyannasaurus Rex,
created a musical and visual style influenced by Tolkien. The heavy metal
rock group Iluvatar named themselves after a fictional god from Tolkien’s
work 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.
February 5, 2002 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service,
P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
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