Harry Potter vs The Bible…What’s the Difference?
Exodus 4:1-5
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared…
Exodus 7: 7-16
And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them: as the Lord had said.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s hear is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.
And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.”
With the debut Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and the condemnation of such by the new Pope, perhaps we can ask a simple question that any child would ask if they are raised on the many fantastic stories of the Bible. What’s the difference between the Wizardry of Harry Potter and that of Moses, Elijah, Jesus, the Apostles and Paul? It’s a short answer for a kid… none.
As with hearing voices in the head, if it is in the Bible, it is the voice of God. If it is from a religious person, it may be the voice of God or it may be the voice of a mental condition that needs to be addressed. If it is from a nonbeliever, it is the voice of Satan or definitely mental illness.
But it is a legitimate question and one that any modern child or teen has every right to ask adult fundamentalists and evangelically smitten Christians.
From the account of Moses turning his staff into a serpent, to Aaron matching the tricks of Egyptian Sorcerers, we have what appears to be for all intent and purposes a war between the Wizards. Of course Moses wins and his serpent/staff eats up their serpent/staffs. Next we go on to Moses turning the waters of Egypt into “blood” to be matched by the Wizards of Egypt. Obviously Moses left a little for them to play with as well but for the life of me the best trick would have seemed to be the Wizards turning Moses “blood” BACK into water! Guess they weren’t thinking!
From here we, of course go on to, frogs, gnats, flies, diseases, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and killing of innocent children.
Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Ex. 8:5-6
Frogs are a nice touch, and add eye of newt to the mix and we are back with Harry.
I suppose we would have to get a good mental picture of this “stretching forth” of hands over the rivers etc to get the same picture of Harry Potter doing much the same, with his wand, in his exploits, but what is the difference? In practical fact, none or certainly not much.
The Wizards of Egypt, like a bad movie script, duplicate the trick rather than undo it. Come on boys, wake up use the force for the good of Egypt! Of course, it would seem that duplicating an act that has already occurred is much easier, in some way, than undoing it. We never really hear just how the water turned blood, eventually turned back to pure drinkable water again. I guess it just cleared up.
One of the more questionable results of animal disease, hail, fire and destruction of animal feed by locusts etc, is that all the cattle and all the beasts and horses die at least three times from what I can tell. They are either diseased, beaten into pulp or starved by the Wizardry of Moses through Aaron. The Wizards of Egypt simply can’t compete. They finally wake up and don’t kill more animals at least, but can’t get the dead ones back either…but wait…maybe they do!
Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one
Exodus 9:3-6
It does appear all the horses died as well along with the cattle. But…..
“And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: 7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. 9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea”
Exodus 14:6-9
Miracle of miracles, or perhaps wizardry of wizardry…the Egyptian horses are resurrected for perhaps the second time at least and maybe the third, and strike out to attack the Israelites, but die in the Wizardry of Moses who parts the Red Sea with his serpent/rod and drowns the lot of them…..again. I could be wrong, but I don’t think left over dogs or goats from the previous plagues could pull a chariot.
In all the events of the Exodus, what is the difference between Harry Potter and Moses? Nothing…
What’s the difference…
* Exodus 14: Moses parts the Red Sea -with a serpent/staff. Joshua 3:16: Joshua parts the Jordan -when feet of Priests touched water
* 2 Kings 2:8: Elijah parts the Jordan -with his mantle
* 2 Kings 2:14: Elisha parts the Jordan -with magic mantle of Elijah
* Kings 18: Elijah calls fire to consume sacrifice
* 2 Kings 1: Elijah calls fire upon 2 army units
* 2 Kings 13:21: dead man resurrects when he touches Elisha’s bones
* 2 Kings 2-6: ELISHA: healed waters; she-bears; multiplying oil;
unpoisoning food; multiplying food; strikes men blind, not to mention floating axes made to swim “because it was borrowed.”
What’s the difference between Moses, Elijah, Elisha and Harry Potter? One is in the Bible and one is in a popular book of fiction and adventure, is all.
What’s the difference…
* 1 Kings 17:1; 18:45: Elijah commands rain (see also James 5:17) - pretty much a Wizardry thing
* Matthew 8:26: Jesus calmed the storm
* Matthew 14:25, 32: Jesus walks on water; calms a storm
* Matthew 21:19: Jesus withers the fig tree - for having no figs when it was not the season for figs!
* Luke 5:6: miraculous draught of fishes - a calling forth of fish.
* John 2:9: Jesus turns water to wine - Like Dionysus , god of Wine before him, and celebrated by “the Church” on the same day that Dionysus did it.
To a child, all of these are weather and nature related wizardry by any standard, as are the following foolings with Mother Nature and the Heavens in the Bible.
* Joshua 10:13: Joshua stopped the sun, well actually the earth had to stop rotating which went unrecorded anywhere on the planet and no one died elsewhere in the tsunamis.
* Isaiah 38:8: sun went backwards 10 degrees - earth rotated backwards.
* Matthew 2: star in the east brings wise men to Jesus. Wizards show up to honor Jesus. Where was the Rabbi?
* Matthew 27: darkness for 3 hours at crucifixion. Sun drops out of picture or heavy clouds obscure. Could not be a solar eclipse as a full moon during Passover does not permit that phenomenon. No one else on earth notices this either.
A few more..
* Matthew 14:20: Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes - manifesting things that aren’t into things that now are.
* Matthew 15:37: Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes again
* Matthew 17:27: Peter gets coin from mouth of fish to pay tax - no one had change?
* Acts 2: tongues
* Acts 5:5,10: Ananias & Sapphira struck dead by Peter’s word - nice way to treat the brethren for not handing over the money to the Church. But what does “struck dead” mean? If he struck them, it’s murder, if he mentally zapped them, it’s murder.
* Acts 9: light from heaven: Saul’s conversion - manifesting light being
* Acts 12: angel releases Peter from prison - where was the Angel before I got arrested?
* Acts 13:11: Paul strikes sorcerer blind - hey Jesus struck Paul blind too!
* Acts 16: earthquake releases Paul & Silas from jail - now that is one very vibrationally focused earthquake!
To a child, the only real difference between the events in Harry Potter and the events in the Bible is that each is confined to their own book. The wizardry appears to be the same and thus Papal disapproval or Pastoral condemnation to anyone with even a Sunday School education does not wash. Of course, since it is the Bible, that makes it somehow different, yet it is not. Appeals to heavenly authority fall on deaf ears when one sees that wizardry is wizardry no matter where it occurs.
From the raising of the bronze serpent in the wilderness by Moses to save the snake bitten brethren, to it’s worship by the people, storage in the ark and finally it’s destruction by Hezekiah, who didn’t like it, it’s all wizardry. What’s with the snake for healing routine? Back then it was “If any is sick among you, let him look upon the bronze serpent, and the look of faith will save the sick.” I guess it was homeopathic. Like cures like.
To a child and perhaps even a thinking adult, the book of Revelation also with its signs and wonders, wars, plagues and heavenly hosts attacking the powers of evil and the powers of evil blasting back, is no different from the wizardry of Harry Potter. The symbolism and characters certainly can seem so. Make a movie on Revelation and what’s the difference with Harry Potter? Different evils overcome by different powers in the same way it seems.
This is a biblically literate audience. We know the stories and even many profoundly religious types would swear they never read it in the Bible. I had a client who denied tooth and toenail that there is a story in the NT about Mary and Jesus’ brothers coming to get Jesus because he was “out of his mind.” It’s there nevertheless, as we know. (Mark 3:20-35).
With Harry Potter coming again into the public forum with its magic, wizardry and sorcery and now the Pope even lending his disapproval (that no doubt made Ms. Rowling another gabillion bucks), the attacks by fundamentalists against that which seems to threaten the Church and the Bible will intensify. But beware! Sometimes we just have to ask ourselves, what really IS the difference between the Wizardry of Harry and that of Moses and the prophets, priests, and kings of the Bible? I am sure there are excellent apologetics, some of which this may set off, but in truth, the answer is not much.
Born to annoy…
Dennis Diehl
Dennis Diehl is a former church pastor who has outgrown the limiting perspectives of Fundamentalist Christianity, and now has a therapeutic massage practice in Greenville, SC.