Fox TV’s Lucifer

 

Coming to Fox on January 25^th is Hollywood’s latest attempt to minimize Biblical Christianity and trivialize one of its most foundational personalities…Lucifer.

Sensationalized with the taglines such as “going to be giving bad a good name”, and “Lucifer has a smile that make you want to tell all.” The twitter profile using the hashtag of “luciferiscoming” already has 14k followers as of this writing.

The worlds fascination with this biblical character is portrayed in this upcoming series as a suave, handsome, white male who leaves his throne in Hell to pursue other pursuits as he is “bored” with torturing people and seeks “fun” in Los Angeles via the opening of a night club.

I find it interesting that this shows strikes me as appealing to a millennial demographic, as this group is the least churched.  I can only surmise that Fox believes this demographic is ripe for this type of entertainment. I.e. this is a group ready to abandon traditional understandings of such an important person, and instead seeks to exalt him to a level of a sexy, en-vogue, and childish fairy-tale type of existence.

In this Hollywood portrayal, we are so far removed from the biblical character of Lucifer that it is astonishing.  This is problematic for the Christian who attempts to bring people into an understand of the spiritual realities as depicted by Jesus, as the the Devil is a very real person to him.  He is called a thief, murderer, and someone who destroys. Jhn 10:10.

He is a person who is totally at odds with God and who will one day be judged eternally to abide in a lake of fire.  Rev 20:10

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

These unbiblical, foolish, and worldly portrayals of Lucifer as someone who is “sexy” and stylish and who swoons us to follow him, is what prompted me to write my book, The Third Heaven: The Rise of Fallen Stars. 

To get away from the watered down version that Hollywood would seek to give us, and to show as best I could, the Devil/Lucifer as the Bible portrays him.  A rebel, who is dangerous, and who sees humans as nothing more than chattel…a means to an end.

Fox’s childish and humorous attempts to humanize the devil simply are simply fulfilling the biblical woe of Is 5:20

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…”

While I am sure this show will appeal to non-Christian sensibilities and will undoubtedly garner a large following.  I hope that all those who watch will understand that this caricature of the Enemy of God, and the things of God, is far removed from the biblical person that is the Devil.

Fox in its attempts to garner advertising and notoriety in its programming, apparently feels comfortable enough in the current cultural climate, to take an important person in Christian lore and minimize him for the sake of an audience who would laugh, and find such entertaining, all the while increasing (knowingly?) the absurdity of Christian belief about the truth of this person as expressed by Jesus himself.

For the Christian who wrestles not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, it is incumbent on us to help the church understand the power of the gospel as it can be expressed via art, literature, and media.  When we fail to produce works that tell our own stories we do nothing but allow the Enemy to fill the void.

This we cannot do.

Of course where there is the counterfeit of a thing, there is also the real, and I would encourage all to study what the Bible has to say regarding this person.

I hope that fans of my work will not only support me in telling people about my book, but also support other Christian writers, artists, and actors who attempt in their own way, to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While shows like this for the believer can be disturbing, I would say, let us prayerfully consider ways that this show might serve as a spring board for discussion with unbelievers, and why Jesus came in the first place. 1 John 3:8, and find ways to even use this in our efforts to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ.