Whose Eternal Life is Really at Stake!
As I write these words, October is coming to an end. This is a curious time on the calendar to be a pastor. There’s Halloween. And Día de los Muertos. We Lutherans (along with some other Christians) commemorate All Saints Day, while the Catholic tradition includes All Souls Day. The churched and non-churched alike become fixated on the paranormal, such as disembodied spirits, spooks, zombies, and vampires. I must confess that I do like a good, old-school horror flick from time to time, and this is the time of year to find them on classic movie channels. And while I don’t buy into a theology that promotes a fear of the dark and things that go bump in the night, the fact that so many others do is troubling. I recently caught the 1970 classic film Taste the
I recently caught the 1970 classic film Taste the Blood of Dracula, starring Christopher Lee, on TCM. Honestly, I was drawn less to the vampire meant to scare viewers in this movie and more to the clash of values and morals, in particular to the aristocratic Count’s threat to the sanctity of three Edwardian-era, middle-class—and Christian—families. The patriarchs, seemingly genteel businessmen devoted to family and church, are regulars at a private brothel. During one night of depravity, these “gentlemen” encounter a rather flamboyant and recently disinherited (for engaging in the dark arts) young man who realizes that they might be interested in something beyond the lechery of a brothel.
The young man turns out to be a disciple of Dracula, who was reduced to a puddle of red goo in the opening scenes (by a wooden stake through the heart, of course). A travelling merchant happened by and gathered up some of the goo as a commodity to be sold later.
After asking “Would you sell your souls to the devil?”, the young man convinces the businessmen to pony up for the recovered vampire goo and then participate in a ritual in a derelict church. When instructed to drink the blood of Dracula, the three men realize that something’s not right (yep, that they probably should’ve gone home to their wives), they turn on and accidentally kill the Count’s mortal helper.
Dracula comes back to life and he’s not a happy camper. With a grimace, he vows to exact vengeance. The saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…” more so applies to vampires done wrong. In the end, however, the mighty Dracula is vanquished by a little pseudo-Christian derring-do from the brave son of one of the dirty old men who started it all. Trapped inside the same old, desecrated church with a wooden cross barring the doors and a mortal wielding a shiny cross, the terrified Dracula shatters a stain glass window and disintegrates in the sunlight (more than a little ironically, on the altar).
The real-life lessons in this film abound. Chief among them is unrepentant sin—we are all sinners, yes, but keeping aberrant behavior a secret from family and friends is harmful enough; believing that God will turn a blind eye to the facade is tragic. As for vampires and other walking dead, corporeal or spiritual—if I am to believe that God’s Word is the absolute truth, then death is the last word for the unbeliever. The Bible does, in fact, speak of spiritual beings, of angels and demons (not spirits of the dead wandering the Earth…like resurrected vampires).
So many without faith have a spiritual life awash with, ironically, the unholy. Sadly, there are plenty of misguided souls out there ministered to by the entertainment media, especially at this time of year— even those that buy into hematophagia—that is, drinking blood as a counterfeit vampire, in pursuit of a lost youthfulness, or in the hope of extending earthly life, perhaps for eternity.
The story of Jesus Christ, the main character in God’s love affair with humanity, is one of blood, sacrifice, resurrection, and life everlasting. The devil would have us all doubt God’s Word, yet believe in things unholy. A stake through the heart, on the one hand, might kill a vampire, but it won’t take the promise of eternal life from a repentant sinner made, well… invincible…through faith. On the other hand, Dracula’s immortality rests solely (soul-ly?) upon the world’s continued fascination with the undead…
Life everlasting for the rest of us will soon blink helplessly at the world from a manger.
Pastor E.B. Holschuh serves at Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Alamo. He is a retired Navy Senior Chief and former English and Russian teacher and always looking for new ways to reach people; people can reach him in English or Russian at pastor@zionalamo.org. Check out “Fear or Faith?," the official podcast of Zion Lutheran Church (episodes in English, Spanish, and Russian) at zionlutheranalamo.podbean.com or Apple, Spotify, Audible, and Google.