Okay, here's the story:
For years I've been a fan of Japanese Anime, and just love a good action scene of martial arts being displayed.
In Japanese Anime the characters usually (or often) draw their power from beast like creatures like foxes, wolves, serpents, snakes, dragons, lions and so on,or from what they call their own 'life force'.
A serpent, snake, dragon, lion and wolves are Biblical representations of demons and satan.
Knowing that, I can understand many anime characters are demonically influenced (and probably go to hell being possessed, while not receiving christ), but I couldn't care less because they are but anime(meaning not real), and I'm far more interested in the good I can get out of the movie.
So you could conclude that the characters in Japanese Anime, often are inspired by demonic power, often bringing some form of destruction, more than healing, through either physical powers, or spiritual powers under the name of 'chakra', 'zen', 'aura', or just 'spiritual energy', or so......
The flip coin is, that I'm also a devout christian, trying to follow Jesus in a pretty liberal way, meaning trying to be free, and not fall into the pattern of rules and regulations.
A couple of days ago I saw a presentation, and in the end the guy said "In the end days there will be those who will be 'worshippers' of demons and devils, and will not want to turn away from doing so." ...or something (paraphrased).
So, I started to think, though I may be wrong somewhere:
1- What is worshiping devils?
Isn't it admiring them? Isn't worship like admiration, adoration, glorification and exaltation? Not only verbally, but also in the heart agreeing of their superiority and splendor?
So I noticed of myself that in anime, exactly those scenes where the character starts to have 'determination' (is what they call it), it's able to draw the demonic power, and gain superhuman strength. (and I'm not only talking about DragonBallZ here, but many other anime out there, like Saint Seya, Fist of the North Star (Aka Hokuto no ken), especially Bleach, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Wolfs Rain, or even the scene's of Initial D, where the driver's been seen with an 'aura'.
Exactly those scenes I like or get thrilled by them, as I watch them, because they often go together with some intense special effects or music, to accentuate the scene, meant to be breath taking and exhilarating!
Could this also be the worshiping of demons like the guy mentioned, if it is obvious they get their strength from demons?
I am fully aware of Matthew 15:11: "not that what comes INTO a man defiles him, but what goes OUT of a man can"(paraphrased)!
In other words: there's nothing wrong with viewing the anime, there might be with the part of worshiping (giving admiration, exaltation (often goes with the thought "I wished I could be like that"),and glorification (eg: "Did you see last episode? It was awesome the way that XXXX (eg: Naruto or Ichigo/Bleach) killed that monk!") of some of it's scenes, or even there might be an issue when not physically doing those things, but in one's heart admire them (as Matt 5:28 says: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.", meaning that one can sin, even if it's only in the heart, and does not appear to come to the surface).
So could it be that in the process of watching Anime,man might get tempted to glorify a demonic power (even in his heart)?
Certainly a valid point of concern, because if so,I would have been worshiping devils for over 17 years now(about the time I started watching a lot of Japanese Anime)!
As I was pondering on this question, another thing took place.
I was playing a game called "phantasy star", and it plays back in the far future, where men has developed a tool called a "photon generator" (or something).
A 'Photon generator' is seen as a purely (far futuristic) scientific tool, that can emit photons, and thus give the user of it additional energy that can be released as 'fire', 'ice', 'earth', 'light', 'gravity', or 'dark matter'.
The 'photon charger' (or whatever they might call it in phantasy star) is in other words, a purely scientific device, that one triggers on or of much like one would trigger a gun or a microwave, and can not be seen as demonically, but operates within the physical laws it supposed to operate into (given that it could exist), and can be seen as a tool.
But the end result is about the same:
The main character get attacked by evil powers (creatures or humans) he can not overcome with his own power, and calls on either his demon, or the power of his scientific photon device.
Since there is no difference between the characters save the one character calls for photon power, and the other calls for demonic aura, and yet I get the same thrill with seeing both men being bestowed with superhuman strength, my question would be:
- Is it bad to see anime (Demonically p
last sentence got cut off, and is:
- Is it bad to see anime (Demonically powered), knowing that it would be ok to see if the demonic power would be replaced by a device like a photon charger (or something)?
None really seemed to grasp the core question. Many explain things I don't seem to ask in my question.
I'll repeat it here again:
"could it be that in the process of watching Anime,man might get tempted to glorify a demonic power (even in his heart)?"; that's my question. Not whatever you would do instead of watching anime,or try to justify anime, that is besides the point.
Thank you.