Keep Reading

You really miss a lot when you don't keep reading. Last year Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy received an extra burst of publicity as the movie adaptation of the first novel hit theatres. The books have some controversial subject matter due to their take on Christianity, but that's not the main point I want to get at, plenty of others have already written volumes. What really grabbed me was the difference between the movie and the novel.

Warning: If you haven't read The Golden Compass you're going to receive some spoilers.

The scriptwriters for the movie apparently decided to stop reading. That or they read the whole book and decided not to share the ending for whatever reason (my guess is because it is pretty shocking). The movie ends shortly after a climactic battle in the Arctic where the main character Lyra is able to break her best friend, Roger, out of a facility where the bad guys are experimenting on children. The final shot consists of the two of them flying off in search of Lord Asriel, anticipating the adventures that are coming next. There is a slight sense of foreboding, but overall it's a happy ending.

The book does not stop there. Lyra and Roger catch up to Lord Asriel, Lyra's father. In the movie he is portrayed as a wise and heroic man who can be a little harsh at times. The book portrays him as a man that will let nothing stand is his way. He wants to open a portal to another world, but this requires energy. Apparently the only thing that will create enough energy is the separation of a human from their daemon, or animal spirit partner. Of course, this means you kill the person. Lord Asriel certainly can't kill himself, and since he's such a good father he spares Lyra and promptly kills Roger, an eleven year old boy. The portal opens, and the last scene is Lyra leaving her world, scared, brokenhearted, and completely clueless as to what will come next.

When I first read that all I could think was WOW! Had they put that in the movie they really would have ticked off some people. As I stated earlier, you really miss a lot when you don't read the whole book. Now I have to ask, "why do we do that with the Bible?"

Be honest, we've all done it. We open our Bible. We find a verse we like. We read it, memorize it, and then we stop reading! Why? The biblical authors didn't write verses, they wrote books or letters. If we don't read these in their entirety, we really miss what's going on.

The book of Titus is a perfect example. Paul goes at this book in a sort of backwards manner. Usually he starts with a theological foundation, then gives exhortations based on the theology he has just outlined. Romans is probably the ultimate example of this. However Titus is different. Here Paul starts with exhortations (another word would be instructions) and then moves into theological reasons for doing what he says. The book can really be summed up by saying "do these things, live this way because of what Christ has done for you." If we simply read the instructions and then stop, we miss the point of the book. We really can't do any of the things until we understand what Christ has done for us!

In my next few posts I want to take a deeper look at this letter. If you want to really follow what I'm writing about, you need to read the whole book of Titus. It's only three chapters long, so it won't take a lot of time. Notice how the whole letter works together, developing its main themes. As I explore the book, evaluate my thoughts to make sure they fit with the themes of the letter and the Bible as a whole.

Wait, did I just mention the entire Bible? Better keep reading!