Friday, December 07, 2007

I am a Christian Because of the Necronomicon

I tagged Tom yesterday with the One Book meme. I now have leverage for teasing, knowing that a computer programming book changed his life. But the book he wishes had never been written is the Necronomicon (from the movie "Army of Darkness"). This reminded me of an incident that happened to me in High School that absolutely freaked me out, so I thought I'd share it with y'all.

This was in my pre-post-Lutheran days when I was a nominal Christian but went to church weekly with my parents. I had no real firm beliefs, but I loved to sit around and speculate about God, meaning of life, and all those sorts of things. A friend of mine, Jess, said she had a friend I had to meet. He liked to talk about those things too.

We went over to his house and the three of us sat out on his porch talking. He was the first goth kid I ever met. We talked about philosophy and reincarnation (which I argued against by default) and Satanism and all sorts of crazy things. After about, oh I don't know, 45 minutes or an hour, he turned to me and asked, "Have you ever heard of this book? It's called the Necronomicon?" I answered, "No, I don't think I have." "Are you sure," he asked. "It's called The Necronomicon."

And all of a sudden something trippy happened to me. I'm not sure I can really explain it. It's like I wasn't there for about two or three seconds. I had an overwhelming sense of great tragedy, like the sense you would have visiting a Nazi gas chamber and thinking of all the millions that died. It's like I tapped into a sense of devastating regret on a cosmic scale. Then I felt the presence of an evil being, laughing at it. Then it was over.

"Gee, look at the time," I said. Jess and I split as fast as we could. She said she felt the same thing, though it was hard to tell exactly.

What I took from that encounter is that there really is a supernatural realm, and at the very least, there really are evil beings. Even when I doubted the existence of God, this single event has kept me from ever considering humanist materialism as a viable option. It kept me pushing forward to try to figure out what is true. And it is the reason why, when I really embraced Christianity for myself, I needed to be in a charismatic church. Though I've come a long way since that experience, it has had a profound impact on my life.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Praise Jesus for the Necronomicon!

J. K. Jones said...

“…what is true.”

Honest question: how do you decide what is true?

Personal experience: I re-dedicated my life to Christ because of a Jimmy Buffet song (I think that “Songs You Know by Heart” is the most aptly named greatest hits album ever released.). There’s a line in “Son of a Son of a Sailor:” “Where it all ends I can’t fathom my friends; if I knew I just might pull up my anchor.” You see, I know where it all ends.

I heard this song once during a party in a dorm room. A verse I had memorized came back to mind: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

God moves in mysterious ways…

J. K.

Anonymous said...

You should probably READ the necronomicon, It's extremely informational. You should also study the ancient Partchiments which contain an extreme amount of information. And then study about ancient History, The egyptians, Summerians, Jews, And of course You should know your enemy like you know your parents. Study Satanism, Not in the way your probably thinking, Study it in a way that keeps you knowledgeable about things, Because you never know when you'll have to put that knowledge to use.

Anonymous said...

That was a nice story, but the one thing i am concered with is the feeling u felt. Was it the book, or was it fear? I've studied the Necronomicon for years now, and long ago i found out it's fake. It was created by a man in the 1920's that wrote short stories. His name was H.P. Lovecraft. He made everything up. All I'm saying is, "not to worry about the Necronomicon it's just a part of someone's imagination"

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