Harry Potter and the Gospel of Christ

By Ray Eichenberger

A great read for the Easter season. Celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus with the final chapter of this book, where you will find a discussion of the importance of blood sacrifice in the Bible and the Resurrection of Jesus as the culmination of the Great Theme of the Old Testament and New Testament. He is risen! A Christian reviews the Harry Potter book series and finds the Gospel of Christ and rich Christian symbolism. The author uses the Harry Potter characters to examine the life of Jesus, our relationship with God, and to explore other personalities of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Based in Scripture and using fundamentally sound Bible interpretations, Harry Potter and the Gospel of Christ finds the truth of the Gospel of Jesus in the story of Harry Potter and his Hogwarts friends. A work that will be enjoyed by seekers of Jesus, Christians of any age, and fans of the Harry Potter series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Eichenberger
• Release date: Apr 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458031495

Ray Eichenberger

Ray is a life-long Christian, having been raised in the Lutheran Church and then attending a Grace Brethren Church. Ray is a long time member of New Life Community Church in Gahanna, Ohio.A graduate of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio witha B. S. in Education and a B. A. in History, Ray also holds a Juris Doctor degree from Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio.Ray is a self-employed attorney, with a general civil practice, including trial work and probate and estate planning.An avid golfer, Ray has officiated high school football, basketball, baseball and fast pitch softball for over twenty (20) years. Ray also enjoys coaching youth sports and travel.

Book preview

HARRY POTTER

AND

THE GOSPEL

OF CHRIST

By Ray Eichenberger

Published by Ray Eichenberger at Smashwords

Copyright 2010, Ray Eichenberger

All Rights Assigned to: Red Foot Racing Stables, LLC

http://www.harrygospel.com

Cover design by Innovative Technologies of Gahanna, Ohio, Jeff Schwartz

Harry Potter and the books in the Harry Potter series are owned by Scholastic Books and/or J. K. Rowling and/or Warner Brothers/WBEI

All Bible verses quoted herein are from the King James Version

Smashwords edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

TO KYLE, STEPHANIE, HALLIE AND COLE-

MAY YOU FIND THE TRUTH OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST IN THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARRY POTTER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 FOREWORD

Chapter 2 THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Chapter 3 HARRY POTTER AS AN ALLEGORICAL JESUS

Chapter 4 PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE

Chapter 5 LORD VOLDEMORT

Chapter 6 THE HOLY SPIRIT

Chapter 7 THE SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT

Chapter 8 THE DISCIPLES

Chapter 9 PROFESSOR SNAPE

Chapter 10 HARRY POTTER, DEATH, SACRIFICE, AND THE RESURRECTION

Chapter 11 PROLOGUE

Chapter 12 AFTERWORD

Chapter 13 A USEFUL PRAYER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER ONE

FOREWORD

I was born and raised in the Lutheran church, and attended there until I graduated from high school.

After a brief rebellion and respite away from going to church on Sunday while I attended college, I began attending first a Grace Brethren church and than an independent Baptist church.

I am a Fundamentalist Christian, and an Evangelical, and this book will be written under those beliefs.

I firmly believe in the inerrancy of the Bible.

That being said, I love the Harry Potter series of books!

Each book is a compelling story, with interesting characters and great twists and turns.

Harry Potter, his friends and Hogwart’s teachers have always been an engrossing read for me.

On its surface, Harry Potter appears to be a classic story of good versus evil, and the implications that battle has for each of us.

I have read each of the Harry Potter books numerous times.

The more I read each book, the more I realized that the Harry Potter saga has something deep to say to each of us spiritually about our relationship to God, and about the birth, life, death and Resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

This work is then my personal literary review of the Harry Potter story and the allegory it presents concerning the life, sacrificial death and Resurrection of Jesus.

I don’t know whether Potter author J. K. Rowling is a strong Christian or not, and I purposefully did not explore her beliefs as I sat down to create this work. From the scriptural influences in the Harry Potter series, particularly The Deathly Hallows, Ms. Rowling must have a strong faith.

I am well aware that many of my Fundamentalist brothers and sisters have never read the Harry Potter books, and would not do so because of the Biblical injunctions and warnings against witchcraft, wizards, witches and sorcery and the like. See, for example, Exodus 23: 18, Galatians 5: 20, and Revelation 21: 8.

But, God does indeed work in mysterious ways, and I find the Harry Potter books to be full of instruction, wisdom, teachings and examples of how God would have us live our own lives, what his Son Jesus Christ has done for us, and how we should treat our brothers and sisters in the world.

Finally, this book will best be enjoyed by people who have read the Harry Potter series. There are many, many plot spoilers, and the climactic outcome of the story is certainly revealed, discussed and analyzed.

Many thanks to my Christian brothers and sisters who have helped me on my own journey, especially Pastor Dave Earley (now Professor Dave Earley at Liberty University Theological Seminary), and my brothers and sisters at New Life Community Church in Gahanna, Ohio.

This book is dedicated to my children: Kyle, Stephanie and Hallie, and my new grandson, Cole. May you find your own relationship with Jesus in the allegories of Harry Potter.

I know that Satan does not want this book to be written and published. I had completed the book in the late spring of 2010, when the computer disk which contained the first draft of this book was corrupted and much of the text destroyed, for no apparent reason. The disk was stored with other similar disks, which did not sustain damage.

Talk about spiritual warfare!

After that hard lesson in backing up my work properly, the text of this book was lovingly recreated, with the help of Jeff Schwartz and his staff at Innovative Technologies, Inc. in Gahanna, Ohio. Jeff and his company recovered a vital part of my first draft from the damaged disk.

This book is full of references in the Bible to various ideas and points which I wish to make. I hope that you read the scriptural references and refer to them as you are enjoying this book. All scriptures quoted in this work are from the King James Version of the Bible, a translation which I use exclusively in my Bible study, and which I still enjoy immensely.

Now, I invite the reader to sit back, enjoy the ride, and find truths about Jesus Christ and our own Christian lives in the story of Harry Potter.

CHAPTER TWO

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

The British world of Harry Potter and his fellow witches and wizards is a totally fascinating creation of characters and environments.

One (1) of the key underlying themes I enjoyed in the series was the fact that the witches and wizards did not want to be discovered by the Muggle (non-magical) world

The secrecy was two-fold.

First, the witches and wizards were afraid that the Muggle population would seek magical solutions to all of life’s daily troubles and problems.

Secondly, the wizarding world feared prejudice and discrimination by the Muggles if their true identities and powers were discovered by the general population.

The other underlying theme which is more important in the Harry Potter series, and which I found completely fascinating, was that the wizarding community was divided into factions and did not get along with each other.

In people of such vast powers, there were still divisions caused by heredity and family values. Some wizards were considered to be of "pure blood because they descended from generations and generations of marriages between only wizards and witches.

On the other hand, wizards and witches could also arise from Muggle families, when witches and wizards had married Muggles, either currently or somewhere back in the genealogical bloodlines. Hermione was from totally Muggle parents; we learn that Hermione’s parents were both dentists.

This aspect of Harry Potter always reminded me of graphing Mendel’s dominant and recessive plant and animal traits in high school biology class, or charting the probabilities of human blood typing factors of A, B, AB and O type blood.

Recessive genetic traits appear sparingly and randomly in nature and man, using the laws of science and the mathematics of probabilities. Thus, wizards and witches could be born to solely Muggle parents based upon dominant and recessive characteristics, and based upon the existence of magical blood in the Muggle gene pool when magical and non-magical people intermarry.

Those two (2) underlying and dominant themes of Harry Potter speak to our lives as Christians, and were my first sources of inspiration in considering Harry Potter and his story as a Jesus allegory.

A.THE SECRECY OF THE WIZARDING WORLD

At first blush, the secret lives of the British wizarding world have very little to do with us as Christians.

Wizards liked to keep to themselves in small British communities, such as Ottery St. Catchpole, where the Weasleys lived, and Godric’s Hallow where James and Lilly Potter, the Dumbledore family, and Bathilda Bagshot resided.

The most sacred wizarding law was that magic was not to be performed in front of Muggles, except in severe and life threatening situations (such as when Harry performed his Patronus charm when he and Dudley were attacked by Dementors in Order of the Phoenix).

On the other hand, wizards and witches paraded around Muggle London and other parts of England dressed in bizarre outfits, sporting very different hairstyles, wearing bright and vivid colors, and even attempting to dress like Muggles (but very poorly).

Most of the wizards and witches in Harry Potter are indeed depicted as very strange characters in appearance.

What then do the secrecy and distinct behaviors of the Harry Potter wizarding world have to do with Christians and Christianity?

Christians don’t separate themselves from the rest of the world, and certainly don’t attempt to hold ourselves secret from the rest of the population.

Or, do we?

Scriptures say in various places that we are to be separate and different from the rest of the world. Matthew 6: 19-22.

In the Old Testament, God stated that the nation of Israel was to be a peculiar people, and He sanctified Israel to be His own. Exodus 19: 5-6. But, the apostle Paul makes it clear in the New Testament that we are to be part of the world and to serve as an example to other people around us. I Corinthians 9: 19-24.

Jesus taught throughout His ministry that the disciples were to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28: 18-20, Mark 16: 15.

But, how many times do we as Christians make ourselves a secret in our own daily contacts and daily lives, just as the wizards and witches do in Harry Potter?

How often are we

Reviews for Harry Potter and the Gospel of Christ

[Annesha Kar Gupta · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent book. I knew it that Hogwarts studies are directly related to Christ, but I did not have enough words to explain my views that this book described well. I learned a lot of information. Tons of thanks to the author. I wish to read more books written him.