The Girl on Fire: Katniss Everdeen and the Christian Symbolism in The Hunger Games

By Bill Etem

The Book of Revelation tells us there will be a war between those who have the mark of the beast on their foreheads or right hands and those who have the seal of God on their foreheads. It will be war between those who are in the True Church and those who are bound for Hell.

So, how do you find the True Church? Wikipedia tells us there are 40,000+ churches / unique denominations in the world. How is one supposed to find the True Church amid that lot?

1 Corinthians 11. 27-29 says one drinks damnation into one's soul if one celebrates Holy Communion in an unworthy manner. So, for instance, if a church gives Holy Communion to serial killers or serial rapists who claim they have repented, then you get to decide if that church is an evil false church which leads people to Hell or if it is God's True Church which leads people to Heaven.

Suppose the True Church tells Messers Biden, Blinken, Putin, Boris Johnson etc that they are on the road to perdition because of their actions in the Russia / Ukraine War, and suppose the True Church says they must take actions A, B, C, D...to get on the road to Heaven. Now if actions A, B, C, D etc etc seem bogus in your eyes, and if you declare the True Church is a false church, then you put yourself on the road to perdition.

The only way we can tell if a church is a false church or if it is the True Church is by studying the Bible and by trying to determine if it upholds the words of Christ and the apostles or if it tramples on them. Yes, but the New Testament doesn't give us any specific guidance on millions of issues and controversies. I mean, suppose a Peruvian judge sentenced an innocent man to 400 years in prison, and suppose anyone with any sense can see the Peruvian judge must be excommunicated, and suppose a church is a false church which leads people to perdition if it gives the bread and the wine to that evil judge. Yes, but if there are 7 billion people outside of Peru who know nothing about the Peruvian judge, then this might be a big problem for 7 billion people. Or suppose a Ukrainian officer commits atrocious war crimes, but then he says he's sorry and claims he is a good Christian who has repented. Then if a church gives him the bread and the wine you get to decide if that church is a false church which leads people to Hell or if it is God's True Church which leads people to Heaven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Etem
• Release date: May 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310989797

Bill Etem

Bill EE-tem. Born in Minneapolis, 1.2.60. Now living in St. Paul. Had lots of jobs: High School math teacher, football coach, track coach, legal coding / data entry, production, bar bouncer etc., etc. Bounced around some myself. Lived in Mexico for 20 months, in Oaxaca. Lived in Los Angeles for a few years. Traveled for 4 months round Europe after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1983, B.A. in Mathematics. All my religious books focus on finding the True Church.  If Christianity is true, as we Christians insist, if Jesus is God, the Divine Son - Psalm 2, Isaiah 9. 6, John 1. 1-14, Matthew 1. 23, Colossians 2. 8-10, 1 Timothy 3. 16 etc. - then you can trust what Jesus / God says in Matthew 16. 13-19, there is a True Church. The Christian scriptures are clear there is only one True Church, only one Bride of Christ. And yet there are thousands of separate churches / thousands of unique denominations in the world. So this a big conspicuous problem, a big mystery! And the key to solving the mystery is... Some definitions: If a Church leads people to Heaven then that Church is the Bride of Christ, the True Church, the Church Christ founded on a rock, Matthew 16. 13-19. If a church is lost in heresy and drags people down to eternal perdition then that church is a false church. How do you find the True Church? I have some books which deal with that question! I've also spent roughly 7 thousand hours working on my You Tube playlists, so be sure to scrutinize those when you get a chance: https://youtube.com/@billetem5868 [e-mail]

Book preview

The Girl on Fire: Katniss Everdeen and the Christian Symbolism in The Hunger Games

Published by Bill Etem at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Bill Etem

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 return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover art by Kyra Dune

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Reaping of the Tributes

Chapter 2. Moves and Counter-Moves

Chapter 3. Christian Art

The Girl on Fire: Katniss Everdeen and the Christian Symbolism in The Hunger Games

Chapter 1. The Reaping of the Tributes

To get to the big problems right away, recall that Snow `hijacked’ Peeta and sent him, or allowed him to be sent, on a mission to kill Katniss, to murder the girl who loves him. And then Coin later sent the still unstable Peeta to join up with Squad 451 – that’s an hommage to Fahrenheit 451 - to kill Katniss. Coin, the leader of District 13, was worried Katniss might throw her political clout behind someone like Commander Paylor, in the new Panem, in the new nation which would arise after Snow was executed and his regime was liquidated.

Things fall apart in the 3rd and 4th films, and in the 3rd novel. It is all so terribly farfetched to think Coin and a majority of the Victors would vote to re-establish the Hunger Games by reaping Capitol children and have them fight to the death in an arena. That was never going to happen! And it is terribly farfetched to think Katniss would murder Coin without even first explaining to the rebel armies why they all had excellent reasons angry with Coin. Katniss and Gale and Peeta, Haymitch and Plutarch and Effie, Pollux and Paylor etc., only had to explain to the rebel army why Commander Paylor was an infinitely better choice to lead the new Panem, at least during the interim phase, than was the back-stabbing Alma Coin who purposely drops bombs on Capitol children and rebel medics. Everyone was going a little crazy toward the end. Katniss was going to take her suicide pill after killing Coin. But Peeta is right there to intercede and yet again save Katniss’ life, like he did in the arena, and in giving 13 early warning of the Capitol attack on 13. Coin was probably not some devil from hell. But living underground in that rabbits’ warren of District 13 all those years might have left her sanity shaken. The 16-year-old Katniss was sort of crazy in holding on to the big grudge against her mom. And the 17-year-old Katniss was still a little crazy, vacillating incessantly between Gale and Peeta, though after Peeta hit the force field in Film 2 it becomes obvious that Team Peeta is the winning team. Gale just can’t compete with Peeta, certainly not after Peeta recovers fully from the hijacking. And then Gale was pushing for brutal tactics in the attack on the Nut, and that drove Katniss further away from him. Katniss wants to see tons of sensitivity in her boyfriends. She’s not into big tough macho guys. She’s got some fixation on her deceased father. He was a sensitive guy, a first-rate singer: the birds would fall silent when he sang. Anyway, there are big problems with Novel 3. It’s very readable but there are still big problems, problems which we will get to in more detail later.

Film 3 should have started in District 12, with the citizens of 12 in the square watching Katniss take down the dome over