A Different Story

  “God does not like to be taken for granted.  It flies in the face of His eternal purposes – that He be known and loved and praised and enjoyed.  And it makes us superficial people…When the main thing is missing, what’s left is distorted and superficial, whatever it is.  If someone says, ‘Oh, that’s just religion,’ I answer, ‘It’s notreligion.  It’s reality.  God made the world and everything in it.  He owns the earth and everyone on it.  He is the main actor in the world.  He is guiding the history of every people and nation to their appointed goals.  Everything, without exception, has to do with God and gets its main meaning from God.  And not to show this, but to take this for granted, is to be superficial.’  It is simply impossible to overstate the importance of God.  He does not like being taken for granted.  The psalm does not say, ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be taken for granted.’  It says, ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised’” (Psalm 96:4).  This quote, written by John Piper, hits the nail on the head, contradicting Shelley’s view of God, man, and nature, which is exceptionally warped. Her story of Frankenstein makes a feeble attempt to portray God as unworthy; man as perfect, innocent, and blaming society for his corruption; and nature as glorified above all else. 

      God: A lover of the work of His hands or a heartless maker who detests the existence of his creation?  Mary Shelley answers this question by portraying the creator as Victor Frankenstein, who after first beholding his creation, completely and utterly rejected it.  The deeply wounded Monster clearly states his opinion of his Creator, as visualized in chapter fifteen, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator.  But where was mine?  He had abandoned me: and in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him . . . Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.  You purpose to kill me.” How horrid!  By Frankenstein’s utter disregard for his own handiwork, his Monster became hard-hearted and bitter.  God’s love, however, is inescapable.  He accepts and treasures who we are even as sinners.  A beautiful picture of this unfolds in Romans 8:38-39 and 11:1-2.  After the demise of his family at the expense of the Monster, Victor’s desire for vengeance and murder of his now proclaimed adversary is ignited like a flame.  This portrait of hate reveals his true nature as bluntly stated:  “How I have lived I hardly know; many times have I stretched my failing limbs upon the sandy plain and prayed for death.  But revenge kept me alive; I dared not die and leave my adversary in being.”  “I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.”  God depicted as a deserter and destroyer?!  Scripture reveals to us His yearning to redeem and have an unbreakable love relationship with us.  John 3:16 and Romans 10:9 give insight to these biblical truths.  Ultimately, Shelley’s perception of God is steeped in the belief that rejection is His motive, not perfect love and personal relationship.

      Innocent.  Perfect.  Sinless.  This describes Shelley’s belief about man before he supposedly becomes “corrupted” by society.  Subtly, the monster, who is the picture of man, falsely perceives himself as faultless for the sudden downward spiral of his nature.  In his conversation with Walton, his cry of self-pity resonates: “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me? . . . I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.  Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”  His selfishness is completely evident in these declarations.  He had a choice to accept his life as it was or seek vengeance on all mankind for the atrocity he felt society dealt him through his creation.  Romans 3:23 and Genesis 4:8 demonstrate that man is not born perfect, but with the sin nature of Adam.  Unfortunately, the monster’s perception of himself became as twisted as Shelley’s view of mankind.  Confirmation saturates these statements:  “But how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool!  At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification.  Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity . . . All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!”   Scripture contradicts this idea in Romans 8:1, 31.  Overall, this view clings to the idea that man is innocent, perfect, and sinless, in a world where no such thing exists.

      To whom should all praise be given, the creation or a perfect Designer?  The character of Frankenstein exalts the deity and worship of nature above the one true God, as found in several religions of this world.  Clearly depicted in these exclamations is the assumed holiness of the earth:  “By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the demon who caused this misery until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict . . . The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side-the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around, spoke of a power mighty as Omnipotence-and I ceased to fear, or to bend before any being less almighty than that which had created and ruled the elements, here displayed in their most terrific guise.”   Declaring that the creation should revere the Creator clearly presents itself in Luke 19:40 and II Chronicles 7:14.  Not only does Shelley proclaim the earth as god, which is a false philosophy, but also hints that nature possesses the ability to be called upon in time of need, completely obvious in this account:  “Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion away from the joys of life . . . They (the magnificent scenes of nature) elevated me from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillised it.” Psalm 54:4 and 18:3 declares the Lord is “our very present help in time of need.”  In the end, God is the only one worthy of praise. 

      Why does Mary Shelley have a perspective on God, man, and nature which is not relevant to reality?  Her study of philosophy and influences in her early life promoted a secular worldview and set the stage for her belief system.  Unfortunately, this worldview is widely accepted in our culture today as it was in her time.  Shelley’s search for acceptance and love is explicitly portrayed throughout this story.  Because of the treatment she received from her husband and father, her perception of God became one of hate, rejection, and lack of love; and, therefore, she blamed society for her woes.  Instead of embracing God as her father figure and comforter, she turned to nature and self.  If she had acknowledged God as her peace and love, this story would have been drastically different.