This past week, legendary comic book creator Stan Lee passed away. since his passing, there’s been a lot of questions asked, a lot of tears, a lot of conversations. This week on Geek Devotions, Dallas shares his perspective on this event. How did Dallas process this as a geek and a pastor?
In the wake of the passing of legendary comic book creator, Stan Lee, Dallas did this week’s episode of Geek Devotions a bit differently. Since his passing, there’s been a variety of responses from the Geek Community and those not in the community. There have been praises, demonisation, and questions about the afterlife. So how did Dallas, as a Geek and a Pastor, respond to this event?
Clarification
In case you don’t know, I (Dallas Mora) am I certified Geek. Stan Lee’s creations, specifically, have encouraged, inspired, and challenged me throughout the years. X-Men comics specifically got me through some of the darkest times of my life. Due to this, I have a lot of love for Stan Lee. I grew up watching the 90’s X-Men, Iron Man, and Fantastic Four Cartoons. I loved looking for Stan’s iconic cameo in every Marvel film. I’m even currently attempting to track down the Japanese Spider-Man series that Stan Lee helped to produce.
At the same time, I am a pastor. I’ve been licensed with the Assemblies of God since 2009. I’ve been in full-time ministry for a bit longer than that. Before-hand, I served in a variety of ministries helping with youth and media. Currently, I am the Online Community Pastor for my church, I write exegetical Christian Education lessons, and serve in a variety of other roles for my church, The Healing Place. Needless the say the word of God is very important to me.
So how do I navigate this time period?
Navigating the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Over this past week, there have been some great things said about Stan and some horrible things. He left a great legacy that inspires and encourages others. These things should be celebrated. At the same time, there’s been some strange allegations raised against him; much of which I’ve never heard of before. If those allegations are true, then I’m sad to hear it, at the same time some of the things said are simply people twisting the words of Stan Lee to mean something entirely different.
But what good does screaming and hollering do at this moment? He’s passed away. All these people are doing is hurting those who hurt the most; his actual family. We as fans have a lot of love for Stan Lee, but his actual family is who suffers the most. If you’re one of those individuals and you somehow found this page, I want you to know I’m sorry. I know you’re suffering, I know you’ve lost someone dear to you. Know that he was used as a catalyst to bring hope to thousands of lives. You should be proud of that. If we can pray for you in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Is Stan in heaven?
This is a common question asked, and it’s one that I have to answer honestly. I don’t know. As Christians, we firmly believe that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. It’s through us confessing Jesus as Lord and living the rest of our lives in the grace of God through faith. There is no other way around it.
Several years ago someone asked Stan Lee if there was a God. His response was similar to what I stated at the beginning of this section, “I don’t know.” This would mean that he falls into the category of being agnostic. We do know that having been raised Jewish that he was exposed to the Old Testament and we see that he had an affinity for the Bible due to its poetry. In fact, the way he wrote Thor’s speech was heavily inspired by the King James Version of the Bible.
So what does this mean? It means that seeds of the Gospel have been planted in his heart for years and decades. I don’t know if he ever took a leap of faith and put his trust in Jesus. It’s honestly not my job as a pastor to say. It’s not my job to glorify him to demonise him. My job is to point us back to hope, back to Jesus.
Is there Hope?
In short, yes. As I said, above, the only way to heaven is through Jesus. When God created the earth, He made it perfect. But we messed up. Adam and Eve sinned against God condemning mankind to eternity in Hell. The beautiful thing was this, God knew we’d mess up. Before that could even happen, He had already made provision for our salvation. He made way for us to be able to call Him our Father.
He sent Jesus to earth to live as a man. Jesus was sinless, he was perfect, yet He died for our sake. When he was crucified, he took on all of our sins. All you have to do is repent and follow Jesus. Repentance simply means this. We recognize that God’s standard of righteousness is correct, we recognize that we are in disobedience of that righteousness, in response to that we realize we need a saviour. We then ask God to save us, as we turn away from our sinful lifestyle.
In the above video, I lead those watching in a time of prayer. I made sure to say this though, words are just words. There’s nothing magical about the words in the prayer I lead people in. You as an individual have to get your heart right with God. You as an individual have to surrender to Jesus. I can’t do that for you.
If you’ve done that today and want information about how to take next steps past the initial moment of repentance, feel free to reach out to us here. You can email us at geekdevotions@gmail.com