The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have stood the test of time. The four turtles Leonardo (Leo), Raphael (Raph), Donatello (Donnie), and Michelangelo (Mikey) all have distinct and lovable personalities, Leo is the stalwart leader, Raph the hothead warrior, Donnie the brainy inventor, and Mikey the silly embodiment of being a teenager with his battlecries of “Chowbunga,” and “Booyahkasha!” The story of the turtles is simple, four turtles swimming in mutagen ooze are transformed into humanoid turtles who learn Ninjitsu from their mutant Rat Sensei (master) and father figure Splinter. In TMNT 2012-2017, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi, leader of a Ninja clan (Hamato Clan) who is betrayed by his step brother Oroku Saki who becomes The Shredder. Oroku Saki kills Yoshi’s wife, reduces the Hamato Clan castle to flames and takes Yoshi’s daughter and in The Mask of Zorro Don Raphael fashion raises her as his own daughter Karai. In this series the mutagen comes from The Kraang, brain shaped aliens in robot bodies who are trying to mutate humanity and terraform Earth into their own dimension, Dimension X. As the series evolves the Kraang Leader, Kraang Prime, confesses to making mankind via mutation and evolution which of course contradicts the truth that God The Trinity made mankind in His Image (Genesis 1:26-27). Donatello makes references to “Darwin’s Beard,” when he is shocked, which solidifies the Darwinism influences in the show. The series is full of Chariots of the gods beliefs, Darwinism, but also has Zen philosophy, Pantheism, Satanic occultism and more. In Season 4 (Volume 7 on Amazon Prime), as The Turtles travel the Universe they come across a world full of demons who when they erect a cross like star talisman turn the demons back into angel like beings, but then later, April O’Neal who is given a piece of the cross shaped star becomes possessed and evil via an angel/demon, which to me is subliminal messaging against the cross, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” (Philippians 3:18).
Splinter uses Healing Mantras of the Eastern religions that he chants to heal his turtle sons and Casey Jones and April. We know only The Lord God can heal “Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus, and He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them,” (Luke 4:40), and that Holy Spirit gives the gift of healing, not eastern mantras, “to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,” (1 Corinthians 12:9), and “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14).
Splinter espouses Zen beliefs like his advice to Leo to accept that nothing lasts and to detach from fear of loss (ironic because in any crisis Splinter risks life and limb and uses mantras to save himself and his sons and daughter, if the goal is to detach and accept fate, why risk so much? So Splinter’s Zen Buddhist teachings are the opposite of what he does in the series) and eastern meditation is seen in many episodes, in one scene Splinter communes with The Universe which is Pantheism. When Splinter is slain by Super Shredder, he becomes a ghost who Leo can commune with via meditation which is necromancy & divination which are forbidden in The Bible, see Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Isaiah 8:19-20, 1 Samuel 28:7, Leviticus 19:31, Revelation 21:8, Acts 19:19. Splinter says “he is everywhere and in all things,” which is very New Age, Animatism, and Panthiesm.
In Season 8, the remnants of Shredder’s Footclan under Tigerclaw becomes cultists seeking to someone a being called the Karvaxis, The Demodragon from the underworld. The Demo Dragon is combination of Demon and Dragon, and his design looks like the traditional devil with bat wings and horns. A circle with a star, Star of David, and Inverted Pentagram of Satanism is seen with candles around it as Tigerclaw summons the Demodragon Kavaxas voiced by Mark Hamill.
This series had a lot of great character development, fight scenes, especially the finale of Season 2 with Leo fighting Kraang Robot Foot Ninjas and Shredder. All of the characters are in top form from Splinter who is a perfect blend of Sensei and Father, All four Turtles who as brothers shine with more than the usual one dimensional personalities, for example Raph isn’t just anger personified as he is usually depicted, he has phobias like Cockroaches/ bugs and learns to master his anger, Donnie is brainy as usual but is also in love with April O’Neal, so he has heart and brains, Leo who leads them is usually depicted as perfectly selfless and a flawless leader has an arch where he loves Karai and even joins her Broken Foot Clan to destroy Shredder’s labs, foundry, and etc. which places him in moral dilemmas. Mikey who is usually just silly and goofy actually is more like a Drunken Boxer who in many cases saves the day because he “feels doesn’t think,” trusting his instincts and gut, he even is a genius in Dimension X. It is refreshing what Nick and the creative team did with these beloved characters. I additionally liked Karai and April, the female leads, who do not steal the limelight or thunder from The male Turtles, but are equals and compliment them, something creative teams strived to do before the radical feminism wanted woman dominance, rather than equality. That said, I cannot recommend TMNT 2012-2017 despite the laughter, homages to famous movies like Alien in the Squirrel Mutants Arch, and great story telling and character development. This show has the best versions of Splinter, The Turtles, April, Karai, and Shredder I have seen. Their arches and stories are well written and complex, but for me the issue is always spirituality, what is being taught spiritually, and this series is full of Zen Buddhism, Panthiesm, New Age, Occultism, Darwinism, and Satanic elements. I actually stopped in Season 5, Vol 9 with the Demodragon, it was too Luciferian, and the symbols were legit demonic like the inverted pentagram. There were some other disturbing episodes like one with a mutant muscle car that eats victims and makes them part of it (Season 3), and other horror elements. I would never recommend the series to young kids who would get nightmares from some of mutations and characters like The Rat King. I also would not recommend the series due to pagan and demonic spiritualities that are peppered throughout the series. I even just discovered the pitchfork baton knives called Sais that Raphael wields are Hindu, that the god Shiva The Destroyer wields a pitchfork trident, and that with the spread of Hinduism, the Sais came to Asia, originating in India! (See Sai Wikipedia, and Google photos of Trident being symbol of Shiva and Hinduism). I actually had a pair of Raphael’s toy Sais recently and got into a lot of sudden destructive accidents, and when I found out the sai is based on Shiva The Destroyer god of Hinduism’s weapon, it made sense then why destruction crept into my life, since Shiva is really a destroyer fallen Seraphim angel.
It’s timely I talk about the Turtles with the new Seth Rogen animated TMNT film coming out this August. I want to be clear I was a huge Turtle fan, I had the NES trilogy of video games, Turtles in Time SNES, the movies, and watched the 1980’s series. But I have put aside childish things (1 Corinthians 13:11) and I must raise a warning flag that TMNT in its many iterations is steepled in Zen and Pagan ideologies and religion that we Christians are not to be involved with, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; you cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of devils.” (1 Corinthians 10:21). Eastern religions and their demonic doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1) are creeping into Christian homes via Yoga, television, and other methods of indoctrination. You have to understand that Buddhism, Hinduism, and eastern beliefs do not convert people as we Christians do with a public confession of affiliation to Jesus, promise to follow Him, and life change (giving up sins and pagan practices); eastern religions slowly seep into your life until slowly you adopt their beliefs little by little, and one day you wake brainwashed.
TMNT is a recruiting tool for eastern religions. I even read a fan of the Ninja Turtles loved Mikey so much he became a Buddhist when he grew up because the character had such an influence on him. So lest you think shows like these are harmless, think again. TMNT can be what Satan uses to seduce you away from devotion to Jesus, “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Amen.
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