Editor’s Note: Anne Rice died yesterday, December 12, 2021. This article was posted in 2008.

She’s right up there with the best of them. Anne Rice is a world-famous fiction writer with nearly 100 million copies of her 28 books in print. (1) The novels that catapulted her into the ‘famous’ author status revolve around vampires, demons and witches. Up until recently, by the author’s own admission her titles have been very dark.
  • Interview with the Vampire
  • Queen of the Damned
  • Vampire Chronicles
  • Vampire Lestat

Story Behind Her Dark Fiction

Recently Anne Rice has shed some light on her dark writings. No – she does not believe in vampires. She just knew how to make them seem real in her novels. As for the character of her books she says the darkness was her life. The vampire roaming through the night was her own lost soul going through the darkness of life without God.

As a young Roman Catholic girl, Anne was devout. In an interview with Dr. James Dobson recently she said of her childhood: “I believed very much in God – then I lost it.” At the age of eighteen she went off to university and in her own words she says:  “I bought the bill of goods – I accepted the reality there is NO God.” (2)

Religious Experiences

After almost 40 years as an outspoken atheist, in the 1990s Ms. Rice had a number of religious experiences that flooded her with memories of her childhood years as a devout Catholic. One that deeply impressed her was a ‘delirium’ she experienced when she stood before the giant statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro. (3)

The more she looked at life and saw the complexity of creation, the more convinced she became that God is, in fact very real. Contrary to existentialists and her fellow atheists, she once again accepted the reality of God.

Ms. Rice refers to two experiences. In 1998 she returned to the Catholic Church but then she explained to Dr. Dobson: “I think my born again moment was in 2002 when sitting in church…” when she decided to dedicate her writing talents to God and to write only about Christ. She said as a little girl: “I wanted to give everything to God.”(2)  Since 2002 she has authored: ‘Called Out of Darkness’ and ‘Christ the Lord’.

Email to Anne Rice

In an email, to the celebrated author, I told her I would like to share her experience with others. I asked her what the Lord Jesus meant to her. I also asked her what she was relying on to get to Heaven. Her reply worried me in light of what the Bible teaches.

“What I understand now is that God loves each and every one of us and seeks His moment with us, and that we have to seek Him and be open to Him.  I hope and pray to go to Heaven, but we Catholics never assume that we are going. We hope and we pray and we trust in the Divine Mercy of the Lord. It is our way. Trusting the Lord is key.  So many people don’t trust the Lord.  They assume somehow He is going to send someone to Hell by mistake.  I don’t think such is possible.  The Lord knows all hearts and all souls, and will never send a good person to Hell by mistake. Take care, Anne.”

Bible Says You Can Be Sure

I assured her the Bible says you can know for sure you are a possessor of eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

Christians Owe Everything to Jesus Christ

As for a Christian’s new appreciation of Christ they never had before here are two examples: when the Apostle Paul had the 180° change in his life he wrote in glowing terms of his love for the Saviour of sinners: “The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. The Apostle Peter wrote of the ‘precious blood of Christ’ that redeemed him from his sins. Their changed lifestyles did not produce their salvation. It was vice versa.

God Won’t Make a Mistake

Getting to Heaven has nothing to do with the impossibility of God making a mistake by sending a good person to Hell. The mistake is people thinking they can become good by making a 180 degree turnaround in their life. Renewing our belief in God or returning to the church of our childhood saves no one. Ceasing to write dark things does not make a person good or even better. The Bible clearly says we are sinners to the core. There is no one who is righteous or good by nature. (Romans 3:10, 12)

We Can’t Save or Redeem Ourselves

Personal salvation is not achieved by making a 180° change in our lifestyle. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it very clear that our works have nothing to do with our obtaining salvation. By grace, a person is saved, through faith. It is not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not by our own works lest anyone of us should boast.

Believing that God will do the Right Thing is not Enough

Trusting in the Divine mercy of the Lord that He will always do what is good – will not take a person to Heaven. Salvation only comes through one’s acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

‘Hoping’ to Get to Heaven is a tragically Flawed Plan

A genuine Christian does not continually pray for divine mercy to get to Heaven. A Christian is settled – knowing that Christ died for their sins. The moment they trusted Him as their Saviour they became the possessor of eternal life. Multiple Bible verses teach this and Jesus said there is no other way. John 10:9, John 14:6.

Hoping and Praying will Only Leave a Person with Fear

In March 2008 Time published Anne Rice’s answers to ten questions people asked her. When asked what now frightens her she answered:

I can’t say that there is anything specific that frightens me except these questions as to whether life has meaning and whether God is really with us. My worst fear is that the world is meaningless and I’m deluded—that I won’t ever see people that I have lost again, my daughter who died when she was a little girl and my husband who died in 2002. I think all Christians face that fear. (4)

You Either Have Eternal Life or You Don’t. The Bible says:

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

He who has the Son has the life;

he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,

so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1John 5:11-13

What do you have for eternity?

 

________________________________________________________________________________

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_rice

(2) Focus on the Family, October 2008:  http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001547.cfm

(3) Time. Com, October 08, 2008, Anne Rice’s Spiritual Confessions, http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1848149,00.html

(4) Time.com, March, 2008, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1720092-1,00.html

Pictures:

Anne Rice: http://www.lifeasachristianwoman.com/answer-religious-questions-for-anne-rice/

The Complete Vampire Chronicles: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Vampire-Chronicles-Interview-Lestat/dp/0345385403

Translate