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The Bridge on the River Kwai

Carrying Water for the Enemy

You’re on the Bridge on the River Kwai. Remember the classic WWII movie about the persistent British Colonel who stood for the Geneva Convention, the rule of law, against the Japanese POW Camp Commandant who tortured him but ended up giving in to his consistent stand? A story about a victory for standing for the rule of law, but there’s a twist. After that victory, the British Colonel loses sight of the big picture – the Japanese Army is his nation’s enemy. As POWs, his men work on the bridge over the River Kwai, which will Continue reading “The Bridge on the River Kwai”

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Avatar – post 1

Don’t focus on the obvious bait for conservatives in Avatar

The danger in discussing Avatar is to concentrate on the negatives, political, religious, military justice. There are so many. While I’d like to touch on some of those things, lest people think I endorse all of the movie’s messages, I want to concentrate on that which comes through sometimes unintentionally, sometimes subtly, and which can teach us about living biblically. I’d like to get the negative out of the way by the following basic statements and questions.

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Inception – post 3

Inception’s Maul, Cobb’s Deceased Wife

You can download the pdf of the paper on:  Inception

There is more to the difference between Maul (spelled phonetically). After Cobb taught her to doubt her reality, Maul had no standard for distinguishing between God’s reality and the dream world. She was a post-modernist or, at least, a nihilist. Her decision to go back to the limbo world – accomplished by suicide – is apparently based on pure desire. There, she had her husband to herself, and they built and lived without any interference from others. It was a selfish world, built around her love that was so possessive and possessed. Because she has no standard to compare this world with (like the thimble top), she cannot distinguish between real and unreal. So, we without the bible, cannot distinguish between the real and the unreal. Our modern problem has never been lack of information; it’s been too much.

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Thor

Thor

The movie, Thor, is, of course, Marvel Comics’ version of the mythological character from Norse mythology.  But there are a couple of important points made in the movie.  The character Thor represents several different biblical principles.

Like humanity rejected from the Garden, he doesn’t obey his father (Gen. 3:12), he’s ejected from Paradise & kingship (Gen. 3:22-4), & he faces humiliation & capture by mankind (Matt. 26:57-27:14).

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The Matrix – Post 8

The Matrix – Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith, the agent for the Machine, software that can enter and leave any other software in the Matrix. He is one of three agents we see, and they are all something other than human in their actions and speech. Particularly revealing is Neo’s experience in the interrogation room, before he knows what is going on. Mr. Smith comes across as a professional, unemotional law enforcement officer, but he also comes across as something else. The 3 agents are a demonic trinity, and Mr. Smith is in charge.

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The Matrix – Post 7

The Matrix – The Calling, that is, Election

In the Matrix, Trinity sets up a meeting with Neo (hacker name; his real name is Thomas Anderson), a meeting he doesn’t even know he’s attending. They meet in a place that can be described as a den of iniquity, sin and uncleanness.

In their introduction to each other, she meets him and says, “Hello, Neo.” He asks, “How do you know that name?” She answers: “I know alot about you.” When she tells him her name, he asks, “The Trinity? that cracked the IRS D-base?” She says, “That was a long time ago.” He says, “Jesus!” She says, “What?”

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The Matrix – post 6

The Matrix – Morpheus = John the Baptist

Morpheus is an obvious John the Baptist type, in that the Oracle reveals that he would find “the One,” he taught many others about “the truth,” and he gives his life for the sake of the One. At least, he thinks he is giving his life. In the end, the One shows his preeminence by saving Morpheus.

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The Matrix – Post 5

The Matrix – Neo

Even though Neo begins like someone having his eyes opened to the reality that the world is, like a Christian being born again, the movie portrays Neo becoming an obvious Christ figure. To simplify, he dies, rises again, and thereby lives in total control of the Matrix, unable to be defeated by the Agents of the Machine but able to decode and devour them from the inside out. But if it were that simple, the movie would not be genius, and it is genius.

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The Matrix – Post 4 – Gnosticism?

Is there Gnosticism in The Matrix?

Some might argue that this movie represents a gnostic form of Christianity. Gnosticism was a Christian heresy strongly condemned by the Apostle John in I John. The physical world, its attractions, its temptations, were for the gnostic repulsive; he wanted to escape from the physical world. Before death, how does one do that? Gnostics believed in knowledge as salvation. Knowledge is not the key to salvation, but it is a part. The knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of the need one has for a savior, the knowledge of God’s power to save and His authority to forgive, etc. All this knowledge is key to our faith and our salvation. Gnosticism was different. Gnosticism held to an idea that if we just realized that what we’re living in is not real, then we will live above “the real.”  The gnostics sometimes even denied that Christ died or that he had lived in a human body; he just appeared as a specter and seemed to live in a body. And he didn’t really die; he just moved on to the spiritual world to which he belonged. All rank falsehoods that completely undermine the Christian faith. In the movie, Morpheus speaks of “the desert of the real,” and Neo is told by a child who can bend spoons with his mind to try to believe the truth, that there is no spoon.

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The Matrix – Post 3

The Matrix – Caveats

Having made some glowing statements about this movie, I have to add some caveats. First, there is a dearth of explicit reference to sin or anything comparable. Normally, I wouldn’t demand a movie present each aspect of orthodox theology, but The Matrix follows that theology so closely, it seemed important to me that something so important not be left out.  Otherwise, one could interpret this movie as some sort of gnostic presentation, which it may have been intended to be.  I do not know.

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