Latest / Passing On The Faith / Worldviews at the Movies - The Tattooed Jesus Chapter 10

Transcript

Worldviews at the Movies - The Tattooed Jesus Chapter 10 · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The reader should tremble to discover that there is a God who is real, and who is far more to be feared than some deranged serial killer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: This god killed billions of people and animals with a worldwide flood in an act of dreadful judgment on a world of serial killer.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is a god who sends people to hell forever.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's something worth writing about.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: At root, the horror genre waters down our sensitivity to the real reality, the real horror, the true horror.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: The horror every week, worldviews at the movies.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter ten Worldviews at the movie The demons love the abominations of the stage, which chastity does not love.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: They love in the sorceries of the magicians a thousand arts of inflicting harm, which innocence does not love.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yet both chastity and innocence, if they wish to obtain anything from the gods, will not be able to do so by their own merits, except their enemies act as mediators on their behalf.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: To ignore the influence of film and television in the war of ideas in the Western world would be akin to ignoring the influence of mosques and madrasas upon Saudi Arabia.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: The influence is obvious.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the conversations in the youth groups of a typical evangelical church, and you will soon learn that the average youth retains more from Saturday night's blockbuster film than he did from the Sunday morning sermon.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Given that the visual medium can be greatly influential and dangerous in the hands of wicked men, it is understandable that some Christians would call into question the morality of the whole field of dramatic arts, theater, and film.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they should be concerned when the majority of Hollywood directors are professedly non-Christian or anti-Christian.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Of the 25 most influential Hollywood directors, 78% are avowed atheists, and lapsed Christians, 16% are Catholic, and 8% are liberal Protestant.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: When perversions, false worldviews, and idolatry predominate in a society, Christians are more tempted to dispense of all visual metaphor, sculpture, art, etc.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: This, however, is not biblical.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: First, because, quote, all things are lawful but not all things are expedient, unquote.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Also remember that Solomon's temple was beautifully decorated with carvings of pomegranates, oxen, lions, cherubim, and palm trees.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: If the Old Testament allowed for liberty in these matters, it certainly follows that the New Testament would not further curtail liberty.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Although God's word does command and commend certain art forms, we still should be careful not to overly accentuate their importance.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The modern church leader or layperson places considerable emphasis on music and the visual medium, certainly more of an emphasis than Peter and Paul encouraged in the first century.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Music ministry was not a major focus in the early church.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: The visual medium and music both carry an intensely emotional impact and therefore manipulate the unsanctified mind and heart.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, immature Christians will want to place too much weight on this media.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: For example, many hoped that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ would send a sweeping evangelical reformation across the known world.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: It did not.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are multiple reasons for this, but the key lessons for Christians is found in Romans 10, verse 14.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The preaching of the word is God's assigned means for the conversion of souls.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: However, strongly Christian producers may want to believe that films play a seminal role in establishing a person's adherence to the truth, the gospel, or the Christian worldview, this simply cannot be the case.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: While films can strengthen an emotional commitment to a preconceived worldview, it is not the primary means whereby a person is convinced and committed to that worldview, at least for the Christian.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It may be hard to believe that Pastor Joe's sermon down at Timbuktu Bible Church can compete with Mel Gibson's latest blockbuster or the top 40 hot hits or big-time radio show, yet that is the way God has ordained it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Unquote.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Nonetheless, the prophets would use their dramatic visual medium to convey prophetic warnings of judgment, and this should guide our thinking on the use of it.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Isaiah walked naked and barefoot for three years, Isaiah 20, verses 3 through 4.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel acted like an exile, Ezekiel 12, verses 3 through 6.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: He shaved his beard and burned part of it, Ezekiel 5, verses 1 through 3, and he built a model city and burned human dung.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 4, verses 1 through 12.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: This all fits into the category of dramatic theatre.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But the theme of these productions was not redemption, and their objective was not entertainment.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, they were metaphors of judgment.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most effective films are those that speak of the inevitable judgment that will come upon the wicked.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Conversely, many modern Christians would prefer to use the medium for the redemptive message over against these prophetic warnings.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Too many Christian movie reviews are just too shallow.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Counting cuss words and sex scenes may have some value, encouraging a few Christians to dismiss the film entirely.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: However, we cannot stop here.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I fear that many believers enter the theater and the world of media as babes in the woods, as children entering a nuclear war zone armed with little pellet guns.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: They have no idea what is happening to them because they are not prepared to interpret the story on multiple levels.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: When a movie production house spends$100 million on a film, the movie will generally involve a multi-layered story and will use the brightest minds in the world to direct the production.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: If the majority of Hollywood producers are atheists and lapsed Christians, by their own profession, you would expect them to lead a Christian apostasy.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: This will be their trajectory.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: From the outset, then, Christians must be on their guard, careful, and discerning.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: In this chapter, I want to present a method by which to analyze films from various angles and on different levels.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some Christians have adopted the misconception that what is expertly presented is always good artistic expression.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: This error underlies much of the Christian liberal arts program in our day.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow they forget that the devil is a smooth liar, and he can package his ideas well.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: They ignore the symbiotic close weaving of the method and the message, and they come to accept the message because they are so enamored by the presentation.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: When visiting Athens, Paul was taken aback by the sheer number of idols displayed in the city.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Though he may have been impressed with the expert carvings done by the Athenian idol designers, he was still certain that they were grotesque idols representing false ideas and abhorrent religions.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: In every film or book review, most people want to know if the movie is worth watching or if the literature is worth reading.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: These are important considerations, but the purpose of this book is not to provide specific recommendations for each and every family, rather, I will provide a list of analytical devices by which Christian families may judge whether films are worth watching.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Suffice it to say for now that if the film is flawed on fundamental and multiple levels, Christians should be careful not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Zeitgeist.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before the Christian enters the theater, he should first be aware of the Zeitgeist itself.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is the German word for spirit of the age.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: There is, as we have pointed out, a major cultural river that defines modern life, and we should be very well aware of it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: What is the overall direction of mass culture?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: When tribes and nations were small and power was heavily decentralized, there were thousands of general cultural trends that made up various Christian and non-Christian territories.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the modern world where technology has homogenized nations and whole civilizations, the Zeitgeist has a more universal character to it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Christians who are unaware of the Zeitgeist are easily caught up into it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Recently, a major evangelical cultural editor for an online magazine told the world he was a quote, huge Game of Thrones fan, unquote.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: At last count, the television series contained 71 scenes of nudity, some of which were explicit, violent, and gratuitous rape scenes.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: The series was extremely popular in the later 2010s.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Over seven seasons, Game of Thrones garnered over 200 awards.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was the most awarded television program in the history of the Emmy Awards.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: The worldview of the program is clearly conveyed in the dialogue.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Quote: Chaos isn't a pit.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Chaos is a ladder.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: The fall breaks them, and some are given a chance to climb, they refuse.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: They cling to the realm or the gods or love illusions.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Only the ladder is real.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: The climb is all there is.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another hero in the story helps to inform the worldview of Westeros.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there is only one thing we say to death, not today.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: People resonate to these brave words, which so characterize the modern worldview, in vehement rebellion against God.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is Nietzsche's nihilism.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is the application of the senseless will to power in a senseless, chaotic universe.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: The film is true to this worldview.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: They kill off their main characters.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Modern man delights in these words, with which he very much resonates.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: They revel in their hopelessness.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: To be hopeful in the resurrection of Christ is anathema to a world that has turned away from Christ.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Zeitgeist in the post-Christian apostate world.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the age is still moral decadence, but it is crossing over into full-blown nihilism.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the cultural systems are admitting that there is no purpose and no meaning in life.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: The year 2018 marked another new low for American television and media.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: The film The Shape of Water introduced a romantic and positive view of cross-species fornication, bestiality, and earned two Oscars at the National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Three billboards brought postmodern deconstruction and despair to a Heartland town, earning seven awards for its 100-plus uses of the F-word.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Small Town America is pictured in the film as full of drunk, backward, angry, and generally irredeemable people.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Modern society has almost completed its step over the line of despair into all-out nihilism.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: The first level of analysis takes on the genre itself.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Christian should be aware of the purpose, the theory of reality, or the meta-narrative surrounding the genre in which the story takes place.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Take, for example, the horror genre, very popular in the theater today.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the horror film is to elicit dread and fear in the presence of evil.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the very quote-unquote best horror films will convince the audience of the ultimate sovereignty of evil.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: In such films, the evil is not vanquished and cannot be vanquished.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the 12 episodes of Friday the 13th, Jason simply cannot die.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: He comes back to life again and again to murder anybody in his path.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Freddie Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street returns to the dream world nine times for murder and mayhem.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow, this disembodied spirit is able to reach from the dream world into the real world to kill without restraint.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the six films produced by the Child's Play series, the disembodied spirit of a serial killer inhabits a doll called Chucky and continues his evil work.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, soon to be 16 films, features the sheriff of the town in cahoots with a murderous family, and almost nobody escapes their bloody work.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then the highly successful Paranormal Activity series clearly attributes unlimited power and control to demons, allowing for no hope whatsoever through Christian exorcism.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: These movies are meant to be even more frightening than the original supernatural horror film, The Exorcist, in which a demon takes the upper hand over the Roman Catholic Sons of Skiva Department of Exorcists, Acts 19, 14, thus evil gradually becomes omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent in the minds of those who participate.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: As the communicant in the theater submits himself to the power of this evil, he responds in appropriate fear.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Herein lies the danger of the genre.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: What you fear is what you worship, and who you fear is fundamental to the biblical definition of wisdom.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 1, verse 7.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: The horror genre is especially problematic because the object of fear is something besides God.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 29, verse 25.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: The ultimate horror of the horror film is what it does to the hearts of those who play with it.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: If God is not sovereign over the evil actions of men and demons, then evil is sovereign.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, all things do not work together for good by the sovereign will of God.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: By the rationale of these stories, God's right to define good and evil is forfeited.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the distinction between good and evil fades.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last decade, Christians have attempted to produce books and movies in the horror genre as well.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: By disallowing a Christian view of reality where God is sovereign over the free actions of men, they unwittingly leave room for the sovereignty of evil and fall into the same trap as the secular movie makers.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: According to the rules of the horror genre, we are supposed to get chills up the spine when we read about some fellow taking a craftsman drill to somebody's foot, as in Ted Decker's The Bride Collector.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, as a Christian writes a story, the reader should tremble to discover that there is a God who is real, and who is far more to be feared than some deranged serial killer.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: This god killed billions of people and animals with a worldwide flood in an act of dreadful judgment on a world of serial killers.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a god who sends people to hell forever.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's something worth writing about.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: At root, the horror genre waters down our sensitivity to the real reality, the real horror, the true horror.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: The horror of sin.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: The horror of the cross and the overwhelming victory achieved over evil.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: The metaphysical level.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Every story writer and film producer holds to some worldview.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: He will commit to that worldview with varying levels of consistency, since consistency is one thing human beings do not do well.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Natural man knows the truth of God and suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, according to the Apostle Paul, Romans 1, verse 18.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: This does not mean that all movies produced by unbelievers contain zero shades of Christian truth at all.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, there are still vestiges of a thousand years of Christian thinking that seep out of the pores of the Western mind and into artistic expression.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Hollywood is no exception to the rule as the Christian worldview fades to black.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, a film's theory of reality, technically referred to as the metaphysic, is revealed by the guru or hero of the story at some point in the movie.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is not hard to find it if you are listening or watching for it.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: The metaphysic of the story is significant because it provides a foundation for everything else taught in the film.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you find that the filmmakers have gotten the metaphysic wrong, then you will find hardly anything positive to say about the film, just as a Christian believer would not have anything commendable to say about the Islam or Hindu worldview, for example.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Six out of seven of the biggest box office blockbusters of all time are categorized in either the science fiction or superhero genre.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Star Wars franchise holds two positions in the list.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: In this culture-defining film series, Obi-Wan, the Jedi Guru, reveals his understanding of the nature of the universe when he says, quote, the force is what gives a Jedi his power.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's an energy field created by all living things.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It surrounds us and penetrates us.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It binds the galaxy together, unquote.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Later he explains that the evil Darth Vader was, quote, seduced by the dark side of the force, unquote.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thus we find here the monist metaphysic, in which a single force distributes power to all without distinction.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: This force is confined to the universe, created by the universe itself, and is not to be found outside of it.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thus the story writers make no distinction between the creator and the creature.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Christian worldview differs sharply from the world.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is construed by the first ten words of Genesis.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, unquote.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1, verse 1.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: The most successful of the films belonging to the$1.5 billion Superman franchise was released in 2013.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Man of Steel.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Of the six releases, this episode provided one of the most explicit statements concerning the metaphysic underlying Superman.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: The film offers extensive coverage of Superman's origins in Krypton.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Though raised by farm parents in Kansas, Superman is the progeny of a dying civilization on the planet Krypton.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: There are two basic metaphysical perspectives that play against each other in the film, with one intended to secure ascendance over the other in the mind of the viewer.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: First, what I'll call the Kansas view is offered when young Superman asks his adopted father why God would do such and such.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: His father ignores the question.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is the antiquated and unfashionable Christian worldview concerning some god who used to exist and was supposed to have been in control of the created realm.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mention of God's providence is offered by a dumpy, ignorant farmwoman who also happens to be the mother of the school bully.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Memories concerning the old Christian order are still there, but fast fading.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Among the most obvious and ubiquitous signals of apostasy found in most films today are the loose references to God and his judgments, using words such as hell, damn, and oh my God.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes sense that this film's Kansas metaphysic recognizes God by way of profanity, because that is what Western apostate nations do.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: They know about God and they are in process of rejecting him.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are seriously embittered against the Christian God and use every opportunity to insult his name.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Set against the Kansas worldview is the Krypton metaphysic, which isn't new to the people of the earth, by the way.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Certain characters in the story strongly advocate for the Krypton metaphysic, which perpetuates the view that man, or the creature, is in control of his own destiny.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: There can be no ultimately sovereign God in this picture, however, not all are agreed upon which man or men or institution must control reality.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Superman's sage, Kryptonite Father, explains that all babies born on Krypton have been programmed by the state to fulfill a role for the state.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is statist determination.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: The alternate solution presented in this story is self-determination.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: We learn early on that Superman's role is to self-determine his own future on Earth.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: His natural father, Jarell, explains the purpose for sending his newborn son to Earth.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, every person can be a force for good, free to forge his own destiny.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is very different from the Christian view of reality and redemption.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we may recognize this to be the very essence of the humanist manifesto 1, 1933.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: As the story progresses, it should be obvious which theory will win.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Even Superman's Kansas father finally affirms the existentialist worldview when he tells his son, quote, you're not just anyone.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: One day you're going to have to make a choice.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever that man is, good character or bad, it's going to change the world.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Unquote.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Also, Superman's name is Kalel, which is remarkably similar to the Hebrew word for voice of God.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: If the descendants of Krypton are considered gods, then we are back to the polytheism of the Mormons or the pagan world.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jurell also tells his wife that Superman will be, quote, a god to the inhabitants of the earth, unquote.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is reminiscent of the ancient Greek gods.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: In true form to the old pagan metaphysical perspective, Jurell lends hope that one day the other members of the human race may achieve this god status when he says, quote, you will give the people an ideal to strive towards.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: But in time they will join you in the sun.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: In time, you will help them accomplish wonders, unquote.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some wish to view Superman as a Christ figure, and the conversation between the priest and Man of Steel takes place while Superman stands in front of a picture of Christ.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does this salvage the film for the Christian audience?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Zealous defenders of Hollywood films also like to point out the redemptive elements to the story.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: However, every world religion realizes a problem with the world and then offers a redemptive scheme.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Too many Christians naively point to these dubious connections without thinking twice about the worldview foundations which underlies the entire story.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: After all, didn't Jesus Christ warn that pseudo-Christs would present themselves in the last days?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: If this Christ has the wrong message, the wrong worldview, the wrong nature, the wrong derivation, and the wrong salvation, can we conclude that he may be the wrong Christ?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: A false Christ.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Mark 13, verse 22.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: At one time, Christians would think of a false Christ as presenting a false religion.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why should Hollywood get a pass on this?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Postmodern films increasingly celebrate the meaninglessness of life.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: In the Academy Award-winning film, No Country for Old Men, 2007, the serial killer is a nihilist who flips a coin to determine the fate of his victims.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: He gets away with his crimes in the end.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: There Must Be Blood, 2007, was another major Academy Award winner and best film of the decade on various lists, in which another murderer gets away with his crime and the Christian faith is presented as empty and powerless against the bleakness of postmodern nihilism.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Another recent film, The Grey, 2011, presents the hero bravely fighting nature, a pack of wolves.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout the film, there is a little discussion among the protagonists about the existence of God or the effectiveness of prayer.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: All of this is thrown out of the window towards the end of the film.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: As the hero, Ottaway, takes on the wolves for the last time, he screams, quote, forget faith, prove yourself, once more into the fray, into the last good fight I'll ever know.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lion King, 1994, was the most popular children's movie and animated film of all time, grossing almost one billion dollars in worldwide box office receipts.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: The metaphysic of this movie was not hard to miss when the erudite Mefasa tells young Simba, quote, everything you see exists together in a delicate balance.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eats the grass, and so we are all connected in the great circle of life.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a monist worldview.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: All humans, animals, and inanimate objects make up a single whole.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is no difference between the creator and the creature, and there is no afterlife for man.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: This theory became the basis for the powerful modern environmentalist movement and for the earth worship cult.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Many Christian families do not see how a movie like this can be harmful, even though the worldview of the youth is rapidly changing from Christian to pagan.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: According to a recent survey, millennials are almost three times more likely to believe in a universal spiritual force and participate in yoga as a spiritual practice than the silent generation.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Metaphysical analysis of the Giver.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Capturing brave reviews from the Christian film rating organizations, the 2014 release, The Giver, attracted a strong conservative Christian audience.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the complete absence of profanity and intimate scenes seemed to make for a movie worth recommending in the minds of many Christians.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Twice the film features a family singing the Christmas carol, Silent Night, for a few brief seconds.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: These are only ever-so slight nods to a Christian heritage residing somewhere in the dim past.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: But what does it matter if the film avoids profanity while maintaining an underlying worldview that counters Christ?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed while viewing the film that the worldview would surface via particularly poignant statements in the dialogue.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Such statements require long and careful reflection, but the average person is not going to stop the film and reflect upon the worldview communicated through the words just spoken.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: As I would think upon some of the more important dialogue, I noticed that I began to miss subsequent scenes.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: These worldviews are not immediately understood or countered in the minds of the viewers.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Still, they must seep into the consciousness.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Based on a book for youth, the giver is a futuristic tale of a highly regulated, highly structured, totalitarian world that intends to rid the world of evil by chemical injections and status regulation.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Evil is blamed on human emotion and wrong environmental influence, versus sin against the law of God.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: The film rightly condemns the draconian, family disintegrating, platonic state where no parent shall know his child and no child shall know his parent.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: The state educates, assigns children to homes, determines each person's calling, cares for the elderly, and aborts and euthanizes at will.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: There are no true families, no family economies, and no free enterprise.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: For many of us, it is eerily familiar to what we find in the modern secular state.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: At one point in the story, the proto-antagonist gets it right when she says, quote, man always makes the wrong choice, unquote.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: She forgets, however, that she is of the same human race, even as she represents the state.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: She is part of the problem, and therefore cannot provide the solution.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Two forms of salvation are presented in the film, both of which do not properly address man's basic problem or the necessary transcendent, God sourced.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, the antagonists offer an ineffectual salvation by the state, so the hero presents another salvation plan by the restoration of human emotion.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: When one character in the film kills a baby via a clinical procedure, the murder is rightly presented as a shocking, dastardly action.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: However, we must ask the all-important question why, why is this immoral?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: As the screenwriter explains it to us, the restriction placed on human emotions rendered the man incapable of loving the child.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Consequently, the murder is blamed upon the statist programming.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the same human emotion that can bring about a phileo love can produce selfishness, hatred, and murder.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: The author forgets to inform us of this small catch.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Merely restoring a man's emotions and free will cannot save him.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of the film, the bottom line message comes across loud and clear.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: A world filled with love and hate, hugs and murder, and polytheism is better than a world without emotion.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: While a secular audience may accept that, Christians are horrified by these equally evil alternatives.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: The ungodly cannot find a middle way between the unity and the particulars.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: They will forever revert between statist autonomy and personal autonomy, as the only possible salvation scheme for man.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nonetheless, we can be sure that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save us from the horns of this dilemma.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a production of the Generations Media Network.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: For more information, go to generations.org slash media.