It stands to reason that people who don’t believe in the philosophy of the Bible will make their movies based on their own philosophy. Movies that make money are those that agree with the current cultural trend. The idea of Evolution and its tendency to believe that mankind is on the way toward becoming more God-like in ability and power, and that science is putting mankind on the road to a more eternal existence, is a part of American culture. Which is the source of most movies. One can live with it and enjoy their movies anyway. Or one can do like “Beginning and Endâ€. Watch the movie and complain about the obvious.
There are Christian Fundamentalists who believe we should have nothing to do with the world. The Amish take that idea to it’s logical conclusion.
Would Jesus have gone to the Movies. Hard to say. He associated with the common people. Today, the common people go to movies. But he was also someone sent by God with a mission. Would he have even had time to indulge himself in such a recreation? Did the Jews have such recreations? From what the Bible says, apparently not. But according to historians, the Romans did. They didn’t just kill people in the arena. They picked up the idea of theatre from the Greeks. Would Paul be a better example? Not really. He too was a man with a mission. However, since he said that he became all things to all people in order to save some, if he thought it would serve his purpose, he no doubt would have gone to movies.
Movies are a recreation. We must each decide if that’s the kind of recreation we wish to indulge ourselves in.
I just got through watching the Movie “Surrogate†with Bruce Willis on DVD. It’s a great movie that has a happy ending in my opinion. The idea is a lot like the Matrix. But without all of the special effects. So rather than being a long drawn out Trilogy, its less than a hour and a half long. Was it based on Biblical ideas? Hardly. Should I have not watched it on that account? I guess it depends on what kind of person I am. If I’m a Fundamentalist, no way. If I’m like “Beginning and Endâ€, I should watch it so I can say how “unbiblical†it is. If I’m fearful that any movie I watch is going to affect my brain by osmosis, it’s best I don’t watch if it’s not made by believers with a Biblical philosophy.
If I realize that movies are what they are and realize that watching a movie of a certain kind isn’t going to result my being affected by fleshly ideas or actions (I won’t watch movies that contain a lot of pornography, like naked people and blatant sexual encounters), I watch the movie and only be affected positively by that which agrees with my own personal philosophy. If it agrees more than disagrees, I enjoy the movie. If it disagrees more than agrees, I don’t. I keep it that simple.
Surrogate, for example, is based on the idea that our humanity is better than any kind of synthetic humanity we can come up with. And the idea that an attempt to become God’s synthetically, even if through fear to protect ourselves from the violence of the world, makes us lose our humanity rather than makes us more God-like. Living through a surrogate makes us seem more perfect than we really are. We become less, not more in the process. That agrees with my philosophy and I enjoyed the movie.
I can’t comment on any of the X-men movies because I haven’t watched them. But the principle is the same.
Complaining about movies made by non-believers being non-Biblical in philosophy is the recreation of the complainers and those who agree with them.
Those who are new in the faith, who walk by the Spirit, and realize the nature of movies through the Spirit, are unaffected by their content. Those who are older in the faith, who walk by the Spirit, and realize the nature of movies, are unaffected by their content. Because those who walk by the Spirit will discern which movies to watch and which not to watch.
The rest, who won’t or can’t walk by the Spirit, need to be encouraged to walk by the Spirit, so they won’t be seduced by the dark side. Whether it be the world, the flesh, or the devil. Whether in the fictional realm of movies and television, or more importantly, in everyday life.
FC
