How "Knowing" Ripped Christian Theology

The movie production "Knowing" directed by Australian Alex Proyas does to Christian theology what many audio enthusiasts often do to copyrighted material. Just as music CD's are often ripped from their original formats and stored in various other file formats, Proyas has ripped from the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Christian doctrines of Predestination, the Inspiration of Scripture, Biblical Prophecy, the doctrine of God's providential care through Angels, the Rapture, and the Apocalyptic doctrines of the Judgment on the earth and the doctrine of a New Earth, and Proyas cast them into a natural scientific mold, to make some money at the horendous cost of distorting the Christian message.

For Ezekiel's vision of the throne of God in heaven with archangels surrounding the throne, Proyas recasts the original majestic Biblical vision into his script of a prophecy of the sun throwing a solar flare of catastrophic proportions. In place of the angels who do God's bidding and care for human beings, he substitutes benevolent alien creatures of light who appear in human form whose mission is to select a new Adam and a new Eve from among human generations. In place of Biblical Prophecy and the Doctrine of Inspiration, Proyas has his alien beings dictating number sequences to gifted humans in order to predict dates, disasters, and their locations which occur over several decades on the earth, culminating in the cryptic "EE" which stand for "everyone else"'s destruction.

Proyas borrows from the Christian doctrine of Predestination to have his Aliens only allow "those who are chosen" to be saved from the destruction of the earth. For the rapture of the Church, Proyas uses a levitation scene sequence that lifts the "chosen ones" into an alien craft to escape the earth's destruction. For the New Testament prophecy of the judgment of the earth, Proyas calls for a solar flare that destroys everything by intense heat (2 Peter 3:11-13), and for the Doctrine of a new Adam, and of a new Earth, Proyas has his aliens depositing the chosen human couple in a new planet with the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-3) in the middle of it.

Having ripped what he needs from Christian Doctrine, Proyas leaves God out of the movie. He cannot include Creation, or Sin or Judgment of Wickedness. There is no Cross, no Atonement for sin as the basis of salvation. These are alien to the natural scientific world view. As atheists do, Proyas, speaking through his movie character John Koestler the college professor, played by Nicholas Cage, would rather believe in mythological alien beings and determinism instead of the existence of an all-wise Creator-God who cares for His creation but judges wickedness. In the movie, John Koestler's pastor-father knows what his scientist son does about the earth's impending catastrophe, but he knows it only in the language of traditional Christianity, and is impotent to do anything about it. A van bearing the name of Jesus is shown lost among the chaos of destruction engulfing the earth. Proyas wants to portray that the Aliens are the savior of mankind, not Jesus.

To be consistent with his naturalistic mindset, John Koestler should have declared, "All is lost! We are not chosen. We will all perish!" Instead, he declares that those who have died "are in a much better place." Much better place where? Atheism and scientific naturalism have no such place. The Aliens must have revealed to him such a better place, and this is confirmed by one of the "chosen" who says "I know". John Koestler didn't really believe in traditional Christianity and had to lie to his family about his kid being chosen by the Aliens. John Koestler knew something but Proyas gave him no time to tell about it. Proyas would have us trust those who are "in the know." It is blind faith that Proyas advocates! Faith in the myth of alien beings. You have to join a cult like Heaven's Gate whose members committed mass suicide to join the aliens and their UFO's to find out about Proyas' "better place" which is certainly not heaven.

If the gospel were copyrighted, Alex Proyas would be in serious trouble. But one, day, the Lord Jesus Christ will enforce the gospel, which includes a judgment on those who know the truth but refuse to act on it, and even distort or suppress it.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

(Romans 1:18-23)

Passing Laws Against Greed

For months, we have heard the speeches blaming the current economic mess on the greed of Wall Street and the lack of government oversight. During the fall presidential campaign, Senator John McCain vowed that, if elected, that he would "put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption, and unbridled greed that have caused a crisis on Wall Street." More recently, President Barack Obama said, "We learned this week that even as they petitioned for taxpayer assistance, Wall Street firms shamefully paid out nearly USD 20 billion in bonuses for 2008," Obama said in his radio address. "While I'm committed to doing what it takes to maintain the flow of credit, the American people will not excuse or tolerate such arrogance and greed. The road to recovery demands that we all act responsibly, from Main Street to Washington to Wall Street," he said.

Having identified the root cause of economic troubles, the government now proposes its strategy to put an end to the problem of greed and corruption in Wall Street. The government's strategy is to pass more legislation and punitively tax those who have been greedy. Congress has passed a law to tax AIG executives who received bonuses from bail out money up to 90%. This should send a warning to Wall Street executives to curb their avarice.

Will it work? Will the fear of taxation finally bring about a transformation of the human heart, and promote an altruistic society with its citizens concerned for the common good? Will new laws regulating companies and with brilliant overseers who themselves found ways to circumvent tax laws, finally put an end to cheating on our taxes? (It takes a cheat to catch a cheat.) Will the president lead the way towards ending class warfare and not only eradicate greed but also envy? Will the people look to the government more and more to fulfill their egalitarian visions?

Greed and envy are deeply rooted in the human heart. Nothing less than a radical transformation, a new heart, is needed, and it must happen one individual at a time. The government is impotent to change the human heart. Law can never transform the human heart, and all the government can do is pass laws. The gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ is the only transforming power that can give an individual a new heart and eradicate greed and envy, and the Church is the bearer of this message.

However, the government promotes hostility towards the Church by advocating values in opposition to the gospel, such as when it advocates abortion and the destruction of embryos over the sanctity of human life. It promotes hostility to the Church by prohibiting the teaching of alternative views to Darwin's evolutionary theory, by promoting same sex marriage, and by arrogating unto itself messianic roles. Even now, the government is contemplating more hostility and punitive taxation even against the Church by possibly eliminating the Charitable Income Tax Deduction.

The government is not friendly to the gospel of Jesus Christ, man's only real hope against greed and envy.

And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'"

(Luke 12:15-20)

Spiritual Warfare

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."

(Ephesians 6:10-20)

The Ultimate Bailout

The inspiration for this post comes from my wife who pointed out the ultimate bailout.

In these times, the U.S. government is trying its best to bailout with money those banks that are in over their heads in insolvent investments. The Federal government is also attempting to bailout the automobile industry in order to prevent a vicious spiral that could lead to accelerating unemployment and ever deepening recession. Furthermore, the Obama administration believes it can stimulate growth in the economy by providing individuals with tax credits and various economic incentives while nationalizing health care and increasing welfare programs at the same time. All of these attempts come at a steep price. Other segments of the U.S. population will be taxed at a higher rate. There will be inflation, and more borrowing from foreign governments such as China. The U.S. government will spend more than its income, as it has been doing. This is known as deficit spending, and is several times greater under Obama than previous administrations. "His budget plan projects a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion for 2009, or 12.3% of the gross domestic product, a level not seen since 1942 as the U.S. plunged into World War II..," reports the Wall Street Journal. The government itself is in over its head.

All of mankind is in over its head. No matter what our race or nationality, or age or sex, we are morally and spiritually bankrupt in God's standards. Some of us don't even acknowledge that God exists, even though we continue to enjoy life and the fruits of the earth which God created. We have lived our lives in competition with others, striving to fulfill man's expectations, or political ambition, or cultural mandates, while keeping from violating government laws and regulations, never caring if we are pleasing God, the giver of our life and our liberties. We are totally unable to repay God for our errors and omissions because we have nothing with which to pay Him with that He doesn't already own. Yet God has provided the ultimate bailout for our sin.

God provided the bailout at a steep price, and it wasn't at the cost of others. He provided the payment that His own justice demanded at His own cost. He sacrficed His own Son Jesus Christ who never sinned, so that the death that Christ died served as payment for the sin of man. This is the ultimate bailout. We have been redeemed from our sins so that we may have a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

(2 Corinthians 5:21)