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| WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM EVAN ALMIGHTY |
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Have you seen Steve Carrell’s movie yet? As a movie, it’s clichéd, feel-good, slightly humorous, and one our family could watch together with only one instance of “hope they didn’t hear that.” But as a depiction of “God,” the viewer has to be weary of a few things if they think Morgan Freeman represents the God of the Bible. Not to say that Christianity was what the producers had in mind, but rather, because I’ve heard of several churches using the movie to promote “mainstream” Christianity. For instance, there were advertisements for churches to buy bulk seating while it was in the theatres and the first preview presented was from the new VeggieTale movie, of which I’m extremely excited. If you saw it, can you point to some things that though acceptable to spiritualist should not be acceptable to Christianity? Here’s the first. In the movie, a book entitled Ark Building for Dummies, provides a narrative for the author, God, who has over six billion children. It is a common belief today, even within Christian circles, that everyone is a child of God. Is this what you believe? 3:9 No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. 3:10 By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.
The Holy Spirit is like an adoption agency that unites us with our Father (Rom 8:14-17) and we all know that nonchristians do not have the Spirit and therefore, are not children of God. The second misconception about God is based upon the first. Evan asks God, “You wouldn’t drown everyone , would you?” We remember from the first movie, Bruce Almighty, that “God” can’t force anyone to love him though he loves everyone equally. After all, if everyone is God’s child then what Father would ever send His child to eternal torment? An atheist came to our study last night and I used this analogy to explain the Biblical view of God’s dealings with His creation: if a child comes to my house and is not adopted by me and is unwilling to live by my rules, then I cannot discipline him as I would my own (Heb 12:5) but must instead escort him out of my home (as God did to Adam and Eve). If we are God’s children, we live by His rules, not ours. If we are not, then we live by our rules and not His. You can learn a lot from movies, but be careful what you hear. You just might be held accountable to it. |
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| To add a comment to "WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM EVAN ALMIGHTY" |
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| October 16, 2007 |
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The Muslims boycotted that movie with good reason. If those "heathens"
boycotted it for its unbiblical ideas and blasphemy against God
Almighty [no pun intended], what's that say about the Christians who embraced
the movie like it was another chapter of the Bible? James and I
remember KLOVE promoting that movie like it was the 2nd coming of The Lord,
everyone was calling in 'praising' the movie, and they had one person
call in, to draw attention to the unbiblical nature of much of the movie,
not to mention an evil unregenerate man playing the place of 'God',
and the caller was ignored and cut off from the air. How democratic, and
Christian, right? Destroy the dissenter, stone the prophet. That
movie had so many problems with it theologically...and of course, people
used it for 'bible study', you know the kind where a company takes the
latest fad and relates it back in to the Bible (eisegesis)?
So go for it Mike, use it as a springboard, correctly divide the Word
of Truth, and peel back the layers of 100 years of evangelical man
traditions and pet doctrines, they're so prevalent now that even Hollywood
knows them and seems to understand them. How can the unregenerate
understand the deep things of God? Perhaps it's not of God then.
Your Friend,
Joe |
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