It was my original intent to write a review of this film, but time has passed and I'm not sure I would sy anything that has not already been said by people who can say it far better than I. So instead of reviewing the film, which I enjoyed, I want to share some mental meanderings that are closely connected to it. These have been born out of conversations I have had regarding the film.
I guess my biggest question is that I wonder how people who did not read the books reacted to the film, but more importantly, I think my question should be, how do those who do not know the Gospel, respond to the Narnia stories and the film.
You see, when I saw the film, I reacted to particular points emotionally, just as I did when I read the books. As I was watching the movie, I could sense two different sources for that kind of reaction.
The first source was connecting what I was watching to the story I had read and loved not all that long ago (I did not read the books until my first year at Seminary at 26 years old), I remember specifically making the connections to the points in the story that I liked so well, and I was reacting with gladness or slight disappointment at how the movie stayed or strayed with the story written by C.S. Lewis.
But there was a deeper connection going on as well. Just as when I read the book for the first time, the story that Lewis tells is deeply connected to another story that lives within my very self, the accounts of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. This movie connects me to a much deeper and much broader narrative, and it is that narrative that gives me the love I have for these books and this movie.
And so, that being said, I have to wonder how others who do not have that other narrative inside them respond to these books and this film. The interactions I have had so far with those who did not like the books was precisely because they did not 'get it'. In fact, one woman said she could not follow the story at all and really hated it. She felt it did not make any sense at all. When the parallels to the Gospel were pointed out to her, she did a complete 180 on the spot, seeing the connections and having made them, said she needed to go back and read the books again.
I know I should expect that those who do not know about redemption should not be expected to 'see it' in these books and films - but I just can't get past thinking "How can they not see it?"
Interesting and wonderful to think how the work of the Holy Spirit extends past understanding of Scripture and Salvation and touches every part of our lives and how we view the world around us.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
A Great Deception
A fellow blogger pointed out this.
I'm going to quote part of his post:
I'm going to quote part of his post:
Ok guys, she looks pretty good, doesn't she? And how many of you woman wished you were built like this? Pretty impressive for a 14 year old. Too bad she's fake...
go to the site, then click the image and it will launch a flash viewer that walks you through the step by step process of how they digitally enhanced this young girl to make her look spectacular. Look at what they are changing, and ask yourself why.
What's the point here? This is what guys are demanding, what girls are aspiring to - and its a fiction. It's also a recipe for disaster. It destroys relationships, it belittles the image of God in all of us.
Shocking? It should be. The group who created this example is called GirlPower, and they're trying to illustrate where things are going in out culture. Yet where's the church in all this? It seems to me this is precisely the type of thing the gospel should be challenging in our culture, and I wonder if we could learn something from how GirlPower folks have gone about it...
Comments?
Thanks to Christian
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Birth and Death of Christmas
Before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago, the entire world was immersed in deep darkness. Only in Israel did the light dispel the darkness, but even there the light was dimmed by the traditions of men. With the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2.), the Light of the World (John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46.) dawned not only on those sitting in the darkness of Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-7.) but on the whole pagan world. (Colossians 1:6.)
The Old Testament looked forward to the hallowing presence of God extending throughout the whole world. There would come a new covenant, (Jeremiah 31:31ff.; Ezekiel 36:24ff.) and all of life would become sacred. Instead of the Levitical principle of the unclean defiling the clean, (Leviticus 7:19-21; Haggai 2:12-14.) a fountain for cleansing would be opened. (Zechariah 13:1.) From under the threshold of the temple, the river of God's presence would flow, deeper and wider as it went, transforming all before it. (Ezekiel 47:1-12.) What had been inscribed on the miter of the high priest (Exodus 28:36-38.) would now be inscribed on the bells of horses, and the work of mothers, toiling over meals, would now become as sacred as the work of the priests in the Temple. (Zechariah 14:20, 21.)
As the Apostles took the message of the Messiah to the Jews of the Diaspora, they had a point of contact in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Upon arrival in a pagan city, Paul sought out the gatherings of the Jews on their Sabbath. (Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2.) Then he would open the Scriptures and proclaim the good news of Jesus the Messiah (Acts 13:42; 18:4.). Many non-Jews, hungry for more than their pagan religions offered, assembled with the Jews and were won to the Messiah of Israel. (Acts 13:44.)
On those occasions when there was no Jewish point of contact, Paul sought out things within the pagan world that hinted that there was more to life than what the ancient gods offered them. Even though God had given the nations over to the demonic principalities and powers (Deuteronomy 4:19, 20;1 Corinthians 10:20; Galatians 4:8.), he had done so with his treasure, Israel, in view (Deuteronomy 32:8.) that in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4.) all nations might be blessed in the Seed of Abraham. (Galatians 3:13-16.) He did not leave himself without witness, doing good to the pagans, giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:16, 17.). He made all nations from one and had determined their epochs and borders in order that they should seek him. (Acts 17:26.)
While an all-encompassing depravity marked the whole family of man, the gnarled and broken remnant of the divine image remained as part of the very essence of human existence. All of humankind not only retained a basic sense of right and wrong, their consciences bearing witness to the work of God's moral law on their hearts, (Romans 2:14-15.) but they also held a repressed knowledge of the true God. (Romans 1:18-25.) Because God's temporal kindness extends to the whole world, pagans spoke truth, such as that articulated by the poets Aratus, Epimenides, Cleanthes and Menander. (Acts 17:28; 1Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12.) It was an imperfect thing, this pagan truth, and almost always distorted away from God and his Word, but it formed a backdrop against which the Apostles displayed the victory of Jesus over the dark powers.
The Apostles had the Old Testament as a model. The old Prophets had used pagan myth to proclaim the power and majesty of the one true God. What are the "gods" of chaos, the dragons of the deep, such as Tiamat (Leviathan, Rahab.), compared to Yahweh? (Job 9:13; 26:12; 38:8-11; Psalm 74:12ff.;87:4; 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3.)
It was in such a tradition that Saint Paul stood one day on Mars Hill and preached the good news of the dying and rising God to the Athenians. He took as his starting point a pagan altar: "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (Acts 17:23.) He began with the nugget of truth that was implicitly preserved within their pagan worship and used that to preach the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As centuries came and went, the ancient torch bearers of the truth told the old, old story, ever adapting the timeless message to the pagan cultures around them. They pointed to the longings of sinful people -- longings that could only be satisfied at the foot of a cross, in the shadow of an empty tomb. Sometimes they took objects of nature, as Saint Patrick is said to have done with the shamrock to present the nature of the one true God. Sometimes they expropriated the pagans' own nature celebrations to present the great truths about Jesus: his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection. Schaff commented about the ancient Roman, late December festivals that were held "in honor of the sun, who in the winter solstice is, as it were, born anew and begins his conquering march. This phenomenon in nature was regarded as an appropriate symbol of the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness dispelling the long night of sin and error." Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church,Volume I, (Scribner's Sons, 1916.)
It is out of that milieu where the gospel of Christ first dispelled the demonic darkness of the ancient, pagan world that so many things that we do as Christians have come. For over a millennium and a half, the pagan festivals have been superseded by those of Christ. The ancient winter festival came to point to the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. Even though the eleventh century division of the Church into East and West separated the day for Christmas, the pageant itself was never dislodged, not even by the Protestant Reformation. As he did with so much of the rest of the traditional clutter that buried the gospel, Luther sought to refine Christmas into a truly Christian holy day. Calvin, too, generally the more thoroughgoing of the two great Reformers, still kept Christmas in Geneva, much to the consternation of the Scots, who seeing that it had no explicit biblical warrant, banned it altogether.
Two thousand years have come and gone since the birth of our Lord. Ever since the ancient Brumaliae were baptized into Christmas, the believer has been confronted with the conflict: instead of the triumphant Sun of Righteousness, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, pagan humankind turns to the beatific, ever-Virgin mother, the Queen of Heaven. (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17ff.) But ours is a still darker time. Satan appears to have been released from the pit, once again to deceive the nations and turn them back to their ancient roots. (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-9.) The overthrow of Christian civilization is proceeding apace, and we are reverting to our pagan roots, roots that were soiled through with demonic things. Christ is being sanitized from Christmas altogether, and the old pagan roots quickly rise to displace the biblical Christ with one made according to human imagination. The nations that once comprised Christendom will no longer tolerate the public mention of Jesus' name, but a supernatural figure, a fat elf, clad in red, who winks at sin and gives gifts to those who are good, Santa Claus, is worshipped throughout the world on Christmas.
Christmas is our blessing and our curse. To the extent that we use Christmas truly to present the Lord Jesus, we follow in the footsteps of those who first brought the gospel to many of our ancestors. But it is a thing that, unbridled by Scripture, takes on a power of its own and leaves in its wake a mountain of debt, depression and debauchery.
-BV
thanks again to Bob Vincent
The Old Testament looked forward to the hallowing presence of God extending throughout the whole world. There would come a new covenant, (Jeremiah 31:31ff.; Ezekiel 36:24ff.) and all of life would become sacred. Instead of the Levitical principle of the unclean defiling the clean, (Leviticus 7:19-21; Haggai 2:12-14.) a fountain for cleansing would be opened. (Zechariah 13:1.) From under the threshold of the temple, the river of God's presence would flow, deeper and wider as it went, transforming all before it. (Ezekiel 47:1-12.) What had been inscribed on the miter of the high priest (Exodus 28:36-38.) would now be inscribed on the bells of horses, and the work of mothers, toiling over meals, would now become as sacred as the work of the priests in the Temple. (Zechariah 14:20, 21.)
As the Apostles took the message of the Messiah to the Jews of the Diaspora, they had a point of contact in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Upon arrival in a pagan city, Paul sought out the gatherings of the Jews on their Sabbath. (Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2.) Then he would open the Scriptures and proclaim the good news of Jesus the Messiah (Acts 13:42; 18:4.). Many non-Jews, hungry for more than their pagan religions offered, assembled with the Jews and were won to the Messiah of Israel. (Acts 13:44.)
On those occasions when there was no Jewish point of contact, Paul sought out things within the pagan world that hinted that there was more to life than what the ancient gods offered them. Even though God had given the nations over to the demonic principalities and powers (Deuteronomy 4:19, 20;1 Corinthians 10:20; Galatians 4:8.), he had done so with his treasure, Israel, in view (Deuteronomy 32:8.) that in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4.) all nations might be blessed in the Seed of Abraham. (Galatians 3:13-16.) He did not leave himself without witness, doing good to the pagans, giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:16, 17.). He made all nations from one and had determined their epochs and borders in order that they should seek him. (Acts 17:26.)
While an all-encompassing depravity marked the whole family of man, the gnarled and broken remnant of the divine image remained as part of the very essence of human existence. All of humankind not only retained a basic sense of right and wrong, their consciences bearing witness to the work of God's moral law on their hearts, (Romans 2:14-15.) but they also held a repressed knowledge of the true God. (Romans 1:18-25.) Because God's temporal kindness extends to the whole world, pagans spoke truth, such as that articulated by the poets Aratus, Epimenides, Cleanthes and Menander. (Acts 17:28; 1Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12.) It was an imperfect thing, this pagan truth, and almost always distorted away from God and his Word, but it formed a backdrop against which the Apostles displayed the victory of Jesus over the dark powers.
The Apostles had the Old Testament as a model. The old Prophets had used pagan myth to proclaim the power and majesty of the one true God. What are the "gods" of chaos, the dragons of the deep, such as Tiamat (Leviathan, Rahab.), compared to Yahweh? (Job 9:13; 26:12; 38:8-11; Psalm 74:12ff.;87:4; 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3.)
It was in such a tradition that Saint Paul stood one day on Mars Hill and preached the good news of the dying and rising God to the Athenians. He took as his starting point a pagan altar: "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (Acts 17:23.) He began with the nugget of truth that was implicitly preserved within their pagan worship and used that to preach the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As centuries came and went, the ancient torch bearers of the truth told the old, old story, ever adapting the timeless message to the pagan cultures around them. They pointed to the longings of sinful people -- longings that could only be satisfied at the foot of a cross, in the shadow of an empty tomb. Sometimes they took objects of nature, as Saint Patrick is said to have done with the shamrock to present the nature of the one true God. Sometimes they expropriated the pagans' own nature celebrations to present the great truths about Jesus: his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection. Schaff commented about the ancient Roman, late December festivals that were held "in honor of the sun, who in the winter solstice is, as it were, born anew and begins his conquering march. This phenomenon in nature was regarded as an appropriate symbol of the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness dispelling the long night of sin and error." Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church,Volume I, (Scribner's Sons, 1916.)
It is out of that milieu where the gospel of Christ first dispelled the demonic darkness of the ancient, pagan world that so many things that we do as Christians have come. For over a millennium and a half, the pagan festivals have been superseded by those of Christ. The ancient winter festival came to point to the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. Even though the eleventh century division of the Church into East and West separated the day for Christmas, the pageant itself was never dislodged, not even by the Protestant Reformation. As he did with so much of the rest of the traditional clutter that buried the gospel, Luther sought to refine Christmas into a truly Christian holy day. Calvin, too, generally the more thoroughgoing of the two great Reformers, still kept Christmas in Geneva, much to the consternation of the Scots, who seeing that it had no explicit biblical warrant, banned it altogether.
Two thousand years have come and gone since the birth of our Lord. Ever since the ancient Brumaliae were baptized into Christmas, the believer has been confronted with the conflict: instead of the triumphant Sun of Righteousness, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, pagan humankind turns to the beatific, ever-Virgin mother, the Queen of Heaven. (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17ff.) But ours is a still darker time. Satan appears to have been released from the pit, once again to deceive the nations and turn them back to their ancient roots. (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-9.) The overthrow of Christian civilization is proceeding apace, and we are reverting to our pagan roots, roots that were soiled through with demonic things. Christ is being sanitized from Christmas altogether, and the old pagan roots quickly rise to displace the biblical Christ with one made according to human imagination. The nations that once comprised Christendom will no longer tolerate the public mention of Jesus' name, but a supernatural figure, a fat elf, clad in red, who winks at sin and gives gifts to those who are good, Santa Claus, is worshipped throughout the world on Christmas.
Christmas is our blessing and our curse. To the extent that we use Christmas truly to present the Lord Jesus, we follow in the footsteps of those who first brought the gospel to many of our ancestors. But it is a thing that, unbridled by Scripture, takes on a power of its own and leaves in its wake a mountain of debt, depression and debauchery.
-BV
thanks again to Bob Vincent
Monday, December 12, 2005
Don't be a Scrooge
I thought this piece on the Ligonier site was an interesting point of view. I'm undecided as to whether or not I am in complete agreement - so maybe I am a Scrooge too... but only about some things.
Marley's Message to Scrooge
"Bah! Humbug!" These two words are instantly associated with Charles Dickens' immortal fictional anti-hero, Ebenezer Scrooge. We all recognize that Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean person - stingy, insensitive, selfish, andunkind. What we often miss in our understanding of his character is that he was preeminently profane. "Bah! Humbug!" was his Victorian use of profanity. It was profane in that Scrooge demeaned what was holy. He trampled on the sanctity of Christmas. He despised the sacred. He was cynical toward the sublime.
Christmas is indeed the world's most joyous holiday. It is called a"holiday" because the day is holy. It is a day when businesses close, when families gather, when churches are filled, and when soldiers put down their guns for a 24-hour truce. It is a day that differs from every other day.
Every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. The church is full of them. We hear endless complaints of commercialism. We are constantly told to put Christ back into Christmas. We hear that the tradition of Santa Claus is a sacrilege. We listen to those acquainted with history murmur that Christmas isn't biblical, that the Church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull-god Mithras. All this carping is but a modern dose of Scroogeism, our own sanctimonious profanation of the holy.
Sure, Christmas is a time of commerce. The high degree of commerce at Christmas is driven by one thing: the buying of gifts for others. To present our friends and families with gifts is not an ugly, ignoble vice. It incarnates the amorphous "spirit of Christmas." The tradition rests ultimately on the supreme gift God has given the world. God so loved the world, the Bible says, that He gave His only begotten Son. The giving of gifts is a marvelous response to the receiving of such a gift. For one day a year at least, we taste the sweetness inherent in the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Christ is still in Christmas, and for one brief season the secular world broadcasts the message of Christ over every radio station and television channel in the land. Not only music but the visual arts are present in abundance, bearing testimony to the historic significance of the birth of Jesus.
Kris Kringle is a mythical hero, not a villain. He is pure fiction - but afiction used to illustrate a glorious truth. And the early Christians had the wisdom to flee from Mithras and direct their zeal to the celebration of the birth of Christ. Who associates Christmas today with Mithras?
We celebrate Christmas because we cannot eradicate from our consciousness our profound awareness of the difference between the sacred and the profane. Man, in the generic sense, has an incurable propensity for marking sacred space and sacred time.
When God touches earth, the place is holy. When God appears in history, the time is holy. There was never a more holy place than the city of Bethlehem, where the Word became flesh. There was never a more holy time than Christmas morning when Emmanuel was born. Christmas is a holiday. It is the holiest of holy days. We must heed the warning of Jacob Marley: "Don't be a Scrooge" at Christmas.
Marley's Message to Scrooge
"Bah! Humbug!" These two words are instantly associated with Charles Dickens' immortal fictional anti-hero, Ebenezer Scrooge. We all recognize that Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean person - stingy, insensitive, selfish, andunkind. What we often miss in our understanding of his character is that he was preeminently profane. "Bah! Humbug!" was his Victorian use of profanity. It was profane in that Scrooge demeaned what was holy. He trampled on the sanctity of Christmas. He despised the sacred. He was cynical toward the sublime.
Christmas is indeed the world's most joyous holiday. It is called a"holiday" because the day is holy. It is a day when businesses close, when families gather, when churches are filled, and when soldiers put down their guns for a 24-hour truce. It is a day that differs from every other day.
Every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. The church is full of them. We hear endless complaints of commercialism. We are constantly told to put Christ back into Christmas. We hear that the tradition of Santa Claus is a sacrilege. We listen to those acquainted with history murmur that Christmas isn't biblical, that the Church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull-god Mithras. All this carping is but a modern dose of Scroogeism, our own sanctimonious profanation of the holy.
Sure, Christmas is a time of commerce. The high degree of commerce at Christmas is driven by one thing: the buying of gifts for others. To present our friends and families with gifts is not an ugly, ignoble vice. It incarnates the amorphous "spirit of Christmas." The tradition rests ultimately on the supreme gift God has given the world. God so loved the world, the Bible says, that He gave His only begotten Son. The giving of gifts is a marvelous response to the receiving of such a gift. For one day a year at least, we taste the sweetness inherent in the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Christ is still in Christmas, and for one brief season the secular world broadcasts the message of Christ over every radio station and television channel in the land. Not only music but the visual arts are present in abundance, bearing testimony to the historic significance of the birth of Jesus.
Kris Kringle is a mythical hero, not a villain. He is pure fiction - but afiction used to illustrate a glorious truth. And the early Christians had the wisdom to flee from Mithras and direct their zeal to the celebration of the birth of Christ. Who associates Christmas today with Mithras?
We celebrate Christmas because we cannot eradicate from our consciousness our profound awareness of the difference between the sacred and the profane. Man, in the generic sense, has an incurable propensity for marking sacred space and sacred time.
When God touches earth, the place is holy. When God appears in history, the time is holy. There was never a more holy place than the city of Bethlehem, where the Word became flesh. There was never a more holy time than Christmas morning when Emmanuel was born. Christmas is a holiday. It is the holiest of holy days. We must heed the warning of Jacob Marley: "Don't be a Scrooge" at Christmas.
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