Theme: The Immensity of Christ’s Battles against
the forces of Hell. The most common of all Biblical themes in pop culture
is that of a great battle between forces of evil and the good heroes of
humanity to save the world. Hundreds of novels, comic books and movies
demonstrate this over and over, from all the marvel and DC stories to Disney
movies like Epic, The Harry Potter
stories and the Lord of the Rings. This
theme is known in the Bible, but the true immensity of the battles Christ executed
from his own might is very little known. Indeed, the full extent of them could
never be known, but if one takes the time to look there are many descriptions
of it in the Bible. Isaiah and the prophets describe it often as do th other
prophets, but the book of revelation is all about it. Even Christians and
pastors seem to rarely see the extent of it. Perhaps because it has been
somewhat misrepresented by fire and brimstone type preaching that has so
put-off many people. I believe these stories of great and dire battles at root
come from an internal need to honor the way Jesus saved the world from
overwhelming forces of evil. No-matter how many times this theme is repeated it
never ceases to capture the fascination of people. The limited knowledge of
Christs battles in the Bible goes hand in hand with the limited idea people
have of the darkness that was on the earth before Christ incarnated. In movies
the dark, deceptive and insidious nature of evil is depicted and defeated in
countless science fiction, horror, and adventure movies. The great battles in
movies are often associated with the end of the world, which of course has to
do with the well-known Biblical theme of the apacolypse. This is seen in movies
like the Terminator, Independence Day, Superman, The Avengers, I-robot, Lord of
he Rings, Men in Black, 1984, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and so on.
Swedenborg gives a
powerful description of how intense Christ’s battles were:
Theme: Determinism in society at the time of
Christ. In the latest superman movie, “Man of Steel”, this theme is a very
large part of the back story of Kripton. It is told that the people of Kripton
had adapted in such a way that they tightly controlled child birth. Every child
was born under government control with a
predetermined purpose, - some workers, some leaders, some trades people and so
on. This is an allegory of the determinism we spoke of that was a result of the
decline in religion and the externalization of life before the time of Christ.
Zod, the military ruler of Kripton, angrily expresses throughout his scenes that
his sole purpose for existence from birth was to preserve Kripton, and he is a
warrior who will destroy everything in his way that would keep him from that
purpose. Also, in the beginning of the movie when Zod and his officers are sentenced
for their crimes by the counsel, their sentence is forever - no possibility of
release or attempt to rehabilitate. This is so because the counsel knows Zod’s
purpose, and that he cannot be reformed. This is significant because with the
Romans and other Mediterranean nations at the time the jadedness toward cruelty
was a natural extension of determinism. The belief that they have a
predetermined purpose led to a great devaluing of life. This theme is also in
‘The Terminator’, and the ‘Matrix’.
Theme: David in Goliath. This theme is iconic
and referred to in common language in sports and other arenas ways in society.
In the movie ‘Thor: The Dark World’ there is a scene where the two armies are
battling and then a giant rock-man three times the size of Thor walks in and
they face-off one on one. The enemy army laughs at Thor’s demand that the giant
surrender. Thor whirls his hammer and smashes the giant into a pile of rubble.
Theme: Atmospheres in the spiritual World. This
is a theme in many movies such as Mission to Mars, Star trek, not to mention
the reality of it on the planets in our solar system. In ‘Man of Steel’ it is
told and shown that the people from Kripton cannot breath in the same
atmosphere as the people on earth. The whole purpose for the Kripton war is to
change the atmosphere of earth into that of Kripton. This is an allegory of a
circumstance that is fundamental in heaven and the spiritual world. Swedenborg
tells how every society in heaven has its own breathing pattern that is determined
by the quality of love there. The difference between atmospheres in heaven and
hell in this regard is total - spirits from hell cannot even begin to enter heaven
for they begin to choke in a torturous way to the point of total suffication.
Theme: Hereditary Evil. In the matrix there are
several scenes of agents pressing their hand into the body of people and causing
a black darkness to enter them, inside and out, consuming the person in black.
This is symbolic of hereditary evil accumulating and increasing to the point it
consumes the person’s life. In the Matrix the agents continue to multiply and
would soon consume the whole world of humans and the machines, which is an
allegory of the darkness that was increasing on earth at the end of the Jewish
church. This is very significant because at the end the agent does thrusts his
hand into Neo; Neo receives it all and turns into an agent - and then uses it
to access all evil. He battles the evil from the inside and wipes it out. As I
described in the section on equilibrium this parallels that the Lord was born
on earth and took on a natural body; which meant He now had access to evil, and
evil had access to him to him. He gradually defeated the forces of evil, purified
himself of all hereditary evil, and and put heaven and hell into divine order.
This is an essential part of the glorification process which I will discuss in
a moment.
Theme: Faith to be expressed in Freedom. The
theological theme of Freedom is upheld in many movies. In the matrix, in the
confrontation between the Architect and Neo reveals their essential beliefs:
Neo upholds freedom of choice as the truth of being human, while the Architect
in all his brilliance basically believes in determinism, which is materialistic
and external and leads to spiritual death.
This is also a major
theme in many of the Marvel movies, but none more so than in Captain America 2.
The backdrop of this movie honors the men and woman of the ‘greatest
generation’, especially those who defeated Hitler in WW2. The evil organization
called Hydra (an off-shoot of the Nazis) corrupts sheild from within with the
philosophy and technology to determine who should die before they are able to
commit crimes. This is a representation of the evil of determinism and how it is
the inevitable result from completely external and merely natural thinking.
Captain America, coming from the greatest generation, senses from the beginning
that the ideology of Hydra is destructive, because it is against freedom and
the principles of the constitution and democracy, which grow from a belief in
God.
At the end of the
Matrix the agent believes he has won and asks Neo, ‘why do you keep on fighting’,
and Neo says, “Because I choose to”. This upholds that the choice to love and
fight for freedom is a Christ-like human quality. Also at the end when ‘the one
who protects that which matters most’ asks the Oracle if she always knew they
would be saved, she says, “No, I didn’t, but I believed, I believed.” This
upholds choice and faith as essential goods. Also, it is a principle of freedom
that no one is given knowledge of the
future (not even the Oracle), but salvation must be worked out by choice from
moment to moment. When the human soul seeks meaning it cannot but uphold these
truths for the essence of being human is freedom.
The deep value of
freedom is often combined with American tradition and values, demonstrating the
role of America as a light to the world. ‘Independence day’, and ‘Signs’ are
good examples of this, as are many of the marvel movies. In his career Kevin
Costner has depicted American heartland values incredibly well. He personifies
American common sense, goodness, and strength, especially in ‘Field of Dreams’,
and ‘Man of steel’.
Theme: Christ is the bridge (the Logos) between the
father and humanity. In ‘Man of Steel’ Superman has very good Christ
allegories. There is a scene in which Superman’s father tells him who he is,
and through their discussion their mind and wills become more and more united. He
tells him that on Kripton they lost freedom of choice because they had adopted
predetermined birth, but he (Superman) is from the ‘house of El’ where they
dreamed of freedom, where people have choice and the chance to reach their full
potential. He tells Superman that he could not tell him that the Kodex was in
the cells of his body until the moment they were in because he was not ready
for it. He then tells him that he can be the bridge between Krypton and Earth,
and that he can save humanity. Jesus is the original redeemer of freedom by
subjugating evil and restoring equilibrium; and He is also the bridge – the
bridge between God and humanity on earth, for which He is also called the Logos.
The logos is the embodied love and wisdom that makes all love and wisdom
accessible to humanity. Later in the movie Superman’s father, Cal El, tells Zod
that his Son is twice the man that he is, which is similar to the Bible’s when
the voice of God says, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”. After
receiving the conviction to save earth (his father tells him, “You can save
Lois, You can save all of them”) Superman punches a hole in the Kripton ship,
and then floats slowly out holding his arms in the position of the cross – a
powerful image of the savior. The miraculous feats superman performs appeal to
something very deep in the human soul – the desire to be seen and valued, for
the trauma we suffer to be justly redeemed; to be given hope that there is a true
Father watching over who is capable of all things.Also in the movie ‘Interstellar’ the main characters are on a
mission to save the world, and in the process calls himself and his daughter
the bridge that will save the world. By way of an enormous and miraculous
struggle he travels through a worm hole and accesses a point in time and space
to inform his genius daughter of the information necessary to save the planet. There
is also a profound story of love and loss between then and the primary theme of
this is that love is the means that finds the way and carries the information
and wisdom to find redemption. This movie deals with advanced knowledge of
space, black holes and theoretical wormholes. It is acknowledged that no one
knows what lies through a black hole or a wormhole, but in the story telling of
the movie an answer and meaning is given to this problem by spiritual means,
that is, in the movie it is said and shown that love provides the means and
answer on the other side of a black hole. This can be seen as an allegory for
entering heaven, and as an allegory of redemption through love. This movie
shows once again that when the human psyche seeks meaning it returns to what is
most intrinsically meaningful and appealing in our soul – biblical themes. The
movie also demonstrates one the maxims of Swedenborg concerning the Lord; that
is that love is a container of wisdom. This means that the intense desire and
affection of love elevates the state and
therefore the perception of a person which inherently includes wisdom.
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