Think Supernaturally

One of my favorite churches (I know many) is Capital Church in Salt Lake City. On a regular basis, the pastor, Troy Champs, does a series called, “God and the Movies.” It is always interesting to hear what connections he makes with otherwise totally secular themes. This effort has inspired me to think about two of my favorite movies (or movie franchises) in a similar way.

Many people have tried to draw Christian themes from the Star Wars movies. Although the creator, George Lucas was raised Methodist, he identifies more strongly with Eastern religions, calling himself at one time, a “Buddhist Methodist.” Lucas admits to a strong influence by Joseph Campbell, a twentieth Century Literature professor who coined the term “monomyth” to propose that all literature is drawn from a single human story that transcends cultures and ages.

I believe Campbell was correct in principle; there is only one human story. He was wrong to ascribe the similarities across time and cultures to a pervading secular myth. The “true myth,” as Seth Steele of True Myth Media puts it, is the one recorded for all time in the Bible. The universality of the Bible story rests in its revelation of and by the one Sovereign Creator of all things. The creation, fall, and redemption epic that is the Bible finds resonance in every time and place because it rings true; it is the true myth.

Lucas capitalizes on this universality with the themes he develops in Star Wars. For this reason, it is possible to draw Christian analogies from the films. One of my favorite lines is from the tutor of young Luke Skywalker who has failed to psychokinetically raise his sunken star fighter. Luke says he will, “Give it another try.” In response Yoda, says with uncharacteristic firmness, “No! Do… or do not. There is no try.”

I cannot keep myself from comparing Yoda’s instruction to the Scriptural principle stressed by Jesus when he told His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” The Lord followed that up with, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24 ESV) Do, or do not. There is no try.

Another line from Star Wars always hits me as exciting Scriptural truth. When Obi Wan Kenobi is about to be killed by Darth Vader, he says, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi Wan knows that the physical body is a hindrance to the fullest expression of what he is supposed to be. If you will pardon my imagination, I can picture Jesus saying the same thing from the Cross. When our Savior’s earthly work was done, He was “struck down” only to become more powerful than His enemies could ever imagine.

This leads me to one more line from a far less popular movie, but one of my favorites nonetheless. The movie is Harvey, which is based on a play of the same name by Mary Chase. Briefly, the plot revolves around human interaction with a mythical creature called a pooka named Harvey. Late in the action, a psychologist who has been engaged to help a poor soul who believes he has been befriended by the pooka encounters his own pookalogical epiphany. Upon making this discovery, Dr. Chumley says, “Fly specks, fly specks! I've been spending my life among fly specks while miracles have been leaning on lampposts at 18th and Fairfax!”

I must agree with Michael Heiser, whom I have referenced before, that, like Dr. Chumley, we enlightened moderns have lost our appreciation for the supernatural. Heiser argues that the original authors and audiences of the content of our inspired Scriptures would have been completely comfortable with the idea that there is more to our existence than what we can encounter with our five senses. The supernatural realm, as Heiser calls it, is in constant intersection with our everyday lives, but we have lost touch with it. We concern ourselves with fly specks when unimaginable glories transpire right under our noses.

I tried to imagine the interaction between the natural and supernatural in my novel, Wings of Mentridar. It was easier for me to picture angelic intervention in the lives of “Bible characters,” than to see it today. Frank Peretti did a marvelous job in his darkness series showing how angels might be playing a part in our daily lives. The New Testament is clear that believers still have occasion to encounter “angels,” or supernatural beings (Matthew 1,2; Acts 5:19; Hebrews 1:7; 13:2). It is narrow-minded to exclude the supernatural from our thinking.

Apart from New Testament reports or fiction, I believe we should all try to have a more “supernatural” view of life. When Paul admonished the Colossian believers to, “Set your minds on things above” (3:2), I believe he had the supernatural in mind. The word “above” is used throughout the New Testament in reference to that which is spiritual as opposed to physical. Jesus counselled Nicodemus that he needed to be born a second time “from above.” (John 3:3 CEV). James insisted that true wisdom comes “from above” (3:17 ESV)

Neither Obi Wan or Yoda can be construed as Christian characters. Harvey the pooka is not a good example of angelic influence, at least not biblically speaking. In spite of that, I enjoy thinking about the “true myth” they represent, and I know my soul is enriched by my flights of fancy into the glory to which we are being transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul says, ““What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). The movies help me to imagine what Paul says I cannot imagine. I recommend it; after all, we are going to become “supernatural” someday.

The 3,000 Year-old Question

I could be wrong. (Those who know me are chuckling right here.) I could be, but I don’t think I am wrong. When I read the Bible front to back, it appears that God’s program proceeds without interruption for the most part. Oh sure, Adam’s sin interrupted what appeared to be the original plan for Eden, and mankind’s devolution leading to the flood caused a do-over of sorts, and Israel’s failure to be what God intended them to be led ultimately to the Cross and the final solution. But none of these course changes surprised God as evidenced by the fact that He explained at every stage what was going to happen next. In other words, He knew what He was doing. (Surprise!)

I am also aware that at any given point in the redemption timeline, those earth-bound players on God’s stage might have felt that God had lost His way. Adam lived some nine hundred years after being expelled from Eden and hearing the prophecy that his offspring would crush the Serpent’s head. How many hundreds of years did Noah preach righteousness before the flood caused Earth’s reboot? Joseph must have been frustrated by the decades he spent apparently out of the loop as a result of his brothers’ treacherous jealousy. Then his family languished in Egypt for 400 years waiting to return to the land God had promised them. Consider David, who was anointed king, but spent years running from Saul before he finally took the throne. Finally, the nation of Israel, or properly the remnant of the nation, did seventy years in Babylonian captivity, only to return to a diminished national state and sit in silence for 400 years.

I understand that God has His own time table. We are told more than once that with God, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. Fine. However, it appears to me that His prophets explained what was going to happen in a more or less linear fashion, although it was often cryptic revelation. Looking back from our perspective, it all fits rather nicely, if somewhat drawn out. We get hints of God’s purpose occasionally. In the time leading up to the flood, God is said to have been striving with man; was he hoping for repentance? (Genesis 6:3) The 400-year sojourn in Egypt was because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet fulfilled. (Genesis 15:16) Paul suggests that the church age will end only when the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought into the Kingdom. (Romans 11:25)

If some millennial theorists are correct (I withhold judgment.), before we reach the end-stage with Eden restored and Heaven comes to Earth, at least 1,007 more years must pass, at which time a final, global/cosmic battle with evil will bring all things to completion. Do the math. In 2018, we stand close to 2,000 years from the Cross of Calvary and the institution of the Church. If the literal millennial theorists’ proposed tribulation started today, there would be another 1,007 years to the New Heavens and New Earth of Revelation 21. Now someone might begin to wonder about God’s timing again.

This might be God’s plan; after all, it is only three days on His divine calendar. But it is a wonder to me that in the popular literal millennial scheme, the Church, which Paul calls the mystery of God, hidden through the ages, is largely ignored, relegated to a parenthetical gap in the imagined timeline. There are those who believe the language of the millennial reign of Christ is meant to be figurative rather than a literal number of calendar years. This places the Church age soundly within Bible prophecy rather than floating in some unnoticed parenthetical silence.

There is something interesting for any who believe Bible prophecy, no matter what opinion they hold regarding the millennium: we are nearing the 2,000-year mark after the Church was founded. I am stepping outside of teaching or preaching here; what I am suggesting is pure speculation on my part. I will not join the likes of those who insist Jesus came in 1917 or those who were disappointed when 1988 (1948 + 40) came and went without the expected events. What I am doing is looking at the broad sweep of Biblical revelation and seeing roughly 2,000-year periods of God’s plan. It was approximately 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham. It was another 2,000 years to Jesus. And it has been 2,000 years since Calvary. Hmmm. I don’t pretend to know God’s mind in this, but wouldn’t it be sweet if we really are that close to the end of the prophecy?

One thing believers of every stripe can agree on: there comes an end. No matter what you believe about how the world will end, all agree that every individual will reach a point when time runs out. At that point, a person’s relationship to Jesus is all that will matter. Those who have chosen to follow Him will step into a glorious eternity; those who have rejected Him will learn that their poor choice has dire consequences with no escape clause. That point in time may be 1,000 years in the future, or it may be one day. To borrow from Francis Schaeffer, how should we then live?