One major difference between Jordan and other preterists is his identification of Paul’s “man of sin.” Jordan is correct in naming the Herods rather than Nero because he understands biblical typology better.
“I am very clever king… tok tok tok tok… I am super genius… I am robot king of the monkey thing… compute… compute.”
–Julian, King of the Lemurs, Madagascar (2005)
Concerning the ridiculous hype over a long dead lemur trotted out in desperation after a quarter of a century to prop up a failed theory, Don Batten writes:
The orchestrated multimedia blitz over this fossil is almost unbelievable. The paleontologists even got Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, to officiate at the public “launch” of Ida (the cute nickname for the fossil), when it was unveiled—like a new sculpture by a famous artist—to the assembled journalists.
According to brilliant fool David Attenborough, this little creature “is going to show us our connection with the rest of all mammals.” That’s a lot to expect from a dead lemur. Guess they’ll have to call in DreamWorks for some CGI for Ida to accomplish this.
Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder’s review of Angels and Demons points out that in the book, the mad clergyman’s assassin was a rabid Muslim. In the movie, apparently he’s a lapsed Catholic instead, killing for money instead of for Allah. Wouldn’t want to offend any Muslims now, would we?
Mark Hadley comments:
Yes, strangely the ‘assassin’ is one area where the film goes harder at Christianity than the book does.
In the book the Hassassin, as he is called, is clearly a sexual deviant who enjoys inflicting pain. In the film he’s been transformed into a compassionate killer. Sure, he murders cardinals, but that’s just because it’s his job. He actually lets Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra go free because they’re not on his hit list, and he throws them a warning to be careful of those men of God, implying they are the unscrupulous ones. This is a fact carried home by his employers blowing him up moments later.
Yes, I feel that it was pretty clear that the producers thought Islam should be off limits, but why go the extra mile? Why not just make the assassin a bad man, instead of setting him up as an additional witness to the church’s perfidy?
Dan Brown and Ron Howard would be brave men if there was such a thing as Christian jihad. But there isn’t and they are not. So, this alteration reveals both their cowardice and the fountain of their work: not hatred of false religion, but hatred of Christ Himself. They are the ones with the jihad.
Slumdog Millionaire might only be a bag full of clichés in a veneer of contemporary moviemaking, but as with Fight Club, the ending reminded me of the Last Days.
There are two brothers, and the older one resorts to guns and Dutch courage to deal with opposition, which puts him in good stead with the biggest gangster in town. He helps his younger brother rescue the girl, but claims her for himself (for all the wrong reasons).
The film ends with the younger brother rescuing the wounded “bride”. Both brothers end up “in the money”: the faithful younger brother in a miraculous game show win, the older zealot in a bathtub (grave) full of gangster cash (blood money) before a deadly ‘suicidal’ shootout.
It might be “raw, unleavened melodrama” (as one critic put it), but it’s a story written by the Bible into the fabric of our culture, and one we are still hungry for despite our unbelief.
“Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine. And He beat back His enemies; He put them to a perpetual reproach.” Psalm 78:65-66
“I’m a 30 year old boy.” Edward Norton, Fight Club.
Guns are dangerous. They are so offensive in fact, that they should be prohibited altogether. And male leadership has been abused so much, and women exploited for so long, that such headship should also be shamed and even prohibited. And alcohol. Alcohol leads to so much misery that it also should be prohibited. Oh, wait. That’s us.
The quiet, daily betrayals are just as capable of turning an ardent Christian into a confirmed, if uncomfortable pagan. C. S. Lewis believed that the ‘softly, softly’ approach is one of the key tactics of the Devil. To paraphrase Screwtape, he aims to introduce into every life that revolves around God a slight change in orbit that will ever-so-slowly send them spinning into outer darkness.
Read Mark Hadley’s review of the film, Good.
The movie Superman Returns ends with some powerful iconography. Lex Luther has used a crystal stolen from Superman to create his own ‘new earth.’ Unlike Superman’s white-as-snow fortress of solitude, this is made of dark stone, Adamic earth. It rises up out of the sea and its growth threatens mankind.
Superman carries the weight of the entire sinful rock, and its growing kryptonite ‘spears’ pierce him. He ‘dies’ in the air and his fall to earth creates a ‘tomb.’ It’s worth a watch.
My point is, the idea of Christ being ‘lifted up’ is more than the bronze serpent, more than us ‘lifting Him up’ in our witness. [1]
Lifted up between heaven and earth, He was an open scroll. The bloodied lid of the Ark, the Word engraved (opened) on tablets of flesh. [2] In the sky, He was a new kapporet [3], a firmament covering to replace the old one that was ready to vanish away. He was a veil that was open, still protecting yet providing full access.
The Old Testament is full of mediators who are ‘lifted up.’ Revelation shows the Satanic new earth (Herod and Rome) thrown down from her mediatory position ‘in the air’, and the saints ascending to meet their Lord ‘in the air’ as a new mediatorial city.
a) Christ was lifted up.
b) Satan was thrown down.
a1) The saints of the New Jerusalem ascended.
b1) The compromised mediators were thrown down.
Satan is no longer the prince of the powers of the air.
__________________
[1] A Herod also fulfilled the bronze serpent image, eaten alive by maggots on his throne ‘in the air’ after speaking ‘like a god.’ He prefigured the dirty scavenging birds feasting on the harlot in Revelation.
[2] The Tabernacle layout is a symbolic cruciform man. Notice that Christ on the cross was beneath ‘the Name’, an open scroll containing the disputed truth of His identity. The Lord’s Name was said to dwell above the lid of the Ark.
[3] See Peter Leithart, The Footstool of His Feet.
Just watched The Painted Veil. Must be Edward Norton week. A movie based on a 1925 novel by Somerset Maugham, with strong messages of the benefit of forgiveness after betrayal, and of how suffering strips away our delusions and brings maturity and freedom to love.
The main thing that struck me was how the superstitions of the locals obstructed those who risked their lives to help them. We lose sight of just how much the gospel has changed the world, and take the foundation of our culture, the Bible, for granted.
Darwin’s Joker
by Gary DeMar
There are no spoilers in this review. I saw The Dark Knight, the new Batman film, this weekend. It’s everything the reviewers have been saying about it and more. Heath Ledger’s performance is certainly worthy of an Academy Award and not because of sentimentality over his premature death. The role was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and he played it perfectly. You will believe he is the Joker. I suspect that Ledger called on some of his below-the-surface struggles, his own demons if you will, to bring the character to life. We all have the potential to play the Joker, but we keep it in check because of the “work of the law” written on our heart (Rom. 2:15).
The movie is disturbing. It’s meant to be. I don’t know the worldview of Christopher Nolan, director, co-writer, and co-producer with an impressive film pedigree, but he got so much right in depicting fallen human nature and the consistency of living out the implications of a worldview without a moral rudder.
I’ve seen every movie ever made… or one very much like it.
I posted last week a quote from Jordan’s worship series which observed that all western culture flowed from the church. I took my daughter on Saturday to see Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci at the Sydney Opera House. Christian (and Catholic) symbols abound, most notably the spilling of wine on a white table cloth as a challenge to a duel. The loser’s body was later laid on the same white cloth.
The final scene of the movie Fight Club (a film based on a book which is both ingenious and perverse) is more biblical than the author or producers might imagine. [Don't read the following if you haven't seen the film].
Bible Matrix blog
