Mike’s Movie Meditations:
Prometheus
Michael J. Sullivan
I saw Prometheus tonight shortly after seeing Snow White this last week. What do both movies have in common?
Salvation and Desire not to Die Themes
Well, yes besides the very attractive Charlize Theron (at least outwardly anyway), there is the theme of trying to find “salvation” or “immortality” or a desire not to die. In Snow White she played the wicked queen hoping that magic and sacrifice would give her “immortality” and in Prometheus, it is her father who hopes that discovering an alien race that allegedly engineered/created mankind, will “save” and keep him from death. At leasts Theron’s character in this movie knows the “order of things” – that is, kings live and die… – and Biblically seventy years is the estimate (Isa. 23:15; Ps. 90:10). There is no escaping this order of things – as Hebrews says, “It is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The truth of course is – if we put our trust in Christ, we (our souls/spirits) will “never die” (John 11:25-26).
Issue of Origins and Purpose
Of course one of the characters asks the obvious question and downfall of the movie theme in general – “If the aliens created us, who created them”? This flawed logic and bad philosophy kind of reminds me of the dilemma Mormon false teaching finds itself in — if we are all god’s and all Jehovah is in the Bible is the god of our planet, and we too will one day evolve to be god’s with our own planet etc… These “gods” are not eternal but created which begs the question as to who created the first “god” etc… There has to be one eternal and all wise creator in which we all find purpose and can be given eternal life, and we find Him in the Bible:
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36).
“As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:2-3).
We are not “robots,” but we serve as vessels of His grace or wrath and He is pleased to do with us as He wishes as a Potter does what He will with the clay (cf. Romans 9:11—24). That should strike more fear wonder and humility into your hearts than the vain imaginations of a science fiction horror movie. If it does place fear and humility in your heart, then this is a good thing and the “beginning of wisdom” indeed. And contrary to the movie (and those who take it’s plot seriously), God “sent” His Son to us to reveal Himself — He has not hidden Himself from us nor do we need to send messages throughout the universe to alien higher life forms – that have allegedly created us.
Angry Creator / End of the World Theme
Passages that the vast majority of Christians and non-Christians alike read in the Bible which they think are describing God getting angry with mankind and thus eventually getting so fed up with us that He blows/burns it up in order to make it new again, TEACH NO SUCH THING. These are passages that deal with the prophetic “the time of the end” not the “end of time.” They are addressing the end of the Old Covenant age in AD 70 – not the end of the world, time or history as we know it. No need to hijack an alien ship in order to go to the alien’s world in order to ask them WHY they “changed their minds about us” and now want to destroy us! The Bible seems to teach that we and the earth will be around for a very long time and He knows how to sustain and revitalize it:
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4).
Bottom Line
The truth and fact of God becoming a man and revealing Himself to us in the most intimate of ways will always trump Hollywood’s conjectures about origins, salvation, immortality and the end of the world. I liked Ridley Scott more in Kingdom of Heaven when he pointed out that Jerusalem was in the mind and heart of man. He seemed to have been at least attempting to think deeply and heading in the right direction at that point. As influential and famous as some of these actors and directors are today, in 15, 50, 100 years from now – they will be scarcely remembered — while Christ (“the year of our Lord”) and His redemptive plan will be remembered throughout time and eternity.