The Force Awakens

The initial rush was so big that after watching my first Star Wars movie at the old Park Theater across from Centennial Park in downtown Holland I got into my Ford Bronco, turned on the engine, and actually felt as if I was behind the controls of a fast moving space ship. I needed to use every bit of Dutch mind control to calm me down enough so that I would make it back home safely.

Now, thirty-eight years later, a little older and perhaps a little wiser and now someone who only goes to the movies once every other year or so I think it might be awhile if and when I catch the latest episode. And that's OK. I drive in the Matrix anyway so who knows what is really real.

Science fiction and the rest of the fantasy genre are by definition not real and as movies, TVs, books, comics and such they are created as entertainment, a diversion, sometimes even an escape from the everyday busyness, tensions and sameness that is part of life. Knowing this I want you to understand that my views expressed here are way to the conservative side. Most Christians have little problem with fiction until or unless it crosses for them a certain line. My lines are more sharply drawn than most.

My world view is a heck of a lot more complex than a Star Wars story line. I believe that mankind and the choices we make actually do play a part in an ancient conflict played out before creatures we have not seen and know little about in a universe that is more intricate and varied than what we can imagine. This universe has a Creator who is not only good but also holy, awesome in power, unlimited in what He can do except where for reasons we do not fully understand He limits Himself. He is perfectly just but also perfectly loving.

At a certain point, when we are not told and so we do not know, rebellion entered this universe. Rebellion came from an intelligent created being who enticed other intelligent created beings to rebel with him. For some reason, despite His foreknowledge that it would happen, in His great wisdom the Creator chose not to wipe from existence those rebels and indeed permits some of them to interact with mankind to further the agenda of the first rebel, who is called the father of lies and a murder from the beginning.

These evil beings exist in an unseen spiritual realm but can interact and influence the physical world as well as the people and thus the societies that fill it. The evil beings work to accomplish the will of the first rebel and the result for mankind when we follow that will is always corruption, suffering, fear and death without hope.

Here we need to understand that there are three wills at work in the universe - The will of the Creator, the will of the first rebel and his spiritual followers, and the will of man. While man's will is indeed free and he may decide not to follow the plans of either the Creator or the first rebel (and he thinks by doing so that he is the master of his own universe) in truth when he is outside the will of the Creator he is a rebel himself and part of the rebellion.

The Creator interacts and influences the physical world, it's people and societies through His Son and through the Holy Spirit who were present with the Creator from the beginning. The Son is not a created being and in fact through Him all things were made and so the conflict is not an equal one between the Son and the first rebel. The Holy Spirit has interacted with mankind in various ways ever since man was created and has directed and spoken through man to set in writing everything man would need to know the will of the Creator. The Holy Spirit is active in the understanding of these writings as well.

When man believed the lie of the first rebel and also rebelled the Creator set out a way for mankind not only to be restored to fellowship but also to have a personal relationship with the Creator. This was made possible by the Son becoming man and then as man paying the only price for his sin and rebellion that the Creator would accept.  

As I said previously the conflict between the will of the Creator and the will of the first rebel is not one of equals. One is the Creator and one is the created who exists at the whim of the Creator. There will come a time when the first rebel is bound by a strong angel for 1000 years and all the other rebels both spiritual and physical will have been judged and are also removed. At this time the Son will return to Earth and will reign in a new Jerusalem. Peace will be world wide and healing will be freely available and the nations will stream to New Jerusalem to pay homage to the Son.

Yet think of this. Even though the first rebel has been bound and the Son has been physically present and the Holy Spirit has been active in the lives of mankind, even though there has been world peace and most people are healthy and live long lives, even though history has shown and I'm sure the church has taught what the terrible results have been of rebellion, when the first rebel is released toward the end of those 1000 years he will still be able to raise a great army of men and nations to fight one last battle against the Son and the saints gathered with Him.

At this time the first rebel will again be defeated and then bound for eternity, all other rebels will be judged and the Creator will bring about a new Heaven and a new Earth and there will be a final end to sin and rebellion. Although that is way in the future we must still understand that the Creator even now does not desire suffering, poverty, sickness or wars anymore than you or I. To suggest otherwise is to believe the father of lies who wants you to be a rebel like him.

For some reason the Creator in His mercy does not wipe us out on the first sign of our rebellion. We may not understand and agree with this in a universal sense but when we realize that it applies to us personally we should fall down on our knees in fear and trembling and repentance. For some reason in His wisdom He allows people, even those that are innocent, to suffer and die. And then somehow we believe that instead of Him being wiser, more loving and more merciful than we can ever imagine, He is an angry and vindictive god. Having no fear of God men base morality on the changing tides of human opinion and the ability of man to do something on his own that history shows has never worked. It is a false hope and this false hope is another lie.

The good news is that the world is not held together by a force that like the Ying and Yang has both a dark side and a light side. The Creator who does not have a dark side has made Himself understood to us, not as a force but as a personality who loves and cares for us, whom we can know, and who has a will for us and our lives. He loves us and desires to be fully engaged in our lives. And as the Creator He has designed this to happen as we honestly seek Him and then surrender to His will.

The first rebel was called an angel of light, banned from the presence of the Creator but still residing in the heavens. Prophetically the Son saw this star walker fall like lightning from the sky.

The first rebel who says he is light instructs us to use our wills to overcome the dark impulses of pride, emotion, fear, lust, greed and such, knowing that by nature we are still rebels.

The first rebel if he cannot get us to reject the Creator will always try to bind us to dogma and tradition, substituting religion for relationship.

The first rebel tells us to harness the power that is part of the life force and available to those who will learn from him and to listen to the spirits of those who are no longer in the physical realm. This of course is witchcraft.

Star Wars is just science fiction after all and George Lucas has said that the Force was not a reflection of the (Hollywood style) Buddhism popular in his day but only a way to advance the plots of the various movies. We should be aware though that if Disney can get tens of millions of us simpleminded folks to purchase a billion dollars worth of tickets and merchandise that there will be some appeal to those without a firm foundation but with a spiritual hunger to look further into this mystical nonsense that truly does confuse light and dark. Not as they seem things are.