The following post was written by Lindsey Wagstaffe, a Lies Young Women Believe blogger. In it, Lindsey tells about her movie-going experience, and contrasts Avatar's lush world of Pandora with Christianity's heaven. She asks the provocative question, "What if Jesus' presence was the only thing missing from an otherwise perfect world? Could you be content?" I'd love to hear your answer once you've read her post!
When I saw the trailer for Avatar, I laughed. (Blue people on another planet? Really now?) Then my oldest girlfriend called to say that she was coming into town
and that she was dying to see it. Her treat. Guess who caved?After the visual roller coaster ended (yes, I was impressed), my friend observed that the real world now looked one-dimensional and colorless. I had to agree. (The fact that our immediate surroundings were colorless—it was a dark theater—might have heightened the impression just a tad.) In contrast with the dazzling, lush world of Pandora we had just been immersed in for the past two and a half hours, reality did look dwarfed and bland.
Later, I was unsurprised to read about extreme reactions of other viewers. CNN quoted fans who experienced a whiplash of depression after the movie:
"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world."
Reached via e-mail in Sweden where he is studying game design, Hill, 17, explained that his feelings of despair made him desperately want to escape reality. "One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to earth. I so much wanted to escape reality," Hill said.
If Avatar has inadvertently helped someone recognize the vanity of life apart from Christ, I'm grateful. Discontentment with the fallen, "dying" state of our world is appropriate, and desperation for purpose has been known to drive people to consider Christianity. Restlessness about this world is good.
Satisfaction in Pandora, however—or any other fictitious "alternate reality"—is not. In a support forum, another fan shared,
"Ever since I went to see Avatar I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and that everything is the same as in Avatar."
There's even a book out to help people like Mike who are suffering from what's been called "The Pandora Effect." What heartbreaking signs of man's hunger for something more in this sin-ridden world. Though this is the first time I've heard of such severe cases of depression following a movie, similar phenomena of obsession happened with Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Twilight movies, as people immersed themselves in escapism. In this case, Avatar fanatics feel like they've found the closest thing to "utopia" through James Cameron's fictional universe.
The Inadequacy of a Utopia
So here's a question to chew on. How is the Christian's longing for heaven fundamentally different from longing for Pandora?
Think about it—everlasting bliss, perfect health, no grief or discord of any kind. You can have anything that your heart desires, because all your desires will be good and pure. You're reunited with all your loved ones, and all is restored to tranquil harmony. It's Eden all over again, but better.
If a movie can make this world look inadequate, then heaven makes any movie dwindle to less than nothing. All throughout Avatar, in fact, I kept thinking, If this fertile, dazzling world is the best that our most cutting-edge filmmakers can come up with, how incomparably beautiful and glorious is heaven going to be? If the Bible is true, we can count on it being more alive and real than the most imaginative person's most impossible dreams.
You don't have to believe in Christ to find the above paragraph enticing. Even if you buy into Avatar's New Age paganism, you can still think the heaven I just described sounds like a pretty sweet deal. That's just utopia after death, and everyone wants utopia—Christian and non-Christian alike. That much is clear, especially in light of the responses to the movie. I wonder if you noticed, though, how I left out the most important part of heaven in my description.
What if Jesus was absent from His home? What if His presence was the only thing missing from an otherwise perfect world? Imagine it. Could you be content? Is Christ's presence a footnote or afterthought when you imagine heaven, or is He the only reason that everything else would hold any meaning?
That's what separates the Christian's desire for heaven from the non-Christian's. A Christian might answer, "No, He isn't always most important to me—but I sure want Him to be." Believers know what it means to long for Christ and His presence. To the unsaved, on the other hand, the idea of a God-centered heaven (not a me-centered one) is horrifying. If that's what heaven is all about, it ceases to be attractive. They want no part of it.
John Piper is dead on:
"Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. People who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel" (God is the Gospel, 47).
It's the glorious truth of the gospel that Christ hung on the cross, bearing the full brunt of God's wrath to forgive us. And yet if we believe that a legal pardon from God is all that the gospel accomplishes, our understanding of the gospel is anemic. Christ's blood was not spilled just to buy a bundle of tickets that would admit us through the pearly gates of a Pandora-like paradise. He died to adopt the people He justified and bring them into a relationship with Himself.
What is heaven about at its core? Jesus told us. In the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He was led to His crucifixion, He knelt and prayed, "Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:1–3, emphasis added).
There's our answer—the chief difference between heaven and all pagan concepts of utopia. The cross existed so that sinners could be brought to know God, delight in Him, and savor His splendor. Christ died to usher us into an eternal, vibrant relationship with the triune God of the Bible. He is the reason why heaven will be glorious and the reason why our lives on earth can be filled with the inexpressible joy spoken of in 1 Peter 1. Without Him, we would have nothing. He's the centerpiece and main attraction of heaven.
What do you think? Have you been looking forward to a Christ-centered heaven lately? Or could you be content at times with a world without Him—a world like Pandora? How can we readjust our thinking?
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Comments
PRAISE GOD, Hallelujah! Blessed be HIS NAME!
Love,
Michele
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:19 am
http://www.goodfight.org/a_v_avatar_one_world_religion.html
Love,
Michele
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:33 am
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 5:55 am
I did not see this movie but did see the previews when I was at the theater to see another movie.
As I watched the previews I had a feeling that this was not something I wanted to see.
I just got a feeling that something was not right.
How sad that so many people are being pulled in by the wrong things!
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 9:34 am
It made me wonder how much more out of our capacity to create and imagine our God is. How great our Creator must be and definitely calls in to reflect in the dullness of the life of those who do not know Him.
Yes, I am expectant to see and enjoy the Heaven where He will be always, but also very conscientious of the beauty of the life here and now, regardless of circumstances... that's also part of the message of the gospel... that in His mercy and grace, through the power of His Spirit, us, christians, have the capacity of living as if with the 3D glasses on "always"... not needing to "connect" or escape... because we are awake to the Works of Our Lord here on Earth we can worship Him and start enjoying what Heaven will be like as well... a life in His presence...
Thanks Paula for this reflection!!! Blessings from the DR...
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 9:55 am
From another viewpoint, in January I just finished undergoing a total knee replacement surgery, with all the challenges, discomfort, inconvenience, pain, questionings, etc., that such an event brings to the forefront in a Christian's life. Having endured for many years significant mobility issues related to this situation , I really enjoyed the vicariousness of the Na'vi people's abilities (even though fictional) to move and their use of various creatures in their world to fly and move. Yes, the screen world of Pandora is beautiful, but posters are mistaken if they think Pandora is a "utopia" because it is not, especially with all the ravages in people's lives due to sin, and travesties to the environment.
From a Christian viewpoint, however, after having reviewed again at church this Sunday the glories to be enjoyed in the Heaven and Home that Jesus Christ is creating for His children in Revelation 21-22, and Jesus' promise to come back for us to bring us where He is, Pandora is obviously not Heaven, even though some aspects of it are an "echo" of Heaven. The Christian's new resurrection body will have many more abilities in addition to no more pain, suffering, sorrow, or tears to be contended with, and no more death. Pandora's Ewya "Earth Mother" goddess, while somewhat interesting, and a composite of many earthly religions throughout history, is impotent in the face of death. We serve a Risen Saviour who has triumphed over death, hell and the grave, and will give His sons and daughters new resurrection bodies. Having had just a small piece of my present body worked on to make it more functional and new, I have to say that our present technologies, while amazing, and helpful to restore improved levels of functionalities, still cannot equal the new resurrection body planned by Jesus for me in the future. In addition, Heaven will be a place of holiness and righteousness and sin will not be allowed there any longer. More major differences.
If you go to see "Avatar," enjoy it for what it is, but recognize that like many movies and books, it is a "fairy tale" with glimpses of reality both wished for and feared. But it cannot, and never will be, the Heaven promised in the Bible for Christians.
Does earth "pale" in comparison to Pandora? I suppose. But Pandora is make believe, and Earth is real, created by a Real Creator, not a movie CG graphics producer, and Earth's world is a biochemical reality that really works -- it's not just made up in a computer somewhere.
Heaven is far too more beautiful and real to ever be Pandora. But Pandora helped me to wonder what even Earth was like fresh from the Creating Master Hand of God before sin entered in. Earth had to be far better, though different.
I believe "Avatar's" many shortcomings can be used as conversational jumpstarts with people who are hungry for the existence Pandora attempts to portray to help point them to the real things created by Jesus Christ, and the true forgiveness and eternal, abundant life only available in Him.
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 10:47 am
It would be Hell.
Here is a short video by Pastor Mark Driscoll that you may find interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cI5GxM4f50
Pastor Mark Driscoll sheds light on the inherent paganism seen throughout the most popular film in America, "Avatar" as part of his sermon entitled "Luke: Jesus And Demons" taken from the ongoing Mars Hill Church sermon series: "Luke: Investigating The Man Who Is God."
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:27 am
Psalm 16
1Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
2O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
3But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
4Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
5The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
6The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
7I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
8I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
11Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:04 pm
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I have not seen the film and do not intend to. Usually, my films are selected by me in the light of whatever you bring into your mind, will some day or later, come back to you.
Although I have not seen the film, I can just bet that whatever God has in store will be much much better and more colourful, challenging, divine and beautiful than any film editor can make.
Jesus always changes our world - and if he wasn't in the starring role, wonder what the cast would do?
By the way, was he/she (the film editor) a Christian? I would venture a guess that he/she wasn't.
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Recommended reading today was 1Peter1:
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy...." etc. (see the last vv of this ch.)
I have a difficult enough time focusing on Christ and heaven without having my mind distracted by garbage and unreal +/or sensual things. Let's challenge our minds on heavenly things and not use Satan's ploys to try to find 'heaven' or 'God' or 'salvation' or 'redemption' in his tactics!
Sorry .. it's just a pet peeve of mine! Let's go serve our KING!
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:01 pm
http://www.goodfight.org/a_v_avatar_one_world_religion.html
RIGHT ON!!
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:07 pm
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I resonate with the main post, that the fictional world of Pandora was rich in color and beauty. It reminded me of C. S. Lewis's novel Perelandra, and his descriptions of paradise in another world. And I agree that it does echo our deep longing for a redeemed creation: a new heavens and new earth. This longing for beauty in itself is not evil, but good.
But it is also true that a world like this will never exist until Christ is central. Only when "the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea" (Habbakuk) will we see paradise - Eden - regained. This is the vision of Revelation 20-21, when the garden City of God comes down from heaven, and God makes his dwelling-place with men. Avatar has the potential to awaken these kinds of desires in viewers, and that can be applauded, even while we critique the pagan influences and immoral elements in the movie.
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Thank you for sharing Lindsey's post with us. I clicked on the link to read more about Lindsey, and was very surprised to read that she is just 18 years old! What a lovely young woman who has such a heart for the Lord. Lindsey writes: "My greatest desire is Christ--to know Him, love Him, delight in Him and love others by helping them to do the same." Would that every young person (and those not so young!) have that desire. I really am amazed at the insights that the Lord has given her at such a young age.
Regarding "Avatar", I have not seen the movie, nor do I judge anyone who has. Regarding her thoughtful question "What if Jesus' presence was the only thing missing from an otherwise perfect world? Could you be content?" My answer: Absolutely not!
Why? Because Jesus' presence is everything to me! He is my life, and I so long to see Him one day face to face! "But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Cor. 2:9)
Thank you, Paula, and thank you, Lindsey, for sharing your heart of love for God with us. Thank you also, Pastor Brian, for your thoughts as well.
In Christ's love,
on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Read Genesis and Psalms to see the majesty of all His creation!
on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 8:59 am
on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 11:34 am
I feel we too need to learn to identify with people as Jesus did. I think of his disciples, I think of those of Mary Magdalene with 7 spirits insider her, I think of Jesus eating with the Tax collectors. He identified and why so that he could provide a way for each of us to get through any temptation. God's design is that all will come to the saving knowledge of Him- He desires relationship with each of us.
Romans 10:14-16
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[a]
If we refuse to identify as Jesus did how can God's message be spread. Too often we like to keep our eyes focused with the four walls and not look beyond. It is the beyond that needs God's message brought to them.
If we get to Heaven and God asks us why we did not reach out what will our answers be?
on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 12:48 pm
on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 3:20 pm
on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Timothy Mark has a song entitled "The Church Across the Street". It is free to listen to on his website. This song truly opened my eyes to they myopia suffered by many (on both sides of the fence).
Thank you for expounding on my thoughts- these are ones not easily accepted but oh so true.
on Monday, March 15, 2010 at 11:32 am
on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 11:42 am
And I don't judge others - God gave us free will.
Of course the world I live in (and others too) is full of foul language, filthy sex, dishonesty etc. but it's full of beauty, healthy relations, good behaviour etc.
I do not wish to pay for the "privilege" of seeing a film which I believe will show me more of what I don't want to see!
But each to his own way of thinking.
on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I've experienced a lot of sin before I started walking with God. I lived a very immoral life. This is another reason I choose to stay as far away from the line as possible. One of the first things I read about the movie Avatar was the immodest clothing. I know we live in a world where there are girls in miniskirts everywhere, and magazines in the check out isle, but these are the things I can not change on my own... the best I can do is look away and not engage in those things. But, I believe if I were to purchase a ticket to Avatar, I am then choosing to agree with and to see the immodesty. I think the best way for me to be a light to anyone is by taking a stand against it.
on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 4:02 pm
on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 1:14 pm
on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 1:26 pm