I took about a two or maybe even three year break from really watching any movies. A few kid movies would be in the background or my wife might watch something while I would be reading something else and so forth. But I was pretty bored of them and could care less if I ever saw one again. Not too long ago I started joining my wife in watching some now and then. There are so many I haven’t seen now, even when I was watching them a while back it wasn’t very frequent. So I have a massive list of movies I could watch to try and catch up if desired.
Anyways, as I started watching movies again something has dawned on me pretty heavily. Most movies have no “good guys” in my view. Too regularly human life means just about nothing. So many films seem to be propaganda to promote murder and killing of the others – whoever that may be. The supposed good guys are often horrible murderous people, some of them end up killing dozens of people and sometimes multiples of that. On top of that many of the situations are completely avoidable.
It’s even more dramatic of a thing if you come to think of the Messiah’s teachings of the New Testament as what we literally are supposed to be doing. That is if you are a Christian. Not talking about vague scriptural references tied to some boring current life events one day of the week (church), but something we are to be living as our Law if we consider ourselves Christian. Not only are we not supposed to kill anyone, we aren’t supposed to hate them, or sue them, or resist evil being done to us by anyone. We are to return good for evil. How many movies have you seen that do that? I’ve seen a handful but not many and not really any lately. Probably the closest one is “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” (Spoiler alert for those who care about such a thing. Please pick up reading after “end of spoiling.”) The hero (the mother) could have destroyed many people at the end, but instead she helped fulfill the enemies’ repressed desires to de-escalate the entire doomful situation at the end. I found the whole thing a unique spin on the multiverse idea, which was refreshing. Lately I’ve found multiverse movies and series to have fairly lazy writing, it is just an easy way to get out of story flaws. (End of spoiling.) However I wouldn’t call that movie a great example of exemplifying great principles. If you filter most movies through the teachings of the Old Testament there aren’t many good guys. If you filter most movies through the teachings of the New Testament, there are only bad guys. It’s pretty funny stuff really, or sad stuff…
I quite enjoy books overall a lot more than movies these days.
If you would like a refresher on the “Sermon on the Mount” here are the scripture chapters to review: Matthew chapter five & six & seven
Luke chapter six starting in vs 20:
And the introduction to the ten commandments is in Exodus chapter 20:
What movie heroes are following this? What group of people are following this? To me these are the basic fundamental Laws of God. It’s sort of like the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps the entirety of the scriptures would be the Heavenly Constitution. However in my view everything builds upon the principles laid out in the “Ten Commandments” and the “Sermon on the Mount.” For those who are Jewish, Christian, and Muslim the Old Testament Laws could help unify people towards a better world. What if we all lived the fundamental teachings in the ten commandments taught in Exodus 20? And the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-6 and the “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6 could be unifying Law for Christians and Muslims. To Christians because the teachings came from our Messiah, and to Muslims because these teachings come from what the Qur’an says are the words of a prophet. I also believe that our Messiah was a prophet, the greatest of all. With the Qur’an teaching that the Messiah is a prophet, perhaps it would be important to read and follow the instructions given by Him. This is about 55% (see graph here) of the world’s population that could come to some basic agreement. What if we all unified through the Laws in scripture instead of divided through political law. The Buddhist, Hindu, and Taoist scriptures I’ve read also have similar ideals taught. I realize people see many things in scripture differently. But I see in the majority of people I have met through life a desire to be a pretty decent person. I think many people desire to live by these ideals. Do you want to kill anyone? Even if you support war, would you really want to go over there and kill those your nation is at war against?
It seems to me the separation of church and state is primarily to make men the people’s false authority (false gods) over the true Authority. I’m not saying I want a merger of church and state again – that has led to a whole lot of tyranny and murder. I’m just saying if the state can push people into obeying the state first and foremost they would love that – and I believe that is what has happened. I believe that those who believe in God as the issuer of truth, and what we ought to be living, could do just that. Maybe we could put the true Church of God above the church of state. I do not believe there to be “one true church” as a registered organization. Those registered organizations are subject to the state. I believe that the Church of God includes people of many faiths and sects. It is the remnants scattered abroad, primarily individuals, putting the Laws of God first in their life. Those following the higher Laws taught throughout all scriptures I have read.
I believe the only way for the Kingdom of Heaven to blossom is through a voluntary means. Where people through love of God follow His Law. We have individuals around the earth following these things, some with high fidelity. If we had groups and communities doing such a thing the fruits of this way of life would shine. This would show that the Kingdom of Heaven is far superior to the kingdoms of men. I believe this is how the earth can come to peace. Not through governments taking away the power of another government to pursue nuclear enrichment, but through people choosing to live the higher Laws of God over the insanities of political law and the governments of men. Let’s stop killing. Even if our governments try to recruit us into the killing fields, lets stop killing. Leo Tolstoy was right in his book “The Kingdom of God Is Within You” (download book for free), we can refuse to fight for any kingdom of man. And if that government punishes us or kills us for refusing to kill others under their claimed authority – we will be blessed by the only true Authority.