January 5, 2003
COMPLETE SURRENDER:
To end all culture wars: The theology in To End All Wars is so sound and explicit that it may turnoff Christians reared on pop spirituality (Gene Edward Veith, 1/11/03, World)
COMING SOON TO A THEATER near you: a World War II drama featuring Kiefer Sutherland, one of the movie industry's hottest stars. It is rated R.It is a product of Hollywood.
And it is one of the powerful cinematic expositions of the Christian faith.
To End All Wars might have been pitched to the mainline filmmakers as Chariots of Fire meets Saving Private Ryan. Fans of the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, the true story of an athlete who refused to run in the Olympics on the Sabbath, will note the same Scottish accents, a similar soon-to-be church worker positively portrayed, and comparably high production values. But whereas Chariots of Fire, for all of its virtues, never got around to mentioning the gospel, To End All Wars amounts to a sustained meditation on the core of Christianity: Christ dying for sinners, and what that means in the most extreme trials of life.
Oddly enough, Eric Liddell, the Flying Scotsman from Chariots, died in a Japanese concentration camp. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 5, 2003 2:16 PM
Oddly enough? Are you writing for Reuters
now, Orrin?
You'd think that a loving and caring God
would have chosen a slightly better
outcome for someone who was so
conspicuously devoted to Him.
What would Pascal have to say about that?
Pascal would say: his death was not his end . . . the Japanese chose his death but God chooses his end.
Posted by: pj at January 5, 2003 2:57 PMBut Harry, contemplate what acts of faith you would see in the Coliseum, er... death camps. Liddell, like the Yemeni missionaries who were just murdered, died in China because he wanted to be there. God deals with this act of free will, just as he deals with the decisions of his captors. Without divine justice, Liddell's fate or missionary work in Yemen makes no sense. According to earthly logic, you bale out of a bad situation before the local police stop ensuring your safety.
Posted by: Tom Roberts at January 5, 2003 4:00 PMAs Dietrich Bonoeffer, who also died at the hands of the Axis, said: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
Posted by: oj at January 5, 2003 4:07 PM"a loving and caring God
would have chosen a slightly better
outcome" ... but Harry, while we can postulate an "outcome" to *our* fancy, we can hardly know what "better" outcome God might have in mind (assuming there is a God, of course).
Re: "a loving and caring God would have chosen a slightly better outcome ...
But in the Christian context, the believer who dies (regardless of the manner of that death) is then with Christ, which is, according to St. Paul, "far better."
Harry:
Now you're arguing with yourself.
Well, let's leave the Japanese out of it, since
they are not Christians.
How about when one sincere Christian puts
another to death. I like to use Hus as an
example, because it lets me jeer at the pope
and his clever concept of the one-way safe
conduct.
Whose side was the loving and caring God
on there?
Which prayers did he answer?
As John Updike said of Ted Williams: Gods don't answer their mail.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2003 1:04 PMHard to know then, in my example, whether
you've pleased 'em or not, isn't it?
Did he want Hus burned alive? Or the pope?
He sent His own Son to be crucified--hard to believe he got too worked up about Hus.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2003 10:22 PMExactly my point.
Posted by: Harry at January 7, 2003 11:53 AM