I am a fan of science fiction. It's an interesting way to tell stories about humans from a different perspective. Only in sci-fi, it seems, can we see one of the common themes, for instance, of aliens invading to try to wipe us out -- global annihilation. And it seems like we always win. Go figure. In the vast majority of them, human luck and ingenuity is highlighted. In the 1996 movie Independence Day a vastly superior force starts to devastate the planet until 1) a smart fellow figures out how to put a virus in an alien computer (Good thing those aliens used Microsoft products, right?) and 2) a brave pilot figures out how to shoot a missile into the most vulnerable place and ... boom! (literally) ... humans win! In the comedy, Mars Attacks!, superior aliens are killing everyone ... until an unlikely kid accidentally discovers that Slim Whitman singing his iconic Indian Love Call makes their heads explode (like it does for many of the rest of us). Over and over we overcome in these stories because, well, we're just that kind of hero. (I have to point out that H.G. Well's War of the Worlds is a marked exception. Humans "triumph" -- we live and the invaders die -- but not because of anything we do. They die of Earth viruses.)
If sci-fi is telling stories about humans from a different perspective, we certainly get this story. Humans are the heroes. Individually or as a race, we're the winners. We can do it. We are the living end (so to speak). Yea, humans! So perhaps it is excusable that we would see all of existence from that perspective. Even when we come to the Bible, it is likely that we'd come to the same conclusion. God made us. God loves us. We must be wonderful beings, the hero of the story, so to speak.
It is, of course, bunk. A product of sin. "I will be like the Most High." The very moment we step up to that position, we reveal our condition. We are not the point; God is. The Bible isn't about human triumph; it's about God's supremacy. It's not about human glory; it's about God's glory. It isn't about how wonderful or lovable or worthwhile we are; it's about God.
It is our natural bent to replace God with self because, well, we are, by nature, bent. The problem with that is that it is sin, of course, ("fall short of the glory of God" is the accusation in Rom. 3:23) but it is also not real. It is not true. In fact, getting the facts right -- God is the point -- will lead to all kinds of marvelous places that we should revel in rather than avoid. That book is His story. The aim of that book is to point to Him. All He does is for His glory. That we benefit from that is marvelous, but it really is all about Him. He is the Hero of His own story.
6 comments:
I like War of the Worlds for that very reason. In the book at least, the praise for defeating the aliens is on God in His creation of viruses, not our ability.
But it all comes back to our overinflated view of our value. People ask, why would He save so few, but with a proper understanding of our value, the real question is, why does He save any?
True. I find myself having to keep that in mind at times as well.
Humans as heroes is a common theme of most every genre, sci-fi being only one of them. Yet, I don't really think the vast majority of them wish to put forth any notion that the hero is god-like or a substitute for God. They're most often simply stories and the fact is that humans can and do act heroic. In story telling, it's common and the reason people read the stories in the first place, the plot being the means by which the hero can be placed in a new context, setting or adventure never before imagined. We love to read of the heroic, both fiction and non-fiction. It inspires us as well to be heroic in our own lives or to imagine ourselves faced with the types of troubles faced by the hero of the story. I don't know how one can author a story without some character taking on a heroic role and still have a story anyone would find interesting. Off hand, I can't think of any that has.
The Bible has humans being heroic. I'm not complaining about it. Not the point at all. The point is that we humans tend to take center stage for ourselves, even when reading the Bible. That's a serious mistake because it's not about us; it's about God.
Ah. That point wasn't clear to me. Perhaps because I don't read the Bible that way. Perhaps I don't realize I read the Bible that way, but I don't think I do.
It seems like most of us read our Bibles looking (unconsciously) for "What's in it for me?" We will warm each others hearts by assuring each other with things like "God loves you." Certainly the love of God is real, but it isn't there because we're so lovable; it's there because it glorifies Him. We -- I think all of us -- do it a lot without even realizing it.
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