The film begins in a church service and the minister is preaching a sermon based on Matthew 23. As the pastor speaks (although it's a silent film) we're to understand by the dialogue written on the screen that he's talking about hypocrisy to his wealthy and well-dressed congregation.
As the reverend delivers his Sunday sermon, the camera shows us the reactions of various members of the church as they sit in their appointed pews. The reaction of some is boredom and we notice a yawner or two, and we note that one poor soul has nodded off and is in the arms of Morpheus.
Yet the powerful among the congregation are restless, frowning, and they await the end of the homily so that they can have a secret discussion about the reverend who's gone too far this time.
The sermon is over, the members are filing out, but only one comes to the minister to thank and encourage him for his words. She does, but he looks sad. Outside the church building, one well-dressed pillar of the church is talking to the other powers within the flock. It's sort of a secret meeting. We read what he's saying: "We must ask for his resignation, but don't involve me in it." The pillar in the church will work behind the scenes; he's the serpent in the garden. The minister has struck a nerve.
The pastor, still in the auditorium, believes himself a failure and, disheartened and discouraged, sits in a chair just off the platform. As he sits, his eyes close; he falls asleep and dreams a dream.
In his dream, which we see enacted on the screen, he sees a an olden day monk busy at work in a closed off space in a monastery sculpting a work of art, not allowing anyone to see it. Over the course of time, he finishes the statue and holds the great unveiling.
As many gather from the monastery and the town, we see men, women, children, and dignitaries all in festive dress and mood awaiting the great unveiling.
At last the moment arrives and the artist unveils his masterpiece. It's the figure of a woman, and he has named her "Truth." But, as works of are wont to be, she is The Naked Truth. The townsfolk are outraged; they rise up and kill the monk.
The dream continues as the the statue comes to life and begins going from one segment of society to another, holding up a mirror to various groups of people--a family, politicians, a party, and in each case, the mirror shows the naked truth: they're hypocrites.
Truth visits a group called, "Society," those of wealth, education, and culture. A member of "Society," upon learning that Truth is coming says: "Truth is welcome if clothed in our ideas." And that sentence, writ large in the film, gives us food for thought.
Klebold and Harris, the Columbine killers, made secret videos of themselves as they talked and plotted the unthinkable, what Eric Harris called, "The Rampage." Their profanity-laced tirades often turned philosophical as they talked about their evolution, their being "godlike." Harris, enamored with natural selection, the mechanism of evolution, talked about how "the stupid, the fat, and the crippled" needed to be weeded out so that at last, "the human race could be proud of itself." The Columbine killers deemed themselves as having evolved to a superior state; therefore they just the ones to do the weeding and help natural selection along.
The authorities have not yet released all of the transcripts of the videos, but you get the idea.
But here's a question: did you know about the killers' rants about their plan to help the evolutionary process? Probably not. Why not?
Could one reason be that such logical conclusions about evolution are not acceptable in our society? After all, if we're all animals, why not do some weeding? Could it be that we don't want untoward things said about the results of thinking evolution through? Is this an example of "We welcome the truth if clothed in our ideas?" Is this an example of, if truth doesn't come clothed in our ideas, we banish it, so there's no discussion of the conclusions of the killers.
Do you know that there is one book, a book highly touted by the intellectual elite, that was found in the possession of three infamous killers?
The first incident occurred in 1980, when Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon with five bullets. Chapman was carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye at the time he was arrested. After committing the crime, Chapman even pulled the book out of his pocket and started reading while still steps away from the murder scene.
Robert John Bardo took a bus all the way from Tucson, Arizona to Hollywood because he was obsessed with "My Sister Sam" actress Rebecca Schaeffer. He found out her home address by going to the DMV, stalked her for a while, and even went to her house to get her autograph. This is similar to what Chapman did before killing Lennon. Bardo was carrrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he shot the actress in cold blood in front of her apartment.
Coincidences? If one person, carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, murders someone in cold blood, that's a coincidence. But three? Come on!
When I was a freshman, fall semester, sitting in my English class, my professor was going down the roster assigning each one of us a book to read and give a written and oral report about it. (He was assigning each of us a different book.) When he came to me, he said, "Mr. Halsey, are you open-minded?"
Not knowing what he had reference to, I answered, "No, I'm not."
He ignored my answer and told me that he was assigning me the book, The Catcher in the Rye to read and report on. I'd never heard of the book and I'd never heard of its author, J. D. Salinger.
Then the professor went on to the next person to give him or her their assigned book.
There is much that transpired after that, a long, but interesting story, but you need to know that I didn't read the book. I faked it. I got hold of "Time Magazine," read a review of it, and put that review in my own words into the report he wanted and that was that. (Time and space prohibit my telling you how I got out of giving the oral report. Maybe another day, another place.)
Yet our intellectuals brag on the book as a must-read. They hail its reclusive author as a genius, a person we should admire for what he wrote. (I still don't want to read the book; as a matter of fact, I'll never read it, but one who has, calls it "Sheer drivel.")
The naked truth about The Catcher in the Rye? It has warped people's minds. But since that statement doesn't come clothed in the ideas of the intellectual elite, it's bad form to point out that three murderers read it, loved it, were inspired by it, and carried it with them on a mission to kill and assassinate. Let's not talk about that, let's just keep on assigning the book to college freshman and let's keep on telling everyone how they must read it.
Here's an interesting item, yet another case in point--on a television program, a woman is an absolutely crazed killer of absolutely innocent people. Just as she's about to kill one more person, the FBI finally catches up with her and they take her into custody.
In the next scene one FBI agent asks, "Now that she's been interrogated, what have we learned about her?" The other agent rattles off a few things they've learned about her, including, "She believes in creation."
Hey! How about that for a nifty, yet nefarious move! Talk about crafty! The writers slipped, "She believes in creation" into the dialogue so that you and I, the great unwashed, will think, "That woman is a crazed killer. She believes in creation. Therefore, people who believe in creation are crazy."Just think--of all the things the writers could have included in their list of things they learned about the woman, "She believes in creation" is the one they chose. Deliberate? Of course.
[By inserting that line into the dialogue, the writers have committed a logical fallacy called, "The Genetic Fallacy - an attempt to endorse or disqualify a claim (in this case to disqualify the claim of creation) because of a person who holds the belief. It would be like my saying, "The Nazis developed the Volkswagen Beetle. Therefore, you shouldn't buy a VW because Hitler believed it was a good car."]
That dialogue is interesting because it shows us that, whereas, on the one hand, we're not to mention how The Catcher in the Rye is directly linked to three men on a mission to kill, we're not to discuss the influence of evolution on Klebold and Harris, but, instead, we should discuss how creationism somehow connects with a nut. Hinckley, Chapman, Bardo, Klebold, and Harris were real people creating real havoc. The loon on the television program was fictional.
We shouldn't be surprised at all this because that's what the world system does. It is deceptive. It censors our conversations by pressure.
Is there a statement in the Bible that says that fallen man welcomes the truth only if clothed in his ideas? How about John 1:10-11: "He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive ["welcome"] Him."
Jesus came in "grace and truth." Man's idea is that of working for salvation.Grace doesn't come clothed with man's ideas; the flesh doesn't want grace. The flesh wants God to come applauding its good works. Grace is an insult to works.
Jesus, like Truth in the film, holds up a mirror to the flesh and reveals its pride, its hypocrisy, and its need of grace. Many do not like what they see in the mirror of grace. Their solution is to try to break the mirror.
But one day, the Mirror will break them.
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
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