Spoiler Alert: I discuss these plots extensively below and reveal their key points and endings.
Isaiah 22:13 King James Version (KJV)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+22%3A13%2C1+Corinthians+15%3A32%2CLuke+12%3A19&version=KJV
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
In the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian, one of the repeated themes is “Do you want to live forever?” Conan’s companion and lover Valeria eventually sacrifices herself to save Conan, and later returns in a very Valkyrie-esque form to save his life yet again. Note the inclusion of a very Christian theme, self-sacrifice. I realize now that every story out of Hollywood, whether wittingly or unwittingly, includes elements from the story of Jesus Christ – elements from The Bible. Any fictional story that doesn’t won’t have any gravitas, won’t evoke any feelings in the reader/listener/watcher, and won’t ring true.
John 15:13-17 King James Version (KJV)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A13-17&version=KJV
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
However, despite including some truth, there are always confusion and lies mixed in as well – again, whether on purpose or not it really doesn’t matter. I often wonder if the people who are drawn into the entertainment industry are those who are attracted to fantasy and repelled by truth. Getting back to Conan, the clear implication is Norse mythology and Valhalla. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die? If you read the above quote from Isaiah in full context, you will realize that this nihilistic attitude is condemned by the Lord. It’s just another version of anti-christian pseudo-truth confusion.
Isaiah 22:12-14 Amplified Bible (AMP)
12
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+22&version=AMP
Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to mourning,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth [in humiliation].
13
Instead, there is joy and jubilation,
Killing of oxen and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine, saying,
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
14
But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,
“This sin absolutely will not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
Before I leave Conan, let me just note a few other items of interest. The bad guy Thulsa Doom transforms into a giant snake, clearly a reference to Genesis. His followers engage in orgies and cannibalism. While speaking to Conan, he calls to one of his loyal followers, causing her to needlessly, pointlessly fall to her death as he explains to Conan that being able to control people’s minds is true power. The Riddle of Steel, “What is stronger than steel? The arm that wields it.” But the sharpest two-edged sword is the Word of God, and it doesn’t call us to control each other but rather to love one another. And I would be remiss to note that Thulsa Doom actually crucifies Conan on a tree, if you needed any more examples of The Bible being used as inspiration for this fiction.
Another movie from 1982 is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which I just watched again last night with my son. I was surprised to discern the communistic overtones present in the writing, which were not apparent to me when I was a young man. I realize now that Star Trek is a heavily Utopian philosophy, and that communism is also. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” Captain Kirk calls Spock “comrade” at his funeral. There are no individual possessions and everyone follows orders. There is no religion, except for backwards planet-locked cultures, who we are supposed to respect and not interfere with. I’m feeling a little John Lennon “Imagine” going on right now – a wonderful song with a horrible message. Perhaps Gene Roddenberry made the Enterprise a military ship because that gives a certain patina to the authoritarian nature of the society that is presented. There are clearly literary and artistic references within this movie that showcase the intellectualism and love of fiction over reality and truth, witness Khan quoting from Moby Dick and Spock giving Kirk a Charles Dicken’s book for this birthday. But as I stated before, the most moving part of the movie is when Spock sacrifices himself to save the ship from the “Genesis Device” which is a technological artifact that can create life. But instead of pointing to Jesus Christ and The Bible, instead we are fed communism and atheism. Glory to God that He can find a way to use these vessels to carry glimmers of truth.
One final example, my son chose to read The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan published in 2012. It is part of a series of books by Riordan about Greek and Roman mythology. I found it to read very much like a soap-opera, with numerous characters popping in and out of the story line. They travel to many locations and solve puzzles and fight against villains in a quest to defeat the forces of darkness. I just want to point out the multi-theistic nature of Greek and Roman mythology, their gods are very much like people – they fight with each other, sleep with each other and with humans, and interact with the mortal world on a regular basis.
Exodus 20 Amplified Bible (AMP)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&version=AMP
The Ten Commandments
20 Then God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship]. 5 You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous (impassioned) God [[a]demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing graciousness and steadfast lovingkindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
We are frequently told that our western culture derives from two primary historical branches Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman. Apparently we get all the civics and science and high culture from Greek and Roman civilization, and all the stuffy old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud self-righteousness comes from Jewish and Christian tradition and theology. But I really wonder about the truth of this common assertion. For one thing, Greeks are known to have practiced pederasty, and women were certainly not full citizens or given full rights. Romans were famously brutal and known for throwing Christians to the lions in the coliseum, not to mention gladiatorial games of death, vomitoriums and public bath houses.
Now to be fair, much of text of The Bible was written in Greek language. Our alphabet and vocabulary has undeniable Greek and Roman roots. And certainly they made important contributions to mathematics, science and engineering and the exploration of the world. But ultimately they were polytheistic and pagan civilizations, just like Conan’s Norse Mythology or Roddenberry’s fictional universe based upon a utopian, atheist, communist vision of the future. And not surprisingly, The Mark of Athena ends with two of the demigods (sons and daughters of gods who coupled with mortals) sacrificing themselves for the greater good.
It would seem that it is impossible to write a story that anyone wants to read without including at least a little bit of the truth. It may be confused, conflated, twisted, surrounded or denied, but it cannot be excluded. This may also explain why people today feel like they are living in two different worlds, those with biblical knowledge can literally hear a different message coming from popular culture than those who deny all truth. I’ve heard the theory that devils have to tell you the truth about what they are doing, like Dracula having to ask permission to enter your house.
Luke 2:14 [Full Chapter]
“Glory to God in the highest [heaven], And on earth peace among men with whom He is well-pleased.”