The movie Avatar has received quite the buzz and quite the support breaking box office records around the world. Like many movies coming from Hollywood, it has it's flash, it's flair, and it's 3D, but what kind of substance and what kind of message is it really sending to the people that watch it?
As a Revivalist, I try to see through the external to the heart of the motive. Revivalists value the internal over the external, substance over superficiality. So, what is the real substance of this movie and is it good for Christians to watch?
Listen, I get the fact that this is a really "cool" movie with amazing graphics. However, that alone is no reason to waste $10 on a movie ticket and three hours of your life.
The underlying theme of this movie is Pantheism. Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical,[1] or that the Universe (including Nature on Earth) is the only thing deserving the deepest kind of reverence.
Nature helps me worship God as a Christian, but to worship nature itself is idolatry! Not only does this movie promote nature worship it promotes liberal agenda items such as "capitalism is evil" and "war is evil."
At this point I do not care too much about political views but I care a lot about the spiritual aspect of anything that goes in my ear gate and eye gate. What goes in your ears and your eyes is what feeds your soul. Many people don't just "eat" soulish junk food, they're downing poison! I believe "Avatar" is poison. I felt an extreme grieving of the Holy Spirit during the part where they were worshipping a tree called, "Eywah." I almost walked out of the theatre and kind of wish I did now that I think of it.
The names of the characters in this movie, like the main hero were even the names of Hindu gods and the Hindu savior. It hurts me to think that the message Christians worldwide were getting from this movie is that false worship is Ok. These "New Age" messages, whether you think so or not, continually break down your moral barriers of tolerance. Pastor Bill Johnson says, "What you tolerate dominates." I say, "What you do not protect, you end up losing." We need to protect our eyes and ears and the moral absolutes of the Bible. We need to reject crazy movies out of Hollywood and not help promote their success and their anti-God, anti-Christian agenda.
Someone may disagree with my assessment of this movie but what if this movie was a book? What if you told me, "you have to check out this book, it is royal blue with a 3D cover, wow, it's awesome!!" What if I asked you, "Ok, well, what is the book talking about? What is the message of the book?" If you said, "it doesn't matter, the book looks soo cool, and even at the start of every Chapter it has a new blue-looking character or 3D image, how cool!" If I then checked out the book and realized it glorified New Age concepts, characters, and worship, and was bombarding me with political messages that I disagree with, I would be extremely disappointed and grieved. The same goes for the movie! This movie was terrible from a true Christian spiritual aspect of things.
For my rating system of "Walked Out," "Almost walked out," "bad," "Ok," or "Good," Avatar gets one star out of five and falls for me in the "Almost walked out" category.
Please, people, protect your morality and don't drink the poison that comes from Hollywood just because it looks and tastes good!
ShareThis