OK, so I really want to get this off my chest before I even start talking seriously about LOST...
"How does a wooden ship destroy 80% of a giant stone statue?"
Thanks
_____________________________
This weeks episode of LOST was really good. We finally learned what some of the mystery surrounding Richard Alpert is all about - why he doesn't age, how come he speaks for Jacob, etc...
More importantly, we learned some very interesting things about the island and the motives of both Jacob and the Man-In-Black.
When Richard meets Jacob the two sit on the beach and share some wine and conversation. From that talk we learned that Jacob did bring the Black Rock to the island, as he also seems to have brought Flight 815 to the island.
Then, Jacob told Richard to think of the wine in his bottle as hell, or malevolence, evil, or darkness. That is the MIB. The wine swirls in the bottle and yet can't get out, "because if it did, it would spread." He said the cork is the island. He put the cork into the bottle and flipped it upside down, showing how the cork (the island) "is the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs."
Jacob said The Man in Black believes people are corruptible because it's in their nature to sin, and Jacob brings people to the island to prove him wrong, "and when they get here, their past doesn't matter." Richard asked what happened to the others he'd brought to the island before him. "They're all dead," Jacob told him. He said he didn't help them because he wanted them to help themselves, "to know the difference between right or wrong without me having to tell them." He said it was meaningless if he had to tell them, if he had to step in.
WOW! Lots of info to digest. Assuming that Jacob isn't talking a load of horse manure - we just got some great insight into where things are going and how the writers and producers of the show see the world, or at least the world of LOST.
I was immediately struck by the Pelagian tone of the comments that Jacob made. Pelagianism was a Christian heresy in the early 400s that taught several odd things, primarily the idea that "Original Sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil by the exercise of rational thought and without any special Divine aid."
It is basically super-free will. We are blank slates, neither good nor evil in our core until we choose to be one or the other. It makes man the supreme decider of his fate. Mike Horton says "According to Pelagius, Adam was merely a bad example, not the father of our sinful condition-we are sinners because we sin-rather than vice versa. Consequently, of course, the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, was a good example. Salvation is a matter chiefly of following Christ instead of Adam, rather than being transferred from the condemnation and corruption of Adam's race and placed "in Christ," clothed in his righteousness and made alive by his gracious gift. What men and women need is moral direction, not a new birth; therefore, Pelagius saw salvation in purely naturalistic terms-the progress of human nature from sinful behavior to holy behavior, by following the example of Christ."
I think we can see strong biblical evidence that Pelagianism is not the theology of Christianity at even a cursory glance of the Scriptures...
We are by nature sinners (Eph. 2:3; Psalm 51:5). We all have sinned because sin entered the world through Adam: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Furthermore, Romans 3:10-12 says, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” Therefore, we are unable to do God's will (Rom. 6:16; 7:14).
We were affected by the fall of Adam, contrary to what Pelagius taught and Jacob espouses. Nevertheless, these developments should make for a great storyline as the last several episodes of my favorite TV show play out!
But Richard changed Jacob's mind about the need for him to intervene, didn't he? That's why he "hired" Richard as an intermediary. Also, remember his words to the child Kate in last season's finale: "You're not going to steal anymore, are you? Be good, Katie." (Or something to that effect.) The cross motif in that episode might also be hinting at the need for a savior as more than just a good example.
ReplyDeleteNot really about Richard. Jacob uses Richard in a prophet role, to express Jacobs desires to the Others - but Jacob never compels anyone to listen to Richard AND Jacob never allows anyone to meet him except Richard. I think that leaves Jacob at pretty much the same place - hands off and looking for humans to make their own decisions without his direct intervention.
ReplyDeleteAs for his words to Kate...I don't think he was "commanding" Kate that she wouldn't steal anymore. I think he was suggesting that to her and hoping that she would go along.
I feel strongly that the producers of the show view salvation as coming from within a person of their own accord...in the choices that one makes and the way that one lives. That is at direct odds with the biblical worldview, in which our salvation is completely dependent on the grace of God alone, thru faith in Christ alone.
I mostly agree that the producers are promoting a DIY way to salvation, although I still have to wonder whether Jacob doesn't directly intervene. His touch is apparently what brought them to the island. To me, this seems sacramental in a way, in that it confers a type of grace through something material. I very much see your point, but Jacob's Pelagianism, clearly expressed in last week's episode, seems to have become a little murky since his conversation with Richard in the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteYour religious fanaticism has obviously gone too far when you start heresy hunting in TV shows. I mean seriously. As for original sin and all this crap about "we're all sinners from birth" and the exaggeration of one or two Psalms to that effect, why is it that none of you Calvinists knows about Job 31:18 "From my youth I was a father to the fatherless, and from my mother's womb I was an husband to the widows."? You guys take one or two poetic exaggerations from Psalms about the wicked being born as liars or something like that and then try to impose it on the whole human race, forgetting of course that its poetry and its using hyperbole (conveniently forgetting on purpose). But if every poetic exaggeration in scripture is to be taken to the extreme, why not make us all saint from birth like Job so obviously was, performing charitable acts from the womb, supporting the less forutunate before he was even able to hold his own head up, feeding the hungry before he could even eat solid food. And again, as for original sin and Calvinism, the reality is that only those who are the worst of sinners can even imagine accepting such an absurd idea. Augustine of Hippo after being living in sin with a woman for 10 years and having multiple children by her, ditching her to marry up the social ladder and become a Catholic bishop (marrying a rich woman was the way to become one in those days, for a guy like him anyway)--sure, he could accept the idea. He was filthy. But a guy who has lived a decent moral life and whose worst sin is having told a little white lie or having a dirty daydream about an unmarried woman, well I doubt he can accept that idea. It would be absurd. He's no Augustine. He's no you. He isn't constantly thinking up evil, doing evil, unable to restrian himself from evil, etc. He's never had a sip of alchihol, never tried a cigarette or any drugs, never killed anyone, never had sex. He doesn't steal. He has so little to feel guilty of he hardly even feels he needs forgiveness. Why should he be racked down with guilt like the murdering adultering drug-addicted Calvinists who believe in original sin and total depravity only because it seems true for their lives. His life is different, better, higher, always has been and always will be. Without Christianity he lives the life of an angel, and with it, the Calvinists still live the lives of devils. Why should he listen to the dregs of humanity?
ReplyDelete