When you watch the Golden Globes, or any of these televised
award shows honoring movie and television actors, you see all the biggest stars
acting so prim and proper in their designer gowns and tuxes.
They get up to accept an award and itÕs this teary-eyed
emotional gushing: ÒI am so humbled. I want to thank Steven Spielberg for this
incredible opportunity. He is my mentor, my idol, my Savior . . .Ó
Forget about the fact that the movies theyÕre winning
statues for are hyped as Òdark,Ó Òdarker than anything theyÕve ever done before,Ó
or Òthe darkest yet for so-and-so.Ó
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A perfect example is this past SundayÕs posthumous supporting-actor
Golden Globe award given Heath Ledger, who over-dosed on sleeping pills and
Xanax in his SoHo apartment nearly a year ago, for his
diabolical turn as the Joker in the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight"
(once predicted to overtake ÒTitanicÓ as the largest-grossing domestic
box-office hit ever!).
As a New
York Times review from last July, when the movie first came out, started
out, ÒDark as night and nearly as long, Christopher NolanÕs new
Batman movie feels like a beginning and something of an end. Pitched at the
divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and
deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind — including ÔBatman
BeginsÕ Mr. NolanÕs 2005 pleasurably moody resurrection of the series —
largely by embracing an ambivalence that at first glance might be mistaken for
pessimism. But no work filled with such thrilling moments of pure cinema can be
rightly branded pessimistic, even a postheroic superhero movie like ÔThe Dark
Knight.Õ Ó
Similarly, a Rolling Stone magazine review read,
ÒThe Dark Knight,
director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent
provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling
spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's
something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe.
Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper
dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with
a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human
condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil —
expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. ÔI don't
want to kill you,Õ Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart
Batman. ÔYou complete me.Õ Don't buy the tease. He means it.Ó
*****
In the most literal sense, light vs. darkness has
everything to do with God vs. Satan. This is why it will play out more and more
dramatically as the Òlast daysÓ ensue. HereÕs a great passage from a sermon
Jordan gave in recent weeks, called ÒHis Majesty the DevilÓ:
ÒThat name Lucifer is a Latin word. Lux (light/fire) and ferre (to
bear/to bring). It means Light-bearer.
The one who carries the light. And that was a title he
had before he was fallen.
ÒItÕs an important concept to get because in GodÕs creation
HeÕs interested in His light being carried . . . You remember the first thing in
Genesis 1 that God did on the very first day? He said, ÔLet there be light.Õ
Well, He did it in the midst of darkness.
Ò ÔGod is light and in Him is no darkness at all,Õ I John
says. Well, Lucifer starts out his career as a creature that was the
light-bearer. He bore GodÕs light before the universe.
ÒBut now if you come to Colossians 1 his whole name and
title has been changed. Col. 1:13 says, ÔWho hath delivered us from the power
of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.Õ
ÒSo our inheritance is in the Light who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness. In other words, what God has done through our
salvation is taken us out from under the authority of something called darkness—the
power of darkness—and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son
in whom we have redemption through His blood.
ÒThat term ÔdarknessÕ is a description of SatanÕs plan,
just like light is a description of GodÕs plan. ItÕs more than just physical
darkness; this is a spiritual darkness.
ÒThe Bible says, ÔThy entrance of
thy Word bringeth light.Õ Light brings understanding, perception, the ability to manipulate through life and successfully
accomplish things. Darkness brings the inability to do that. So thereÕs a
thinking process and a wisdom that represents darkness and thatÕs associated
with Satan.
ÒEphesians 6:12 says, ÔFor we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.Õ
ÒNotice there are these rulers who have the authority to
administer Ôthe darkness of this world,Õ and that darkness of this world is
called Ôspiritual wickedness.Õ So thereÕs a whole change in Satan and in his
program. He goes from the light-bearer to ÔThe Prince of Darkness Grim,Õ as Martin
Luther called him.Ó
(EditorÕs Note: To be continued . . . )