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

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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 . . . )