Thoughts on.... Star Wars - Episode III, Revenge of the Sith

Hi healingwaters its ellie from the uk you know the PARCEL Darlington.

I'm so glad you put this up, Greg (and Yodi). I loved the spiritual parallels in the Star Wars movie and I talked about one on another thread. The movie really got me thinking also. You know, one of the things I thought of as I sat in the theatre was how I used to watch Star Trek as a child and they used these wireless things that were handheld called "communicators". I can remember as a child thinking, how can it ever be possible to communicate without wires? And the wild thing is, now we have something just like that, and it's only been about 30 years ago. As I sat in that theatre remembering this, I wondered how long God would wait before this age comes to a close. And if the Lord tarries, what will this world be like then? And how much more difficult will it be for future generations to remain faithful in the midst of such a self-consumed world? I was just realizing how important it is for us to be faithful and to teach faithfullness to our children and grandchildren and even to pray for future generations which we may never see. I did that when I came home from the movie.Just something to think about. Love, Dian.

Fun movie with more special effects per square inch then any movie I've see yet...One of things that struck me in the Revenge of the Sith was the way the Jedi order started dealing in grays instead of black and white. They compromised and allowed deception and political manuvering to become part of their strategy...I guess they didn't trust their "force" enough. In any case this gave extra moral weight to the enemy and added confusion and hurt to Anakin. (AKA Darth Vader.)BTW, where did Obi Wan find that big green iguanna creature? All of the sudden he's riding on the back of this huge dragon!? It was way cool but what in the world was it? (Besides a great toy license...)Actually my favorite moment from Star Wars was from the Burger King commercial where this guy just won a million dollars from a sweepstakes game.Darth Vader appears at his door, breathes and and says something like "Jeff, I am your father." The guy answers back, "No you aren't...you just want my money."Darth tries again. " Jeff, I am your...uncle."MC

Anakin tells Padme:"Something's happening -- I'm not the Jedi I should be. I want more, and I know I shouldn’t.”The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. Proverbs 30:15,16Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. Proverbs 27:20Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. ....The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;] And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Matthew 4:1;8-11“One little word will fell him.”Martin Luther“The Scriptures, the touch, the presence, and the love of Christ lived out coalesce the vital components of Word and deed, which become the sword of the Spirit to break down the armored resistance of a culture at war with His truth. For ultimately, all pursuits apart from God lead to alienation and loneliness that only the touch of Christ can resolve. The Christian, therefore, stands in the position to proclaim and live the truth that reaches the mind, stirs the heart and purifies the imagination. The regenerative power of the Word is what makes it indispensable to every culture in every century.”Ravi ZachariasBiblical Authority and Cultural Relativism

I don't think I've seen any of these movies from outer space or wherever it is. Interesting it should get on this site. I did here somebody say this was a spiritual movie, somebody sort of comparing it to a/their christian belief.jouko

The moment that most impacted me during the movie was when the Emperor/Senator was announcing how the Jedi had tried to kill him and how they must join together to fight "the resistance". He's obviously deceiving them, yet they clap their hands in wild uproar, thinking he is saving "the republic" when what he is really doing is building his evil empire.Padme is there and says "So this is how liberty is destroyed, with wild applause."Wow. What a great picture of what awaits for the earth in the last days, a great deception from a world leader, who promises peace and yet breathes lies and plots murder. The world will cheer him, and in doing so throws their freedom out the window. May we cling to Christ, who alone is good, trustworthy, holy, and righteous! He alone gives freedom, and yet the world would seek to be "free" in their own, often religious way. "Who the SON sets free, is free indeed."

Hello,I haven't been on here for quite a while, but when I got on and saw the discussion about Star Wars and it's spiritual messages, my heart was greived. I have only a question... was the movie pleasing to God? If it was, how so? If not, then why are we watching and supporting it? The way that we decieve ourselves continually amazes me. We spiritualize our lust for entertainment and claim to get something good from it to justify our love of the world. As Leonard Ravenhill says, we spend 2 stinking hours in a movie house, but we don't spend half an hour with our Lord. God help us! May he break our hearts with his love. A question we should always ask ourselves, "Who taught us this? God? Our own mind? the World? or the Devil?" Who taught us that Star Wars is good? It is full of the occult, even on the good side. They speak to the dead, levitate, manipulate peoples thoughts, manipulate objects, have remote viewing and all kinds of other occultic powers all under the label of the force. If these were witches and warlocks, we would not even see the movie, but since it is Jedis and Aliens we don't seem to mind. Where do they get these powers? How easily we are duped because we are not near to God. Free us Lord from our love of the world. May God break our hardened hearts to weep for the evil in this land, and not call evil good.

That commercial is cool, but the other BK commercials with the silent King with the stupid smile drives me nuts.Spin off from the gnome from the Travelocity spots, and Amelie, I suppose.Movies make a big impression on me because I see so few! They tittlelate me so. But they can put perspective on the human condition that seen in context to original sin and our fallen nature are interesting.Same for some secular music. We use secular tunes at our church coffeehouses in congunction with scripture, video, and CCM music to imbelish themes dealing with various facets of faith and trust, as well as the folly of depending on man or worse, our own strength.Last Friday, we use The Passion of the Christ movie clip of Gethsemene during our cover of Petra's 'Judas Kiss', and used Supertramp's 'Give a Little Bit' after mentioning a free will offering and moving into 'Lean On Me'. It was well-received...

Philip makes some good points. Let's be careful that we don't accidentally take in the wrong worldview from this fantasy film.At the same time I don't think it is a sin to watch the star wars movie for entertainment as long as we don't try to transfer George Lucas' messed up worldview from the galaxy of star wars to our own world. The problem with the Star Wars galaxy is that there are no absolutes. In fact the so called "good guy" in the movie, Obi Wan, tells Darth Vader that "only a sith deals in absolutes." And when anikin comes to yoda for help about the reality of death yoda can give him no comfort whatsover except to tell him of some crazy new age afterlife. In star wars there is no good, no bad, only light and dark. There is a big difference. There is no basis for truth in the whole galaxy, so when Obi confronts Darth Vader and tells him that what he has done is wrong Vader can respond that it is wrong only from his perspective.So, you like fantasy films? Good, go watch star wars and be entertained! If you want to learn about life, how to live it, what is right and what is wrong, etc, read the Bible! I agree that there are some things to be learned from star wars because most people still have some small idea of truth and it sometimes shows in what they do. The director of LOTR, Peter Jackson doesn't believe in absolute evil and yet his movies still showed that there really is. The only way we can learn anything from movies like star wars is if we already have a grasp of what God says.I'm not saying you guys are wrong in any way. I'm just simply putting in my two cents.

PhilipI'm sorry this grieved you. I was actually quite surprised that all these people that posted in this topic saw the movie. I was expecting more responses like yours.Greg started this topic with the thoughts I posted on my personal xanga site concerning how the Star Wars movie affected me. I was sad for a whole day after seeing that movie. I doubt that I ever want to see it again. And yes, we do need to realize that a false religion is in this movie and be careful how we parallel it to Christianity. Whether we should even do that or not, I don't know. And your comment about if there were witches and warlocks in the movie we wouldn't even go see it... I don't think is true. If we did a pole of how many Christians are into the Lord of the Rings, I think shockingly you'd find a lot are. Where do we draw the line? I don't know that either. And then that leads me to think... well wouldn't that make C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia controversial as well, with the use of pagan creatures and evil characters to portray spiritual, biblical truths such as in the story of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"? How many Christians are going to go see that in theaters in December? Honestly, I'm interested in seeing it. I don't care for the use of mythology and the witch... but I read that book and what shined brighter than all the rest was the portrayal of Jesus through the character of the lion, Aslan.You quoted the Revival Hymn in your post. I wake up to it every morning and know the line very well that says, "We spend 2 stinking hours in a movie house, but we don't spend half an hour with our Lord." But that's assuming that we don't spend more time with our Lord than we do watching an occasional movie. To me, my personal conviction is when movie watching takes the place of my time with God. The intimate, devotional time He so deserves from me. Some people don't ever even watch movies, and that's a beautiful conviction and awesome standard. At the same time, I would have to take the stand that watching a movie in itself is not a sin (depending on the moral content of the film).Anyway, these are just my thoughts and in no way my argument. I don't like arguing on here. I much rather refrain from expressing my every thought and wait until there's an opportunity to bless someone with encouraging, edifying words. So if there's one thing I can leave you with, it's that I do hope God encourages you in your personal convictions.

Yodi,I appreciate you commenting here, especially the piece about encouraging/edifying the body. May we all be found so doing as "today is called today".

Yolanda,how very well said :-) I too wonder about Ravenhill's comment. What if some believers DO spend hours or or whatever in prayer- and then also spend two hours watching a movie. I see what he is trying to see say, but you can't catagorize everyone who sees a movie as not spending enough time with the Lord. Some do. and some don't.This is a complicated subject and I pray that the Lord will lead each person to do what they should do. In Him, Chanin

I can't put my finger on it... but for some reason, after posting in this topic and another one about repentance, I just felt this heavy burden...It was one of those answering the Lord's call moments. Those precious times where you just run to find a place to get away with God. So during my lunch break, I walked to a park that's right next to work. It's up on a little hill that over looks the city. For some reason, going out in nature a bit just makes me feel so much closer to God. To look around at the trees and the flowers. To hear the birds sing their beautiful songs. Sort of a sanctuary. I know I can pray anywhere, but... there's something about some places.My whole point for sharing any of this is... to express my heart to you guys as best as possible... I love you guys. I don't even know most of you, but I love you. I just found myself praying to God for Him to continue to examine my heart. I realize that a lot of thoughts I share on here are going to influence you all in some way. There's no way I would want to lead a bad example in the way I live or the way I think. I feel a personal responsibility for you guys, in a sense. Spiritually at least. But more than what I could say on here, my greatest desire, my most outstanding prayer for the whole SI community is that each one of you would be enjoying a personal, close relationship with God. That those of us who play somewhat of a leadership role on here, our lives would be blameless and sanctified. Righteous living is so crucial in each of our Christian lives.I will keep praying for this ministry. For these topics that are started and parcipated in. For each one of us to be growing spiritually, and to desire to keep doing so. To love one another. To be teachable, but also be bold enough when prompted by the Holy Spirit, to offer an encouraging word. May we be pleasing to our loving heavenly Father.

Let me come back to the main topic here. I saw the post on Star Wars and what I sense here is the other side. How do the devil use the film industry? The devil has always ways of controlling the world by means and I think the movie is one his means. Anything he does, he does it to draw your attention away from God and put it on different things. One time he uses politics, the other time he uses football, the other time he uses movies and sometimes its holidays and e.t.c- always there is something that is “a talk of the town” in which everybody joins and gets exited. And if we are drawn with the crowd and falls-in in that excitement without realizing its spiritual meaning, that’s the trap! I don’t think God sends this movie influence on people, It should have been the vise versa! We were the ones who are supposed to influence people-As Star Wars is knocking everybody’s house (I can see it- If Christians are influenced like this-how much more the world?!) It should have been Jesus in us who should be the “talk of the town” as it was in the time of the apostles (don’t tell me that time is over never coming back again) No matter how much we give it “spiritual face” I don’t think this jives with the purpose of God- This is not the need of the hour- read the history of revival where movie houses were closed, Read the welsh revival where every move of the society were affected and where football fans gave up and where football ceased due to the revival. Everybody’s face was turned to Jesus. Let this be our thirst. Lets not be dragged along with the crowd. Let us discern the time! In the case of my country it is the ‘Election Fever” that is grasping the nation-and what a temptation it is not to involve with the “talk of the town” backbiting the ruling party! How many times it has become a stumbling block for me and how many times I bemoaned my situation before God! The spiritual reality is that God sending his angles kept this country from bloodshed but instead of clinging to that truth I found myself along with the society saying things! Isn’t this a trap? Going with the wind to and fro whenever it shifts -instead of standing firm and keeping oneself neat?! In my case it is politics and in your case it is a movie! I saw the crowd nearly 2 million who rallied supporting the opposition party on our city square and I said in my heart O' Jesus it should have been us dragging the crowds on the streets in evangelism and I feel ashamed when Christians cannot influence anything- Isn't Our Jesus more powerful than the opposition leaders then what in heaven is wrong with us-isn't Jesus more influential than Star Wars then what is wrong with us all?!Your Sis, Mekdi

For once I held my comment on the backburner, but I do agree with Mekdi. My oldest daughter once went on a sleepover at the local Baptist church and I thought it would do her good. Instead, I was horrified when I heard what was going on. The night started off with games, more games, and ended with the star wars movie. In the morning before we picked her up they had had a Bible study on "When Jesus comes back" for about 15 minutes. I really haven't seen the star wars thing but I hear christians speak about it as if it was something special i.e spritual. How sad to hear and to read about it here. It makes me wonder that sometimes we're high up there and then we compare prayer time and movies etc. Something is wrong. And, no, I'm not perfect, but it grieves me when there's thousands that are imprisoned, beaten to pulp, beheaded, declared insane for believing in Jesus Christ and confessing Him as their saviour and here we are, comparing our spiritual experience from a movie and at the same time confessing the same Jesus Christ.jouko