All right, good morning. We are coming to our next study in the series on Christian worldviews called A Way of Seeing. And this week, I'm sorry, I did not change your heading at the top of your notes there. It should be pantheism. You can see the picture, the title at the top, so you can scratch that out and put pantheism. I'm sorry that I can't control the – because of the technology problems that we're having, I can't control the slides. So, I'm going to have to be calling out some cues and it's going to be a little more awkward than normal. It seems like it's always awkward, but it will be a little more so than normal. If you can go to the first slide, which I think is the worldview overview chart. Oh, boy. Hit the next arrow several times. That should not have been an animated thing there. Oh, OK. Go back one, there you go, and go all the way down to pantheism. There, right, thank you. All right, so there's our major chart that we've been looking at over the past several weeks, starting with theism, particularly Christian theism, moving on to naturalism, or excuse me, deism, then to naturalism, springing off into nihilism and existentialism. This morning, we're taking a leap into the east in what is known as pantheism, or eastern pantheism. So this week we're moving to a worldview which has primarily developed in the cultures of the Far East. This is seen particularly in the various forms of Hinduism and Buddhism. And while Hinduism eventually developed into more of a polytheism, which is really I think a heresy of monotheism rather than its own worldview, but early Hinduism, as much as I've been able to tell and from some of the resources that I've looked at, started essentially as pantheism. Now look at the definition for pantheism. This is from Nelson's New Christian Dictionary. Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are one and that God is the combined manifestation of all the forces and phenomena in the existing universe. So just pause there to say what they're saying is that everything is God and everything that happens is a manifestation of God, which is going to have huge implications later when it comes to morality. Pantheists deny the distinction between God and creatures found in Christianity. So there is no creator-creation distinction. Everything is God. Everything is divine. Notice back previously in our chart how the word Cosmos is now man has disappeared, God has disappeared. Cosmos is in all capital letters, which means all the cosmos is divine. That's why it's there. Now R.L. Dabney uses the term for pantheism which he says it is world God. So again just everything is divine, everything has divine nature, everything that happens is of the divine nature. Francis Schaeffer called it pan-everythingism and he disagreed with the use of the word pantheism because theism is at the root of that word so everything God but even theism kind of assumes some personal dimension or personality within God and so he He is the only one that I've ever been able to find that uses the term pan-everythingism. It was his particularly coined term, and I think it's pretty accurate. So as opposed to pantheism, he used pan-everythingism. So this worldview has not maintained its hold only in the East. You can go to the next slide here, I believe. This worldview has not maintained its hold only in the East, but saw a surge of interest in the Western world beginning in the 1960s as the younger generation responds. to some of the cultural angst that was happening in the 60s, post-50s, leave it to beaver generation, the 60s, the age of Aquarius and hippies and earthy and there was a major shift that was influenced, even psychedelic drugs, And a lot of the culture that came in was an influence. When the Beatles began to get their own gurus and move to the east, and even in the music scene, it gets a little, they start using sitars. Some of you know that period of the Beatles where they begin to use the, the long slidey sitar. That was because of the philosophy. It wasn't just we have an interest in the music. It began to penetrate into the culture, particularly in that. And there are three things that James Sire points out that made the West, particularly in America, particularly vulnerable to the ideas of the East. And these are three of them. The first one is Western technology. Western technology. With the rise of modern warfare, of being able to kill more people with a nuclear weapon, and the devastation that would come, had come, and would come from that, There began to be a bit of a disenchantment with technology and a desire to become more primitive, a desire to get back to nature, a desire to kind of discover who we are. And so technology at that time, it's certainly changed now, but technology was particularly identified with the West. So what do we do to get away from modern warfare and technology and consumerism? Well, we go to the East and we go to those who meditate and we go to those who like palm trees and rock gardens and that kind of thing. So there was a great appeal to that kind of thing. The second major factor is Western economics. At the time, the West, because of its capitalism, was prosperous. It was financially prosperous. The East, there was this idea that the East was more poor and there was even voluntary poverty. And because of that, there's something virtuous about poverty. There's something sinful about prosperity. And so they began to search and people began to look and they saw these gurus who basically had the the clothes on their back and didn't have a love for worldly possessions and were trying to escape worldly possessions. They looked at the abuses of capitalism and they said, OK, the West means greed. The East means freedom. There's a third major factor, which was Western religion. Coming out of the 50s and a lot of the hypocrisy, a lot of the fundamentalism, a lot of the lack of love that was taking place culturally among the fundamentalist movements, who were really the only ones who were seeking to hold fast to scripture. Because of the hypocrisy, because of the formalism of what was taking their people began to look for some more authentic inward religion rather than an outward religion, and pantheism seemed to move in that direction. Rather than formality and shirts and ties and high church music and cathedrals, we could kind of get back to nature, we could get back to more simplicity, and there was more of a focus on what I think and who I am and that kind of thing. So it just Those three factors, Seyer suggests, the technology, the economics, and the religion of the West, coming out of the 50s, moving into the 60s, made the younger generation more open to considering other perspectives. And when the East began to be engaged with, they saw it really not as true, but they saw it more as appealing, as opposed to Christianity in the West. Alright, so as we look then at these three things, the elements of truth of the East view of the West should be acknowledged. When we look at that time period, technology was and is being abused. Economics, capitalism is being abused. good and right as opposed to socialism or communism, but it can foster greed. Greed is a real problem. Religion and Christianity is a real problem when it becomes formal, when it becomes external, when it becomes judgmental. So before we just defend all of those disagreements, we must say that in that time period and in our own time period that those are legitimate complaints. But now we don't run to something else because it just fits us better, but the question is, is it true? And does it pass the real world livability and the internal consistency test? So while acknowledging these elements of truth, there is much that is bad in the West as a result from these different things. There was this born this interest for something else to retreat from the West into the East. I've already mentioned the hippie culture, the anti-rationalism. A lot of the psychedelic movement was to bypass through psychedelic drugs and music the mind and to enter into kind of a metaphysically other experience, and there were colors, and there were sounds, and the music itself was all geared toward giving me a kind of ethereal, other-world experience. And there were people who would use religious language in that, and they would say, we have touched God. That this experience is so far beyond what anything we've experienced and then in the nuts and bolts of the world This we feel that in those psychedelic moments. We have touched God and there were whole movements. It wasn't just recreational Man, this is really groovy. This is really cool. Let's just do this there were those who had a religious determination and I think Aldous Huxley was one of them as a matter of fact that pursued it through that way and So simple life of meditation seemed appealing, harmony, peace, often coupled with drugs. This is a lot of the communes that were born of sharing property and sharing husbands and wives and sharing our children. A lot of that is born in the 60s as the East fuses with these ideas. So at the outset, we have to realize that when we speak of Eastern thinking as opposed to Western thinking, we're speaking of a whole different mindset. The Western world culture includes, for us, science and literature born out of a basically Christian view of the world, or at least a theistic view. So when you have Judaism and Islam and Christianity, it's basically a theistic view of the world. That is much of the West. In the East, we're talking a whole different mindset. including the idea of reason and logic because God is reasonable, God is logical. In this worldview, you don't need reason and logic because there is no personal, logical, reasonable God. So the mind was not seen as something to disengage. It was seen in Western worldview history. The mind was not something to disengage, but to engage and sharpen for God's glory. In the East, it became the disengagement of the mind. And there's a classic, one of my favorite movies, The Last Samurai. But Tom Cruise, he is moving from Western, capitalist, English, American, abusive, warfaring culture, and Japan is now receiving that culture, but now you have the samurai. And they are idealized as this culture that are, they're really pure, they're really kind of holy, they have these virtues and just everything about them is more virtuous. And so that, in that story, you have a clash between the West and the East. And if the West was only evil the way that they're portrayed and the East was only good in the way that it's portrayed in this movie, It'd be a great history, but it's not, and neither sides are purely virtuous nor purely evil. But it sets up that story to set up this contrast between drunkenness, evil, Capitalism, colonialism, this kind of thing. And then just we want to live at peace with the land and be in our village and everything is OK. Samurai historically are not quite that pure. But anyway, that's that's that's how the story is set up. And as a story, as long as it's not history, it's a great story. So there's this real key scene where. Tom Cruise, who is a captain who is of no small notoriety, he gets captured by the samurai. He's leading some of the Japanese, the modern Japanese, against the samurai. Well, they get totally devastated. They panic and they shoot before they're Their opponents can get close enough to them, they're captured. And because of a kind of a prophetic vision, Tom Cruise is seen by the leader of this group as somebody who is to be saved. So he takes him back, they take him back to camp. So it's about him kind of detoxing from his alcoholism. It's about him emptying his mind, purifying his mind, and becoming one with these people. And eventually, I don't think it'll spoil the story, moving over to their side. But there's a real key moment where he is fighting the master swordsman of this village, is a bad dude, and he wants to kill Tom Cruise more than anything, Algren, Captain Algren, I believe is his name. And is it Quasimodo is the, yeah, the main lead simmer. I can't remember the swordsman's name. But there's a key scene where they're fighting, and he's actually, he's a good swordsman, but he can't stand up to this guy. So he stands before him and they're doing this training with these wooden swords. And basically the guy who's the head of the village is behind him. And he's a real likable guy. He's like, no, no, no. He's trying to coach him. And at one point he says, too many mind, too many mind. And he's saying, you're using your mind too much. You've got to empty your mind. If you'll empty your mind, then you can actually, and for the first time, the two in this particular sword play, they're betting on the sides. The two in the sword play, Cruz is just getting utterly devastated. Algren is getting just decimated. But when he empties his mind and becomes at peace, then he's able actually to match this guy and eventually, arguably, get better than him. So that's, what is that? Well, that's a whole worldview imported into this movie and being preached. And so you're supposed to come away from that movie going, you know what I need to do is I need to disengage my mind more. Okay, so that's a very, for me, pointed cultural reference. It's being snuck into movies all the time. We're going to see four examples later, some of maybe your favorite movies, where this has been snuck in, and often it's not even dressed up very much. It just is what it is. So that's what we're talking about, and that's how it began to influence the West. So let's go on to the, I think, the next slide. to metaphysics and then try to answer these questions. First of all, metaphysics. What is pantheism at its bottom? And let me just say that there are various varieties of pantheism. This is what I'm giving is a very kind of a generic pantheism. This may not be true, but in every way, in every pantheistic form, because it's so pliable, but this is generally true. First of all, all the cosmos is God itself. All the cosmos is God itself. In Buddhism, the phrase that is used is, Atman is Brahman. That is, everything is God. Brahman is infinite and impersonal, the deity. The soul of each and every man is the soul of the cosmos. Start thinking through your movies and your cultural references. So each and every man is the soul of the cosmos. This is not only true of man, but of all creation. So when I come to Brother Tree, you know, this pretend this is tree, this is Brother Tree and we are one together and my life flows it through it and its life flows through me. And oh, and this little puppy dog with the sad eyes is one with me and we share the life force. OK, oh, the grass that I'm standing on is I must be. Why? Why? Because it's a stewardship of God's creation. No, because we are one and the life force is one. OK, so that's the idea. All the cosmos is itself God. Second, redemption. They wouldn't use this term, but redemption or salvation, or how do we answer what's wrong with the world, because obviously the world has something wrong with it, is the realization of the oneness of all. So you will pursue your purpose in life in a purposeless universe by realizing the oneness of all. However, some people are more one than others. So if you realize and pursue the reality of the oneness of all, you're more one than others who don't realize that. So if you take a Christian who's preaching that there's a God, there's a day of judgment, all this stuff, they're one, but they're less one than you are. And you're more one than they are because you realize it and you can, through various meditations and techniques, become more one with the universe. So what's the obvious question? If we are one, what does it mean to be more one? Okay, so there's, but they would say, too many mind, too many mind. Okay, because we're using our mind. We're trying to logically think that out, but they're, no, too many mind. All right, so when we realize that we are one with nature, one with another, one with the cosmos, we will begin to treat one another and all things as we desire to be treated. Even what we do with animals, trees, and insects is dictated by the question, would I want this done to me? So you know that annoying fly that came and those gnats that have been, at least in our house, flying around? They seem to follow me everywhere. I'm starting to think it's me. But everywhere I go, there are these gnats, you know, and I'm about ready to smash it because it annoys me. And I go, what, I want to be smashed like this. Go away, Mr. Flattened Gnat. Go, go, you know, live free, Mr. Cockroach and ants and just let it. So that's the question, because that I'm as much as one with that thing is that thing is one with me. And so out of Buddhism, then will be come things like vegetarianism. a philosophical vegetarianism because we share the life force and I wouldn't want to do that with any other being. There are some legends of Siddhartha Gautama, who was the first Buddha, you know, who's walking along and then he sees a bug tracking across his path and he stops and lets the bug go by and, you know, oh, Master Buddha. What what does this mean? He says well, you know what makes me any superior to this bug? and it doesn't it have as much of the right way as I do and So that but that's the idea those are some of the implications So redemption is this realization being one it is it is not action Which from the Christian worldview is guided by thinking of the particular purpose of things is designed by God So I don't abuse sentient beings or torture people puppies because I'm creating the image of God and I'm to treat it as a stewardship. I'm not abusive to animals. I don't, you know, just. wreck havoc, you know, driving through a field and just with a machine gun start shooting all these animals. But I think, what is this thing for? Is it for my food? If so, how can I take its life in the most painless and not torturous way possible? That's a Christian question. Here, from the Eastern pantheism, it's a question of, would I want this done to me? And if so, that answers the question. Of course, it gets hard when you start thinking about, if that's essentially the question, then isn't that grass as much one or that salad or that spinach leaf just as much one as me? And would I want this spinach leaf to eat me if it had the opportunity? So at some point, it kind of breaks down and becomes very pragmatic. So in this, there's an increase of oneness as one is enlightened to the oneness. This is the idea of the Buddha. The Buddha is the enlightened one. or the enlightened one. This is the one who is most close to being pure by being absorbed in the oneness. This is why meditation is so central to Eastern religion. It is to disengage oneself from the physical temptations and distractions and to empty one's mind to the point of becoming one with the universe. This is done through chants or single words. It is always sought through disengagement from what appears to be reality. A comic technique, one of the mystical special words is Aum. That there's something about the Aum that is supposed to harmonize your soul, your oneness with the universe. And as you empty out your mind and say that and use that technique, you learn to empty your mind, you learn to empty yourself of self, and you're able actually to be absorbed up into the oneness. This is why meditation is so important. A common technique, as I've said, is the Aum. And so in doing this, one actually transcends individual personality, becomes more of what they are becoming, less of who they are. So we are ultimately impersonal beings. So our redemption is to lose our personhood. That is the goal of Eastern Buddhism. True consciousness is actually non-consciousness. This is the very opposite of theism, but its view of God, both in its view of God and man. So salvation is not to know God. It is not what we know and who we know and coming to know, but to not know, but to be. Okay, so salvation is to be, not to know. So empty your knowing and be one with the universe. Let me stop there. Any comments and questions up to this point? Whoops, sorry. I'm confused as to how one can be no better or no more superior than anyone else and then have authority. Yeah. How can I, how is my opinion, what if, what if your opinion is, I mean, I just don't understand that, how they came to the place of having authority, or can I become a Buddha at some point, Well first Steve, too many mine. You're still getting some feedback. Could you pull that back just a little bit? You're still getting a good bit of feedback. That's what their answer is, but Steve is putting his finger on just the problem. Because if non-knowing is more oneness, the Buddha sure is claiming to know a lot. And it's going to teach you techniques to know. And it's assumed I have a knowledge that you don't have, no. So the way that you be is by knowing what I'm going to teach you and what maybe you attach yourself to me or pay me for. So you see that that is the inconsistency in the worldview. Very good. Yes. Yes. Same thing. It's borrowing from Christian concepts. which is the thing that you want to cling on to and say, now wait a minute, that's not internally consistent. You're saying it is the loss of the mind, but you're using your mind in order to communicate me to things that I don't know in order. That sure sounds an awful lot like there's such thing as personality and knowledge. And how do you justify that in a universe in which, I mean, if you are, if all of the actions of the universe, all the cosmos is God, so that what's coming out of me is God itself, in God's words, in the words and actions of the divine, you are also saying these are good ones, these are bad ones. Where does that standard come from? You're still assuming and you're judging one another. You're assuming certain things that only fit in the Christian worldview in order to propagate that the Christian worldview isn't true. So, excellent. This is what Schaeffer called taking off the roof. You let somebody build the house and when you see the contradictions, you take off the roof and let the consequences fall in on them. Yeah. Yeah, that is true. If I truly lost myself, then I wouldn't need to eat. I wouldn't even worry about the things of this reality. So you're right. I think you're absolutely right. Ah, that's coming up for you. Yes? And they would say there's no sinful nature because everything is God. Everything is divine. So don't be so hard on yourself and say that you're a sinner. That's what they would say. You're divine. Is that? Yeah. You should. Those are false realities. And if you can transcend with your mind the false realities, then you can escape what seems to be evil in this world. As you become one, you realize there is no cancer. There is no spoon. You got it. And by the way, let me put another plug in, and Matrix isn't for everybody, but Matrix is an interesting mix of Buddhism, Pantheism, Existentialism, Nihilism, and Christianity all. They're intentionally weaving together into a basket of syncretism, these different worldviews. But there is no spoon. I can bend the spoon. And so likewise, if I'd realized there is no cancer, then I would not suffer the consequences of cancer. I'm sorry? Well, what happens when they die will come up here. They have not, if they succumb to something like that, it's because they are not yet purified enough and they need to go through it again. I agree. So there are the kinds of, too many mine, Ashley, too many mine. Okay, well, let's go on, because these other points are also as important. So all the cosmos is itself God. I mean, you guys are doing great. You're seeing the problems really well. Number three, there are different paths that lead to the one. As a matter of fact, they would say all religions lead to the one. So we're all up going up the mountainside, and we pass one another, and I see you over there, and you're a Christian, and the Buddhist is going up this path. Whether we realize it or not, they're all making their way up to the mountain to the one. Okay, so all major religions, they say, have seeds of truth in them, the important thing. So that's where, at times, Gandhi will quote Jesus because they're seeds of truth. But if you do a little bit of research, Gandhi was no friend of Jesus. denying that he was God, denying, I mean saying, denying that he was without sin. So Gandhi, you know, is sometimes quoted as this great hero. And, you know, he's only quoting what Jesus did. Well, he's quoting the moral elements of what Jesus taught that he liked. But he was no friend of Jesus at all. Even if Ben Kingsley did play him, he's still no friend of Jesus at all. All major worldviews had seeds of truth in them, so they will quote, and you'll often see books where Buddhism and Jesus, or Buddhism and Socrates, Buddhism or whatever. The important thing is not to be on the same path, but heading the right direction in our own individual path. So it's okay, we don't have to argue. At the end of the day, if we disagree, you're headed up the one path anyway. Ideas or objective truth, they would say, are not important. Which is itself, an objective statement of truth. And they would say a very important one. Doctrines, distinctions, ideas are not important to even try to argue or persuade is not legitimate. The best path is that of meditation and quiet and solitude on that which is without content. So in one sense, philosophically, Buddhism is very noncombatant. It won't take very long for someone who's really serious about it, where they're not even going to want to argue, they're going to back out and not want to engage. So that's where addressing them has to be with respect, has to be with sincerity, has to be with a certain earnestness and respect toward them, because as soon as you start pounding on them, they will pull back completely. Not that we should pound on them anyway, but as soon as you kind of go for it. So asking questions is important. Number four there is really no death since all is eternal all is divine all is God. There is only a recycling They call it reincarnation. We call it recycling. So it's salvation by recycling Time is cyclical. So it's not linear like in the Christian worldview, but it's cyclical just going round and round and round and round Time in a sense is unreal and only perceived all If one causes suffering and pain or does unjust things in this life, there is what's called karma. And karma in a non-moral, impersonal universe gets awful ticked off about evil. Because if the world, I mean, what is karma? Well, karma is this idea of you do bad things, bad things will happen. You do good things, good things will happen. And if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. You will come back in the next life as a tick or something that's hated or a sub-teenage prostitute girl in the ghettos of New Delhi. And that's where in itself, and this is in the polytheistic Hindu version, There are these castes of people that you're born into. If you did good in the previous life, you're born into an upper caste and you have privileges. You're what's called a Brahmin. I had a very good friend years ago who was born into the Brahmin class. very well educated, very looked up to, very respected. You could go into temple and have privileges and other things that the outcast couldn't have. You were born into an outcast family because you'd done evil in the previous life. And so even the idea that the upper caste show pity toward the lower caste. I mean, think about that. If that's part of your punishment, you will only relieve their punishment and then they'll have to come back and pay for it again. So it's better to leave them alone. They're the untouchables. So if you're a little girl, and that's what makes Christianity and Christian compassion in India so radically different, because we don't have that worldview. We're going in and showing sympathy and trying to do what we can to educate and to help and to feed and to care for these 11, 12, 13 year old little prostitute girls. whose mothers are selling them into prostitution in order to put food on the table. And the upper castes who has nothing will not touch them. Why? Because they are being punished for their sin by karma. For a non-moral universe, it sure sounds awful morally driven. So that's what makes it so radical. So historical moments, coming back, historical moments and realities don't have significant meaning. So speaking about real space-time events, such as what happened in the historical biblical record, don't make much sense. And even when you talk to, particularly a Hindu, about whether they really believe the gods and mythologies, many of them will say, no. You know, they're worshiping this certain god at this certain altar, these certain family gods at this altar, and okay, Do these deities actually exist somewhere? And they're no. Well, that's that's a problem. No, it's not, because it's about the story. It's about this cycle in real space. Some events just don't even really matter. That's not the point. The mythologies give us meaning apart from them being true. There's little in their writings about historical events, there's mostly parables, stories which are not historical myths and songs, and some of them are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And C.S. Lewis would argue, and Joseph Campbell has demonstrated, that there are elements of the stories that are beautiful, that are moral, and they're quite reflective of Christian truth that don't at all fit in the worldview that they hold. So Christians can fall into the same error. Oh, wait a minute. Went back. There's a sharp division between things that are of the world and things that are spiritual. And there are forms of this thinking that can penetrate, we call it neoplatonism, into the church to think that the spiritual things, God is spiritual, created things are evil. That's part of the influence, not so much of Eastern thinking, but of Neoplatonism, but it's very similar. So, you know, that I'm evil, food is evil, sex is evil, entertainment is evil. These things are evil in and of themselves. And really, I can't wait to die and get released from my body and go to heaven because then I'll be one and I'll be freed from this world. So that's where it kind of infects our thinking rather than saying God himself is the one who's going to make a new heavens and a new earth. and raise up our fallen bodies that have been corrupted and put us back into a world that is physical and at that point uncorrupted. Okay, very quickly, epistemology. For them, there's no such a thing as objective truth or the law of non-contradiction. There is, in a sense, no use to debating or discussing truth, they would say, because opposite things can be equally true. Since there is no true statement, there can be also no lie. And as soon as they say something like that, you go, oh, is that true? Oh, yes. OK. So we only know by non-knowing, letting our mind and rationality go. How do we know that? Because they told us. And now we know. And rejecting the idea of knowledge. Of course, they are inconsistent because this can't be taught without making truth statements. Last, ethics. All things in the pantheistic worldview are ultimately and finally, in the words of Schaeffer, All things, all actions are ultimately and finally equal, similar to naturalism. And here we've almost come full circle back to a naturalist worldview. Here, naturalism moves into an idea, all things are ultimately equal, ultimately and finally equal. There's no morality. It's very, very similar. So some of the same arguments we use with naturalism, we can use with Buddhism. The cosmos is perfect at every moment. Thus, there is a passing beyond good and evil. At the same time, there is the view of karma, which demands that all suffer for past sins. In this view, there's no room for alleviating pain, suffering, because that would only delay the suffering. We've already talked about that. Doing good is not for the benefit of others, but first and foremost, self-centered. So I don't give punishment by not meeting a standard. Sure sounds like sin and judgment. From this worldview, all actions being actions of the divine are good. And by the way, you're caught in that cycle until you break the cycle and you become one and then you never really appear again. So you're saved. So you learn through all the cycles and the histories of life, you do evil, you do evil, you essentially pay for your own sin and learn to do well. And when you do, you actually escape this reality that's not reality at all. From this worldview, all actions being actions of the divine are good. There is no room for guilt, repentance, being sorry for one's actions, yet they will feel guilty and will repent and try to do better. All that isn't good is mere illusion, illusory, and must be overcome. However, there is the reality of bad deeds being punished for coming back in the worst form or condition. Try as they may, they cannot move beyond the sense of a moral universe. If things are always a part of one, there is no good and evil, then why are moral terms used? You ask a Buddhist, is rape good? No. Why? Because it's unpleasant. Who said unpleasant things are bad? you're making a moral judgment. So again, many of the same arguments against naturalism could be used here. Okay, any questions, comments? I want to move into some examples of modern pantheistic stories or stories that have pantheistic elements in them. Any questions, comments? You feel like you've got a basic grasp? If not, just too many of mine. Yeah, yeah. a lot of times human nature will drive you once you reach a certain class, you become Yeah, I think either of those could be true depending on what form of pantheism you have. But I think the first thing that you mentioned that you keep recycling until you make your way up and then you're lost in the oneness and you never kind of appear reincarnated again. You're ultimately lost. Yourself is lost. That's the goal. What's that? Nirvana. Yes. Yes. So you touch with nirvana until finally you reach nirvana. That's right, yeah, Tim and then Casey. So basically, everything is bad and everything is good, but you try to escape the good. Yes. Is it good or bad? Mo better. It's internally inconsistent, right? And it is not livable. Because you still have to live in this world. The monk who's in deep meditation still, his stomach starts growling eventually, and his body starts dying. And rather than going ketonic, wakes up and says, give me some rice. He's not able to escape. Casey? I've read some books on Christian mysticism, and it seems like, you know, even though there were some things like about the nuns don't mind giving you money. Yes, excellent. Yes. Was it birthed out of thought? I don't know that it was, because I'm not sure that they had access of the influence of that worldview, but I would say it's a demonic technique, and where the devil goes, he only has a handful of tools that he can use, and they keep showing up in different wrappings. But I think Casey's exactly right in that forms of Christian mysticism which escape, and I just want to be one in communion with God, and I don't care about anybody else. Okay, that sounds good until we open the Bible. And how do I love God who is far when I hate my brother who is near? And so there's this connection. Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you did to me. You fed me, you clothed me. So there is an intricate interweaving of our love for God But there's also the reality whom have I in heaven, but you and there's none on the earth I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. Is there a sense in which all we need is God? Yes. There's another sense that we need God through the means that he has given us. So. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Simon, Simon, the stylite, he sat on top of a pole to the point where his followers, parts of his flesh were being eaten by worms would fall off and they'd get them and they were holy relics. Yeah. Yeah, anybody up for that? Yeah, those were some of the desert monks pretty early on. Okay, let me give some quick cultural examples. First one, Avatar, which I think is a great movie. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, well shot. Some of it's kind of, When you name the thing that you're looking for, a metal called unobtainium, you can't obtain it? Okay, that's just cheesy. That's just silly. We're looking for unobtainium. Okay, so some of that's silly. But beautifully shot, the idea of a savior who incarnates himself in a sense, there are elements there that Certainly now now Mark Driscoll hates this movie He said he said something like it was the most demonic thing in cinema of all time or something like that So avatar so avatar remember the whole premise of it is and again, it's that West versus East So Western colonial we're coming on this planet and when and when you corrupt the whole world through colonialism Where do you go you go into space? Okay, so a lot of movies, once the sci-fi genre, the new frontier, the new pioneer, it used to be you go to other lands, and that was the exotic place. And then in American history, the West, going out West, cowboys and Indians, that's the exotic land. But now we've kind of covered the Earth, where do you go for adventures? Well, that's where sci-fi arises, where we go for adventures and meet new people, new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Okay, that's, and you think about it, the original Star Trek was a western in a spaceship. Okay, so it's basically, and you know, I'm the sheriff of this town, you know, there's Kurt, love Kurt. Some of you prefer. I knew you'd take me to task on that. Okay, so that's the new frontier. So how did I get there? Oh, okay. So in Avatar, it's the new frontier. You go. It's the greedy military capitalists. There's a big message there. Who are the earth-loving, peaceable people? They have respect. I mean, it's really dances with wolves on another planet, right? We're peace-loving people. They're idealized. They're primitive. They get along with one another. Even when they kill an animal, there's respect and dignity for that. And so here they come. They're trying to get the unobtainium. And so it's he that comes in, the main character who comes in. But the thing that drives the whole thing is this tree. and the life force that flows through the entire thing. And you can connect with all sentient beings and even non-sentient beings. You can connect up with flowers and you've got your ponytail thing that you can, you know, and plug into things. And we're all part of that life force. And there's this shared consciousness that when you lose yourself, you come back, but your consciousness is absorbed in the life force. And if you kill that tree, the whole thing's going to die. So, avatars. So, there's some Christian elements in there about sacrifice, about love. There's clearly morality, that doing these things is evil, this thing is good. It doesn't fit in a Buddhist worldview. So, here I'm going to quote Philip Riken, one of the pastors of 10th Prez, son of Leland Riken, one of my favorite authors, who I first heard say that the only good stories have to have Christian elements in them. Because imagine avatar from a Buddhist perspective, purely Buddhist. There existed this planet on which there were all of these people who were absorbed in the one and they sat all day in their oneness. Roll credits. Okay, you gotta have morality, you've gotta have conflict, you've gotta have fallen people, you've gotta have good people, evil people, you've gotta have a savior. None of that's in the Buddhist worldview. So it's one of my favorite cultural things to do is to watch a movie and unravel those things and say, here's some of the great things about the movie, here's the stuff that's just poison, if you believe it. Second, next one. Uh-oh, Lion King. All right, think through. Now, surprise, I've never seen Lion King. I know, I know. I've heard it's great. What's that? Is music great as long as you don't bring it into worship, right? That's another story So it's a Lion King. So the idea that you know when dad dies, he's really kind of out there and okay That's about all that I know but that is a very common one go back through watch it and look for is it the cycle of life? circle of life Circle it's a circle for a reason a certain Yeah, but it's pantheistic faith, love. It only gets good when it becomes Christian. Otherwise, you'd have a bunch of animals out in the out in the jungle, you know, they're eating one another and tearing one another's flesh going to the ground. And then, you know, somebody's come along and eating from the ground and then they have a baby and it just it just be watching nature. But there's a king, there's a sun king, there's sacrifice, there's, huh, okay, next one. Yes. The force. The force, the metachlorines. It's the life force that infuses all living things. But there's a problem, and you can manipulate it, and you can control it, and it's recycled. But there's a problem. And by the way, George Lucas was a disciple of Joseph Campbell, who was an expert myth myth. This isn't the right term, but mythologist who did some amazing work in bringing the mythologies of the world together. Sad thing, Campbell was not a Christian and considered Christianity merely as one of these bodies of myths. And so, classified them with all of the other myths, but did an amazing job tying them together and showing how many common themes that there are, that you can't get away from a handful of common themes, which only makes sense in the Christian worldview. Brilliant series, The Power of Myth, you can get it at the Public Library, Joseph Campbell, well worth watching for those observations. Then what C.S. Lewis does with that information, that's anachronistic because C.S. Lewis came before Joseph Campbell, But Lewis's view of how mythology serves the Christian worldview, I think is a good interpretation of that. Okay, so Star Wars, Metachorine. So, the problem is there are two sides of the force. What are they? The dark side and the light side, good and evil. So, Lucas was a thoroughgoing Buddhist. He was trying to propagate Buddhism. But he can't do it without dark and light. He can't do it without a virgin birth. Anakin was born of a virgin. Who's the father? We don't know. Who's born of a virgin? There's fall. Anakin falls because of greed and a desire for power to save Padme, and he wants her to have eternal life. And he's willing to go for the forbidden fruit of the dark side and disobedience to what he'd been taught in his Jedi ways. And then when Obi-Wan says to him very pointedly, only the Sith deals in absolutes, he makes an absolute statement. So he falls. He falls. And the whole Star Wars series is the story of Anakin, by the way. It's not about Luke. It's not about Leia. It's not about Jar Jar. Anyway, but if you trade the single character that's in all of the movies is Anakin and Anakin is the one who comes who ends up being the savior of the world because he keeps the Sith from destroying everybody. And he does that by sacrifice of himself so that his son may live. That ain't Buddhism. That's Christianity and nothing else. Okay, so Star Wars. Next one, last one. One of my favorite, one of the most difficult movies to watch, What Dreams May Come. I love this movie. Many people I know hate it. Terribly depressing, terribly depressing. about suicide, about death of children, about death of spouse, but its view of what it's doing. There are times that specifically Buddhist symbols like the yin and the yang show up on the stewardess's name tag. Some of the comments that are made are obviously their attempt to propagate Buddhism, but Christianity keeps poking its head out and making the story good. And the ultimate that happens in the end is a husband who goes to hell and suffers for his bride to rescue her from it and redeems her from her own despair by his own willingness to sacrifice and go there for her. That ain't Buddhism, that's Christianity. And so again, with Reichen I say none of these stories would have any, any power to them. As much as they're trying to propagate Buddhism, I keep seeing the gospel in these things. Let me close this morning. We started about 10, 15 minutes late, so I'm taking a bit of liberty to try to cover this material. Somebody might ask the question, Stephen, is this really necessary? I mean, do we need to think about movies? Do we need to think about stories? Why don't we just preach the gospel? Well, if it's pay attention to stories and do all that stuff and be engaged and don't preach the gospel or preach the gospel and don't engage, if they're mutually exclusive, then yes, we should preach the gospel. But is it possible that by being culturally aware with the people that we rub elbows with and with those stories, which are the mythologies of our day, that God can actually use us in order to affect the culture and people's thinking and bring them closer to the gospel and have even an opportunity? I think this is what God did with Daniel. If you'll turn quickly to Daniel. And here I'll just say that I don't think Even what I do, I don't think it's everybody's calling. I mean, if you're gonna watch movies, for goodness sake, watch them with discernment. Don't be passive. My wife says to me famously, why can't we just watch a movie? Let's talk about it, let's think about it. And most of the time, it's because I keep interrupting it. It's not because she doesn't want to think about it, it's because I keep giving commentary, right, Ross? But at least think about it, talk about it, engage with it. Notice in Daniel, what happens is Nebuchadnezzar comes, he overthrows the Jews, he takes some of the young men and the people into exile. And by the way, he does that, verse 2, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand. Even that was what the Lord was doing. But when they, notice verse 4, they were looking for these young men. The king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief, I'm going back to verse 3, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal families and of the nobility, used without blemish, in other words, they aren't missing arms, their eyes not gone, that kind of thing, without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, That's who they were looking for, men who were intellectually brilliant. The purpose was to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Now, believe it or not, the Chaldeans didn't have the stories of the Jews. They had their own mythologies. They had their own false gods. They had their own laws. And here, Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are taken out and given responsibility And what did they do? Did they cross their arms and say, no, there's no truth, but God's truth, which is found in scripture. We're not listening to that. We're not learning any other laws. We're not learning your literature. We're not learning your stories. And if you want to kill us, that's fine. It seems God gave them wisdom to say we could use this for good. And so notice then down to verse 17, after the whole trial with the food, as for these four years, God gave them learning and skill and all literature and wisdom. So now they're learning the literature in these false stories and mythology. But God is giving them wisdom in those things. Does that blow your mind? So it's learning the cultural mythologies and stories and laws. God gave them learning. God bless them. And Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams. And one of the incredible things is. What the visions and stories are, Daniel is able to interpret and he has an understanding of how the king thinks and what symbols mean. We could spend a lot of time there. Symbols have meaning. He knew the cultural symbols because of the cultural myths. Notice in verse 20, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. These guys are studying the same body of literature, the same mythologies, the same laws. These guys, from a godly perspective, were ten times better than any of their experts. That's what I want for some of our youth. Not to be 10 times less and culturally backwards, but cultural penetrators for the sake of the gospel. That people go, you Christians are just backwater, backwoods, don't know anything, and say, well, some of your own poets have said this. Now, not everybody is called to that, and not all of our kids are called to that, not all of our families, but surely some of us are. Okay, I'll just leave it there. We need to stop. I'll pray, please. Lord, you know whom you've chosen for these purposes, and I pray that all of us would listen, think, observe with wisdom and discernment, and I pray particularly for our young people. I think of Ross. I think of the good mind that you've given him, and if you would be so pleased to use his mind for your glory. I think of Jonathan. I think of Emily, I think of others in our church who have sharp minds, who have good minds, and we want not to be disengaged and passive, but to engage the world so that it can be said that they are ten times wiser than the students in the colleges and other places. Lord, please help us. Please give us wisdom. Give us love for those who hold to other-world views, and give us grace, we pray, as we come to worship you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.