| Independence Day, Armageddon, and Deep Impact are just a few of the recent group of movies about the end of the world. Is there a hidden message from God in these films?
As we approach Y2K (year two thousand), movies dealing with the end of history have proliferated. In addition to entertaining viewers with nonstop adventure and eye-popping special effects, these films pose unique challenges to the theology and practice of the contemporary church. Current "end-of-the-world" movies both reject "establishment" approached to life?s problems (including by implication those of the church), and recast apocalyptic projections in secular terms. 
Some films are post-apocalyptic-they deal with events after the destruction of the world. Kevin Costner?s Waterworld is a good example of the genre (even if a bust film). The plot unfolds in a world that is covered by water because of human stupidity and greed.
 A second group of films, and perhaps more prevalent, portray events that threaten to bring about the end of the world. Some malevolent force-asteroids in "Armageddon", aliens in "Independence Day", dinosaurs in "Godzilla"-is about to bring about our destruction. To avoid it, we will need the best of both human ingenuity and technology.  But humankind is capable, even if barely. Though there is carnage and loss, life will continue. Or so the script suggests.
The 1998 movie "Deep Impact", now out on video, is a good example of current doomsday movies. As the film opens, Leo Biderman, A high school student on an astronomy field trip, discovers a comet "the size of Mt Everest." It is about to collide with earth-that is, to make a deep impact. What will people do, given this "ELE" (extinction level event)? Throughout the rest of the film we observe the response not only of Leo, but of an inexperienced albiet ambitious reported, and ultimately, of the president of the United States.  The government had been secretly working on a survival plan, we are told; it is building a space ship called Messiah to intercept the comet, plant nuclear devices beneath is surface, and skillfully blow it to smithereens. I won?t give away the story, which involves choosing a million people by lottery to repopulate the planet, but several observations can be made without doing so.
First, linear thing is out. Planning organization, technology-these are insufficient of themselves. The film?s up start reporter uncovers the asteroid threat not by following a lead on the crisis but by mistaking ELE for "Elie," the supposed lover of a prominent senator. The reports?s "mistake" is held as investigative genius.
Reminiscent of John Glenn?s participation in a space fight with six younger astronauts last October, Spurgeon Tanner, played by Robert Duvall, is the older former astronaut involved in the Messiah Project. Although the younger crew members resent him at first, believing he is outdated and there for publicity reasons, Tanner proves indispensable. Younger crew members might be better at handling the technology, but leadership, wisdom, and an aesthetic sense prove equally necessary, particularly when plans fail.
 We are reminded of the X-files, where FBI agent Fox Mulder intuitive, even irrational grasp of reality ( he believes his younger sister was abducted by aliens when he was a youth), and fellow agent Dana Scully?s no-nonsense pragmatism (she is the rational thinker a scientist and physician) must both be employed if catastrophe is to be avoided.
In both the film and television episodes of this ongoing sage, there is no attempt on the part of the characters to retreat from technology or to deny its demands. But equally sure is the realization the here scientific rationality of our modern age has severe limitations and must be informed by something more. Guidance must become from multiple sources and perspectives to save the day.
In his inaugural lecture as professor of practical theology at Aberdeen University, John Drane pointed to the same impulse to transcend mere rationality as a major theme in the film Armageddon. If a means of preserving the planet exists, it will not be found throughout conventional rules and rationality. Neither NASA nor the Pentagon will save us. In fact, the NASA director tells his colleagues at one point that if anyone felt like praying, "now would be the time." It is not the government that will save us, but Harry Stamper, the world?s greatest oil well driller. His strategy is completely illogical but ultimately successful.
 What are we to make of this? As I write this article the cover story on TIME magazine features the herbal medicine boom outhits scalded alternative remedies. The film "Patch Adams" is about to be relapse, with Robin Williams playing a doctor who dresses as a clown to assist the healing of his patients. Jesse "the body" Ventura is in Hollywood to calibrate his recent election victory over Hubert Humphrey Jr. as governor of Minnesota. Is there any who would deny our culture?s cynicism about the efficacy of traditional systems? If what the movies point to and culture embraces are true what will hold us in the new millennium is logic and mysticism, Prozac, and St John?s Wort , Physics and poetry. Though loose ends remain, success will be found to the degree that both rational and intuitive near are employed.
The second notable aspect of Deep Impact?s apocalyptic vision is the nature of evil. Evil is now secularized. It isn?t the satanic that is a threat, but a comet. Moreover, it is not a sovereign God who initiates the apocalypse, but natural causes complicated by human blundering and atrociousness. In the biblical vision of the apocalypse, the righteous are rased and escape final annihilation. But in this Hollywood version, the good and the bad alone are threatened. It is not so important to be among the righteous as it is for human ingenuity and heroism to try to save the day.
What are we to make of such a "natural" apocalypse? Speaking at a recent conference in religion and film, Conrad Ostwalt suggested provocatively that Americans are increasingly substituting Hollywood doomsday films for the traditional Christian apocalypse vision because the church has grown silent.
As the evangelical church has become increasingly mainstream, we wince at portraying world destruction at the hands of a sovereign God. After all we like the world we live in. Except for certain religious groups on the cultural fringe, a real apocalyptic consciousness is largely absent from contemporary Christian thought and awareness. When was the last time you heard a sermon on the end of the world at the hands of a righteous God? Enter Hollywood today with our millennium question and concerns.
Perhaps Ostwalt overstated his case, but only sightly. Though James Orr predicted one hundred years ago that the twentieth century would be the "age of eschatology," few are speaking in such terms about the twenty-first century. Typically, we continue to believe in eschatology (the doctrine of the end times), but it is not preached or taught as often as others aspects of the Christian story.
A minister friend wrote his Master thesis on "Gehenna" (Matthew 18:9) and the "lake of fire" (Revelation 19:20; 20;10). His doctoral dissertation was on angles in the last days. But this was in the decade of the seventies when Hal Lindsey?s The Late Great Planet Earth was a runaway bestseller and the Soviet Union was still considered the apocalyptic enemy from the north. Now my friend serves an evangelical megachurch and his first sermon series there was on wisdom for life as revealed in Proverbs. The focus of his ministry is helping people to live the Christian life. To be fair, this is what an upper-middle-class congregation needs (and expects). But in the process has this congregation not lost something of the whole story, God ?s story? The denouement is absent; the ending is postponed.
Do we live in full consciousness that God will bring this age to a close? Do we want to hear the truth of an apocalyptic message? God will overcome evil and establish a universal kingdom forever. If God?s message about the end of the story is no longer being boldly proclaimed within the church, could it be that God is using Hollywood to help us recover a sense of the apocalyptic?
Most of us go to see Deep Impact or Godzilla to enjoy them simply as escapist fare. But could it be that these futuristic, fantastic themes also have the capacity to inspire our imaginations with regard to the end times? It would not be the first time God has used unsuspecting agents to accomplish divine purposes (read Isaiah 10 or the book of Habakuk). Whether or not a complacent, middle class church wants to hear such a message, the final act of God?s story will happen.
Maranatha. Lord, come quickly.
Reprinted from
The Covenant Companion, January 1999 issue, pp 22-24.
SEE ALSO:
Apocalyse & Prophecy
Armageddon in Prophesy
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