And Here. We. Go.

Wow, 2 blogs in 3 days, I must have some free time on my hands.

Anyways, I want to talk about possibly the greatest movie of the 2000's: The Dark Knight. When you combine Batman, my boyhood hero, with an unstable Heath Ledger, and the greatness of Christopher Nolan (see: Inception), you are going to have a great movie. But this one was awesome (And who can leave out Hans Zimmer, the greatest movie music guy... I don't know what you call those people). But I watched the movie again today, and still loved it, and I was able to catch a few things that delve a little deeper into the movie, or rather the commentary the movie was trying to make about humanity. Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen The Dark Knight, shame on you. Turn your computer off and go watch it right now.

There were 3 quotes/scenes in the movie that were very thought provoking, honest, and deep; I have these quotes listed, as well as my commentary, about what I think is going on/what lessons we can learn from a secular script.

1. "They are only as good as the world allows them to be"

I believe the Joker said this one, apologies if I'm wrong, towards Batman during his interrogation at the police station. What he was explaining to Batman, is that people will be as evil, corrupted, and unjust as they can be, within legal bounds. The only thing pushing mankind towards some sort of morality is law, or rather the fear of justice aka punishment. You could reword this quote to say 'They are only as bad as they can get away with'.

I believe this is a very profound statement, and it really leads me to question my motives in doing things. Paul writes in Romans 14:23 "And everything that does not come from Faith is sin." What Paul is trying to say is that you don't do things just because there is no sin involved, but rather when you do things by faith, there is no sin involved. I can fast for 7 days, but if it doesn't come from a faith in Jesus, and a desire to glorify Him by loosing the things of this world, then it is sin. It is just me, showing self reliance, trying to win God's favor. When you are using God in order to gain something for yourself, then you are committing idolatry. You are putting yourself as the ultimate determinate of satisfaction. And you will be hungry. It also goes the other way: For instance, me drinking a beer, seen as a sin by some of the Christian faith, is not necessarily a sin if my motives are to glorify Christ through my faith in Him. Maybe I want to delight in God's creation of Hops, and the presence of community glorifying God while watching baseball. When we live our whole lives through a lens of being satisfied with God, it produces faith based actions. Unfortunately, some Christians believe there are certain things that you can satisfy God while doing, and certain things you cannot satisfy God while doing. (See Praise Songs vs Hymns, Beer vs Anti-Alcohol, etc.) When you start deciding what God is glorified in, and what he is not glorified in, you are telling God that "I know whats best for you". A side effect is that all the things that you do will inherently glorify God, but the things you don't approve of, will suddenly not glorify God. To sum it up, when Sinners hijack Salvation, bad things happen. (See Catholic Church selling Indulgences during Middle Ages)

2. "Nobody panics as long as everything goes according to the plan, even if the plan is horrifying"

This was also the Joker, talking about his goal of "seeing the world burn, for the sake of it burning" (Alfred's quote).

It really is frightening some times to think about the many things we bring upon ourselves because it is all a part of the plan.

I'm actually going to skip this one, for now, because I have something brewing in my head for my next blog. So this was just something to think about in passing. To wet your appetite, here is a quote I was thinking about going off of for the next post:

"Everything happens for a reason/It's no reason not to ask myself/ If I am living it Right?" -John Mayer, "Georgia"

So sorry...

3. "The only morality in a cruel world is chance, unbiased chance"

Harvey Dent said this, to Commish Gordon and his family, while holding a gun to his son. What I believe Christopher Nolan is trying to tell people is that in a cruel world, which is our world, there is no universal morality. If I could take the liberty to think in his brain, he says that for some, morality would lead to a certain choice, while for others, morality would lead to the opposite of that choice. Americans were against the Nazi concentration camps and morality lead us to fight and liberate; Nazi Germans were for the Final Solution Hitler proposed (Or at least they were deceived by Hitler), and morality led them to defend their country and leader. So which morality is right? Hard question. Nolan obviously went with the fact that there is no morality in a broken world.

However, as Christians, we have come to believe that God has given us a moral law that is designed in our human nature (See C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity" opening chapters). Therefore, if there is a designed law in all humans, there must be something that is outside human nature that gives us this moral law, or else we would have the problem in the above paragraph. As Christians, we believe that this law came through Jesus Christ, to be fulfilled by him, and to reconcile us back to the "judge" at the end of our lives. Thankfully, this second option for morality gives life greater meaning. I don't really like to run around with a coin, flipping it every time I make a tough decision. Thanks to the Holy Spirit who guides those who have submitted to Christ's authority, who has put the law on our hearts and given us the opportunity to follow it by Grace.

And I'll end it with that. Hope I have been an encouragement.

Brett