Angels, Demons and Popcorn
Hi Dojo readers!
Below is the first in a series of posts by Disciple Dojo contributor Olatunde Howard on the topic of angels, demons, God and Satan as portrayed in pop-culture, particularly in movies.
Over the years, Olatunde and I have had many discussions about how Hollywood attempts to depict the supernatural and how such depictions fare in light of what we find in the pages of Scripture and our own experience. This particular conversation started as an email discussion Olatunde and I were having about the reality of the spiritual and how skewed our perceptions of it can be sometimes. The discussion was good, so I asked him to share it in the Dojo!
Please share your thoughts, questions or feedback in the comments section below! And if you would like to read more from Olatunde on demons and the supernatural be sure to check out the chapters on that subject in his book “The Mind of Christ” …with an excellent cover design by yours truly! 🙂
JM
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“Emily Rose”
Is evil necessary for us to know good? Is Satan necessary for us to know God? Do we need Satan, or demons for that matter, to believe in God?
A few years ago I saw the movie, “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and liked it. However, there were a few things I didn’t agree with in it—namely, the idea that Emily had to be filled with Satan so people can believe in God.
In the movie, a young girl named Emily Rose is possessed by a Satan. She seeks to be purged of this affliction, and when this purging becomes illusive, she seeks the meaning or purpose of her possession. At the end of the movie we find out why she is possessed. What is the purpose? “So that we might know God.”
But why?
Why possession and why Satan?
Why can’t people experience angels instead of demons in order to believe in God? Though, to be fair, this is not quite scriptural either. Jesus made it clear that if the law and the prophets were rejected, then even one resurrected would be rejected, as He indeed was. Nevertheless, if we must enlist spiritual beings to help people believe in God, why must they always be evil?
Most movies about angels tend to be totally biblically inaccurate. In these movies, angels either glorify life on earth and just want ‘to eat sugar and hotdogs and be with a woman,’ (“The Preacher’s Wife,” with Denzel Washington, and “Michael,” with John Travolta) or they are cool, suave and speak modern slang fluently (“Dogma,” with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon), but are in disagreement with God somehow, and need to “help God out.” In other words, they love and worship humanity more than God (“Legion,” with Paul Bettany.)
Yet in scripture angels almost always terrify people when they appear…as does God! But how would one capture that in a book or movie? In the Bible it just says that people were terrified and the angel (or God) says “Do not be afraid.”
But what is terrifying about them?
The closest I can get to understanding it physically/visually would be similar to how lightning is terrifying. Or the feeling/sound of thunder, or the eerie atmosphere before a tornado or hurricane. In other words, things that are good, yet terrifying…right now these are the only things I can think of.
Relationally speaking, it seems like the holiness of angels/God scares people. I think of it as being something like when you’re driving and you see a police car in your rearview mirror. Even if you’re not speeding or breaking the law, there is a moment of fear, self-consciousness, an awareness of where the police car is until it’s out of sight. Perhaps God and His angels create this kind of fear. Perhaps they carry such weighty authority that they intrinsically cause fear in those who have sinned.
I really want movies and books to somehow capture this fear of the Lord manifest by angels. I want to see the truth concerning the natures of God and angels, of Satan and demons. In the Bible, Demons and Satan don’t seem to make anywhere near the impression that angels and God make. But in movies it’s the exact opposite! If God is in the movie at all, it’s at the very end, right before the credits…whereas all throughout the film the power and presence of Satan has been undeniable, irresistible, irrefutable, tangible, and invincible.
Of course there are books like Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness,” and “Piercing the Darkness.” I read these books in high school and remember thoroughly enjoying them. Yet even books like these can make the Devil and his demons such powerful foes that the angels can barely defeat them. Again, in scripture, Michael and his angels defeated Satan and his angels (Rev.12:7-9). Jesus said he beheld Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:17-20). Of course we do find that a demon opposed an angel for 21 days in bringing Daniel an answer to prayer, and that the archangel Michael had to come and assist this angel (Dan. 10:4-14). So yes, Satan and demons are formidable even in Scripture…but they’re not prominent and borderline invincible by any stretch of the imagination.
Quite the opposite!
The angels are so powerful in scripture that in certain cases only one or two are needed to bring about justice or God’s judgment (Gen. 19, etc.). There is never a question of who is more powerful between demons and angels…in fact, the defeat of Satan and demons is a given according to Biblical Christianity.
Now this does not mean the deceptive power of evil is to be taken lightly at all. Jesus himself did not take it lightly, nor did the archangel Michael in his encounter with Satan, mentioned in the book of Jude (Jude 9). But the point remains: Emily Rose didn’t need to be possessed by Satan to know God or for others to know God.
If anything, it should be angels who minister to believers. They are the ones who should reveal and inspire the fear and knowledge of God. It is God who should be (and in scripture who is!) feared, not the devil!
The Biblical reality is that the defeat of Satan and demons is a given.
A fact.
Plain and simple.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit to His followers proved this definitively. May God one day raise up within Hollywood those who believe (and have been blessed with the necessary skills and ability!) to reveal this truth to a world that so desperately needs to hear it.
-Olatunde
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[For a more on the defeat of Satan in Revelation, be sure to check out “The Woman, The Dragon & The Cross” in Disciple Dojo’s audio archive!]
Categories: Arts and Culture, Biblical Theology, Blog, Theological issues
[…] and Satan as portrayed in pop-culture, particularly in movies. So far we’ve looked at “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “The Devil’s Advocate“…now Olatunde takes a look at perhaps the […]
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