Amos 3:7

Avatar Exposed

In Avatar, the god of the Na’vi selects a “savior”—the protagonist Jake Sully. Like Christ, he is “incarnated” (Sully is a bioengineered mixture of human DNA and Na’vi DNA) to be one of the Na’vi. He becomes their hero, leading them to a type of “salvation”—and then experiences something of a “death” and “resurrection,” by the power of the Na’vi god to whom he had prayed…(excerpt)

Avatar and the Coming
One World Religion

By: Joe Schimmel Good Fight Ministries – Avatar and the Coming One World Religion

James Cameron’s movie, Avatar, is a spellbinding blockbuster whose effects are so astonishing that they vividly transport the audience into another worldly realm where worshipping a tree and communing with spirits are not only acceptable; they are attractive. Avatar is also markedly pantheistic and essentially, the gospel according to James Cameron. This pantheistic theme that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe is outwardly depicted by the heroes and heroine in the movie who all worship Eywa, the “All Mother” Goddess, who is described as “a network of energy” that “flows through all living things.”

Overall, the movie is strewn with ritualistic magic, communion with spirits, shamanism, and blatant idolatry as it conditions the audience to believe these pagan occult lies. In addition, the audience is led to sympathize with the Avatar and even ends up pulling for him as he is initiated into pagan rituals. Even the lead scientist becomes a pagan in the end, proclaiming that she is “with Eywa, she’s real,” and goes to be with her upon her death.

While James Cameron’s fictitious depiction of nature religion lends itself well to the new age lie that Native American religions were life affirming and harmless, Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Mayan priests, beholden to blood thirsty deities that demanded the blood of their sacrificial victims, was far closer to the truth. Cameron’s sugar coating and romanticizing of savages and ancient nature worship depicted in Avatar flies in the face of the facts found in ancient codexes and archeological finds that reveal that the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, all engaged in mass human sacrifice, including taking the lives of innocent children to appease their demon gods.

Given James Cameron’s track record of attacking Christianity, and specifically Christ’s resurrection in the roundly discredited documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, it should not be surprising that he would write and direct a $300 million dollar propaganda piece that promotes the worship of nature and spirits.

Clearly, Hollywood has had a steady hand in turning America away from her conservative Christian roots to new age occult beliefs and practices. Pantheism appeals to the Hollywood crowd because it teaches that we are all God and that we need not be concerned about being obedient or accountable to a personal God who created the universe. However, it is not only Christ-rejecting directors who are seeking to get the world to embrace the worship of the earth under the guise of their imaginary Mother Earth Goddess; it is also the leader of the global warming movement himself, Al Gore.

In his book, Earth in the Balance, Gore suggests that we return to the worship of nature and upholds various nature worshipping sects and Native American religions as a model:

“This pan religious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilization’s responsibility for the earth is concerned…Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth…All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.” (Al Gore, Earth in the Balance – Ecology and the Human Spirit, 1992, p. 258-259)

Seeking a new age synthesis that combines various occult traditions, Gore favorably quotes the Hindu teaching, “The Earth is our mother, and we are all her children,” (Ibid. p. 161). Incredibly, Gore further claims that we should seek new insights from goddess worshippers of the past and blames Christianity for its near elimination:

“The spiritual sense of our place in nature…can be traced to the origins of human civilization. A growing number of anthropologists and archeo-mythologists…argue that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fountain of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things…The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity…[I]t seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights…” (Ibid, p. 260)

Gore goes on to declare that we need to find a new nature-based religion and quotes New Age theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, in support of the “new faith” of the future:

“This point was made by the Catholic theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, when he said, ‘The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.’ Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to re-sanctify the earth.” (Ibid, p. 263)

With leading Hollywood directors and Washington political figures leading the way, America is quickly returning to the paganism that shrouded the world in spiritual darkness for millennia. May God help us heed the warning of the apostle Paul, found in Holy Scripture, who warned that the worship of nature in ancient times was the result of turning from the worship of the one true God who created nature in the first place:

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:21-25)

Source: Avatar—A “Spiritual” Experience – Answers in Genesis

Avatar’s special effects are startling. I remember when I saw Jurassic Park 17 years ago—I was amazed, even stunned, by the life like dinosaurs on the screen. Before seeing Avatar, I wondered how someone could ever improve on such realism. But with a $300 million budget, director James Cameron made it possible. He took movie realism to a whole new level in filmmaking. We saw a world of exotic six-limbed animals, glowing plants, and floating mountains—all computer generated—that looked completely real. We were frankly in awe of the technology that could produce a film like this.

But, like any technology that stems from man’s (God-given) intellect, it can be used to promote either biblical beliefs or unbiblical ideas. For all its impressive special effects, this movie promotes some wrong messages and a generally unbiblical worldview. (The movie is rated PG-13 and contains some inappropriate language, some sexual content, and battle-related violence.)

The Story

Avatar tells a story of researchers employed by a large, greedy corporation who are escorted by mercenary soldiers to a world called Pandora.1 To obtain a valuable mineral, the group enters an idyllic, forest-filled land—inhabited by tall blue-skinned humanoids called the Na’vi—to take what is not theirs. Pandora’s innocence and paradise are about to be lost, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden of the Old Testament. An allusion to the New Testament, specifically Christ’s appearance on Earth, occurs when an outsider helps rescue the Na’vi as he takes on their form. (More about other biblical inferences later in this review.)

In some ways, parts of the plot resemble the Oscar award-winning movie Dances with Wolves, in which Native-Americans are exploited by the military in the 1800s. Director Cameron acknowledges Dances with Wolves with dialogue such as: “What am I supposed to do—dance with it?” (as the protagonists are challenged by an alien animal). The pantheistic religion and clothing of the Na’vi also give hints to the American Indian.

A Great Spiritual Need

The movie also presents a “spiritual” experience in its pantheism and hyper-environmentalism—and the worldview of evolution. When I first viewed the original Star Trek TV series and its follow-up movies, I would often notice evolutionary statements—and the overall evolutionary basis of the entire franchise.

When the next TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, appeared, I noticed not only its evolutionary basis, but also a cultural agenda in regard to homosexual behavior, feminism, abortion, and so on. There is no doubt the series’ TV writers were attempting to influence people’s thinking concerning social issues.

In both TV series, however, there was usually a mention of gods or some spiritual experience that various people were experiencing. After all, man’s innate knowledge of God or the spiritual realm is written on his heart and cannot be hidden, although it can get corrupted.

Over the years with movies I’ve seen, there’s been a noticeable shift away from a strong materialist, evolutionary emphasis to a more “spiritual” (yet issues-driven) one; often evolution and the spiritual intertwine. I believe this shift reflects American society as a whole. Mechanistic, materialistic evolution does not fill the void in the hearts of people, who are created in the image of God—and created with the knowledge of God (and the knowledge of right and wrong) written on their hearts.

In the past few years, we have seen more of an interest among people in things spiritual. However, because the “heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), humans will suppress the truth of the true God that is crying out within them (Romans 1) and go after gods of their own making (Genesis 3—“You can become as gods”). At the same time, they also want to justify their own immoral/rebellious behavior.

The general shift in recent moviemaking reflects this great need of humans—a need for a relationship with the Creator. But the emphasis is to go after other gods—to look for all sorts of avenues that will give them some sort of “spiritual” experience, rather than accept the truth that God has revealed to us in the Bible.

Misplaced Worship

Avatar is fictional, of course. But such movies (like Jurassic Park as well) are based on concepts that writers and producers believe in and reflect their agendas to affect the moviegoers’ thinking—including on spiritual matters and moral issues. For instance, in Avatar, I believe that the comments about the Na’vi humanoids being “blue monkeys” and “savages” (even though they can speak their own language plus English, make tools, etc.) are evolutionary references.

Also, there are references that appear to promote extreme environmentalism. As such, the worldview promoted in Avatar is pantheism—a worship of the creation (which the apostle Paul warns us against in Romans 1). The Na’vi humanoids worship “mother” (nature); their god lives in the plants and animals, especially the trees.

It is interesting to note that the trees depicted in the film, and particularly one tree called the “Tree of Souls” (something of a holy spot), are considered to be a link to their “mother.” Towards the end of the film, the hero prays to the Na’vi god through this tree and declares that humans had not been good stewards of their planet Earth, stating, “There’s no green there.” The hyper-environmental message continues: “They killed their mother, and they’re going to do the same here!”

The Knowledge of God

Another aspect observed in so many modern movies today, as we alluded to at the beginning of this review, is how they manage to mix in themes from the Bible. Even secularists can’t get away from the knowledge of God within them.

In Avatar, the god of the Na’vi selects a “savior”—the protagonist Jake Sully. Like Christ, he is “incarnated” (Sully is a bioengineered mixture of human DNA and Na’vi DNA) to be one of the Na’vi. He becomes their hero, leading them to a type of “salvation”—and then experiences something of a “death” and “resurrection,” by the power of the Na’vi god to whom he had prayed. The movie even contains a reference to being born a second time; unlike Christianity, however, this second birth is works-based rather than by grace and faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).

As the movie concluded, a different tree came to my mind. I thought of Genesis 1 when God made the trees on day three of the Creation Week. The Creator knew that because the man (Adam) He would soon create on Day Six eventually would rebel (sin) against Him, God would have to provide a way of salvation. Four thousand years after the first trees were made, a descendant of one of the original trees God created would be cut down and used as the tree upon which our Creator, Jesus Christ—in human form (the God-man), would die and pay the penalty for our sin. God’s wrath against sin was poured out on His Son as Jesus was on the wooden Cross. But three days later, there was a real resurrection, when Jesus, a real human (man, but still God incarnate), rose from the dead, thus conquering death.

The One who can do such a thing has ultimate power. Because of what was done on this tree, God Himself paid the penalty for our sin; so, the relationship with our Creator could be restored—and we will live with Him for eternity. As Romans 10:9 declares: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Avatar can be described overall as a film about a fictional special tree and the “mother” god of pantheism, presented with an overtone of environmentalism. As sinful humans cry out for purpose and meaning in life, reflecting what God has already written on their hearts (and in His revealed Word), we need to tell the world about a real special tree, and also teach them about our real Father God who created and loved us, and who sent His Son to step into history to save us—paying the penalty for our sins.

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Footnotes

1. It is ironic that as the film extols the virtues of the simpler society of the Na’vi and decries the evils of large corporations, the very technology that enabled Cameron to create this sophisticated film was possible through major corporations. The film’s use of state-of-the-art computer technology, its distribution by a large studio, and its bookings in major cinema chains have enabled Avatar to be a huge success.