The Kingdom Come

Okay, okay. Yes, I am a LOST fan. Lost is a television series on ABC. The series started in September 2004 but I didn't become interested in it until 2009. In 2009, I spent a few months watching the previous five seasons in order. The synopsis of the series is that a plane traveling from Sydney Australia to Los Angeles crashes on a tropical island. The scenes immediately after the crash are extremely dramatic. Amazingly, many of the passengers survive. The rest of the series are about the struggles of the survivors.

But, the survivors soon find out that the island is inhabited, not by "savages" but by a group called "The Others". Many of the early episodes slowly feed the viewer more and more information about the backgrounds of the individual survivors and about The Others.

As season six wraps up the series, ending in May 2010 it is revealed that two mysterious entities on the island have been engaged in a continuous battle. The "good" entity is a god-like figure named Jacob. It is revealed that at some point in most of the survivors lives, usually at a very crucial point Jacob interacted with them -- before they crashed on the island.

The "evil" entity manifests itself as the "smoke-monster" which is simply a shadow or a consuming darkness. At the start of season six, Jacob is killed by his most dedicated follower, Ben Linus who was tricked into killing Jacob after the smoke-monster took the form of a deceased member of the crash named John Locke.

So far, the smoke-monster has been trying to convince some of the survivors that he is really the "good" entity and that Jacob had caused their plane to crash, simply so he could find a candidate to replace him as the island's guardian. Here is where this ties in with this theological site.

Secularist academia doesn't like to define ideologies as "good" or "bad" but rather as a varying shade of gray. This series seems to be following that reasoning in that at first it led the audience to believe Jacob was the "good" entity and the smoke-monster was the "evil" entity, but now those roles are being questioned. The smoke-monster now seems to be showing that Jacob was actually selfish and used the survivors for his own ends.

In Christianity, God is seen as the "good" entity whereas Satan is seen as the "evil" entity. But consider the Genesis account where God creates humanity and sets him in a garden, with two trees; The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Gen 2:9) Also, that Satan is understood as being a fallen angel, once a member of God's court but now cast down to earth and appearing as a serpent to Adam and Eve.

God tells the humans that they are forbidden to eat from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and told that if they eat from it they will die. (Gen 2:17) Then comes the Serpent telling the humans that they won't die, but rather God doesn't want them to eat from the Tree because if they do, they'll become like God. (Gen 3:4-5) What is shocking is that when we read Gen 3:22 that is indeed what God says happened when the humans ate from the Tree. My point is, and to tie in with LOST is that in the Bible God is portrayed as the "good" entity, yet someone might be able to spin it that in reality, the Serpent is being more honest with the humans, telling them what really will happen if they eat from the Tree. In LOST, the "good" entity, Jacob appears to have brought all these people to island for his own selfish ends whereas the "evil" smoke-monster entity appears to tell the real reasons to the survivors and wants to help them leave the island (gain freedom).

Now, before someone thinks I am implying God is really the "evil" entity of the Bible and that Satan is the "good" entity, that is not at all what I am saying. I am saying, it can be spun that way. People often see God as oppressive, egotistical, self-serving and even cruel as if creation is merely a plaything.

Christians, need to especially come to grips with who God is. They often try to sugar coat Him as some stay-puff marshmallow man in Heaven that winks at sin and just lovvvvvvves everyone so unconditionally that everyone gets a pass. But is that really the God we see depicted in the Bible?

As a Calvinistic Christian, you have seen me write plenty of articles elucidating the Nature of God as portrayed in the Bible. In books like Job, where we see God take a man who was basically minding his own business and living a devout life and turn that man's life into a living hell -- either directly or through the permission given to Satan. How do we as Christians reconcile this? How do we still see God as "good"?

This is the age old question and I am not attempting to answer it here, but only put it before you once again to ponder.

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MORE ON LOST: wiki.org/lost