Purpose of the movie The Matrix:
Was Choice or Non-choice
One’s worldview is difficult to grasp if this is a new concept. The movie, Matrix, believed that people, reality, were captives of machines, computers. These computers controlled people by giving them a false reality. The majority of people were docile but a minority refused to believe in the reality of the matrix; thus, they rebelled; exercised choice. In reality, they had no choice at all; it was simply another form of illusion. One’s worldview is the interpreter of perceived reality; thus, one’s worldview is one’s matrix or interface between self and all else. In one sense this is very true: Welcome to the Bible.
All people are born lost; think of it as a damaged sense of reality (Ps 51:5). Man’s sin nature actively separates you from God by rejecting God’s truth. Yet, He has given all people two witnesses whereby the true reality can be known (Ro 1:19-20). The external witness is the expanse and complexity of the universe that screams out, “Creator!” The internal witness, by which I mean the commonality of moral values despite both culture and time cries out, “God!” Man will not accept anything of God; hence, ungodliness {ἀσέβεια}. Man turns to the very creation designed to communicate the truth of God and worshiped elements of creation to fashion his, or her, own reality: worldview. This is an active process begun at a very early age (Ro 1:21-23). Children do not have to be taught to do wrong; yet, it takes a lifetime of training to get them to do right. Evidence of an active, and thus accountable, sin nature at work that not only denies God but uses God’s creation to explain away God’s existence.
The result of each person’s ungodliness is unrighteousness {ἀδικία}. The best understanding of unrighteousness is the development of thought, words and actions that flow from one’s erroneous anti-God view. For example, if I put a blue filter over a camera lens the resulting picture will be blue and black. The blue lens will filter out all light except blue light. The sinful mind filters out all truth of the God so that the resulting picture, thoughts, words and deeds, will be devoid of God’s truth. This is how ungodliness develops unrighteousness. Man agrees with his anti-God view of the world by substituting various elements of creation in place of God. Modern man substitutes evolution in place of God as Creator. Man says murder is wrong because we all agree it is wrong {illogical fallacy: appeal to the majority}. God says murder is wrong (Ex 20:13). God’s morality is written in each person’s soul; yet, man will not acknowledge God as creator of morality. Therefore, man steals God’s moral precept: do not murder; and substitutes his own reasoning as to why murder is wrong. However, man’s erroneous justification fails to persuade everyone because it is based on non-absolutes.
One’s Worldview Makes YOU
The Hero of Your Own World
Neo, one, was the hero who sought to find reality, absolutes. He believed the Matrix was simply an illusion that robbed people of choice. His quest was to leave the Matrix. However, as the movie series unfolds Neo only thinks he had choice when in fact he has no choice. Thus, even outside of the Matrix Neo has not found reality, just another shell of unreality built to maintain the original purpose: to use people for the machines use. Herein is the focus of each person’s worldview: to give you the illusion of choice as you build your own unreality in the form of your worldview. This shell is purposefully devoid of any truth of God. Thus, all other explanations must be inherently contradictory. For example, evolution as an explanation of how kinds of life developed still has an underlying fatal flaw: it cannot explain how life originally occurred. Thus, evolution mimics the Bible by inferring, “In the beginning, life…” “Then life begat life which begat life until life begat Mankind who began ruining all that Nature had created!” Thus, while each person’s evolutionary worldview accepts that you are the hero of your own story; it also accepts the contradictory notion that mankind is a determent to all other evolved life forms and thus should be reduced, if not eliminated.
Essentially, each person has developed a means of interpreting perceived reality apart from God which is defined as worldview. This personal Matrix has some correspondence with reality but since God is eliminated from the equation true congruence is impossible. Over time more error creeps into one’s worldview until a crisis occurs and the worldview is adjusted to conform to a renewed reality. This process occurs until death when absolute reality is confronted without the illusion of one’s worldview. Yet, there is another who is also trapped in his own worldview though it may be as invisible from your worldview as God.
Though Mr. Smith appeared as evil
He sought relief from the Matrix
Mr. Smith, another type of Matrix control, wanted relief from the Matrix. He believed he was a free agent and if he could just gain enough control he could crash the Matrix and leave. Just as worldviews have an incoherent view of right, they also have incoherent views of evil for the same reason: willful ignorance. Man cannot explain evil because to admit to the existence of true Satan is to admit to the existence of the true God and thus His true gospel. Yet, Satan is as much a victim and another sinner. He knows the reality of God but denies the truth of God, especially His salvation. Therefore, Satan has developed his own worldview reality, not dissimilar from ours (Jo 8:44). I bet that in his worldview he is also the hero and no more the villain than yourself. So, why does this happen?
Paul writes, “Therefore God gave them up…” (Ro 1:24, 26, 28). Three times Paul uses this phrase to designate that God allowed all people to live as they wished. It also meant that people would have to deal with the consequences of living a reality apart from God which devolves ever more deeply into degradation and violence. It also means that they are held captive to Satan whom they follow, even ignorantly, because his sinful ways are like our sinful ways. It is the true reality of the blind leading the blind until all fall into the pit. Yet, even this truth is twisted to blame God. People rage against God for the consequences of the sin they chose to follow thinking He is judging them. Friends, God judges no one yet, except maybe those who are saved (He 12:8). God is long-suffering so that those who realize they are suffering because of their sin will call on Him for salvation (Ro 2:4-5). God allows the lost to live in the worldview they have chosen until death. Then the body dies, the soul is stripped of its self-made worldview and confronts the absolute reality of truth. The lost are held for a time in Hell while the saved are ushered to Christ. I would think that the best course of action is not to understand one’s worldview but to seek to dismantle one’s worldview as God replaces the erroneous with His absolute truth. This will be an ongoing project in this life because we are still hindered by our bodies of flesh (1Co 13:12). Let us not fight against God as the lost; let us rejoice in His testing so that we may come to know ever more of His truth (1Pe 4:12-17).