I watched Avatar recently. It was a very good movie. I’m gonna spoil it if you haven’t watched it. Humans are on this planet called Pandora, and some are there to get this rare and expensive rock called unobtanium, and others are there for research. The problem is that there are alien natives there. The main character adopts an alien body in a way similar to the Matrix in order to be with the aliens, and he spends three months learning their culture and such. His original motive is to gain their trust, so that they can get out when the humans come in and destroy their home, which rests on a huge stash of unobtanium. Over time, he becomes attached to them, and he realizes that it’s wrong to kill to get rich, so he takes a bit of a stand against the humans. Then the humans throw him and his buddies into a holding cell. Then the screen blacked out.

At this point, my mind was in a very concerned situation. My heart went out to this fictional main character. It couldn’t end like this. That’s a bad ending. And then the movie started up again, and the bad guys lose, and the good guys win, and the situation is resolved. I was relieved.

Today, I was thinking about this whole thing again, and I was just so relieved once again at how the movie didn’t end at the blackout scene. But the more I thought about it, I couldn’t help but realize that I was just a natural victim of the ordinary plot structure. Essentially all plots have the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. I learned that in high school. Even when I was a kid, when we would play Imaginary War, or when I would write fantasy stories, I would always insist that the bad guys have to win first, and then the good guys win. That’s just the way stories go.

I’m pretty sure this is not an original idea, and it’s probably something that I’ve read a long time ago from CS Lewis or Tim Keller, but here is something radical.

Essentially all movies and books have a “Bad Guys Win First, Good Guys Win Last” plot. It appeals. If they don’t have that, as in 1984, where it goes “Bad Guys Win First, Bad Guys Also Win Last”, it is usually to urge the reader to see the necessity of having such a concept in real life. But either way, this concept seems to be branded into humans. And I don’t think it’s a cultural thing. Even the ancient Greeks wrote in such a manner. And whenever things transcend time and culture, I always think of religion. And come to think of it, no other religion addresses this idea as well as good old Christianity.

Now when I say religion, I’m not limiting it to official sects of faith. I’m also encompassing ideologies and philosophies. And it doesn’t seem like any other religion has this concept of “Bad Guys Win First, Good Guys Win Last.” In fact, no other religion seems to have much of a storyline. Everything is stagnant.

Many religions just teach that there is a supernatural, and then it says how to respond to the existence of the supernatural. In Avatar, the natives believed in the existence of a life-force that fills all living things, similar to Buddhist and Lion King ideologies, and therefore we must respect and appreciate all life. In Islam, there exists a God, and revelations through the prophets and books tell us the characteristics of that God and the proper way to respond, and so the pillars of faith are developed, and certain sects add on food rules or clothing rules and such.

Other religions or philosophies just teach that there is no supernatural, and then it says how to respond to the nonexistence of the supernatural. Social Darwinism teaches that the things exist not because of God but by chance, and only the strongest will survive. That tends to produce things like German concentration camps in World War 2. Many people don’t really fall under a great organized belief, but they set their own standards. “I don’t believe in a supernatural, or at least not in one that conflicts with human purpose, so I will define my own purpose.” And they go on and say that their purpose is to have a happy family, or to contribute to society, or to pass down the genes.

In all of these, there is no storyline that defines their belief. Instead, their beliefs define their storyline. Because Robin Hood believed this way, he did this. Because Gandhi believed this way, he did this. Because Stalin believed this way, he did this.

Here is how Christianity is different. God doesn’t just write some rules. God writes the storyline, and he takes part in the storyline. This is the story.

Exposition: Once upon a time, everything is perfect.
Rising Action: Sin came into the world.
Climax: God came to earth and died for the sins of mankind.
Falling Action: God has called his people to spread the news and to await his return. This is today.
Resolution: God will return, and everything will be perfect once again. The end.

Everything is perfect, the bad guys win, then the good guys win, then everything is perfect again. Christianity is the epitome of the basic storyline. At one point, sin reigned. At another point, Jesus reigns. No other belief that I have found teaches anything like that. In all the major beliefs of today, all I find is what exists is what exists. There is no change. There is no “God becomes man” event. There is no “God dies” event. There is no “God comes back to life” event. It’s just God exists, so do this. Or it’s just God doesn’t exist, so do this. Christianity says God exists, sin happened, God died for sin, so do this. Man isn’t the initiative. God is the initiative.

For the non-Christian, God, or non-God, has written down a code to follow. That code takes root in our lives, and our storyline is the result. For the Christian, God has not only written down a code to follow, but he has written a storyline. That storyline takes root in our lives, and our additional storyline is the result.

What’s the big deal?

Well, for one thing, the fact that every human being has a little of this mindset in his or her mind points to the idea that maybe the God of Christianity is hinting at his own character by giving us such a mindset.

Secondly, I believe that this gives Christianity perhaps the most tangible purpose. It is like having office hours with the professor, rather than just reading the textbook that the professor wrote. It is like getting autographs from the band members, rather than just listening to their CD in the car. It is like taking a walk with a lover in the park, rather than rereading past letters. God has initiated the storyline and acted out the storyline. He has set the example. He does not just give you a list of things to do and sit back on his throne on a cloud, but he has come down into earth, he has dwelt among us, and he has died and risen. Now, he is inviting us to follow him. Our storyline is not then a raw storyline, but it is a continuation of a storyline that has been started.

“I can admire the solemn and stately language of worship that recognizes the greatness of God, but it will not warm my heart or express my soul until it has also blended therewith the joyful nearness of that perfect love that casts out fear and ventures to speak with our Father in heaven as a child speaks with its father on earth. My brother, no veil remains.”
– Charles Spurgeon

– Larry