The Matrix Linked Christianity
Matrix movie is full of violence but there are some powerful concepts in it that will help us to understand what really the real world is, that may help us to be different from usual people, leaving the secular society and do the things that are needed to be done. When Neo took the red pill and woke up in the pod or vat, it was just like when we turn to Jesus and woke up from the Matrix that we live in called material society.
Like Neo when he woke up in the pod, he realized that humans are slaves to an empire of man-made, intelligent machines and the first year of most of us who turned back after with Christ was extremely confusing (The Christian Science Monitor, 2003). Things we had believed for years no longer made any sense whatsoever. Neo said, “how come my eyes hurt so much”, and Morpheus replied, “It’s because you never used them before”. Neither had most of us used our spiritual eyes, and when the light of Jesus hit us, we were empowered to see things through our spiritual eyes, but it also hurt like crazy cause no one understood us.
Lots of people had never yet wake up from Matrix, and these people are the most person who will always turned us down, people who are our love ones. Analysis of Matrix from Christian View The Matrix: our civilization The Resistance: members of the Christian family including Angels in heaven (people not plugged into the Matrix) and Christians on earth (people plugged into the Matrix. ) The only job of the Resistance is to wake people up from the Matrix and get them to join the Resistance.
Sentient programs: angels of the Devil roaming the earth (Matrix) looking for members of the Resistance (Christians) who they can kill or interfere with. Morpheus: John the Baptist Cypher: Judas Neo: Jesus Christ Life in the Matrix is not real life and there is a supreme negative intelligence running the Matrix. It is smarter than any human being. It outsmarts people into thinking they are living life and getting ahead (successful in the Matrix) when they are really asleep, dying and lying dormant in the pod (or vat) with the life being sucked out of them by the source of the Matrix (the Machines- the Devil).
In the movie this “life” is human electromagnetic energy – in real world that “life” is our spiritual energy, the soul that the devil sucks out of us, as we are lying spiritually unconscious. In the world of The Matrix, men are “born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. ” Then comes “the One,” the promised deliverer who will overcome mankind’s enemy and liberate the human race from bondage. Morpheus has been foretold that he will find this figure of prophecy; and, like John the Baptist heralding Jesus as the Lamb of God, Morpheus recognizes Neo to be the One.
According to Morpheus, the Matrix is “the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth” (Wikipedia, 2006). The Matrix is symbolic of sin that keeps the human race blinded about reality. “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. ” Each person is “born into bondage… a prison, for your mind. ” The illusion of the matrix is so we do not wake up to the realization of our slavery. It would seem that the machines then are Satan and his demons trying to deceive mankind concerning his true state of bondage.
Neo’s real name is Thomas Anderson, perhaps referring to “doubting Thomas” of the Bible (since it took him so long to believe he was the One). The name Anderson means “son of man,” a title used by Jesus in reference to himself. He mimics the true Savior by having both a death and resurrection. After his resurrection, the matrix (sin) no longer has dominion over him. This is in contrast to the reality of the Savior who died in history. Death and sin had no power over Christ. As Christ died for mankind, Neo dies to save the world.
At the end, Neo determines to show the world the truth, just as Christ said He is the truth. Neo destroys Agent Smith and Christ destroyed evil. The world is set free from the bondage of the matrix, and Christ frees those who believe in Him from the bondage of sin. A character Choi, says to him “Hallelujah. You’re my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ. ” A plate in Morpheus’ ship Nebuchadnezzar says “Mark III No. 11,” a probable allusion to the Bible: Mark 3:11 reads, “Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God!
‘” (About, 2006). Anderson’s hacker alias Neo is an anagram for the One. He is The One who is prophesied to liberate humanity from the chains that imprison them in their computer-generated illusion. First, however, he has to die – and he is killed in room 303. But, after 72 seconds (analogous to 3 days), Neo rises again. Soon thereafter, he also ascends up into the heavens. There is a battle between the machines (an allegory for the devil and his angels) and the Resistance (Angels and saints.
) The members of the Resistance who are not presently plugged into the Matrix are kind of like angels because they can help people in the Matrix (by hacking into it) but are not able to directly interfere in human choice. This battle outside the Matrix is like the battle in the heavens between the angels of the devil and God’s angels and saints of God. Members of the Resistance, who are plugged into the Matrix and have an identity there, are able to do things that the people in the Matrix can’t do. They are more intuitive, have greater power to fight evil etc.
But they are reliant on the members of the Resistance who are back at the ship (Angels). Life as a member of the Resistance is exciting. However, the sentient programs are very interested in destroying these members of the Resistance. The sentient programs have no interest in the other people in the Matrix because they know they have them already. The machines that run the Matrix see the Resistance as a threat and therefore try to kill them or interfere with their activities (an allegory for Persecution of Christians in the Media etc. )
Some people who belong to the Resistance have “real” jobs in the Matrix like those who are asleep plugged into it. But because the Resistance has been woken up to the fact that the Matrix is unreal, they no longer see things in the Matrix in the same way as other people, even though they are doing regular jobs. They see it as an illusion. These regular jobs are just positions like a spy in the Second World War who would work in a German shoe repair or other trivial job. But they are simply put there as a posting to achieve the greater end.
The decision to take the red pill is a completely free choice with no one forcing it. Taking the red pill is an allegory for the choice to completely surrender to Jesus. It is the only hope for the future. Otherwise they stay asleep. The job of the Matrix is to keep people “engaged” in the day to day trivial things of life in the Matrix so they stay asleep and die while hooked up to the pod (or vat). And then they are ejected into the sewer mote (hell). When Neo woke up he was ejected into the mote (hell) but was rescued by the Resistance (Angels). This is similar to Jesus in the desert.
Angels waited upon Jesus and nursed him back to health after he was 40 days in the desert the same way the members of the Resistance nursed Neo back to health when he woke up from the Matrix. This was the start of Neo’s participation in the Resistance. Jesus’ ministry started after the 40 days in the desert. Of course there’s also a Judas figure (in one scene he and Neo drink from the same cup, as Jesus and Judas dipped in the same dish). Cypher is a Judas figure. Which is pretty obvious. Cypher knows that the Matrix is not real and that any pleasures he experiences there are illusory (What is the Matrix, 1999).
When Smith (the sentient program) outsmarts Neo, near the end of the movie, he knew what Neo was thinking and so was one step ahead of him waiting in the room where Neo went to make the phone call. That is when Smith shoots Neo as he went to make the phone call in room 303. When we don’t completely surrender to Christ, our best plans will not succeed in getting us out of the Matrix (material world) because the devil can read our actions and behavior. So he is always one step ahead of us like Smith was when he was waiting for Neo in the room where Neo was going to make the phone call.
Neo dies and is raised to life again. When Neo came back to life and realized he was the one. He was no longer thinking about what he would do next. He was plugged into his Divine power. Neo was no longer planning ahead. He was responding to his spiritual connectedness in the moment. And so Smith could no longer figure out what Neo was going to do next and was no longer able to be one step ahead of Neo. Smith was no longer able to read what Neo would do next because Neo didn’t even know, Neo was simply responding to his spiritual connectedness, which, in fact put Neo one step ahead of Smith.
If we trust God, we don’t know what he is going to do next with us, but neither does the devil. In that way God can outsmart the devil in our lives. It’s when we wrestle to keep control of our lives that we are subject to interference from the devil because he will always be a step ahead of us. Life as a Christian is completely different from when we planned our lives. We don’t know what God will do next and we just trust and listen and watch God outsmart evil in our lives. Then the devil can no longer be a step ahead of us (i. e. , waiting at the door to shoot us like Smith did to Neo when Neo was thinking for himself).
I understand the fear of surrender but this is a good surrender, it is plugging into a source of power that outsmarts evil in my life. I think it is the only source. Jesus is “The One”. The reality of this world and man’s destiny is clearly revealed in God’s Word. Man is not his own savior, but he is a condemned sinner in bondage to sin; as a result, man is spiritually dead. Jesus Christ is the savior who did not leave it up to people to see how they felt about Him in order to believe. Rather, He gave many signs proving, in fact, that He is God and Savior. His death and resurrection is a historic fact.
The man who thinks he will save himself is grievously deceived. It is only in trusting in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to atone for man’s sin that a repentant sinner can be released from the bondage of sin and experience eternal fellowship with his Creator. There are also other problematic implications to the film. From a Christian perspective, to begin with, the whole premise of the unknowing enslavement of all of humanity by machines is a staggeringly apocalyptic event that raises serious eschatological questions: Would God allows all of humanity to be subjected to so immense a deception?
Descartes argued not. Consider especially the implications of generations of humans living and dying without real physical contact with one another. While it’s possible to imagine Christian faith existing in such a world (and indeed Morpheus mentions people going to church in the Matrix), the Church itself, and in particular apostolic succession and the papacy, cannot be perpetuated under these conditions, since there is no physical laying on of hands.
(This problem is mitigated, though, by the fact that the film does establish that not all of mankind is in the Matrix — there is one surviving human community, Zion, where it’s possible to imagine the Church having survived. On the other hand, what we see of Zion in the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, offers no indication whatsoever of any Christian presence. ) In fact, God and religion seem to be basically irrelevant to the characters in the film. Morality, too, tends generally to be a non-issue.
Of course there’s the glaring disregard for life seen especially in the lobby massacre. Beyond this, Neo himself has a shady background, and although he is in many ways transformed during the course of the film, this doesn’t include any kind of moral transformation. Likewise, Morpheus sets people free from the Matrix, but there’s no indication that they’re any freer from sin or evil. Consider a scene in which a character named Mouse invites Neo to have virtual sex with a digital woman of his creation.
The other crewmembers may needle Mouse as a “digital pimp,” but there’s no real moral backbone to their criticism. (“Pay no attention to these hypocrites,” Mouse tells Neo. “To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human. “) Of course there’s no rule that says that characters fighting against a great evil must be depicted as paragons of virtue. On the other hand, the film’s overall lack of moral perspective does make it hard to see it as meaningfully “Christian. ” References The Holy Bible. 2005. December 4, 2006. <http://www.
biblicalproportions. com> The Matrix. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 4 December 2006. December 4, 2006. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_matrix>. The Matrix and Christianity. About. 2006. December 2, 2006. <http://atheism. about. com/library/FAQs/religion/blrel_matrix_xtn. htm/> The Gospel according to Neo. The Christian Science Monitor. May 09, 2003. December 2, 2006. <http://www. csmonitor. com/2003/0509/p16s01-almo. html> Wake Up!. What is the Matrix. 1999. December 2, 2006. <http://whatisthematrix. warnerbros. com/rl_cmp/new_phil_wakeup. html>.
