Be a Blooper!
Normally behind the scenes in video production, Paul Varnum gives us a glimpse into the counterfeit reality of the world of film. Spoiler alert—this same approach is cunningly crafted by Satan to create a false narrative in our culture today.
Everyone loves a good movie. In fact, so much so that we like to get caught up in a scenario where we can park our brains at the door and immerse ourselves in a make-believe world. Then it happens . . . You see a jet’s contrail in the sky while watching a western set in the 1800s, a wall wobbles when a door is shut, a microphone drops into the scene. All of a sudden, this imaginary world you’re enjoying is disrupted. You’re frustrated that the “reality” you’ve set up in your imagination is not reality at all—it’s a movie set!
It kind of ruins the rest of the movie, doesn’t it? You don’t view it the same, even though, deep down, you knew all along it was just actors on a set.
There’s a term I learned in cinema school called “suspension of disbelief.” It’s what allows you, the viewer, to accept what’s going on in a movie or TV show for the sake of entertainment (or to get a sense of satisfaction). The official definition is “the intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for the sake of enjoyment.” But let’s break this down a bit more.
The first step to suspending someone’s disbelief is to diminish their ability to think critically and logically. Author Adam MacLeod, an associate professor at Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law, summarized his observation of his students this way:
For several years now, my students have been mostly Millennials. Contrary to stereotype, I have found that the vast majority of them want to learn. But true to stereotype, I increasingly find that most of them cannot think, don’t know very much, and are enslaved to their appetites and feelings. Their minds are held hostage in a prison fashioned by elite culture and their undergraduate professors.
The first step to suspending someone’s disbelief is to diminish their ability to think critically and logically.
It’s not just the colleges, though. The entire public educational system is systematically removing the ability of our children to think critically for themselves. Once their minds are weakened, they are introduced to grandiose “movie sets” with all sorts of special effects and beautiful imagery, and they blindly suspend their disbelief.
There are so many other examples, too, but belief in evolution sticks out to me as the one of the biggest and most damaging “movie sets” of all time! You have practically all the scientific community simply accepting the theory as fact and ignoring the proverbial set piece crashing onto their make-believe set—missing transitional fossils, the discovery of soft dinosaur tissue, Mitochondrial DNA pointing to a single ancestor, irreducible complexity, etc. All these discoveries should sound the alarm that evolution should be heavily questioned. Yet, people suspend their disbelief, so they can hang onto the worldview that is comfortable for them.
Our job as Christians is to upset this false narrative.
Of course, there are other, just as harmful movie sets to consider—transgender issues, abortion, and homosexual churches, for example, but the big question is, “What is our responsibility as Bible-believing Christians in all this?” One word—BLOOPER! Be a blooper!
Our job as Christians is to upset this false narrative. We need to be the microphone coming into shot, the wobbly styrofoam rock rolling down the hill, or the analog wristwatch worn by the actor playing Gandalf during a battle scene in The Return of The King (Yep, that happened)! We need to get them to question their worldview. We need to convince them they are believing a lie. Once we do this, and they start to question what they believe, they may just see their worldview for what it is—a lie.
I Peter 3:15 states: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” That is the mission of Reasons for Hope. We want to equip you, the believer, to have a part in tearing down the secular movie sets of this world.
Oh, and be sure to download our app. It provides all our resources at your fingertips and will help you start being a blooper! Click HERE.
Author Bio:
Guest blogger Paul Varnum, Senior Video Producer for Friends of Israel Ministry, has worked with ministries such as Focus on the Family, where he was involved in series such as That the World May Know and Answers in Genesis, where he was responsible for getting the video department up and running and directed the award-winning Demolishing Strongholds film series. He now lives between Maine and New Jersey with his wife, Holly, and loves to spend time with his children and grandchildren.
Guest blogger Paul Varnum, Senior Video Producer for Friends of Israel Ministry, has worked with ministries such as Focus on the Family, where he was involved in series such as That the World May Know and Answers in Genesis, where he was responsible for getting the video department up and running and directed the award-winning Demolishing Strongholds film series. He now lives between Maine and New Jersey with his wife, Holly, and loves to spend time with his children and grandchildren.
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