Film Comment: This Is the End

Collect up at least one hundred film actors, singers, and entertainers at a wild drug and alcohol fueled party, then start the end of the world, complete with giant monsters and demons. The Earth cracks open and people fall into a burning Hell. Have the actors portray themselves, thrown into this situation.

This Is the End (2013) has a cast filled with big name celebrities: Jamez franco, Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Dany McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, The Backstreet Boys, and many others.

When the trouble starts everyone runs outside as the world begins to burn and explode around them.  Too dumb, selfish, cowardly, drug-addled, gluttonous, etc. to “escape” some do not even notice the disturbance.  But they soon will. The six main protagonists run back into the “safety” of the house.

The guys tell themselves they will survive because they are “good people,” but they realize that they are not.  The film does not show any of these people in a good light.  They all realize that they are damned.

The film, a comedy with some undeniably hilarious moments, features violence, gore, impalement, decapitation, penis jokes, nudity, profanity, cannibalism,  homosexuality, demons, intentional blasphemy, obscenities, betrayal, alcohol and drug abuse, self-righteousness, taking God’s name in vain, urination, vomit, obscene gestures, discussion of intent to rape in the presence of the intended victim, masturbation, demonic possession, prayer for the death of another person, sexual slavery, cowardice, self preservation at the expense of other’s lives.  Did I forget anything?

The supposedly ”happy” messages of the film are:

1.     Self-sacrifice confers instant entry into Heaven.

2.     In Heaven, we become angels.

3.     In Heaven, you can have anything you want, even a dooble.

4.     There is no need to be a “Christian” to enter into Heaven.

5.     Heaven is just another wild party.

6.     The Rapture looks like an alien abduction with a beam of light pulling the person up into the sky.

This highly offensive film intends to offend in every way imaginable, showing a contempt or disregard for any conventional understanding of propriety or morality.  It made me wonder.  The actors, portraying themselves, know that they are damned.

In the film, they are facing evidence which, at the very least, proves that God and the supernatural are real.

These are extremely talented, supposedly very intelligent comedians who have gone out of their way to intentionally offend nearly everything related to Christianity and the End Times.  Should not this film prod these actors into actually thinking about their real-life situations?

To some, or most of the actors, I am sure that this was all just a big joke.  Perhaps they are like many people and do not believe anything at all.  Post-modern moral and intellectual relativism at its logical conclusion.

…………………………………………

This is an end of the world film where the Earth is not merely damaged, but is actually destroyed.  Two other prominent films of this type are When Worlds Collide (1951), which depicts the chaos which erupts when a planet the size of Earth is on a collision course with our planet.  The other is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), a surprisingly tender and bittersweet love story.  Either of these two films would be an infinitely better use of your two hours than This Is the End.

One Christian View of Eschatology

"Because God's future is wide and remarkable, it provides a worthy direction for our lives.  For Christians, eschatology is less a story that explains the end of the world than a key to interpreting the present with confidence and hope because God controls the outcome.  When a Steelers fan knows that her team has already won the Super Bowl, she can watch reruns of bungled plays without anxiety." Kenda Creasy Dean

He Did It Again!

Well, he did it again, but this time very few people listened.  Pastor Harold Camping at Family Radio International declared that the world would end on 21 May 2011 .  It did not happen. 

After recalibration, Pastor Camping issued a new date: 21 October, 2011.  Well.

There have been hundreds of attempts to set the end time date (some dates in the future are 2012, 2016, 2034, 2047, and 2060) even though we are specifically instructed not to set dates!  Listen to what was said in 1844 after William Miller's failed predictions.  "The world made merry over the old Prophet's predicament. The taunts and jeers of the 'scoffers' were well-nigh unbearable."

The world already thinks we are silly and deluded. We do not need to give them any new ammunition for their attacks. We do not need to bring ridicule on the Church.

The World Ends Next Saturday

www.FAMILYRADIO.com has bought billboards and a very expensive full page advertisement in the USA Today newspaper to announce that the end of the world will begin with a worldwide earthquake on Saturday, 21 May 2011.

They acknowledge that Mark 13:32 says, "But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."  They say, "The Bible declares that "No Man Knows" is describing the unsaved condition of mankind.  If you are saved then we may know all things spiritually discerned in God's Word."  They also deny that "the Son" mentioned in Mark 13:32 is Jesus; they say the Son is Satan, the "son of perdition."  The "angels in heaven" are the fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven because of their rebellion against God.  (I will have something to say about these claims later). 


The theology expressed here and the dating of the Judgement Day are based on the calculations of Harold Camping (b. 1921, Colorado, USA).  He previously announced that the Rapture would occur in 1994.


If the announcement is correct, then all Spirit-led Christians are ready.  I am ready as all of you should be, but what I suspect will happen is nothing.  The followers of Harold Camping will join a long line of other disappointed people who have thought that the date that they set was the proper one.  And the result will be that they will have brought reproach and derision upon the Church, the ἐκκλησία.

Film Comment: It's the End of the World

     We're not talking here about easy stuff like an alien invasion, or rampaging hordes of flesh-eating zombies, or dystopian post-civilization films like Last Man on Earth (1964), No Blade of Grass (1970), Glen and Randa (1971), Idaho Transfer (1973), A Boy and His Dog (1975), Death Race 2000 (1975), Mad Max (1979),  Rollerblade (1986), The Time of the Wolf (2003), and I Am Legend (2007).  Those are just inconveniences.

     We're talking about end of the world, nothing left, world gone bye-bye films. There are many more than you might imagine.

     1931: La fin du monde. As a giant comet hurtles toward Earth, two brothers think the event may end all war as mankind unites against the threat. Some pray, some have orgies.

     1951: When Worlds Collide.  A wandering planet is on a collision course with the Earth.  A group of scientists/survivalists must pick who to save, fight off the rest, and make sure the survivors safely leave.

     1964: Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Considered by many to be the ultimate American film, or at least the ultimate American comedy.  A rogue military commander flips out and sends his planes to deliver nuclear warheads in an attack against Russia.  Comic mayhem ensues.  

     1988: Miracle Mile.  A young man answers a ringing pay phone.  It's a wrong number, but he learns that all-out nuclear war has begun and the missiles will arrive in little more than an hour.

     1998: Last Night.  It's the last night before the Earth is destroyed, with six hours left.  The reason is never explained but everyone is aware of it.  Some are trying to get home, some are having wild parties, some are reaching out for God, and others are just reaching out for someone.

This is described as a comedy/drama, but the comedy is of the classical tragedy type.

     2008: The Happening: Director M. Night Shyamalan's misfire starts with the disappearance of all the world's bees.  The mass suicides begin.  Earth has begun rejecting an irritant, us.

     2009: 2012.  The last day of the world according to the ancient Mayan calendar is 21 Dec. 2012.

This is a big-budget special effects spectacular.  One man may hold the key to stopping it.

     2009: Knowing.  A teacher comes to believe that a number-filled sheet from a time capsule unearthed at his son's school contains codes pointing to disasters with accurate dates and death totals.  As he checks, everything lines up, 100%.  Then he finds dates for three disasters which have haven't happened yet, including one extraordinarily special event.

     John Cusack, talking about his role in 2012, said "the movie is a big action film , but it's also about emotions.  It made me think that, if you just had this finite time left on earth, then what would you do with it?"

     The truth is that we all already have "just this finite time left on Earth" and we don't know how long that finite time period is.  Right now is the only time we have for sure.  We ...you might be dead tomorrow, or later tonight, or two minutes from now.  The end of the world comes for each of us.

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.²But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.  Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.  [For the Son of man is] as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.  Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:  Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.  Mark 13: 31-36.