Life, Movies, and the Gospel: Sauron

Now, I've read the Hobbit.  I've read the Lord of the Rings.  But I've never read The Silmarillion all the way through.  I've only ever read up to the song of creation, and what happened afterwards.  Here's the basics.

Way back when, Eru decided to create some stuff.  The first things he created were the Ainur, incredibly powerful people.  However, during the creation of the world, one of the Ainur named Melkor decided that he knew better than Eru, and changed a few things.  All through the history of this world, Melkor was working on destroying things.

Fast forward a few thousand years.  Sauron, apprentice of Morgoth, apprentice of Melkor, is now a very powerful man.  He's been taking care of things, even now that both Melkor and Morgoth have been destroyed.  He appears to the elves, appearing as a fair character, and teaches them magic.  He creates the one ring, and invests it with most of his malice, power, and evil.  Now incredibly powerful, but at the same time with a crucial culnerability, he takes on the elves.  Fortunately, he is defeated, despoiled of the one ring, and loses most of his physical form.

Sauron in all his Battle Gear.
I wonder how much the helmet weighs.

Much later, he is now ready to take on the world again.  However, he really can't do much.  His physical body is much to weak now to actually do anything, so he has to depend on others.  The Nazgul, the nine men corrupted by the power of the One Ring, do his bidding.  In addition, he corrupts Saruman, the most powerful wizard in the land, and has him create armies of orcs.  Though he himself can do nothing, his armies can do quite a bit.

At the end, for all of his power and armies, Sauron is defeated.  The One Ring is cast into Mount Doom, any remnant of a physical body is destroyed, and he is left as a powerless spirit, defeated and cast into the Void.

In the same way, Satan himself can do almost nothing.  A mighty and powerful spirit of God, he aspired to be even greater, to become God himself.  He essentially stated that he knew more than God, and that people should worship him.  Thrust out of heaven, he will never have the privilege of having a body.  He can do very little to us.  However, he can tempt us to commit sin, to rebel against God.  He can convince other people to see the world his way, and to act as he would like.  We can withstand his temptations, though.  Only when we are vulnerable and distracted does Satan try to thrust in some tentacles.    He wants us to be miserable, as he is.  I imagine that he knows he'll lose eventually, but he's determined to take as many of us as he can with him.

Let's show him what for.

Life, Movies, and the Gospel: Gollum

Next, we have Gollum.  A pitiful creature, Gollum was once normal, a hobbit like any other, named Smeagol.  However, at a chance encounter with the One Ring, and attracted by it, he demanded it of his friend, Deagol.  When Deagol refused, Smeagol snapped and killed his friend.  Banished by friends and family, he becomes a shadow of what he once was.

Gollum is a simple creature, really.  He wants the One Ring, his 'precious,' his 'birthday present.'  He's completely self-centered, lying, cheating, and stealing to accomplish what he wants.

Holding him somewhat in check, later, is Smeagol, the original personality being dominated by this latter deterioration.  While Smeagol is somewhat in control, Gollum is always there in the background, trying to get his way.

Eventually, after Frodo has met Smeagol, and to a certain extent helped him out, things come to a head between Gollum and Smeagol.  Realizing that he doesn't really need Gollum anymore, the following exchange takes place.

In the same way, I think we all have a bit of this inside ourselves.  We have two desires inside ourselves.  We each have our Gollum: the base instincts, the desires to get ahead, pride, all the things that are bad.  On the other hand, we have Christ.  He lifts us up, makes us want to do better, help others, and generally be good people.  On our own, we are helpless.  However, with Christ we can do all things.

I know that through Christ, we can become perfect.  Let's get rid of Gollum.

Life, Movies, and the Gospel: Frodo Baggins

Next in a series of articles about the Lord of the Rings, we have the main protagonist, Frodo Baggins.



 As an adopted son of Bilbo Baggins, he inherits the Ring found by Bilbo many years before.  Some time later, Gandalf returns to tell Frodo that this ring, apparently of no consequence, is actually the One Ring, needed by Sauron to take over the world.  Fleeing the Shire with his friends, Merry, Pippin, and Sam, he is soon caught up in a quest to take the One Ring to Mordor, and throw it in Mount Doom to be destroyed. 

(If you've not seen the movie nor read the books, this is a highly condensed synopsis.)

Joining him in this quest are Gimli the dwarf, Legolas the elf, Merry, Pippin, and Sam, Boromir, Aragorn, and of course, Gandalf.  They are the Fellowship of the Ring, a group of allies dedicated to this task.  Frodo is the Ringbearer, the one who must bear the burden of the Ring from that point on.

As in life, Frodo is surrounded by friends, and is constantly in danger.  If we see the Ring as sin, something introduced by the evil one, then Frodo's quest is to bear sin until he can destroy it.  It's not quite a perfect match, but I think it's a good one.  Just like Frodo, we all have sins.  We all need to be rid of it, to be clean.  We can't do it by ourself; we need some help.  We all need, in a figurative sense, to go to Mount Doom, to suffer, to repent of our sins, and be clean. 

It's a long and difficult process.  Luckily, we all have our friends surrounding us.  We have a lot of help from God.  We can, and if we're willing, will be rid of sin through Jesus Christ.

And now, "How it should have ended: Lord of the Rings"

(Seriously.  Why did noone think of this?)

Life, Movies, and the Gospel: The Lord of the Rings

Today, I'm going to talk about what is arguable one of the best movie series of our days: The Lord of the Rings.

I'm not sure which I like better, the movies or the books.  Don't get me wrong, both are awesome.  I just don't know how they can possibly be compared.  I love them both, but the two really don't mix.

(Just as a side note, my parents, about five years ago, got me the complete trilogy, extended edition, on DVD.  It's about 12 whopping hours of incredible.  I've never watched it all at once.  Maybe once I have a worthy set-up.)

Anyway, this is probably one of the easiest movies with which to draw a parallel with the gospel.  I am not the first, and probably not the last, to suggest this.  Let's start with one of my favorite characters: Gandalf.

Gandalf.  The very name conjures up an image of a mysterious wizard, beloved by all and known by none.  Noone ever seems to know anything about him, except that he's doing what is best for you, even if you don't know it.  He dies to save his friends, and then comes back to save them again.  In a very real way, you could say that Gandalf is the mastermind behind the entire saving of Middle-earth.  If it had not been for Gandalf, no doubt Bilbo would have kept the ring, been caught by the Nazgul, Sauron would have won, and so much for Middle Earth.

In the same way, Jesus is the mastermind and worker of our salvation.  He was sent here to help us all out of our problems.  Basically, we are all trapped by two problems: Sin, and Death.  By ourselves, we can do nothing.  If it were not for Jesus Christ, all of our existence would be painful, pointless, and would end in oblivion.  However, because he died for me, we all will live again.  I know this to be true, and I will testify to my dying day of the same.

Should you so desire, go check out The Baggins Daily Report, another excellent blog about the Lord of the Rings and the Gospel.