It has been several months since I had made a post. Life has been busy for my family to say the least. My wife and I began the process and training to become foster parents, ministry just seemed to get even busier when one of the pastors at my church retired, the Christmas season always adds a layer of busyness to life and ministry, and then in early December the Lord bless my wife and I with a sweet baby girl to foster. At one point in time, I had hoped to do about one post a month, now I’ll just make posts as I’m able to and as the Lord leads me to write. At least for now, I am back for my first post of 2024! And like my other posts on this site, or as I call them “presuppositions”, may the Lord use this to encourage you, provide insight, and draw you into a greater appreciation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Last summer (2023), two major blockbusters hit movie theaters. In fact, the two movies debuted on the same weekend, two movies that are almost polar opposites of one another, but together they became what was known as the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon. The first film was The Barbie Movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The second movie and the partial subject of this post was the historical biopic directed by Christopher Nolan, titled Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer chronicled the life of the man known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer.
It was a movie I had wanted to see since it had come out. I love history, I’m a fan of historical films, I’m also a fan of Christopher Nolan (especially The Dark Knight trilogy), and I enjoy learning about the World War II time period; so, I was looking forward to a time where I could watch it. Due to life, ministry, and many other life items taking precedence, I was not able watch Oppenheimer until the week of Christmas. With a few days off for both my wife and I, we decided to watch Oppenheimer as the baby was sleeping one evening. Overall, we enjoyed the movie, we enjoyed learning about Oppenheimer the person, the circumstances surrounding the invention of the atomic bomb, life in Los Alamos, and what eventually led to the man being blacklisted by the American government. Unfortunately, Oppenheimer did earn its R rating for some very unnecessary sex scenes, nudity, and other topics that had nothing to do with the point of the movie. With all that being said, the film was good, we enjoyed it, and I can see why it earned five Golden Globe Awards and at the present time, is nominated for fifteen Academy Awards.
Alas, this post is not a movie review, I’ll leave the movie reviews to my good friend Josh (check out his reviews and his articles, they’re excellent!), but rather this is a post on a specific quote that was said towards the end of the movie and how it intersects with a key theological doctrine. No, it’s not the “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” quote, it’s a quote where he says concerning the atomic bomb and the effect he believes it’ll have on the world: “once mankind uses it, they’ll understand peace like never before.” The line of thinking behind this is of course, once humanity would see the sheer magnitude of the death and destruction a bomb like this would cause should be the ultimate warning that will help usher in peace. We know this certainly didn’t happen. After the two atomic bombs were dropped in August, 1945 that wiped out the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and instantly killing tens of thousands of people; all it did was help fuel an international arms race. An arms race between The Soviet Union and United States, all the while more than half-a-dozen countries around the globe have now a nuclear arsenal themselves (that we know of). According to The Union of Concerned Scientists, there are currently around 13,000 nuclear weapons globally (Link).
There’s a fundamental theological flaw in the quote, it doesn’t take into according the spiritual condition of man. According to the Scriptures, due to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, all of mankind fell with Adam (Genesis 3, Romans 5:12), therefore all of mankind is spiritually dead. Or, as one theological teaching states, all of humanity is “totally depraved.” What does total depravity mean? Simply put, it means every facet of man: the mind, will, emotions, and flesh have been corrupted by sin. Jeremiah 17:9 so eloquently says that the heart is “deceitful” and “desperately wicked.” Meaning, the innermost being of all people is wretched and wicked. We as humanity love darkness (John 3:19), and our way is more pleasing to us than godliness (Proverbs 14:12). Outside of regeneration, our flesh is hostile and at odds with God’s decrees (Romans 8:7).
Since that is the case, mankind is incapable of truly knowing peace like ever before because humanity has chosen war not just with each other, but with what God commands. As I get older, one of my favorite books of the Bible is the cheery Book of Ecclesiastes (kidding about the cheery part), but within Solomon’s work are many verses that remind us of history being cyclical, what’s most important in life, and to learn from his mistakes. Consider the words of Ecclesiastes 1:9 in which says, “what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (ESV). Meaning human nature is the same in 2024 as it was when Solomon wrote these words almost 3,000 years ago.
With all that in mind, here is where I am going; because of mankind’s sinful estate and for as “evolved” as many believe humanity is now (we’re really not), even with us witnessing the magnitude of death and destruction we’re capable of, we’re never going to learn how to truly be at peace with each other. Reason being, sin has a way of causing man to never learn from their past mistakes. The nation of Israel in Judges is a great example of this. The nation of Israel was God’s chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6-11), yet over and over again they did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh (Judges 2:11).
The Book of Judges can be summed up simply put:
- Israel rebels against God.
- God punishes Israel.
- Israel cries out to God to deliver them from their enemies.
- God raises up a judge to help deliver Israel from their enemies.
- Israel returns back to the Lord.
- Then Israel after a time goes back to rebelling against God and worshipping idols.
The nation of Israel time and time again refused to learn from the past and this was God’s nation. So, if God’s chosen people in the Old Testament engaged in this, certainly the pagan nations of the past and present engage in not learning from the past as well. Since the fall of man in Genesis 3, humanity has been in a constant state of war, with there really never being any time of there truly being peace globally. There’s always been wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6), and there will continue to be until Christ returns.
It’s been almost eighty years since our world was forever changed when Oppenheimer’s “babies” were dropped on the nation of Japan, yet we haven’t seen any sort of peace as a result of mankind “flexing” it’s destruction and death muscles. Even if it was for the sake of ending the worst war in history (so far). Since the end of World War II, here are some of the wars we’ve seen. The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Cold War, The Chinese Communist Revolution, The Gulf War, The War on Terror, and The Russia/Ukraine War to just name a few of the global conflicts that have commenced since 1945. And because sinful man cannot truly learn what it will take to bring about true global peace, at least, not until Christ returns, the pattern of death, destruction, and chaos will continue. When sinful man sees what they can “accomplish” outside of God, they get hungry for more until it destroys themselves. At the end of the day, anything accomplished outside of God is meaningless/vanity (Ecclesiastes 12:8).
Let’s circle back to the quote in conclusion, “once mankind uses it, they’ll understand peace like never before.” There is only One Who can truly allow us to understand peace like never before. It has nothing to do with a manmade invention, nothing to do with money, ultimate pleasure, or any human power; true peace is only found in Jesus Christ. John 14:27 is a wonderful verse in which Jesus tells us “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And this peace was achieved on what He did on Calvary. On the Cross, Jesus conquered mankind’s greatest enemy, the enemy that’s intertwined with total depravity, sin and death. Humanity pursues ultimate peace and satisfaction at every turn, almost always in the wrong places. Ultimate peace is not found in power, entertainment, money, pleasure, identity, or any other avenue, it is found in our Savior. And that is how we can have peace no matter what life may throw our way. Oppenheimer is a good historical movie that’ll leave you entertained and educated, but when you dig beneath the surface, you’ll be reminded of many spiritual truths, including what has been mentioned in this post. Most importantly, we’re reminded that through sin we’re on a conclusion course with destruction, however through Christ we have no reason to fear, and as we face the troubles of this world, we can have peace. Do not let your peace be found in anything else except through Christ.
PJ's Presuppositions 