Musings on Christian Themes
Do you Remember Lost?
The Gospel According to Jack
by C. Matthew McMahon
Jesus said, “The Truth shall set you free.” This is true. Nothing else will set you free. But some disagree. Some think they need more than the Bible to draw in men and see them converted.
In the June Edition of the “Good News” Tabloid, one of the headlines is “Websites brings truth to Lost fans”, written by Lost Addict, Joanne Brokaw. Lost was a TV show written by Hollywood’s JJ Abrahams for entertaining the masses.
The show’s producers and ABC have gone to great lengths to create an elaborate ruse, and possibly one of the most addicting all-time powerful cliffhanger serials ever aired.
Even online one can visit www.thehansofoundation.org to see what I mean. Lost fans can surf the web in order to find a host of various websites that interconnect them to clues not necessarily demonstrated on the show, or re-angled information that presses the viewer to come back for more.
You can visit a myriad of websites and keep up-to-date on clues shared by fans all over the world.
Among the websites, is www.TheLostExperienceClues.blogspot.com, which recorded over 170,000 visitors in its first week. Joanne Brokaw reporting says, “Folks are trading passwords and codes and secret messages, theorizing on the identity of Persephone and the whereabouts of Dr. Thomas Mittelwerk.” However, behind the lie of simply creating an entertaining website on the storyline of Lost, the developers of the site have another motivation. It’s a secret from unsuspecting views. Much like the manner in which the Devil works, deception, they hook you first in the secular program, and then, they connect all of the Lost fans with Jesus Christ. There is a companion site: www.StoriesOfTheLost.blogspot.com where personal stories that parallel the Lost characters are given in order to offer viewers a spiritual perspective on being truly lost and searching for truth.
These sites are the work of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, and used primarily as a deceptive means to create a new kind of outreach evangelism. Such website tools are designed to “gently introduce visitors to the message of Christ’s redemption.”
Funny, I don’t find Christ or the Apostles ever doing that.
Todd Wagner, senior pastor at Watermark says in a press release, “We believe that many of the themes found on Lost resonate with people from all walks of life, so we decided to create a website that would utilize the Lost Experience as a means of engaging with our culture about themes of faith, redemption and hope. Connecting with people via non-traditional means gives us an opportunity to share our faith in a way that is non-threatening or evasive.”
Funny, I don’t ever find Christ or the Apostles doing that.
There is no doubt that groupies of the Lost series notice a lot of spiritual content that follows an oriental mysticism pressing good against evil. Others have debated as to whether the island itself follows the Romanized teaching of purgatory. Certainly, the character Mr. Eko taking on the guise of a Roman priest adds some spiritual tone to the show. But truth? There’s none to be found, at least not in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Brokaw comments when she says, “Outreach tools like www.TheLostExperience Clues.blogspot.com are great ways to explore the themes from a biblical perspective and use the pop culture phenomenon to truly reach the lost.”
Well, Scripture disagrees. Not only do these “non-traditional” means replace true evangelism, but such replaces the Gospel of Jesus Christ all together. Lost is not the Bible. Mr. Wagner of whatever church in Dallas Texas, needs to get out of the pulpit and into the pew if that is what he is teaching his congregation, and he is when he turns to the social Gospel. Traditionalism, or God’s unchanging and uncompromising character is always offensive to fallen man. It seems Wagner needs a theological lesson or two from the Scripture. Churches should be ashamed of themselves for purporting the Gospel of Jack, or of Sayid, or Letter of John of Locke to the churches in America. We don’t need the Gospel of Lost’s characters helping us out. Instead, I think, we simply need to evangelize the lost world by directing them to the Bible, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wagner and his church are a lost bunch in more ways than one.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:” (2 Cor. 4:3).
