Poetry when you are grave
is like poetry from the grave
It’s like writing from a tomb
and waiting to be exhumed
I am doing nothing
but waiting for something
Last time I did something
it resulted in nothing
That girl was like the damn boulder
that Sisyphus eternally pushed
Thereafter I hated all women
But deep down inside I want
my love to be awakened again.
{sigh}
When I began the study (or rather the study came to me–praise the Lord) of the Old Testament (OT) & New Testament (NT) connections between Elijah & Elisha in conjunction with John the Baptist & the Lord Jesus Christ–barely scratching the surface lead to an overwhelming amount of information.
For instance, a study of parallels between Elijah versus Ahab/Jezebel in relation to John the Baptist versus Herod/Herodias involves a large quantity of scripture in itself. There are an abundance of comparisons surrounding the article’s title, so I decided to highlight the following portion from my study:
We can set a base for relating John the Baptist with Elijah via Malachi 4:5-6, Luke 1:17, Matthew 11:13-14 & Mark 9:13. When it comes to Elisha & the Lord Jesus–we can find portraits of Christ throughout the OT. So let us dive in.
In 2 Kings 2 we read of the passing of the mantle from the prophet Elijah to the prophet Elisha (the OT verse will be followed by the NT parallel):
2 Kings 2:7 “And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.”
Matthew 3:13 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.”
In 2 Kings 2:7 “the two” at the Jordan were Elijah & Elisha; in the NT John & the Lord Jesus. In the OT series Elijah parted the waters of the Jordan & they two crossed. Then Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind. Straightway, it is written of Elisha:
2 Kings 2:14 “And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”
Matthew 3:16 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
A couple of awesome parallels–praise the Lord. Elijah’s mantle fell to Elisha; meanwhile after the baptism of John, the Spirit of God descended like a dove & lighted upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice also that the waters parted for Elisha, meanwhile the heavens opened for the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider the notion of waters & heavens with:
Genesis 1:7 “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
After Elisha smote the waters & they parted:
2 Kings 2:15 “And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.”
John 1:32 “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”
Thus, with the mantle, the parting of the waters & the spirit resting/the Spirit remaining–glorious parallels.
Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”
1 Peter 1:24 “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
To claim, when it comes to the Holy Bible, that we must know what was being said in the context of particular time, place & culture contradicts the aforementioned verses. The word of God is not subject:
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Hebrew 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
I do not promote a complete ignorance of history; in fact, the Good Book provides much history. My proposition is that claiming, “what did it mean then & what does it mean now (in our culture)?”–is unsound doctrine.
1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Different time periods & culture do not dictate interpretation (although we fallible humans often try). We have the Old Testament & we have the New Testament–it is enough.
Luke 22:38 “And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.”
Ephesians 6:17 “..and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
My claim is not akin to history has zero value. I am a history buff & history can offer insights, but let us not apply history to the word of God, but rather the word of God to history:
Hebrews 1:10 “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”
Genesis 6:2 “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
Judges 21:20 “Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.”
In Genesis 6 the sons of God, angels, took wives of the daughters of men–all which they chose. In the last two book of Judges, the chapters surround the Benjamites. The main point here is that after all the prior events of the two chapters, the remaining Benjamites did not have any wives.
The solution was Judges 21:20-21–when the virgin daughters of Shiloh performed their annual dance; the Benjamites would snatch a wife. There were 400 young virgins left over after the punitive destruction of Jabeshgilead. So we have the Benjamites mirroring the sons of God in Genesis 6.
When sons of God came into the daughters of men:
Genesis 6:4 “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
The Benjamites mirroring this action closed out the book of Judges. The next book is the last of judges–Samuel. In the book of Samuel the Israelites cried out for a king:
1 Samuel 10:20 “And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
21 When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.
22 Therefore they enquired of the LORD further, if the man should yet come thither. And the LORD answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.
23 And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.”
Therefore, if you put it all together, the Benjamites in Judges 21 mirrored the action of the sons of God in Genesis 6–which resulted in giants. In the next book of the Bible a Benjamite, Saul–is chosen as king. Saul was, “…higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward” (1 Sam 10:23 & mentioned earlier in 1 Sam 9:2).
Saul is not labeled as a giant, but he is taller than the rest of the Israelites. When the word of God speaks of giants, people often ignore the girth of the beings. One should picture an excessively tall being proportioned more like a football linebacker rather than a center in basketball.
At the end of the day it was not the tallest of the Israelites who defeated the 9 foot 9 inch tall (6 cubits) Goliath. It was David.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
Acts 13:21 “And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:”
I was absolutely delighted when the Lord opened my eyes to these parallels this morning. I will now relate all this to an uncomfortable subject, but something that is a reality in the West–eugenics.
Ever since the wealthy oligarchs & their education intellectuals rejected the word of God in favour of the theory of evolution the belief that mankind will somehow breed himself into some sort of salvation has become their doctrine. They think they will evolve & transcend mankind by breeding the alleged best of the best (best by measured IQ, physical traits, wealth, fame etc).
Notice with their Climate Change myth, you, O’ regular person should not breed to allegedly save the planet. However, the same wealthy & powerful who attend their global Climate Change conferences continue to breed undiscouraged.
2 Thessalonians 2:11 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
I consider Ken Ham one of my brethren; I believe his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is just as genuine as mine. However, believers can disagree some things & not be enemies. Ham accepts that dinosaurs existed, but he also believes the Bible; therefore, he believes the dinosaurs must have existed IAW the framework of the word of God. That is not a heretical doctrine because even if he accepts some common claims of government controlled science, he will reject any claim about the same that contradicts scripture.
While Ham may reject the claim that alleged dinosaurs were tens or even hundreds of millions of years old; I reject dinosaurs outright. We are consistently fed fictional pictures of full dinosaur skeletons, yet the actual digs produce what look like large bone fragments of unidentifiable large creatures. The claim is these large bones all found in the same area must belong to the alleged dinosaurs.
I believe the bone fragments are real bones; not the bones of fictional thunder lizards, but the bones of very large creatures…sea creatures. There are more elements involved in my proposal than finding the bones of large sea creatures where they shouldn’t or where they shouldn’t if they do not believe the flood in Noah’s days.
When the waters of the great flood receded, many inland valleys would still be filled with water for a period of time. This would trap large sea creatures such as numerous kinds of whales. Once the temporary bodies of water in the inland valleys evaporated or ran off, the bones of large sea creatures would be directly intermingled with the bones of perished land creatures that succumbed to the flood in the same valleys. Also, the issue is further complicated by the large land creatures’ bone fragments being intermingled together as well.
Take the alleged Dimetrodon for instance:
It is claimed that this creature existed around 200 million years ago. The creature ranged from 6-15 feet long. There is a common debate over whether this creature was in fact a dinosaur–a few of its skull features renders it closer to mammals. The creatures qualities would make sense if a mammal & reptile bones were intermingled with a swordfish or marlin (thus the spine fin on the creature). The large fish are within the same range of length.
The title picture does not represent the bones of a dinosaur–it is the skeleton of an Orca. You could only imagine if bone fragments from an Orca that was stuck in a temporary inland valley lake was mingled with bone fragments of the perished large land creatures. Take note of the very small arms of the alleged Tyrannosaurus Rex (and the others that supposedly looked a lot like it). Whether it is Orca’s, Pilot or Beluga Whale skeletons–if intermingled with land creatures–it looks like a large fierce land creature with small arms & a long tail.
Notice that a common argument is over whether dinosaurs are closer to reptiles or birds. That makes sense when the bones of sea creatures, birds, land mammals & reptiles would be scattered & mingled together in the formerly flooded valleys. It would be a worse situation than mixing boxes of space legos, city legos, star wars legos etc. Sure, you could make something that looks logical & acceptable out of the mixed lego’s, but it would not be right.
The government controlled science of hundreds of millions of years & thunder lizards draws many away from the word of God. They teach the government religion to children in school from very young age. With the compulsory, constant indoctrination, soon they cannot even contemplate anything else to the contrary. Many Christians are stuck in between believing the Bible & believing elements from government controlled science (like Ken Ham). The fact is they are real bones & they accept dinosaurs on the basis that the bone fragments are real.
The fact also is that there are other reasonable explanations for these real bones as I have just proved. The bone fragments of numerous land & sea creatures mingled together after the great flood.
The question is why does government controlled science promote the myth of dinosaurs & hundreds of millions of years to children of a young age? Well, if you can beguile a population into believing the Bible’s truth about the past is false, then they will question what the Bible says about the future & the morals therein. That is what it is ultimately about–attacking the morals in the Bible. Examine 2 Thessalonians 2:12 again–rejecting the truth is connected to pleasure in unrighteousness.
The government could not shift or control the populaces’ morals until they somehow pried the majority away from the word of God. No better way to do that than repetitively indoctrinating children with pseudo-science contrary to the Bible…and they claim Christians are brainwashed?
I caution, I do not claim that pleasure in righteousness represents one such as Ham. That is a position a Christian retreats to when they cannot explain the real bones. They accept government controlled science’s theory about the real bone fragments; therefore, they must fit their mythical dinosaurs in somewhere. I do not believe that Ham malicious in the least as far as his beliefs. We both believe the great flood occurred; the difference is I do not have to account for alleged dinosaurs. My post flood temporary inland lake theory makes more sense than dinosaurs.
As a Christian, you do not have to work around the alleged existence of dinosaurs.
1 Chronicles 17:11 “And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:
14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.”
Acts 2:29 “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”
The following revisions omit important words from Acts 2:29:
ASV, RSV, NRSV, NLT, NIV, NASB, HCSB, ESV
For beginners, the mentioned revisions remove, “according to the flesh” from Acts 2:29 (see 1 John 4:1-3 for more on that matter). They also omit, “raise up Christ.” This disrupts the correlation not only with “raise up” in 1 Chronicles 17:11, but also disrupts Acts 2:29-32 in itself.
The omission of “raise up Christ” to sit on his throne is replaced in the revisions with only, “seat” or “put” one of his (David) descendants on his throne. As proven by Acts 2:29-32; the series in 1 Chronicles 17:11-14 is more than seating a descendant of David on the throne–“raise up,” a prophecy fulfilled by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As I said, removing “raise up Christ” & replacing it with seating one of his descendants on his throne in Acts 2:30 does not even sync well with the subsequent verses concerning His resurrection. Acts 2:30 includes “raise up Christ” & the provided portion concludes with:
Acts 2:32 “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”
The word of God is a perfect, interconnected symphony; if one note is changed over here, it disrupts the unity & continuity with a note elsewhere. A person does not need to know one iota of Hebrew or Greek to witness the recklessness of modern scholars in the English language.
Modern scholars have often claimed they simply want to update pronouns such as thee, thou or ye (in truth, the English Grammar pronouns are more concise than the wide ranging vernacular pronouns). However, avid Bible readers can routinely witness that they have changed so much more.
There is a great irony with the modern scholars & their more “readable” revisions: not only do they disrupt verse-to-verse correlations in the Bible, but they also have made verses more difficult to understand even within their own context.
John 2:18 “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
I watched the first few episodes of Netflix’s Stranger Things 3; the season had an interesting Invasion of the Body Snatchers theme. Unfortunately, the writers’ must have been unaware of any term (whether dictionary based or slang) to convey shock, surprise or irritation….save for taking the Lord Jesus Christ’s name in vain. Multiple characters took the Lord’s name in vain over & over again; finally, I terminated my viewing of the TV show as a result.
I have heard the same here or there in real life (and I hate it when I hear just the same), but not nearly close to the frequency I hear it on movies, TV shows & Netflix. It is as if they have a goal of incorporating blasphemy into the everyday English language. Perhaps they have an evil hope that if people hear that garbage enough on their TV shows, they will accept it & robotically regurgitate it?
There were zero mainstream articles about Stranger Things 3 ad nauseam use of our Lord’s name in vain; however, there were an abundance of articles condemning the routine smoking of cigarettes on the show. Thus, taking the Lord’s name in vain ad nauseam was acceptable, but the smoking of cigarettes on screen is of grave concern? The situation is not happenstance–it is a purposeful inversion.
Mark 7:15 “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”
2 Chronicles 24:18 “And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.”
When people abandon faith in the word of God, the concept of groves & serving groves routinely occurs.
When a church believes the word of man’s science instead of the word of God–they are left with little to preach about & cannot edify anybody. So they turn to the communist platform (psychology, racism, sexism, LGBT & socialism) in the hopes of fulfilling something.
There is another common denominator within Churches that have abandoned faith in the word of God: serving groves. Yes, instead of preaching about the Word made flesh (John 1:14) the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ–the same who have abandoned faith often “preach” or have mission statements concerning climate change or sustainable development.
Therefore, they are back to serving groves again. They just repackage their pagan religions as modern science so called.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
This is a more brief explanation (synopsis not included), so I recommend watching the movie or reading the book before indulging:
I was unhappy with all articles & video’s that explained this movie–so I have been dissecting it for the last couple days. Can’t say I was the first to figure out but…
Anton Chigurh murders a sheriffs deputy near the beginning of the movie. This is the transition from the civilized government to the wartime government. Anton uses a bolt stunner to murder one of his victims; during wartime he (the gov’t) treats men just like cattle.
Anton is the government, the selective service & his coin toss represents the draft lottery. Notice that Anton’s life is never at stake in the coin tosses. The coin tosses involve unwilling participants. Also, the movie is set 1980 & the two coin toss scenes are after the fact concerning the wars.
Key points: Sheriff Bell is a WWII vet while Llewellyn Moss & Carson Wells are Vietnam War vets. Sheriff Bell mirrors Anton in a couple scenes. Some theorist claim Bell is actually Anton. Negative: When Bell follows Anton’s footsteps, Bell’s shadow is always prominent in the scenes. Shadows have to do with the angle of light.
This represents that the WWII vet (Bell) viewed Anton (the gov’t, the selective service, the draft) in a different light than the younger Vietnam generation. Bell condones the actions of Anton because he mirrors Anton’s actions in the same places.
The scene with Anton & the old owner of the gas station is an after the fact coin toss (the draft). Like the selective service, Anton acquires information about the man before the coin toss. Notice that Anton learns the man “married into the money” before he tosses the coin (the draft). The old man was already a winner of the draft before the toss. His “good call” was marrying into the money.
In the scene the year of the coin is 1958 (Viet Cong established). Anton says the coin (the draft) travelled 22 years to get to that moment (Cold War 1947, Vietnam draft lottery 1969).
Carson Wells did not get a coin toss before Anton murders him. Wells was an officer in Vietnam & no coin toss represents that he willingly joined the service.
Carla Jean Moss is involved in a coin toss scene at the end of the movie. She was already a de facto loser; her husband (Llewellyn) was drafted for Vietnam. Anton visits her after his mission is complete–he already retrieved the bag of money. The war is over, but Carla Jean is still a victim.
Anton gets in a car accident immediately after. This does not represent meaningless fate like most theories. Anton gives the kids on the bikes $100 to ignore his involvement in the collateral damage & walks away. The money resulting from the war makes the war okay–accept the version of events from Anton (the gov’t). Anton hobbles away from the scene of the accident with a broken arm–the bone is sticking out–exposed. This represents that even if the governments motives for the war are exposed, as an entity, they always get away with their crimes in the end.
Sheriff Bell is increasingly appalled by Anton’s mode of operation as the movie progresses. He thinks his brutal mode is something new, but he learns from his cousin Ellis that Anton’s way was always the case. Bell’s war (WWII) was the result of “drug deals or business deals gone wrong” just like the more modern wars. The more he learns about Anton, the more he learns the truth about his own civilization.
Bell’s dream at the end: He and his father are on horseback riding through the mountains. His Dad rides ahead & he sees his Dad carries a horn with fire in it (transporting embers for the next campfire). He says he knew his Dad would already have a campfire going in the darkness when he finally arrived. It appears Bell is talking about death…negative.
Control over fire represents civilization. Bell believed he was following in his Dad’s footsteps & carrying on the tradition of his civilization. Bell never had faith in God; he had faith in the system. He learned that his Dad’s civilization & his civilization were just a dream & Anton (the gov’t) was always the same. Bell says, “Then I woke up.” The movie ends.
The original Planet of the Apes (1968) & Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) contained far more depth by way of theological & philosophical issues. Unfortunately, the last three movies in the series went downhill in a hurry concerning those topics.
The first two installments reflect this to the viewer:
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
The creation or origin narrative was the theme not only for the apes, but also the surviving intelligent humans we encounter in Beneath the POTA. In the third movie (Escape from the POTA) one short sequence caused a radical shift for the series & the recent reboots began with the same theme. Cornelius tells the tale of how the apes rose; however, his story not only contradicted everything from the ape’s Sacred Scrolls in the first two movies, but also his own theory in POTA–that apes physically evolved from man.
The Sacred Scrolls were simple; apes were created in the divine image. In POTA Cornelius discovered evidence that man may have had an older civilization than the apes. Men, were speechless beast-men on late 40th Century Earth. They never could speak, nor have reason according to the ape’s religion. In Escape from POTA Cornelius claimed that primitive apes were pets for humans, then they advanced to chores, then slavery. Finally, one day an ape named Aldo spoke a word back to the humans that he had been told countless times… “No.” He claimed that instance was documented in The Sacred Scrolls; he must have recounted the incident from the New Revised Version of The Sacred Scrolls.
Thus, the POTA series shifted its focus from brilliant theological & philosophical issues to oppressed vs oppressor philosophy (which was a present issue, but to a much lesser degree). The series shifted from transcendent, universal issues with everlasting implications to temporal socio-political issues. Therefore, The Sacred Scrolls & the series shifted from “in the beginning God created…” to “in the beginning–rebellion.”
In the first two POTA’s it is logically inferred to the viewer that man destroyed himself & the apes mutated as a result of nuclear fallout. This can be supported via the mutated humans in Beneath the POTA; which now had superior abilities such as telepathy.
In POTA the presence of an alien challenged all the apes’ beliefs–a human astronaut named Taylor. However, it is eventually revealed that Taylor is only an alien to the time (40th Century) & not the place (Earth).
Dr Zaius was an orangutan that served as the Minister of Science & Chief Defender of the Faith. In retrospect, Zaius privately knew that an older human civilization existed prior to ape civilization. In public he upheld the full-spectrum verity of The Sacred Scrolls. He was a Neoplatonist per say; he had a logical, pragmatic faith in the wisdom, principles & morals contained in The Sacred Scrolls. Ultimately, Dr Zaius knew if the apes ceased to believe the origin story in the scrolls; the wisdom, principles & morals therein would be jettisoned as well. Thus, he promoted the noble lie.
(Note to the reader: I am not a Neoplatonist. I believe the literal creation in the book of Genesis & also believe the real event presents allegories)
Speaking of Plato, Ape civilization was organized along the lines of The Republic. The orangutans were the oligarchs, the gorilla’s were the soldier class & the chimpanzees were the masses. The chimpanzees became more enlightened through their study of science. The discoveries of the chimpanzees began to clash with boundaries set by the oligarchs.
Plato is of even more importance in POTA. The chimpanzee Cornelius discovered evidence of an older human civilization inside of a cave. For that reason Cornelius postulated the theory of evolution. Logically, his discovery did not prove that apes physically evolved from men. In The Sacred Scrolls (NRV) the apes socially evolved from men. However, in POTA, Cornelius’s theory was based on our cave’s (education) theory of evolution.
While Cornelius’s theory reflected the genesis of a new religion (or scientific theories supplanting religion), the mutated humans in Beneath the POTA displayed the end of Cornelius’s new religion. These mutants worshipped a nuclear missile (The Bomb) inside of a cave. The mutants no longer practiced a religion that included a creation or origin story, but instead an evolution story.
The mutants worshipped The Bomb because it was a nuclear war that caused The Holy Fallout, their change, their evolution to have psionic capabilities. The mutants wear false normal human faces, but when they reveal their “innermost self to the bomb” they remove their masks to reveal severe radiation sickness. The nuclear missile in their subterranean abode was the idol & represented the power of their god. In one scene, the mutants hold a liturgy that is identical to many Christian liturgies save for substituting God & the Holy Spirit with The Bomb & The Holy Fallout in identifiable scriptures.
The allusion is that the mental super-humans do not even need to eat. The “everlasting” Bomb as they call it brought peace or heaven on Earth in their theology. The mutants have a true weakness though; their powers are based on visual & audio illusions that cannot inflict real damage. If the mutants wanted someone to be murdered, they would use their mental capabilities to make others commit the act. It is inferred that they made gorilla scouts kill each other because their mutants powers have been bestowed “for peace.” By this doctrine they can disassociate themselves from any violence they cause.
That statement is in bold because that summarizes the religion of science. For instance, when some abandon faith in the Lord Jesus for faith in science, they often boast of all the good that the sciences have bestowed upon the world, but disassociate the same from biological weapons, chemical weapons or The Bomb. One could reasonably claim a figurative allusion in early POTA was abandoning the Tree of Life for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
First, I will return to the Plato theme:
Taylor: “That still does not explain the why. A planet where apes evolved from men? There’s got to be an answer.”
Dr. Zaius: “Don’t look for it Taylor…you may not like what you find.”
This exchange between Taylor & Zaius was after Cornelius (accompanied by his chimp wife Zira) displayed the evidence of an older civilization comprised of men inside of a cave to Taylor & Dr Zaius. Taylor agreed with Cornelius’s postulation, but did not find truth inside the cave–he still thought he was on another planet. After Taylor rode off in search of answers further out in the forbidden zone, Zaius ordered the gorilla’s to seal the cave with explosives despite Cornelius’s protests. Dr. Zaius’s mode was not to secure power for the oligarchs (orangutans); his mode was to preserve his civilization.
The contents inside the cave were not going to be the basis for the apes’ religion or education. Zaius knew scientific theories that resulted from that evidence conflicted with the foundation of his civilization. He also finally admitted that he knew an older civilization of intelligent men had existed, but they had destroyed themselves via their own science. That theme reminds me of a famous quote by General Omar Bradley:
“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
The irony of Taylor & Zaius’s exchange was that Zaius knew Taylor would not find truth inside of the cave. The orangutan knew he would find it outside of the cave & his foreboding warning to Taylor mirrored:
Ecclesiastes 1:18 “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
Dr Zaius was entrenched in a battle to keep the apes from suffering the same self-destructive fate that men suffered–which reflects:
Ecclesiastes 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Early in POTA the impression is that the conflict is the alleged truth of science versus the oppressive force of religion. Midway through the film, Taylor acts as an enlightened alien guide to help Cornelius develop his theories & fight for what he believes to be the truth. The end of POTA reflects the opposite. Taylor finds the truth he was looking for on a beach further in the forbidden zone–the half-buried, mangled Statue of Liberty. He realizes he was on Earth all along, but in the future & man had finally went through with his nuclear war.
That is another grand irony in more ways than one. Again, Taylor, the enlightened alien was in fact helping to put Cornelius (and the ape civilization as a whole) on the same road that the leads to the same end; the same end Taylor just encountered. Inside the cave, based off the evidence, Taylor boasted to Dr Zaius that this older civilization of men on the planet were superior to Zaius’s civilization because of science & technology.
In the final conversation between Zaius & Taylor (from which I already provided the final exchange), Zaius admits to Taylor that he knew of the older civilization of men. Zaius said of men:
“His wisdom must have walked hand and hand with his lunacy.”
This is outside of the cave & Zauis then tells Taylor the truth:
“The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.”
Taylor did not fully comprehend Zaius’s statement. It did not concern a similar species on a different planet–it was Taylor’s breed. The beastmen that remained were all that remained of Taylor’s people. Zaius rejected that Taylor was an alien from the beginning. He did not know Taylor time-travelled; he believed Taylor was a leftover from the destroyed civilization of intelligent men & was correct.
Zaius had a concern equal to Cornelius’s corrupt theories. He thought Taylor was part of an intelligent tribe of humans that remained. If that was the case, Zaius knew they had or would soon have the technology to destroy ape civilization. For this reason, the Apes began sending out Gorilla scouts in Beneath the POTA. They search for Taylor’s theoretical tribe. They find the mutated super-humans, who already had imprisoned Taylor & Brent (an astronaut who was sent out to find Taylor & encountered the same timespace rift).
Both Taylor & Brent are essentially ghosts of a long dead civilization. They cannot assimilate into the ape civilization, the superhuman civilization nor the beastmen herds. Early in POTA, after the crash of their shuttle & a long march; Taylor & the two other astronauts encounter the beastmen (concerning the astronauts with Taylor: one died before the crash, one died in the ape hunt, one was lobotomized by the apes). The beastmen are foraging fruits, vegetables & it initially looks like the Garden of Eden. Taylor believes that if the beastmen are the best that the planet has to offer, due to the superior knowledge he & his comrades, they’d be running the planet in 6 months. Taylor initially plays the role of the serpent:
Genesis 3:5 “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
It is a short lived revel because the beastmen were actually foraging amongst the apes’ crops. Even as the movie progresses, Taylor plays the role of the serpent among the apes. He is the enlightened alien to Cornelius & Zira, but the devil IAW with ape civilization. This is yet another aspect that is lost when the POTA series fully transitioned into oppressed vs oppressor philosophy.
Extra-Terrestrials. This movie reflects the two camps that reside in our world. One group would regard ET’s as the enlightened aliens that are here to help man progress towards a technologically & morally superior civilization. The other camp, my camp, knows that the ET’s are either here because they destroyed their own civilization (via war or exhausted their resources) or they were cast out of their own civilization:
Revelation 12:7 “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Beneath the POTA is the 2nd movie; however, it is the chronological end of POTA & the world. Taylor identifies the nuclear missile that the mutants worship as the alpha & omega bomb or the doomsday bomb. This particular bomb apparently existed since Taylor’s time in the 20th Century & was build to be the ultimate war deterrent. That fact helps explain the mutants peace doctrine–The Bomb, their god, a manmade idol, was built to bring peace on Earth. It was capable of melting the Earth’s atmosphere according to Taylor.
The end of Beneath the POTA is awful for the viewer; the same end is spectacular on theological & philosophical basis. The apes overcome the mutants’ defensive illusions, invade the subterranean city & kill all the mutants who have yet to commit suicide. The apes (Zauis included) enter the sanctuary of the Bomb & pull down the golden idol (The Bomb). It begins leaking nauseas gas. The gorilla commander is about to push the red button thinking he can stop the gas leak. Brent & Taylor had been hiding in the sanctuary; they break concealment & begin shooting to stop the detonation. At the tail end of melee, a mortally wounded Taylor states that it is doomsday & asks Dr Zaius to help him (the inference is that if he can get Zaius to help him with his wound, then he can disarm the bomb). Zaius refuses. Taylor collapses, but reaches his arm out & pulls down red button.
A building flash intensifies on the screen. An emotionless third party narrator says:
“In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead.”
The screen goes black & the credits roll in silence.
Consider origin, the creation theme of POTA. The theological & philosophical message at the end of Beneath the POTA was not nihilism or everything is worthless. The message is that if a world abandons its creation narrative, then its existence & death are meaningless.
Therefore POTA & Beneath POTA are often misunderstood as the battle for science to overcome religious oppression, or rightly understood to a lesser degree concerning the dangers of modern science or technology.
The prime message of the two movies is: there are ultimately, only two choices…creationism or nihilism.
Thus, if one is absolutely opposed to creationism & believes there must be another answer, I say:
Dr. Zaius: “Don’t look for it Taylor…you may not like what you find.”
THE EXILE OBSERVER 