May the Force Be With You

By Greg Quinn

May 27, 2005

Having just come from the new Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, I have completed the last prequel in the Star Wars movie legacy.  Now we know, as Paul Harvey always says, the rest of the story.

I admit, I am a Star Wars fan.  I remember being Han Solo in a dark green 66 Mustang coupe blowing the doors off all other starships, I mean, cars, in the galaxy, I mean, the town.  It was easy to get caught up in the fantasy, the special effects (circa 1970’s), and the characters of the original Star Wars movies.  The older movies just seemed to have something that is missing in the latter three.  Yet, being a fan, I like them all.

Being a Christian, a minister, and a student of the Bible, I know more now than I did in the 70’s.  The “Force” in the movies, while a novel way to place the spiritual phenomenon between good and evil, has a more real-world meaning today.  “May the Force be with you” was a cool saying in the 70’s, yet most of us missed the spiritual implications at the time.  Not now.  In a world when there are innumerable spiritual religions to consider, from Satanism to Mormonism to Muslim to Occult to Christianity, differences in understanding “the Force” may be the difference between Heaven and Hell.

“The Force” in Star Wars is a fantasy way of explaining the existent spiritual element of life; taken one way and you pursue using spirituality for good, and another (“the Dark Side”) for evil.  Yet, the truth of this issue is not at all fantasy.  “The Force” does have two sides, just like depicted in the movie.  One side good, the other side evil.  And, now, we truly can describe “The Force”.  In fact, “The Force” was described years ago by God and Jesus in the Bible (there are hundreds of such references; only a couple are below).

 

Isaiah 5:20:  “Woe unto them who call evil, good, and good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”

 

Ephesians 2: 1-10:  “And you hath he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins; In which in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; Among whom also we all had our manner of life in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God--not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

 

The “good” side of the real “Force” is the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God, given only to those that believe on the only Son of God, Jesus Christ.  When one accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit comes to live inside that person.  This is God living inside of us through the Holy Spirit of God; God pouring out His spirit upon us.  If we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, then we will do good and will live a life pleasing to God.

 

John 14: 15-17:  (Jesus to his disciples) “If ye love me, keep my commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

 

The “Dark Side” of the “Force” is just the opposite of the Holy Spirit of God.  It is the spirit of evil that is present in the world today, just as it has been present in the world since early time.  This “Dark Side” is none other than the spirit of Satan, the devil himself, and his demons that are commanded by him.  The “Dark Side” causes people to deny God, to lie, to cheat, to steal, to kill, to murmur, to destroy, to cause pain, to be confused and believe a lie, and to work diligently to stop the truth of Jesus Christ.  The bad thing today is how the “Dark Side” is packaged.  Often packaged as religion, the “Dark Side” shows itself through the murder of “Christian infidels” by irate Muslims, the lies that one can work their way into Heaven as taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the fiction-based-beliefs that one can attain the position of a god as taught by some, and outright denial of God altogether by Satanists.  Humanists would have you believe that “man is god” and that there is not needed the spiritual element of mankind.  The “Dark Side” shows up in our politics by those trying to strip the religious liberties of our founding fathers, who were Christian, from our great nation.  The “Dark Side” shows up in the removal of prayer from schools, which has lead to generations of evil magnified since.  The “Dark Side” is evident in the murder of innocent babies through abortion.  The “Dark Side” shows up in ludicrous teachings of Darwinism and evolution, and denial of creation.  The “Dark Side” is played out in stages the world over every day, in every facet of life, with a purpose designed by the real Sith, Satan, to destroy everything good from the face of God’s earth. 

In the movies, evil is destroyed by good.  Today, the “Dark Side” seems to be winning, but only temporarily.  When Christ returns, then evil and its father Satan will be destroyed, and a new kingdom of heaven will be developed for those that accept Christ and follow his teachings.

 

Revelation 20:10-15, 21: 1-5:  “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.  And I saw a great white throne, an him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life.  And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and he first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.  And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

 

So, enjoy the new Star Wars movie.  Yet, understand something.  “The Force” is real.  “The Force” does have two sides.  One side is God.  The other side is Satan.  These two sides of “The Force” have been battling in humans since the beginning of time.  Now, just as in the movie, we must choose.  Do we follow God and Jesus Christ, the “good side”, or do we follow the evil Sith Lord (Satan) and the “Dark Side”?  Only you can choose for you.  Yet your choice has eternal consequences.  If you choose Christ, you live forever with God in Heaven, plus you have God’s blessings while living on earth.  If you choose the “Dark Side”, you choose eternal death in the flames of Hell, a place designed only for Satan and his angels, and you reject the blessings that can only come from a life on earth pleasing to God.  As spoken so eloquently in another favorite movie of mine, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, by the keeper in the cave, “choose wisely”.

May the Force be with you.

Greg Quinn

 

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