Remember the Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report?  It was based on the classic story by Philip K. Dick.   Set in the near future, the police were able to detect future crimes and stop them from happening.  The BBC will soon air a new series with a similar premise called Paradox. It actually sounds quite promising.

The lead director of the series, Simon Cellan Jones, said the series “will leave the audience asking themselves dark, complicated questions about fate, the future and who controls it.”

Read the BBC story here.

Who controls the future?  That is a very penetrating question.  All people are anxious about what tomorrow brings.  There is only One who is worthy to open the seal to the future.  And that is the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5).  We can rest knowing our future days are in God’s hand.

Originally published at Burr in the Burgh.

What if someone told the story of the Prodigal Son with an inventive twist?  The story of the Prodigal Father.  What would that look like?

In 2005, the masterful German director Wim Wenders, well known for the fabulous Wings of Desire, gave us Don’t Come Knocking starring Sam Shepard.  The story was, in fact, written by actor Shepard.

Don’t Come Knocking is the story of Howard Spence, famous movie western star, who in late middle age realizes that he’s squandered his life on boozing, womanizing and whatnot.  Seeking some form of redemption or inner peace, he sets off on a journey to reconnect with family and two adult children he never knew.

One of the adult children, a daughter who is named Sky and played by Canadian gem Sarah Polley, has gone to the place where her father was last seen to stand watch for his return.

The other child, a rebellious alt country musician named Earl, doesn’t want to ever seen his father and wishes he were dead.

Howard Spence is wrung out by years of wild and wanton living.  He goes to the nearest thing he has for a home looking for . . . he’s not exactly sure what he is looking for at first.  Forgiveness? Reconciliation?  He knows he’s not worthy to be called anyone’s dad or husband.  What he finds is not what he expected, but is better in every way.

I have a thirteen year old son who is interested in film-making and has begun directing and producing his own homemade digital masterpieces.  I told him he should watch this movie if only for what he calls the “camera-ology.”

Tenderly told, beautifully shot, exquisitely performed; don’t miss Don’t Come Knocking.

 photo credit: jae michie

In 2006, I became a fan of an emerging American reggae artist who also happens to be a Hasidic Jew.  He is Matisyahu, which is just the Yiddish version of his given name, Matthew.  Perhaps you remember his hit album, Youth.

My family thoughtfully put some iTunes gift cards into my stocking this year.  So I was downloading some great new music this week and reviewing the other songs on my playlist.  And I came across the Matisyahu song King Without a Crown. I’d forgotten how cool this song is. This is his biggest hit so far and at one point was the most requested song on the famous rock station KROQ in Los Angeles.

Here are a couple of lines from the song:

Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it’s time we start revealing…

Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light…

Now for you Gentiles who might not recognize the Hebrew words, Mashiach is Messiah or Christ (in the Greek).  It refers to the Anointed One, the savior promised to the people of Israel and all the world.  We know this to be Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary.

Ha Shem is how an ultra-pious Jew might refer to the Deity.  It literally means “The Name.”  So to avoid breaking the commandment about taking God’s name in vain, His actual name is not uttered at all.  He’s just “The Name.”

I’m not up on yet on what Matisyahu has been doing lately, but the phenomenon is striking.  Here we have a Hasidic Jew performing for hip Gentile kids, Jews of all sorts, and a smattering of Rastafarians, along with everyone else.  He is successful at getting his message out there through his art form, a very explicitly religious message.

As a Christian, I can relate to Matisyahu’s longing for the Savior.  I too want the Messiah  to come and save us all from the present order of things.  I long for the eternal glorification that awaits all the faithful.  Of course, I believe that the Messiah did come 2000 years ago and has fully atoned for the sins of the world.  Now I hope for His return.  But were you aware of the Jews who are still serious about their expectation of a personal Messiah?  Here’s a minor celebrity who is explicit about that expectation in his music.  Interesting.

Be sure to check out this February 2006 article about him in Rolling Stone.

Coming Later: My review of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs.  Plus ready yourselves for hearing about my infatuation with the music of Sufjan Stevens and Yael Naim.

Anne Rice is one of America’s most highly successful authors.  She made her name penning Southern gothic vampire stories.  In recent years, however, Rice has made a re-conversion to Roman Catholicism, which she had abandoned as a college student in the 60s.  And she has determined to use her skills and popularity in service to Jesus Christ.  I offered my opinions on these efforts here.

Her latest publication is: Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. It’s evidently a spiritual autobiography.  Here is a CNN piece on it.

It is clear that Rice has become a very keen student of the New Testament.  Her latest books on the life of Jesus display a broad grasp of scholarly literatute.  I, for one, am curious about her memoir and anxious to read it.

According to Dr. Craig Hazen of Biola University, Bill Maher’s new film, Religulous, most of which is devoted to mocking Christianity, is built upon shaky intellectual foundations.  You can read Hazen’s full review here.  I haven’t seen the film yet myself.

Dr. Hazen, the head of the Christian Apologetics program at Biola, points out that Maher never bothers to consult any serious scholars for the defense of Christianity, choosing instead to display fringe expressions as if they were representative.  His approach is lazy.  Of course, out of the billions of religious people in the world, you can highlight examples from kitsch to extremism to make your case the religion is useless at best, dangerous at worst.  Isn’t this the basic “straw man” fallacy where you caraciturize your opponent, making it easy to knock him down while avoiding a real confrontation of serious ideas?

Hazen notes that one of Bill Maher’s favorite attacks is that boring old canard that the Bible is unreliable as a historical document because the Gospels were all written generations after the death of Jesus.  One of my favorite refutations of that proposition comes from this article in Skeptic Magazine.  Non-Christian historian, Robert Sheaffer dismantles the more ludicrous claims of The Da Vinci Code, including the idea that the Gospels are late documents.

- Reprinted from The Burr in the Burgh