The divine director

One of the most theological of films of recent years, one that was not obviously religious that is, was The Truman Show with Jim Carey.

If you remember the plot Carey was born in a fake community where his entire life is filmed and aired on television. He lives in one massive film studio where every aspect of his life is controlled by the great director in the sky who over watches and plans and plots.

Carey lives in a predetermined world and he starts to see the problems around him. He begins to figure out that something is happening to him, that he’s being manipulated and he years to escape it and find freedom.

In one sense this film shows the Calvinist view of God. It is also the world view of the fundamentalist Islamist. Both see God as totally omnipotent. In there mind this God controls everything. He chooses who will be damned and who will be saved. He sends a small child to hell with satisfaction. All that is done is the will of God.

God knows it all before it happens. If God knows it all then nothing can happen contrary to what God already knows. His knowledge thus predestines it. There is no free will for man.

In the Truman Show the entire world is watching as Truman seeks his freedom. Every attempt to find freedom is blocked by the director but eventually Carey outwits him and escapes. As he reaches the very limits of his world he finds an exit against the fake sky that is painted on the wall to give the illusion of a horizon. The director looks down on him and finally speaks to him. Carey looks up much the way you would imagine someone who imagines they hear God would look up.

The director tries to persuade Carey to stay but fails and the television audience applauds. I suspect that the movie audience applauds as well—if not physically then at least emotionally.

Most people who watch the film would be horrified if a real Truman show existed. That a man had his entire life controlled by others who planned who he would met, who he would love, who he would marry would disgust most people. If the show were true then the Director would be a monster.

Yet around the world millions of people not only believe in a divine Director doing exactly this but they applaud it. They see themselves as Trumans controlled by the Director. He plots and plans and they follow the script.

A sovereign God can not have his will flaunted. Nothing can happen that is outside his will. Every aspect of creation, all thoughts, all actions and ideas can only exist because he allows them to exist. There can be no such thing as free will for man.

One Christian web site explains it this way: “God not only knows everything about everyone before we are born, but God chose our destiny before anyone is born. Predestination is not a ‘Calvinist’ doctrine. Rather, it is a Biblical doctrine.” As they noted, “nothing happens beyond what God permits”.