Fiction Versus Fact
As a fan of science fiction I have assembled a rather extensive collection of books and movies. Many of these I have watched or read multiple times with renewed enthusiasm; I suppose that’s what makes a fan.
One of the problems that comes with extensive exposure to any area of fiction is the relative shortage of truly original ideas. After awhile the fan begins to see the same general storylines repeated with variations which may be ever so slight. The movie series “The Matrix” introduced an original storyline which I had not read or seen before. This alone was intriguing to me as a sci-fi fan.
For those of you not familiar with “The Matrix” I’ll try to summarize the major premise behind the story. The story takes place around 1,000 years into the future; mankind has engaged in a battle with the machines and lost.
The world-wide battle for supremacy happened to include the creation of a cloud cover which permanently blocked the sun’s ray from actually penetrating to the surface of the earth. As a result there is a serious problem with the generation of power.
An Illusion of Reality
As a solution the machines started harvesting humans and tying them into an electrical grid as a power source. To keep the humans quiet the machines created a huge computer program called the matrix which, when plugged into the minds of the human generators, created an impression the humans were living on earth in the year 1999 and enjoying life in all of its variations.
They lived their virtual lives in a computer simulation of normal human life in 1999 whereas their physical bodies were encased in a womblike container which sustained their bodily functions and withdrew into the grid the electricity and heat needed by the machines.
The movie series involves a group of free humans who are not part of the matrix and their efforts to break mankind free of the matrix and the machines.
Recently I watched the entire series again and it occurred to me there were rather interesting parallels between the fictional matrix and our actual matrix. What do I mean by “our actual matrix” you may ask?
How Does This Apply to Us?
In an earlier blog called What is Reality I pointed out the unreal aspects of our world and the life we live on this world. The dictionary definition of reality I referenced gave this definition: “the quality or state of being real: something that is neither derivative nor dependent but exists necessarily.”
Based on that definition I concluded it fair to say that the only true reality is the Trinity; I wrote: “Ultimate reality then is the Trinity; everything else is both derivative and dependent!” After watching this movie series again some additional thoughts came to my mind.
The world we live in and the bodies we inhabit are creations of God; all we are and all we can see continues to exist by the exercise of God’s will and as an expression of His mighty power.
When we are born we begin to live our lives in two realms, the spiritual and the physical; in the spiritual realm we become eternal creations, God has created us in His own image and we will always exist. In the physical realm we are born into a created world which, by definition is not real and has been infected by a virus called sin.
A New and Improved Matrix
This physical world is our matrix and while it appears to be real and permanent is in fact a temporary construct that exists as a manifestation of the power of its creator, the Holy Trinity.
Just as the humans in the movie matrix did not realize their true situation without outside help, even so we humans living in our real matrix can only be made aware of our situation with outside help which tells us of the temporary nature of our matrix and the dangers of the sin virus that has infected it.
Fortunately this help has been made available by the author and creator of our matrix through the written and living word, the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. Although at present we cannot move between these two realities at will, as they did in the movie version, we can by faith accept the truth of our situation, follow the directions provided in the Bible and secure our place in the coming eternal reality in perfect union with our Creator.
Our matrix, the so called reality which we now see and in which we live will, at some point in the future, be deleted and will totally cease to exist.
Our outside help, the Bible, tells us a completely new heavens and earth will then be created which will never be deleted; it is in this new matrix that we will live with our Creator forever.
I mentioned, near the beginning of this blog, my favorable impressions regarding “The Matrix” movie series because of its originality in sci-fi literature; now, having thought through all of this, I realize it was not so original after all but was in fact based on a real life story, our story.
davidbowerkingwood 
Hi David,
Based on that definition I concluded it fair to say that the only true reality is the Trinity; I wrote: “Ultimate reality then is the Trinity; everything else is both derivative and dependent!”
It’s interesting that you are writing about this, I’ve been reading about the Trinity and the difference between the beliefs of the Judeo-Christian based faiths.
We are talking about the Jewish feasts in Bible study, and in the one on Passover, someone asked if the Jews believed in the Trinity. (In part of the Passover meal, they have three pieces of bread and take one that is hidden until later in the meal.)
And I thought they did, because if you read in the Old Testament, it talks over and over about the Holy Spirit coming upon people and references to the Messiah and the Son of God.
But then I started reading about it, and actually present day Judaism doesn’t believe that and that is one of their main arguments against Christianity. They see it as worshiping “three” Gods and deny the Trinity.
I don’t understand that. What do they think the Holy Spirit is? And if they reject that there is a Son of God, how can they do that without rejecting the whole promise of the Messiah entirely?
One article that I read said that in the time of Jesus, that Judaism did accept that concept, but that theology developed out of the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.
I guess part of our difficulty in grasping the concept is that we are trying to describe God, who created and exists outside of our physical universe, in terms that we can understand. If even science can’t explain how things operate here (the discovery that an object can be in two places and/or two states at once,) I guess it’s no surprise that it is a difficult concept to wrap our heads around.
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By: Carla Alvarez on January 16, 2012
at 2:58 pm
Carla:
I have gotten to casually know a number of Jewish men over the years and of that group only one demonstrated any interest in the Hebrew Bible (his favorite book was Lamentations), the others only interest, if any, seemed to be in the Jewish traditions and their Synagogue rituals.
Although in the eyes of Christians the existence of the Trinity is clear, even if not understood, to the unbeliever, either Jew or Gentile, the denial of the Trinity or the denial of God is a simple matter. Jewish commentators have suggested that the plurality referenced in Genesis 1:26 was a reference to the one God and the angels to His left and right; a gesture of God’s grace and humility toward His angels.
The reality of God is infinitely beyond our ability to even imagine; it was indeed an act of grace to send God, the second person, as a man born of a woman who spoke to the people in simple terms they could understand. As born-again children of God we have the only teacher of spiritual truth, God, the Holy Spirit; the unbeliever does not have this resource and is in fact blind to the truth of Scripture.
David
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By: davidbowerkingwood on January 16, 2012
at 3:45 pm
[…] I have written on this in a number of earlier essays, including: “Your Dream World and the Blue Pill” and “The Real Matrix Revealed.” […]
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By: An Eternal’s Perspective on the Supernatural! | davidbowerkingwood on January 24, 2022
at 5:02 am