“LOST”: Now more than ever!

For those of you that care about my television preferences, I am typically not one for TV shows. If it’s a good football game or the occasional History Channel documentary, then sure. However, I don’t really care for what is offered on “prime time” television, with a few exceptions. One of those would be “LOST”, a sci-fi show on ABC that’s aired for the last 6 years, filled with diverse characters, confusing storylines, and just plain-old crazy stuff to shake things up.

Due to the nature of the show, the writers almost built it to fail in the sense that they couldn’t possibly ever answer all of the questions that arose during the series. Going by what we were given in the final season, it’s pretty obvious we’re never going to know the reasons behind a lot of the weird things that happened on the island.

But what was presented last night was a mixed bag of entertaining resolve, but disappointing in it’s execution. That is to say, I enjoyed the first 2 hours and 20 minutes (it was a 2 and a half hour series finale!), but the end was where they “LOST” me. (Oh look… a pun!)

Back in seminary we learned about this term, “syncretism“. What’s that? Simply put, it’s the combination of two or more religious beliefs and their practices. We saw this in it’s purest form last night.

Take a look at the “stained glass window”. What do you see? Multiple symbols of faith, that’s what. Keep in mind, this took place at a “church” that clearly looked like a church on the outside, with a statue of Jesus Christ on the outside and a cross on the steeple. But once Jack (the main character of the show) stepped into this room, it was full of pictures and religious items from across the spiritual board. It turns out this last season the characters were in an alternate reality/”purgatory” of some sort, which is kind of funny since that was one of the theories fans had all along.

Now some of you might be saying, “So what’s the big deal? It’s just a TV show!” And to that I would reply that yes, it’s just a TV show. But one that was watched last night by 13.5 million people in the U.S. alone. That doesn’t include international fans, or those that will catch it on their TiVo/DVR, Hulu, ABC.com, or later on DVD.

What it does is two things 1. Disappoint me and numerous other fans who were looking for something a little less obvious, but more importantly 2. Perpetuate some multi-faith concept of purgatory where the main characters all “move on” to the other side (guided by a blinding light). This sort of inclusion only causes more confusion in a show full of that already.

The syncretism (again, mixing religions) aspect is one thing, but the other is purgatory. To make this blog entry a fully realized Religion 101 class, I’ll explain: The word comes from the Latin purgatorium, which literally means “place of cleansing”. Purgatory is a “holding place”, between heaven and hell, to provide further purification to souls not fit for the splendor of heaven.

Once deemed “holy” (aided by the prayers and offerings of the person’s living descendants), they pass on. Sounds neat, right? The only problem is, it’s not found in the Bible. Anywhere…

Purgatory was a concept popularized by the Catholic Church centuries ago. It has been found in other religious systems (Chinese Buddhism, Judaism) but the belief was solidified and taught by the Roman-Catholics. One of the reasons Martin Luther lead the Reformation (another lesson for another day) was because of the abuses the Catholic Church made in regards to pushing purgatory, where if the parishoners simply gave more money, they could rescue their loved ones from further torment. Yes, believe it or not, the Church was quite corrupt at one time.

So not only did the writers of LOST go with the whole purgatory explanation, but they made it inclusive to people of all faiths. This is all good, politically correct, lovey-dovey type of stuff, but again… it’s just not Biblical.

What’s a good blog entry of mine without some scripture to back me up?

The first of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before me”. This means there is only one God in our life. Not one of many…

What did Jesus say? Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

and…

John 14:6 – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Not to mention, the Apostle Paul said in Acts 4:12 – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

I think those passages clearly show that there is only one way to heaven and that’s through Jesus Christ. It’s not found in Allah or Muhammed, Joseph Smith, Buddha (which doesn’t even have a belief in the afterlife), Hinduism (the closest match to the concept that LOST was going for) or any other belief system around (that includes you and all of your Xenu-hatin’ buddies, Tom Cruise).

That all said, the television industry today is not controlled or even influenced by Christians. This despite the large majority of our nation considers themselves to be one. What’s more unfortunate is to take notice at how few viewers will find error in the syncretism and purgatory aspects themselves, instead just finding fault with how it ended creatively.

Is this a larger problem than we realize? That many people are so spiritually numb (or confused), that when they see blatant attempts at religious “inclusion”, they pass it off as entertainment and think nothing of it? That’s merely accepting an idea, without verbally acknowledging it.

Lastly, this article (link) praised the show for having a message of faith.

Again, that may seem “nice”… but it’s awfully dangerous if that message is mixed. You see, no one will drink a bottle of poison if they can clearly see that it’s got the skull and crossbones symbol on the label. They’ll drink the poison if it’s masked by something appealing (Kool-Aid has worked before).

That’s what’s going on here… a “beautiful” ending to a television series that has captured viewers’ imaginations for 6 years, mixed in with an unbiblical view on eternal life. They’re sneaky, I tell ya…

Advertisement