Searching For Truth In Comic Books

What is it about grown men in spandex flying around and shooting lasers that is so fascinating, even thrilling to me? And why is the "Green Lantern" concept so especially exciting? I believe that the concept of superheroes is often an unintended response to the ideas God has placed in our hearts about what we and the world should, and one day will, be like.

Comic book heroes sometimes seem to resonate with biblical principles. Justice is highly valued in the Bible and you can almost hear the comic book heroes of today quoting passages as they head out for their nightly patrol:

Batman might like the New Living Translation’s rendition of Psalm 101:8.

My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked and free the city of the LORD from their grip.

Uncle Ben may have just been reading Luke 12:48 before telling Peter Parker that “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

And compare the core metaphor and sentiment of Alan Scott’s original “Green Lantern Oath” to John 1:5: "And I shall shed my light over dark evil for dark things cannot stand the light... the light of the Green Lantern!"

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Superhero comics express longings for justice and security ingrained in the human psyche.



POWER

Maybe the most obvious reason I like comics and other similar fiction is the power the characters have. We all hate feeling victimized, weak or insecure and prefer to have control over our lives. We hate disease, injury and death. We all long for an existence where these things are absent and we have nothing to fear.

The special abilities of super-humans also makes them stand out. They are “unique” and valuable to others. They’re often appreciated, liked and admired. (At least outside the Marvel universe.)

I think we all want to be appreciated and valued. We want to be thought well of. We want to have the ability to achieve our dreams. We might be jaded enough to stuff down those dreams to avoid disappointment, but we still have them somewhere deep inside. And comic books are an expression of those dreams.

The concepts of Green Lantern and The Green Lantern Corps appeal to me for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that awesome ring.

The power to bring into reality what you create with your imagination is such a potent and exciting idea. I figured out awhile back that I just don’t have enough time in the few years I have on earth to bring about all the ideas swimming around in my head. And more ideas always seem to keep generating, as if they’ll never run out! What I need is eternity!

I think this is part of what is meant by Ecclesiastes 3:11 when it teaches that God has "set eternity in the hearts of men". He has built into us a desire to fulfill our dreams, to become what we were always meant to be, and for that experience to last forever.

So what exactly does the Bible say we are meant to be? What does the future hold for those who place their future in the hands of Christ?

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (ESV)

Specifics are hard to come by, but we have a few indicators to ignite our imaginations and spur us on toward this prize.

First of all, we will have bodies patterned after the body Jesus had after he rose from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

(“Firstfruits” here refers to the fact that Jesus is the first of the same kind that will follow after him.)

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

So what was his body like and what will our new bodies be like? In gamer terms, “let me see your stats”.

1 Corinthians 15: 42-44 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

These bodies will not be subject to any form of disease and will be completely indestructible. They will not have any cosmetic imperfections. If you think the idealized bodies of superheroes look good, these will be even better.

We will not be frustrated by a desire to do something that we are incapable of doing. The Bible is not specific regarding the nature of our bodies’ “power” (which in the Greek means simply “strong capability”), but we will have any abilities God decides to grant us in order to perfectly carry out whatever task he has for us. Although our bodies now are “natural” (meaning in the Greek that they are subject to our corrupted instincts) our perfected bodies will be “spiritual”, meaning that they will be perfectly in line with God’s purposes. No more emotional “baggage” or sinful tendencies weighing us down!

And though it’s pure speculation to do so, we can also potentially apply the activities of Jesus’ post-resurrection body to what ours may be capable of (at the very least, we aren’t foolish to consider these abilities as possibilities since they are clearly compatible with Jesus’ body), which included appearing/disappearing (John 20:19&26,Luke 24:32) and flying (Luke 24:51,Acts 1:9).

And the possibilities really become amazing when God creates an entirely new universe.

Revelation 21:1-2 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (ESV)

Astronomer Hugh Ross points out in his book, "Beyond The Cosmos" that if our familiar law of gravity were in place in the new creation, the physical dimensions of the New Jerusalem would cause it to collapse into a spherical shape.

We have no reason to assume that the new creation will have the same laws as the old. In fact, since decay is itself a natural state of our universe, and death and decay will be done away with in the new creation, we can assume that physical laws will be entirely different, and that our bodies will be perfectly suited in advance for those laws to be put in place.

Romans 8:18-23 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (ESV)




PURPOSE

But power seems meaningless without purpose. A comic book about a super-human who sits around and never uses his powers would be hard-pressed (and need a GREAT writer) to get past more than a few issues.

But the lives of these new beings that believers are destined to become are filled with purpose and activity. For starters…

2 Timothy 2:12a if we endure, we will also reign with him;

Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Even before the arrival of the new creation, Christ will literally, bodily take leadership of the world for 1000 years. Scripture indicates that in some way, believers will rule with him. Many have concluded that in addition to these perfected beings that believers will become, there will be normal humans who are born and live during this time period, both those who willingly submit to Christ and those who don’t. What role the perfected believers will play during this time is anyone’s guess, but my mind can’t help but drift to comic book superheroes as I speculate on our role as "priests".

For example, Green Lanterns are also united with a common goal of promoting peace and justice. They are empowered by beings of great knowledge and wisdom to protect the innocent and make the wrong things right.

I wonder if this might be a subconscious expression of our potential role during Christ’s 1000 year reign on earth: To serve God, empowered by him to care for and protect the innocent while ensuring peace and justice.




THE HERO

But the responsibility of ultimately putting all wrongs right does not fall on humans, even those perfected for God’s purposes. Even the strongest of us needs to be rescued. And I believe this common (yet often suppressed) desire for rescue fuels a ton of comic book stories.

In the cosmic story of the universe, there is one hero alone who will finally and completely make the wrong things right and rid the universe of evil.

1 Corinthians 15:22-26 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.


Superheroes remind me that we need to be rescued; that there is such a thing as absolute good and absolute evil, and that we should right now, as believers are destined to do eternally, stand on the side of good. They remind me that even though life is unfair and unjust, there is a real hero, a real rescuer, who is

1. all-knowing and so can RECOGNIZE evil.
2. all powerful, and so is ABLE to defeat evil.
3. all good, and so WILL defeat evil.


So next time you pick up a comic or watch a superhero flick, let your imagination run wild and consider what God has in store for us.