Have you seen the movie Earth? It’s narrated by James Earl Jones, so that alone should convince you. That man could read the labels on a tube of lipstick to me and I would pay attention.
But the narrator is not why I’d suggest you go see Earth. The movie is a fascinatingly well-done documentary that literally was shot from the North Pole to the South Pole. We watched it at a family gathering this week, and the combination of Linda and Ron’s ginormous TV and the breathtaking images in the film made for a great time.
There are several scenes in the film where predator meet prey, with predictable result. Ron, an especially animal-loving family member, said of the film “It was too violent for me, I like coexistent animals.” The toughest scene to watch was the baby gazelle being targeted by the world’s most perfectly designed predator, the cheetah. The camera they used to capture the scene shot at something like 1000 frames per second, and the image it produced was mesmerizing, and sickening. A full-grown cheetah chasing down a baby gazelle. There is something that is just not right about it.
And that’s why I’m a Christian.
Only the Christian worldview agrees with Ron, that it is not OK for the baby gazelle to get it. The predominant western worldview, postmodern secular humanism, is based on the baby gazelle getting it. Survival of the fittest.
Eastern worldviews would say that the baby gazelle was a money-hungry investment banker (or other such evil-doer) in a past life, and therefore deserves getting it.
Pantheistic and Panentheistic worldviews would say that the cheetah and gazelle are both a part of the divine, and therefore whatever happens must be ok.
The Christian worldview, on the other hand, says that someday Jesus is coming back to make things right. In fact, in Isaiah 11:6 we get a great word-picture of what results the second coming will bring. The wolf and lamb will dwell together. The leopard and the young goat will peacefully coexist.
And, if we’re lucky, James Earl Jones will tell us stories around a campfire. But I couldn’t find a verse to indicate that.