God and the Twilight Zone (TV Series)

[Wanderer]

The most important thing I believe I know about God is that God is Love. We've probably all heard this loads of times, but it's important to recognize just how true and fundamental it is. Realizing this was crucial for me to accept Jesus and my Lord and Savior. Yes, as an atheist, I slowly came to metaphysical conclusions that made me conclude a Higher Power in the universe must exist. But I could not see the Light and Wisdom of the One True God. That is, until something changed.

God makes sense when you realize that He is Love. Born-again Christians are intimately familiar with this Truth. But I find many of us are not effectively communicating exactly how and why this is. It is imperative that nonbelievers understand this, if they are to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

One man I honestly believe to have been divinely inspired was Rod Serling, the creator of the Twilight Zone series. The series is adumbrated by too many fundamental Truths about God for it to have all come together by chance. If you have Netflix, WATCH IT! Anecdotes from Serling's life indicate he converted to Christianity and was deeply reverent towards God. In particular, God's Nature is explored in the following episodes:

Season 1, Ep. 28: A Nice Place to Visit
Season 5, Ep. 17: Number 12 Looks Just Like You
Season 3, Ep. 24: To Serve Man
Season 3, Ep. 28: The Little People
Season 3, Ep. 8: It's a Good Life
Season 2, Ep. 29: The Obsolete Man
Season 1, Ep. 1: Where Is Everybody?


If I could tell people to watch just 7 episodes, watch the aforementioned 7. They're all on Netflix (at least at the present moment). If you can't watch them, then go on Wikipedia or elsewhere and read the plot summaries, at least. You need to know the Truth.

When watching these episodes, contemplate the following concepts:

-The necessity of free will for true love to exist

-That beauty cannot exist without ugliness, and good without evil

-God's Supreme Benevolence and Mercy

-God's Supremacy over all other gods, spirits, and idols that humans have worshipped

-God Loves all humans, but not all humans Belong to God. The most fundamental truth about Love is that it hurts when you lose it. As we are created in God's Image, and God Loves us, it follows that God experiences emotion when we either accept or reject Him. That's right! You truly MATTER to God! God WANTS to have YOU - a thinking, feeling human soul created in His Image, who can only accept God through free will and not coercion.


I'd like to call particular attention to the first episode I mentioned. A Nice Place to Visit. In fact, if you decline to watch all 7 episodes and just watch one, watch this one! I wanted to discuss this a bit more, so I'll use spoiler tags:

Spoiler!

What's really profound about this episode is it posits the nature of hell as a place where we are essentially gods unto ourselves. We can control everything and obtain any material comforts we want. But we are separated from God and His Love. This notion fits perfectly with what we know about God and his Love and Benevolence. He gave us free will to decide whether we want His Love or not, whether we want to belong to Him in His kingdom or not. And God absolutely wants our Love, but knows our Love is only true when it is freely chosen. God Loves us SO MUCH that he sent his only Son Jesus to die and suffer so that our sins may be forgiven, and that we may truly love and worship Him. In the context of absolute morality, sins merit punishment. But it is through God's Grace and Sacrifice that we may be forgiven. THAT is Love!

So hell isn't necessarily a place of gratuitous and deliberate punishment. Those things will emerge as a consequence of our separation from God, however, which is separation from Love. I can't be 100% sure that this is what hell actually is--but even with this vision of hell, I would truly much rather worship and Belong to God for all eternity than spend it in the hell of A Nice Place to Visit. I mean that, and God knows I mean it, because this is EXACTLY what I would incessantly fantasize about as an atheist. Sure, I wanted to live forever, but with my own absolute power. The problem I kept running into is that I could never experience true Love in what was then (but no longer) my fantasy universe.

Having lived out that fantasy in my head and found its flaws, I believe God came to me, to show me the Way Home. Like a Stranger in the Night. Praise the Lord! I saw the Light!

[Armenian Bishop]

I got a lot of chuckles and laughs from Rod Serling's Twilight Zone TV Series. From one episode to the next there was tragicomedy, grim humor, or humor in the minds cape of psychological drama.