Joe watched Thomas Campbell's "The Present." It's good. Especially Dan Malloy's surfing in Indonesia, but not his narrative skills. The film and Campbell's commentary made me think more about the worldview of it all- and mine.
Campbell narrates the conclusion to his film The Present thus, “And hopefully that is what we have tried to convey in this film, getting back to the basics of being thankful for the here and now on this beautifully strange functional planet.”
The author of Hebrews writes in 2:8-9 “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
Both deal with the present, the here and now. Specifically, both teach how one is to view the present and what the present it is. Can Thomas Campbell’s view of the present be embraced with the Christian view of the present? First, we must understand what is the present. The Christian understands the present not in light of their conclusions derived by their experiences, their inward thoughts and meditations but because of the external word of God and work of Christ.
Hebrews tells what ‘the now’ is. Hebrews tells us how to view ‘the present.’ We view the present in light of the future. We look at the present in the light of what is not yet but what will be. The now is not yet for the Christian. Thus the present is the time of hope. Hope is not what one has but what is looking forward to having. The present functions not as our home, nor as our long awaited rest. The present is not subject to mankind’s apparent sovereign will. Nor is the present subject to the earth. The present is not just a timeline the consequence of ideas manifesting themselves upon persons, peoples, nations, governments, economies, lands and seas. The present, all that it includes, is subject to Christ for God has subjected it to Him. But this is not yet seen. It is told. And that vision is invisible as it is where God is and God is outside of our view. God cannot be rightly seen as in rightly known apart from divine revelation. This revelation of God by God is in the Word of God. Thus the right view of the present is a view is impossible to see for it is not yet visible. This view of Christ from the Word of God concerning the present yet to come is the hope of the church in the present. The church’s hope is based upon the present unseen reality of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’s position as King of all in the present and in the future. This is apprehended by faith in what has been done and said by God. Yet this reality of the present is proven in the past by Christ Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into God’s presence. It is also proven in the present by Christ’s enthronement at the approved and victorious position at God’s right hand. But in the present that is not yet seen. So our eyes are fixed upon the one we, the church, have seen, that is Jesus and him crucified and glorified. His present and future glory is in light of his past suffering and death. For His death was done in the past, believed in the present, and forever exalted in the future by those whom He tasted their death as their substitute because God is graceful.
The present is not “getting back to the basics of being thankful for the here and now on this fully functional planet.” The present is seeing & savoring the Son of God who rules over the present, who will be seen in the future as the Ruler of the new, fully functional, redeemed heaven and earth, and forever exalted as the Savior of sinners by those for whom He died. May this be the hope of those in the present and The Present. And thus, the present is the hope of the future – Christ’s return and establishment here, where we can see it, of His victorious rule as the Savior King.
Or maybe The Present is just a surf film that Joe should watch and relax. And if he has a meditative thought, it should be, “Wow, I don’t surf anything like that.”
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