Media Philosophy

I read a Spiderman & Captain America comic book last night (just a short one). I really didn't ever know the story of Captain America - I just remember that I had an action figure because my mom & dad couldn't find me a Spiderman & thought Captain America was close enough... Anyway, he was a soldier in World War 2 who was given a serum to make him a super-soldier, but the formula for the serum was never duplicated & the guy who came up with it died, so Captain America was the only one. After being a hero in World War 2, Captain America was frozen in a glacier in the Artic which held him in suspended animation for about 30 years. Anyway, in the present he was telling Spidey that back during World War 2 it was easier to be a superhero because you knew who the good guys & bad guys were & what you were fighting for, & today it's hard to tell. As "Boris the Butcher" (Russian hitman on The Man Who Knew Too Little) said, "I like being butcher! At least you know who you are killing, & why." There is great philosophy to consider in comic books & movies if you take the time to think about them ... If you can find it, read Batman: Absolution. It doesn't come to the right conclusion (like the movie Pleasantville, but kind of to the opposite extreme), but it's good to think about these things.

"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

This catch phrase was made famous in the Spiderman comics & even more so in the Spiderman movie, & as with most catch phrases, it kind of loses its meaning from overuse in varying contexts (for another instance, "WWJD" doesn't mean as much to us now as when In His Steps by Charles Sheldon was written); but this phrase really means more to us as Christians than anyone! The principle is really from Scripture in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 (among many other places).
I've started reading Isaiah for my devotions recently, & as I was thinking about how Israel was unfaithful to God so many times, it occurred to me that we should remember that they did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit at that time. The Holy Spirit filled certain individuals for a time for special purposes, but not like it is today for the church. The people of God still knew right & wrong & were still responsible for their actions, but they only had the promise of grace which we now have. In the church age (today) everyone who accepts Christ's death on the Cross as the substitutionary payment for his or her sin is immediately indwelt by God's Holy Spirit, who will never leave, therefore receiving the power to overcome sin & do right. Christians today have more power than God's children in the age of Law, so more is expected of us!