I have to start by saying that I loved the movie. From the start to the end it had me intrigued. In some ways it reminded me of the matrix, and in most ways it surpassed it. The special effects were great from cities being turned upside down to worlds being created in someone’s mind. The whole idea was believable in the sense that it was just a dream state; it wasn’t a future world where robots stuck giant metal rods into our heads to use us as batteries. I am constantly amazed at the imagination of Hollywood, and while most of the time it comes out in a perverted, God attacking form every now and then they do it get it right, and to me this is one of those times. To see the type of work that a sinful corrupt group of people, like Hollywood, can produce makes me wonder at the glorious joys that will be revealed in heaven. After all, we need only look to our own body, or the trees, or the sun and the earth to see the imagination of the one who, with the spoken word, brought it all into existence. When I see this overarching framework and then look to the simpler level of dreams that are a miniscule part of the entire creation, and then see this idea masterfully used to paint a story like inception I can’t help but praise God whose imagination gave us an imagination in his likeness to glorify Him!
There are two things that I saw in this movie which made it stand out for me over other movies I have recently seen, and even all other movies I have seen. These two things are the imagination and the parallels to Christianity that can be seen in inception. The whole concept of the movie is a testimony to the imagination; to come up with the story, to put the visual effects together with actors who sell the roles to us and then to polish it all off with music that draws us in, it was truly inspiring. To top this off I saw an incredible parallel between the movies plot and Christianity and the world we live in. The world we live in with all the temptations and desires would be the dream world of the movie, trying to trick us into believing that we are in the “real” world when in fact we are only dreaming. As the Bible says, we are aliens in this world (1 Peter 2:11). And as aliens we should not conform to this world (Romans 12). And just like the movie this world, more specifically Satan, loves to trick us into believing there is no other reality but the physical, that what you see is what you get. There is not an easier way to trick someone into not believing God then to have them convinced that He doesn’t even exist. This was one common theme throughout the movie, trying to convince the person that they where not in a dream when they were in fact in one. When Satan can convince us of this, everything else starts to fall apart. We become consumed with ourselves and care less about others and in the end we give up all hope that there is any reason to be alive. This is the victory that Satan is looking for, and this is the battle we must not lose. The good news is that we are not defenseless against this attack. If we look at the movie we see the trinkets that each character had in their dream, they called them totems. In the movie these totems were used to remind the character that they were either in reality or they were dreaming. In our reality we have the same thing, and it’s called the Word of God. Having doubts about God? Look to the word, it’s the one place that will always ground us in the reality of Jesus. Nothing in it is made up, from Israel’s exodus and the kings of the Old Testament to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Word of God we have a defense against the attack of the American dream.
One final striking similarity between the movie and our lives was the entire concept of inception. Planting a thought in someone’s head and getting it just right so they think that it is their own thought. The scary thing is this is more a reality than anything else in this movie. Every moment of the day the Devil is trying to do this one simple thing. Thoughts of lust, anger, fear, betrayal, jealousy, if it can be turned against God the devil will twist it and try and plant it in your head. If he can get us to think of these things and dwell on them the victory starts to tip to his side. The scary part is that it can be just about anything, from billboards that are glanced at to conversations that we overhear. The good news is that Jesus will not let us be tempted beyond what we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13 ). That doesn’t mean that these thoughts are not planted in our minds, but it does mean that we have a means of identifying them as counterfeit and then eradicating them. Just like the movie we can train ourselves to fight off these attacks from the devil. To do this we need only look to Jesus and his temptation by the devil. For every temptation he fought back with a verse of scripture, and every time the Devil left it alone after his defense. So the next time you find an idea that doesn’t seem right in your head, capture it (2 Corinthians 10:5) and put it to death by the spirit of God! (Romans 8:13). The sword of the spirit is our one offensive weapon (Ephesians 6:17) and as Hebrew 4 explains, this weapon is the word of God! So take up your Bible love it, read it, memorize it and with it you can become a conqueror of this dream world that we live in. In fact as Romans 8 tells us we can be more than conquerors through Jesus!
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