Dystopia and discernment

If you’re the parent or grandparent of a teenager, you may have noticed the recent trend in dystopian books and films for young people. The Divergent trilogy, the Hunger Games, the Maze Runner, and more... These novels and movies are all set in a future society where young people live in a world with amazing technological advances, but have to combat situations of incredible injustice, depravity and war.

Why should this be so? What has drawn these authors and their young readers to the theme of fighting for survival in a world of human selfishness and cruelty? Is it perhaps their awareness, consciously or unconsciously, that we do live in a fallen world, a world of lawlessness and moral ambiguity that threatens to destroy us if we don’t know how to wage war against it? We can’t afford to be passive, gullible or unaware, like some of the young protagonists in those books and movies.

Recently, in my daily reading of the Bible, I became aware that the Bible paints a picture of a fallen world that is not so different from the dystopia of those modern novels. It speaks of a world where human selfishness, depravity and ambition can cause us to turn our backs on the truth and embrace the kind of deception that could ultimately cause us to lose our lives; it speaks of a world where moral values are being discarded, where people do whatever seems right in their own eyes, and where many are confused about what is true and right and good in the world.

Just like in those teenage novels, the Bible calls us to rise up and do warfare against the enemy who would rob us of our decency, integrity and humanity. It calls us to be divergent (not afraid to go against the flow and be different from the world around us.) It calls us to be insurgent (to rebel against the devil and refuse to be governed by his lies.) And it calls us to be allegiant (radically committed and loyal to the God who created our world in the first place.)

Read on, in the post below, for more thoughts about engaging in spiritual warfare and winning victories in a fallen world.