Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Lost?


I enjoy the ABC show Lost. A story of some marooned survivors of an airline crash who are on a mysterious island full of "others" intent on doing them harm. The show has a great deal of spiritual undertones and does a lot to cause introspection. On Tuesday's episode, (Spoiler Warning for those who have not yet seen it) A former drug addict, Charlie has a vision of Claire (another survivor) and his mother telling him to save Claire's baby, Aaron. In the vision he sees a dove desending from heaven, and after talking to a Ecko, a priest on the Island, decides to kidnap the baby and take it to the ocean to be baptized. Obviously the other survivors were outraged by this and he is seen as an outcast. Claire, later goes to the priest and askes him about Baptism. Here is where Hollywood takes over and Holy Word is thrown out. The priest tells Clair about the Baptism of Jesus by John and that after seeing the dove descending from heaven that John realized that he had cleansed this man from his sin. I don't even know where to begin. 1. Jesus did not have any sin that needed to be cleansed. 2. It was Jesus who takes away sin, not baptism. John himself decares that Jesus is the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Ecko, then goes on to tell Clair that baptism is sort of insurance for the baby so that if something unfortunate should happen, he will go to heaven. Again, there is never any indication in the Bible of a baby being baptized for salvation, or any other reason for that matter. It is clear in the Bible that every example of baptism followed a personal salvation experience. John the Baptist was right. Jesus is The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Anything else is just Hollywood stunts.

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