Quirky theology

I have been teaching about worldviews in homeschool, and one of the things I try to impress on the girls is that most people do not have a consistent worldview. Most people have a smorgasbord belief system, picking a little from here and a little from there, often not consciously.

In the Islamic worldview, judgment of mankind involves a scale, where your good deeds and bad deeds are placed in a balance. The goal is for your good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds. This thinking pops up all over our culture...how did a Muslim belief get into our psyche so much? Perhaps when Europeans went on Crusades and learned algebra and chess from the advanced cultures of the Middle East, they brought home this thinking as well, mixed in with their own skepticism over a church that sent them there.

The Nordic people, often called Vikings in our history books, believed that in the afterlife, unless you were a really bad person, you would be reunited with your loved ones at a feast in the great hall of Valhalla. Many Americans hold this thought of the afterlife, which is nothing like the Christian view. The goal of our lives is to run to Christ, and when He returns or we awaken at the resurrection, we will finally see Him. We will either be condemned for our decisions in this world, or rewarded with eternal life in His presence.

I'm not sure where the idea comes from that we will become angels, like you see depicted in It's a Wonderful Life. Angels are a different created order. We will receive new bodies, but they won't have wings. We don't become spirits that work to help others still laboring on earth. And who is Joseph, the angel Clarence consults?

I'm currently reading the Harry Potter books, and in the first chapter of Book 6, two Ministers of Magic enter the office of England's Prime Minister in order to inform him of magical going-ons that are affecting his world. At the end of the encounter, the Prime Minister sputters, "You can do magic! Surely you can sort out--well--anything!" One of the wizards answers him, "The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister." And I begin thinking about theology.

J.K. Rowling does not present a Christian worldview, nor does she claim to do so. In fact, her world of the dueling wizards is more similar to Zorastrianism, a belief system that sees good and evil at war in the world. For some reason, good has a slight edge, or we want good to win--it intrigues me why there is no explanation for this. If two sides exist, like in a war, I'm not sure why one side is inherently better than the other. In Harry Potter books, there are clearly two sides: Dumbledore, the powerfully good side, and Voldemort, the horrifically evil side. People of the magical world choose sides, go to war, and some innocent, non-magical people get hurt in the crossfire. The reader cheers for the good side.

This is not the Christian world. God and Satan are not closely matched forces at battle with one another. God is supreme, all-powerful, all-knowing. Satan is a created angel in rebellion against Him, who has been granted freedom for a time, for God's purposes to be accomplished, and then he will be judged. There is no doubt about the outcome.

I'm sure that I have weird little issues with my personal theology lurking about. I pray that my thinking will become sharper, but that despite my thinking, God will be honored in my choices, until we reach Game Over.