The Matrix

WHO IS THE ORACLE OF HOLLYWOOD?

Viewers of recent box office hits may have noticed a startling trend: blending New Age mysticism with biblical prophecy is increasingly popular. Films like Stigmata, End of Days, and Dogma are everywhere. But the mother of all such big screen religious metaphors is without doubt, The Matrix I & II.

Distributed by Warner Brothers, The Matrix I is a sci-fi lover's dream come true.   Elaborate special effects fill the screen for over two hours as viewers are treated to never-before seen action sequences.

But it is the numerous similarities to the life of Jesus Christ that grab our attention. A few of the allegories include:

* As Jesus was born of a virgin, Neo, (as in neo-orthodox) the films messianic figure, is born without earthly mother.

* Neo's last name is "Anderson" ("Son of Man") a New Testament title of Christ.

* Choi refers to Neo thus: "Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ!"

* Neo and his disciples are on their way to a city called Zion.

* Their ship is called The Nebuchadnezzar.

* A Judas-like character named Cypher (as in de-cypher) betrays Neo and sells him and his followers (disciples) out.

* Neo is killed and rises from the dead in 3 minutes. Jesus was resurrected in 3 days.

* Neo is resurrected by a kiss from his girlfriend "Trinity." Jesus was resurrected by the power of the Trinity.

* After the resurrection, Neo's power is ultimate. The enemy cannot overcome him. Jesus rose from the dead having ultimate power over the enemy.

* After the resurrection, Neo's body is changed: Glorious, without earthly limitations.   He ascends into the sky. Jesus rose from the dead with a glorious body and ascended into heaven.

* Neo warns the enemy that he will deliver mankind. Jesus promised to return and to conquer the enemies of man.

* Neo's appearance as "the promised one," including his death and resurrection,   is predicted by "the Oracle"--a middle aged woman. The death and resurrection of Jesus was prophesied in the Bible (the Bible and prophets of God are defined in Scripture as oracles. See Romans 3:1-2; 1 Peter 4:11)

While conservative Christian's may dislike many aspects of The Matrix's high-tech parody of the life of Christ (Neo uses the Lord's name profanely, hoists his middle finger at authorities, etc.), the blending of Christian ideals with Buddhism and ancient mythology has quickly amassed a cult following of New Agers and contemporary church goers to The Matrix.

THE DEMONIC ROOTS OF THE MATRIX ORACLE

In The Matrix, everything revolves around the prophecies of the "oracle" woman.   When Paul wrote to the church at Rome (Rom. 3:1-2) concerning the oracles (logion,   "divine utterances"), he was referring to the revelations of the Old Testament Law and Prophets. In the Bible, the word "oracle" means   supernatural utterance. It can also refer to a device used in the production of divine utterances.   The Bible is thus an oracle, as was the Urim and Thummim (sacred devices) of the Old Testament. When men or women speak as true prophets of God, they are likewise considered "an oracle of God" (1 Pet. 4:11).

New Age pagans, many of whom are enamored of The Matrix, are extremely interested in such oracular phenomena, and they readily accept certain portions of the Bible as divinely oracular (the verses they believe support their ideas of God, reincarnation, spirit communing, and the afterlife). But in the quest for spiritual knowledge, modern pagans reach out beyond the "confines" of the Bible into a veiled world of mystical utterances, visualization, channeling, and other esoteric forms of prognostication.

A man once lectured on oracles and the "death of the Olympian gods." He boldly proclaimed that Christianity had swept the globe and that, as far as he knew, not a living person remained on earth that bowed in reverence to Apollo, or consulted at his sacred shrines. The message was received with rousing applause by the listening audience, and he sold some tapes. The only problem was, he was wrong. Apollo's Oracle at Delphi, the most famous oracle of antiquity, is in ruins. But the worship of the Olympian god, and the order of his pythian priestesses, are actively involved in New Age paganism and popular media as we enter the new millennium.

The fact is, it's unclear if the worship of Apollo or the consulting of his oracles ever ceased. There is some evidence that generational witches may have continued the worship of Apollo and the secrets of his pythian divination for centuries. Whether or not that's true, the admirers of Apollo number in the tens of thousands today.   This is primarily because Apollo is an oracle god, and his disciples are granted "divine audience." Unlike other underworld spirits, Apollo audibly communicates (at times with amazing accuracy in antiquity) through the vocal chords of the pythoness to his followers. This characteristic originally caused, and apparently continues to cause, a tremendous cult popularity of Apollo.

The Greek historian, Herodotus (considered the father of history), wrote of an interesting event. Croesus, the king of Lydia, expressed doubt regarding the accuracy of Apollo's Oracle at Delphi. To test the oracle, Croesus sent messengers to inquire of the pythian prophetess as to what he, the king, was doing on a certain day. The priestess surprised the king's messengers by visualizing the question, and by formulating the answer, before they arrived. A portion of the
historian's account says:

"The moment that the Lydians (the messengers of Croesus) entered the sanctuary, and before they put their questions, the Pythoness thus answered them in hexameter verse: 'Lo! on my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered tortoise, Boiling now on a fire, with the flesh of a lamb, in a cauldron. Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above it.' These words the Lydians wrote down at the mouth of the Pythoness as she prophesied, and then set off on their return to Sardis [when] Croesus undid the rolls [he] instantly made an act of adoration [declaring] that the Delphic was the only really oracular shrine. For on the departure of his messengers he had set himself to think what was most impossible for any one to conceive of his doing, and then, waiting till the day agreed on came, he acted as he had determined. He took a tortoise and a lamb, and cutting them in pieces with his own hands, boiled them together in a brazen cauldron, covered over with a lid which was also of brass" (Herodotus, book 1:47).

The demon Apollo established an enormous following through such prophetic trickery, and, evidently, continues to do so.

IS THE FEMALE MATRIX ORACLE A COINCIDENCE?

At Delphi the Olympian gods spoke to mortal men through the use of a priesthood which interpreted the trance-induced utterances of the Pythoness or Pythia. Like the Matrix oracle, the pythia was a middle-aged woman. She sat on a copper-and-gold tripod, or, much earlier, on the "rock of the sibyl" (medium), and crouched over a fire while inhaling the smoke of burning laurel leaves, barley, marijuana, and oil, until a sufficient intoxication for her prophecies had been produced. It was under the spell of such drugs (and spiritual forces?) that the Pythia prophesied in an unfamiliar voice thought to be that of Apollo himself. During the pythian trance the medium's personality often changed, becoming melancholic, defiant, or animal-like. The aforementioned psychosis may have been a source for the origin of the werewolf myth, or lycanthropy, as the Pythia reacted to an encounter with Apollo/Lykeios--the wolf god.   In either case, the Delphic "women of python" prophesied in this way for nearly a thousand years and were considered to be a vital part of the religious order, and of the local economy, of every Hellenistic community. An interesting example of this is found in the New Testament Book of Acts:

"And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination [of python, a seeress of Delphi] met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.   And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas....And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city" (Acts 16:16-20).

The story in Acts is interesting because it illustrates the level of culture and economy that had been built around the oracle worship of Apollo. It cost the average Athenian more than two days' wages for an oracular inquiry, and the average cost to a lawmaker or military official seeking important State information was charged at ten times that rate. That's one reason the actions of the woman in Acts is difficult to understand. She undoubtedly understood the damage that Paul's preaching could do to her industry. Furthermore, the Pythia of Delphi had a historically unfriendly relationship with the Jews and was considered an enemy of the truth and a pawn of demonic power by both the Jews and the Christians. Quoting from Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion, we read:

"Delphi with its surrounding area, in which the famous oracle ordained and approved the worship of Asclepius, was earlier known by the name Pytho, a chief city of Phocis.   In Greek mythology, Python--the namesake of the city of Pytho--was the great serpent or demon who dwelt in the mountains of Parnassus, menacing the area as the chief guardian of the famous oracle at Delphi....In Acts 16:16, the demonic woman who troubled Paul was possessed with a spirit of divination. In Greek this means a spirit of python (a seeress of Delphi, a pythoness)...[and] reflects...the accepted Jewish belief...that the worship of Asclepius [Apollo's son] and other such idolatries were, as Paul would later articulate in 1 Corinthians 10:20, the worship of demons."

It could be said that the Pythia of Acts 16 simply prophesied the inevitable. That is, the spirit that possessed her may have known that the time of Apollo's darkness was coming to an end, and that the spread of Christianity would ultimately lead to the demise of the Delphic oracle. This is possible. Demons are sometimes aware of changing dispensations (compare the pleas of the demons in Matthew 8:29, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?").

Perhaps the ancient spirit of Delphi understood the dispensational timing and power of the gospel Paul was preaching? The last recorded utterance of the oracle at Delphi seems to indicate the spirit of the Olympians understood his time for domination was over.   From Man, Myth & Magic, we read:

"Apollo delivered his last oracle in the year 362 AD, to the physician of the Emperor Julian, the Byzantine ruler who tried to restore paganism after Christianity had become the official religion of the Byzantine Empire. 'Tell the King,' said the oracle, 'that the curiously built temple has fallen to the ground, that bright Apollo no longer has a roof over his head, or prophetic laurel, or babbling spring. Yes, even the murmuring water has dried up.'"

PYTHIA RISES FROM THE ASHES

Modern pagans are fascinated by delphic-like oracles because they ostensibly prove the existence of a spirit world, and because they seemingly provide a method of communicating with an alternate reality. Literally dozens of New Age books describe the use of oracles as methods of communicating with unseen dimensions. In one such publication we discover the interesting "identity" of the power operating behind the oracle as the author describes his experience:

"The Swirling fog began to dissipate, and I could see the flicker of a light ahead-a darting, pulsating glow resembling a fire-fly. I paused for a moment to observe, and the tiny flare expanded in size and appeared as a small full moon touching the earth.   As I moved closer to the radiance, it suddenly changed into a vertical beam, a pillar of transparent light.

'Are you the angel I am seeking?' I asked.

The soft yet powerful feminine voice replied, 'I am the Angel of Creative Wisdom.'

'Do you have a name?'

'Some have called me Isis,' she said, and with those words the pillar of light slowly materialized to reveal the face and form of a beautiful woman wearing a flowing white robe trimmed in gold [emphasis added]."

Can you believe it! Isis, the ancient demoness of witchcraft and spells is identified as a positive power operating within New Age Oracles! Satan is clever.

THE PSYCHOMANTEUM

Early in The Matrix, Neo takes a "red pill" and his eyes are opened. He is placed on a chair and sees through the mirror of illusion into the real world. The metaphor strongly resembles the most curious form of oracular activity employed by pagans today--the "psychomanteum;" a simple, yet eerie, idea.

A chair, placed in front of a large mirror in a dark room, serves as the oracle.   Once positioned on the chair, the occupant stares into the mirror and waits for contact with "the other side." In ancient times, the psychomanteum's mirror-system was employed by primitive Greeks in gloomy underground caverns called "halls of visions." Standing in front of a shining metal surface or caldron, grieving ancient's saw and spoke with familiar apparitions.

The Sumerians, Egyptians, and Romans employed similar oracles of polished crystal,   brass mirrors, and pools of water. New Agers claim that the Apostle Paul used such a mirror-oracle and described a Matrix-like alternative reality when he said, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Cor. 13:12).

THE POWER OF HOLLYWOOD'S ORACLE

Although the Bible warns of communicating with "familiar spirits" and of consulting mediums, the revival of ancient oracles, and the experiences drawn from them, are especially seductive curiosities to the followers of New Age paganism. Even the wives of two U.S. Presidents, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton, consulted with astrologers and psychics. Hillary Clinton went so far as to employ Jean Housten to help her confer with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt. This was accomplished by channeling the spirit of the Greek goddess Athena. Whether such conversations included a White House psychomanteum, or other oracular device, is unknown, but the obvious widespread interest in such paranormal activity substantiates what reformed New Ager Judy Vorfeld says: "Dabbling in the realm of the occult is currently stylish. Even some Christians seem unable to avoid the attraction of this colorful, seductive world."

Paganism in America is exploding as we approach the new millennium. Throughout Hollywood, government, cyberspace, and even the church, people are rushing to embrace the religious philosophies of the New Age of Aquarius. As this generation focuses on human potential and the "god within us all," Eastern philosophies of Buddhism, Pantheism, and Hinduism, mix with Western Christian ideals in popular media--such as The Matrix--to provide Americans, and even some Christians, with an alluring opportunity to throw off the "outdated ideas" of fundamental Christianity and to espouse a more "enlightened" worldview of God and reality.

Christians should realize that powerful and ancient entities are behind such New Age oracles. In the air above and the earth beneath are nefarious progenitors of Old/New Age mysticism. Such forces have numerous titles. They can appear in hideous forms or as beautiful angels of light. They are the "wicked spirits" (poneria: the collective body of demon soldiers comprising Satan's hordes), "rulers of darkness" (kosmokrators: governing spirits of darkness), "powers" (exousia: high ranking powers of evil), and "principalities" (arche: commanding generals over Satan's fallen army) of Ephesians 6:12. They are those who distort the truth and encourage error among pagans, New Agers, church goers, and movie audiences.

Why is a mixed bag of biblical prophecies and New Age mysticism suddenly desirable in popular film and media? Maybe it's just a trend. On the other hand, Billy Graham declares, "Lucifer, our archenemy, controls one of the most powerful and well-oiled war machines in the universe. He controls principalities, powers, and dominions.   Every nation, city, village, and individual has felt the hot breath of his evil power. He is already gathering the nations of the world for the last great battle in the war against Christ--Armageddon."