SPOILER ALERT

The following conversation assumes that you have already seen Thor, do not plan to see Thor but want to discuss it with friends and family who have, or simply don’t care if Thor is “spoiled.”

Consider yourself warned.

Does God get royalties?

Pop quiz – What story is this?

• Father sends son to Earth, where he was once worshiped as a god. Oh yea, and the son is even emptied of his glory and takes on the form of us lowly humans.
• Son saves humans by dying a sacrificial death – also explicitly stated to be substitutional death – only to be resurrected by the power/words of the Father.
• Son is lifted up into the heavens and tells this friends and followers that he will return to them.

Yes, as well as being the basics of the Christian story it is also the basics of the new movie Thor.

As we talked about with Avatar here and here, I am sure many Christian groups will (negatively) comment on the “pagan” religious and/or mythological elements of Thor. We will probably hear thinks like false gods and false religions, etc.

That said; please do not be afraid of this movie.

First, in the movie we are told that Thor and his friends are not gods. Instead, the men of old simply didn’t know who or what they were and decided to worship them as gods.

Second, because Thor shares so much of its story with the Bible, it is easy to share God’s story with Thor.

In the coming days we will look specifically at Thor (his coming, his emptying, his death, his resurrection and his promised return) and spend a little time talking about Loki.

Stay tuned and subscribe to Reel Parables to be notified when the next post is online.

Until next time.