What is the matrix? In light of the rise in secular humanism and the growing concerns over political, economic, and banking corruption worldwide, one must wonder… What is going on here? Why is the depravity so pervasive? What is causing this rise in corruption?
I first began to understand some things when I read a book called 1984 by George Orwell. I understood a bit more after reading another book called Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. These are two books written by atheists, ironically enough. A certain series of movies called the Matrix helped me understand more. Documentaries like Inside Job, Food Inc, Bowling for Columbine, For Liberty, Why We Fight, Endgame, Evolution vs. God, and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed helped me to further understand more complex issues. And a big book called the Bible helped me put all the pieces together.
Let’s go on a little journey. Scope out if you will and try to look beyond the society. Look beyond the billboards, television screens, the bar grills, the sports fields, the church conferences, and the American dream. What is really happening here? What is the truth? Why can’t we see through this system? How do we escape?
I’ve always known, since age four or five, that something was very wrong with planet Earth. It didn’t quite make sense. And so began a journey. For me, that was the journey that eventually led to the spiritual seeker mentality. It was the deepest sensation, very real, and based on intense observation, yet also an intuitive response indicating: Something is wrong here.
Why does going anywhere, doing anything require money? Why are so many resources directed towards what seem to be foolish pursuits? I found it confusing from a very young age. What’s happening here? Is this right?
Eventually I considered things on a larger scale. Why do nations war? If the nations are all in such debt, who are they in debt to? Why are all my friends so obsessed with trivial pursuits like clothes, video games, sports, and brand names? Why are there television screens everywhere? Why is everyone staring at their phone!?
At the core, most everyone seemed to be serving themselves and ignoring the needs of those outside their familial circle. Enough resources to go around, but the few hoarding to the destruction of many. Everyone in debt.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. 1 Timothy 6:10
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. Proverb 22:7
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” – Morpheus
Matthew 12:30 Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.
Our hero Neo can sense sin all around him. It’s a splinter in his mind, and it drives him mad. So he seeks out the truth teller, the rebel in the wilderness; he seeks out the John the baptist character Morpheus, who is part of an underground truth movement.
The Morpheus character meets with Neo and invites him to join the resistance. Red pill or blue pill? Red pill, he joins, blue pill, he wakes up and believes whatever he wants to believe (kind of like the new spirituality – believe whatever you want.) Neo selects the red pill, but Morpheus offers a warning, “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth.” And I’d rather know the difficult truth, than believe a convenient lie like “consciousness evolution” or “all paths to the same place.”
To me, this is an allegory to becoming a Christian. Many would throw up their arms in disgust at that statement. “You mean something so cool as the matrix could have anything to do with that!? Being a “Christian” is sitting in a wooden pew every week half asleep with pedophile priests!!” That’s not true though. That’s the control system’s caricature, it’s a strawman they hang up to dissuade seekers. Don’t believe it. We all know that the truth is often surrounded by a body guard of lies.
Think about it. The Christian leaves the world of convenience and self service to a radical new mission. The modernist “everything is hunky-dory” mentality is shattered. The middle class pursuits, the 9 to 5, bar life, wealth acquisition, empty existence.. It’s all shattered. At least it should be. The Christian wakes up on a very real battlefield. It’s a spiritual battlefield of the mind. The Christian finds himself in enemy territory, in the dominion of evil, but freed from the control system by Jesus Christ, the hero who has overcome the world. He invites us to acts of sabotage against the control system.
“You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.” -Morpheus
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength Philippians 4:13
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
So what is the matrix? The matrix is a system to subvert the desire within every heart for the eternal. It’s buying, buying, buying. It’s being exposed to hundreds of advertisements a day. It’s an unnatural obsession with sexuality. It’s the quiet rule of banking institutions. It’s the power of industry and media to manipulate the mindset of entire countries of people. It’s the ultimate dominion of the enemy and his power to deceive the entire world.
Even after reading Orwell, Huxley, Thoreau, I was still locked in tight. Despite my knowledge, special knowledge was not enough. The matrix wasn’t just around me, it was within me.
It was Jesus Christ who set me free from the matrix. He rescued me, and made me a new man. He put me to work as a maquis, a soldier of the global resistance. Just like Neo, Morpheus, and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar I now hack into the matrix and free minds from the control system.
As a Christian walking through a “super store” with the screens everywhere all on the same channel, I know that I am the resistance. I know that I’ve been called out of the matrix, to tell people about how to escape the matrix. And there is only one way to escape the matrix: Jesus Christ. The same Christ described in the books of the Bible. Those words bring with them His presence. Secular humanism will not solve the problem. New age vague spirituality will not solve the problem. Consciousness evolution, the deification of education will not solve the problem. Why? Because they all ignore the fact that the problem is not outside us, or around us, the problem is within all of us. Thankfully there is a cure: Jesus Christ. He is freedom from this materialist matrix. The Matrix will be toppled by our savior outwardly in the years to come. But it can be toppled today within you, by his indwelling presence.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
