Blogging through STTNG: The Last Outpost

The first confrontation the Federation has with the Ferengi quickly becomes a struggle with an unknown force that threatens both ships. Will they work together to overcome an even more mysterious enemy than either one is to each other?

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. Matthew 10:26

The Unknown: one of the scariest things many can think of. I'm scared of the unknown. In this episode we find out that everyone on the Enterprise is scared too, as well as everyone on board the Ferengi ship. And fear makes us do some crazy things.

The first scary thing for the Enterprise is the Ferengi themselves. The two races have never met before and the distant familiarity has bred some wild rumors about how disgusting the other people are. We're not OK with not knowing something, so we make up information to fill in the gaps. Picard tries to help everyone think clearly about the rumors they've heard and insists of proceeding with common respect for their fellow beings in the other ship. This is a frustrating stance, and Picard has to do a couple face palms as the Ferengi refuse diplomacy, but it's the right thing to do. Even when it appears that the Enterprise having it's power drained (they don't know it's the planet yet) Picard does not follow Warf's advice to fight.

But we quickly find out that the Ferengi are just as scared of the humans as the humans are of them. The Ferengi handle their fear by doing their best to run and hide when faced with a more powerful opponent. They also try to use fear to intimidate. They only see diplomacy as a weakness even when it's their only option as their power is being drained as well.

And everyone gets scared when they discover that they're trapped by a force on the planet instead of the other ship. The Ferengi never try to overcome their fear. They meet the Enterprise's away team with violence in mind. How often do we attack a brother when a situation that threatens us both presents itself? I'm guilty. I do it with my kids all the time. I've got a wife who's chronically ill and when that gets overwhelming, I yell at my kids. Does that make any sense? How does attacking them help me overcome this other situation that's confusing to me? God of light, help me trust you! It's fear that drives behavior like that.

So how should we respond to fear? Especially of the unknown. We have a good example here in what Picard and Riker did with persistent diplomacy and defense. But they were still relying on their education and patience. Where does God come into the picture?

God tells us in Matthew 10:26-28 not to fear other people. Can you believe this is a command? His reasons are great: His kingdom is real and we will be saved (Matt 10:22) & men can only kill your body (Matt 10:28). So is it a sin to be scared of someone else?

In Matthew 10:16-18 Jesus tells his followers to beware of men. This may be a fine line, but we're instructed to follow it. Men deserve respect and caution because they have the image of God in them. They are free agents and can potentially do anything.

In this cautionary instruction we also find that God has the right to command our emotions! Why does God command us to do something we cannot do? Give us the 10 commandments right? There's a set of instructions I can follow (yeah right!). But we think that, don't we? I think Jesus here is pushing beyond any form of external obedience to our inner landscape to prove that we cannot measure up and that we need Him. We have to call on the name of Jesus to live a fearless life. Ungodly fear is worry and we need to confess it before God and our sibs in Christ.

So what drives out fear so that we can stop sinning in this area? The Fear of God. 1 Peter 3:13-16 talks about this. Ungodly fear is an idol in our heart. It harmonizes well with the big three: money, power, and fame. As we move through the world and meet one confusing scary thing after another, let us continually invite the Lord back on the throne of our heart!

  Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 1 Peter 3:13-16

  "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
  "So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:16-31

Blogging Through STTNG: Code of Honor

Yar becomes the prize to the winner of a diplomacy and patience contest between Picard and a planet chief named Lutan.

The Prime Directive is really the star of this episode. It's all about how the crew deals with having to respect a threatening culture they don't understand. Everyone realizes that there is a way to solve the problem with patience, eventually. It would only be destructive to force Lutan to give them what they want. In the end it pays off to obey the dictates of their duty.

How hard it is to do this! Especially when someone has done something wrong and we want to 'make it right again.' I know I spend way too much mental energy on phantom off-tellings in my head, or even wishing violence towards someone who has threatened me. But two wrongs don't make a right.
In this episode you get to see the crew manage their anger and confusion and fear. They have to take the time to thoroughly understand their situation and build a plan that honors their enemy. How can we be expected to honor our enemy?! Isn't this asking too much?

Think about this: is it OK to put down the Devil? I think some Christians feel like doing that gives them strength, or maybe helps them get over their fear of demons or something.  Shouldn't we be getting our strength and peace from the all powerful God of Peace? What does the Scripture say about putting down the Devil? Check out Jude. In verse 8 we are given the example of Michael the archangel who, when given the chance, DOES NOT even judge, let alone put down, the Devil. Michael calls on the Lord. We are to appeal to our Creator and His order when faced with evil.

Also, does it make any sense to get over fear or draw strength from someone else's weakness? Yes, the Devil's days are numbered, but we're still not allowed to defame him or his agents, let alone those under their wicked control. With the power of the Holy Spirit (what other power could accomplish this?) we can acknowledge our enemy like Michael did and talk about our Lord.

Yet in the same way these men [sinners], also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil[false accuser] and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" - Jud 1:8-9 NASB

Blogging through STTNG: Encounter at Farpoint

Q confronts Picard mere hours after he takes command of the Enterprise as their new captain; condemns him to die for humanities sins to prevent them from contaminating more of the galaxy but will let all that slide if they pass a test. Picard and crew succeed at the buzzer.
Here's the point Picard has to prove to Q to save his life: Granted, humans used to be horrible, but we've gotten over that through globalism and are now beacons of peace in the universe. Picard has an extreme faith in human condition!

I think this is his main strength as a character. He hasn't even met all of his crew yet and he's willing to bet his life on them. He admits to Q that humanity's past is shameful.
I think Picard's faith in man can more accurately be placed on Starfleet. He believes in the ideals of Starfleet so much that he can trust any gathering of its members, saving judgment and distrust for later only if someone deserves it. Starfleet represents a phoenix of sorts that somehow rises out of the ashes of a "post-atomic horror." What earthy power can resurect the family of humans to such a height? Who knows. It's fiction. The only thing that can really save us is Jesus' substitue death. And the only thing that can really change us is the Holy Spirit's work in our heart.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could do some of what Starfleet does in the assembly of believers! The body of Christ is supposed to be a common ground for respect and conduct. We're allowed to remind each other about our duty, but in a loving and respectful way. As Christians we all signed up for this. In this early episode, Picard gently reigns in Warf before he blasts a hole in the view screen. He confidently guides his companions through the trial without getting anyone shot on site. He personally re-connects with the widow of a fallen comrade who later on becomes his BFF. And it's not just Picard. Riker coaxes Troi to use her special gift to help an injured alien even though she has to share the pain. Crusher lovingly indulges her son a peek at the bridge. Yar bears her heart as she defends Starfleet and all it stands for in court.

How can we do things like this for our brothers and sisters? Our relationships with the Christians around us matter! And they're what the Holy Spirit uses to pull us through our struggles. This is the Body of Christ! Be connected to it and you will be connected to Jesus.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. - Eph 4:11-13 NASB

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. - Rom 7:4 NASB

Blogging through STTNG: Where No One Has Gone Before

A strange traveler with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hands accidentally warp jumps the Enterprise millions of light-years into unknown space and Wes gets a promotion.

I've been putting off writing up this episode because I feel like the topic is too big. I like how they dealt with it in this episode. There is some neat imagery trying to represent the inconceivable edge of  our dimension. The issue is the nature of the space our physical world lives in. Picard sums it up by saying that thought is the basis of reality. It's that idea that I want to talk about.

Even that phrase makes  the point I think this episode is exploring, that our reality is but a sub-set of a larger one. If anything except for the reality itself is the basis for our own, then there is something else out there, by default bigger and more powerful than anything we have observed in our physical world. In the Star Trek universe, that something out there is thought itself. I immediately thought of the mind of God. His thoughts are the basis of reality.

There are any number of new discoveries in quantum physics that just continue to tell us that where we live is small and weird compared to the something greater beyond. There is a lot of interesting stuff to read about here, but I don't really want to start down that rabbit hole. Khouse.org has some great articles (here's one to get you started) that will have you up all night googling things like planck length and Berry Setterfield. I 'll leave that to you. I'll follow you down that rabbit hole if anyone is interested enough to make a comment.

What I'm most interested in is the boundary between this world and the next. In Christian circles we usually describe these two places as the “physical world” and the “spiritual world.” But I don't think these two categories describe the situation accurately. In this “two worlds” model, the only ones stuck in the smaller reality are humans, and we only cross over when we die (and sometimes we get right up next to the fence when we ALMOST die. But that's another article). The spirit world is a wispy, cloudy, bright place where angels and God and every dead human get to float around for eternity in their smokey, insubstantial bodies. I don't think this is what the Bible teaches at all, but it's a folk theology that has a pretty strong toe-hold in the christian community.

I think this idea has the entire situation upside-down. I touched on this in my comments about The Lonely Among Us. The more I understand about the nature of reality, the more I'm compelled to move the boundary between the physical world and the spirit world to the very edges of heaven. I think the best place for this divider is simply between God and his creation. Two groups: Creator and Created. That means we get angels and heaven on our side, in the physical world. God created a perfect world which was then broken somehow by an angel and his cronies who fell (don't know exactly when, but I tend to believe it was after the last day of creation and before the Fall of man), and then further by Adam and Eve when they sinned. This action split the natural world in to two sub-groups: natural and super natural. The point is that God is still outside of both.

All that to say how I think our understanding of physical vs. spiritual is a bit off. Because there is a veil of mystery to the spirit world, we tend to give it spookie, insubstantial qualities like a ghost having a vapory body that you can walk right through because it's only sort of there. But I think it's us who have the vapory bodies. Just look at what we're made of: atoms. They're basically empty space surrounded by electrically charged particles. This entire realm is made like that. That's why Jesus, after his resurrection when he was in his new body, could disappear and walk through walls. He was more solid than the world he was ministering to! But he was still physical. He ate food, and his disciples were able to touch him.

This should re-assure us, and inspire us to pursue God with all our heart. I hope the more we understand this world we live in, especially as we understand that how it works is a mystery, the more we can pray for Jesus to come restore it and rescue us from this body of destruction.

For now we see in a mirror in a riddle, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers[spiritual entities]: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things [are] held together. Colossians 1:16,17

Blogging through STTNG: The Lonely Among Us

Data discovers Sherlock Holmes and Picard briefly visits a community of energy beings all while the Enterprise attempts to deliver two rival worlds' delegates to parliament in in one piece.

The most interesting thing about this episode is the energy being the ship picks up as it skirts a strange cloud thing in space. Part of the ship scoops through the mass and a collection of personalities become trapped in the ship somehow. They can't communicate with anyone, but they can possess people and computer systems on board. I think something like this happens a fair amount in the show. They don't get into it in this episode too much, but the idea that someday we'll evolve beyond our bodies comes up more than a few times. In fact, we just watched Justice the other night and in that episode some beings that have access to dimensions higher than our own.

It makes sense that even secularists and naturalists have to admit there is something supernatural about people. If you think about it, we practically are made of electricity now. Remember high school chemistry? How much stuff is in an atom? if the nucleus of an atom is the size of a golf ball, the first row of electrons buzzing around it would be 3 miles away! It is more true for me to say that there is nothing in an atom than for me to say there is something in an atom. We really do live in an amazing world.
I wonder if angels see us as insubstantial wisps of smoke; the true walking dead? We are ghosts restlessly roaming the earth till we decide if we're going to die into death or die into life. We always think of angels as having spirit bodies, but we don't really know what that means. I think to get a better understanding we can look at Jesus' resurrection body since he is our example and hope for resurrection. C. S. Lewis has a great analogy as to why Jesus could pass through the walls of that locked room and meet his disciples. He was simply able to pass through it like a stone passes through water. A stone can pass through the water not because it is is less solid than the water, but because it is more solid! The bodies we are promised are like that. I don't know about you, but I'm ready.

For we know that if our earthly house, [this] tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in [this] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing [is] God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So [we are] always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. - 2Cr 5:1-8 NKJV

But now Christ is risen from the dead, [and] has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man [came] death, by Man also [came] the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those [who are] Christ's at His coming. Then [comes] the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy [that] will be destroyed [is] death. - 1Cr 15:20-26 NKJV