Obligatory Post about Animal Souls

As it stands now, I can't stop the future, and neither can you. Contingent on this reality is the inevitable theatrical release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Have you seen the trailer?



The animal kingdom remains for me, as it has long stood, a quagmire of dumbfounding doubt, obsessive energy, and robust intrigue.

This post is indeed obligatory, for I have had no new revelation on the front of the fate of the animal's soul. To rest my mind in peace, I rest with my default position: death is not the end for our animal brethren. I stake my case on two principles:

1. God is just, and the destruction of the animal soul based upon man's sin is not a just end for that creature, who was made to glorify God (and enjoy Him forever?).
2. Christ says in the book of Revelation, "I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). The fact that we will live out eternity on the new earth I think gives value to the prospect that Jesus' words can be taken literally. All things -- all creatures big and small, will be redeemed from the crutches of death's shattering impact. 

For now, I remain at this place, for it is the merriest of conceptions to embrace... and it makes it so much easier to look that sad neighbor dog in the eyes.

What stands out in this particular Ape-al Planet prequel is not the sense of humanity in the chimps (though that shot of the 'Caesar' overlooking the sleeping couple in bed is horrifically goosebump inducing), but rather, the lack of humanness in the homo-sapiens themselves. Is there anything to be said of this?

A friend of mine today brought to my attention the growing societal idea that gender should continue to be minimized until our collective culture sees no distinction between man and woman. Sure, the idea of a unigender society sounds laughable, but with a doctrinal webbing of postmodernism deeply embedded in our generation, anything is possible. That is to say, that whatever picks up steam will be momentarily victorious. Christianity is not a culture, and we followers of Christ have Jesus' words and the Scripture as a whole as our constitution. Remember Paul's words to the church in Galatia:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Galatians 1:8-9 NASB

Our bedrock remains forever the same. This is how we are able to see newer institutions like Mormonism as the lie that they are: different gospels entirely (something apart from grace).

But if we have the Bible, what does culture have as its foundation? Right now that answer is simple: tolerance. More than that, really; it's acceptance.

As a Christian, not only do we hold to Christ as our Redeemer and Savior who shows us into everlasting life, but we must also hold that we are living as God intended us to live. That statutes we value our those the Creator has formed us for. We use our processors as they were made for, we don't jerry-rig the motherboard to use for making straight lines of cocaine. No sir!

The point is the trailer for the new flick seemed to create a sensation that the Apes were more Man than the men in the movie. We don't see evil apes in the promo, but we do see a jackass human dude act all assy like. And just so you know, asses are fundamentally stupider animals than apes. And stubborn. Apes > Asses.

I have the distinct feeling that we'll all be rooting for the apes in the movie. We will root for the uprising against the evil human overlords.

And then the movie will end. Sooner or later I'll have to look at myself in the mirror, and be reminded of what I am.