Movie Review on the End of the Spear

Introduction
The End of the Spear was a life transformation story of a tribal people in Ecuador called the Waodani, through the relentless efforts of five missionary men (Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderin and Peter Fleming) and their family members. All five men were brutally speared to death by a group of fierce Waodani warriors. Their devastated family members, however, continued the missions by living among the violent tribal people. As a result, the entire tribe of Waodani accepted the Christian gospel and experienced positive changes in their lives.

What was the key to their dramatic transformation? In my personal critics of this movie, i think the question was answered by the apt employment of a literary device – the Chiasm (a literary structural device that exhibits the A-B-B-A pattern), in the overall structure of the movie. In total, there were five distinct inclusios (a literary bracket formed by making the ending of a section parallels the beginning) that form a nice inversion (an extended Chiasm that is shaped like a pyramid, e.g. A-B-C-B1-A1) to point to the crux of the story. All these will be discussed in greater details below.

The Five Inclusios
Inclusios are normally added to form an inversion in order to draw attention to something important. Each inclusio will prompt audience to the next one until the eventual climax is revealed. In this case, five inclusios were employed to point to the crux of the story.

Violence and Hatred vis-à-vis Peace and Reconciliation
Set in the Ecuadorian jungles, the Waodani were depicted as violent people right from the beginning of the show. Apparently, they were taught since young to spear and live or be speared and die. They risk extinction through their vicious cycles of revenge killings among themselves. Towards the end of the show, this hopeless state was contrasted by the peaceful living within the Waodani village. Even Steve Saint, a missionary’s son, was reconciled with Mincayane, the tribal leader and murderer of his dad. What caused the dramatic change in the conventional lifestyle and attitudes of the Waodani and the family member of the missionary?

Escape of Dayumae vis-à-vis Return of Steve Saint
Having lived and witnessed such violent and harsh environment, young Dayumae, one of the Waodani, decided to run off and escaped to the ‘white foreigners’. She saw no hope or whatsoever in staying any longer with the tribe and perceived the other ‘world’ as a better place to live in. This was contrasted by the return of Steve Saint from the developed country of United States to the rural compound of Waodani. After paying his last respect to his deceased aunt, Rachel Saint, Steve decided to live among the transformed Waodani with his family members. What caused the change to the living conditions and perception in the land of Waodani?

Nate Saint to Waodani vis-à-vis Waodani to Steve Saint
Nate Saint, the father of Steve, was the pilot among the missionary team. He was flying as often as he could in search of the secluded Waodani settlement. The search was not easy because they were always on the move, especially if they were targeted by their rival tribesmen. They were an exclusive community with the sole purpose of self-preservation. Later, it was the Waodani who began to look for Steve to have him return back to them. Their community was thus expanded to include rival tribesmen and even non-Waodani people. What caused the change from exclusivity to inclusivity of the Waodani community?

Distant Contact vis-à-vis Intimate Contact
When Nate Saint first discovered the Waodani people, he began to drop gifts from his aircraft in order to establish good rapport with them. The reciprocal of a gift from them made him perceived that he had succeeded in his pre-contact mission. The movie later depicted that it was not so. Surface contact is never as effective as in-depth relationship building. After the death of the five male missionaries, their family members took the risk of living among the Waodani. Through their ways of life, they were able to convince the tribal people of their sincerity and pure motives of establishing contact with them. What caused the long persistency and the strong courage of the difficult contact works by the missionary team to the Waodani?

Problems vis-à-vis Solutions
After some time, the five missionary men finally came into physical contact with the Waodani males. That short encounter witnessed the real problems of the Waodani – their chronic fears, violence and revenge killing instincts. Due to a miscommunication, all five were massacred. This was the practical communication problem faced by the missionaries. They undermined the need to acquire native language before coming into close contact with the primitive Waodani. When the family members of the deceased missionaries went to stay with the Waodani, they brought along Dayumae so that she could help with the oral translation work. In addressing Waodani’s problems, they demonstrated in very practical ways on how one should extend hospitality to people, even enemies, and tend to their needs. Slowly, the Waodani people followed suit and realized the fruits of showing kindness to others, thus ending their constant fears and endless revenge killings spree. What caused the change to their ways of life and conduct to others?

The Crux
After five inclusios, the movie finally revealed the crux of the story – the Christian gospel. It was precisely this piece of good news that first called the missionary team to embark on such dangerous missions, and at the same time, converted the revenge killings Waodani people into a peaceable tribal group. The changes mentioned earlier were all made possible because of this seemingly impossible task of sharing the gospel to the Waodani.

Gospel on the Missionary Team
The gospel inspired the missionary team to step foot into the uncivilized regions of Ecuador. They were committed, as an entire family unit, to invest their time and efforts to bring the good news to the unreached Waodani people. The inherent risk was high but the potential rewards were even higher. A few lives for the many lives of Waodani and their future generations to come. The intensity of the call could be clearly seen when Nate responded to Steve: “Son, we can't shoot the Waodani, they are not ready for Heaven. We are!”

It was the same gospel that helped the family members of the deceased missionaries to forgive their enemies and live among them. For them, the gospel was not merely something to grasp and know, rather it was to be internalized and lived out. The impact of such strong life testimonies enabled the gospel message to penetrate into the lives of the illiterate Waodani people.

Gospel for the Waodani
From unbelief to accepting the gospel, the Waodani experienced what they had never encountered in their tradition. Initially, they could not accept the gospel from the words of Dayumae. How could Waengongi’s son, who was speared to death, not speared back at his enemies? Literally, this gospel message was reinforced by the fact that the family members of the deceased missionaries did not seek any form of revenge. Instead, they showed kindness to Waodani people, and such hospitality was even extended to their rival tribesmen.

The gospel message was not forcibly given to the Waodani people. They were given the gospel and the practical life testimonies that corresponded with the gospel. Slowly, when the Waodani people began to embrace the gospel, it liberated their mindsets and ways of life, and resulted in positive changes in their lives. The local Christians, in terms, through their own life testimonies, advanced the gospel further to the rest of their tribesmen. Eventually, the Waodani Chief and the entire tribe were converted to Christianity.

Conclusion
The End of the Spear first discussed the problems faced by the Waodani and the missionary team. Through the transforming power of the gospel, the missionary team overcame all odds to bring the same gospel to the Waodani. Indeed, the gospel was what the Waodani people needed the most to bring an end to the spear – the ceasing of their revenge killings problems and start of their more humane and civilized ways of life, in accordance to the gospel.

Religious Contradiction of Taoism (Part 1)

Many times I had asked myself whether i would opt to remain a Taoist, following my family's religion, if I was not exposed to the Christian faith in the first place. The answer seems very obvious to me based on the sheer logic of rational thinking. I would probably be more an atheist if not a Christian, as many 'nominal' modern Taoists around me are behaving. Besides having the practical form of basic Taoist rituals, many would be unqualified to be called a true blue Taoist if probed further in terms of their scriptural and historical understanding. If people can now accept Science as the basis for modern evolution, then I think, Taoism has no place to be a valid religion, except for the fact that it was involuntarily forced down onto us by our illiterate ancestors. And it does not help much to know that our old habits die hard, by which I mean our childhood's ways of life have a much hypnotizing effect on us than we think we have safely escaped through modern education and experience.

Here I stand, committed to highlight what I think are the key religious contradictions of Taoism. It would be very useful, I think, if interested parties can spin off further discussions arising from this topic.

"I think therefore I am" ~Rene Descartes

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1) Providing for the Deceased
Common Taoist's understanding of their deceased family members is that they are somewhere in the underworld or in the far East Paradise (more like a Buddhist's influence). And they require some forms of food (mainly vegetables, sometimes chicken and fishes) and resources (hell-notes, property, servants, and gaining popularity, credit cards) to sustain their post-death standard of living. Offering joss stick and burning candle (nowadays electric light bulb) is a daily affair, failing which a terrible misdeed is done unto the decreased. If one does not do some or all the things above, they are condemned as unfilial family member by their elderly or nosy neighbors.

Contradictions:
- Only Taoists practice the above-mentioned rituals, so what will become of the rest of the billions of non-Taoist deceased? Do they go hungry and be in perpetual poverty in the 'other-world'?

- If we notice carefully, there appear only a handful of names in the altar of a Taoist's house. So what happen to the previous generations before them? Let us do a simple mathematics to illustrate this point. A child has two parents and the two parents each has another two parents of their own. The list goes up exponentially. In a hundred years, there are probably 5 or more generations of a particular family. That will be 2 to the power of 4 (excluding the child), which is 16. How long has the world be in existence? Biblically, it is about 6000 years, but Scientists estimated it to be 13-14 billion years. We do not know exactly how old. But even if we take the more conservative approach, we will still end up with a very long genealogy, longer than any known quoted figure in this world. How do we measure filial piety from this aspect? Would they, I mean non-beneficiaries ancestors, grow 'hungry' and be in perpetual poverty as well? If that is the case, we are all 'unfilial' descendants, Taoists or non-Taoists alike.

2) Money for the Deceased
The current World's currency system is a complex and dynamic form of economics structures. Back in the good old days, people use Barter Trade or precious metals and gems for their daily market transactions. As the economy prospers, there is an inevitable need to revamp the old system and exchange it with the more fluid currency system. What is the currency system? Basically, the dollar notes that we have in our pocket are worthless piece of paper. It has purchasing power because our government guarantees and pegs the paper to certain kinds of value. When we use it to buy things, it will only be accepted if the seller has sufficient trust in our government's guarantee. In other words, the seller is willing to trade his goods or services in exchange for this worthless piece of paper because he can use that to buy other things, provided his seller also has the same trust in that government. A good example of the lack of trust was the banana notes printed by the Japanese when they invaded South-East Asia. These notes devalued quickly because people have no trust in the guarantee provided by the Japanese's government. When the Japanese needed more funds, they simply resorted to printing more notes, having no concrete form of value guarantee. Does it sound like the US government now?

Contradictions:
- Now, who is guaranteeing the hell notes that all Taoists are burning? No one! This is further confirmed by the fact that the printed value is getting larger and larger, even worst than Indonesian Rupiah. It is always easy and profitable for merchants to print big value dollar notes. After all, who will refuse to own more money.

- Again, what about the billions of non-Taoist decreased? Won't there be a major riot in the 'other-world' if hell notes are indeed needed to survive? How about small change? We do not see people burning small changes to their ancestors. Either there is a big inflation in the 'other-world' or hell notes are worthless over there.

- That brings us to another interesting question. What can they buy with the hell notes? If indeed there are thriving economy over there, then offering of joss sticks would be redundant because they can simply buy whatever they need using the hell notes. Economically, Taoists would be the sole wealthy class because they are the only people group with money, the rest of the non-Taoists would perhaps live on the outskirts of economical center, living on non-monetary means. Is that realistic? Non-Taoists can easily outnumber the money-laden Taoists by many millions or billions times. And the amount of hell notes they burned would not be suffice to meet everyone's needs.


to be continued ...]

Prevailing Grace

Human beings lament on our current state of being so much that often we ended up in questioning the existence of the Almighty Creator. If there is a God, why would He allow such seemingly "bad" things to happen to us? We tried to justify ourselves like Job, who simply refused to accept his friends' verdicts. I did no wrong to deserve all these. And what about Tom? He is a better guy than me. What such predicament for him? It is simply unfair. Why would God, if He ever exists, allow such calamities to happen? Doesn't He love the world as the Bible states? What has gone wrong?

This is the topic of Pain and Suffering which many people ask, regardless of their religious beliefs. Some people advocate complete escape from pain and suffering, others resort to preventive measures, yet a majority of us choose to ignore this complex issue altogether and resign reluctantly to fate.

What do the teachings of the major world religion taught us? All acknowledges that pain and suffering are ever so real and present in our midst. No one is spared. As mentioned above, some teach on how to avoid them (more so in future), some how to minimize them (a peace of mind), but none except Christianity explains the root cause of pain and suffering.

The Bible teaches that human beings and the world have been agonizing from the very beginning of time since our first ancestors sinned ("We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." ~ Rom 8:22). And everyone is anticipating redemption from such a fallen state ("Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." ~ Rom 8:23).

Indeed, God has provided an effective redemption for all of us. It is through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died and rose on the cross for our sins. Through God's saving grace, our relationship with our Creator has been restored. It is precisely the undaunting faith in this gospel message that instills hope for the future glory and joy when we finally arrive in heaven's gate.

Yet, that does not solve the current problem of pain and suffering. There is another form of grace mentioned in the Bible. It is the prevailing grace of God ("For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ~ Rom 1:20"). Such prevailing grace of God are eloquently discussed in chapters 38 and 39 from the Book of Job. To those who questioned God, He has this to say: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" (~Job 38:4). To those who think they are wise, God probes: "Who endowed the heart with wisdom?" (~ Job 38:36). To pseudo-Nature lovers, God interrogates: "Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?"

The climax of God's prevailing grace would be summed up in these two key verses, "He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished" (Rom 3:25b), explaining that God has left sins committed in the past to go unpunished "so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (Rom 8:26b). This is a valid response to those who think that God is unfair to those before Jesus' time. For all who acknowledged their wrongdoings, repented of their sins, and believed in the coming Messiah (or Savior) from the Almighty God will be saved.

O How sweet the prevailing grace
That paves the way for the saving grace

Someone once asked me to define hell. How could I since I have never been there before? But the Bible states that it is definitely an undesirable place of eternal torments and sufferings. And those people continued to question why does a loving God wants to create such a horrible place? True enough, it did occur to me that eternal damnation is not really biblical because Jesus had taught His disciples to forgive their enemies, and to Apostle Peter's question on how many times, He replied seventy-seven times! That form of forgiveness requires a lot of help and trust in God.

Now that I have a better grasp on the prevailing grace of God, the issue on hell can be better read in this light. Hell, in its definition, is a place without any form of God's grace. Yes, the absence of saving grace and prevailing grace. Technically, it is not a place created by God, it is a self-made exile prison where all the rebels chose to be at when they rejected God's grace which was avail and given freely to them. In such a self-centered environment, there can be neither happiness nor joy within the imprisoned cell. And there is no sentence of duration of stay, because these people had renounced their creation rights to live in such a detached place. The Bible further teaches that it is the grace of God that enables people to come to repentance. Without it, human beings are hopelessly lost and incapable of knowing our divine Creator. That is the vicious cycle revolving in the place called hell.

Therefore, the prevailing grace of God in the world has enabled us to know our Creator. It has also sustained the ecological system and made life possible. It has created justice and law in our midst to protect inhabitants. It has remedied and unwound the mistakes that human beings have committed. It has instilled hope and love for the continuation of our offsprings. It is the utmost precious gift from God to His creation.

So now, back to the problem of pain and suffering. With this understanding of the prevailing grace of God, we can perhaps use another theological len to view the issue. Imagine a world without prevailing grace, it would be like a little child without his parents or guardians. It would be like a sick person or wounded chap without any medical assistance. And what is the end-result? They will suffer and pass away tragically. But not so in our world. God's prevailing grace has actually allowed human beings to experience lesser pain and suffering. The fact remained that the actual creation of pain and suffering is by human beings ourselves. If only everyone in this world can make right godly decisions, then the problem of pain and suffering will be minimized or even cease to be in existence. But no, that would not happened at all because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). There will be some people out there trying to create havocs in this world. They are governed by their own greed, pride, self-centeredness, jealousy, and all sorts of other vices. They renounce the presence of final divine judgment and ignore the One who judge. That is the root cause of pain and suffering. People making selfish decisions and hence bad actions that deprive some people of good. Some pain and suffering can even be traced back to a few generations back or more.

Therefore, we need God to come and intervene in our life. We need His saving grace to set things back to normal again. We have heard too many surface explanations which states that God allow such things to happen. However, we must also be reminded that God will not sit back and do nothing. His prevailing grace will prompt remedy actions to be effected swiftly in order to minimize our pain and suffering. A clear example would be the termination of the Tower of Babel. If God did not stop that massive building project, i am quite certain that all human beings would ultimately denied the grace of God and chose to go to hell instead. This is yet another prevailing grace of God.

"Heavenly Father, thank You for Your prevailing and saving grace."