I’ve been hearing a lot about “The Force” lately. I’m speaking, of course, of the “Star Wars” variety. There are even one or two politicians attempting to capitalize on its popularity by invoking the Force in their speeches…

These politicians clearly think that if they give the impression of being a fan of the movies they’ll get some extra votes. Hey, I’m a fan myself, but my advice is to look past a politician’s sugary coat of pop-culture and attempt to sense real intentions: we need to get the Force back into balance…

George Lucas’ Force is an imaginary energy field created by all living things. It surrounds and penetrates everyone and everything, and binds the galaxy together. But the Force can get seriously out of balance: you’ll remember, for example, that Anakin was “chosen” to bring balance to the force.

The Force bears some resemblance to a number of real-world religions and philosophies, and perhaps serves to surreptitiously advertise them. But what about the Judeo-Christian God, does he seek to “balance” the light and the dark sides of nature in our galaxy? Does he strive for syncretism-for equality between good and evil?

We could easily think-if we were among those who paint a picture of God by “thinking” God’s characteristics into existence-that God has a dark side to his nature as well as a light side. Looking around, we see animals eating each other, we see tornadoes destroying towns, we see suffering and death among humans, and we see war and murder without end. In the Bible we find examples of God using the devil and his minions to achieve his ends, and allowing him some slack. We think that if God were really all good he would just destroy evil, fix all the problems of humanity, make the sun shine every day, and give us all a million dollars to spend. Since he doesn’t do all that, people reason, if he’s there at all he either tolerates evil or he’s so pernicious and conniving that he’s half evil himself.

However, the God of the Bible is an altogether different being to what we “think” he must be or should be like, and it’s very clear that to him evil and good are two utterly separate things:

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

The Bible does not speak of any “balance” of light and darkness, but rather that what it identifies as darkness will be dealt with, at the proper time. One of the parables of Jesus which illustrates this is sometimes called “the parable of the wheat and tares” (Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43). In this parable we’re told a story of a farmer who has a field of wheat, into which an enemy has sown some weeds. The farmer tells his workers not to pull up the weeds yet, in case some wheat is accidentally pulled up with them: the separation of wheat from the weeds is to be left until harvest-time.

Jesus went on to explain how the parable relates to us. He said the harvest is the end of the age, the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the wheat stands for the sons of the kingdom:

“The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace…Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (verses 41-43).

It’s very clear to anyone who really wants to know, that there is no “yin-yang” type dualism in the Bible. God allows and even uses evil, for now, but a different time is coming. The true and future “balance” of nature and the spiritual universe is the absence of all things and all people currently in opposition to the God of Light, through whom all things exist.

There is a way for you to be among the “wheat” that Jesus spoke of, and not the weeds. Read my post on the gospel of Jesus Christ:

https://nickyfisher.com/2013/08/13/what-is-the-gospel-of-jesus-christ-2/

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