"The Village" Needed the Gospel as Much as the City (by Matt Hand)

This is an article that seeks to demonstrate the necessity of the gospel by examining an issue raised in the popular movie entitled “The Village,” by M. Night Shyamalan (who also wrote “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs”). The movie recently came out in dvd a few weeks ago. So it is still very popular. Matt's article is a good example of what Paul did at Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31). Matt Hand said, "I think we would do well to be a little 'Pauline' in our thinking and learn how to apply theology to what unbelievers are watching/reading/listening to, etc." I think you will enjoy the article. By the way, if you read this article and haven't yet watched the video, it WILL NOT ruin the movie for you.

Matt writes:

It’s October, 1897. The body of little Daniel Nicholson is being laid to rest after he lost a battle with a serious illness. One of the village elders, Edward Walker, stands and solemnly speaks to the people: “We may question ourselves at moments such as these. Did we make the right decision to settle here?”

Where have they settled…why have they come? the viewer asks. They have settled in a picturesque valley in a place they call Covington Woods. Here they have built their own village and their own way of life miles away from the nearest town. And why have they come to this place? In Walker’s words, they left the towns and settled in the village “out of hope of something good and right.” The towns were, as one of the young men put it, “Wicked places where wicked people live...that’s all.” Walker tells his daughter, Ivy, that the towns are “a darkness I wished you would never know.”

The villagers are convinced they have left evil behind them for good. The elders seem to believe they have created an isolated, ideological, safe haven that is sheltered from the very presence of sin and sorrow. This motif is repeatedly stated by several prominent characters in the movie. One of the elders, Mrs. Hunt, cautions her son with these words: “The evil things of my past are kept close and not forgotten. Forgetting would be to let them be born again in another form.” She is clearly implying that evil is not being reborn in the village, not even in new forms. Walker exemplifies this conviction while defending a difficult judgment call he made: “If we did not make this decision, we could never again call ourselves innocent. And that, in the end, is what we have protected here—innocence!”

The village elders hold to a prevalent worldview known as determinism or behaviorism. This philosophy says, in essence, that people are the products of their environment. The only real way to change people for the better is by altering the environmental factors that inevitably produced their improper behavior in the first place. The elders believed people acted wickedly because they lived in wicked places surrounded by wicked things. One example of this is when Edward warns Ivy, “Money can be a wicked thing. It can turn men’s hearts black—good men’s hearts.” So what did the elders do to avoid evil? They created a micro-economy that did not use any form of currency. Their worldview was this: If we can create a village that is innocent, the people who live here will always remain in a state of innocence.

Sound familiar? Ever heard of any other innocent people living in a perfect environment before? How about in the very first chapters of the Bible? Genesis 1:26ff tells us the true account of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, whom God created in His image. God blessed them abundantly and gave them dominion over every other living thing. God even placed them in a perfect environment—a beautiful garden called “Eden” (which means “delight”). God called His creation exceedingly beautiful and morally perfect (Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve were totally innocent people living in a state of innocence.

That innocence didn’t last very long. God had only one boundary for Adam and Eve, yet they wasted no time overstepping it. Though there was nothing in their environment that could inevitably produce their improper behavior, they nevertheless lost their innocence when they were tempted of the devil and chose to satisfy the proud desires of their own hearts (Genesis 3:1-7). Contrary to the determinist worldview, the Bible makes unmistakably clear that evil is not simply a problem with our environment. Evil also resides in the power of “the evil one” (1 John 5:19) and within every human heart (Genesis 8:21).

Since evil resides in three sources, rather than one, we cannot escape evil by simply leaving overtly wicked places. Even when we avoid these places, we still carry sin within our own hearts. And none of us can physically leave the devil behind. We need a solution to evil that is far more realistic—and far more radical—than the village paradigm. We need a Savior who can deal with all three sources of sin.

1. Jesus Christ defeats the power of an evil environment.

God’s solution is not to run from the world, but to renew the world. Many Christians are guilty of the village mindset, which leads them to isolate themselves from sinners so that they might preserve their own sense of holiness. That isn’t what Jesus had in mind when He told His followers that they were the salt and light of the earth—agents of preservation and renewal (Matthew 5:13-16). The future return of Christ will prove once and for all His power over the corruption of this present world. In that day, He will destroy the decay of this world and make “new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).

2. Jesus Christ defeats the power of the evil one.

As soon as sin entered the world through Adam, God promised that Christ would ultimately defeat Satan (Genesis 3:15). That promise saw it’s partial fulfillment when Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, humiliating Satan and defeating his power of death (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14). Christ mortally wounded Satan through the triumph of the cross, enabling believers to experience victory over Satan’s temptations (Ephesians 6:16; James 4:7). The future return of Christ will mark Satan’s ultimate defeat and eternal judgment (Revelation 20:1-3, 10).

3. Jesus Christ defeats the power of our evil hearts.

The elders in the village thought they could avoid defilement and experience true innocence by leaving the world behind them. But Jesus taught, “Out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23). Though the elders did not recognize it, they were just as sinful as the people in the towns that they had left behind. They created a new environment, but they could not create new hearts. Only Christ, the Savior, can change our hearts and free us from the power of evil within us. By sheer grace, Christ freely gives us what we could never earn—and the very thing we crave: new, perfect, innocent hearts (Ezekiel 36:26).

So go ahead and watch “The Village.” Enjoy it. There’s a lot more to it than what I have told you! I’ve done my best not to ruin it’s suspense for those who have not seen it. But as you watch, remember: utopian societies have never worked because they fail to address all three sources of evil in this world. There is no substitute for the Savior. Only Christ can give you true freedom from the world, the devil, and your own flesh.