Conformity

Yesterday's Doctor Who was highly enjoyable. Not only did we have the return of the drone like Cybermen (with a new twist to their name as well), but at last we have a plausible explanation as to why the Doctor is limited to travelling only along our own timeline and not that of parallel dimensions. It had been niggling me... the idea that the idea that the Timelords were all but extinct, when surely there must be Timelords in alternate universes that have not been destroyed. now we know why the Doctor feels so alone - he can't get to the other universes to visit their versions of Gallifrey.

Anyway there were a couple of interesting points in yesterday's episode that could easily be used as allegory for Christian theology.

Firstly you have the "Preachers" led by Ricky (the parallel universe's Mickey), so called because they believe in the Gospel Truth (they don't believe in receiving information and data from bluetooth headsets invented by Cybus Industries, and with good reason for the owner of the company John Lumic is using the technology to further his own agenda of upgrading humanity with his technology and turning them into emotionless automatons trapped in steel bodies - the Cybermen.

Then you have the whole attitude of the Cyberman "race" to the rest of the populous. You must conform or be deleted. This is obviously setting them up with a showdown with the preachers who are the very antithesis of this. True to form the Preachers show up and try to gun down the Cybers with normal ammo - which fails to have any effect (long term Doctor Who aficionados will know that you need gold plated weaponry or ammunition as it messes up the run of the mill cyberman's respiratory equipment).

However the cliffhanger leaves the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and the Preachers surrounded by cybermen who are ready to "delete" them for not being compatable.

That is the world's attitude to Christianity. If you don't conform, you are incompatible and risk deletion. If you do conform, you lose your identity in Christ and become just another face in the crowd. OK, so you might not be trapped in a steel body deprived of all emotion, but you become something less than what you were designed to be, cut off from all the promises and potential that god had set aside just for you.

I'm going to leave you with a few scriptures to ponder and a challenge:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

"For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:13-17

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

and:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

So what are you going to be? A Cyberman or a Preacher. are you going to be a conforming tin man or a spiritually liberated child of God.

The decision is yours...

N