Avatar and the Spirit of Prophecy

In the movie Avatar the Spirit of Prophecy is first manifested when a seed from the Tree of Souls settles on the arrow of Neytiri as she is preparing to shoot Jake Sulley. Later she is prepared to leave him to his own ways and the seeds of the Tree of Souls settle en mass on Jake Sulley communicating to Neytiri that Eywa, the Goddess of Pandora, has some business to conduct with Jake. Neytiri decides that she needs more guidance and decides that she needs to take Jake to her mother - Mo’at, the spiritual guide for the Na’vi tribe -the Omaticaya. Mo’at functions as the interpreter between the Na’vi and Eywa and functions also as a prophet – the mouthpiece for Eywa to the Na’vi.

The role of Mo’at is in many ways similar to that of a prophet of God in the Bible. A prophet, or a prophetess – a female prophet – is to speak to the people the messages that God has chosen to pass on. In fact the Bible says that God would do nothing except that He revealed His secret plans through the prophets. Amos 3:7. God was not trying to take His people by surprise. He knew their limitations and He knew, and accepted, their need for guidance. So God sent prophets to express His will to the people, and to use the prophets to guide and keep and instruct His people through the many trials that they had to experience in their relationship with Him.

The role of prophet was also expressed by the term “seer” and was the term used before that of prophet. I Samuel 9:9 This term is used primarily by the Roman Catholic Church to communicate the role of the Pope. He is referred to by the term “the Holy See”. Interestingly enough the place where the Pope “sees” is the Vatican. To Vaticinate is to prophesy. So the “see” or to communicate the counsel of God is an important part to the churches that claim to be Christian.

The spiritual gift of a prophet is important in the New Testament writings and expounded upon in I Corinthians 12-14. The gift of prophecy was to be a central testimony for the edification of the church, just as it had been in the Old Testament community of believers. God even went so far as to identify the Spirit of Prophecy as an identifying feature of the final church of God. This is stated in Revelation 12:17 and 19:10. The gifts of prophecy, along with the keeping of the entire Ten Commandments were two of the identifying signs of the Remnant church.

It is interesting that God gives us many signs by which to test anyone claiming to be a prophet so that we can determine the difference between a true and false prophet. Several of these signs will be listed here. They are:
1. Any prophet, or writings of a prophet, will be in harmony with the law and the testimony – the Scriptures. Isaiah 8:20
2. The prophet will proclaim that Jesus came in the flesh of Abraham and David. I John 4:1-3; Romans 1:3; Hebrews 2:14-18
3. The prophet will proclaim that Jesus is the Christ. I John 2:22
4. The prophet will manifest the fruit of a Christian lifestyle. Matthew 7:15-20
5. The prophecies of a prophet must come true, unless altered by repentance and change. Deuteronomy 18:18-22
A true prophet will meet the criteria above and if not God’s people must turn away from the prophet and look to God for continued guidance.

In the world today there are not that many churches claiming the gift of prophecy. There are a few contenders for the gift of prophecy under the heading that the church that has the true gift of prophecy can proclaim that they are the ones in harmony with the True God and they should be listened to. The Roman Catholic Church claims that the Pope is the true and accurate, and living prophet of God. The Mormon Church also claims the living, active prophetic ministry of it’s current leader. The Mormon prophet is always the leader of the church. Islam claims that Muhammad was the prophet that started the Islamic movement and that his ministry and his writings are the standard for all religious activities today. The only other major church claiming the prophetic ministry of a prophet is that of the Seventh-Day Adventist church who claims that God sent a prophetess – Ellen White, who wrote prolifically about spiritual matters. Each group claims that their prophet/prophetess was/is the true communication link for God the people of today. Each person has to test these claims by at least the five tests given above. As a Seventh-Day Adventist myself I will take the liberty of sharing some occasional comments by Ellen White on some of the issues of this Avatar blog and give each of you the opportunity of deciding for yourselves whether she is or she is not a prophet of God.

In the movie Avatar Mo’at is the prophet and she guides the developmental opportunities for Jake Sulley. Mo’at turns the training of Jake Sulley over to her daughter Neytiri, very similar to Nephertiri, and in the end the prophecy of the Tree of Souls is born out that Jake becomes the Messiah and Saviour of the Na’vi.

This is also the role of the prophet in Christianity, to proclaim the future, to give instruction in righteousness to help the people hear, know, and obey the words and commandments of God. James Cameron did a very nice job of presenting the prophetic gift in Avatar, and the true God of heaven did a very nice job of presenting the gift of prophecy in the Bible. Each of us must make a decision as well, as to whether we will choose to listen to this gift and obey it.