Avatar and Probationary Time

In the movie Avatar Jake Sulley is given a probationary period of 90 days to win the confidence of the Na’vi and to win the confidence of his superior officer Colonel Miles Quaritch. This probationary period of time will also be sufficient to allow each other person on the compound the opportunity to decide whether they want to view the Na’vi and Pandora as people and resources to exploit or opportunities to share. In either case people will come to a point where their thinking is clear, they will have had opportunity to make decisions, and then would come an opportunity to act upon that decision.

After the 90 day period is completed Jake wants a little more time to go through the final acts of becoming a part of the Na’vi tribe and becoming a man. He also wants to complete his opportunity to choose a mate in the tribe he has selected – Na’vi over human. Jake completed his probationary period of time and he chose which side he wanted to be on and was willing to commit his all to the tribe he had selected.
After the 90 day period Colonel Quaritch had received enough data from Jake to make his decision that he could strong arm a response from the Na’vi or use military force and make the Na’vi comply with his perceptions.

The leader of the Mining Corporation – Parker Selfridge – also completed his probationary time, and decided that whatever it took he would force the issue to accomplish his political, and his own personal, goals to move the Na’vi out of their home and mine the Unobtanium that he was looking for. He had enough information about the Na’vi and he decided that corporate approval was of much greater value than sensitivity for the Na’vi.

When the probationary period was completed the Na’vi had decided that Jake was a worthy member of the their tribe and had passed all of the tests necessary for Jake to be a solid man in the community and would therefore be eligible for all privileges of a man in the community, including that of choosing a wife.
Neytiri had also had sufficient time to evaluate the personality and qualities of the man she was training. After he had completed all of the tests of being a man, she concluded that Jake would be a good mate, and she chose Jake when the opportunity availed itself.

Each other member of the Na’vi, and of the Earthlings, had to choose what they wanted to do and whose side they would be on when the decision was made to force the Na’vi out of Home tree. Norm Spellman, Trudy Chacon, Dr. Max Patel, and Dr. Grace Augustine also chose and decided to be on the side of the Na’vi in case of hostilities.

The last group to decide would be the audience. The audience had to decide in their hearts and minds what they would do if they had been on Pandora and could choose to actually be involved in the final confrontation. The essence of a good film requires the audience to become involved in the decision making and to commit to a response. Avatar was a good film and each audience member chose their side. But in a fantasy world one can make a decision and still live to tell about it. Reality is often much harsher, and as in Trudy Chacon’s case, as well as Dr. Augustine, they paid with their lives, as did the Na’vi, and the Earthlings in Hell’s Gate.

The concept of probationary time is a common theme in the Bible. God sets a time and allows all parties to make their decisions and then acts accordingly. One of the primary differences between Avatar and the Bible is that the Bible deals with reality and finality. It also deals with the issue that God can read the heart and mind of each person, and of each angel, that is involved with any decision or any event. With this information in hand God works to save as many people as He can and still preserve their freedom to choose. God only wants true decisions made from a heart and mind convinced of the truth.

In the Bible there are several probationary experiences that are samples for all probationary experiences. In Genesis 1-3 God establishes probationary time in Eden as Adam and Eve can stay as long as they do not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. On the day that they disobey God and eat of this Tree they will initiate a death sequence and as is revealed in reality, they are demanded to be removed from the Garden. So the time sequence is open ended but when it happened it was carried out and Adam and Eve received the consequences of their decision.

In Genesis 6:3 God gives mankind a probationary period of 120 years to repent and reform or He would send a flood and wipe out all people on Earth. This message was communicated to man by God’s prophet Noah. In addition God was to give an escape clause. If the people would not repent, God would allow anyone who wanted to get on the Ark and escape the flood. If they would not get on the Ark then they would die in the flood. As in the first probationary experience God demanded that each person make a decision based on faith in Him rather than the event itself. So seven days before the flood, God informed Noah that he, and all of his family, needed to get on board. Anyone wanting to get on the ark would be informed by this movement and could come with Noah, or stay behind but the decision would be based on faith. Only 8 people got on board and when God closed the door, 7 days before the flood, the decisions were irreversible. All of the rest of mankind died in the flood.

The next probationary period was the time given to Abraham that his descendents would be captive in Egypt for 400 years and then God would deliver them. Genesis 15:13-16. When this time came to fulfillment, God sent plagues on Egypt via His prophet Moses. In one of the final plagues Moses is instructed by God to alert the Egyptians and the Israelites to put blood on their doorposts as a sign to protect them from the destroying angel. If they put blood on their doorposts their firstborn child would live. If they did not their firstborn child would die. God also alerted Moses that after this plague Egypt would let Israel go. When the morning arrived God’s warning had come true. All who did not put blood on their doorposts had lost their first born children and Egypt pleaded with Israel to leave lest a worse thing happen to them. One of the side effects of this was that many Egyptians came out with Israel for they had had sufficient information to recognize God and to obey Him. A secondary issue was that three days later Egypt changed its mind and attacked Israel at the Red Sea and when they did that they lost their entire army in the middle of the Red Sea. Exodus 12-15.

The message of the experience of Egypt was spread all through the then known world. Although Israel was to go into Canaan within 2 years time they did not arrive for 40 years. None the less the nations in Canaan had time to ponder what they would do if and when Israel arrived at their doorstep led by the invisible God – Jehovah. When Israel arrived at the Jordan River and God opened the Jordan for Israel to walk over it on dry ground during the flood times of Jordan, the nearest city Jericho got to decide what to do with Israel and Israel’s God. Rahab, and her family, chose to follow God and were saved. Jericho, given a probationary period of the original 40 years, and an additional time of 7 days, decided to not follow God, and were destroyed.

Israel itself was given a probationary period of time to decide whether they would submit themselves to the God who brought them out of Egypt. God sent them into Babylon for 70 years, Jeremiah 25:1-14, and then brought them back out to alert them that God would discipline Israel as well as all other nations. While in Babylon, God raised up a prophet to alert Israel that God would give them 490 years, the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, and if they decided not to respond to Him He would bring them to an end as a nation devoted to God. This probationary period of time was decided in 31 AD when Israel chose to reject God Himself in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, and chose Caesar. John 19:14-15. This was culminated in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus and all of the Jews were scattered throughout the world.

Another probationary period was granted to the church of God after the destruction of Jerusalem. The original prophecy, from which the 70 week period was cut off from, indicated that from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, in 457 BC, until the final judgment time was set, would be 2300 day years. This period would end in 1844 AD. At that time a prophet, Ellen G. White would be raised up to give instructions for the final probationary period of time. Those events happened just as prophecy indicated, and now the people of earth are in their final probationary experience. Just as God directed in the past, He has done so in this final period of time. Each of us has the opportunity to read God’s word, the Bible, and each of us has the opportunity of deciding whether there is a probationary time and if God will follow through with it as He has done in all of His probationary experiences with mankind here to for. God has not given us a specific time period but He has given us specific warning issues, all through the Bible, to alert us to when the time would be completed. See Matthew 24 and Revelation 13-14. When we see these issues occurring we are to know that His second coming is at hand just as it was in the time of Noah. Mathew 24:36-39. It is our opportunity to study these things and to know the reality of this situation.

God is alerting us to the principles of His Word through many avenues including the movie Avatar. We can see how the issues of probationary time played itself out in the movie. We can read the Word of God, if we choose to, and see how probationary time has played itself out in Bible history. Now, each of us must determine whether God had changed or if He will stay the same and act the same as He has in the past. The primary difference between the Bible and Avatar is that what the Bible teaches is reality and that it really will happen just as expressed in the Bible. I hope that we will make our decisions about whose side we will be on and that we will make that decision, and follow through with it before our probationary period of time closes. The choice is ours, make it today.