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Review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (2003-03-13 - 4:30 p.m.)

It's my birthday! Wheeeeeeee....Hey, I'm 45 years old today. Egad! That's, like, almost 50. I'm officially closer to 90 than I am to birth. Ouch. I've had a great day, too. My wonderful family got me some goodies, including The Sims Unleashed, the Daredevil CD, a new Hawaiian shirt (Yay) and a new pair of swim trunks. We had a good breakfast at the local coffee shop this morning, and the waitress sang Happy Birthday to me. Got a free piece of pie, too! Oh, yeah. Got a $100 check from my parents, too! Think I'll put that toward the boxed set of all of the Monty Python episodes.

I just finished reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" today. I read it four years ago, but really didn't remember that much about it. For those who don't know, it is the inspiration for the Ridley Scott movie, Blade Runner. The book is quite a bit different from the movie, but it is a tremendous book. Written by Philip K Dick in 1968, it is a futuristic novel about a time when the majority of the human race is leaving earth to colonize Mars. Androids are popular, but they have become so advanced that the only way to tell them from humans is by administering an empathy test. Eight androids (the movie called them "replicants") have escaped and must be tracked down and killed by bounty hunters (called "blade runners" in the movie). Rick Deckard is our hero. The previous hunter has "retired" two of the eight before getting critically injured, so it is now up to Deckard to get the other six. Interestingly, the whole concept that gives the book its name is completely left out of the movie. It seems that the status symbol of the time is owning an animal. A real animal. But they are extremely expensive, so a lot of people have to have android animals. Deckard has an electric sheep. But he dreams of owning a real animal. Hence the title, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Great book. Any serious science fiction fan should read it. In fact, I really, really want to go watch Blade Runner right now. But my in-laws are coming in a half hour, and I want to make sure I get some Bible study in. Well, that's my review for today.

What is salvation for? Or, should I say, what is salvation? "Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself."--Chambers "Abandonment never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the One to Whom we abandon."

Here is a segment of Romans from The Message. Romans 6:1-11 "So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace--a new life in a new land!

That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did." Romans 6, 7, and 8 are three of the most crucial chapters in the Bible. If we can grasp what Paul is teaching us in those three chapters, we have a good handle on the entirety of Christian doctrine.

TTFN

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