Drama
Doctor Who
The good Doctor’s been flitting around time, space and the BBC since 1963. Now he’s also a fixture in the US, toting his curiously British brand of sci-fi in his highly mobile TARDIS. Just how safe is this contraption?
Were you to meet David Lewis, you might come think that the path to salvation includes a mandatory bowl cut. At the very least, the narrow way does include practice for Armageddon.
The Lewis family are members of the Order of the Divine Rod, a works-based doomsday cult which David is confident will soon vote him in as an elder. After all, who else mandates surprise treks to the hills in the middle of the night in order to practice escaping the righteous judgment of the Lord?
As for the rest of the Lewises, perhaps the only one more fervent in belief than David is his son, Aaron. The boy can’t wait to be in paradise! In fact, for David’s Armageddon practice (which David sees as deception), he’s drawn a picture of the rest of the family burning in hell as he looks down on them from heaven above.
But as for wife Fiona and daughter Rachel, the constant preparation for eternity is starting to wear on them. Fiona sees David’s desire to be an elder and his constant bickering with fellow order members as over-the-top and draining. And as for Rachel, well, her religious beliefs are starting to grind against her hope to attend university one day. But, once again, when Rachel mentions studying for school, she’s met with her father’s constant reminders.
“Two hours studying, or saving your soul for all eternity?” David chides.
And that’s why Rachel’s out and about, knocking on doors in the hopes that someone will want to talk about God. And, to her surprise, someone does! It’s a young man named Joshua, “like Moses’ friend in the Bible,” who was once a member of the Order of the Divine Rod before he was excommunicated and shunned into complete solitude, where the closest thing to a friend he has is his “mum occasionally crying on the intercom.” And as the two become friends, Rachel begins to wonder if her beliefs are truly infallible.
At the very least, it would be nice to not have to wake up at dawn for Armageddon practice.
Everyone Else Burns pegs itself as a comedy about devout followers of a “puritanical Christian sect.” But as we watch, we see very little that has to do with the Puritans or Christianity.
The Puritans were named after a group of Christians between the 16th and 18th centuries who became concerned regarding the religious purity of the church, particularly within the Anglican tradition. In particular, the Puritans were generally Reformed in their thinking, held an extremely high view of Scripture and desired to rid many of what they saw as unbiblical Roman Catholic traditions from the church, seeing such things as preventing a believer from being directly responsible to God. As Ligonier Ministries puts it, the Puritans believed in “theology as a discipline of godliness that not only produces insight into the nature of things and knowledge but also produces significantly practical wisdom”—a biblical theology that is not only known with the mind but also practiced and loved in the heart.
And The Order of the Divine Rod is far from biblical Puritanism or Christianity—emphasized most importantly at a couple moments in the first episode. While the family makes its practice trek into the woods to escape Armageddon, Rachel is petrified. She prays to God for salvation, which is discouraged by her parents, who say that God is too busy “latching up heathens” to answer her prayers. And when Rachel discusses using time to study for school, David implies that she should rather be out evangelizing in order to save her soul for all eternity.
The Order of the Divine Rod teaches an incomplete gospel—one focused on works rather than God’s grace. Biblical Christianity teaches that every person has done evil, and because God is just, He must punish all who do evil in order to be just. But for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, who voluntarily took the wrath of God upon Himself for sins, there remains no fear of punishment, as it has already been paid for by Christ. Those who are in Jesus Christ have been redeemed, and though good works are evidence of a genuine faith, they are not necessary to supplement faith unto salvation (read Isaiah 53:4-6, Romans 5:6-11 and John 10:24-30 for more).
Instead, David’s religion is more akin to the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormonism, which require works in addition to faith. We see many beliefs from these two religions reflected within the show, such as a family who is excommunicated for opening a coffee shop due to the Order’s ban on caffeine and door-to-door evangelism as part of working out the faith. In the promotional material, David holds not a Bible, but a special “Order of the Divine Rod” book. And because Everyone Else Burns’ family is very focused on the end times, it’s likely the family is indeed supposed to emulate the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Perhaps that should bring some comfort to Christian who choose to watch the show. While many secular viewers may get the impression that such a family represents Christianity, it will be clear to Christians that the beliefs and traditions held by the Lewis family don’t match up in the slightest with the faith; despite the show’s description, it doesn’t mock Christianity—it mocks a religion foreign to ours.
And for those worried about content that doesn’t deal with theological beliefs, there’s more comfort for you. There’s little in the way of content as of the show’s first episode—after all, the family’s works-based salvation might be in jeopardy if they did anything objectionable. So, we’ll likely only deal with light language and passing references to content.
David is confident that he will be made an elder of the Order of the Divine Rod. Meanwhile, Rachel meets an ex-member of the Order.
We hear a whole lot of talk about God and other spiritual topics. David has his family do a practice run of their plan for Armageddon, telling Rachel to “pack your bags and get downstairs before your soul turns to ash.” When Rachel begins praying, her mother tells her that God won’t answer her prayers because He’s too busy “latching up heathens.” Rachel wonders if God will spare them, and Fiona replies that she doesn’t know, as “who can fathom the mysteries of the Creator?” Their plan is to meet their congregation on top of a hill, pray and shelter, and then return home to “bury the corpses of the sinful dead.”
A family has been excommunicated from the Order, we’re told, for opening up a coffee shop, since drug dealing is a “mortal sin,” and they consider caffeine to be a drug. The congregation is told that the proper thing to do regarding the family is to shun them completely. A preacher tells his congregation to cover their mouths when they yawn, since “that’s how the devil gets in.”
Rachel is told by her father that it would be better for her to evangelize than to study, as doing the former counts towards “saving your soul for all eternity.” She meets a young man named Joshua, who was excommunicated from the Order some time ago.
We hear references to many parts of the Bible, such as the Garden of Eden, Jesus’ teaching of the narrow way and the betrayal of Jesus. David references the prophecy from Joel and Revelation that describes the moon turning like blood. The family is chided for handing out pamphlets, one of which reads asks if Jesus was “woke.”
When an employer offers David extra benefits to get him to stay at his job, David calls her Lucifer for tempting him. When he walks out the door, he yells “goodbye, sinners!” Aaron draws a picture of his family burning in hell while he looks down at them from heaven. “In your vision of hell, can we atone and ascend to heaven?” David asks, receiving a shaking head from Aaron.
David mentions how he broke the TV by pouring water on it. He did so because he saw “people kissing with tongue,” and “The Lord guided his hand” to break the TV as a result. Joshua asks Rachel about how her parents feel about her desires to go to university. He asks if her parents would be worried she’ll “overdose on ketamine and realize you’re bi?” Though Rachel says she doesn’t know what either of those words mean.
Rachel vomits upon hearing that their flight to the hills was just a practice run and not the real thing. We hear a song reference horoscopes.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
The good Doctor’s been flitting around time, space and the BBC since 1963. Now he’s also a fixture in the US, toting his curiously British brand of sci-fi in his highly mobile TARDIS. Just how safe is this contraption?
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