The Ultimate Power to Change

The Ultimate Power to Change

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher

In a presidential election year, there is always a flood of movies, television programs and news programs, besides all the other print and jawboning, that want to change the country, thinking that power in other hands will solve their problems. Of course, this is the same delusion that motivated the Russian revolution in 1917, the thought that they were curing their problems created by the ancient regime of the Tsars by making a new communist world which quickly became more tyrannical then ever seen in human history.

MOVIEGUIDE® has featured lists of movies made about the revolution that showed that the whole turnover in the government produced a worse, not a better world, such as the famous movie REPENTANCE, MR. JONES, BITTER HARVEST, THE DEATH OF STALIN, and many more.

The claim by Adolph Hitler in Germany that he would fulfill the utopian promise of a new regime to create a better world left Europe in rubble. And again, movies like BONHOEFFER, THE NINTH DAY and DOWNFALL showed that the promise of changing who holds the reins of power ended up as a disaster.

Many young people, however, educated by idealists who have a perfunctory knowledge of history, believe in the thought that revolution will bring a utopian world. I once believed that, but in spite of the drive toward power, the fun of rioting, the joy of destruction, the aggressive nature of youth, deep inside everyone wants a more loving world for themselves, as Edmund Burke pointed out.

When I debated Muslim leaders—many of whom were top academic and political minds—in Kiev, Ukraine, as well as communists and others, I had the great joy of speaking last. One after another got up to bash the United States of America for stealing their culture, stealing their children, and corrupting their families. So when I got up to speak, I said, “I hear a similar theme from all of you. You want your children to love you. You want your families to love you. You want the world around you to be more loving.” I pointed out that none of the other religions or philosophies offer love as a solution, but Jesus did and does today. He offers us a love that is kind and patient, that keeps no account of wrongs, that sets us free from constant turmoil and tribulations.

When I was a revolutionary, card-carrying Marxist, as I have noted elsewhere, many people said that they hated the other leaders in the movement. One reason I came to Jesus Christ, which was all His doing, was that He said that you will know they’re Christians by their love—not just love for their friends, but love for everyone, including their enemies. But this love is not just a smiley-face, leave-me-alone, dismissive attitude toward the other person. This is telling them the truth in love to set them free and listening to them to grow in grace. Like the old commercial for breath mints says, only your best friend will tell you that you have bad breath.

The fact of the matter is that I found love from my relationship with Jesus, and then wonderful relationships with others, including those I didn’t love.

All across the country now, there are revolutionary movements. Every day, MOVIEGUIDE® gets screenings for movies that hate one party or another. This hate is self-destructive. It will not bring a better world. We can’t force a better world, but we can offer the world true love, which is the ultimate power that transforms each of us into a better person who can then live in a world with better people motivated by the love of God.