Biography: Confucius

Movie Review: A&E's Biography: Confucius

The reason I am doing a review on this particular movie is because, as a Bible reading Christian, three verses popped out at me that made me wonder if people who had never heard of Jesus Christ or hadn't been exposed to anything about the Law of Moses in their lifetimes could have had the Spirit of Christ Jesus in them, and therefore be saved on judgment day. Here are the verses:

Rom 2:13 For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in His sight.

Rom 2:14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, show that they know His law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.

Rom 2:15 They demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

Now what I am saying about this has nothing to do with anyone in this day and age, because the word of God has reached every corner of the globe. Thus anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as the LORD and obey him will not find themselves in a happy position when judgment day comes.

Joh 3:16-21 "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. "

Nor can anyone teach Jesus' teachings and deny Jesus as Messiah and LORD and be saved. I at one time thought that perhaps if a person rejected Jesus Christ, and yet did good works, he would be saved, but it turns out that if anyone does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as LORD (YHWH), and do as he teaches, they will not be given the Holy Spirit and their works will be surrounded around their flesh. It is impossible to overcome the flesh without the Holy Spirit, and it is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit without acknowledging Jesus Christ as LORD and simultaneously doing what he teaches.

Joh 10:1-18 "I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won't follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don't know his voice." 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what He meant, 7 so He explained it to them: "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before Me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through Me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices His life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. 14 "I am the good shepherd; I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 15 just as My Father knows Me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. 17 "The Father loves Me because I sacrifice My life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take My life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what My Father has commanded."

Joh 14:6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.

Joh 14:22-24 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to Him, "Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself only to us and not to the world at large?" 23 Jesus replied, "All who love Me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and We will come and make Our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn't love Me will not obey Me. And remember, My words are not My own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent Me.

Rom 7:22-8:9 I love God's law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. 5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. 8 That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.)

Another concern I had is the judgment of those in the great white throne judgment, as seen in the book of Revelation:

Rev 20:11-15 And I saw a great white throne and the One sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

I personally believe that Confucius will be in that Judgment, and will be judged right and given life-everlasting. With that said, we can return to the Movie review at hand.

Confucius' road to wisdom was a trail of tears. He once concluded about mankind:

" Man is the greatest of all that Heaven has produced, and Heaven's purpose is contained in our nature."

Sho-yung-ho was a great warrior, very loyal, strong, tall, and ugly. He was appointed governor of the city of Qufu, in the Chinese State of Lu, where he settled down and had nine daughters and a crippled boy. He longed for a healthy son, and at seventy he took a young sixteen year old girl named Chang Chi. She conceived and gave birth to a boy around the year 551 B.C.E. The Baby was huge and ugly with a crooked head. He was given the name Chew and later named Kung-fu-tzu. Kung was his father's ancestral name. His father died three years after his birth. The first two wives would not share the wealth of Sho-yung-ho's inheritance and forced the young mother and her son out of their town. (The name Confucius comes from Christian missionaries 21 centuries later.) Confucius had to work to take care of his mother but he also loved to learn. As a child, he was ugly and strange looking, and few children would play with him. His mother pushed him to learn as much as he could, although they lived in poverty. In order to keep himself occupied he invented his own games with clay figures he made himself. In his teen years he studied all the Ancient poets and writers. He was relentless in his studies and in the improvement of his character. He once said:

"Only when the coffin is nailed shut, should we stop learning."

He married a young girl named Qwi-qwan at nineteen, and she had their first child Kong Li when he was twenty. At the age of twenty-three, his mother died, the only person who truly loved him. He buried her near his father's grave. Confucius would convert life's bitter punishing blows into powerful unforgettable lessons. Years later he would proclaim that noble deeds, not noble birth, bestowed upon a man and a families love was a greater gift than gold. He was likely six feet five inches tall, and as ugly as his father. A noble family gave Confucius a job over their granaries, but by the age of 30 Confucius became bored with his job. He was also having marital problems. He dreamt of becoming a minister of state ending corruption and bloodshed, and restoring peace to the land. Many others wanted to just drop out and live as hermits, but Confucius felt that he could not herd with birds and beasts, but was human and should be with humans, he was an activist. He did lots of study in history and in the writings of the ancient poets when he finally proclaimed a radical idea! Distinctions between classes disappear if people are educated. Education was the meaning of life. He started his own school, and said the following:

"If the sons of emperors and princes are without quality, they should be reduced to the ranks of the common people. If the sons of the common people have quality, they should be elevated to the ranks of the rulers.

The school of Confucius taught a mixture of rich students and the poor students, whom all meet as equals, forgetting their class distinctions. They forged a new bond with a shared yearning for justice and truth. With a burning conviction burned in his heart by his own difficult youth, Confucius urged his students to become what he called "Superior men", an aristocracy of noble character, rather than noble birth.

"Anyone can become a superior man, it is only necessary to decide to be one."

But that necessary condition wasn't a sufficient one, for Confucius demanded absolute honesty, rigorous self-control, and unyielding virtue, for those who followed him.

"A superior man thinks of what is right, a simple man thinks of what is profitable, a superior man demands much of himself, a small man demands much of others, a superior man accepts his lot to come, a small man is full of complaints"

Confucius grew far apart from his family and became more devoted to his students. Year after year he sought after a government position, and year after year he was given honors, but not power. At the age of fifty a young ruler, the Duke of Lu, begged Confucius to be his adviser and he made him governor of Lu. Today some of Confucius' reforms seem bizarre, such as his decree that men and women must walk on opposite sides of the street, but others seem remarkably farsighted, such as his order that the poor young children and the elderly be feed at state expense. He was centuries ahead of his time.

"Anyone can judge a case as well as I, what I would like to do is to correct such conditions that bring such cases about."

He somehow developed a vision of teaching others how to be a righteous and perfect people, as a series of concentric circles. You start with the person, then the family, then to the neighborhood, then to the society, the nation, and then to the world and beyond.

"From the loving example of one family, love radiates to the state, its kindness becomes the kindness of society."

Confucius put forth an idea of humility and kind-heartedness, he said:

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

"You should give knowledge and education to the common people instead of ignoring or subjugating them."

While he governed Lu, the streets were safe, crime virtually disappeared, merchants no longer cheated their customers. During this time his face shown with joy, his dream of saving China became a reality. But his successes and his radical ideas were making him dangerous enemies. Fearing his power, the three families of the surrounding cities united against Confucius. They realized that he was a dangerous reformer who had to be stopped. They put their heads together and hatched a simply seductive plot, they searched their dominion for the three most beautiful women in the region and gave them as a gift, not to Confucius, but to Duke Dain, and just as his conspirators hoped, Duke Dain spent his days and nights with the entrancing gift his enemies gave him. Shortly thereafter, Confucius' reforms were forgotten. Stunned and humiliated, Confucius lead his disciples away from Lu. They say as he left his home, he sang a mournful song:

"Women's songs have foiled me, and women's smiles despoiled me. O woe, wondering until life's end."

Confucius searched for a prince to take on his reforms, he was fifty-four years old when he left his home, and he wondered the length and breath of china in his search for thirteen years. Over his journeys his disciples and he witnessed the terrible suffering of the peasants crushed by taxes, neglected by their rulers, and slaughtered by invading armies. On one occasion he meet a woman whose son and husband were both eaten by a tiger. So Confucius' disciples asked the woman why she didn't move away to another town, safe from this man-eating tiger? The the woman replied: "If I move away, I might find a more oppressive government." Confucius replied:

"This is so true, an oppressive government is much worse than a man-eating tiger."

His heart was with the people but his head kept him in the company of rulers. Confucius believed that if he could influence the nobility, the virtue of the rulers would radiate out to the people, as if a contagious virus. No one would buy his teachings, they were interested in enjoying themselves as much as they could in their private lives and they were trying to expand their territory and power as much as they could. Ruler after ruler listened to Confucius, and ruler after ruler dismissed him. Instead he found resentment and hostility. Some say that it was Confucius' lack of tact that caused his failure. During his travels, Confucius meet another renowned philosopher, the mystic Lao-tzu, the founder of Daoism (also know as Taoism). Lao-tzu warned him about speaking his mind, he said: "Your intelligence allows you to evaluate people critically, and because of this you bring danger upon yourself." Lao-tzu was correct in what he said, because Confucius made many enemies where his life was in great danger. He was almost killed by a ruler who vowed to kill him. Most of the elect just ignored him which was just as bad.

After thirteen years of wandering China, Confucius got news that one of his disciples had become a powerful ruler in Lu, his home town. This ruler persuaded Confucius to come back home to Chew-fu in Lu. When he returned the ruling warriors in Lu asked him for advice. One asked him how to get honest officials, Confucius' answer was painfully blunt:

"Be honest yourself."

They would not honor him with a place of power. In his old age his students were his true family and his hearts delight. Only seventy-two of his disciples were his truly dedicated ones. Over the years one of his disciples become his favorite, named Young-wae. Confucius said of him, that Young-wae was always happy, even though he was so poor, and lived in a very narrow ally, he was always content. Contentment in poverty and love of learning were the two virtues Confucius singled out in Young-wae. Confucius felt that Young-wee would carry on his work, but at the age of forty-one, Young-wea fell ill and died. Young-wae's death was to much for Confucius, he broke down and wept, he said:

"Now I know that the will of the heavens has its own will."

Confucius' last words were a bitter plea:

"Will no ruler come forward and take me as his master?"

Confucius died perceiving himself a failure, and not having much influence on China. However Confucianism has become the dominate mold and philosophy of the surrounding regions for many centuries. Confucius wrote down very little of his philosophies, but his disciples remembered what he taught and wrote it down. Confucius believed that the human heart could improve itself, in his last years he said:

"At the age of fifteen, I set my heart on learning, at forty I knew exactly where I was going, at sixty I could bow to immovable truth, at seventy I could follow my heart's desire and never transgress what is right."