We just saw Walt Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who made other favorite movies The Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure.

Description from IMDB.com: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.

Based on a video game

Turning back the clock a bit, Daniel tells of his first exposure to the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by Ubisoft and explains how impressed he was with the movie-like quality with which the game was promoted in this trailer. He finally got to play the game a in 2009 and had a lot of fun with it.  He was very excited to see that the game was being turned into a movie and had hopes that it wouldn’t follow the typical path of videos games made into movies.

We were entertained!

We both liked the soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is amazingly well done. Video games typically don’t make good movies, but this one is definitely enjoyable. It was well-directed, good special effects, great humor, and it had a good story with several positively reinforcing messages.

Destiny

Some lives are linked through time … Destiny

There are at least a couple perspectives on destiny presented in Prince of Persia—one is the idea that the “gods” have set your path and you can’t veer from it and the other is that you make your own destiny.

As Christians, we believe in the one true God, not multiple gods, so the constant reference to “gods” inPrince of Persia: The Sands of Time caught our attention.

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4–5, NASB)

Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:1–4, NASB)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time does show idol worship and multiple gods having power over man.

Eve discusses some of the historical allusions in the movie, including the sacking of a “holy city” like Jerusalem might have been in that era. It does appear that the story is alluding to the true king of Persia who expanded Persia’s borders to the extent of that shown in the movie. To read more about the actual history of the Persian empire at it’s greatest—the time that Israel was conquered and the prophet Daniel rose to great power, see Wikipedia’s article on Cyrus the Great. Another terrific irony is that Cyrus was rumored to have been killed when attacking a city that was ruled by a woman (Tomyris).

Adoption

The King Sharaman in The Sands of Time is presented as a good father, and he adopts a boy of the lowest blood into the royal family, and Dastan is treated just like a prince. This reminds us of the adoption into the body of Christ that we have as Christians.

to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,  (Ephesians 3:6, NASB)

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  (Romans 8:15, NASB)

Dastan was loyal to his adopted family. Even when the relationship is tested with betrayal, Dastan is able to get through to each of his brothers. The brothers did love him and were willing to listen.

One of the characters were referred to as “blessed by the creator.”

“Your gods, not mine”

Dastan and Tamina disagree on the authority of the gods in their lives.  The flip side of this is the relationship of Naomi and Ruth:

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. (Ruth 1:16, NASB)

Scripture also shows that even a casual denial of God is a complete rejection of Him.

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. (Matthew 12:30, NASB)

^‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. (Revelation 3:15–16, NASB)

We know that everything is in God’s hands, even when discussing “destiny,” because God is ultimately sovereign.

Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. (Ecclesiastes 6:10, NASB)

Taxes

The worst evil known to man is taxes! The comic relief in the movie is a Sheik who is maintaining a business tax-free from the governments. But Scripture does teach us the responsibility to support our government and pay taxes.

Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.  (Romans 13:7, NASB)

They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21, NASB; also Mark 12:17 and Luke 20:25)

God does not tell Christians to avoid our duty as good citizens.

Global … sandstorm?

Replace sandstorm with global flood and you almost have Genesis 6.  It is an interesting myth that has such a strong parallel with Scripture—perhaps the script writers read their Bible.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5–8, NASB)

To hear more discussion on the global flood, go back and listen to episode 15.

The huge difference between the The Sands of Time and the biblical account is that the flood actually did happen, and God promised to never destroy earth with a flood again (Genesis 8:21 and 9:11).

Pure in heart

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time presents earth’s salvation from the sandstorm as the purity of heart of the one woman who pleaded to the gods to stop the storm. This contradicts what the Bible says about the condition of the heart of man.

“The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick; [KJV and NKJV: desperately wicked]
Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9, NASB)

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. (Ecclesiastes 9:3, NASB)

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. (Mark 7:21–22, NASB)

Corrupting the guardians

The Guardians of the sand hourglass are shown to be corrupted and this is a warning of how the body of Christ can be infiltrated.  As Christians, we must always beware false teachers who might distort Scripture.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (2 Peter 2:1, NASB)

“Everything changes with time”

The Sands of Time is about … time! This stood out as being a very particular reference to an evolutionary worldview.

What did you think?

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