Jim Fletcher Articles

Having never gone to see a movie on Christmas Day, I was very excited to see the new Sherlock Holmes film; Robert Downey Jr.’s performance as the London super-sleuth was too much of a pull for me. “Sherlock Holmes” was quite a satisfying escape.

Downey didn’t disappoint; neither did other actors, like Jude Law as a decidedly less-bumbling Dr. Watson than the one made famous by Nigel Bruce. Indeed, Law’s “Watson” was more super-hero than anything else.

Director Guy Ritchie’s combination of 19^th century London drabness, and “Wild, Wild West” filming made the experience a lot of fun.

Yet, as always, I could not get away from my biblical worldview, seeing everything through the lens of Scripture.

Holmes’ fascination with blending science and the apparently supernatural nature of his nemesis in the film (Lord Blackwood) made the script rather engaging. For the longest, it seemed that the supernatural plot elements would win-out, and Holmes would be forced to confront a world separated from ours by a mere curtain.

Coincidentally enough, the day before, a ministry friend showed me an email from a student. The student simply asked for proof that God exists.

I kept thinking about that question, while watching to see whether Sherlock Holmes’ rationalist mind could find evidence for a spirit world.

In the film, a group of powerful men practice pagan rituals and believe, apparently, in a rivalry between white magic and black magic. Lord Blackwood, the villain in the film, most definitely fit the latter profile.

I shouldn’t give away the game, and perhaps won’t, but suffice to say that in the end, Holmes almost effortlessly does away with the supernatural elements of the story. I found myself wondering, if this fictional character had indeed existed, how would he have viewed the spirit world at the end of his life?

We can do better than speculate, for it is Holmes’ real-life alter-ego, the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who provides the…clues.

Doyle had rejected Christianity to become an agnostic by the age of 16, and eventually became interested in spiritualism; he was interested to see if there was a scientific basis for an afterlife.

I thought of all this while the popcorn disappeared from the bag in the darkened theater. Surely Holmes/Doyle had also, many times, speculated on the existence of the Almighty.

I am constantly amazed to hear people discuss this subject, this universal need to know if the One who created us all does in fact exist!

And although many apologetics ministries today do not go near the subject, the answer to “Is there proof that God exists?” is found in the shockingly obvious answer, “Israel.”

Legend has it that the Queen of England — a contemporary of Doyles’ — once asked her physician for an answer to the previously stated question (the story has made the rounds over the years, alternately between various historical characters, but there’s at least a passing chance the Queen did in fact ask).

The good doctor blithely answered, “The Jews, ma’am, the Jews.”

This of course is the perfect answer to the question, and I am delighted that Israel exists as the Jewish state, on its ancestral, biblical land. This is in fulfillment of the many Old Testament prophecies that predict that in the last days of world history, the Jews will return from their Exile into many countries and form the one…Israel.

I’m not sure a rationalist like Sherlock Holmes could have been convinced. But it’s good enough for me,

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Originally published in One News Now, Prophecy Matters. December 28, 2009

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