Faster than a speeding bullet!
More powerful than a locomotive!
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!
“The idea that there is someone somewhere that you could be like, who is impervious to bullets; this is the great thing of imagination…”
Look up at the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
It’s Superman!
Yes! It’s Superman!
Fight the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.
Hello. I’m Ray Comfort. I was reading recently a claim that the makers of the original Superman movies based them on the life of Christ. The article said: “Superman and his father share the name El (Hebrew for God), and his earthly parents were originally named Mary and Joseph. Superman movies, TV shows and comics are built on parallels to Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and second coming.” That was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. If it’s true, it wouldn’t surprise me that it hasn’t before been made public knowledge.
The secular world is never excited about having God in the mix of anything. For example, you may be familiar with that famous saying of Abraham Lincoln, where he said: “We may deceive all the people sometimes, we may deceive some of the people all the time, but not all of the people all of the time.” They’re powerful thoughts, but did you know that’s not the whole quote? What he actually said was this: “We may deceive all the people sometimes, we may deceive some of the people all the time, but not all of the people all of the time, and not God at anytime.” Somehow the reference to God was dropped.
Did you know that the original word ‘goodbye’ actually comes from the words ‘God be with ye’? Somehow the reference to God was dropped. And did you know that the words ‘Good Friday’ were actually called ‘God’s Friday’? But mysteriously, once again the reference to God was removed.
We see the same thing happening in our culture today, where many people are passionately trying to remove any reference to God from the public forum, including the education of our children. It seems strange that they are being allowed to do so because 90% of Americans actually believe in the existence of God, and 87% want “under God” kept in the pledge of allegiance. So let’s go back to the question, was Superman based on the life of Christ?
Philip Shaft said of Jesus: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, Napoleon, without science and learning he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined. Without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet. Without writing a single line he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” Jesus certainly was unique.
Let me share something special with you. My mother was Jewish, so when I was born my mum and dad put ‘Methodist’ on my birth certificate. The reason they did that was because I was born after the Second World War, and they were afraid another holocaust would take place and I would be snapped up and killed. So I was given no religious instruction whatsoever. I ended up going to church I think three times in twenty years.
Three times! And each time I found it incredibly boring, except one time when I was about ten years old they brought around real wine during communion, and I remember it hitting the back of my throat, and getting a buzz from that, and was quite excited. I used to pray every night, but I didn’t really think about God until I was about eighteen years old.
I was into surfing; I mean I had the ideal lifestyle. My bedroom was about a hundred yards from the beach, and I could see the sea from my bedroom window. I even had my mother trained to pull a flag up on a flag pole above my bedroom so I could see when dinner was ready, and come in from my surfing.
It was just an incredible life that I had as a young person, and I remember one day I decided I would go surfing, so I said to my dog: “let’s go to the beach!” The dog went wild! It went running around in circles and just went nuts! So we went walking down the sidewalk towards the beach, and it ran ahead of me, so I called it’s name and said, “come back!” The dog took no notice, it was too excited! It ran out into the road, and suddenly I saw a car hit it; the body of the dog in my mind seemed to go in slow motion out the back of the car. I dropped my new surfboard on the sidewalk, ran out in the road without even looking (I could have been killed), picked up that little dog, and ran back to my home and sat at the end of our driveway. While I was sitting there nursing this dog with blood streaming out of it’s head and mouth, the driver of the car pulled up in front of me, he got up, walked across to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and burst into tears. It was a very traumatic experience, and I remember, that dog had to be put to sleep. That night I went to bed thinking about death, and the reality of death. I had no idea that 150,000 people die every 24 hours. I lost a dog, I was devastated, and it brought me to a point of thinking about things eternal, God, and the reason for existence.
I didn’t have much thought of that until I was married. By then I had my own home, and business (I had a surf shop), and Sue and I had been married about a year or so. I remember looking at her one night when she had gone to sleep; and as I looked at her lying on the bed, I began thinking: she could die at any moment through a car accident, cancer, or heart attack, and all my happiness bubble would be burst. It just didn’t seem to make sense, and I remember thinking as the tears streamed down my eyes – why? Why is it that we all have to die?
It was as though I was dancing through this field of beautiful flowers and green grass, when suddenly, baam! I hit this big black wall, and I backed up and this big black wall had DEATH written in blood across it. I thought; there has got to be a way through this wall, over it, or passed it! I looked to the left and there was a whole pile of dead doctors – medical science had no answer to death. I looked to my right, and science had no answer to death – big pile of dead scientists. I thought; well, it looks like I am going to have to wait around until I die.
Six months later I was on a surfing trip, and a young guy explained to me that the reason we die is because we have sinned against God. I remember reading the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, where He said: “ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery”, and I thought to myself, well, if there’s going to be a Day of Judgment, and God is going to judge me by the standard of the 10 Commandments; I’m fine, because I hadn’t committed adultery. But then He said: “but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (verses 27-28), and I thought, oh! If God has seen my thought life, if He considers lust to be adultery; I’m in BIG trouble on Judgment Day – I’m going to end up in Hell. And when I looked at the other Commandments: “Thou shalt not bear false witness”, “Thou shalt not steal”, I realised I had broken those. I hadn’t honoured my parents; I had broken all those Commandments (see Exodus 20). I hadn’t put God first – I lived a life of selfishness, not thinking about the God Who gave me all of the blessings that I had, and life itself.
I realised I would be guilty on Judgment Day, and this young guy explained to me that Jesus came to this earth; God in human form, Who suffered and died on the cross for me – taking my punishment upon Himself. I never understood that. I knew Jesus died on a cross, but I never understood the sin of the world was laid upon Him, that this was God in human form paying our fine so we could leave the courtroom. He was paying our fine in His life’s blood, and then He rose from the dead, and defeated death, and the Bible says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) All who repent and trust in Him receive forgiveness of sins, their case is dismissed, and God grants them everlasting life.
So I repented and put my trust in Jesus, and overnight I was made a brand new person – I came to know God. There was five of us on that surfing trip, as we drove up there we talked about things that guys normally talk about; back we came three days later – singing hymns! It was just an amazing transformation! I had total assurance that death had lost it’s sting, I had the gift of everlasting life!
The Bible says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Through His death and resurrection God provided a way for you to be forgiven, so you could receive the gift of everlasting life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Oh, please repent today! Just say, “Oh God I’m sorry!” You know when you have a fight with a loved one; a barrier comes between you two, and if one of you says: “I’m so sorry!” Suddenly the barrier breaks down and you have the intimacy again. Well, do that with God. Sin has created a barrier between you and God. Come to Him and say: “Oh God, please forgive me.” Be contrite; be sorry for your sins. Turn from them, and put your trust in Jesus – the source of life! Yield yourself to Him! Surrender! Give up the battle! Say: “God forgive me, I trust You Jesus with my soul, my eternal salvation”, and He will transform you. You will pass from death unto life, from darkness unto light. And if you don’t know how to do that, let me just tell you the sort of prayer you should pray, just say: “God forgive me, I’m a sinner! Jesus, thank you for dieing for me! Thank-you You rose again the third day, I surrender my life to You; I’ll read your Word daily and obey it, in Jesus name. Amen.” Then pick up a Bible (Authorized Version), read the gospel of John, and do what God says to you. You speak to God through prayer; He speaks to you through His Word. Don’t put it off till tomorrow, you may not be here tomorrow, remember 150,000 people die every 24 hours! Death could seize upon you today, and there is no second chance, there’s no purgatory, the law has no mercy. Mercy is only available in the Gospel, so call upon the mercy of God today!