It will usually never fail that in order to end a conversation rather quickly just mention the word “God.” Even though most people disdain anything “religious” it is amazing how much religious teachings they will absorb if put in the form of a motion picture. No matter how hard movie directors try to escape God’s Word, there are always Christian elements in their movies. Perhaps none is more blatantly religious in its theme than The Matrix.

The Matrix is about a computer hacker, Neo, who becomes savior of a world taken over by artificial intelligences, which were originally created by man. In the matrix, Neo works at Meta-Cortex and his name is Thomas A. Anderson.

Though many may think that The Matrix is about the dangers of computers taking over mankind, a deeper meaning is clearly revealed in the theme. The movie is highly symbolic and draws upon many sources such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and French sociologist and philosopher, Jean Baudrillard.

Neo actually keeps his computer disk in a chapter “On Nihilism” in Baudrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation which is about the perception of reality and simulations. Baudrillard’s idea of God was that religious icons are the source of God’s presence. When God is only felt through these icons it is probable, at best, that God even exists. The icon, or symbol, actually becomes omnipotent at this point in consciousness. However, the conscious battles with the simulacra so that at the end one comes to nihilism.

In Baudrillard’s frame of thinking God does not exist if His presence is not felt. The idea of God is a creation of mankind, who is seeking to fill the emptiness within. One of the characters says, “I was looking for an answer,” and it was then that she became enlightened about the Matrix. Once nihilism is embraced, separated from God and independent of His laws, the self creates his own reality as creator and god.

The Matrix is symbolic of sin that keeps the human race blinded about reality. “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Each person is “born into bondage...a prison, for your mind.” The illusion of the matrix is so we do not wake up to the realization of our slavery. It would seem that the machines then are Satan and his demons trying to deceive mankind concerning his true state of bondage.

Neo is the main character whose name means “new.” He mimics the true Savior by having both a death and resurrection. After his resurrection, the matrix (sin) no longer has dominion over him. This is in contrast to the reality of the Savior who died in history. Death and sin had no power over Christ. As Christ died for mankind, Neo dies to save the world. At the end, Neo determines to show the world the truth, just as Christ said He is the truth. Neo destroys Agent Smith and Christ destroyed evil. The world is set free from the bondage of the matrix, and Christ frees those who believe in Him from the bondage of sin.

Morpheus (the Greek god of dreams), whose ship is the Nebuchadnezzar (who had many dreams) is introduced as the father of “the resistance” against the matrix. His presence is almost of a Faustian sort. Two pills are presented to Neo, one blue and one red. If Neo takes the blue pill, “the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.” If Neo chooses the red pill he will “see how deep the rabbit hole goes.” It is here that the Carrollian journey begins.

At best, Trinity is supposed to symbolize faith. Cypher, which means “zero”, is the Judas figure who betrays the resistance and delivers Morpheus to the sentients so that for selfish reasons he can be reinserted into the matrix leaving him oblivious to what he now knows to be reality. Truly this is an intentional cacophony of religious elements.

There is even a Buddha-like child who is a potential savior. He teaches Neo that in order to bend a spoon with his mind he must realize that “there is no spoon.” The Oracle is some sort of deity who is able to reveal hidden knowledge. She is the one who can determine if Neo fulfills the prophecy of the man who would be reincarnated to destroy the matrix.

The Oracle teaches Neo to “know thyself” (Temes Nosce). She cannot tell Neo he is the savior; he must figure it out for himself and believe it, much like the characters in The Wizard of Oz. At one scene near the end, Morpheus becomes excited when Neo decides to fight one of the sentients. “He is beginning to believe,” Morpheus says. "Don’t think you are, know you are" is the advice given.

While all this eclectic mixing of eastern philosophy and postmodernism may excite the average viewer, the message of The Matrix has been around for centuries. It is the lie that permeates Hinduism, Buddhism, Mind Science, and Jungian psychology. That lie is the belief in the power of the mind.

Once mankind understands that all is illusion, then he can become enlightened. Through the power of his mind and the merging together of the collective unconscious man can manipulate his own reality. The Matrix challenges the viewer to look past the simulacra, the illusion, and perceive the real. It is then that he, as Neo, becomes his own savior.

However, the mixing of beliefs in The Matrix fails. Even in the illusion of the matrix one must still have a real world. It cannot be both ways though as The Matrix tries and inevitably fails to establish a syncretism.

The reality of this world and man’s destiny is clearly revealed in God’s Word. Man is not his own savior, but he is a condemned sinner in bondage to sin; as a result, man is spiritually dead. Jesus Christ is the savior who did not leave it up to people to see how they felt about Him in order to believe. Rather, He gave many signs proving, in fact, that He is God and Savior.

His death and resurrection is a historic fact. The man who thinks he will save himself is grievously deceived. It is only in trusting in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to atone for man’s sin that a repentant sinner can be released from the bondage of sin and experience eternal fellowship with his Creator.