The Good Place is a show on NBC, it has completed two seasons. Season one is also on Netflix. I will keep the spoilers to a minimum here, but if you want to watch the show with fresh eyes, then move it along, there is nothing to see here.
The theology of The Good Place is very simple. The show gets it name from the place where good people go and there is also a bad place, where bad people go. Ted Danson plays an immortal being named Michael. During the initial interview with people who have recently died, Michael explains that there is only one person in the history of the world who figured out how the afterlife works. This person was taking many drugs and very high and figures it out.
This is the most important part of The Good Place’s theology. It is a secret. In this system, there is no revelation, there is no prophet, there is no minister telling the world what is to come. People need to stumble into the Good Place or the Bad Place without knowing what they are doing or how they got there.
Michael reveals during the orientation that the afterlife works on a point system. When people do good things they earn positive points. When people do bad things, they earn negative points. More positive points than negative points when a person dies and they go to the Good Place otherwise they go to the Bad Place. One issue is that the show never addresses is different cultures will consider different actions good. For example, a good Assyrian slaughtered people and took their daughters as slave wives. It seems from the examples given, that this would be considered bad, but the ancient Assyrian would disagree. Therefore, with no revelation of eternally good and eternally bad actions, it must seem very random to everyone where they end up. It is clear from the show that everyone believes they deserve the Good Place.
The Good Place is a nice place to live where people get their lives fulfilled, it seems. The Bad Place is a place of eternal, physical torture. Therefore, if I am going to burned alive for all eternity, I might like to know the rules of the game before I die.
The show also confuses the terms eternal and immortal. Eternal means no beginning and no end. Immortal means the person will not die. Michael and the thousands of others running the afterlife call themselves eternal, but then talk about when they were created. There does not seem to be a “most high” God running the show. The afterlife seems to be run by many, many committees who disagree on any things.
Reality is much better than the show The Good Place. God is very clear and precise as to what has to be done to go to the Good Place, which is called heaven in the Bible. He has also explained in detail what must be done to go to the Bad Place which is hell or the lake of fire. The Good Place is a show about an afterlife based on works. The One True God has created a system where we are saved by grace, through faith. Even the ancient Assyrian can be saved by grace. All who are saved by grace will live for eternity in immortality in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The theology of The Good Place is very simple. The show gets it name from the place where good people go and there is also a bad place, where bad people go. Ted Danson plays an immortal being named Michael. During the initial interview with people who have recently died, Michael explains that there is only one person in the history of the world who figured out how the afterlife works. This person was taking many drugs and very high and figures it out.
This is the most important part of The Good Place’s theology. It is a secret. In this system, there is no revelation, there is no prophet, there is no minister telling the world what is to come. People need to stumble into the Good Place or the Bad Place without knowing what they are doing or how they got there.
Michael reveals during the orientation that the afterlife works on a point system. When people do good things they earn positive points. When people do bad things, they earn negative points. More positive points than negative points when a person dies and they go to the Good Place otherwise they go to the Bad Place. One issue is that the show never addresses is different cultures will consider different actions good. For example, a good Assyrian slaughtered people and took their daughters as slave wives. It seems from the examples given, that this would be considered bad, but the ancient Assyrian would disagree. Therefore, with no revelation of eternally good and eternally bad actions, it must seem very random to everyone where they end up. It is clear from the show that everyone believes they deserve the Good Place.The Good Place is a nice place to live where people get their lives fulfilled, it seems. The Bad Place is a place of eternal, physical torture. Therefore, if I am going to burned alive for all eternity, I might like to know the rules of the game before I die.
The show also confuses the terms eternal and immortal. Eternal means no beginning and no end. Immortal means the person will not die. Michael and the thousands of others running the afterlife call themselves eternal, but then talk about when they were created. There does not seem to be a “most high” God running the show. The afterlife seems to be run by many, many committees who disagree on any things.
Reality is much better than the show The Good Place. God is very clear and precise as to what has to be done to go to the Good Place, which is called heaven in the Bible. He has also explained in detail what must be done to go to the Bad Place which is hell or the lake of fire. The Good Place is a show about an afterlife based on works. The One True God has created a system where we are saved by grace, through faith. Even the ancient Assyrian can be saved by grace. All who are saved by grace will live for eternity in immortality in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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