Galaxy Quest: Never give up. Never surrender.

The catch phrase from Galaxy Quest is "Never give up. Never surrender."

This phrase was used many times during the "historical documents" (aka the TV shows).

A band of aliens, the Thermians, who are octopoidal creatures with technology that allows them to look human, have modeled their society based on the transmissions of the show.

Their leader, Mathasar, explains, "The past hundred years our society had fallen into disarray. Our goals, our values had become scattered. But since the transmission, we have modeled every aspect of our society from your example, and it has saved us. Your courage and teamwork, and friendship through adversity. In fact, all you see around you has been taken from the lessons garnered from the historical documents."

The stories told in these "historical documents" changed the future of a society.

Never give up! Never surrender!

Jesus, His Teachings, and Life Are REAL

In today's world many people believe that Jesus was as real as the "historical documents" of the Galaxy Quest crew.

People see Him as a good teacher and nothing more.

There are numerous references to Jesus as being the Christ outside of the New Testament.

Tacitus was a Roman Historian who wrote how Nero tried to redirect the responsibility for the Great Fire of Rome. "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."

A Jewish-Roman historian named Josephus included a reference to Jesus in his work, "Antiquities of the Jews".

Could Our Lives Radically Change A Society?

The Thermian society was radically changed by receiving the episodes of Galaxy Quest.

As Mathasar stated, "In the years since we first received transmission of your historical documents, we have studied every facet of your missions and strategies."

They studied the missions, the things that were done.

They studied the strategies, the reason why they did what they did.

When we look at the Book of Acts, we see how the earliest disciples radically changed how they lived their lives.

Luke writes to Theophilus not only about what they disciples did, but also explains why they did it. They were living out the teachings of Jesus.

Western civilization has been radically influenced by Christianity.

One problem however is that Christians now equate Western civilization with Christianity. They fail to see how far we have drifted as a society from the teachings of Jesus.

Another problem is that non-Christians equate Western civilization with Christianity. They assume that what Western civilization teaches and the values it has are the same as the teachings of Jesus. They are not.

What Are We To Do?

In the words of the NTE-3120 crew, "Never give up! Never surrender!"

Paul informs us in 1 Corinthians 6:19a "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? "

Remember 1 John 4:4, "Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

We need to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" as Jude 1:3 instructs.

If we want to change our world, take the advice found on the tomb of an Anglican bishop in the crypts of Westminster Abbey.

When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world.
As I grew older and wiser, I discovered that the world would not change. I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
But, that, too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me. But, alas, my family would have nothing of it.
And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realized: If only I had changed my self first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may even have changed the world.