The 2016 film “Silence” is a questioning of religion.
The answer to that questioning is laid out in the book “The Laws of Mission” by the founder of Happy Science, Master Ryuho Okawa.

 
“Does God exist?” “What is the meaning of faith?”

The film “Silence” released in December 2016 (USA), is filled with questions like this. It is based on a novel of the same name by the Japanese author Shusaku Endo, which depicts the persecution of Japanese Roman Catholics during the Edo period.

The story follows two Jesuit priests from Portugal who witnesses brutal executions and torturing of Christians who continue to question why God does not answer their prayers to save them.

This dark drama unfolds on a huge screen with characters played by award-winning actors.

While it is true that the film makes the audience think about how important faith is to Christians, the film only depicts the suffering and deaths of the believers and priests. It leaves the impression that faith brings unhappiness.

Scorsese’s Inner Darkness

Soon after the film was released in Japanese cinemas, the guardian spirit of the film’s director, Martin Scorsese, appeared before Master Okawa. A guardian spirit is a person’s subconscious, and usually speaks the person’s true intentions.

It came to light that Scorsese’s guardian spirit holds a negative view of religion, saying, “Faith is pretty much a delusion and a fanaticism.”

Two days later, Master Okawa made a formal recording of the messages of Scorsese’s guardian spirit to ask him about his views on religion and faith. Once again, Scorsese’s guardian spirit said, “If religious beliefs result in great losses, then it’s better not to believe in anything.” When asked whether religion is spreading the truth, his answer was always “I don’t know”.

The director’s views on religion may be the reason why the film leaves a sickening impression.

People who Heard God’s Voice

The central theme of this film is as the title suggests: “is God silent?” The film itself offers no answer, but from a religious perspective, the answer is obvious. Those religious leaders who risked their lives for their beliefs are, without mistake, people who heard the voice of God.

The first person to come to mind is Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. The Jews executed him for declaring himself a Messiah, but his teachings became a world religion that has guided people for over 2000 years.

Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” God spoke to him from within his soul.

Human rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., well known for his speech “I have a dream”, put into writing the moment God spoke to him. He was assassinated during his battle against racism in the U.S., but his dream later became the dream of many people, and eventually became a reality.

When he was being threatened that his family would be killed if he did not stop his activities, ready to give everything up he prayed to God. He writes:

“At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: “Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

The Meaning Behind Tragedy

There are very few people who can hear God’s voice to the extent that King Jr. did. The rest of us can only accept and believe in the words of the saviours and prophets who could hear God’s voice directly.

Believing always brings results, but we cannot judge whether the result is happy or unhappy just by looking on the surface.

In a spiritual message by Master Okawa, the spirit of Jesus Christ spoke about his execution this way:

“I thought that if it was the voice of God, I must accept . . . but I cannot deny holding feelings of regret.”
“It is wrong to judge the ‘truth and falsehood’ or ‘good and evil’ of something based on whether you ‘can or cannot understand’ it.”

 
We can surely find parallels in our own lives. Life always comes with difficulties and suffering: family conflicts, deadlocks at work, illness and injury, death of a loved one, to name just a few. Like in Scorsese’s film, we are often placed in situations where we begin to ask: “if God exists, then why do we suffer so much?”

But there is always a reason behind our difficulties and suffering, and not all of them are obvious to us while we’re still alive. It will all become clear in the afterlife. Religion teaches us the meaning of life and the existence of the afterlife; not only Christianity but also Islam, Buddhism, and many other religions teach us how to live a good life in different forms.

God Is Not Silent

Now, Master Ryuho Okawa is on earth with the grand mission of the salvation of all humankind. All of his lectures and spiritual messages from high spirits are for this sole purpose.

The teachings span from how the Creator created this world, to how to attain happiness in both this world and the next, and much more. His 700 spiritual messages reveal what happens to people in the afterlife after they lead a particular life on earth, and why great people were born at certain moments in history.

They bring to light the spiritual truths and divine mechanisms that make up this world.

Master Okawa is the author of over 2100 books and he has given over 2500 lectures. This is the voice of God. God is not silent at all.

In “The Laws of Mission”, Master Okawa said:

 
We now live in a miraculous ‘once-in-a-millennium’ age.