Raiders of The Lost Ark as a religious movie

It can be easy to write off all the Indiana Jones movies as films where the sacred relic of the film is just a magical McGuffin and not at all about the religion the relic is supposed to be sacred to.

But when comparing Raiders to the others, it is apparent how the Jewish director of these films has far more actual reverence for the Ark's God then any others.  And this may be a factor in why this movie is still considered the best of the series.

Spielberg is also a fan of Cecil B Demille's The Ten Commandments, I've seen him refer to the parting of the Red Sea as the greatest special effect in film history.  Before it had it's own sequels I think Raiders was meant to kind of work as in continuity with that movie, it's approach to depicting the presence of YHWH is kind of similar.

What's also interesting is how our protagonist is the only character in the film who has no belief in the supernatural (this becomes a continuity issue later with Temple of Doom being supposedly a Prequel).  Even the villains believe in it in some capacity, the Nazis have no respect for the actual religion the Ark represents but still expect it to be a super-weapon for them.

This makes Raiders oddly similar to a lot of Evangelical Christian films, like the turn of the century End Times movies I've seen way too many of.  They tend to be movies where the main protagonist is a non believer for  most of the narrative, but still nominally a good guy even in this Fundamentalist universe because they don't approve of the totalitarian dictatorship.

The difference is Indiana Jones at the end does not say the sinner's prayer or repent of any sins or dedicate his life to YHWH, he doesn't even really show any actual Faith, he still doesn't believe until he actually sees stuff happening.  He and Marion are spared the Wrath of YWHW because they're not guilty of the sins of the Nazis.

My soterology is no longer the same as most American Evangelicals.  I believe Salvation is ultimately universal, and what Judgments God does carry out are not something you can get out of simply by believing in Him, in fact in many cases His Judgment will be harshest on Believers.

So Raiders of The Lost Ark manages to be quite unintentionally what these Evangelical non-believer finds God narratives should be.