I have been seeing all kinds of advertisements about the
History Channel showing a new series called “The Bible”. My immediate reaction
was one of great skepticism. The reason for my opinion is built on my past
experience with the History Channel and the accuracy in which they handle God’s
Word.
Point in case, I used a video from the local library,
produced by the History Channel, on Sodom and Gomorrah to show how modern
culture will change or omit things from the Bible in order to prove their own
point. I chose the video for inaccuracies and omissions. The video not only
omitted the homosexual issue from the story, but also theorized that one
possibility for the destruction of the great city could have been caused by
aliens!
What puzzles me the most is the folks and entities that are
promoting the mini-series. If it is not
accurate should we promote such a thing? For a fundamental disciple of Jesus, I
would think this concept is a “no brainer”. “Don’t take part in anything that
detracts from the Truth.” Jesus is the Truth! Yet so called Christians
and Christian entities are promoting the event for the History Channel. To
promote is to condone. I suspected the leopard would not change its stripes.
It just so happened that I was in a place to view the much
hailed show. I watched to see if I was wrong. Sadly, I was not. In the 10
minutes I watched of the show the Biblical story was greatly altered. They made
the story so fantastic that it was unbelievable…like something out of a movie.
The part I watched was, again, concerning Sodom. The angels
that lead Lot (and his family) out of Sodom looked and acted like swordsmen
from the movie “300”. This could have been applied to David and his mighty men,
but not here. I guess the story wasn’t exciting enough by itself.
We are already having
a difficult time with getting the world to “believe” the Bible as it is written.
The History Channel isn’t doing us any favors by deviating from the accurate
history of the story and taking extreme liberty in artistic interpretation. I
believe this is known as distorting the truth. God is Truth. Truth is God. If this is the view of God that we are
promoting, no wonder people have a “distorted” view of God.
So, when it comes to Truth, it is an “all or nothing”
concept. To tell the truth you must give it all and give it “all”
accurately…cause even my kids know what a half truth is. In conclusion, I
believe that to promote this television event is to promote half truths about
the Bible. Why would anyone do that? I believe that some think that getting
“some of the Bible” on TV is better than getting “none of Bible” on the TV.
This is totally wrong…because a half truth is still a lie…and my God doesn’t
deal in lies. How can we participate in leading others to this conclusion?
At times…I feel…we are our own worst enemies!
4 comments:
Thanks, Eric. I was telling my friend Dee these very things today. I am VERY disappointed in this show. Won't bother to watch the rest. I think the British accent on Pharoah AND the arrogant evil looking Moses did it for me. :)
Hmmm....I was just reminded of the series by pastor and wife tonight. I was hoping it would actually be a positive event. Disappointing, but not surprising!
It is bad enough when integrity in reporting, regardless the format, is now nearly extinct, and yet should I expect truth from the world? Troubling as all this is, I am even more intensely grieved by this new generation (boy, did that make me sound like a geezer) of YouTube spiritual advisers, such Rob Bell, who think themselves smarter than God and wiser than His word, infecting the minds of less discerning Christians who want their spirituality and the world too -- don't confuse me with the eternal truth of Scripture...I need "relevance".
I'm always intrigued when anyone talks about "truth." Pilate said it best, "What is truth?"
Is the bible one book, or many books written over hundreds of years bundled into one book? Does it have one author or dozens of authors and editors; each from different cultural and historical perspectives, and united by the cohesive ideal of trying to understand their lives in relation to God across history?
If the former is true, then Eric, Brian, you are truly correct in your assertion that there is but one truth in the bible; and that any room for different interpretation of the scriptures is to error away from truth.
If the latter is true, then my friends you are mistaken. Because for the latter to be true, different people from different places in the world and through history would be able to interpret scripture as the spirit drives them, or as they drive themselves. This would lend to people everywhere reading, studying, and interpreting scripture, and spending decades arguing about what it means and what it means to them.
Point in case being: if we present the bible as one truth, do we limit or narrow our perspective (and therefore our learning and understanding)? Is the rest of the world a lie? That life experience, conventional wisdom, are they lies because they are outside of a singular truth? Or are there many truths in the world and in life, and if Christ is truth, could he be considered are sieve or a unifying factor in the identification of truth?
If we explore Taoism and the Tao ("The Way" in Chinese) we see parallels between Jesus' teachings and those of Lao Tze, is it no great irony that Jesus calls himself "The Way."? If we explore Buddhism, how hard is it for a Buddhist to understand that Jesus was a great Buddha, perhaps rivaling Siddhartha Gautama himself. In fact, Gautama left it open ended as to whether there was a God or not. He simply stated that his mission was to address suffering in life. Who better personifies what it means to suffer other than Jesus? What about Hindu’s? Could Jesus have been a master Guru, or perhaps another incarnation of Krshna? There are hundreds of ways Jesus can be used as truth to connect to other people to enhance their lives and understanding of life.
There are many truths to be found in life, and many of them are intertwined with Jesus teachings. There are countless perspectives and backgrounds in the world and within “Christianity.” There are hundreds of ways to interpret scripture. Jewish Rabbi’s have mastered this; and Jews are afforded the privilege of choosing the interpretation of the Rabbi they like best. We have chosen one particular Rabbi, Jesus, and we love his interpretation of scripture. However, we can still interpret scripture our own way, and even his teachings and those of his followers. We have that freedom, if God’s word could be comprehended and interpreted one way by one set of people for all time, not only would it be extremely unpopular, but its followers would question the validity of a God who could be comprehended or understood. In fact, the Tao Te Ching tells us that “The way that can be comprehended is not the true way.” I believe that. If you could comprehend God, or his word, the recorded relationship of a people and their attempts to understand and respond to God, if you could comprehend that as a singular truth, it wouldn’t be truth.
With regard to your perspectives on the history channel: if you don’t like it, you have the freedom to not watch it and to complain about it. That’s your perspective. However, you can’t force other people to watch it or not watch it. Personally, I think it’s another cheap “Christian” movie. It’s a step above a lot of the garbage that we call, “Christian” movies, but it’s still under par. I would encourage people to watch it for themselves and decide how they feel about it.
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