The Guardian: "History Channel's The Bible series is worse than reality TV"

The British newspaper The Guardian has a US edition. Here is one reviewer's assessment:

"The scriptures according to basic cable make a mockery of history and religion. Surely all these viewers deserve better"

Couldn't have said it better myself! Some good quotes from the review:

"The History Channel more or less abandoned the pretext of history years ago. As programs like "UFO Hunters", "Swamp People" and "Hairy Bikers" added up, the network's decision to broadcast The Bible as a mini-series seemed like an obvious disaster. It is, too, in all ways except one: ratings."

I never thought I'd see the following in one sentence together: "UFO Hunters", "Swamp People", "Hairy Bikers", "The Bible". It's like a bad 'which one of these doesn't belong?'

"Bubonic plague.....Dismemberment.....Infanticide.....Puppies"
Uh, plague?


To continue- "The sum is bland, erratic, and would be incoherent if it weren't somewhat familiar material. The Wire this is not."

"Nobody expected art – or even history – from the History Channel, but the producers veered so far in the opposite direction that they erased all the personality and depth of the source, not to mention heart or wit. The History Channel has given us the Bible as reality TV. The result amounts to little more than an exploitation of faith."

What have I been saying?!?! --

"and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; (make merchandise of you KJV) their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." (2 Peter 2:3)

Comments

  1. If only one person became saved and a follower of Christ because of the Bible series, is the series still worse than reality tv and should not be on the air?

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    1. Yes, the person is worse off.

      Let’s unpack your comment a bit. You said “If only one person is saved…” let’s discuss what that means. Salvation is from hearing the Gospel (Romans 10:17). The Gospel in the television series is errantly presented and also weakly presented. For example, the “Jesus” actor said at the Last Supper that he is the way, the truth, and the life…but the series creators left off the last part: no one comes to the Father but by Me.” He did not mention as in Matthew 23 that the blood and bread was for forgiveness of sins. here is much more that has been left off and changed.

      So if a salvation occurs that’s based on errant presentation of the Gospel, it is no salvation at all. (Also Gal 3:2)

      Please consider this:
      "And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” (“1 Thessalonians 2:13)

      The meaning here is that if they come to believe based on man-made words, that word is NOT at work in them. And “heard from us” means hearing from His sanctified ambassadors, not pagans who don’t know Christ.

      Secondly, Paul experienced a vexing situation when a demon-possessed slave girl was pronouncing truth.

      “She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. (Acts 16:17-18).

      Was there anything wrong with what she said? No. It was true. So why was Paul vexed? Because God doesn’t need free advertising from satan. And that is the bible series. Even IF the series creators made everything perfectly consistent with the bible, they themselves are not saved. They are not of Christ, therefore they are of satan and have an antichrist spirit. God does not need satan’s help in getting the word out.

      Therefore, it is worse for them all because if they “come to salvation” based on a lie, they are worse off than before because they believe they are saved, but are not!

      Last, God doesn’t use stuff like this. It is not a matter of what He CAN do but of what he has promised to do. He promised to deliver salvation to those who hear the Gospel, repent and believe.

      Romans 10:14-15 says "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

      Did you see that progression there? Those who believe, believe after God sends someone to preach the Good News. God didn’t send those who made up The Bible series, because He would not send someone who preaches falsely. If He didn't send them, it is a man-made word, and we're back to 1 Thess 2:13.

      And for all the people who said, well it is a ‘hook’ to get people interested in the word. No it is not. There is now a book based on “The Bible.” THAT is what people will read. See? Things go from bad to worse. "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor 2:14). So all those people who think they are interested and maybe even saved, will read the book based on the bible rather than THE bible, because they are still the natural man and cannot understand the Word, because it is spiritually discerned. And all along they believe they are doing something good when it is not good.

      So for all those reasons, no, it is bad that the series is on and bad for those who think they are saved after watching it. I wish it had never aired.

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    2. Note, also, that if someone watches this documentary and is then provoked to go read the Bible, and they use online resources like GotQuestions.org and Gty.org and in reading the Scriptures they come to a saving faith, then the Bible series on tv doesn't get the credit for that. What -actually- caused them to believe was the Bible and these other resources.

      So in summary, even when people come to TRUE faith subsequent to seeing the film, it is not BECAUSE of the film, because there is nothing in the film that can make anyone wise to salvation. So the film is still useless in every way, no matter what "good" APPEARS to come out of it -- when in fact no good actually does.

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    3. So if a person watches the show and it sparks interest and that person then pursues better sources to understand what it means to be saved and a Christian, then we should just totally disregard the fact that they might have first heard of God and Christianity from the TV show? Irregardless of if the show is accurate or not, my main point is that if it got someone to pursue finding the truth, God and eventually become a Christian, then that is amazing. A person's journey to faith and Christianity is made up of notjust one person or event but it has to start somewhere and if that started with the show, how is anyone to deny that?

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    4. So I see you missed the point entirely... God doesn't use falsity to point them to truth.

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    5. "then we should just totally disregard the fact that they might have first heard of God and Christianity from the TV show?"

      What good does that do them?
      Answer: None.

      The Bible makes it very clear that a) simply knowing -about- God is not enough (James 2), and b) everyone knows that God exists already (Romans 1) and doesn't need to be told by a television program.

      It's not sufficient to bring the knowledge of salvation to them. That's the bottom line. Why should anything be credited as playing a role in bringing someone to salvation if it didn't actually have the capacity to bring them to salvation on its own? My answer is: it shouldn't be.

      No one denies that human life is a continuum. But no one credits their birth as being a milestone that led to their salvation. Your argument is more than a little silly. Just because something happened *before* something else, does not make it *responsible* for the event occurring.

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    6. I don't think it is silly to think like I do. Bottom line, my arguement is not against whether the TV show is right/wrong/factual/not factual. If someone became a true believer in Christ and choose to accept Him into his/her heart, WE as CHRISTIANS should be ecstatic!!! No matter how or what led them down the road to being a follower. That's the main point I keep trying to say. I could be wrong, but to me, it seems like the replies to my comments have been negative and it seems like they think it is a bad thing if a person came to be a Christian because of a TV show that sparked interest.

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  2. Amen Elizabeth, well put! God never uses utilitarian ways to preach the Gospel.

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  3. Amen, Linda. God doesn't need to use the works of those involved in the New Age. Because they are of the natural and do not understand the things of the Spirit, what could their best efforts produce?? They are sincere in their efforts, but they are sincerely WRONG!!!

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  4. Why do you guys even say Amen when you are actually honoring Amun Ra everytime you say that..If you mean "so be it" it should be Ameen not Amen...Everytime you use that it is insulting Christianity which has already been highly idolized on Egyptian and greek gods. The real christian almost perished during the dark ages

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    1. Not really, Anonymous. Has nothing to do with Egyptian god.

      It's really amen. The Hebrew word translated “amen” literally means “truly” or “so be it.”
      "Why do we end our prayers with ‘Amen’?"
      http://www.gotquestions.org/amen.html

      Almost perished? Key word: almost. God preserves His remnant. Always.

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