FOLLOW UP ON THE BIBLE MINI SERIES

Dealing With Inaccuracies, The Theme and the Positives

This is a follow up to my post on Part 1 of the Bible Miniseries.

As I read everyone’s replies on the site and in on email, there is one obvious consensus, this series left out a lot of details and even had some inaccuracies, such as Lot’s captured being portrayed as a small disagreement between tribes when in fact the Bible states it involved battles between armies of 5 kings against another four. (Gen. 14: 1-11)

And one big glaring fact left out was in story of Sodom. The Bible clearly stated the men were wanting to rape the 2 angels and when Lot refuses, they even threatened they would do worse to him. (Gen 19: 1-11)

I know there’s a lot of people speculating they were trying to be politically correct here and though it appears it could be this way, I’ll wait to I hear their answer to why they decided to reword this scene. It would be disappointing if they were afraid to offend anyone because of this but even it that’s the case, I won’t it stop from watching the rest of it.

As I was doing some research into this, I came across something rather interesting in regard to Lot’s wife.

The Hebrew phrase for “looked back” means more than just turning her heard. It was more to look intently or turning back. It seems she may not have wanted to give up the sinful pleasures of that lifestyle and wasn’t just looking back to see what was happening but didn’t want to give up the sinful pleasures. “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:32-33).

The Story of Moses

I already knew way before watching this it would be a difficult story to do since you could probably do a 10 hour miniseries on this story alone!

So I know there this would be more of a fly by narration of this story but overall, they portrayed the theme of the story accurately.

The biggest ommision seems to be the pillar of fire protecting the Israelites in the Red Sea.

With all this being said, this series was never intended to be a word for word re-enactment of the Bible but to tell a story.

Look at it this way, if you were to take 20 people and ask them to tell you the story of Abraham, you would get 20 different versions but they would ( or should) all be on similar theme. You should understand the importance of the story and then start to seek out more info and have more questions.

Mark Burnett did say in an interview they had 2 choices. #1 – film most of the stories but in little detail or, #2 do less but spend more time telling those stories and bridge them together as to tell one big story.

The one big story or theme of this series is looking like God’s unfailing love for His people and His plan of redemption. It is the ultimate love story. It is Jesus Christ coming down in the flesh to sacrifice his life so we can have eternal life.

I also believe it is being used as an evangelistic outreach and getting Christians and non-Christians to open up their Bibles. Here are some quotes from others.

Rev. Gabriel Salguero, writing an editorial at the Wash. Post.

“The point here is that having the mini-series as a conversation opener in kitchens and board rooms across the nation need not be seen as a threat to pluralism or Scripture itself. The mini-series is a gift in that it calls those who wish to revisit or visit for the first time the stories of Scripture. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or agnostic this conversation is worth having. If the mediums of television, film, and theater have been used to engage the nation in topics like sexuality, war, violence and power why not the Bible?
One reason I am watching and supporting “The Bible” is because I know that television is often the nation’s number one form of consumption. I know there may be detractors who say but I don’t agree with the rendition in this scene or that. Some would say, “I would’ve done it differently.” That’s fine. But let’s not miss the proverbial forest for the trees. A major Hollywood couple invested their time, energy and gifts to get people talking about the Bible again. With all of the options that television has to offer, some quite toxic, why not an adaptation of the holy Bible? Again, it’s not claiming to be anything other than that. People all over the country right now may be reading their bibles for the first time. This is not a bad thing.”

And Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, writing on his blog.

“We’re living in a dark day when millions of people, including our neighbors and even many of our family and friends, refuse to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Many of these same people refuse to go to church. They refuse to open a Bible. But many of these people watch television. That The Bible may serve as a spark to rekindle or kindle their faith should be a source of great excitement for all of us. I hope people don’t lose sight of the big picture, that this series is designed to turn people to Jesus and to encourage them to dig deeper into their Bibles.”

Read more: http://www.bible-knowledge.com/follow-up-on-the-bible-mini-series/#ixzz2NCO5XHw4