THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE MINI SERIES - PART 1

It appears the Bible mini-series exceeding all expectations and actually out pulled CBS 60 minutes in drawing more viewers, 13.1 million to 11.95 million. Now that is simple phenomenal, especially since this is on the History channel. It’s rare to see a cable show outperform a major network show. Praise the Lord!

Here are some numbers via the Blaze.

• 13.1 million watched the premiere episode of the miniseries (14.8 million total viewers in the two airings)
• 4.6 million adults (25-54) tuned in, beating everything the big four networks offered in prime time
• The number one cable entertainment telecast of the year.
• The Bible was #1 trending term on Twitter leading up to the show
• History.com’s biggest day ever

To no one’s surprise, it appears the liberal writers were not  impressed with the first episode but from what I read from the Christian community, it appears this was a big hit.

There were some complaints of leaving out some facts due to time contraints in telling the stories or adding in things, such as Sarah finding out Abraham was going to offer Isaac as a sacrifice when the Bible doesn’t give any details on that.

The 2 people behind it, Roma Downey and her husband, Mark Burnett have both been outspoken in trying to get more people to increase their Bible literacy and get people motivated to get into the Bible themselves.

We should never expect any movie, TV show/series or even church to take the place of growing in our Bible knowledge which I believe is a problem in the American church today.

Too many people are relying on church programs and pastors messages instead of getting into the Bible themselves. 

This is one reason Mike and I started Bible Knowldge to help give people some solid foundation to grow and propel them into reading the Bible.

And this was even backed up by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek after he commissioned a big study a few years ago. He said;

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have … taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

He has basically found out his congregation was reliant on the church for their spiritual growth. Backwards, yes. But to his credit, he at least came out and admitted it.

I am praying God will use this and put in people’s hearts a desire to seek out the truth.

I know as I watched the show, I was asking myself, Did that happen this way? I need to go look this up.

I admit it’s been awhile since I have been in the early part of the Old Testament but I am going to follow along with the story lines for the upcoming weeks.

I’m also going to have a Bible mini-series study in the next month with some friends where we’ll all get together and watch all 10 hours in one day and have a Bible study and good time of fellowship.

This is also a good outreach to talk with our unsaved friends or family members. It’s a good opener to see if they watched the show, what they thought, answer their questions and encourage them to continue watching or to start watching.

I know when the Passion of the Christ came out, I saw a friend get saved after going to the movie and also had reports from other friends where they had some unsaved friends and family come to Christ because of the movie!

As I was researching reviews, I came across one that I thought was well written and said it better than I could 

So hat tip out to Faithful Provisions.

I know that there has been a fair amount of controversy surrounding the series because of some inaccuracies that have been made in the interest of creative license and, I’m sure, in what had to be a monumental task of getting the Word from the scroll to the screen. While I would certainly love to have seen it be a completely accurate rendering, I look at it this way:
1. The series challenges my Bible knowledge. When I caught myself thinking, “Wait a minute….” I went straight to my Bible for a fact check. That’s good for me!
2. It provides teaching moments. A lot of you were posting on Facebook last night about the opportunities you were having with your kids for some great discussions. That’s what I hope to be doing with my kids as they grow older, always guiding them to go to the Word for clarification, whether they are watching a Bible movie or listening to a pastor at church.
3. Millions of people were watching. When I think of the impact this will have on nonbelievers, and how God will use it to introduce Himself and His Word to them, I’m absolutely amazed. I believe that the heart intention behind this production was sincere. More than ever, today’s technology and cinematography allow for the mighty power of God, His magnificence, and His omnipotence, to be dramatized like never before. Of course, that will never be captured accurately in a movie, but I would definitely say that this is coming closer than any thing before it.

I know I would love to see a follow up where they would do one big movie or mini-series for each of these stories. There is so much to tell here that 30 minutes really doesn’t do it justice.

Mike and I would often believed God would anoint some talented Christians to start producing  great quality faith based movies, which we are starting to see and also, great shows based on the Bible stories.

And with these great ratings, we pray it will inspire more Christians in Hollywood to start producing more shows based on the stories and men and women of the Bible.

So what were your thoughts?

Read more: http://www.bible-knowledge.com/bible-mini-series-on-history-channel-part-1/#ixzz2NCKFa5v8