The Bible

 

I wonder how many people were able to make it home Sunday night (03/03/2013) to watch the premier of The Bible on the History channel.  What did you think?  Well I can tell you that Jason and I were very excited about the program, we watched the previews for weeks and got pulled in.  So at 8 pm we were sitting around the table eating and glued to the T.V.  The program started with Noah and the ark and Noah telling his family about creation, the ark was full of holes and they were soaking wet.  Jason and I both looked at each other and then at the kids and said that didn’t happen.  Now it is possible that Noah knew about Adam and Eve, but it was not told by Noah because Moses wrote the book of Genesis, the second thing in Genesis 6:14 the bible tells us that God told Noah to “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch, what does that mean – it means the boat didn’t leak, they were warm and dry.  Also Noah was not free to walk around on the outside of the ark, in Genesis 7:16 the bible tells us “And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him:  and the Lord shut him in, so what does that mean – it means that God closed the door and only God could open the door – Genesis 8:16 “Go forth of the ark, thou, and they wife, and they sons, and they sons’ wives with thee.”

 

The story then jumps to Abraham and how God told him to “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee”, Genesis 12:1.  Now Lot, his wife and their family went the Abraham, Sarah and their family and they hit on Lot being captured and then his family going to Sodom and Gomorrah.  The program depicts the Angles as warriors with great swords and mowing down people so that Lot and his family could get out as God is destroying the cities.  At this point we are telling Aaron and Ashleigh, that a lot of what they are seeing is not biblical and that Hollywood has put a spin on almost everything we had watched.  We explained that God didn’t destroy the cities until after Lot and his family had left and were well away, now we know they were close enough to see the destruction because in Genesis 19:26 the bible says “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” –  so they did get that part right. 

 

Next on the History Channels time line are Abraham and Hagar and the birth of Ishmael and them being sent out into the wilderness.  Sarah then gives birth to Isaac and the story picks up in Genesis 22:2, “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”  Now in the story by History channel states Abraham told Sarah he was taking Isaac and they were going to make a sacrifice to God and they leave – now like I said they got some stuff accurate.  They go up the mountain and Abraham puts him on the alter and while this is going on it goes back and forth from them to Sarah and Sarah is frantic she has figured out that Abraham plans on using Isaac as a sacrifice, because he didn’t take an animal with him – Sarah was never the wiser about the sacrifice, Abraham never told her and she never questioned if an animal was taken with them.  Sarah then runs after them also didn’t happen because the place where they went was three days journey, in Genesis 22:4 the bible tells us “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.”  Right before Abraham sacrifices Isaac and the Angel of the Lord told him to stop and he turns and there is a lamb, now in Genesis 22:13 the bible says “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns:  and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.  I guess Hollywood couldn’t find a ram with horns so they used the next best thing? 

 

The timeline then jumps to Moses and the book of Exodus, not sure why they decided to leave out so much important history.  They could have talked about Isaac and Rebekah and the birth of Esau and Jacob and how Jacob received Isaac’s blessing.  They could have talked about Jacob and Leah and Rachel.  They could have talked about Joseph and his coat of many colors and the famine that was in Egypt, but they skipped all of that.  So we are now at Moses and how he was rescued from the Nile River and brought up as a prince of Egypt and how he killed an Egyptian and left the body for someone else to discard of – when in fact he took care of it himself.  Then is shows Moses in the dead of night in a tent and then he hears the voice of God and he is standing before the burning bush, now I know most people have seen the Ten Commandments,  with Charlton Hesston, well we think the Ten Commandments did a better job of portraying Moses than the History channel did.  Anyways he then leaves and goes back to Egypt and confronts Pharaoh.  This will be the last discrepancy, because I stopped watching it after this, they are standing at the Nile River and Moses asks Aaron to put his staff in the river while Pharaoh is bathing and the river turns to blood.  This didn’t happen this way, Moses was face to face with Pharaoh when he turned the river into blood the bible tells us in Exodus 7:19 – 20 “And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood;  and that they may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and vessels of stone.  And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and the lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.”

 

I couldn’t stand to watch any more, I was so disappointed.  Why do they think that the spin they put on the story is so much better than the actual account of the events.  This is History, true History.  God gave us the written word so we know that it is accurate and that it is factual.  I am not sure why they are doing this program, I am not sure if we will watch anymore  of it, because if all they are going to do is put just enough bible in their story to call it fact then I am not interested.  If you know your bible and know the difference and know what really happened versus what Hollywood said happened, that is one thing, but there are so many people within the viewing audience that has no clue, they see it on T.V. and its fact.  It kind of reminds me of the State Farm commercial where the girls says, “they can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true”, some people say the same thing about the History, Nation Geographic and The Learning Channel (TLC).  Just because it is on the educational/documentary type channels does not make it all fact.  Again I will say they did use some actually events from the bible, they just put their own spin on the story and it was very hard to follow, the frames at times were short and choppy and I will admit the fight seen with the angles and the people of Sodom was very entertaining.  But I think that is what it boils down to is entertainment, this program is for entertainment, and it does have some measure of truth mixed in with a lot of dramatization.  If you continue to watch the program, or if you missed it, tune in next Sunday at 8 pm on the History channel and you decide for yourself.  The jury is still out at my house whether we will continue to watch it or not.  Enjoy!