I'm Extremely Offended by the Bible Miniseries

I am extremely offended by the Bible miniseries. Not because I hate the Bible, but because I love the Bible, and I love TRUTH. It absolutely boils my blood to see the Word of God run through a sieve which lets all of the good theology fall through the holes and keeps just enough truth to make people think it's being true to the Book, when it is in reality perverting the message of God's Word.



This is not a post to point out every single discrepancy with the program. To do so could take days, and the season hasn't even ended yet! However, if you're looking for something like that, I would point you to Chris Rosebrough's Fighting for the Faith podcast. He has several episodes on the subject that are VERY well done.

 Instead, I'd like to talk about the overall theme of the show. It seems to me that the whole point of a Bible miniseries should be to preach the Gospel, and would be, if it were created by people who truly loved and were knowledgeable about the Bible. However, this series is created by the guy who made Survivor and his wife, who was on Touched by an Angel, another theologically inept television show. This in itself is not an indictment, because believers can exist in Hollywood. What IS telling, however, is that they claimed to consult many theologians in the writing of this show. The top three cited are: Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and T.D. Jakes. The fact that any of these men are put under the heading of theologian is questionable. I think "inspirational speaker" is more appropriate. I don't think any of them would even know the Gospel if it slapped them in the face.

 There seems to be two common threads through the miniseries so far. The first seems to be the Covenant that God made to Abram. Most of the "main" characters have some reference to it in their dialogue, each saying things like "Now we can press on to fulfill the covenant that God made with Abraham". The point of the whole Bible is that we humans are incapable of keeping God's laws and fulfilling our ends of covenants. The miniseries is severely lacking in anything resembling sin and repentance. The miniseries also keeps talking about man repairing its relationship with God, but says it in a way that implies that it is even possible. It's not.

As it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3:10-18

No one is able to repair the relationship with God and man. THAT is precisely why Jesus was necessary. Jesus lived a life without sin so that He could take all of our sins upon Him as He died, becoming the perfect sacrifice needed to appease God's wrath against our sin and save us from God's judgment. THAT is the theme of the Bible.

I think that what discourages me even more than seeing the mockery that this Miniseries has made of God's Word is seeing so many Christians jump on the bandwagon. Why is it that anything or anyone labeled Christian is taken at face value to be so? American Christians are so bad about this, jumping on the latest "Christian" fad without looking deeper to see if there is any substance to it. Why? Truth is rarely popular, so why assume that something popular is automatically good? All things should be tested against Scripture to see its worth.

Is discernment no longer being taught in churches? Are churches caring too much about the number of people being "saved" that they do not care to see if they are true conversions? If the conversions are true, then are churches fulfilling their duty of making disciples?

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

I know this is a long and windy rant, but here's my point: Take NOTHING at face value, but test ALL things against Scripture.

 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. (2 Thessalonians 5:21-22)