Are you watching 'The Bible'?

Are you one of the millions of people enjoying the History Channels' 'The Bible'? I never planned on watching it, mainly because, in this era of Political Correctness, I had my doubts the program would go "by the book," so to speak. I don't condemn anyone who IS watching it either. I much prefer folks watch that than American Idol, frankly. Just my opinion.

I saw Roma Downey and her hubby on O'Reilly before their mini-series aired and, as I understand it, the first episode focused on the events in Genesis and Exodus. From what I've been told, the first major non-biblical event portrayed in the program was the inclusion of an angel turning into a Ninja-style warrior wielding two swords and embarking on an expertly choreographed, slow-motion stabbing spree to slay the wicked men of Sodom. 

I understand poetic license and all that, but according to the Old Testament, angels struck the citizens of Sodom with blindness before God firebombed their sin city. The show failed to mention the rampant homosexuality in Sodom, or that the city's men actually sought to have sex with the angels, (Genesis 19:5). Wonder why they failed to mention that? Trying to be PC is my guess, trying not to offend anyone. To the contrary, Jesus comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable, as I recall.

I read about another deviation from the Bible depicting Abraham arguing with God over the demand to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

"Have I not shown you enough faith?" he asks the Almighty.

The Bible never hints that Abraham questioned the Lord's command to sacrifice Isaac.

A common mistake in faith-related movies is continued in "The Bible," as the Ten Commandments were shown to be blank on the back side of the tablets. Actually, Scripture says "They were inscribed on both sides, front and back," (Exodus 32:15). I get it! It would be very difficult to display a facsimile on our church walls or Halls of Justice if it were inscribed on two sides. 

Another episode we've seen in similar TV and movie renditions of the Bible depicts three wise men presenting their gifts to baby Jesus the night He was born and put in a manger in Bethlehem. But the Gospels of Luke and Matthew indicate no wise men were in attendance the night He was born. Only shepherds were present, having been invited by angels to see the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The famous wise men (the Bible never specifies their precise number) arrived later, possibly up to two years later, to present their gifts to Jesus when He was a young child in a house, not a babe in a manger, (Matthew 2:11)

My point? I wonder how many Followers of Christ have studied the Bible and know it well enough to pick up on these errors. With Good Friday coming up, I wonder how many have ever counted backward 72 hours from Easter Sunday morning and realized  the error of recognizing the crucifixion on Friday night. Heck, the very mention of "Jesus" and "Easter" are extra-Biblical, did you know that? It's true. The name by which we know our Lord and Savior was not pronounced "Jee -zuz" until about 500 years ago. In the 1611 King James version of the Bible, Jesus was spelled Iesous, James was spelled Iames and both were pronounced like a letter "Y" (there was no letter J sound in either Hebrew, Latin or Greek). 

The thousands of denominations that make-up The Church are replete with traditions, dogmas, rituals and stories that cannot be supported by Scripture. Yet, we cling to them, fight for them, split congregations over them and murder over them. I marvel every time I think about the prophet Samuel crying to God about the Israelites who wanted a king like all the other nations had. In essence God responded, "Fine! They want a king, I'll give 'em a king. He will tax them silly and take their sons off to die in his wars. He will take your daughters for his own service. They want a king rather than hearing me speak through you? They'll be sorry..." That same, personal God desires to speak clearly to you and me as individuals. We can do that now, boldly coming before Him any time we wish, now that Jesus has paid the price for our sins. Quite often, He will speak through the Bible, a book often owned and ignored.

Whether it was Moses coming down off the mountain, or a pastor sharing a sermon after studying the Scriptures, the masses seem content to let "the man of God" do all the God-searching on their behalf as they blindly - and lazily - devour everything set before them during church services where we are mostly focused on salvation, sins, modes of baptism, teachings on Heaven and Hell and pancake suppers, forgetting all about receiving personal revelation from God and direction for your own lives. Today's Christian is so much different than the Berean Christians who, the Bible says, "searched the Scriptures daily to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth," (Acts 17:11)

We're too busy to study God's Word. Too distracted. Hey, it takes everything we got to muster 30 hours of TV "programming" every week (who's being programmed?). Not to mention our extracurricular activities, or working two jobs or more in an effort to buy some more stuff. Running our lives without the Power of God's Word flowing through us is like trying to run a vacuum cleaner without electric power. It ain't happenin'!

Enjoy the Bible. Not merely the made-for-TV series...the Word of God. Incidentally, His Name, in English, is Jesus. 

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work