As Christians living in a media saturated society there is always a fine line between what we should and should not support. Unfortunately that dilemma seems to be occurring more and more frequently as Hollywood keeps cranking out productions based on Biblical stories. As an aside, I must say I find it ironic that they have run out of enough fresh ideas that they are now turning to the very Book they despise to get their creative juices flowing. But I digress. How do we as Christians living in the 21st century live out our faith and manage to be in the world but not of the world? I don't know about you, but that is something I have a continual struggle with.
There are many rabbit trails I could take concerning the topic of being in the world and not of the world but that would be quite a long post. And let's face it, I am long winded enough :-) So, let's talk about Noah. Both the Noah of the Bible and the Noah in the new movie coming out....and yes, they are 2 completely different people...one is a true hero of faith while the other is Hollywood's poor excuse of man who doesn't really know God and just wanted to save the environment (interesting way to go about it!)
The movie Noah hits theaters this weekend and has caused quite the stir among Christians, Non-Christians and even the Arab community. I will admit that yes, it does look like an incredible cinematic display of special effects. And yes, they have some incredibly big Oscar winning stars portraying the roles. But does that mean we should support it? Does that mean we should pay $10.00 or more per person to see something that is only "loosely" based on scripture and distorts the true story of Noah and turns it into something it was never meant to be?
I have been writing this blog for a few days now thanks to the prompting of my mom (we had a discussion about it while I was home last week and she told me I should write about it here...you can thank her :-)) Anyway, I have been adding and deleting things as I think about this topic and as I read multiple blogs and other articles about it. Sadly, there is great divisiveness among the Christian community as to whether or not we should see this movie. And not just divisiveness, but name calling and disparaging people's characters. That more than anything breaks my heart because we further portray to a lost and dying world a hypocritical nature and the forsaking of our Christ centered community. When we fight against each other who wins?
This blog is not to tell you what to do concerning seeing this movie, but more to give you some food for thought concerning it. Ultimately the choice is between you and the Lord as in all things. Again, going back to the point of how to live in the world and not of the world.
So, let's dive right in shall we :-) I was blessed to hear a sermon in SEBTS chapel this week about the second temptation of Christ in Matthew 4. The topic of this blog wasn't where the speaker went with the message, but I made a connection that for me was a light bulb moment in light of this blog topic. In Matthew 4:6 the devil quotes Psalm 61:11-12 to Jesus and he grossly misrepresents and misinterprets the verses. And I thought, if the devil can use the very Word of God against the Son of God, why would we ever think he wouldn't do the same thing to us mere humans in forms that are easily accessible. We see this clearly in the Noah movie. The devil has used a proclaimed atheist director to make a movie about a true story from the Word of God and he has done it through the lens of entertainment, and boy do we love to be entertained here in America.
Sadly, there are too many Christians out there who see a movie like Noah advertised and immediately think this is something they need to support to help further the cause of Christ. Unfortunately this is exactly where the devil wants us. Because if he can get us in the door, the mental images that stay in our mind from the movie will often times strongly overcome our knowledge of the true scripture passage. To give an example...How many of you have ever seen the Ten Commandments staring Charlton Heston? When you think of the story of Moses does your mind go straight to the scripture or to what you remember from the movie? When you "picture" Moses in your head, how much does he look like Charlton Heston? And I hate to burst some people's bubble, but the character of Nefretiri is not in the scriptural account of Moses :-) It is so easy for these seemingly harmless images to infiltrate our minds until we realize how far away from the truth we have gone. When faced with decisions about what to support and not support as believers, I believe we need to ask ourselves some questions based on scripture.
2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." Now, I am not remotely saying that this movie should be held in the same esteem as the Word of God, but since it claims to be loosely based on scripture, I think it is healthy for us as believers to ask if something like this film is useful in these aspects. Is this movie useful for teaching me anything? Is this movie going to rebuke me in my current sins? Will it correct me? Will it train me in righteousness? More importantly, is this movie going to bring me closer to the God of this universe and bring him glory? I can tell you that my answer is a profound no to all of these questions, but you must answer them for yourself.
Another passage that gives you some direction is asking the right questions is Philippians 4:8 which says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Again, when thinking about this film you have to ask yourself is this true? noble? right? pure? lovely? admirable? excellent? praiseworthy (to God...not man!)? I think you get the picture. When we evaluate our decisions through the lens of scripture the decision doesn't seem to be so hard anymore. P.S. These are questions we need to ask about everything...not just this movie.
There are many Christians who will say that we should see this movie so we can know how to defend our faith and share the true story of Noah. To them I give an example my husband uses often. When banks are training their employees to spot counterfeit bills, they don't show them various kinds of counterfeit bills. Instead, they have them study what a real bill looks like. They memorize every nuance of the bill so it is ingrained in their mind. This then enables them to spot any type of counterfeit bill no matter what changes have been made to it. You see, when you have the truth memorized you can defend it against any falsehood brought before you. This situation is no different. If you know the story of Noah inside and out from Genesis 6-9 it doesn't matter what questions someone brings you from the movie, you will know if it is a falsehood because you are in possession of The Truth.
There are indeed movies that Christians can get behind and support because they are based on glorifying God and getting the message of Christ out to an unbelieving world. But I don't believe there has to be gimmicks, millions of dollars and story inflation to do it. Obviously there are movies such as the Jesus Film (entirely based on scripture), Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous and most recently God's Not Dead that we can indeed get behind because their sole purpose is to bring people to the cross. But there are other productions that have come out recently that also have gross misrepresentations of the facts of scripture and yet Christians back them. There are some obvious ones not in my list above so you can probably guess what they are :-) All that to say, as believers we must be careful where we step in culture these days. And the only way to step boldly without any regret is to rely solely on the truth of the Word of God.
You have probably gathered that Michael and I will not be seeing Noah when it hits the theaters this weekend. But in closing, I do want to say that I believe God can use anything or anybody to draw unbelievers to Himself. And I do pray that those unsaved people who see this movie will be drawn to the scripture and to the true story of the Living God because of it. But, I don't think it wise for me to attend for all the reasons I listed above. It is one of those times when I think it is important to be salt and light. I also think it is important that we as believers support each others decision whether we go see it or not. Our unity as the body of Christ is far more important than the entertainment industry!
Thanks for sticking with me if you read this far :-) Hopefully I gave you a little to think about. Next up will be a post about my trip to Atlanta last weekend. It was so great to see friends and family. Have a great weekend! Love from the Forest!
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