Harley Scalf ~ Noah, Son of God, and God’s Not Dead
“Noah”, “Son of God”, and “God’s Not Dead” all have at least two things in common: they’ve not been seen by me and they all have Christians talking.
I have good, decent friends and colleagues who have seen these movies. Some say they liked all three. Some only like one & not the others. Some like two of the movies, and despise the “heretical” third (mostly “Noah”).
There it is…again. Christians everywhere are up in arms because a movie about a biblical figure isn’t biblically accurate (according to them).
We churchgoers are a strange bunch. We cry out we’re being persecuted (or discriminated against) and then when people make movies of the giant figures of our faith, we’re ready to fight. Why? Because they’re not exactly what we think they should be. It seems we like a good fight, especially one based on matters of faith. And we wonder why people don’t seem to want to be a part of “established” religion. Strange…
Here’s the bottom line: Christians are supposed to be people whose theology is derived from the Bible, not from the theater.
Let’s make the assumption that the movie is not biblically accurate (again, it is an assumption for me, because I’ve not seen it). My first thought is: so what!? How many movies have you seen in a theater in the past five years that have been biblically accurate (apart from the 3 listed above)? How many have been based on biblical figures? How many have actually been fairly “un-Christian” (whatever that is)? Be honest. What about your TV viewing at home? Found many sitcoms that glorify God lately? I sure haven’t (cue the Duck Dynasty comments).
So, what gives? What’s this all about? I can only reach one of two conclusions:
- Our faith is so weak/shallow that it is dramatically altered by these biblically inaccurate films.
- Our faith is so strong/deep that it is not altered at all by any film, but we just enjoy complaining and fighting.
Which is it?
The truth is there are much more important issues to cause concern for Christians and the Church. In many communities, and certainly around the world, there are hungry children, single parents, mourning families, needy elderly, and the list goes on and on.
Noah was a real person, no matter how accurate/inaccurate his story is told. The Son of God had a major impact upon our world and is the foundation of our faith. God, indeed, is not dead.
Because of these things, let’s spend more time deepening our own faith and understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and stop arguing about movies.