The Church Unleashed

The Bible series as presented by The History Channel is over... it's now "history".  I enjoyed the series very much, enjoyed preaching on it, and enjoyed blogging about it.  It's almost sad to see it come to an end.

This particular episode took us through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, then dealt with the planting and expansion of the church in the compact fashion we have grown accustomed to.  Again in this episode, we saw some "extra-biblical" materials come in; things you won't find in the bible. But I still think the producers did a fine job in communicating biblical truth through the film.

Of particular note; I appreciated the way the religious authorities were portrayed in selecting and coaching the crowd at Jesus' trial before Pilate and the importance of showing the sacrifice of the Passover lambs while Jesus was being crucified.  Questions that arise; did Jesus kiss the cross?  Did his mother Mary help him pick it up?  These were touching moments but not biblical.  The crucifixion itself was handled masterfully, not overly gory but gruesome enough to get us to understand the brutality of the whole thing.  Pilate's comment, "he'll be forgotten in a week", was not biblical, but it summed up the political/religious feeling of the moment.