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.

Homeland - From Conquest to Kingship

As Pastor Paul touched on, the motif of "God is With us" and "Trust in God" is still alive and strong in the miniseries' third and fourth episodes.  I really like the way they are retelling the stories and touching on this major theme.  It seems to be pointing to an overall theme of Jesus being "God with us" when he is born.

It is quite obvious (and this is not a negative thing at all) that the producers, directors and writers of this miniseries always had Jesus in mind first and foremost.  I like what they've done so far, and I hear that Jesus is coming this next Sunday, so that is good news indeed!

Things they missed:

1. Conquest of Canaan: To the casual observer on Sunday evening the Israelites defeated Jericho and everything else fell into place.  The conquest of Canaan wasn't all neat and tidy for the Israelites though.  Immediately after Jericho the Israelites were defeated at Ai because of Achan's sin.  Again, I understand and respect that they must blitz through many of these stories for time's sake but there are quite a few gems missed here.