Theological Errors of the History Channel Miniseries, The Bible - Part 2

It's time for another edition of Fighting for the

Faith, Monday, March 11, 2013. Yeah, we got more that we need to cover regarding the

Bible. Notice the air quotes while I said that. I'm not talking about the written

Word of God, I'm talking about that thing masquerading as Bible stories on the

History Channel. Thank you for tuning in.

You're listening to Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the program that dishes up a daily dose of biblical discernment, the goal of which, help you to think biblically, help you to think critically, help you compare what people are saying in the name of God to the

Word of God. I have no shortage of crazy things being said out there or being acted out in a major History Channel miniseries, if you would, made for television screenplay type thing.

There is a history in Christianity, especially coming out of Europe, that we as Christians have been known to do these things called passion plays.

Over Ammergau in Germany that has this every four years or so, it's a big deal, right?

And the people of the town would get together and every four years or so, they would put on what's called a passion play, and that would be that they would reenact

Jesus' life, teaching, death, resurrection, all that type of stuff, and it's a big deal.

And so what they've done is they've taken the story of Jesus that we find in the

Gospels and they found a way to weave it into what would be a theatrical production.

And so there's a history of doing things like that. And so what I think of the

History Channel miniseries, the Bible, is that it's an attempt at a passion play, if you would, that has as a grand vision of giving the overarching sweep of the entire

Bible itself. And there's nothing wrong with that idea per se.

But the issue comes down to, as I pointed out last week, is what's going to be the theology that drives it?

And one of the things that I have found to be rather alarming, having now watched four hours of the 10 hours of this miniseries, is that they've managed to do some things that I think are actually, if you take the time to think about the implications of what

I'm going to say, are absolutely frightening. Okay? Now, week one of the

Bible, and by the way, Nick Stokes, a listener of Fighting for the

Faith, he had a great idea, and he doesn't think that we should call it the Bible.

He thinks that because it's really not the Bible, it's anything, but he came up with a good play on words.

He thinks we should call it the bauble, because somebody obviously fumbled the ball here, and then they've baubled it and totally messed it up.

And I'm thinking of adopting that idea here and referring it to it moving forward as the bauble.

So if you hear me from time to time, I'm going to kind of try it on and see if I like the way that sounds today.

If I can get used to it, I might, you know, moving forward, always call it the bauble. And the reason being is because I don't want to pay it any respect.

There's nothing to respect in this movie. In fact, the list of things that are right is so much shorter than the list of things that are wrong that it's actually frightening and alarming.

And plus, there's a good precedent here. And I think I've told this on the air before, that y 'all familiar with the ancient pagan deity known as Molech?

Yeah, Molech. Well, that's not his name, but that's the name he's constantly referred to as in the

Bible, and it has to do with the fact that the Jews refused to give honor to said deity, and you have to put deity in air quotes there because he's not a real god.

But his real name was Melech, and they changed the vowel points on him from Melech to Molech.

Molech means shame. And so, you know, so the Hebrews were actually, this is just brilliant on their part, they wouldn't pay homage and respect to the false deity

Melech and constantly referred to him as Molech. It's just a brilliant idea. So I may, moving forward, constantly refer to this movie as the

Babel. And so if you're not familiar with this particular tactic on my part, adopting the recommendation of a listener, you're going to think that I have a speech impediment.

So yeah, that among other things. Anyway, but coming back to my point, and that's this, what's missing in this movie, now that I've seen, you know, part one, part one, the first two hours really was kind of a grand sweep from creation to the flood, from Abraham, and then to Moses.

And then this week covered basically from, you know, the death of Moses from Joshua, all the way up to David.

And it's, it's a mess, it's an absolute mess. And what you have no concept of as you're watching these portrayals of the

Old Testament stories, which are selected, these are, these are kind of cherry -picked stories from the

Old Testament, is that there's no concept of redemption history. And they have managed in their retelling of these, of the

Old Testament stories to, and I apologize for the offensiveness of this word, but they have de -Judaized the

Old Testament. And what's really missing is,

I mean, is any concept of redemption at all. The Passover itself has no explanation.

It just gets an honorable mention and you show them showing the, you know, the blood of the lamb on the door.

It gets an honorable mention, but no mention of the meal, no mention of what it's for, the bitter herbs or anything like that.

And now that we're all the way up to David, you know, what's, what else is missing is the

Shema. The Shema is gone. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And the entire sacrificial system, as well as the tabernacle, all of those,

I mean, they are conspicuously missing. There are, there's no day of atonement.

There is no sacrifice of spotless sheep and animals for the, you know, for the remission of sins.

There's no, there's no forgiveness in this. And so the gospel is totally gone.

Instead of getting redemption history or redemptive history, it has been replaced with cherry -picked

Old Testament stories that are being woven together as literally what

I would call purpose -driven leadership parables. The overarching theme for each of the different connectors between each of the stories that they're telling, it has to do with vision casting leadership and whether or not somebody was participating in bringing about, you know, the kingdom of God and this nation of Israel, or if they were distracted from their vision, from the vision and what their purpose was.

I mean, Samson himself, in fact, I'm not going to get too much into the story of Samson today. I'm going to save out the

Samson piece for tomorrow. So be advised. But the story of Samson is literally retold as if, okay,

God specially created Samson. He's got a special purpose, and he keeps getting distracted away from his purpose.

And so, you know, he kind of dies tragically as one who had so much potential for his purpose, but kept getting distracted away from his purpose.

And so, but again, what's missing in any of this is any concept of what we would call theologically of the scarlet thread that runs through the

Old Testament and then brings us to Christ. This scarlet thread of history, which would be the bloodline of Jesus, of God's redemptive work.

There's no promise in the Garden of Eden of the forgiveness of sins by the one who would come to crush the head of the serpent.

That's all gone. And what I would consider very alarming is in their retelling of the story of David and Bathsheba, there is no forgiveness.

There's no repentance. I mean, if anything, David seems impenitent when confronted by Nathan.

It's just, it's absolutely mind boggling. So we have a de -Judaized telling of the

Old Testament stories, cherry -picked stories that are being woven together into a purpose -driven vision -casting set of leadership parables, and no gospel, no repentance, no forgiveness of sins, none of that.

It's just screaming by its absence. And so, you know, what we've got here is actually, from my point of view, is, well, extremely frightening.

Anybody who thinks that what they're getting in this miniseries is historically, theologically accurate, well, it's anything but.

And so what we're going to do on today's episode of Fighting for the Faith, you're going to need your Bible today, by the way, folks, and I apologize.

We're going to be doing a lot of biblical teaching today, and kind of walk through what we're going to be doing here. First and foremost, what we're going to do is

I'm going to read for you a quick news story that came across the newswire from the

Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, talking about the so -called miracles that came about while they were filming this miniseries.

And then we'll actually switch gears, and I'm going to walk you through what I would consider to be some of the more prominent soundbites from last night's part two of the miniseries,

The Babel. And what we'll do then, when we're done with all that, we'll take a quick break, and then what

I'm going to do is I'm going to come back, and I'm going to take a little bit of time and look at the story of Rahab, and then

I'm going to take a look at the story of David and Bathsheba, and I'm going to save out a more in -depth conversation for the story of Samson until tomorrow.

And what I find to be is completely a distraction. If you haven't seen last night's episode of The Babel, then you're not aware of the fact that Samson is played by a very large black man with dreadlocks, so he kind of looks like a

Rastafarian. But there's a lot of people out there having a big conversation about whether or not

Samson was black, and it's like, who cares? They could have had a

Martian play it. It doesn't matter. The color of the skin of the actors and actresses is absolutely not even remotely important.

But what is important is the theology behind it. So there's a lot of people who are spilling digital ink on that particular conversation, and it's like missing the forest because of a twig.

It's not even a tree. It's a twig. Anyway, like I said, we're going to save the discussion of the

Samson story until tomorrow. So with that, we're going to dive into the program proper.

And since we're doing a quick news story, that requires me to do this. Okay, from the

Daily Mail at the United Kingdom, the Daily Mail Online, headline reads,

The hand of God was on this Bible blockbusters producer claims miracles took place on set with mysterious visitor from the desert, plague of snakes and gust of wind as strong as a

Boeing 747. And yeah, that's the headline.

It's not a headline. That's a paragraph. So this is written by Hugo Guy, G -Y -E at the

Daily Mail. You can find this at DailyMail .co .uk. I wouldn't know what to type in because the headline is a paragraph.

But anyway, Hugo writes, he says a blockbuster miniseries, The Bobble, has fast become one of the biggest hits on American TV, landing more than 13 million viewers for its first episode.

But while its runaway success has taken the entertainment world by surprise, it has not come as a shock to its creators.

The producers have revealed that during its production, the show seemed to be marked by mysterious omens, which they claim are evidence of the hand of God.

These apparent miracles included a sudden swarm of snakes around the base of the cross where Jesus was to be crucified, and a boy who emerged from the desert with part of Christ's costume, which had been lost for four days.

Okay. British -born producer Mark Burnett told Entertainment Weekly that the series' success seemed almost preordained while it was being made.

The hand of God was on this, he said in an interview before the show's premiere last Sunday.

The edit came together perfectly. The actors came together perfectly. It just comes to life.

However, he claimed that it was not just the fact that filming in North Africa went smoothly that convinced him his production was blessed.

Mr. Burnett, who is most famous for creating reality shows such as Survivor and produced

The Bible along with his actress wife, Roma Downey, described a number of weird things which drew the attention of cast and crew during the filming.

In one scene, filmed during a still night on the edge of the desert, Jesus tells the priest

Nicodemus, the Holy Spirit is like the wind. And according to Mr. Burnett, at that moment, a wind, like as if a 747 was taking off, blew his hair, almost blew the set over and sustained for 20 seconds across the desert.

A rogue wind, uh -huh. Everyone just looked at everyone like, what just happened?

Another notable occasion came during the filming of Jesus's crucifixion, one of the most risky scenes due to the dangers involved in mock execution.

The production had hired a snake wrangler to keep the set free of dangerous reptiles, and he usually found one or two snakes per day.

But on the day the crucifixion was filmed, according to Mr. Burnett, the handler found an unprecedented 48 venomous snakes crawling around the mountain, perhaps the most inexplicable happening came while they were filming the baptism of Jesus in a reservoir.

The producers were terrified when part of the actor's irreplaceable costume came off and then floated away, but help came from an unlikely source.

Four days later, a kid showed up from many, many, many, many miles away, who had been seeking us through the desert to return this to us,

Mr. Burnett told Entertainment Weekly. He didn't know what it was, why he should seek us, but he felt that he had to return it.

The Bible is airing on the History Channel in two -hour chunks on Sunday nights and has been the surprise winner in its time slot.

The series will air its finale on March 31st, Easter Sunday. And the more

I'm watching this, the more I'm dreading the fact that they're ending it on Easter Sunday. It's like, that's the last thing I want to do on Easter Sunday is watch the finale of this program.

Anyway, so now, should we think that, oh, well, see, there's proof, there's miracles, there's unexplained miracles that proves that this is from God.

No, it doesn't. No, it does not. Jesus himself tells us in the

Olivet Discourse, if you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, go to the Gospel of Matthew and, you know, like chapter, what, 24 and read regarding the end times.

Jesus says that in the end times there will be false Christs, false anointed ones, false prophets, and false teachers, and they would be able to perform miracles.

They would actually be able to perform miracles. And the whole idea behind these false Christs, false teachers, false prophets, and, you know, all these other people teaching false doctrine is that they would deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So just because there's so -called miracles, and boy, these are kind of dubious miracles, you know what I mean? Just because there's so -called miracles involved in the production of the

Bible doesn't mean that it's actually from God. The proof is always in the theological pudding, not in whether or not there's so -called miracles or unexplained omens or happenings or whatever.

In fact, based on some of these so -called omens that are supposed to prove that God is behind it, the abundance of snakes would tell me, well, it's probably the other guy not

God. And again, it's all about the theology.

It's all about the theology. And so with that, what we're going to do is we're going to take a look now at the part two of the

Bible, and that requires me to do this. All right,

Eric Clapton's Change the World, which seems to be the major theme of the Bible. And so with that, what we're going to do is

I'm going to just walk us through, you know, just some of what I would consider to be some of the more interesting, relevant soundbites that help divulge and give you a picture of the theology behind this miniseries.

And what we'll do is we'll start with a quick little soundbite from the character who's playing

Joshua after the fall of Jericho. And I want you to listen to the theological statement that he's made.

So, you know, the children of Israel have walked around Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, they walked around it seven times.

They blew their ram's horns, shouted their big shout, and down come the walls.

And then Joshua, well, he says this. God has kept his promise.

If we obey the Lord, anything is possible.

All right. So God has kept his promise. And if we obey the

Lord, anything is possible. Now, this might explain why the producers,

Burnett and Roma Downey, have not spent any time actually fleshing out what was written on those stone tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai, the

Ten Commandments. And they haven't spent any time explaining the Mosaic Covenant, like, at all.

The Shema is missing. The Tabernacle is AWOL. The entire

Levitical sacrificial system up to this point in the miniseries, mysteriously missing.

And the fact that somebody like the historical Joshua is fully aware of the bloody mess that was instituted by the

Lord in the sacrificial system, the sacrificing of animals, the

Day of Atonement, all of those sacrifices that are involved that God revealed on Mount Sinai.

The last thing you would expect Joshua to say is, well, if we obey the

Lord, anything is possible. Um, because, well, over and again, the one thing that's very clear through the entire sacrificial system is, is that they need a sacrifice for their sins.

And that is missing from this entire endeavor so far. And, but let me move forward here.

Like I said, what we're, what I, what I'm absolutely convinced that they've done is they've, they've selected, you know,

Old Testament stories and recast them so that this, the Old Testament isn't the story of redemptive history, but is a series of leadership parables for vision casting leaders to change the world.

Let me give you a little bit more of the theology. This is the opening narrative from last night's episode or installment regarding Samson.

And I want you to listen carefully to, um, you know, how they're, they're going to discuss these things and what they're going to do is they're going to make the transition from the time of Joshua to the time of Samson.

And well, listen to what they say. A hundred years after Joshua, the 12 tribes of Israel have spread out across the promised land, but hostile neighbors surround them.

Kate, this is interesting. Let me back this up. Let me tell you what's missing here. If you're familiar with your Old Testament at all, then you're familiar that in the book of Joshua, it's not that just the children of Israel entered the promised land, but the, the conquest of Cana was a military campaign.

There's no hint that there was a military campaign in the conquest of Cana and the children of Israel coming into the promised land.

They were basically told to get rid of, and, you know, and be the hand of God's judgment against the people who were occupying the land of Cana prior to them.

No mention of that. And so the way the story is told, it's as if, okay, well,

Joshua and the children of Israel that we, they had their major battle. It was Jericho. God won it for them because of course, if you obey the

Lord, anything is possible. And so they entered in, I mean, once Jericho fell, everyone just kind of went spread out to the different four corners of the land of Cana and it became

Israel in no mention. Then also of how repeatedly the children of Israel began to worship and serve other gods, and then

God sold them into slavery to, you know, two bit, you know, tribes, you know, the

Moabites and others, no mention of that, none whatsoever. And so the way the story is being told is they've get in there, but they still have enemies on all sides.

Well, listen again, here, here's the, uh, the narrative a hundred years after Joshua, the 12 tribes of Israel had spread out across the promised land, but hostile neighbors surrounded and better trained.

The Philistines are the deadliest threat. So better armed and better trained, the

Philistines are now a deadly threat to the people of Israel who've come into the promised land, but they still are not really a nation without great leaders like Moses or Joshua to unite them.

The Israelites must rely on local heroes. Okay, let me back that up. That's kind of the important line.

Listen again, without great leaders like Moses or Joshua to unite them without great leaders.

To unite them without great. So the big problem that Israel faced in the time of the judges was they didn't have great leaders.

This is not what the biblical texts talks about. The problem that Israel faced at the time of the judges was that they began to worship and serve false deities.

And they, well, the biblical, the biblical text describes it as they went whoring after false gods and God punished them.

It wasn't that they lacked great leaders. It's that they didn't have faith and trust in the one true

God. And as a result of it, they sinned greatly against him. No mention of that, by the way, no mention of Israel's idolatry.

No mention of their sin against God and of God's judgment against their idolatry.

Instead, we're basically fed this line again. Without great leaders like Moses or Joshua to unite them.

The Israelites must rely on local heroes called judges. People like Samson.

Yeah. So that's the introduction to Samson. You know, so the big problem in Israel, they didn't have leaders. Again, they've changed the overarching story of the

Old Testament. You know, basically being going from redemptive history to now being these are purpose -driven leadership parables.

That's what they're doing here. Now, let me move ahead to like the next, to the next soundbite.

And this is at the tail end of the story of Samson, which by the way, is completely unrecognizable as a biblical story.

The details of the story of Samson are so far afield of what the biblical text says regarding Samson.

It makes you wonder if they forgot to bring a Bible with them to Morocco when they were filming this.

I mean, it's really that bad. But here at the very tail end of it, we, we got, we got, you know, we've got

Samson now he's been betrayed by Delilah. He's had his eyes gouged out and, and listen, listen to the narrator talk about, you know, poor

Samson's plight up to this point. So, I mean, this is just weird.

Okay. So, you know, the, the dreams of an Israelite homeland are, well, they're gone along with Samson's eyeballs.

It's like, what are they talking about? What is this?

I mean, I mean, again, did they forget to pack a Bible when they went to Morocco to film this?

Who wrote this screenplay? Because the story of Samson, again, is that God delivered them into the hand of the

Philistines specifically because of their idolatry and rebellion against the Lord.

But no, no, instead the way this is being cast here is, is that these poor Israelites, they were, they were really hoping for, well, a united homeland, a united homeland.

Again, let me back this up. This, listen again. The Philistines is all but over.

And with it, the dreams of an Israelite homeland. The dreams of an, yeah, the dreams of an

Israelite homeland. They're just, they're pooey. They're gone as a result of this.

Now, let me fast forward just a little bit more, a few more minutes. You know, Samson is now dead. He's, he's, he's tore down this temple, the strong, you know,

God has given him his strength He's killed thousands of Philistines through this, this act that results in his own death.

And listen to the transition. We're going to listen to a few minutes here. Listen to the transition from the story of Samson to the story of Samuel, and then ultimately to the story of Saul and David.

This is a bizarre transition that, again, has nothing to do with the biblical text, the biblical story, and what's really going on in here.

Because these stories are about, well, redemptive history. But here, listen in.

Samson's sacrifice kills thousands, but he could never defeat the Philistines on his own.

The prophet Samuel has urged the people to unite in God's name. Okay, there's your segue.

Samson's dead, and, you know, the next breath in the next sentence that the narrator is, is that Samuel has urged the

Israelites to unite. Listen again. The prophet Samuel has urged the people to unite in God's name.

There is no one like the Lord. But after decades of struggle, he too has failed to halt the

Philistines. Prophet. So, the way they cast the character of Samuel, the prophet, is that he's a failed leader.

Okay, he's urging Israel to unite, and he has not succeeded in uniting

Israel, and so he's being confronted now because he's a failed leader.

Let me back this up. This is unbelievable. But after decades of struggle, he too has failed to halt the

Philistines. Prophet, we await you. And the people's patience is wearing thin.

So it's time for some leadership transitioning work to go on. So what is it that troubles you?

We are grateful prophets. You have led us for many years.

God has led us. Samuel, you are not as young as you were.

We are worried. Who will speak to the Lord after you? Who will lead us against the

Philistines? Who will lead us? Who will lead us? So this is, again, these are carefully chosen stories from the

Old Testament. Redemptive history is gone. The entire sacrificial system, gone.

The scarlet thread that pulls us to Christ, gone. And these are leadership parables.

So Samuel is a failed leader. Your sons are corrupt.

My sons have been brought up to trust in God and obey his laws. Everything I've done for you,

I have done because I walk in God's ways. We know that they take bribes. Everyone knows it.

They shame your good name. So when you are gone and the

Philistines return and we look to your sons to call on God, will

God answer? So this is one of those awkward moments when you,

I apologize for this phrase, but in corporate parlance, there is a name for this kind of meeting.

And I apologize, but this is what the name of this kind of meeting is. This is called a come to Jesus meeting.

If you worked any time in corporate America, you're familiar with this particular kind of meeting.

So basically the people of Israel are, they're having a, again, I apologize. They're having a come to Jesus meeting with the failed leader,

Samuel. Okay. Who for years has been urging Israel to unite, but he's made no progress against the

Philistines and he's, his sons are corrupt. And so, well, let's continue.

No, he will not. Then what do you want? A king.

As other nations have. But look what other nations kings do. They become tyrants.

They make slaves of their people. Okay. Now what's weird here is that if you pay attention to the biblical text on this, the way they're casting this come to Jesus meeting, if you would, um, they're the way they're, they're playing this out.

Pretty much the, the people of Israel, they're asking for a good thing by asking for a king, because, you know,

Samuel, he's a, he's a failed leader, but the biblical text itself tells us a completely different story.

And I'd like to point that out to you. If you have your Bible flip on over to first Samuel chapter eight for Samuel chapter eight.

Yes. I want to give you the biblical text here on how this quote come to Jesus meeting went down so that you can see what's going on here.

First Samuel chapter eight, verse one. When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel.

The name of his firstborn was Joel. The name of his second was Abijah and they were judges in Beersheba in Beersheba.

Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain and they took bribes and they perverted justice.

So then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rama and said to him, behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways.

Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased

Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord and the

Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

So according to all the deeds that they have done from the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods.

So they are also doing to you now then obey their voice. Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him.

And he said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.

And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and equipment for chariots.

And he goes on and on, but you get what's going on here. So he's basically telling them what the Lord told them.

But verse 19, but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel said, no, there shall be a king over us that we may also be like all the other nations.

And our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the

Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, obey their voice and make them a king. Samuel then said to them, uh, to the men of Israel, go every man to his city.

Now that's, you know, that's first Samuel chapter eight, not its entirety. I skipped a few verses, but you get the gist of what, of what really is going on.

But the way Burnett and Roma Downey are portraying this again, come to Jesus meeting that the, the elders of Israel are having with Samuel is that Samuel is a failed leader.

In fact, let me go back to the beginning of this segment and listen again to the way they're casting it.

So you can get this in its entirety. Again, redemptive history is out the window. This has nothing to do with Christ and the coming

Messiah. This has, well, these are leadership parables and Samuel is a failed leader.

Samson's sacrifice kills thousands, but he could never defeat the Philistines on his own.

The prophet Samuel has urged the people to unite in God's name. There is no one like the

Lord. But after decades of struggle, he too has failed to halt the

Philistines. Prophet, we await you. And the people's patience is wearing thin.

So what is it that troubles you? We are grateful prophets.

You have led us for many years. God has led us. Samuel, you are not as young as you were.

We are worried. Who will speak to the Lord after you? Who will lead us against the

Philistines? My sons will inherit my place. Your sons are corrupt.

My sons have been brought up to trust in God and obey his laws. Everything I've done for you,

I have done because I walk in God's ways. We know that they take bribes. Everyone knows it.

They shame your good name. So when you are gone and the

Philistines return and we look to your sons to call on God, will

God answer? No, he will not. Then what do you want?

A king. As other nations have. But look what other nations' kings do.

They become tyrants. They make slaves of their people. Not if they are chosen by God, anointed by his righteous prophets, by you.

You would reject our God. God promised us this land.

This is God's kingdom. He is our only king. You have the ear of the

Lord Samuel. You must ask him to choose a king for us.

Please, leave me alone. All of you. I have given everything.

Now they have rejected me. Okay, so this is Samuel now feeling sorry for himself and his prophet's study, and he's going to receive a vision from God shortly.

And you, God, if you say I should give them a king, then of course

I will. Who should it be?

So now he's asking, who should it be? And he's going to receive a direct vision from God as to who he should anoint.

Which, by the way, is not unusual for a prophet who receives the word of the Lord directly. But this is where it gets weird.

So he is now envisioning Saul, the son of Kish.

He can see Saul riding a horse. I see.

Never be me. So he realizes I could never be a leader like Saul, just from the vision.

This is, again, listen closely to the theology here. I will still be your prophet.

But he consoles himself by saying, I can still be your prophet.

Again, this comes out of left field and makes you go, what? So let me kind of summarize up to this point.

The elders of Israel have had a quote, come to Jesus meeting with Samuel, who is a failed leader.

He was urging Israel to unite against the Philistines, but just wasn't able to get the job done.

His sons are corrupt. The elders of Israel want a king. The way they ask it actually sounds kind of reasonable.

So Samuel's alone and he's praying to God. And he receives a vision that shows him the person he should anoint as king.

Because he feels like he's been rejected. He feels they've rejected him as a leader.

And he then consoles himself with these words. Listen again. I will still be your prophet, your king.

So he says, I can still be your prophet and I can guide your king.

And you just go, what? Were they reading this from?

And then from here, it goes on to, well, portray Samuel anointing

Saul as king. And again, keep listening here for what's going on.

Again, this is no longer redemptive history. These are leadership parables. They were in justly and wisely and according to God's law.

Anoint you the first king of Israel. As God's prophet, help you in any way

I can. May I, as God's prophet, help you in any way I can.

So he's no longer the leader. He's now the advisor to the leader.

And that's what he consoled himself with. A new era in Israelite history is beginning.

The period of prophets and kings. A new era, the period of prophets and kings, kind of a dual role now in leadership.

They must work together to secure the promised land. They must work. So prophets and kings have to work together to secure the promised land.

And again, my question is, where did they get any of this?

Now, I'm going to fast forward to just two more little segments. Obviously, you know the story of Saul.

Saul fails, and so God raises up another king, and that's David. David is also an anointed king of Israel while Saul is still alive.

So they do an okay job of kind of portraying the drama that goes on between Saul and David.

But once Saul dies, he falls on his sword. Then you got

David, who is now king. And, you know, first order of business, according to the narrator, is, well, this.

David gathers followers. But to unite Israel, he needs a capital city.

Jerusalem, our new home. And we just need to find a way in.

So first order of business for David, once he's now king, is to get a capital city so that he can unite

Israel. And, of course, then you got him going through the water canals and coming up and taking this city of Jerusalem.

But again, there's no redemptive history in here. And what I consider to be the definitive proof that redemptive history has completely been taken out of the

Old Testament stories has to do with the story of David and Bathsheba.

Now, you know the story. Bathsheba's bathing. David oversees her bathing and invites her up.

And, well, you know, one thing leads to another, and then she's pregnant, you know, while her husband is out fighting battles, right?

And Uriah the Hittite is brought back into town while his division in the army stays there at the battle.

And he's very true and loyal to his other soldiers in the sense that he doesn't spend any time with his wife, which means there's no way to create the illusion that he's the father of the child.

And so David sends him with his own death warrant to have him killed. And sure enough, he dies.

Well, here's the way the miniseries The Bauble, well, portrays

Nathan the Prophet's confrontation with Bathsheba. See if you notice any penitence on the part of David at all, or if this telling of the story makes any sense to you.

Here we go. We've been richly blessed. You think you can just sweep what you've done under the carpet?

You took everything from your most loyal servant, Uriah. He deserved your respect. I did respect him.

Really? You took his wife, then you took his life. Prophet! You think God doesn't see everything?

The Lord has spoken to me. He will bring disaster in your house for the contempt you have shown the

Lord. No.

No, he will take your son. We shall see.

So, um, Nathan says the Lord is going to take your son and David's response is we will see.

And then they go on to show David, um, literally from what I gather, he's inside the holy of holies in the tabernacle.

And I just want to scream, you know, it's like, what is going on here?

So what we're going to do right now, we're going to, we're going to take a break. By the way, there's no sermon review today. We're going to, we're going to spend a little bit of time, more than a little bit of time.

We're going to, we're going to unpack a couple of biblical texts here. We're going to take a look at the story of Rahab, the prostitute from the

Bible, the biblical text. And then we're also going to go and we're going to compare, um, the story of Nathan's confrontation with David regarding his adultery and murder.

And just compare the, the biblical written text to the mini series, the

Bible. So if you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of fighting for the faith, you could do so.

My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com. Or you can ask to be my friend on Facebook, facebook .com

forward slash pirate Christian. Actually click on the subscribe button or follow me on Twitter. My name there at pirate Christian.

Quick break. We'll be right back. We're going to take a look at Rahab, the prostitute, as well as the story of David, Bathsheba and Nathan.

Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of Rick Warren, you cannot be saved.

You're listening to fighting for the faith. You're listening to pirate

Christian radio. We'll be taking your false doctrine now. It's So the new pastor came in and shut down the

Sunday school, canceled the adult Bible study, dumped the hymnals. Sacked the choir and put in a praise band and started preaching sermons that sound like they could be preached or done on Dr.

Phil's program. It's awful. I didn't expect a kind of purpose driven inquisition. Nobody expects the purpose driven inquisition.

Our chief weapon is purpose, purpose and vision, vision and purpose are two weapons. Our purpose and vision and ruthless relevance are three weapons.

Our purpose, vision and ruthless relevance in an almost fanatical devotion to record weapons. Now, amongst our weaponry are such elements as purpose, vision.

I'll come in again. I didn't expect a kind of purpose driven inquisition.

Nobody expects the purpose driven inquisition. Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as purpose, vision, ruthless relevance and almost fanatical devotion to Rick Warren and nice Hawaiian.

I can't say it. You have to say it. Uh, what? You have to say what the bits about our chief weapons are.

I couldn't do that. I didn't expect a kind of purpose driven inquisition.

Nobody expects, uh, expects, no, nobody expects the, um, purpose driven inquisition.

I know, I know. Nobody expects the purpose driven inquisition. In fact, those who do, uh, our chief weapons are, um, uh, uh, vision.

Our chief weapons are purpose. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Youth Pastor Rick, read the charges.

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Okay, we're going to switch gears here and we're not going to do a sermon review today. In lieu of a sermon review, what we're going to do is we're going to spend a little bit of time.

First of all, I'm going to tell you the story of Rahab. Okay, from the, from not only the scriptures, but also from how the church fathers have handled

Rahab. And I think it's important. And here's the reason why is because in the

Old Testament, what we have, the Greek words for it are tupos and skia, they are types and shadows.

Okay, these are types and shadows and almost typological prophecies, if you would, that point us to the redemptive work of Christ.

Everything is ultimately about him and his work on our behalf to save us lost and sinful human beings.

Okay. And to bring to himself, to cleanse for himself, his church, the bride.

Okay. That's really what we're looking at here. And so that you don't think that I'm just making this up, what

I'd like to do now, oftentimes I will point people to the story of Jesus on the day of the resurrection on the road to Emmaus with his disciples, where he opens up the scripture and shows them all the passages written about him.

I'm going to use a different text today. Okay. Because I use that one often, but there's more than just that one text.

So with that being said, let's start off just by reviewing Jesus's view of the word of God and who it's about.

If you have your Bible, open up to the gospel of John chapter five, and I'm going to start at verse one. I'm going to actually work through this entire chapter so that you can get in context, what's going on here.

And we can kind of flesh out, uh, you know, what Jesus's view of the old

Testament, who does Jesus think the old Testament is about? Okay. Is it, is it about you learning how to be a vision casting leader?

Yeah. Far from it. Okay. So John chapter five, verse one, we read this story. I think this is the only story in the gospels of somebody who was healed against his will.

Here's what it says. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool in Aramaic called

Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. And in these lay a multitude of invalids, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed one man there who, who had been an invalid for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed now?

So you kind of understand what's going on here is in the pool of Bethesda in, you know, in, in Jerusalem at this time, this is the day, these are the days before hospitals.

These are the days before, uh, pharmaceutical companies is the day before days before good medical treatment and things of that nature, as well as, um, the drugs that knock down, you know, antibiotics and things like that.

Um, so this was a special miraculous pool, if you would, where God in his mercy provided a place for people to be healed of their sickness.

And what would happen is, is that the, the, the, what we know of this place is that an angel, literally an angel of the

Lord would enter the waters at the pool of Bethesda. And when the waters were stirred first person in God healed, this was a merciful, amazing miraculous spot.

Okay. And trust me, if this were happening today, you know, we, this would be all over the news, but so, so here you've got this guy who's been an invalid for 38 years.

He'd spent a long, long, long time at the pool of Bethesda and somehow he's never managed to get into the water first.

Never once managed to get into the water first. So Jesus asked him straight up, do you want to be healed?

So the sick man answered, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. And while I'm going, another one steps down before me.

So Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk.

And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and he walked.

Now the day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it's the

Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.

And so they asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk. Now, the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place.

And afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well sin, no more so that nothing worse might happen to you.

So now you'll notice what's missing here from this man. And that would be a thank you,

Jesus. Yeah. Rather than there being a thank you, this is the response.

This is the man's response to Jesus is harsh words here. Jesus has healed them and has said to him, see, you know, sin no more so that nothing worse may happen to you.

So the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the

Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them for 17.

My father is working until now and I am working. So this was why the

Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even even calling

God his own father and making himself equal with God. A little

Christological note here. When we think of the term son of God, we in our culture today oftentimes miss the deep and important theological significance of that title son of God.

That is not a title by which Jesus is claiming inferiority to God.

No, the Jews had it right by claiming God the father as his father.

You know, God is his father. Jesus was, in fact, making himself equal with God. Well, because he's claiming to have the very same nature as the father by doing so.

So now we get into verse 19 and this begins a long discourse on the part of Jesus.

And in this discourse, we hear from Jesus himself as he's responding to these

Jews who want to kill him because he said that God is his father and he was making himself equal to God.

This is Jesus's response to them. And in here, we also have one of the major key passages, in fact, two verses in particular that tell us

Jesus's view of the Old Testament and what it's about. Here we read at verse 19.

So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise for the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them.

So also the son gives life to whom he will. The father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.

Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

Okay, we're going to build up to this a little bit here. Notice what Jesus said. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Great gospel promise there, by the way. So scripture is really, in fact, written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of God, and by believing have life in his name. And when you do that, when you're brought to repentant faith and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you do not come into judgment,

Jesus says here in verse 24. Instead, you have passed from death itself to life itself. That's how life -giving the gospel itself is.

Verse 25. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

So Jesus is claiming his voice is the very means by which resurrection occurs, the resurrection on the last day.

For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.

Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.

And those who've done good to the resurrection of life and those who've done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Next verse, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is sound because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

You sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

He was a burning and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

But the testimony that I have, I have is greater than that of John for the works that the father has given me to accomplish the very works that I am doing.

Bear witness about me that the father has sent me and the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.

His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

You diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they, the scriptures, that bear witness about me and yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life.

I'm going to pause there. Verse 39 and 40 here are critical. Jesus is making it clear that the

Old Testament, because the Gospels haven't been written at this point, okay? Not a single

New Testament text has been written. That's not to say the New Testament happenings, current historical events that are recorded for us in the

New Testament, many of them have taken place at this point but they haven't been written down. So the scriptures

Jesus is pointing to are the Old Testament texts themselves.

That's what he's pointing to. And he says of them, you diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

And it is they that bear witness about me. Jesus here makes it clear, the

Old Testament, they bear witness about him. And this is the key problem in the miniseries,

The Bauble. And that is that the producers and the theological advisors appear to be utterly clueless of this particular fact.

And the thing that's strange about it is that these are Christian advisors, Christian leaders,

Christian pastors who've advised the folks with the miniseries

The Bauble. And, well, the Old Testament doesn't appear to be about Jesus at all.

Doesn't seem to bear witness to Jesus at all. All of redemptive, all the major key elements of redemptive history have been expunged from the

Old Testament tellings found in the miniseries The Bauble. So we've got a problem.

Let me back this up. Verse 39, you diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

It is they that bear witness about me, and yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only

God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, and that's

Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for Moses wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

So here at the tail end here, Jesus makes it clear that Moses wrote of Jesus.

And this is not my opinion. I'm not putting out some theological speculation that I'd like you to consider, some brave novel idea that I've concocted while sitting in my armchair and doing theological pontificating.

Far from it. These are the very words of Christ himself. He says that Moses testifies about him.

That the Old Testament scriptures, that would be the Torah, the writings and the prophets, bear witness about him.

And yet there's not a hint, not a hint, in the Old Testament portion of the miniseries, the

Bible, that the Old Testament testifies about Jesus, that it's about him, and that we're looking at a redemptive history unfolding because there's no sin.

There's no sacrifice. There's no covering in the forgiveness of sins. There's no promise of a

Redeemer. The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament has been expunged.

It's gone. You know, in the first four hours of the miniseries, it's completely gone.

No mention of it and no listing out of even the Ten Commandments, which would tell you what a sin is.

This is troubling, troubling to say the least. Now, I'm not going to play for you any of the sound bites from the opening, you know, first 20 minutes of the part two of the

Bible, but suffice it to say this, that it opens with the story of Joshua getting, you know, they're just outside the city of Jericho.

They're getting ready to go into the promised land. And, you know, Joshua sends the spies, sends a couple of spies to spy out

Jericho. And, you know, and how they're, you know, if you were, the spies were apparently discovered.

They engaged in a small little mini battle, won the mini battle, which is not recorded in the book of Joshua at all.

And then Rahab, the prostitute helps hide the spies and, you know, and distract the people so that they can get back safely.

And apparently Rahab has a son and the spies give Rahab a scarlet thread and tell her to kind of hang that on her doorpost, you know, when it comes time for them to take the city and that's how they're going to be saved.

And, you know, it even goes so far as like the angel of the Lord that appears to Joshua on the eve of them circling the city of Jericho makes it clear that God wants

Rahab spared. But we don't understand any of the significance of Rahab.

And Rahab, by the way, she appears in the

New Testament. She appears in a couple of places in the New Testament. Let me pull this up in my computerized

Bible here. Here we go. Two texts. Okay. Two texts in particular.

Most importantly, Matthew chapter 1 verse 5.

Let me add a little bit of context so you see what's going on here. Okay. Matthew chapter 1 verse 3.

And Judah the father of Perez, Zerah by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Abinadab, Aminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king.

In Matthew's genealogy, there are two women listed who are known, well, not for their sexual purity.

Tamar who became impregnated by her father -in -law

Judah and Rahab the prostitute of Jericho. Rahab is a direct descendant of King David and her story is significant in redemption history.

It's just critical that you get this, that God literally saved a woman of ill repute from the city of Jericho.

And there's Christological and prophetic significance to this that while the church fathers understood this very clearly and preached on this.

But before we get to that, what I would like to do is actually read a little bit of the story to you. So if you have your

Bible, flip on over to the book of Joshua chapter 2, Joshua chapter 2, and I'll read for you what's taking place.

As the children of Israel are getting ready to take Jericho, here's what it says.

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies saying, go view the land, especially

Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

And it was told to the king of Jericho, behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.

Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you who entered your house for they have come to search out all of the land.

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, true, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from.

And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went.

Pursue them quickly for you will overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them in the stocks of flax.

And she had laid in order on a roof. So the men pursued them on the way to Jordan as far as the fords.

And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Now, before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men,

I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you went. You came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the

Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man because of you for the

Lord, your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the

Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you will also deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign and that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death.

And the men said to her, our life for yours, even to death. If you do not tell this business of ours and when the

Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. So then she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall.

And she said to them, go into the hills or the pursuers will encounter you and hide there for three days until the pursuers have returned.

Then afterwards, you may go your way. So then the men said to her, we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.

Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and you shall gather into your house, your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.

Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own and we shall be guiltless.

I'm going to point something out here. The scarlet cord on her window serves very much the same purpose as the blood of the lamb the lambs did at the

Passover in Egypt. OK, so now she has this scarlet red cord.

She's going to hang this out of her window. And this is very similar to the sign of the bloodslam that the children of Israel painted on the lentils of their doors on the night when the destroyer came through Egypt and killed the firstborn.

Every firstborn in Egypt would die unless a lamb had been substituted and its blood covered the door.

Same thing going on here. OK, but if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.

And she said, according to your words, so be it. And she went, she sent them away and they departed.

And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. And then one more quick note.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 mentions Rahab also. It says she's listed in the great hall of faith passage of scripture there in Hebrews 11 by faith.

Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Why did she give a friendly welcome to the spies? Well, she did that by faith. Now, to kind of point out here just the sheer importance of Rahab, OK, I'm going to cite several of the church fathers and their mentioning of Rahab in their handling of the text of Joshua chapter 2.

For instance, Gregory of Elvira. Here's what he says. It's kind of a long quote, but it's beautiful.

It's wonderful. Here's what Gregory wrote. He says, and Joshua, the son of none, it says, sent two spies from Shittim saying to them, go up and survey the land in Jericho.

When they arrived in Jericho, the two young men entered the house of a prostitute by the name of Rahab and stayed there as guests.

Pay attention to the structure of this mystery, most beloved brothers, and ask yourselves why men as great as these, for whom the

Lord had performed such marvels and miracles, entered the house of a woman of ill repute as if they were unable to lodge elsewhere.

They did this not by chance, I believe, but intentionally by a prophetic design.

For I find this prostitute in many places, not only as a hostess of the saints, but also as their bride.

The most holy prophet Hosea, for instance, was commanded by the Lord to accept a harlot as his wife.

For the Lord said to me, take for your wife a prostitute and generate children of prostitution.

Even our Lord and Savior himself, when he had sat down by the well in Samaria, conversed with an immoral woman to whom no one had previously spoken there.

After he said to her, you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband, she believed that he was the

Messiah. That is, she confessed him to be the Christ. Then there was the harlot who washed the

Savior's feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and anointed them while kissing them.

Let us see, therefore, what our hostess represents. This Rahab, although she is called a prostitute, nevertheless is a sign of the virgin church, considered as a foreshadow of the coming realities at the end of the age, where she alone is preserved to life among all who are perishing.

For even when it was said to the prophet Hosea, take for your wife a prostitute, surely then the image of the church as coming from Gentiles was being prefigured, given that the people were to be gathered from the harlotry of the nations and from prostitution with idols, for it says they prostituted themselves to strange gods.

Indeed, she is called the church because the Greek word ekklesia means gathering of the people, and just as the apostle says an unfaithful wife is sanctified through her faithful husband, so also is the church, coming from the infidelity of the

Gentiles and prostitution with idols, sanctified through the body of Christ of which we are members, as we learn from the same apostolic author, because the church

I have often said gathered from the multitude of Gentiles was then called a prostitute.

Therefore, the church is found in the figure of Rahab, the hostess of the saints.

Beautiful text, absolutely beautiful text. Now let me read to you another church father,

John Christostom, and he was preaching on this particular text, this is a homily of his, homilies on repentance and almsgiving is where you can find this particular sermon.

Here is what he says regarding Rahab, By faith Rahab the prostitute, so Christostom starts with the

Hebrew text, By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies, but she directed their departure by another road.

And pay attention to how much wisdom she blended with her prudence. When those sent by the king came and requested the spies, they asked her,

Did men enter in here and come near to you? She answers them, Yes, they entered.

First she builds the truth, and then she applies the lie on top of it. For no lie like this becomes believable unless it first reveals the truth.

For this reason, all who tell lies, probably to be believed, first speak of truths and reveal confessions, and later add lies and things which are questionable.

Spies entered in here and came near you? Yes, she says. If she had said no from the beginning, she would have challenged the messengers to investigate.

However, they entered in, she says, and they came out and escaped by such and such a road.

Pursue them, and you will capture them. Oh, this good lie! Oh, this good fraud, which does not betray the divine but safeguards the sacred!

When the mouths of the saints preached the repentance that made Rahab worthy of such salvation, for example,

Joshua the son of Nun who shouts in the desert, Let Rahab the prostitute live!

Paul says, By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient.

Will we not receive salvation even more so when we offer to God our repentance?

Absolutely brilliant point there. Here's another quote from Christosom regarding Rahab. Do you see how with faith she takes on her lips the word of the lawgiver?

And I realize that your God is up in heaven and down on earth, and that apart from him there is no God. Rahab is a prefigurement of the church, which was at one time mixed up in the prostitution of the demons and which now accepts the spies of Christ, not the ones sent by Joshua the son of Nun, but the apostles who were sent by Jesus the true

Savior. I learned, she says, that your God is up in heaven and down on earth, and that apart from him there is no

God. The Jews received these things and did not safeguard them. The church heard these things and preserved them.

Therefore, Rahab the prostitute is a prefigurement of the church and is worthy of all praise.

One more quote. This is from Clement of Rome from his epistle to the Corinthians. He writes,

For her faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved. For when the spies were sent forth into Jericho by Joshua the son of Nun, the king of the land perceived that they were coming to spy out his country, and he sent forth men to seize them, that being seized they might be put to death.

So the hospitable Rahab received them and hid them in the upper chamber under the flax stalks.

And when the messengers of the king came near and said, The spies of our land entered into your house.

Bring them forth, for the king so orders. Then she answered, The men truly whom you seek came to me, but they departed immediately and are journeying on the way.

And she pointed out to them the opposite road. And she said to the men, Without a doubt I perceive that the

Lord your God will deliver this city to you, for the fear and the dread of you has fallen upon its inhabitants.

And when, therefore, it shall come to pass that you take it, save me and the house of my father.

And they said to her, It shall be even so as you have spoken to us. Therefore, when you perceive that we are coming, you shall gather all your folk beneath your roof, and they shall be saved.

For as many as shall be found outside of the house shall perish. And moreover, they gave her a sign, that she could hang out from her house a scarlet thread, thereby showing beforehand that through the blood of the

Lord there shall be redemption for all of them that believe and hope on God.

You see, dearly beloved, not only faith, but prophecy is found in the woman

Rahab. Now, I know that you may be tempted to think that I'm just being nitpicky here, but I'm not.

And here's the reason why, is because when you understand what Jesus is telling us about the

Old Testament, that it's about Him, when you understand what God the Holy Spirit has revealed in the

New Testament regarding the Old Testament, that in the Old Testament we have types and shadows, and in the

New Testament we have the fulfillment, the very reality that those types and shadows point to, then you understand what the

Old Testament is about. It's the unfolding of redemptive history and the fulfilling of the promise of God made in the garden, that He would save us through the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

And when you understand that Scripture is about Christ, and that these are types and shadows that point us to the reality that's fulfilled in the

New Testament, then little details like Rahab are no longer small details. They're not minor.

They're major. Because they are pictures of salvation and redemption by faith.

And the fact that the producers of the Bible had

Rahab in there and had no clue, made no hint whatsoever as to her significant importance in the very genealogy of Jesus, her significant importance as being a foreshadow, a type and shadow that points us to the church that's saved, the prostitute church that's turned into the bride of Christ, that redemption history and all of its details is completely missing from the first four hours of the miniseries, the

Bible, that this isn't minor stuff that we're dealing with here.

This is the very major stuff, the very central message of Scripture that has been expunged and completely done away with by Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, and their theological advisors,

Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and T .D. Jakes. This is not some accident. This is not some fluke.

This is not me being nitpicky. This is me basically claiming that their miniseries, the

Bible, is missing the central message of the actual

Bible itself. The Rahab the prostitute piece is just one instance of that.

Let me give you the other. I played for you in the first hour the soundbite from David being confronted by Nathan the prophet regarding his adultery and murder, his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband,

Uriah the Hittite. And after that confrontation, David wasn't penitent at all.

There was no assurance of forgiveness even offered to him.

And it's as if they have no clue how this fits into the story of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

And that because of this, we have Psalm 51 from the great Psalmist David. Now, let me read to you that story as well as David's psalms so that you can see what else is missing.

I'm telling you, the entire core central message of the Bible is missing from the

History Channel miniseries, The Babel. 2

Samuel chapter 11 verse 1. I read, In the spring of the year, that time when kings go out to battle,

David sent Joab and his servants with him in all of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites, besieged

Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon, when

David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

And David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is not this

Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.

Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent to David, I am pregnant.

So David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David.

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war was going.

And then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house, wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

So when they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey?

Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord

Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife?

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. So then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow

I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk.

And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote,

Send Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David also among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told

David all the news about the fighting, and he instructed the messenger, When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises and he says to you,

Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?

Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jeroboam? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebes?

Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant

Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told

David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, and we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant

Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messengers, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another.

Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it, and encourage him. So when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.

And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. And the Lord sent Nathan to David.

He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other very poor.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.

And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd or prepare for the guest who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.

And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the

Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the

Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the

Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the

Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the

Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel before the sun.

David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

And Nathan said to David, The Lord also has put away your sin.

You shall not die. Nevertheless, because you did this deed, you have utterly scorned the

Lord. The child who was born to you shall die. And then Nathan went to his house, and then the

Lord afflicted the child. Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick, and he eventually died.

But what happened with David when he was confronted with his sin? Notice he didn't repent on his own.

God sent Nathan the prophet and exposed his sin and confronted him with it.

Did David dig in his heels and say, you know, well, we'll see.

We'll see if what happens. We'll see what God does. Was he impenitent? No, far from it.

He was penitent, and he confessed. And what did he say? I have sinned against the

Lord. And he received from Nathan, about as close as an

Old Testament version that you're going to find, absolution, the assurance that the

Lord has put away his sin. And what does David do after this confrontation with Nathan where he's confronted with his own sin?

David goes to his chamber, and he pens a psalm written under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit. The opening to this says, to the choir masters, Psalm of David, when

Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba, Psalm 51.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness, and let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart,

O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

And then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,

O God. You will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.

Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings.

Then bowls will be offered on your altar. This is gospel.

This is the very heart of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

God does not cast David aside, but God mercifully forgives him.

Yes, there are temporal consequences to be paid, and yet David is absolved.

God does not take his spirit from him. Proof is the fact that he wrote this inspired psalm and renews his heart.

David confesses his sins, and this is good news for me, and this is good news for you. Because if God is in the business of forgiving adulterers, murderers, and prostitutes, like Rahab, and absolving and forgiving them by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, then there is hope.

There is hope for sinners like me and sinners like you. God is merciful, and He is kind, and all of the

Old Testament points to His mercy and His steadfast love and His long -suffering.

He is slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love, and He blots out transgressions through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, not through the blood of bowls and sacrifices, but through the blood of the very

One whom the Old Testament points us to. And unfortunately, the producers and theological advisors of the

History Channel miniseries, The Bible, appear to be utterly clueless that this is the very central message of Scripture.

The fact that they would portray the story of David and Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the

Hittite without even a hint, a hint of the forgiveness of David's sin and how he penned the 51st

Psalm as a result of it. The fact that there's no, there's no sacrifices.

The Passover's gone. All of redemptive history seems to be chucked out in favor of basically telling leadership parables.

Tells me that what we're dealing with theologically in the miniseries, The Bible, now

I'm calling it The Bauble. This is not any place that you want to get your theology from.

Any place whatsoever. Not you, not your friends, not your co -workers, not your children, anybody.

The theology in this thing is patently corrupt because like the Jews of Jesus' time, they diligently searched the scriptures because they think that in them they have life.

And yet they are the very scriptures that testify about Jesus. And the producers of this miniseries are clueless about how these scriptures testify of him and what he's done and his mercy, his forgiveness, his shed blood, and the call in all of the pages of scripture for sinners, idolaters, murderers, adulterers like me and like you to repent and have their sins washed away and to be forgiven by God himself.

So that you and I do not have to face destruction on the day of judgment when

Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. But know that just like Rahab the prostitute was spared and lived on the day that Jericho was in judgment, her and her family, you and I like Rahab the prostitute, we have our scarlet thread.

We have that scarlet thread and that's the blood of Christ. And that is what saves us so that we do not face death and destruction and damnation on the day of judgment.

But like Rahab, we're freed. We're saved because she prefigures the very church that Christ will take and save and bring to himself on the last day.

And yet the producers of the Bible are completely clueless that this is the central core message of scripture, that it's all about Christ.

And as a result of it, they're making it about something else other than Jesus, other than redemptive history.

And because of that, they've lost the entire Bible itself.

What the Bible miniseries is a bunch of mythological leadership fables.

That's what they've reduced the Old Testament to. And they do so to their own shame and dishonor and possibly eternal shame and dishonor from Christ himself when he returns in glory.

Something to think about. All right, we're at the end of another edition of Fighting for the

Faith. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the Faith, you could do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com

or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com forward slash PirateChristian or you can follow me on Twitter, my name there, at PirateChristian.

Until tomorrow, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.