Some CAUTION About The Bible Project!

The Bible Project, Tim Mackey, and the Need for Caution

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about The Bible Project and its co-founder, Tim Mackey.

Now, The Bible Project is an organization that creates animated videos instructing people in the biblical narrative. The videos are really well made, and I think it's easy to see why they're so popular.

And I think their content has been really beneficial for a lot of people, so there's no reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater. But with that said, there's a few things about The Bible Project that I find really quite troubling.

This is something you might want to be aware of, especially if you're going to watch their content. To begin, most of the things that trouble me center around statements made by Tim Mackey, the co-founder, creative director, and narrator of The Bible Project.

And my major concerns are twofold. First, his doctrine of the atonement, and second, his doctrine of hell. So let's start with the atonement. Pastor Richard Sweatman wrote an excellent article about The Bible Project, based on his research, and I will link that article in the description.

You see, while reviewing their doctrine, Richard realized that one particular idea was consistently removed from their content. And that idea was God's wrath and His direct anger at sinful humanity. This is undoubtedly part of the atonement.

In John 3 .36, Jesus says, "...whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.". That word wrath in Greek is orge, which means anger, indignation, or anger exhibited in punishment.

Make no mistake about it, God is wrathful towards sinners. In Romans 2 .5, Paul says,. "...but because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.".

So there is wrath being stored up which rests on the sinner who will not turn to the Lord in his heart, and it will be revealed by the Great Judge on the final day. Indeed, Ephesians 2 .3 says that before we were saved we were, quote, children of wrath.

So this idea that God has direct judicious anger towards sinners is not one that can be dismissed. And there are many biblical passages which tell us that this is the case. But this is not a concept that The Bible Project seems to present in any of their content.

In fact, the evidence demonstrates that they intentionally avoid this topic. So let me show you a few examples. Here's one from their video entitled, Sacrifice and Atonement. Watch this.

Something compels us humans to constantly wreak havoc and destruction instead, and we call this evil. And from the Bible's point of view, evil ruins things in at least two ways. There's a direct effect of our evil, like when someone steals from another person, they've created injustice.

Therefore, you know, they owe something to make it right. But there's another indirect effect of evil, because they've also ruined the environment of the relationship, creating a lack of trust, there's emotional damage.

It's like vandalism, and they need to make that right, too.

So according to their video, the two consequences of sin are injustice against others and the ruining of relationship. This is absolutely true, as far as it goes. The problem is that if this represents The Bible Project's entire view, then it's certainly not going far enough.

There is no discussion in this video about the wrath or anger of God that He has towards those who break His holy standards. Watch this.

And so all over the New Testament, we hear about how Jesus' death was an atoning sacrifice for us. It covered the debt that humans owe God for contributing to all of the evil and death in His world. But the New Testament authors also talk about Jesus' death as providing purification.

So now they make the case that the atonement of Christ has cancelled out the debt that humans owe God for our sin. And that is again, 100 true. Yes and amen. Richard Swetman's article aptly notes that Jesus does indeed describe sin as a sort of debt in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18.

But this still does not make any real mention of the direct punitive wrath that God has towards the unforgiven man. And this isn't just something that we see in their video on the atonement. It also happens in their video entitled, quote, The Gospel of the Kingdom.

Watch this.

That's right. But for Jesus, this is what had to happen. Jesus saw the sin and the devastation of His people Israel as just one small part of the entire human condition, how all humanity has rebelled against God, resulting in the tragedy and devastation of our whole world.

So according to this video, our rebellion against God results in the, quote, tragedy and devastation of our world. Again, true. It is notable, though, that in a discussion about rebellion, God's wrath would not come up.

Because all throughout the Old Testament especially, we see that consistent and unrepentant rebellion leads to some sort of punitive wrath from God. One example would be Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, where God literally poured out His wrath in the form of fire from the heavens.

In another example, there's a prophecy against Philistia in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 25, verse 17. It says, quote, I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon them.

You see, the idea that God would never have direct anger or vengeance towards a person is simply not true. But there is yet another example of the Bible project ignoring the wrath of God, this time from their video on Romans 1 -4.

Watch this.

He shows how all the Gentile world, all the nations, have become trapped in the spiral of sin and selfishness. The human heart and mind are broken, Paul says. We've turned away from God to embrace idolatry, which means finding ultimate significance in created things and then giving ultimate allegiance to these things that are not God.

This results in a distortion of our humanity and destructive behavior. And so what's left is a humanity that stands guilty as charged before a just and righteous God.

So as a consequence of sin and idolatry, we get, according to the Bible project, quote, a broken heart and mind, distortion of our humanity, and destructive behavior. Once again, and I may be sounding like a broken record at this point, this is absolutely true.

However, also again, we see the consequence of God's wrath seemingly removed from the equation. And this is very significant with regard to Romans 1 -4, because this section of Scripture absolutely does talk about the wrath of God.

Romans 1 -8 says, quote,. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And Romans 3 -25 says that Jesus was, quote, put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. Now that word propitiation isn't used very often. It refers to, quote, an expiatory sacrifice or a, quote, sacrifice of appeasement.

So the question is, what exactly is being appeased by Jesus on the cross? Well, among other things, God's wrath. Romans 5 -9 says, quote,. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.

So we are being saved from the wrath and anger of the Lord. And it is curious that the Bible Project has left this concept out of their video on Romans, despite the fact that Romans clearly describes it.

Also, there is another video in which Tim Mackey seems to have critiqued the idea of penal substitutionary atonement, or really, atonement involving direct anger and wrath of God. In one video, he dismissively says that thinking of God in this way conjures up the image of a God who, quote, needs His pound of flesh in the name of justice.

So not only is the concept of God's wrath removed from the Bible Project's content, but Tim Mackey has directly presented it as absurd and ridiculous. But again, there are plenty of passages in Scripture demonstrating the wrath of God, many of which have been quoted to you today.

And importantly, we know that part of the astounding majesty of the Gospel is that Jesus took the wrath of God that was stored up for us upon Himself. Thus, we are able to joyfully sing the hymn which says that on the cross, quote, the wrath of God was satisfied.

But it seems that in the theology of Tim Mackey, and by extension, the Bible Project, there is no room for a song like this. Nor is there room for a serious doctrinal recognition of God's wrath as exemplified in the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Hell, Judgment, and God’s Role in Punishment

But this wrathless view of God does not just influence Tim's view of the atonement, but also his view of hell. Both of the following videos were put together by Pastor Gabe Hughes from the YouTube channel We Understand the Text.

He has made two excellent videos offering a biblical analysis of the Bible Project. Those will be linked in the description, and I highly recommend that you watch them and subscribe. But here's the first clip.

Watch this. Whatever hell is, God didn't make it. Hell is something that humans have created.

So according to Tim, hell is not something that God made. It is a place that human beings have made for themselves by rejecting God. But that's not all he says about hell. Watch this.

Hell, and that word and what that refers to, it's not someplace other than heaven and earth. It's a place where people are sustained by God's mercy and care, but God allows them the dignity of not being in a relationship with Him if they don't want.

So let's put this all together.

He says that hell is a place of man's creation. It is meant to display the, quote, dignity and free will of mankind. And also, it is a place where people are sustained by God's, quote, mercy and care.

A place where people are simply allowed to not be in relationship with God if they don't want to be. There are several problems with this view. First, hell is not a place that demonstrates, quote, mercy and care.

In fact, hell, by definition, is the opposite of mercy. When the rich man asked for the small, quote, mercy of a drop of water on his tongue in Luke 16, 24, he was denied. So to associate hell with mercy is a fundamentally unbiblical thing to do.

Second, let's recognize that he technically is right in some areas here. Yes, without human beings and fallen angels sinning, there would theoretically not be a hell. And yes, the people who go to hell are directly choosing to sin against God.

The problem is that Tim Mackey presents hell as something that God has, essentially, no direct part in. In his view, hell is only something that human beings are creating and sustaining on their own. God is completely off doing something else in heaven as a bystander.

The problem with this view is that the Bible tells us explicitly that God has a direct role to play in all of this. In other words, God is involved with hell. Several biblical passages give us the imagery of God casting or throwing people into eternal punishment.

Matthew 10, 28, says,. The obvious conclusion here is that God is the one doing the destroying. Revelation 20, 15 says,. The word thrown here has the connotation of pouring out, or casting out, or thrusting out something.

And in Matthew 25, 41, Jesus says,. So Jesus will actively tell these people where to go on Judgment Day. He will say,. Depart from me into hell. This is not representing God as being fully separate from what's going on here.

Rather, it seems as though He's involved. Also, the passage says that this is a place of judgment that has been prepared for them. The natural assumption is that this has been prepared by God. Then verse 46 says,.

And again, we see the one who is making the punitive judgment, the one who is telling people where to go in eternity, is God. Also, the word punishment here implies that there is a Punisher. So who's just punishment is being enacted in hell, according to Scripture?

God. Revelation 6, 16 says that all the people were,. The fear these people are experiencing is not the fear of the personal broken relationships or emotional dissatisfaction that their selfish behavior has caused.

No, their fear is directed towards the wrath of the Lamb. The idea presented by Tim Mackey is that God's punishment and wrath are not involved in this process. But the Bible shows us something completely different.

To suggest that the Lord is not a God who pours out His anger and wrath on people is a complete biblical contradiction. After all, did God not drown the whole world with a flood in Genesis 7? Did God not smite Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19?

Did God not pour out His wrath on the Egyptians with plagues in Exodus? And in Numbers 16, did God not open up the very earth itself and swallow up Korah and all the people who belong to Him? And most of all, here is the greatest question of concern.

Did God not pour out His own wrath on His own Son so that we might be washed clean and forgiven? These aren't trivial questions, they really matter. But frankly, I am not satisfied with the answers that The Bible Project has to offer on this, and I hope this video has demonstrated why.

Tim Mackey and The Bible Project have done a lot of helpful work, true enough. But they are also presenting the world with a God who has been drained of His anger and His wrath. And this is not nearly as accurate a picture as it could be, and this ought to be very concerning to all of us.

So if you're going to watch The Bible Project, go ahead. But I would encourage you to watch the videos and read the articles I've put in the description so that you can get the whole story. And as long as Tim Mackey and The Bible Project continue this pattern, proceed with caution.

I pray this has been a blessing to you, and please know this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique. Pray for this channel and for anyone discussed in the video. Many of you are looking for teaching resources or trying to find a new church.

If so, check out the teaching ministries and church networks linked in the description. And by God's grace, let's move forward joyfully, holding to the truth of God's Word. Thank you so much for watching that video.

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