Theological Errors of the History Channel's Miniseries "The Bible"

It's time for another edition of Fighting for the

Faith, Monday, March 4th, 2013. Man, have we got a lot of ground to cover today.

Yep, we'll be talking about the miniseries on the History Channel entitled, The Bible, and why you don't want to get your theology from that thing.

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. Now, today we actually have the awkward thing to do here, and that's to compare the

Bible to the Bible. I'm not talking about the Word of God to the Word of God. I'm actually talking about the written

Word of God to the movie, the miniseries on the History Channel entitled,

The Bible. But before we get to that, before we get to that, I just want to take a moment and thank everybody that came out this weekend to Trinity Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Virginia, and to the lectures that I presented there entitled,

How to Not Be Deceived, Bamboozled, or Snookered by Religious Hucksters, Snake Oil Comment, or Your Own Idolatrous Notions.

We had a fantastic turnout. It was wonderful to meet many of you who are listeners to Fighting for the

Faith. And just so you know, we did record them, and I will be giving this exact same set of lectures at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church in Oslo, Minnesota, on March 23rd.

And they're just north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. So we won't be releasing the audio from these things immediately.

In fact, I'm strongly considering working them into the light editions of Fighting for the Faith, at least three of the four sessions.

So as silly as it sounds, I mean, I lectured for almost five hours on Saturday, and we had a fantastic turnout.

We all had lunch together. It was just a great event. And my thanks go out to the folks at Trinity Lutheran Church for inviting me and hosting the event.

They were fantastic and gracious hosts, and the feedback was wonderful, and meeting you all was just very encouraging.

So let me thank you all, for those of you who turned out, and thank you for your generosity. That being said, we're going to switch gears here.

We're going to switch. See, I have to go to Segway school. I need to work on my Segways. I apparently need some help.

I'm steering this ship too quickly, you know. It's like, so we're cruising along, going this direction. All of a sudden, turn the wheel, and we've got to switch gears here.

So that's what we're doing today. Okay. Have you all been keeping track of or did you watch last night the

History Channel's first two hours of their new 10 -hour miniseries entitled

The Bible? Now, if you watched it last night, then you know that there are some major problems with this miniseries.

Major problems. Now, hang on a second here. I need to Google something really quick. It's the economy.

Hang on a second here. Was it George Carville? Hang on a second here.

I'm trying to. Yes, James Carville. I'm aging myself here.

There's some major problems with the miniseries The Bible. Those of you who remember back to the

Clinton administration and Clinton's campaign strategist, James Carville, he had a phrase that was basically addressing the issue as to why

Bill Clinton was so popular and why he beat George Bush. And his statement was, and I apologize for using this word, but his statement was, it's the economy, stupid, right?

And you go, okay, yeah, I remember that. Exactly. So it's become kind of a popular phrase in political jockeying and parlance, and it's the economy, stupid.

Well, I'm not going to use that last part. But think of it this way.

I know that some of you out there are expressing on your Facebook wall concerns regarding the clear theological and historical problems with the miniseries

The Bible. Because there are a ton of churches out there promoting this miniseries, telling the fact there's small group studies that are being formed around it.

There are major megachurches like Rick Warren's. By the way, Rick Warren yesterday just started a whole new sermon series based upon the miniseries

The Bible. And how much do you want to bet he quotes the movie more accurately than he does the written word of God?

I'm just saying. But anyway, so there's a lot of people out there who are evangelical Christians who are being encouraged by their pastors or small group study leaders or friends who are

Christians to participate and support this historically and biblically accurate portrayal.

Because there's a lot of feeling out there that it seems like all the major Hollywood productions that have had to do with the

Bible have for one reason or another fallen flat or had some problems. I think about the miniseries that was popular when

I was a kid. I don't know which of the three major networks, it was

ABC, CBS, or NBC that aired it originally. But you all remember the miniseries

Jesus of Nazareth? Now, I remember when

I was attending evangelical Christian schools and things like that, you would say, Hey, have you seen that movie series

Jesus of Nazareth? If there was a teacher in the room, you'd get one of those kind of weird looks from the teacher.

They'd go, Yeah, that was disappointing. And you'd go,

Okay, I watched it. I thought it was okay. I thought it was kind of interesting. So you'd ask the teacher,

Why was it disappointing? And they'd say, Yeah, well, that Jesus was really

Catholic. And you'd go, Oh, yeah, okay, he was really Catholic. So apparently the

Jesus of Nazareth documentary was slanted towards Catholicism.

Now, it has been so long since I've seen that, I couldn't tell you if it's true or false.

I don't even remember the last time I saw that. Anyway, but you get what I'm saying.

So there's kind of this feeling that no one has really set out to correctly show us what really took place in the

Bible. And so, of course, I think there's a lot of people, because evangelical leaders are promoting this thing, that they are being led to believe that this thing is, well, the

God's honest truth, that what they're going to be getting is just biblical gold. But nothing could be further from the truth.

And so coming back to my James Carville analogy here, remember, James Carville said, you know, it's the economy stupid.

Well, in this particular case, it's the theology. Now, I'm not going to say it's the theology stupid.

I don't want to put it that way. But that's really what we're dealing with here. When it comes down to it, what's wrong with the

Bible, and I'm talking about the miniseries, not the written word of God. In fact, clearly, clearly, in this particular case, the book is far superior to the movie.

Stick to the book. Just stick to the book. Because what's wrong with this is the theology.

And so what I intend to do or what I've set out to do as my goal for the first hour today— it's a great goal, by the way.

Hopefully, I will achieve my goal. But my goal for the first hour is to lay out the case as to why you should not get your theology like at all from the miniseries, the

Bible. And there's some really good reasons why you should not be getting it. And so we're going to walk through what are like the theological problems with it.

Now, on top of this, there's some also historical problems with it. They have clearly taken some ridiculous license in the storytelling of this particular miniseries.

For instance, just by way of a note here, you're familiar with the whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Well, what's interesting about their storytelling of Sodom and Gomorrah is there isn't a single hint that Sodom and Gomorrah are being judged for anything that has to do with the sin that's come to be known as sodomy.

In fact, there isn't even a wisp of any homosexual anything whatsoever with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Instead, what they show is inside the city of Sodom, it looks like Cirque du

Soleil. They've got flamethrowers, and then you've got a whole bunch of guys kind of making out with girls right there in the hallway.

So there's fornicaboodling guys. But so there's no hint at all of the sin of sodomy.

And so it's like, well, that's interesting. And then what happens is when the angels come into Sodom, they literally turn into the movie

The Matrix like ninja warriors. Yeah, that was rather interesting.

I don't recall that Neo and the guys from The Matrix were actually angels that were there at Sodom.

I mean, we're talking some sweet moves here. I mean, some major ninja stuff going on.

And so it's fact it's so stupid, it's laughable. But anyway, but you got to admit the

CGI is great. The CGI is great. I mean, yes, when they part the Red Sea, I mean, it looks like the Red Sea is parting.

This is all fantastic. So I'm happy for the special effects. But coming back to the point, it's the theology.

The theology is, yeah, it's not good. Es no bueno.

It's muy mal. It's not good. It's very bad. As they would say in Hebrew, lo kol kak tov.

It's not good. So anyway, what we'll be doing here, in fact, we're going to get to it in just a minute, is kind of telling the story, if you would, as to why you don't want to get your theology from this miniseries.

And if anyone is inviting you to participate in the, you know what it's called. You know what they're calling it, the 30 -day

Bible experience. If anyone's inviting you to a 30 -day Bible experience, small group Bible study, don't go.

Don't go unless you're ready to say, oh, that's not in the Bible. Oh, that's just. Oh, can you believe how they change.

Oh, that's the. Don't go unless you're prepared to do that. Because if you play along with their theology, it's going to mess you up.

That's all I got to say. So with that, I think we're going to dive into the program proper.

And I don't have any miniseries Bible update music.

Although if you have any suggestions, I mean, since we're going to have to be doing several installments regarding this movie series.

Oh, man. I just am not looking forward to it. So with that, we're going to dive into the program. You know what, I should do it.

You know, I should probably do this. I should play our standard warning. You know, since I don't have any update music, just so that you are warned ahead of time as to what it is that you are going to experience as we play different sound bites from not only the extended trailer but from last night's first two hours of the

Bible. And it's not the Bible. In fact, it irks me that they've named it the Bible because that's really misleading. But here is our standard warning and then we'll just dive right into it.

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Please take proper precautions. Drinking straws, padding, and duct tape are recommended. Okay. We begin our storytelling, if you would.

Storytelling to tell you about the story of, well, the mini -series from the History Channel called The Bible as to what's wrong with it by going back in time.

Not very far back. In fact, just back to February 28th, just last week, to the

Fox News Channel where Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who are responsible for producing this mini -series and creating it and bringing it to life, where they appeared on the

Fox and Friends program, television program, in order to discuss this latest project of yours,

The Bible. And as we listen to Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, pay close attention to anything that they say that may alert you or give you a heads up as to what you can expect from this mini -series theologically, doctrinally.

Because remember, it's all about the theology. That's the thing you gotta be paying attention to.

So, without any further ado, here's Mark Burnett and Roma Downey and their appearance last week on Fox and Friends to discuss, well,

The Bible. Powerful. Joining us now, the power couple behind the mini -series called The Bible. Reality TV creator

Mark Burnett. You know him from the show Survivor. And his wife, actress Roma Downey. Good to see the both of you together.

So wonderful. I'm looking so forward to this series because it looks like the entire family can watch it together.

It really is family programming and it's for young, it's for old. And equally importantly, it's for teenagers.

We have three teenagers who gave us some advice as we left for Morocco for six months and said, please guys, don't make the special effects lame.

These kids are used to The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and we've really knocked it out of the park with the special effects. And the great news is just this last week, they took a clip into their high school and they screened it for the whole school body so we know that we must have got it right.

Well, that's terrific because a kid's that age, you know, it's so hard to get. So they know they got it right because they previewed it at a high school and the kids liked the special effects.

That's the proof in the theological pudding that you got it right. We continue.

Put down their iPhones and stop texting for a minute. So what really becomes critical are the stories that you tell because they've got to somehow be, you know, something that the kid and the vast viewing audience of all ages as well would find interesting today.

Yeah, big battle scenes in the Old Testament, obviously. Epic stuff with the parting of the Red Sea, Jericho wars come down,

Daniel and Lion's Den, and, of course, Jesus walking on water. Just really, really epic stuff. We go right through to Revelation.

So you say you do the Old Testament and the New Testament. How is it broken down? How many go into each series?

We have five episodes for the Old Testament, five for the New. We're going to be on five weeks.

It's five next Sundays with the finale on Easter Sunday. I thought it was amazing to see

Jaws, that bestseller, become a movie. That was intimidating. How intimidating is it to get the bestseller of the Bible into a

TV series? Mark, did that even intimidate you, too? Now, listen to their answer, okay?

So, I mean, did it intimidate you, too, to take the bestselling book of all time in history, the

Bible, and turn it into a miniseries? Well, here's their answer. You know, we took it very seriously and hired lots of advisors and theologians.

So they took it seriously, and they hired lots of advisors and theologians.

Oh, good. So that means we're going to get great theology. Can you tell me who the theologians were that you hired?

Rick Warren is one of our big advisors. Rick Warren. Joel Osteen, Bishop Jakes. Joel Osteen and T .D.

Jakes. I hate to break it to you all, but theologically, the project, the

Bible, the miniseries on the History Channel, was doomed from the beginning. And here's the simple reason why, okay?

Because Jesus himself makes it clear. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

T .D. Jakes doesn't even believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. Joel Osteen, I don't think he actually knows how to read the

Bible. And Rick Warren, his favorite pastime is to take the Bible and twist it into a pretzel and make it say whatever he wants to say.

So those were your top three theological advisors that you hired to help you with this miniseries.

Now what does this mean? Well, since a bad tree can't bear good fruit, the thing that we should expect, and the thing

I will demonstrate to you is the case, is that this miniseries is nothing less than a purpose -driven rewrite of the

Bible. A purpose -driven rewrite. The major theology in this is seeker -driven, vision -casting, change -the -world type of theology.

The stuff that we cover on a daily basis here at Fighting for the Faith. In fact, let me tell you what we're going to be doing in hour number two here, because I know that this seems a little out of sorts, but it's not.

It actually has everything to do with it. The sermon that we're going to be reviewing today in hour number two is called

See It. It's called See It, and it's from the Summit Church. And this is a sermon that mimics, well, actually perfectly puts forward the exact same theology that you will see on display in the miniseries called the

Bible. So basically what we should expect is vision -casting leadership, change -the -world theology, complete botching of what is that's wrong with humanity, and as a result of it, not understanding what the solution is that's offered in Scripture.

So you're going to get basically some really good production value for some really, really rotten, false theology, because it's all about the theology.

But let's listen a little bit more to Mark Burnett and Roma Downey discuss this so that we know what's going on here.

So there's some big, big advisors. Yeah. But once you commit, you just got to do it. Let me ask you why it was so important for you personally to do this, because let's face it, sometimes in Hollywood, talking about Christianity and the fact that you're a big believer is not necessarily really popular to make into a

TV series. So why did you do this? Was it because you wanted to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name so that people would be confronted with their sin and comforted with the good news that Jesus Christ, the one true

God in human flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified for their sins and then was raised again bodily on the third day and is calling them to repent and to trust in him for the forgiveness of their...

Is that the reason why? That would be like the biblical Christian reason why you would want to produce something like this.

Well, let's hear what Roma has to say. You know what, I think we're... I'm sorry, that's not Roma. That's Mark.

...head of our game in that next year, the Bible will be really popular in Hollywood.

I mean, first one's coming out, it's Noah with Russell Crowe. Yes. Spielberg's working on Moses. Fox are working on Moses.

Mark's not really answering the question, by the way. At Pitch, apparently, it's going to be Pontius Pilate. That'll be interesting. So I think, actually, it goes cyclically, but we made it because we love the

Bible. You made it because you love the Bible. See, now we're finally getting to the answer to the question. We also think there's a sense of biblical illiteracy, sort of embarrassingly.

Oh, man, the irony here is just thick. Okay, so...

Mark Burnett is concerned about the epidemic of biblical illiteracy out there, but having watched the extended trailer as well, and by the way, the extended preview trailer was for ministry folks, so I qualified, was nearly an hour long, and so it gives you a really good rundown of what's going to happen in the upcoming subsequent 10 hours on TV.

Plus, having watched last night's first installment, the first two hours, I've watched it twice now, so I can definitively say that if you watch the miniseries,

The Bible, you will be, and you think that's actually what the Bible teaches, you will be more biblically illiterate at the end of this 10 hours than when you started.

So they love the Bible. They're concerned about biblical illiteracy. How about anything to do with Jesus Christ and him crucified for our sins and people trusting in him for forgiveness of their sins, and things like that, the standard

Christian biblical answers. In America right now. Roma, did your TV series let America know that they care?

The success of your TV series let everybody know you can put out a series that had the right values and beliefs?

I think absolutely. I think people are hungry for hope. Hungry for hope.

Oh, no. People are hungry for meaning in their lives. That would be purpose -driven -ism.

They're hungry for hope. They're hungry for meaning. So we're going to write the Bible series, the miniseries, The Bible, to help people who are hungry for hope and looking for meaning.

People are hungry for God. Which one? Because I'm not convinced that you actually believe in the same

God that I believe in. Because after watching how God has been rewritten, and these characters are rewritten,

I don't think, yeah, we're dealing with the actual God of the Bible. The series presents the

Bible in fresh, visual ways. Fresh, visual ways. Yes, fresh, visual ways.

With a new, fresh theology to go with the new, fresh, visual ways, too. Ultimately, I think it will really connect in their hearts.

So, yes, so new, fresh, visual ways with the new, fresh theology from the paid theological advisors

Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and T .D. Jakes and at the end of the day,

Roma is hoping that what's there in the miniseries,

The Bible, will connect with people's hearts. Oh, man.

This is the largest amount of money and production time I've ever seen spent on a theological train wreck.

Now, we're going to take our first break and when we come back, what we're going to do is we're going to be listening to sound bites that I've been collecting over the past week and take a look at the theology that's in the miniseries,

The Bible, so that you can tell whether or not it's telling you the truth. So, if you'd like to e -mail me my e -mail address, TalkBackAtFightingForTheFaith .com

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

Now, quick break, stay tuned, we will be right back. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of Rick Warren, you cannot be saved.

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Thank you for your support. Warning, if you think the miniseries

The Bible is theologically accurate, well, I hate to break it to you. It's not.

Don't get your theology from this thing. It's really bad. Just a reminder,

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All right, what we're doing right now is we're going to, I'm going to walk through several of the sound bites, not only from the extended ministry preview that was put out there, which was over, you know, almost an hour long actually, which by the way, alerted me to just how bad, oh man, the train wreck the theology is in this thing.

And again, who are the paid theological advisors for the mini series, The Bible?

Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, T .D. Jakes. Now there's other theological advisors, but those were the three that they, that Roma and Mark Burnett wanted to make us aware of.

So what should we expect then of the theology in the mini series, The Bible?

Well, answer, the theology would probably be seeker -driven, purpose -driven, you know, and, you know, with a little bit of a touch of the prosperity gospel thrown in there,

I'd be, in fact, I'm kind of, you know, I wonder what the odds are at Vegas that we can get some good

Joel Osteen prosperity heresy in this, I think there's a pretty good chance, you know, between T .D.

Jakes and Joel Osteen. Yeah, haven't seen it yet, but we'll see what happens. But that being the case, since we know that Rick Warren, T .D.

Jakes, Joel Osteen are major paid advisors theologically for this mini series, what should we expect?

A seeker -driven, vision -casting, narcissistic, eisegesis type of theology and with a touch of the whole new gospel, according to Rick Warren, to go out and change the world.

Now I saw this initially in one of the commercials that was airing on the

History Channel for the mini series. Somebody had alerted me to it and pointed out that Jesus, after being baptized by John the

Baptist in one of the commercials, is asked, what's he gonna do? Listen carefully. I've got the scene here pulled up on the computer.

This is Jesus, he's coming up out of the water and real quick, you're gonna have somebody ask Jesus, what are you gonna do?

Well, listen to his answer. Here we go. Change the world.

What are you gonna do? Jesus is gonna change the world. Jesus is gonna change. Now, in and of itself, you think, well, maybe that's just a one -time thing.

Yeah, that could possibly be the major theology in this mini series, could it?

Well, let's fast forward a little bit, okay? Let's fast forward a little bit in the extended ministry preview for the mini series called

The Bible to the point where Ananias, you remember Ananias who lives over on Straight Street in Damascus?

He was told by God to baptize Saul who would then become the apostle

Paul. Well, at Saul's baptism scene here in the movie, well,

Ananias says something really strange, like out of place, doesn't belong theologically in the story or in any of the theology of the

Bible, but listen, and here's Ananias. He's gonna be recognized by Saul because Saul's just received his sight back and then

Ananias is going to baptize him and listen carefully to the theology in the baptism. Here we go.

No, no, no. Ananias grabs a water pitcher.

I, Ananias, baptize you, Paul, in the name of Jesus Christ, for he has chosen you to change the world in his name.

Oh, boy. Okay, so Ananias baptizes

Saul in the name of Jesus Christ because Jesus has called Saul in his name to change the world.

Remember, it's all about the theology. It's all about the theology.

Now, forget the fact for a second that none of the history makes any sense. For instance, like in the story of, you know, where God has called

Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, right? The biblical narrative tells us that Abraham and Isaac went three days journey into the wilderness to the land of Moriah, right?

Well, forget all that. You know, apparently he just hiked up the closest mountain, you know, to sacrifice

Isaac, and poor Sarah, she freaked out. Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff inserted into the biblical text, so much so that I was thinking about this earlier today, and that's this, that y 'all familiar with the

Jehovah's Witnesses? Now, if you ever had them knock on your door, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses want to tell you about Armageddon and how to survive

Armageddon and experience paradise here on earth and things like that. They're a theological cult, by the way.

And the Jehovah's Witnesses, in order to not have to constantly ask, answer questions regarding why the

Bible contradicts their false theology, came up with a really clever idea. And a while back, they created their own translation of the

Bible, and their own translation is called the New World Translation. And in theological and apologetics circles, it's kind of like the ultimate whipping boy for what it means to have an inaccurate translation.

I'm absolutely convinced, since I have a copy of the New World Translation and have used it extensively in the years past in my witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses, that I'm convinced that the

New World Translation is far more accurate and faithful to the original languages and the actual biblical text than, well, the movie miniseries,

The Bible, that's been airing there at the History Channel. Now, all that said, we're going to be sampling a little bit more theology here.

So what we're going to do is we're going to go into last night's two -hour premiere of the miniseries,

The Bible, and I want you to listen to, well, the theology pertaining to, well,

Noah, okay? Why God made us and what went wrong. And it's weird,

Noah apparently has a very thick Scottish brogue thing going on here, but here's Noah talking about how, he's giving us the historical account of creation and then

God, and Noah explains that God made us and listen carefully to the theology in this statement that is supposedly being spoken by Noah.

Here we go. He made us to live in paradise until Adam and Eve disobeyed

God and ate the forbidden fruit. And with one choice, they learned both good and evil.

Since then, since Cain killed Abel, God has seen too much evil in human hearts.

Uh -oh. There you go. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that, Chris? Okay. Since Cain and Abel, God has seen too much evil in human hearts?

Folks, that's not a theological statement that is actually congruent with the biblical teaching regarding original sin.

This is actually a form of the Pelagian heresy. God saw too much evil in human hearts?

Oh, no. Well, we better clean that up. You know, that's not the problem. The problem is that we are sinful by nature now and this is what

Genesis actually teaches us rather clearly. But Noah goes on to talk about this a little bit more. Let me back this up so you can hear how

God found too much evil in human hearts and listen again to, listen more to Noah talking about what sin is.

And it's clear that the theological influences of Rick Warren, T .D.

Jakes, and Joel Osteen are coming through loud and clear in this little monologue by Noah here.

Since then, since Cain killed Abel, God has seen too much evil in human hearts.

Wrong choices, wrong decisions. That's why... Wrong choices, wrong decisions.

Yeah, folks, Noah, it's the theology. It really is the theology. The theology is a train wreck.

It's not theologically Christian. This is not Christian theology like at all.

This is not biblical theology. Wrong choices, wrong decisions. God saw too much evil in people's hearts.

Oh, man. And then shortly after this Noah narration, we get this last little theological tidbit from the narrator of the miniseries regarding Noah having a chance to...

Well, listen in, see if this makes any sense to you. After the floodwaters engulf the world, there is a new beginning for Noah's descendants and a chance to restore the relationship between God and humanity.

So after Noah and his descendants survived the flood, there's a chance for them to restore the relationship between God and humanity?

What are you talking about? The only way to restore the relationship between God and humanity is through the crucified and risen

Savior, Jesus Christ, who was reconciling us to God because God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. You familiar with these passages? So listen again to this bizarre statement made by the narrator about how now, oh, after the flood, there's this opportunity on the part of the new humanity in this new world without all the other sinners for them to restore the relationship to God.

After the floodwaters engulf the world, there is a new beginning for Noah's descendants and a chance to restore the relationship between God and humanity.

Oh, they apparently blew it. Oh, what were they thinking? Yeah, it's just weird.

Again, it's the theology. It's the theology that's the problem here. Now, let me summarize where the movie goes from here, okay?

You know, Noah apparently is, I think the way they're gonna set this up is that we're gonna get, you know, kind of a little bit of Noah's story along the way in each of the different episodes, at least maybe for the

Old Testament. But what Burnett and Roma do in this, as well as Rick Warren and T .D.

Jakes and Joel Osteen, is they portray the Old Testament patriarchs, specifically

Abraham, who should be Abram when he's introduced to us, but he's not. Abraham and then

Moses, they are portrayed as vision -casting leaders, okay?

These are people who receive a vision from God, cast the vision, and then lead people, okay?

That's how they're presented, as vision -casting leaders. In fact, the way they make

Abraham look like, he almost looks like kind of a loon, like a guy who tenaciously holds on to the vision, right?

And he has doubts about being able to lead people. And whenever something goes right, he sees that as proof.

Oh, see, there we go. That's proof that God is with him. It's weird. It's really bizarre and kind of crazy.

In fact, let's listen to God's vision to Abraham and how he casts his vision, and then we'll fast forward to a crisis of conscience that he has about being able to lead people.

Yeah, listen, and here's God calling Abraham and giving him the vision. Before billions can believe in him, one man must hear

God's voice and have the faith to follow. Abraham, leave your home and go to the land

I will give to you and your offspring. I will bless you.

I will make you a father of many nations with descendants as numerous as the stars.

All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Sarah, God has spoken to me.

Come with me. My nephew, walk with us.

Abraham. God has spoken to me. He will lead us to a new home.

But we have a home, a good home. Away from the city to a new land for our children.

But you have no children. You can never have children. But we will. He has promised descendants as numerous as the stars.

He spoke to me. He promised. So, by the way, he's received the vision.

Now he's casting the vision. Needs people to lead. Sarah, believe me.

Believe me. So, Sarah believes him.

Although she should be called Sarai at this point. Don't let the biblical history get in the way of a good story, you know.

And Lot, you are with me? Yeah, Lot, are you going to go with a... He's casting vision right now.

He will lead us to a land of wonder. No. No. Lot's wife is not in on this.

He's making up his mind. And he decides to go.

Okay, now let me fast forward. So that was Abraham receiving the vision, casting the vision. Now people are going to take up their stakes and go with Abram.

Who should be Abram. They call him Abraham here. He should be Abram at this point. Again, who am

I to quibble? I mean, obviously these people in Hollywood know better than the Bible what to call Abraham at this point or Abram.

Anyway, so fast forward. They show the conflict between the people who work for Lot and the people who work for Abraham.

I mean, sorry, Abraham in the movie. And so what ends up happening is that Lot lets

Abraham and Sarah know that they're leaving. They've got to find more room to pasture their flocks and that they're not going to stay together.

And as a result of Lot leaving, the vision -casting leader, Abraham, has a bit of a crisis of conscience, which then prompts him to say this to Sarah after,

I'm sorry, Sarah at this point in the movie, after Lot and his wife leave.

Abraham's nephew Lot is the closest thing he has to a son. And his son has left him.

How can I lead a people? I can't even lead my own family.

Yeah, see, again, it's lines like this that absolutely confirm what

I knew all along. With Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and T .D. Jakes as the theological advisors, we now have

Abraham the vision -casting leader. Okay, the theology gets worse as we fast forward in the story now to Genesis 22 in kind of the narration as to why

Abraham has to sacrifice. Isaac listened to this. After years of struggle,

Abraham has learned that to be chosen by God is a blessing and a test.

He must prove his faith again and again. So apparently

God is demanding that Abraham prove his faith over and over and over again, and that's why

God calls him to sacrifice. Again, the theology in this is just reprehensible, absolutely reprehensible.

So that's kind of the bits from the Abraham story, and you can't understand it unless you understand the theology behind it.

And the theology behind it is that Abraham is the first vision -casting leader. Okay, well, they completely skip.

After this, they skip the rest of Isaac's story. They skip Jacob's story, who becomes

Israel. They skip the story of Joseph and just kind of skip right ahead to Moses and the children of Israel being enslaved in Egypt.

And our last soundbite from last night's episode of The Bible, which it's not, to kind of point out the fact that what we're dealing with here is corrupt non -Christian doctrine parading as a biblical theology, and that would be purpose -driven theology that's running this entire program.

Here's where Moses has his first face -to -face meeting with Pharaoh after God calls him in the burning bush.

And the weird thing about this is there's some really strange stuff about the Moses story. For one, they don't even show the fact that Moses is married, okay?

The way they tell the story after Moses kills the Egyptian and hides his body in the sand, and then

Moses flees, right? He flees out of Egypt. You kind of pick up the story from there, and it makes it look like Moses, for the last 40 years of his life, has been wandering in the wilderness as a single hermit who's still haunted by what happened to him when he was in Pharaoh's palace and the conflict he had with Pharaoh's son and things like that, although none of those things are actually in the

Bible. So rather than talk about the fact that Moses heads out to Midian, he saves

Jethro's daughter, marries one of Jethro's daughters, is gainfully employed for 40 years as a shepherd, and he's shepherding flocks on Mount Horeb during the burning bush incident.

Instead, he's portrayed as kind of like a guy who for 40 years has been living all by himself out in the middle of nowhere, and he's a poor guy.

He's lonely, and it's windy outside, and then he sees the light from the burning bush. It's just, again, weird stuff.

But Moses appears now. So after the burning bush, Moses appears to Pharaoh, and listen to this little exchange.

Again, what we're getting in this is a purpose -driven, seeker -driven rewrite of the

Bible. Why are you here, Moses? That would be Pharaoh. Why are you here? Have you come to ask for forgiveness?

No. God saved me for a purpose. No. See, I'm not here to ask for God saved me for a purpose.

So Moses is a purpose -driven, vision -casting leader in this rewrite of the biblical story.

In fact, one of the things that's rather funny is the turning of the Nile into blood.

When you read the actual biblical text, Moses confronts Pharaoh face -to -face and says he's going to turn the

Nile into blood. Well, not in Roma Downey's and Mark Burnett's retelling of the story.

Instead, they turn the whole turning of the Nile into blood miracle, basically a covert military operation.

So think of it this way. There's Pharaoh swimming in the Nile, enjoying a good

Nile swim, bathing, if you would, and they sneak up. Moses and Aaron and Miriam and some other, and maybe

Joshua and some others, they sneak up to the banks of the Nile and then

Aaron goes over and kind of clandestinely sticks his staff into the waters of the

Nile and it turns to blood while Pharaoh is out there bathing, and he's kind of relaxing.

He's kind of doing the dead man float and just relaxing in the Nile. And next thing you know, everyone's shouting out to him,

Run! Get back over here! It's blood! And he gets out of the Nile and he's all covered in blood. Just ridiculous.

Absolutely historically inaccurate, completely wildly inaccurate with ninja angels and really, really bad theology.

You have a single vision -casting, purpose -driven Moses and it just doesn't get any better.

It doesn't get any better at all. I mean, at the whole Red Sea incident, the pillar of fire is missing that stood between Pharaoh's army and the children of Israel while they crossed the

Red Sea on dry ground. That's all gone. And then at the end, you basically have

Moses being turned into the conquering hero, if you would, and then you get this really, really bad theological statement.

I mean, a mess of a theological statement. Here, listen in. We are going to fulfill

Abraham's covenant with God. We're going to live in the promised land. Yep, that would be

Moses basically talking to one of his fellow Israelites, saying that we are going to fulfill

Abraham's covenant with God, which makes you want to beat your head against the desk if you actually understand the covenant that was cut between God and Abraham because Abraham was asleep when that covenant was cut.

It was a unilateral covenant, God taking upon all the promises and the curses upon himself.

Moses or you or I or none of us could fulfill Abraham's covenant with God. There's only one person who could fulfill that covenant because it was

God's covenant with Abraham and that would be God. So what we have here is, well, again,

I've been saying it over and over again. I'll just say it one more time and then we'll take a break and then we'll listen to a sermon. We'll review a sermon with the same theology in it so that you can spot this for what it is.

The miniseries The Bible is nothing more and nothing less than a theological rewrite of the biblical story in light of purpose -driven theology.

It is not sound biblical theology at all. In fact, it's fraught with all kinds of errors.

You don't want to get your theology from this thing. You don't want to get your theology from it at all. And if you know people who think that this is the bee's knees, you might want to take some time and explain to them this is really not.

In fact, out of all of the Hollywood productions regarding the

Bible, I think this one stands head and shoulders above all the rest as literally the worst one ever produced.

It's really that bad. All right, we are up on our second break.

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. Quick break and then when we come back, sermon review where you'll hear this theology on parade, if you would.

Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Living a life of purpose can't save you.