Tomorrow the world changes once again. Tomorrow the movie Noah will be released. Tomorrow millions of people will line up to buy their tickets and popcorn, sit in their seats and donate two hours of their time to a silver screen. I fear tomorrow.
Am I being over-dramatic? Perhaps I am. Hopefully I am. However, I just don't think so.
This movie was directed by Darren Aronofsky who made the popular movies Black Swan and The Wrestler. I have not seen either of those movies, so I'm not basing these thoughts on his previous work. I am however taking into consideration that Mr. Aronofsky is of Jewish decent and is a self proclaimed atheist. Not sure how one creates a movie about something he doesn't believe in. I am also basing my thoughts partially on this quote from Mr. Aronofsky "this is the least biblical film ever made".
You see atheists love to argue how "impossible" a global flood is, and how the bible is in error when speaking of it, or how the bible supposedly stole the idea from other religious writings. It's one of their strongest points of argument. So for an atheist to make a movie out of an idea that is not supported or believed in by their peers, what angle must one take?
From what I've read this movie is about "saving the animals". Well that's pretty popular these days. It's about the struggle between good and evil. That's great, except where does the absolutes of good come from if one doesn't believe in the giver of all that is good. It's about standing up for what you believe in even if you go against popular opinion. That sounds like a good theme too, however it's exactly the argument that the gay agenda uses to get religion removed from every aspect of society that doesn't agree with their stance. So without seeing the movie, I can understand the "agenda" of the movie. Trailers, and reviews for the movie support this.
All of those ideas behind what this movie might stand for is not what actually scares me though. What scares me is how the "Christian" community is PROMOTING this movie. Not just supporting it, or even the idea of it, but actually PROMOTING it. The money machine has been turned on, and their all falling for it. You see if all Christians boycott this movie, that would cost millions of dollars, and if that were to happen some people with suits and ties would be very unhappy. So let's market this to the Christians, they will fall for it, they don't really know what they believe or why anyways. (another great point that atheists make).
Some folks don't spend two hours a week reading their bible, but they will pay money to sit in a seat and watch this film for two hours. Some folks don't really know the story of Noah, or how it is a foreshadow of Jesus. God's judgment is going to be very harsh, but his mercy is quite grand. Will this movie explain that? Not sure how it can when the word "God" isn't even spoken in the movie.
The young will see this movie and develop an idea in their minds that this is what the Noah story is really about, or worse, that this is how it happened. When music videos first became very popular, some of the larger music groups refused to make them, they didn't want the song to be so specific, they wanted people to be able to keep the idea of the meaning of the song in their heart, instead of in their head based on what their eyes saw. This to me is just one of the large problems with this movie. Now instead of allowing God to speak to us of what it might have been like, or what message he wants us to learn, we now have the visual, and our mind will re-program accordingly.
If this movie makes money, there will be more. Heck, there already have been. The Son Of God movie was just released a few weeks ago. And I can't leave out the incredibly insane idea of the rapture movies. Hollywood is working on redoing those rapture movies, Moses is due to hit the big screen very soon. It won't be long until you can watch a movie about everything in the bible, which means you won't have to even read the bible anymore. But it also means that now your ideas are based on what you saw, not what God showed you. You see there's a difference between viewing something and really seeing something. As this unfolds, the young will watch, the young will grow up, the young will share the stories based on what they know and remember, what they know and remember will be heavily influenced by these movies. These movies aren't biblically accurate, therefore their understanding of the bible lessons will not be biblically accurate. It's a dangerous game were playing with our young, and it's not a level playing field by any means.
You may argue that many Christians are supporting this movie. I will say I know, and it breaks my heart. You may argue that it at least brings the bible to people that don't know the bible. I will say that is OUR job. I will also ask, is it really the bible they are bringing to people? You may say that it's just entertainment. I would say yes it is, until it becomes something more than that, and this movie has already started a debate that makes it much more than just entertainment. You may say I've gone off the deep end and I'm making something out of nothing. I would say that there were only 8 people on the ark.
Tomorrow many will go see the movie. Tomorrow many will thank God for such a film. Tomorrow many will spend more time in a movie theatre than they do with their bible. Tomorrow many will think they have learned something. Tomorrow some will be disappointed. Tomorrow some will just stay home. Tomorrow some will protest with anger and signs outside of movie theatres. Tomorrow someone will make a lot of money. Tomorrow our world changes once again. Tomorrow we become one step closer to a society that is similar to the society of the days of Noah.
The Noah Story begins at Genesis 5:32.
