According to a boatload of published reports – and several from some very well-informed brethren amongst us, including brother Brad Harrub as posted on this website, as well as others with additional comments (see: http://churchofchristarticles.com/blog/administrator/noah-movie-sinks; http://www.clevelandcoc.com/?p=3995) – with the exception of the title, the new movie “Noah” is probably one of the most biblically contradictory, if not outright blasphemous Hollywood productions to be presented to the general populace for consumption under the guise and disguise of having anything to do with the bible, ever… and that’s saying quite a bit!
So why would anybody go to see it? And yet many did! Published reports estimate that the movie grossed $44,000,000 during it’s opening weekend in the U.S., as well as doing well abroad and taking in some additional 33,000,000 plus, overseas. No doubt many people you couldn’t offer to pay $4.00/hr to come sit in a pew and listen to an actual biblically-accurate lesson designed to save their souls for all eternity, went and willfully paid their approximately $8.00 (per person I might add) admission to indulge in this 2-hour and 18 minute manifestation of madness; plus $3.00 for each dollar candy bar and $5.00 for each large cup of ice cubes with a squirt of soda they consumed – and probably didn’t complain in the least!
Now, no doubt in its opening weekend some Christians even went to watch it in order to see if it was as biblically blasphemous as preliminary reports indicated. Other Christians, perhaps not being as well-informed, may have gone and took it in, hoping against hope for a “Passion of the Christ” type movie experience. However, now that the news is out, why would anyone spend the Lord’s money He’s so graciously given them on such a travesty? And why would they let their unsaved friends go and become even more biblically-confused then they apparently already are, without at least a few loving words of resolute resistance? Consider this:
Let’s say you have been wrongly charged with a crime you didn’t commit – a crime carrying a life sentence as a minimum, and ultimately punishable by death. You are completely innocent and you know it; it was a case of mistaken identity gone virile. As your trial begins tomorrow, what is the one thing you would want for the jury to do? The answer is obvious: You would want them to get the story straight. You would want to make sure all the facts, down to the minutest detail were presented in their entirety and entered into evidence. That is why, if your life were thus on the line, you would hire the best lawyers you could find; lawyers who would relentlessly go over and over the story with you, making sure you get your responses right and your story straight in preparation for the prosecution. Lawyers who would exhaust every effort in examining the evidence, locating eyewitnesses, and uncovering the indisputable truth in order to get you set free.
But the fact of the matter is, we’ve all been charged with a crime which we did commit and stand guilty before God for – and that crime is “rebellion against, and disobedience before, almighty God,” better known as “sin” (Rom. 3:23). And it carries far more than a “short and simple” death sentence. It carries with it an eternal, never ending, and indescribably painful death sentence (See: Mk. 9:43-49; Lk. 16:22-31; Rom. 6:23; and Rev. 20:10-15). But; if we’re willing to explore at length, the facts in evidence in the word of God, and really meditate upon the eyewitness accounts therein at length (I John 1:1-10), then we can “know the truth, and the truth shall set us free” (Jn. 8:31-32).
All we have to do is “get ‘The Story’ straight” – straight from God Himself through His faithful and righteous, holy and hand-picked proclaimers, of His flawless and perfect eternal word (Ps. 19:7-11). Men incidentally, like blameless and obedient Noah was, he himself being a “righteous preacher of righteousness” (See: Genesis 6:9-7:5; 2 Ptr. 2:5).
Now; it is quite obvious as to why most atheists and so many of those who want to live “according to the flesh” have always sought to suppress the truth, distort the story, and discredit the character of good and righteous men like Noah (Matt. 5:10-12), who were far more faithful, moral, godly, upright, and approved by God than they themselves (God actually calls such men ‘fools’ and describes and condemns their thought processes in rejecting His divine message in detail in Romans 1:18-32, which see…). Many of them apparently seem to feel as if they must malign and mischaracterize men like Noah and thus seek to minimize the effectiveness of his God-given message, simply because that very message thoroughly condemns those who are unwilling to accept God’s message and obey it like Noah did! Please note the following excerpts from 2 Peter 2:1-19 and draw your own conclusions as to how aptly it applies to the current topic under discussion:
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)– then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries… But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness… These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”
Now as previously stated, it is quite obvious as to why atheists and so many of those who want to live “according to the flesh” had rather seek to portray any preacher of righteousness such as Noah as a madman, rather than to have to pay any attention to his God-given message. This is what the vast majority of mankind did in Noah’s day as well, and are still and will forevermore be paying the eternal price for (See: 1 Ptr. 3:18-21).
But the far more important questions for our consideration today are these: Why would anyone who even remotely understands that they are guilty of sin and stand condemned before God, want to have their judgment clouded as to what God really wants, by even considering, or worse yet, evilly promoting a perverted picture of anything in Scripture, and especially what real righteousness fit for emulating before God actually looks like? Wouldn’t it be far better to get your story straight – without deceptions, distortions, and despicable perversions – especially knowing that an eternal life and death implication and outcome hangs in the balance for you? After all, how is it that much different to actively go and pay money to support something that so many now know so blatantly perverts biblical truth, than what the Pharisees did in actively seeking to find false witnesses to pervert and distort God’s truth about Jesus so they could crucify Him (Matt. 27:59-60)?
The bottom line is this: With all that’s at stake eternally, we all need desperately to get the story straight – straight from the heart and word of almighty God that is, and not from any other lesser or less-pure source. This is true regarding the story of Noah and any and everything else in Scripture, because our eternal life and death destinations depend on it! Therefore: no distortions needed, considered, or tolerated! Get your story straight! Go straight to the Source: the all-authoritative, inerrant, and divinely-inspired word of almighty God Himself; the One who wrote the book on righteous and obedient Noah; the One whose unblemished truth alone will determine whether you sink (into an eternal sea of a far different and smoking sort – see Rev. 20:10-15 once again) … or are set eternally free!