Friday, April 4, 2014

What Do You REALLY Know About Noah?

How much do you and I really know about Noah
- the man or the movie?

There are many reviews out there now about the movie, Noah, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Darren Aronofsky. My intent in these ponderings are simply to share a few compliments, concerns and cautions both from a personal and a pastoral perspective.  I will also provide links to reviews that I believe hold water (sorry for the pun of sorts) of leaders that I have come to trust.

Compliments
The movie is well done when it comes to the art aspect. The visuals are eye-popping when it comes to "seeing" the pre-flood world as well as the flood itself. The acting is, for the most part, also well-done when it comes to portraying the characters according to the script, but this doesn't mean they were portraying those characters as they are described in Scripture.


Concerns
While I will let the other reviews cover a number of shared concerns and cautions - I would like to say that I am concerned that the Christian market was played like a fiddle when it came to this movie's promotion - whether through private screenings, the wording of the director and writer when interviewed, or even in the trailers.

For instance - the trailers (to my knowledge) never show the Watchers - rock-like Transformers which would have then raised cautions, I think, as to the content of the movie. 


One part of the trailer led me to think that, when confronted about facing certain defeat at the hand of Tubal-cain and his armies, Noah's response of "I'm not alone." was referring to God. It turns out that he was referring to these very creatures of rock - fallen angels - who would protect him.

I'm concerned that Noah is indeed presented as a very conflicted man from close to the time of boarding the ark to the time after they've struck land - due to the fact that he thinks God wants all of mankind dead - including himself, his family and even his newborn granddaughters. While portrayed very well by Crowe, it isn't the portrait painted of Noah in the Bible.


I'm concerned that Methuselah is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins with the mannerisms of a shaman as he interacts with his kin, and when he drugs Noah so that Noah can better grasp what God wants him to do (God never speaks...the choices Noah makes are all from impressions, dreams and visions - riddles that he pastes together - in correct or incorrect ways).


I'm concerned that so much liberty has been taken with the man Noah when it comes to what he was like biblically. But then again - Aronofsky makes no apology that the story itself is myth, owned by many of the world's religions, and that the Bible was  not his "text" (a phrase he uses that resonates with the Christian market, but which means something entirely different for him).


I am concerned that a blending of evolutionary views were presented in flashbacks and in Noah's sharing of the story of the world's origins with his family - combining naturalistic and theistic evolution strains - perhaps to satisfy large segments of two schools of thought as to our world's beginnings.

Cautions
Much has been written as to how far this movie deviates from a biblical portrayal of Noah, of his family and of his faith in God. There has been enough shared by other credible reviewers to warrant concern and even caution (not sure where to draw the line on that).

Noah's daughter-in-law poses that it was all up to Noah - not God - who lived and died.
But lately it is coming more to the forefront that Aronofsky's sources go way beyond Jewish midrash and artistic license. He brings in dynamics that are foundational principles of Gnosticism and Jewish mysticism in the form of Kabbalah. Such infusions actually heighten the concerns ten-fold for me. Again - please read the reviews linked in this blog, such as Mattson's blog posts. What is shared by the author(s) is disturbing.


Counsel
With all of the information that is out there now - where one can read a good amount of factual information about the movie - both positive and negative views - I believe that "seeing is believing" doesn't have to be the path to follow. The Bible says that in the multitude of counsel there is safety and wisdom. 

 It may be wise to save your money for a movie that doesn't do such a dishonor to the intent of Scripture, to the integrity of one of its "heroes" and to the intelligence of the Christian market.

Yes - that's the serpent - shedding its skin which later becomes a source of power to Noah's line.
May we not play into the hands of a 21st-century Gnostic mindset - that only the elite know what the real truth is. Let's not come away from a movie such as this simply scratching our heads as to the strangeness of much of the imagery we saw, but rather let's scratch below the surface - digging deeper than the spin of both the movie industry and the ministerial contingent - for the substance of what was really being portrayed and why.

Readings About Noah from the Bible
Genesis 5:29 - 9:29; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5-7; Ezekiel 14:14,20

Links to Reviews I Resonate With
Christianity Today - http://bit.ly/1kedroA
Brian Godawa - http://bit.ly/1qak66X
Eric Holmberg - http://bit.ly/1mQMJqv

Thank you for taking the time to read this, my first "real" blog post, other than my entries of when I served in Kenya two years ago!

May God bless you as you seek to know that truth that sets free!
PS

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