We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. A.W. Tozer
Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth. --Basil of Caesarea
Once you learn to discern, there's no going back. You will begin to spot the lie everywhere it appears.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. 1 Timothy 1:12

Saturday, March 29, 2014

The “Noah” Movie

I read reports of this movie over the past month, from people who had seen previews, and realized from the get-go that it would be normal Hollywood garbage.  Yet the producer, Scott Franklin, claimed, “I think we stayed very true to the story and didn’t really deviate from the Bible.

Regardless of such a claim, from the reports I've read I’ve acquired some information as to unbiblical problems with “Noah.”  And these don’t even include the fact that it was primarily an extremist enviro-nazi propaganda piece.

1.  Only one son takes his wife on the Ark in the movie, while in the Bible all three sons had wives with them.

2.  Noah decides who will be worthy board the Ark, while in the Bible it is GOD who chooses.

3.  The son with the wife has twin daughters, which are perhaps supposed to be the future wives of the other two sons.

4.  Noah seeks advice from his grandfather Methuselah to understand a vision by God; this never happened.  Apparently in the movie Noah really never understands God.

5.  Methuselah is shown to be sort of a witch-doctor with mental health issues.

6.  Noah has no concern for the people who will be killed in the flood, but the Bible says he was a “preacher of righteousness,” which would make his lack of concern out of character.

7.  When Noah learns that his son’s wife is expecting, he says if it is a girl she should be killed because God doesn’t want to repopulate the world.  Yet in the Bible we find that repopulation is exactly why Noah and his family — all eight of them — are saved.

8.  A wounded man cuts his way into the Ark and eats animals to stay alive as a stowaway, and even tries to kill Noah.  The Bible says no one but the eight of Noah’s family were on the Ark, and none of the animals died on the journey.

9.  Noah teaches theistic evolution to his family while on board the Ark.

10.  The “nephilim” are giant rock-creatures, help Noah build the Ark, and defend the Ark in battle.

Well, just with these little tid-bits, it should be no surprise to those who follow my blog that I won’t waste my time, money, or brain cells on viewing such trash.  However, Time magazine’s on-line review of this movie said it was “Better Than The Book.”  Of course that’s about what we can expect from a secular magazine.

Well, “Noah” has now been released in the theaters, and some good reviews have been posted.

The first one I read was a short one from Ken Ham’s blog.  He said the movie “is disgusting and evil — paganism.”  Ham said the movie “portrays Noah as a psychopath who says that if his daughter-in-law’s baby is a girl then he will kill her as soon as she’s born,” and that “Psychopathic Noah sees humans as a blight on the planet and wants to rid the world of people.”  Ham said the movie was boring and the worst movie he’d ever seen.

Ken Ham was able to get a more detailed review posted at time.com to rebut their claims about it.
“Except for some of the names in the movie, like Noah, his sons’ names, and Methuselah, hardly any remnant of the Bible’s account of the Flood in Genesis 6-9 is recognizable. Yes, there is an Ark in the film that is true to the massive biblical proportions, but it did not look like a seaworthy vessel. There were many animals that came to Noah and went on board the Ark, but there were far too many creatures crammed inside and certainly many more than were needed. Also, while the extreme wickedness of man was depicted, the real sin displayed in the film was the people’s destruction of the earth. Lost within the film’s extreme environmentalist message is that the actual sins of the pre-Flood people were a rebellion against God and also man’s inhumanity to man. . . . Ultimately, there is barely a hint of biblical fidelity in this film. It is an unbiblical, pagan film from its start. It opens with: ‘In the beginning there was nothing.’ The Bible opens with, ‘In the beginning God.’ That difference helps sum up the problem I have with the film.”
You really need to read his whole rebuttal.

The next review was by Debbie Schlussel.  Debbie is a practicing Jew, and she found the film to be abhorrent.  She starts her review with, “Hollywood committed Noahcide. They killed the Biblical story in favor of a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, soap opera, action film version of what bears little resemblance to the Bible version.  The new movie, ‘Noah,’ in theaters today, would be better called a host of other things: ‘Game of Thrones Noah,’ ‘The Noah-dashians,’ ‘Dysfunctional Family Noah.’ Or just plain, ‘NOT Noah.’”  

Debbie is known for calling a spade a spade, so her review is much more harsh than even Ken Ham’s - but don’t miss it.

I finally red Glenn Beck’s review.  [Link gone by Sep 2020] Of course I know Beck is a Mormon, but even Mormons have a quasi-biblical worldview and agree with a lot of the Bible’s teachings.  Beck said of “Noah,” “It’s more take ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ meets ‘The Shining’ and ‘Friday the 13th,’ with a sprinkle of ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.’”  He further stated that,“If you are looking for a biblical movie, this is definitely not it … It’s not the story of Noah that I was hoping for. If you are going for that, you will be horribly disappointed. . . . . I always thought of Noah as more of a nice, gentle guy, prophet of God … and less of the homicidal maniac that Paramount found in the Bible. More of the man [that] loves God, and less of him trying to break down the doors inside the ark to kill his whole family.”

Believe it or not, there are actually “Christian” leaders who recommend this movie.

Arch-heretic and political darling Jim Wallis proved he is not a Christian, and that he has no idea what the Bible says.  He was all twitter-pated about it:  “in my opinion Aronofksy’s Noah is a beautiful, powerful, difficult film worthy of the ‘epic’ label. A vivid, visually spectacular reimagining of an ancient story held as sacred by all three Abrahamic religious traditions, it also is the most spiritually nuanced, exquisitely articulated exploration of the ideas of justice and mercy I’ve ever seen on a movie screen. … And despite what you may have heard elsewhere, Noah is deeply, passionately biblical.  Nothing in the film contradicts the Bible’s account of Noah and the Great Flood, either in spirit or detail.”

Wallis must have see a different movie than these other people saw.

One last review I invite you to read is by Erick Erickson at Red State.  I liked the way he ended his review:  “Also, we might should [sic] consider burning at the stake any Christian leader who endorses this movie. The book is always better.”  I agree with you 100%, Erick!

And, by the way, this isn’t the last Hollywood religious garbage film to come out this year.  Elizabeth Prata has a good article about the problem with this type of entertainment, as well as examples of up-coming religious movies.

21 comments:

Diane Schultz said...

I would recommend seeing "God's Not Dead" instead of this messed up movie if it's showing in your area. It has some great acting by Kevin Sorbo and a great message.

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Hi Diane,

I've heard many people, including my sister, say what a good movie "God's Not Dead" is. I've read the premise and decided it wasn't something that interested me, because I knew it was going to be contrived. I'm not into contrived stories.

This morning I read an interesting paragraph about the movie (the article wasn't about the movie) and saw that it pretty much was what I thought it would be. The article is at:
http://birdsoftheair.blogspot.com/2014/03/in-strange-land.html

The particular paragraph is this:

"Just as an example, take the latest "good for our side" movie, God's Not Dead. Christians are raving about it. The Christian Film Database raves, "An overwhelmingly, powerful, thought provoking film. We wish everyone in the world would go see this film." Check your Facebook for the reviews of other Christians who have seen it and loved it. Still, even The Hollywood Reporter notices "it sometimes stacks the deck shamelessly in defense of its credo." So why is it that no one seems to notice that it's a poorly structured set of arguments played against a poorly stereotyped set of opponents? In the movie, the main character is a Christian required to engage in a "contest" with a virulent atheist professor in order to get a passing grade. So he has to prove the existence of God in three lectures and convince the class. The necessary biblical fact that humans are not convinced in favor of God based on argument, but by the Spirit, is ignored and the disappointingly weak arguments are passed off as compelling. The movie argues from the Big Bang and from theistic evolution for the existence of God rather than for any biblical version of God. This character's arguments have been often and skillfully refuted by skeptics while many much more reasonable and sound arguments are available, but Christians are delighted that the film argued for God even if it simply set up a soft pitch to a skeptical world ready to knock it out of the park."

Stan, the blog's owner, is pretty hardline Calvinist, so you have to be ready for that if you follow his blog. However, he has some outstanding commentaries if you chose to follow him.

Joe said...

Everything I've read about Noah from the secular and quasi-Christian press/bloggers has been good. Everything I've read about Noah from people who know Christ has been that it is dismal.

I think I will join you in not spending my money on it.

Ron Livesay said...

Thanks for the link to the "Winging It" blog. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Hi Glenn,

The Noah movie = abysmal.

The God's Not Dead movie - I agree with the Calvinist blogger you mentioned on his discernment about the movie. Creation Ministries Int'l said the same thing, that in the movie, they wrongly argued from the "big bang" and "theistic evolution" for the existence of God, instead of using Scripture and relying on the Holy Spirit.

http://creation.com/gods-not-dead-review

(And of course the "Son of God" movie - ugh.)

So in the end, my thoughts on this trifecta of so-called Christian movies:

1. God's Not Dead movie - denies the truth, and the sufficiency of Scripture about God's literal 6 day creation, by pandering to evolutionary compromise, and as you said, using a contrived plot with 2 dimensional characters. (Versus Romans 1 which says ALL people already know God is real, they just suppress the truth in unrighteousness; and 1 Corinthians 1, which says the message of cross of Christ is emptied of its power by using human wisdom.)

2. Noah movie - denies the truth, and the sufficiency of Scripture about the global flood, by completely reinventing the story, resulting in a plethora of errors, and by weaving in an undercurrent of environmentalism. (Versus Genesis 6-9 as written.)

3. Son of God movie - denies the truth, and the sufficiency of Scripture about Christ and the Gospel, by adding to, subtracting from, and utterly misrepresenting a host of NT Scriptures.

And yet, these movies show the world is exactly as God said it would be at the end of the age... 2 Peter 3.

-Carolyn

Drew said...

The movie "better than the book." Rofl

Anonymous said...

Good Fight did a pretty good short video expose on Noah movie: http://vimeo.com/goodfightmin/noahmoviedeception

-Sarah

Doug Evans said...

I shared Good Fight Ministry's review of and response to Noah on my facebook page

http://youtu.be/-36Cs-B5iG4

The best response was from a friend who said "Instead of wasting money on "Noah", rent "Evan Almighty"-it's more accurate"

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Doug and Sarah,

Thanks much for that link. I will be including it with some others with my next RA&H post.

Elizabeth Prata said...

Hello Glenn,

May I re-print your numbered "list" on my blog? (with credit back here) I want to include some reviews of the movie too, and point people to Ray Comfort's Noah movie. Thanks either way

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Elizabeth,

Well of course you can!

:oD

Anonymous said...

Well, the producers wanted to make a darker story of Noah. They did do that but they did not keep to God's word accurately at all. If they were serious about making the story riveting and dark it should have been rated R or X, for the incest that took place, the debauchery, and immorality was far greater than just a simple PG-13. It was dark and I do not think our imaginations can handle what it really was like being in a world that had completely turned their backs on God. Noah and his family are the only ones who had chosen God in all the Earth. Noah would have appeared like and angel of God before man kind in light of how dark it was. This is what I expected to see but didn't. God did not choose to destroy people because they were just bad people, they had chosen to rebel intentionally and directly against God knowing the truth of His love and power. I think they were thinking along the same lines as we find ourselves thinking today, God's not going to really do anything that we couldn't survive from. How bad could it be, He's not going to destroy all the people on Earth. Well, we find that biblical prophecy tells us that He is going to destroy this Earth, not be water, but He will do so. Are we this blind?

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Hi Anonymous,

Actually, I think the society we are living in now is pretty close to what Noah was living in.

I also don't think Noah was the only one who followed God. After all, his three sons and wives did also. The passage doesn't say ONLY Noah was a God-follower, only that he and his family were chosen to be the origin of the repopulation of the world. I think we often read too much into the passage.

Josiah said...

I have only seen previews and I new it was trash before I even read this blog. My mom thought it looked good until I started to break it down. MY dad made a good point, in the movie I believe it is Noah that shuts the door to the ark, not sure though, but in the Bible it is God who closes the ark for the purpose that no one he didn't want to would get on the ark. Since God shut the ark then there would be no need to defend the ark like they make it out to be in the movie. I love your break down of the movie and found it to be very helpful. I personally want to see it still, not for the content, for the cinematic effects. I think it is very good in that way. I feel like just because it goes against the Bible that doesnt mean I can't spend my my money to enjoy a cinematic enjoyable movie.

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Josiah,

I look at it this way; would you pay for a gun for a murderer?

These movie makers are trying to murder the spirit - kill the Christian faith. When you pay to see the movie, you help them make more, and really become an accessory after the fact. That, to me, is the logical consequence of you filling their coffers just to see their cinematic effects. I sincerely doubt that they will have special effects you haven't seen in some other movie, so why would you want to put garbage into your mind? Just sayin'

JM1999 said...

Certainly not accurate, but I didn't find it as bad as many claim. (Incidentally, you cite Noah's daughter-in-law having twin girls as an "error". How so? We are not informed in the Bible about such details.)

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

JM1999,

Firstly, I wrote that the issue of twin daughters was "unbiblical," which it is. It is adding to Scripture that which is not told to us, pure speculation.

Secondly, with all the horrid stuff I just listed as being in the movie, I find it odd that a Christian would say the movie wasn't all that bad.

JM1999 said...

(Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on that question.)

Given all I'd heard, I watched & judged it as a piece of fiction, and as such, thought a thought-provoking faith-based fantasy. (The director DID warn beforehand that it wasn't a Biblical film.)

As such, I didn't find most of the points on your list "horrible" - simply artistic license that made a good story in its own right.

(Apart from the implied evolution - I found that annoying, although it was a minor part.)

And unlike many, I found the film to be anti-environmentalist (or at least, anti-extreme-environmentalist). (The anti-extreme-environmentalism is made clear & expounded on in the latter half of the movie.)
https://jmshistorycorner.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/noah/

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

JM1999

Artistic license is not acceptable if you are trying to prevent a story supposedly based on the Bible. Not acceptable at all, period. It is false teaching, period. No defense is acceptable, period.

JM1999 said...

In your personal opinion.

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

As opposed to YOUR personal opinion which allows the abuse of Scripture.