April 3, 2014July 8, 2014 Peter Witkowski Apologetics

Sinking The Ark Matters

Understandably, there has been a lot of hoopla around the Noah movie. Not only did the movie touch the usual Hollywood crowd, it also managed to stir up the increasingly silent evangelical right. Now, you can’t go on Facebook or anywhere on the web without seeing someone talking about Noah. I too am guilty of adding to people’s frustrations. Now being exhausted with the conversation, many Christians and generally moral people have begun trying to quiet the crowds desperate to sink Russell Crowe’s ark by saying, “You see tons of sexually sinful films, I think Noah is the least of your problems” or “It’s Hollywood; they never get the Bible right.”

But Noah is different than all of those sex and violence filled films. Movies such as Kill Bill and Friends With Benefits portray a worldview dynamically opposed to the God of the Bible. They invite their viewers to either directly or indirectly participate in the sins of murder and fornication. As believers, we shouldn’t be allowing these stories to darken our imaginations. (Focus on The Family’s app/webpage “Plugged In” is great resource if you are unsure about whether or not to watch a film.) But for all of their problems, these movies in no way claim to represent God.

Noah does! Director and co-creator of the film, Darren Aronofsky told the Atlantic that

“It’s just important that you don’t contradict any of it [the Genesis Account] and that you study each word, and study each sentence, and try to use and extract as much juice out of that to be inspired to turn it into a vision that represents the spirit of it all. That’s the goal.”

Despite Aronofsky’s words, Noah is not just another film such as The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt employing historical fiction to help move the story along. Aronofsky did much more than give a voiceless Noah a few lines to say. The director radically recast the story of redemption into a narrative about the evils of urbanization. Believing that each generation has the freedom to manipulate the “myth and legend,” that is Genesis, to fit the stories of their times, Aronofsky claims his rewritten story is accurate representation of the Old Testament. He firmly holds the Bible to be, “a living breathing document.” The end result is a film showing Lamech being murdered, Noah trying to slaughter babies, and many other things that never appear in the Genesis 5-7. Thus, Aronofsky happily scuttled the biblical story of the Noah, replacing it with a modern man’s spiritual musing. And, he calls it truth.

Because our God, the evil of sin, and the beauty of salvation have been radically redefined in a film claiming to represent the Bible, Christians have cause to express concern. Following Paul’s encouragement to Timothy, believers should stand against those who advocate false religious ideas based on “myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than stewardship from God that is by faith” (I Tim. 1:4). As Christians, our goal is not to set the world aright or to radically define what does or what does not constitutes a good film. Rather, we should be graciously defending the character of the one true God who mercifully saves sinners like you and me.

March 29, 2014December 30, 2014 Peter Witkowski Apologetics, Parenting

Did Noah Drown?: A Quick Warning About Russell Crowe’s Noah

A Fail of Biblical Proportions

During the first five minutes of Noah, I was pleasantly intrigued. I had was not making plans to write the following review. I knew going into the theatre that the marriage of Biblical narrative and Hollywood cinematography often leaves our scriptures a little worse for the wear. And, I was willing to give the creators some creative grace when it came to dressing the characters in 1860’s work clothes. Sadly though, the creators of this film did not stop with recreating the historical setting of the story. They completely rewrote the biblical narrative, transforming Noah into a self-righteous maniac who was not above killing babies, using drugs, or drowning his failures in one too many wooden cups of freshly pressed grapes. Consequently, the film promises to confuse younger viewers’ attempting to appreciate the biblical narrative found in Genesis 5-8. If you are a parent, I would encourage you to protect your children from the deluge of error that flows in and out of this movie.

Not Just Noah

In general, we must give great care when choosing movies for our children to see, especially biblical ones. Often lacking a good knowledge of the Bible, our children will assume that a film accurately represents the powerful, divine narrative. I lost count a long time ago of how many kids approach Exodus through the storyline of The Prince Of Egypt. “No…I don’t think baby Moses almost got eaten by an alligator or run over by a ship. And moving on….”

Consequently, the movie Noah by simply existing has the potential to leave this generation of kids with muddled perception of this narrative that beautifully details sin, death, and salvation. But by smashing past the usual limits of historical license into the world of recreation, the architects of this film offer our children gross misconceptions about the God, Noah, and the Bible. The film is troubling.

Evidently God Was Silent

First and foremost, the movie misrepresents God to the next generation. God is shown to be a mystical creator who only communicates with his creation through odd dreams. Instead of giving Noah a detailed plan of the ark and encouraging him to call people to righteousness, the god of this film gives Noah vague impressions that occasionally require the assistant hallucinate drugs to help things along (Genesis 6:11-22). Because God is so distant, the actors in the film never actually say the word “God.” Moreover, all those wonderful promises that drive the historical Genesis narrative were not divine revelation. They were the strange musing of an emotionally unstable Noah. If we let this movie inform our children’s view of God, they will think the creator of the universe is a distant being who cares little for the souls running about earth.

Save The Animals

According to Mr. Crowe, humanity’s greatest sin has been the destruction of creation, naturally pushing murder, violence, and idolatry to secondary importance. He often laments the cruel consumption of nature by the greedy sons of Cain. Being a good dad, he tries to instill his values into his sons. He rebukes his children for picking a flower without a utilitarian purpose. He then kills three men for attempting to hunt and eat a prehistoric dog. In another Biblical twist, the villain of the movie is credited with saying that humans should “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air” (Gen. 1:28). Not surprisingly, God decided to destroy the world for the purpose of creating a new Eden free from the evil humans who abuse animals and trees.

Sadly, the movie misses the reality God created the world for men and women. God killed the first animal in Genesis 3:21 to provide clothes for Adam and Eve. Moreover, God took delight in Abel’s blood sacrifice and rejected Cain’s grain sacrifice (Genesis 4:3-4). Nature exists for man, helping him to understand and relate to God. According to the God of the Bible, people never existed for nature.

The God Saves Those Who Save Themselves

By necessity any movie that redefines sin must also redefine how a person gets saved. The creators of the film offer our children a salvation of works, oddly eliminating the existence of grace. Early on in the film, the viewers are introduced to the “Watchers:” rock clad angels. Sometime after the fall of Adam and Eve, they descended from heaven without God’s permission to help Adam survive in the world. Because of their well-intended disobedience (which also indirectly inspires humans to create cities) God has imprisoned these messengers of light in bodies of heavy stone. But after helping Noah build the ark and then defend the ark from the city dwellers (who are beyond saving), God forgives these angels, allowing them to return to heaven with the former glory.

Not surprisingly, the Noah of the movie also does not offer grace to his family or to the lost world around him. He is intent on seeing all of humanity destroyed, refusing to save an “innocent” girl and others from destruction when given the chance. After all, Noah believes mankind deserves to die for their unjust treatment of the earth. Ultimately, humanity only continues on because Noah eventually sees some redemptive qualities in his progeny. Thus, he decides not to kill his granddaughters and end all hope for human procreation simply because some people are loveable. The God of Ephesians 2 and Deuteronomy 9 who saves people according to his free grace has been replaced with a silent, dictatorial God who redeems beings when they magically perform enough good works.

Just Another Fanciful Story

By introducing their audience “Watchers,” Methuselah’s nifty magic tricks (which include a flaming sword that wipes out armies and herbal teas that cause hallucinations) and a Noah who has been blessed by snake sin, the architects of the film transform the Bible Russell-Crowe-in-Noah-Movie-HD-Wallpaper into a fairytale. Instead of being a series of events that involved real people to reveal truth about God and the world, the story becomes just another entertaining myth designed to help us suspend reality for a few moments of pleasure. The movie has attempted to push the Bible off of the historical and ethical shelf onto the messy table of fiction. I believe those who see this movie will struggle to embrace their next Sunday school lesson as being historically true.

(For another great look at the Noah movie through the lens of history and theology check out the Answers in Genesis Blog)

The Real Noah Was Drowned

In short, I left the movie without actually seeing the story of the “Great Flood.” The creators of the movie drowned the godly Noah of the Bible under a sea of murky philosophical debris. By misunderstanding God and by redefining sin and salvation, the creators of the film present a Noah who is driven by environmental standards of holiness. The man Russell Crowe portrays on the big screen reveals only that an ethic built upon a love for nature and the absence of the biblical God leads to madness. For this inadvertent revelation, I am thankful. But, I am deeply troubled that it came at the expense of the historical Noah who loving preached righteousness to perishing world (2 Peter 2:5). I believe this film can do nothing but confuse the next generation.

February 6, 2014July 8, 2014 Peter Witkowski Apologetics, Discipleship

Bill Nye and Ken Ham, The Two Religious Guys: Debating Our Children’s Future

The Debate

There were no fireworks, pounding fists, or even heated exchanges with wagging fingers between Bill Nye and Ken Ham this past Tuesday. Really outside of a few pictures and a handful of cartoon illustrations, the debate did little to directly engage children. But the seriousness of the debate should not obscure reality. The debate was all about the next generation. Bill Nye and Ken Ham were not just advocating science verses religion. They were trying to determine which religion our children will follow.

Two Men…Two Religions

Now I realize that most people happily recognize “Ken Ham’s creationism” to be religious. Ken Ham openly confessed his religious affiliation, appealing directly to the Bible on several different occasions. He told Bill Nye, “there actually is a book out there that tells us where matter came from. And, the very first sentence in that book says, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’” However, the debate also revealed that Bill Nye’s tenants of evolution are equally religious in nature. As Dr. Mohler wrote, “ It was… the central worldview clash of our times and of any time” (Mohler 2014). Let’s take a look.

Bill Nye, The Science Guy

Numerous times throughout the debate Bill Nye said he would consider creationism if there was proof for it. By his own admission, his evolutionary theories have at times failed to explain the universe. He noted that scientists thought the speed of the universe’s expansion was slowing. However in 2004, scientists discovered the opposite to be true. Yet, Bill Nye’s confidence in the Big Bang Theory remained unshaken. If anything, the discovery excited him.

His response is not surprising. According to Thomas Kuhn who coined the term paradigm, “neither proof nor error is at issue. The transfer of allegiance from paradigm to paradigm is a conversion experience that cannot be forced” (Kuhn 1996). In other words, Nye’s scientific foundations go beyond observable science. Even when confronted with unforeseen discoveries, the “Science Guy” will (as he did during the debate) rework his theories to fit new evidence into the evolutionary, naturalistic paradigm. Thus when Ken Ham did offer Bill Nye evidence, he remained unmoved. Bill Nye’s paradigm claims that all scientific discoveries point to evolution. Consequently, creationism may be many things, but it cannot be science according to Bill Nye. To accept one scientific discovery as supporting creationism, Bill Nye would have to surrender his entire paradigm, one built upon the absence divine direction. Despite Nye’s statement that “scientists embrace” those who challenge paradigms, reality has found the opposite to be true.

Bill Nye, The Believing Guy

Bill Nye’s embrace of evolution also has a direct spiritual element. His very soul is sustained by a deep-rooted love for discovery. Learning how evolution explains the world is why Bill Nye gets up and goes to work every day. To abandon the evolutionary paradigm, Bill Nye would have to deny his very hope for significance. To do so would require as Kuhn noted, “a conversion experience.” Not surprisingly Bill Nye arrived and left an evolutionist. None could really hope that he (or Ken Ham for that matter) would have such a conversion moment in front of 3 million people. It would make for great television, but the world rarely does works this way. Sorry MTV. Rather towards the end of the debate, Bill Nye began attacking the story of Noah and other theological issues, revealing his reservations about creationism to be as much theological as experimental.

Moreover, Bill Nye’s affiliation with the evolutionary paradigm has rest upon a strong personal faith. Ken Ham tried to point out Nye’s faith several times during the debate. But, Bill Nye would not answer the question of reason and logic.

Let’s look at. If Bill Nye is correct and the world did evolve without divine directive and/or purpose, he can have no confidence in his mental power. Yes, he is a “reasonable man” with a good deal of intelligence. But according to Nye, humanity and humanity’s mental faculties appeared by accident. And reason created by illogical, natural forces could very well be faulty if not completely erroneous. Bill Nye’s (and all of humanity) could have less than a reasonable mind and not know it. Recognizing this problem Charles Darwin lamented, “The horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has developed from the mind of lower animals, are of any value or trustworthy at all” (Darwin 2014). To hold his evolutionary paradigm, Bill Nye must believe his mind to be trustworthy. But as C.S. Lewis noted, “if our own deepest convictions are merely the by-products of an irrational process, then…we have no reason to trust our conviction that Nature is uniform” (Sire 2004). Ultimately, Bill Nye can only affirm the evolutionary paradigm by believing blindly in the ability of human reason. As seen from the debate, his faith is unshakable. Not surprisingly, he won the “The Humanist of the Year” in 2010 (Humanist of the Year). Ultimately, Bill Nye is just a religious as Ken Ham.

Closing Thoughts

The debate was about religion. Bill Nye advocated that our children be taught the religion of naturalism as seen in the evolutionary paradigm. Ken Ham advocated that our children be taught evangelical Christianity as developed from a literal interpretation of the Bible. Although I firmly teach that children should have the freedom to explore both religions, I believe Christianity offers a far better explanation of the world from what I have seen an experienced. Moreover if we believe scripture, Christians must affirm that Bill Nye’s “rational man” argument is flawed. According to Romans 1:18-23, human reason is corrupted by sin and is unable to discern truth. Paul wrote again in 1 Corinthians 3:19a, “the wisdom of this world is folly with God.” Let’s avoid folly.

Instead a determent to be washed away with the passing of time, I believe creationism will benefit future generations. As Kuhn noted, “The bulk of scientific knowledge is a product of Europe in the last four centuries. No other place and time has supported the very special communities from which scientific productivity comes” (Kuhn 1996). The last time I checked, creationism was the dominate school of thought in Europe during most of this time. What has changed? Evolution, as advocated by Charles Darwin and James Hutton. But instead of spurring children to scientific discovery as Bill Nye hopes, the evolutionary paradigm appears to be spawning a culture of narcissism.

Scientific discovery requires commitment and years of hard work without any guarantee that a person will make a significant contribution to humanity. However with Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social media outlets, a person can quickly attain stardom and immediate validation of their significance with a cool status. Now many will counter that science benefits humanity and offer a host of other reasons for valuing discovery. But ultimately, the evolutionary paradigm provides no basis for moral value. Nor can the paradigm promise that everyone will find the joy Bill Nye found. Nature is just randomly progressing along, allowing natural selection to dictate history. The joy of social media is just as compelling as the joy of science. And since it’s easier and a more certain attainment, the evolutionary paradigm appears to be producing narcissists instead of scientists.

On the other hand, creationism teaches that knowing God is far better than human self-worship. After all a creationist’s chief end is to glorify god and to love his/her neighbor. Shaped by Psalm 19 and a host of other passages, creationism encourages children to explore the majesty of God by studying the world he created. Creationism provides children with a great motivation for scientific discover. Let’s encourage science. Let’s teach our children creationism!