Spirit of The Book

Today I went to watch the movie, "Son of God." I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but my reasons for enjoying the movie were not based on anything to do with "biblical purity" If I may steal that phrase. 
    
Now please, hear me out before you destroy me. The statement that the bible series always put up on screen before showing their next chapter says this, 
   "This series attempts to stay true to the spirit of the book."

What does that statement even mean? What is the "spirit of the bible"? So, on the car ride back I began to think about the biblical authors, and while I know none of them personally, I do know that each one had an agenda as to why they wrote what they wrote. 

For example ...

In the first four verses of Luke we see the author, a historian or sorts, looking to affirm a certain Theophilus in, "The things he had been taught", seeing as many others have attempted to get the story of Jesus of Nazareth correct and have all failed.

Opposed to John 20:30-31 which says, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

Both authors have different agendas which caused them to write, in this instance it is historical vs. evangelical, but the "spirit" of their stories remains the same. I believe the entire bible looks to share this same spirit, to persuade its readers this: There is only one God and he offered his son as a living sacrifice so that you may live free of oppression, shame, and death.

I believe that "Son of God" upholds this spirit, and viewers will differ on this based on their 'portrait of God'

I heard a sermon by pastor Ron Lewis at Spring Road Christian Church at our college ministry that has stuck with me, and his main point was, "The way you live your life is heavily influenced by your portrait of God."

This has lead me to have a bit of a better understanding of others, not perfect, just better.

Those who believe that every story in the bible is physical and true to the lengths of time that they understand will have more of a tendency to have unrest about differences in the Bible Series and its movie Son of God.

Those who don't view the Bible as 100% literal but believe that some stories are allegorical and serve different purposes will tend to not get as upset over differences. What matters is that the spirit of the book remains intact, am I saying that the purity of the bible can take a back seat to getting the story across? No, each story has a pre-determined purpose. The job of biblical teachers and believers is to unpack the purpose behind these authors and having done that, apply it to our culture.

Many people in this generation pen themselves as "visual learners". So I say, what better way to see Jesus than to put him up on the screen! It is the job of the church to be so in tune with culture and to also understand that all people are different, even in the way they learn. And to place the Bible and its characters on the silver screen is a great attempt to peak the interest of those that learn visually, and in my opinion, is a John 20:30-31 outlook. 

We as a church need to stay up with culture to understand how people learn and apply things today instead of trying to make them hang our portrait of Jesus in their homes.

If you watch the bible series, its movies, or any of the other movies that are related to Christianity at all this calendar year (there are a lot of them: Noah, Exodus, God is Not Dead, Heaven Is for Real, and Mary, The Mother of Jesus) Please be sensitive to other individuals portraits of God before you try to label anything as blasphemy, heresy, or "From the Anti-Christ"

Then, maybe, we as the body can begin to function as one.