I've heard a lot of mixed feelings about the movie
Noah, which opened this past weekend, and there seems to be two distinct reactions.
1) "It's a movie."
2) "Don't go see this! It isn't biblical and is a waste of money."
In regards to #1, I agree. It's a movie. Note my lack of excitement there. It's rather cheesy at points and the special effects were "meh." (Editors note: Husband told me that it wasn't "meh" - it was stylized purposely to look unreal and artistic. However I still hold to my opinion the snake was dumb. So fine - bravo, Mr. Aronofsky. But your snake was still lame.)
Obviously, as a Christian, I am going to focus on #2 here. I am going to rock my Facebook feed and say that I wasn't offended by this movie in the least.
But why?
Because anger is always stemmed in fear, and my God is great and mighty - so why should I be afraid? Plus, there's just plain nothing to be afraid of. Just like Frozen will, (hang on as I raise my shield of protection against the children of the world with this sentence), the Noah hype is going to die down and we will be left relatively unchanged as this dumb snake blockbuster fades away into the Redbox kiosk.
As a Christian, I felt it was my responsibility to go into this movie prepared. I knew to appreciate it as art. I knew there were no professing Christians involved, so why demand a biblical result? If a child were to draw me a picture of my blonde, blue-eyed daughter with black hair and brown eyes, I would definitely think it odd, but certainly wouldn't revolt. It's their art.
And, suppose the artist drew it that way because they didn't know my child?
Remember, we all belong to a Heavenly Father, but not all of us know His Son.
I suppose I think of all the past Church catastrophes - and there are a lot - but most modernly the age of the corrupt televangelists. They preached, they were exposed as liars, cheaters, swindlers and then they fell. But would it be fair to say that no one received their ticket to Heaven through the words of these misguided, disingenuous men? Of course not. God still used them to save thousands of souls despite their inequity. And if God can use outright sin from those who know better to lead people to Christ, then why shouldn't I have faith that He can still be glorified through a movie created by a team of people who never claimed to know or love Him in the first place?
Ways to Find God's Glory in Noah
(in order of my brain rather than plot order. Sorry.)
1. Noah and his family are portrayed as fallen human beings, just as they truly were.
The biblical account of Noah states he is the only righteous one on Earth. Righteous does not equal sinless. God chose him to do an incredible, crazy thing (aka freelance ark building) because he was devout, faithful and righteous. He was never once named sinless. This is why I love the part of the bible that talks about him being found passed out naked and drunk post-flood. Poor brother was incredibly PTSD after one heck of a boat ride. The movie does an excellent job of portraying righteousness vs sinlessness.
Noah's son Ham, in typical middle child fashion, rebels against his father and experiences anger and disbelief in his family's calling. Pretty much every character experiences anger, doubt and fear, including Noah himself. The bible is full of examples of people who do incredibly righteous, good things for the Lord, and at times they still lose sight of Him (Adam, David, Peter, etc.) and I love this about them, because it means God can use me mightily, too. He can use any of us.
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"No one would listen to me and now they're all trying to jump on the freaking ark! This is crazy!" - Noah
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2. The movie breathes life into a biblical account
Movies gift us with details that we wouldn't normally think of when reading our bible. The entire Noah account is a few pages long. It doesn't mention details that the movie so poignantly illustrates, that were likely fact. For example, the horrible, gut-wrenching awkwardness of sitting safely inside of the ark with the sound of humanity perishing as your dinnertime background noise. The screams of terror, the frantic hands pounding against the ark, babies and children gulping in gallons of water against their will.....I have a feeling the real Noah, just like the movie Noah, heard some of this happening and I doubt it was pleasant. The art of fiction can be used to make our truth more real.
3. The stone people aren't really that weird or random
A lot of church peeps are up in arms over the "stone people." This is legit. I too, thought them to be weird. But how many of us actually did research? The "stone people" or "rock people" also known as The Watchers, are a part of the book of Enoch. This is not a canonical text, but the writers of the bible were well aware of its contents, and much of this book is interwoven into Jewish tradition and history. Some Orthodox groups (in Nigeria, for example) still consider the book of Enoch to be God's word today. I personally do not, and the strong majority of both Jews and Christians today also do not. However, it is important to realize the "stone people" did not come out of thin air or from some director's odd imagination. They also serve to illustrate an important point through the narrative the um, head rock person? provides - we can choose to turn away from God, and when we faithfully love Him and ask to come back, He will always receive us.
4. The bad guy is an awesome example of human pride and sin
The villain in this movie sees what Noah's doing, and he actually starts to believe what he says about this whole flood deal. Then, when the rain starts, he tantrums. Eventually, he manages to bust into the ark and hang out there for an impressive amount of time without being discovered. But, in the end he meets death anyhow.
This bad guy shows pride over and over and over again with no repentence. He has several lines about how man is made in God's image, and so he clearly must be above everyone and everything. And that....drum roll....he can certainly get himself out of anything God throws his way.
I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people like that today. They don't want God, or they feel when they die they will just deal with whatever happens after. No big deal, they will work it out because they have strength within them and who gives a hoot about Jesus? And, these people are not villains like this guy. Their belief is their right, just like our belief is our right. I believe that I follow Truth. But it would be terribly ignorant of me to think everyone agrees with me. I think it's important for us to see fine examples in cinema of pride and it's destruction. It's dangerous to consider ourselves equal or greater than God, and this Noah film gives a strong example of this.
5. The movie is not un-biblical - it is extra-biblical, and there is a difference.
Now many Christians are saying that Noah is not biblical. I'd like to hear someone prove how this is so? The movie begins with Noah's family shown as the only righteous ones left on Earth. Then, God speaks to Noah and tells him humanity will be wiped away with a great flood. Noah builds the ark. The flood happens. A dove brings back a branch. Noah passes out drunk and naked. Humanity begins anew.
You guys, it's all there.
The issue with Noah is not that it's un-biblical, but rather it is extra-biblical. Anthony Hopkin's portrayal of Methuselah is particularly zany and random, and I am not sure on the biblical existence of Ila - I couldn't find her anywhere. But again, the whole account of Noah is brief. Most biblical stories are. That doesn't take away their truth, of course, but as human beings we tend to fill in the blanks.
If you're a Christian and don't agree, then please tell me how you explain that children's bible on your kid's bookshelf with the Caucasian Jesus. Or the fact we celebrate Christmas in the winter and have a baby Jesus in our nativity scene when he was clearly visited by the wise men as a toddler and likely born in the springtime.
Human nature compels us to put God and his Word into our own sort of truth and visualization so we can process it. And I think He gets that. Why else would he present Himself to us as a Father? Something that is far beneath Him but easy for us to understand.
So no, Noah is not unbiblical. It is extra-biblical. And if there are issues with that, then that is fair . But it also means we should likely examine the rest of our Christian life and the things we watch, the way we celebrate and the thoughts we visualize.
6. It reminds us of how important it is as Christians to not pick and choose.
As mentioned above, if we are going to throw stones, we better be consistent throughout. Many of the Christians I know who hate the Noah movie LOVED The Passion of the Christ. This film was also jam packed with extra-biblical ideas, contained many cultural and historical inaccuracies and was directed by Mel Gibson, a member of an ultra-traditional Catholic sect often rejected by mainstream Catholicism. And yet churches around the country bought out movie theaters to get their congregants in to see that film. I'm confused.....why do we want our Savior Hollywoodfied but not an Old Testament boat builder?
Pick a side and stick to it. This is why my children won't watch any of these films until they reach adulthood. Hollywood has never asked to raise my children up in the christian faith, and I don't plan on charging them with that responsibility. However I am also not going to protest to high heaven and back about each bible-based film that comes out. Spoiler alert: we as human beings all have some facts wrong - at the end of the day it's our hearts that count.
7. These type of films encourage people to read the book after.
I love dinosaurs. They are the coolest things ever. When Jurassic Park was about to come out, my mom agreed to let me ditch a day of middle school to attend the premiere as long as I read the book first. That book is a beast, but I did it. This happened after years of a rule where I was required to read before watching a movie. And as an adult , I often seek out a book based on a film after seeing the film. So do a lot of people. And we all know what book Noah is from.....so why are we complaining about the free publicity?
So should you see Noah?
I don't know. I'm not you. But I would break it down as such:
If you are so conservative in your faith that you fear it will be shaken by a movie, or you struggle with the harsh reality that there's a world out there that often disagrees with our faith and values, then I would probably skip it.
If you are able to separate fact from fiction comfortably, do not take other opinions personally and want to educate yourself in such a way that you can "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." 1 Peter 3:16
Then I say go for it. After all, how can we stand for what we believe in if we cannot allow ourselves to be at least carefully & respectfully familiar with the other side?
