Episodes, per History Channel:
Lead: Monday, March 7, 2013, 8:00 pm Eastern US Time. (Presumably, this will run to about 10 pm.)
Others:
- March 04, 2013 - 12:02-02:02AM
- March 06, 2013 - 09:00-11:02PM
- March 07, 2013 - 01:01-03:03AM
- March 10, 2013 - 06:00-08:02PM
Trailer (extended):
The introduction by the producers will be useful:
And, to get a flavour, here is C Lo Green's Mary, did You Know, in the series session on the birth of Jesus:
I regard this as an opportunity to do "Sunday School" for a generation that needs to hear and to see the message and broad storyline of the Bible in a medium that is familiar and comfortable, video. While, the series is obviously only highlighting several pivotal events in the Bible's timeline, and thus giving a broad overview of the timeline/ plotline of the Bible, even that is something that too many simply do not have today.
And, the videos can be a springboard for discussion, reading and study.
(Onwards, I strongly recommend doing a full survey of Bible history, and another of systematic theology (NB: scope-sequence is here), in a context where one also does a structured study of/introduction to the gospel, basics of the Christian commitment of discipleship, church renewal, and service/leadership based on cell/small groups. (This last should include a survey of personal evangelism skills (cf. here on organising public evangelistic meetings) and handling of basic intellectual challenges -- apologetics.) We should have some exposure as well to organising ourselves to be active participants in the global Missionary Mandate of the church.
We are living in a time where all too many are woefully ignorant of the Bible and its central redemptive, transforming message. In addition, others have spent their time obsessively trying to poison minds against the Bible, in inadvertent fulfillment of Jesus' warning in Jn 3:19 - 21.
Let me clip the context:
Jn 3:5 Jesus answered [the leading Jewish teacher, Nicodemus], “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ 8 The wind[e] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you[f] do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[g] 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[h]
For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe [--> refuses to trust God through the gospel . . . .] is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
(Cf. here on a rebuttal of evilbible, a typical sampler of the manipulative well-poisoning rhetoric used by many so-called New Atheists and their fellow travellers. A broader survey of issues raised C1 - 21 is here.)
So, I believe it is of first importance to support such a worthwhile effort, whatever flaws may/will be there. Getting people to pay attention to the Word of God is a big step to their making an appropriate, eternally vital response to it. And, by starting where people are -- with video, an audio-visual medium -- we can then help people focus their minds on what, sadly, is now the less familiar, less easy medium of printed text.
Quite frankly, I am at the stage where I openly advocate using multimedia projectors with rich visuals to help open eyes to see and hear, then projecting the text, music videos etc, and diagrams too, to help people learn the gospel message in context. (In that context, I highly recommend using video clips in sermons and Bible lessons, including appropriate web downloads etc. Cf. Glo Bible here. Amazon, here.)
And, once attention has been won, and once the gospel brings forth a proper response,w e can then proceed with solid teaching and training, to help disciples grow in grace and serve Christ in a very challenging age.
So, I welcome this event and look forward to the opportunity to purchase the DVD set for the miniseries. END
