I’ve been waiting for the first somewhat extensive critique of the “Revelations” mini-series opener, and this one by Chuck Currie expresses a lot of what I feeL:
Christians can find much in Revelation to learn from. The dominant economic system of our modern time oppresses and wreaks havoc in much the same way Rome did. God calls us to oppose these systems the same way God called early Christian communities to oppose the oppression of their time. NBC’s interpretation of the Bible misses the core message of the faith – and all for money and ratings. There is an irony in that NBC is one of the two networks that banned the United Church of Christ for airing television commercials the network claimed other Christians might find offensive because of their progressive theological message. Nothing could be more offensive than twisting the fundamental message of the Bible for profit. Does NBC simply not understand the theological implications of their show or do they simply not care?
They don’t care. It’s “entertainment”. Just like “Left Behind”, which sells itself as covert theology, which has an effect much like that of the outlawed subliminal advertising. What people mistake for “legitimate theology” is an appeal to their “movie-going, novel reading, horror-flick” fantasies. To imply that it’s “evangelism” as well is out and out slick marketing (albeit manipulative and ultimately having negative impact upon the Bible’s apocalyptic message, whcih is to prophetically warn us against Empires and their deceptions and destructions. And “prophetically” is also distorted into a role of crystal ball gazers who “know what’s going to happen in the future”.
When I began to learn of what these OT prophets were actually facing in their day, the ridiculous applications of their prophetic utterings were made clear, and the way American Christians can avoid the message of the Prophets as moral/political/econmonic critique of America.
Richard Land suggested that Christians would be able to “see through” the Biblical innacuracies; but he himself does not seem to catch the drift of apocalyptic passages; and instead joins the “premillinealist” fray becuase this has been on the list of “must haves” for a about 100 years amongst fundamentalist Churches. The Southern Baptist Seminaries who use to be able to teach actual Biblical history was where I learned most of this. Now they are stripping away all of the “rebel chaff” and “purifying” their ranks of all the “non-orthodox”. Pretty sad.