I’ve just been alerted to the release of a new Bible documentary for Christians called The God Who Speaks. The contributors are (with one exception?) American-based Evangelical scholars, apologists, or pastors. You can buy the DVD at the website or stream it for free if you have Amazon Prime.I haven’t watched it myself, but, from the trailer, it looks like it gives attention to the text’s transmission. (Note that Dan Wallace, Mike Kruger, and Karen Jobes are contributors.) If any readers have seen it, let us know in the comments. And happy new year!
Here’s the description from the producers:
The God Who Speaks is a 90-minute documentary that traces the evidence of the Bible’s authority through interviews with some of the world’s most respected biblical scholars. This film answers common objections about the Bible’s reliability and equips believers to confidently base their lives on the power of God’s Word.
Saw it at our church a month ago. Very well done. Presents a standard evangelical perspective on "how we got the Bible" with a multitude of biblical scholars speaking to the matter in short clips. For a work which does not dramatize its subject matter, but relies on interviews and the like, it's done about well as it could be. Only possible downside I could see is that it perhaps somewhat longer than it needed to be. But well worth watching.
ReplyDeleteQuite good. Contributors were keen on subject matter. I was hoping for a bit more elucidation on comparative Biblical manuscript discrepancy or lack of discrepancy. The takeaway on lack of discrepancy, should that be the case, being the probability that we have the very words of Christ as found in the original writings.
ReplyDeletePG,
ReplyDeleteI just watched this on amazon prime, certainly produced for a non-scholarly audience, but well done non the less. As I think about my past congregations and my bible studies, they all could benefit from it, but realistically a fair portion of them would be overwhelmed. My current congregations would generally be less intimidated since I address these issues more frequently in my sermons.
Access to and promotion of this type of information from the pulpit will help to insure Christians are not caught unaware when the latest magazine article or best seller makes uncritical claims as fact.
Tim
Thanks for the shoutout and the positive feedback on 'The God Who Speaks'. As the director/producer behind the project, I'm always excited to see that Christians are getting ahold of the film and finding it helpful. As one comment mentioned above, TGWS is intended as a layman's introduction to "how we got the Bible." Creating a resource like this was tricky because of the complex scholarly issues at work and the ignorance of some of the basic theology and arguments by many in our audience. We didn't have time (or the proper medium, in my opinion) to dig into many of the more complicated textual questions that are a feature of this website.
ReplyDeleteStill, even with those obstacles and the abstract nature of the subject matter, I have been pleased to learn that many earnest Christians who have watched the film have been moved to appreciate their Bibles more, defend it's authority more vigorously, and some viewers have even been challenged to dig into additional reading on some of these issues (we included an annotated bibliography in the DVD set to help give some guidance for anyone who got particularly motivated by the film). I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have discovered this website as a result.
Anyway, just wanted to stop by and reach out since I just discovered this post.
God bless,
M.D.