Bible Secrets Revealed: The Complete Series
For the last few months I have been working through the various episodes of Bible Secrets Revealed from the History Channel. This series challenges a number of popular beliefs and conceptions that people hold about the Bible, and raises questions about the integrity and reliability of the Scriptures. In each of the posts below, I summarize the main content of each episode and offer an evaluation and response.
This entire series has reminded me of two critical truths:
1. Our popular culture is prone to distort and misrepresent the teachings of the Bible. I was struck again by how sensationalistic and misleading popular-level programming can actually be when it … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 4)
This is the fourth installment of a new series reviewing the History Channel series entitled Bible Secrets Revealed (for others, see here, here and here). The newest episode is entitled, “The Real Jesus,” and addresses the question of what we can know about the historical Jesus.
Not surprisingly, the tenor of this latest episode is the same as the other episodes, namely that the accounts of the Bible (in this case, the Gospels) cannot be trusted. This documentary catalogs a number of places where (it claims) the Gospels are simply mistaken. Let’s run through some issues that are raised.
1. The Virgin Birth. Almost from the start, … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 3)
This is the third installment of a new series reviewing the History Channel series entitled Bible Secrets Revealed (for others, see here and here). The newest episode is entitled, “The Forbidden Scriptures,” as is definitely one of the most provocative so far. It is designed to argue that certain books were “banned” or “forbidden” from the New Testament.
This episode makes numerous claims about the development of the New Testament that, once again, prove not to be the whole story. Many such claims were made, but I will only mention a few of the key ones here.
1. Was the canon just a power-play? This episode repeats the standard … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 2)
This is the second installment of my new blog series which responds to each new episode of the History Channel series, Bible Secrets Revealed (the previous installment can be found here). The latest episode is entitled, “The Promised Land.”
On a positive note, let me say from the beginning that the accuracy and balance of this latest episode is a substantive improvement over the debut episode. There are even interviews with scholars who disagreed with one another, rather than all sharing the same view.
That said, there are still a number of places where the documentary makes some claims that are problematic. Let me just mention a view.
1. … Continue reading...