A TALE OF TWO NOAHS

Noah, the biblically themed epic movie starring Russell Crowe, has grossed in over $343 million since it premiered two months ago.

Money talks, especially if you are the crew behind a $125 million film. The movie is flinging its mojo, despite being an inordinate distortion of the Bible which it claims to be based on.

Two other Hollywood versions of the gospel “Son of God” and “God is not Dead” (both of which I am yet to watch) have swept in close to $100 million combined.

There is increasing fascination with religion at the box office but it is informed not so much by the conservative reconstruction of the Bible as it is by controversy and contradiction.

With over $12 billion (8 billion more than Zimbabwe’s annual budget) being realised by Hollywood studios every year, according to The Economist, there is no saying what buying power can do on public opinion.

Paramount Pictures issued a disclaimer explaining that while artistic license was taken, “Noah” remains true to “the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide.”

However, the director of the film, Darren Aron, has bragged that his “Noah” is the “least biblical” of Bible-based films, eliciting the ire of evangelical diehards.

Ironically, mainstream Christian organisations like Focus on the Family, Church of England and American Bible Society have endorsed the controversial movie.

Yesteryear mainstays of faith in the West are increasingly giving way on fundamentals, either because they are cornered in a Hollywood-captive society, or they know where bread is buttered in an environment that has become more secular-wired than ever. 

“Noah” advances the idea of evolutionary creation, a stroppy compromise between Darwinian evolution and the Bible account of creation which has also been rubber-stamped by many key faith centres including the Vatican.

Russell Crowe’s rendering of Noah is, by and large, a far-cry from the Noah whom both the Old and New Testaments present as a “preacher of righteousness” in a wicked world (Genesis 6:9; 1 Peter 2:5).

Among those least amused by Paramount’s portrayal of Noah is the Christian author and film-maker Ray Comfort who is also the founder of Living Waters Publications and co-presenter of “The Way of the Master.”

Comfort has come up with his own small-budget documentary entitled “Noah and the Last Days” in response to Crowe’s “Noah.”

Having watched Comfort’s award-winning documentaries “180: Changing the Heart of a Nation,” “Genius,” and “Evolution vs. God: Shaking the Foundations of Faith” I knew what to except and was not disappointed.

As with the previous productions, “Noah and the Last Days” forcefully challenges popular opinion, thanks to Comfort’s aptitude in balancing creativity and orthodoxy.

The documentary maintains the biblical account of the flood and relates it to the current generation in captivating fashion.

“Noah born over 2, 700 BC was a ship-builder and the prophet of the century. Many think of Noah and the Ark as a story from the past. Did you know that, according to Jesus, the events surrounding the life of Noah are directly related to you?” Comfort throws the challenge at the beginning of his documentary.

Noah, according to Christian tradition, is a historical figure who was instructed to build the Ark before God destroyed the antediluvian world because “the heart of man was corrupt, his imaginations were continually evil and there was great wickedness and violence on the earth.”

Comfort insists on the historicity of the Genesis account and echoes on Jesus’ prediction that “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24: 37).

The documentary zeros in on ten signs of the end of the age in reference to Noah’s time, including false teachers and false prophets; natural disasters; commonplace blasphemy; scaling down of moral standards; hypocrisy among professed Christians; fear of the future and widespread denial of the truth of God’s existence.

Money-hungry preachers slurring the Christian faith and deceiving thousands are featured in successive clips as the first sign. Their main, or rather only, message is an invite to a win-win wager whereby followers give them money in return for prosperity and life enhancement.

Scoffers are also shown mocking the Second Coming by claiming these signs have always been around – itself an end-time sign predicted in 2 Peter 3: 3, 4.

Comfort as lashes out at Hollywood’s obsession with expletives as a sign of widespread profanity and blasphemy in the last days.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is cited as an example of aggravated profanity. The feature film broke the record with its liberal use of expletives with, with 576 obscenities in total and God’s name blasphemed 28 times.

“Can you think of anyone famous in history, Napoleon, Shakespeare or Hitler who had their name used as a curse word? Only Jesus Christ, why would there use his name as a curse word?” Comfort charges.

“Do you think Muslims would allow Hollywood to use their prophet’s name as a curse word? They respect their prophet and expect people to. And we (Christians) pay Hollywood to blaspheme the name of Jesus,” he points out.

He equates watching couples make love on the TV screen to watching couples make love through a real window and calls Hollywood a glorified brothel where actors and actresses will take their clothes off and prostitute themselves for money.

“Noah and the Last Days” has a companion booklet entitled “Noah’s Ark, Evolution, and Scientific Facts in the Bible.”

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