Reading Ezekiel

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Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah are all part of a package deal in prophecy. Together they form the major part of prophecy in the Old Testament. Ezekiel is the lesser known book, because it is a harsher form of prophecy, and slightly less organized. Still, it is a highly intellectual, bold, vision like prophetic book.

Just like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel first receives a call. In my opinion, if you are listening, everyone receives a call in their life. This call can be for a multitude of things (career, relationships, missions, church involvement), and can come in a multitude of different ways, but my belief is that God has a specific call for every one of His children. Ezekiel's call was to be a prophet.

His focus was on the future of Israel. Again, he seems to bounce back and forth with his prophecies from present day to near future to far future. Still, he remains focused on the future of Israel, and specifically the holy city Jerusalem. He first predicts the destruction of the city, and cites the sins of the people as the major reason. He then moves on to prophecies regarding foreign nations and cities. Again, even though he's not talking directly about Israel here, the two are inexplicably linked. Israel isn't secluded at all. In fact, after a study in the book of Revelation, the relationship between the Israelites and Gentiles could not be more intertwined. Finally, Ezekiel ends the book on a high note, regarding the restoration of the nation. Again, the differing timeframes can be seen here. On one hand, he was talking about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. But, a lot of what he said could be taken for the end times.

The interesting thing with prophecy is that every vision, every idea, every prediction comes from the Lord. How the author describes that vision, idea, or prediction is up to the author, but still his words are divinely inspired. The dual process is one of the most amazing things about the Bible.

Noah Movie Review

Rating: 6.8/10
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Noah
Purchase: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/noah/id834786516

Last year, this was the huge movie in Christian circles. The anticipation was great, but the resulting reaction was one of huge disappointment. The movie was built up in secular and Christian circles alike, with big name actors, a big budget, and a cinematically exciting trailer. Surprisingly, the movie was backed by many popular Christian associations, including Focus on the Family.

In reality, secularly, this movie was a huge success. As a cinematic experience, this was a great movie. Strip away the Biblical background, the origin or source of this story, and the movie and plot was actually surprisingly good. However, the issue is that the movie is based on a Biblical story, and therefore it has to be a strong interpretation of the original material, which is wasn't. Especially for someone who knows the Biblical story of Noah, the differences in this movie were shockingly huge.

There are multiple twists in this version of the Noah story. First, the fallen angels. In this film they are depicted as being punished by God for helping humankind too much, being sentenced to rock bodies for eternity. These fallen angels are called Watchers. Now this is the movie's first un-Christian spin. There are no mention of Watchers in the Bible, and although there are mention of fallen angels, there is no mention of punishment for any specific reason in the actual story. Later on in the Bible, the fallen angels are mentioned as followers of Satan, which would offer a reasonable explanation as to why they were cast out of heaven. God would never punish someone for helping humankind.

The second interesting spin that dominates throughout the entire film is an interesting ritual where a snakeskin is wrapped around the forearm. This is by no means a Christian act. Instead, it is an ancient ritual, something called tefillin. It actually bears strong Satanism symbolism.

The character of Noah is also horribly twisted. The movie pictures him as violent, destructive, and no different then the men of the earth. This is possibly the farthest from the truth. The Bible states that Noah was a righteous man, one after God's own heart. He's the only one from the whole Earth who is worthy of being saved. He is peaceful, a caretaker, a nurturer.

Finally, perhaps the biggest mistake of the movie is the depiction of God. God is pictured as distant, cruel, violent, and definitely not like our Christian God. Throughout the movie He is never called by name, instead referred to as the Creator. He never talks to His people, staying silent and letting them suffer. He curses His angels and then never helps them. He loves violence, and enforces Noah killing everyone without mercy, including newborn babies. That is not the true God. Reading the Biblical story gives a completely different picture of God. God loves His people and does everything He can to save them, through Noah. He guides Noah's every step, protects him and his family, and even promises after the flood never to destroy the world through a global flood.

This movie does help to open the mind to a new perspective regarding the story of Noah. It helps the viewer to think about what Noah would have actually gone through, and the world at that time. Take our world and triple its wickedness. It's hard to imagine. The ark would have been magnificent as well, throughout the building and flood phase.

So while it is a "Christian" movie, it is not one Christians should support, even if it does introduce non-believers to the concept of God. It actually introduces them to the wrong concept of God, and warps everyone's preconceptions about our relationship with Him.

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Reading Jeremiah

For many, Jeremiah can be seen as a very depressing book. In fact, for the prophet himself, he didn't want to write down God's words they were so downcast. The book is filled with prophecies of upcoming doom, of horrors in the future. And much like Israel in the past, the present people completely ignored the words of the Lord, and continued down the wrong path of sin. When what the Lord had promised actually happened, only a handle of people were actually prepared, possibly only Jeremiah and Baruch.

King James Bible Online

However, Jeremiah is an extremely helpful prophetic book as well. Obviously, it joins the long list of books in the Bible of wildly straightforward warning or caution signs. Over and over again, there are stories and stories of God warning the Israelites not to turn away from Him or trouble will come on them. But over and over, the Israelites ignored God completely, and ended up in despair. Jeremiah is no different.

We need to learn from the Israelite's mistakes, and take God's Words to heart. We can't be like the Israelites, and ignore God, especially when we have all of history, the whole picture to look at and learn from. We need to follow God with all of our hearts, and without turning to evil, or evil will overtake us.

Jeremiah also serves another purpose in my opinion. The book shows that at every single moment, God is in control. Through the good and through the bad, God remains all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere. Sometimes, we may not notice that God is in control, and we lose sight of exactly what our God can do, and what He does. That's what happened with these Israelites, and we have to use this story as a warning sign for us. We cannot lose sight of the almighty power of our God, and we must always trust and believe that everything happens for a reason.