H2's Bible Rules is a Fail of Biblical Proportions

Last night a new show premiered on History 2 channel (formerly History International). The show is called The Bible Rules and is typical of H2 (owned by A&E) pablum. The plan is to explore the different rules that are set forth in the Bible with a panel of experts commenting on the rules. Accompanying the discussion is a series of graphics that have been used over and over by documentary makers until the average Discovery Channel/History Channel viewer can name them by their original jpg filename. I pretty much realized that this was going to be about as biblical as an Assembly Of Gods Heal-A-Thon when I saw the disclaimer at the beginning of the show:

This program explores the interpretation of Bible passages that have been debated for centuries from a variety of scholarly perspectives. 

The very opening words in the very first episode misses the mark so completely that it will be an incredible feat of will power for anyone that understands the Bible to suffer through the whole series:

"What was the ancient world like? The answer may be buried within thousands of rules and commandments in the bible. Some are shocking, some mysterious, all reveal lost details about the world that was. The past is now. We all know about the 10 Commandments but look deeper and there are nearly 2000 rules, laws, and commands in the bible, and all of them are an unexpected portal into understanding the ancient world."

How about an unexpected portal into understanding the will of God? But there's no mention of God in this introduction to an exploration of God's word. Yes, we may learn a bit about the ancient world through the bible, but to be honest we need to know about the ancient world to learn about the bible. We use the bible to learn about God and what He expects of us, and if we learn anything about ourselves it's that we fall far short of God's desires. 

So deficient of Godly teaching is this series that it's not until 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the first episode that God is even mentioned although Moloch is discussed almost from the opening words. That mention of God is by Seth L. Sanders, associate professor of religion at Trinity college, who made the comparison of child sacrifice to Moloch with God's request to dedicate every first born male children to Him (Exodus 13:2), however Seth didn't use the word dedicate or consecrate, Seth said "Give me..." quoting Exodus 22:29 and since the topic being discussed was human sacrifice in the ancient world Seth made it sound like God was demanding human sacrifice from his chosen people.

The show then goes on to recite the most common atheist lie about the bible, that God demanded child sacrifice of Abraham and then changed His mind. Not once is the truth mentioned that this is a test of Abraham's faith rather than outright child sacrifice. Remarks by Brian McLaren and Rev. Dr. Jacqi Lewis make it sound like this is God changing his mind to indicate that child sacrifice has come to an end but Leviticus 18:21 comes well after this, if child sacrifice is over why would God repeat Himself in Leviticus? I pray that the editors of this show made it sound that way, that they chopped out the remarks of McLaren and Lewis and Rev. Bill Golderer (who ordained the first gay Presbyterian pastor) that affirm what every Sunday school student knows, or at least someone that skimmed the New Testament knows - that Abraham so loved God that he would follow God's commands knowing in his faith that God would make everything come out right (Hebrews 11:17–19).

The show finishes up the segment of child sacrifice claiming that the test of Abraham ended child sacrifice in Israel completely ignoring the truth - Ezekiel 16:21-22,27 and Psalm 106:37-41. One of the huge sins of Israel was child sacrifice, for which God's wrath was brought down on them in the form of an ocean of Babylonian warriors crashing against the walls of Jerusalem and God's people being dragged off in chains. And of course no mention is made of the millions of children sacrificed today.

After the segment on child sacrifice was a segment on children cursing their parents, Exodus 21:17 clearly states that children that curse their parents should be put to death. The conversation immediately shoots off into the weeds and lead the viewer to believe that when the bible says "curse" it doesn't mean to swear or dishonor, but to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm. Ok, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I can crack open Strong's Concordance and see what the original Hebrew meaning is in this case. The word used that's translated to 'curse' is qalal, it's a verb and it means to be trifling, in other words to dishonor, or treat with contempt. So why do these supposed experts sail off into nebulous gales of wizardly conspiracies of black magic and witchcraft when the meaning is right there in black and white? Because it's H2, the channel whose aim is to replace God with Ancient Aliens.

Now keep in mind, we haven't even reached the first commercial break yet, and as we go into the first commercial break we have an 'expert reciting an ancient Babylonian magic curse. Coming back from the commercial the screen is filled with images of demons and more Babylonian magic, more talk of wizards and witches, yet there is no mention of God. It's shocking to see that the voice of reason in this babblefest turns out to be Brian McLaren who has to remind the viewers that the ancient world was a tough world and children who fail to listen to their parents will probably wind up dead anyhow.

Of course this lead into a discussion witchcraft and sorcery. The show did point out that Israel wasn't the only society that outlawed witchcraft but again our experts shot off the rails with their own uneducated theories that prove a doctorate is more than a piece of paper, it's also a frame and a wall to hang it on too. Shawna Dolansky of Carleton University implied that witchcraft was outlawed because God was jealous that people were going outside of "official channels" and not contacting him directly through his appointed prophets. Which when you think about it is absolutely right, but it was presented in such a way as to make God look petty and insignificant. 

The only upside in this is that this is only the second or third time God is mentioned in the first 20 minutes of the program which is supposedly about His word. I guess that I should be grateful that they finally got around to mentioning that the Creator of the universe like he exists. The program goes on to show modern witchcraft in a positive light as if to say that the Bible should be ignored because if the Pentagon can embrace witchcraft it's GOT to be good. 

And once again we have a panel of experts discussing a topic without bothering to embrace exactly what it means. First they applied the modern interpretation of a magical curse to a word that has nothing to do with magic, now they're comparing modern neo-pagans who dance in the sunbeams, bark at the moon, converse with butterflies and gleefully damn their eternal soul without a second thought, to the foul drug pushing necromancers of 4000 years ago. 

Twenty minutes into a study of the bible and I was thoroughly disgusted with such an ungodly new-age twisting of scripture that I turned it off, but I do not urge my readers to do so. I instead urge you to follow the Apostle John when he said 

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)

Having tested these spirits and having had my fill I turned off H2 and turned on the Science Channel. That wasn't such a good idea either.