Understanding the Culture: Noah - Heresy Played in Theaters

Noah was a direct, heretical mockery of Noah, Scripture, and God. 

And here's why.

1. The plot *spoilers alert*

The whole film was painful. The Watchers, fallen angels who were banished from heaven because they helped Adam and Eve, beings who looked like a cross between Transformers and ents. Because fallen angels aren't demons by any chance, but nice little rock giants who helped Noah's family build the ark. 

Also, how the animals were innocent and the ark was built to save them, not mankind. How those who ate meat were portrayed as living devils, while Noah and his family were commended because of their vegetarian, subsistence living, only taking what they needed to the point of not even picking wildflowers. How there were only 6 of Noah's family on the ark, plus one evil man who snuck in to kill Noah. How Noah decided God wanted him to kill everyone for their sin, to the point of almost murdering his own granddaughters to prohibit new life.

Two psycho guys with knives on the ark. Great. Now where was that in the Bible? Where was Ila and the miraculous healing of her barrenness? Or drugging the animals so they slept peacefully on the ark? Really. One needs only to turn to Genesis 5-9 and read the true historical account found right there in God's Holy Word. 

The plot bothers me. It bothers me when a producer, a mere man, would choose to interpret and change and twist the Word of God into some sort of fantastical story, a myth of fire and healing powers. Nothing more than a mere story. Is that how the Word of the Living God should be portrayed? As a book of fairytales? Not only does Noah mock Scripture, but it mocks God. It derides the power and goodness of God when the story of Noah is portrayed as an illogical fairytale, instead of the historical account of God's faithfulness to a righteous man.

2. Noah

God didn't pick Noah because he was good. God chose him because he was mass-murderer material, a man who could destroy all of mankind, including his own family. Or so it goes in the film. Because according to Noah, Shem had a wife named Ila who was barren. When she was magically healed by Methuselah and became pregnant (show me that in Scripture), Noah threatened to kill her babies if they were girls, so the human race would end. He believed in original sin so strongly that he wanted to carry out justice for God. Yet he looked down on those babies and he couldn't kill them. To quote Ila, he "saw the goodness in man." He chose to have mercy and love, rather than "obey God."

Actually, as a side note, for those who are pro-abortion, would they agree with Noah's decision to murder the babies? Would they remain consistent with what they believe and simply accept the murder of the innocent? I wonder...

Anyway, I have three problems here. 

The first: Noah was not chosen because he could complete the task of destroying mankind and saving innocent animals. According to Scripture, God chose Noah because he was righteous and feared God. Scripture says he was righteous and blameless, and he walked with the Lord and found favor in His eyes (Gen 6). Truth is, God hates evil, and though Noah was still born sinful, Noah feared God. Noah followed after Him. And that separated him and his family from the rest of the world. 

The second: The film teaches that the goodness in man outweighs the evil within us. And that is heresy, pure lies. We deserve hell. We have rejected God. There is no one good, no, not even one, and our hearts are desperately sick. When we die, we will go to hell because God's standard is perfection. We all have sinned. And no matter how many good things we do, God will judge us because of that sin. We cannot be good enough on our own. Our good deeds are like filthy rags in God's eyes, and the little good we do cannot even compare with our wicked hearts.

The third: Obeying God is more important than "love". Let me first go back and point out that God never commanded Noah to kill his own family. This part was strictly never in the Bible but added in by the producer. Also, God will never call us to go against His commandments and murder someone and take justice in our own hands. Let that stand as a warning to us to correctly interpret what we think is God's will in the light of God's Word. However, this movie reminds me of Abraham and Isaac. There, God did command Abraham to sacrifice his only son. At the last second, God stopped Abraham and provided a ram as a replacement for Isaac, both to test Abraham's faith and provide an example of what Christ would do for us on the cross. We see here that Abraham chose to obey God and was rewarded for his faith. Obedience to God should come before everything and anything. 

3. Testimony

After I watched this movie, I wondered to myself what an unbeliever would think of such a illogical, strange, and mythological work of fantasy. After seeing Noah, would it cause a hunger to know God, this powerful Creator who designed everything and who loves justice, yet has mercy? Would it produce a desire to talk about the things of God and ask other Christians more about what they believe? It's doubtful, but perhaps.

And even for Christians, is this movie beneficial? Does it cause a praise and adoration of God or an appreciation for Noah's faith and righteousness? Does it make us admire his trust in God and his steadfastness and perseverance? I think not. I think not. 

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Noah was a disappointment. I had heard negative things about it, but never had I dreamed Noah would be portrayed as someone who thirsted for murder or the animals pictured as the main point of building the ark. I never dreamed that such a strong pro-vegetarianism and environmentalist mentality would pervade the entire film. And that saddens me. I wonder what God thinks when He looks down on this film. I wonder what He feels when He sees Himself portrayed as a fantastical being or his servant Noah as a person who refuses to pick wildflowers.

Yet at the same time, I pray that God would use this film, even in its brokenness. That coworkers and friends and family would ask about the Truth, that conversations would blossom, that the Gospel would be proclaimed and the truth shared. God can use even the weak and broken and diseased and secular as Areopaguses to display His glory.