The above quote from over 150 years ago could be written about this current day! It is amazing how prophetic this wonderful Christian author Dickens really was. The world is in turmoil and closer to the Final Moment than ever before. Right smack dab in the middle of run on banks in southern Europe; chemical warfare genocide in Syria; nuclear strike threats from North Korea and an American pastor abandoned by his country's officials in the islamic terrorist regime in Iran - we have the most joyful event of 2013 exploding all over our consciousness!
The Bible Series (2013), currently the most watched program in America on any TV network, has accumulated over 68 millions viewers in only three episodes on lesser known cable channels Lifetime and History! The fast moving narrative of the Greatest Book on Earth has captivated minds across the board - one last time! This is the first exposure most folks, forty ever had of the Hand of God throughout history. Many of the majority of North Americans are not raised in church anymore, and even if they are, their megachurches treat the Bible as a powerpoint slide and never encourage true expository Biblical teaching.
This is the first Chronological examination of the History of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Eschewing a few important textual and/or dramatic errors, none of them take away from the fundamental accuracy of the message. In the final episode before the New Testament era, the treatment of the Babylonian exile; the brutality of Nebuchannezzar and the rescue of the Jews by the unlikely pagan Persian King Cyrus were explained in stark high definition in more ways than one. Cyrus was prophesied by Isaiah 100 years earlier when God the Father Himself said in Isaiah 45: 1-7: "“Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
2 ‘I will go before you
And make the crooked places[a] straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me
(note in these last five lines - in bold, God said Cyrus does NOT know Him...and Cyrus did not...he worshiped pagan idols until he died)
The Power and Sovereignty of God, as He appeared in the flames which the vicious Babylonian king caused goosebumps all over the fruited plain! The appearance of the great Prophet Daniel, who has never had a movie made about him before, was treated with great courage and integrity. So was his appearance in the Lion's Den after being set up by the evil Haman who sought revenge for what the Israelites did to his people - The Amalekites (whom Moses killed)!
The transition from Daniel and the returning Jews to Jerusalem to the Roman Empire oppression of the Holy Land was seamless, sad and still - very powerful. The quality of production was so realistic, the viewer could feel thorough disgust at the foul King Herod and the evil Roman Empire mistreating the peasantry. A major controversy erupted over the comparison of the zombie looking figure of Satan with a well known American leader, but it does not distract from the magnificence of the Son of Man appearing on the Scene to begin His Ministry on earth.
The best line of the series so far is quoted by the actor playing Jesus. When Peter asked Him why He was going to make him (Peter) "fishers of men", Jesus said "To Change The World"....and looking around these days, the World does need changing!
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