It’s Christmas Eve, and our minds are on all things Christmasy at this time. Plenty of Christmas films to watch, gathering with family and friends, and more. However, I wanted to take a brief moment to share some thoughts on the recent film release, Exodus: Gods and Kings, while also commenting on some of the Christian community’s response to this film, and others like it.

The running joke that’s been around since the announcement of the movie’s making is that Moses is being played by Batman, meaning Christian Bale has taken on the role of the ancient prophet of the Hebrew people. It truly is hard at times to see an actor play another part outside of the role where he became most famous (can we think of Kiefer Sutherland as anyone but Jack Bauer?). I know I personally went in to the movie thinking we were going to have a cross between Gladiator (that’s a Ridley Scott film as well), Batman and The Lord of the Rings. In the end, it didn’t seem to overly mix these films as much as I thought it would, which is a relief.

However, more than anything, as I said, I would like to touch on the response of Christians in regards to the release of the film. As with the early 2014 release, Noah, the biggest contention many Christians have brought up is that this film was far from true to the biblical text. This has been greatly problematic for not a few.

So how are we to respond? Continue reading →