MR - His Only Son

Not bad.

Overall the story of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah was well acted. If you come to the movie with a strong understanding of the biblical narrative, this movie can paint a humanized portrait of what might otherwise be far-off and iconic biblical characters. However, if this is the first time you are encountering the story of Abraham and Isaac, you should know that the producers added some extra-biblical story elements, many of which I found distracting.

The portrayal of Sarah/Sarai by Sara Seyed is the best part of the film. I have often thought about the tension that must have been in that household, and she did an outstanding job portraying it. Although they made her look too old. Sarah was old, but even at 90, she was hot enough that King Abimelek wanted her for his harem.

Two things were avoided or misrepresented when it came to Abraham. First, they did not deal with Abraham being a little cowardly and a liar. On two occasions, Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister for fear that if Pharoh or King Abmielek knew she was his wife, they would kill him and take her. The movie glossed over those incidents. Perhaps the producers did not want to taint the hero arc of Abraham, but for me, it is a compelling reason to believe the story as it is laid out in Genesis. No one making up a patriarch for a nation would endow him with such petty weaknesses, yet there they are. 

The second thing the movie did not portray was how wealthy Abraham was. No doubt this was due to the low-budget nature of the film. They did not have enough money to hire the requisite people to show Abraham's wealth. In the movie, when Abraham talks to Philistine horsemen (an extra-biblical addition), he downplays his role in rescuing his nephew Lot. Going so far as to say that the men he brought were just shepherds armed with tools. But the biblical text tells a different story. 

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. - Genesis 14:14 

Abram had 318 men he equipped and trained as his personal bodyguard/army. He must have been wealthy indeed. I am sure his "camp" was well over a thousand people, plus enough food on the hoof to keep everyone fed. The idea of Abram's great wealth is further laid out in Genesis 13:5-6.

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possesssions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

While I may now just be picking at nits, I will finally mention how the director over-emphasized Isaac as a "type" of Christ. Going so far as having Isaac say some things that Jesus said, not word for word but too close for my liking. I get it; the film producers were trying to use the story of Abraham & Isaac to tell the salvation story. But they are not the same story. The Abraham/Isaac story is part of the same story, and the foreshadowing of the near sacrifice of Isaac and the actual sacrifice of Jesus is undeniable. Still, it felt like they stretched too far.

In the end, I recommend the movie. But I also recommend you read the actual account of events in Genesis before or after, or both!

BR - Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas

This book is poignant, challenging, convicting, and sometimes downright uncomfortable.

Metaxas draws parallels between the current state of the American church and the German church of the 1930s. Drawing heavily on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he shows that it was mainly because the church remained silent when they should have spoken up that allowed the rise of Hitler. He dives into some church history to show that perhaps the German church, the Lutheran church, had some reasons why she was blindsided. Luther was a "by faith alone" preacher to the point that he wanted to remove the book of James from the New Testament because it was too "works-oriented." Also, during Luther's kerfuffle with the only church on the planet, some peasants revolted and did so, trying to use Luther's name and teaching as a cover for their rebellion. Luther smacked them down hard with Romans 13. Then for the next 400 years, the German church and government under the Kaisers got along swimmingly.

The government was more or less Christian and helped promote the church. The church was more or less secular and encouraged the government. Everyone knew that faith alone saved you, and all that was required was to spend an hour or so a week in the church being told that God had forgiven your sins and there was nothing you could do to earn salvation except believe in faith. You could then go about your business.

Enter the rise of the Nazis and a brilliant young theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who tried to wake the church from its slumber. Works don't save you, but if you are a branch producing no fruit, have care because the gardener is about to prune you off and cast you onto the burn pile. Bonhoeffer famously said, 'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.' Human governments are easily corrupted, and they need the church's conscience to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Metaxas also rails against the idea that the church should not be political by pointing out that we might still have slavery if it were not for the loud political voice of one William Wilberforce, who spoke truth to power when most told him that slavery was not an issue in which the church should get involved. Who but the church has the answers to moral questions? If we do not speak up and remain silent, will we lose our saltiness?

Truth must be spoken. It is not always welcome, but it must be spoken nonetheless. When the truth is not spoken, when we hold our tongue, we contribute to what Metaxas calls a spiral of silence. Everyone knows that men cannot become women by declaration. We know it. We know that the sexes are not interchangeable and that they are distinct. We all know at the bottom that a woman is one-half of what is needed to make a child and that a man is the other half. This has been known since the beginning of time. But when we hear people say the opposite and we remain silent, we make it harder for others to say something. When they, in turn, don't speak against the madness, they, too, make it harder for the next person. And so the spiral of silence continues down until men become the best women. Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner is Woman of the Year, Lia (William - wil-LIA-m) Thomas becomes a women's swimming sensation, and the list, unfortunately, goes on and on. Our generation has given up on truth. Too many of our churches remain deafeningly silent.

Metaxas points out that we are only fooling ourselves, albeit not very well, when we hide behind the idea we must not speak some truths too loudly, or we may push someone away from the church. If we offend, we may lose our opportunity to share the gospel. Paul calls us to live at peace with our fellow man when we can.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Romans 12:18

But what to do when it does not depend upon you? Jesus did not seem concerned with being at peace with the Pharisees in Matthew 23.

Undoubtedly there will be prices to pay. Luther lived with the genuine possibility that he would burn at the stake for his heresy. Bonhoeffer was arrested, spent time in Nazi concentration camps, and was executed days before his camp was liberated.

If we take a stand against the evils of our day, we, too, may pay a price. We may be canceled (oh, the horror!), lose friendships, and lose our jobs. Others may not think of us as that nice winsome Christian man. But we may hear Christ say, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your master."

One caveat with the book and what made it uncomfortable is that Metaxas begins to toy with situational ethics in the last couple of chapters. Something I have never been a fan of, but by doing so, he does make you think.

I agreed with most of the book and readily recommend it. We live in a time when people must stand up for the truth. Not your truth or my truth, but THE TRUTH. The truth is a person and can be known and proclaimed! Jesus is the truth, the way, and the light, and no one comes to the Father (is saved) apart from Him.

The upshot - read this book and also read the Bible.