The production is high quality and moves quickly. Seven or eight top scientists in various disciplines are interviewed and provide expert testimony. This was genuinely informative to me. If you’re a pastor like me who may not be strong in scientific particulars, it is refreshing to have such strong reinforcement from well-credentialed and knowledgeable professionals.
I haven’t gone to a movie theater with 50 church members in a while—never, actually. But I liked the trailer of Is Genesis History, a fine production created by Del Tackett, so much that we ordered tickets for a group.
Due to over 143,000 people watching this at theaters on February 23rd (the largest grossing movie of the day); encore presentations will be shown across America at local theaters on March 2 and March 7. GO SEE IT!!
Below are a few reasons why pastors and leaders might want to see this film.
First, it rightly comprehends that science is ever-changing. Tackett (such a winsome host) and others refer to the evolutionary scheme as the ‘conventional paradigm,’ surely a curse word to hipster-wannabes who love novelty. In fact, few things can be more insulting to elites than to associate them with the ho-hum ‘conventional’ view. This fine production, however, makes it clear that Bible believers may value the Genesis paradigm over fading theories. The movie gets it right.
Second, the production is high quality and moves quickly. Seven or eight top scientists in various disciplines are interviewed and provide expert testimony. This was genuinely informative to me. If you’re a pastor like me who may not be strong in scientific particulars, it is refreshing to have such strong reinforcement from well-credentialed and knowledgeable professionals.
Third, it may be that this film is of more benefit to believers than to unbelievers. Whereas many church members are led to believe that no highly trained theologian would believe that Genesis is history, many will breathe a sigh of relief to have non-theologians gallop in like the Cavalry to rescue. If your pastor is too sophisticated to believe that Genesis is history, maybe you need to hear from some believing scientists who know science too well than to treat it as dogma.
Finally, maybe this is one of those “Protestant” moments, in which the Bible readers in the pew may have to trust the Bible more than have implicit faith in the clergy. Oh wait, that’s what we’re celebrating that happened 500 years ago, isn’t it. Letting the Bible speak for itself is powerful. Ask the Reformers. And ask these scientists.
Taking some fellow church members to a viewing of Is Genesis History may post a thesis on some wall that goes like this: The Bible is true; it can be trusted. Long after theories are fossilized, God Word will be true (Rom. 3:4).
Find it a theater new you at Is Genesis History. And if your pastor won’t go, take a Sunday School teacher, an elder, a college student, or some church member.
David Hall is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is pastor of Midway PCA in Powder Springs, Ga.