NBC’s “A.D.” Episode 11 Review

NBC’s A.D. – the Bible Continues. Episode 11 – Rise Up.

What is an “abomination”? The Bible mentions it, A.D. mentions it, what is it?

Is it a statue? A golden image of a Roman emperor?

For that matter, what is “the temple”? Is it a physical location, a building of stone and wood, decorated with appropriate accouterments and not defiled with statues of Roman perverts?

Let’s use those questions, about abominations and temples, to review last Sunday night’s episode. Titled Rise Up, this episode shows the building tensions as Caiaphas tries to build a force strong enough to fight against an abomination and for the purity of the temple.

• So Caiaphas seems willing to compromise with Jesus’ followers, (seems)
• So the Ethiopian eunuch is willing to plot with the zealots,
• So Leah is willing to go behind Caiaphas—her husband’s back to prevent this temple/abomination stand-off

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And along the way this episode of A.D. unwittingly becomes the scenario it was trying to portray. Let me explain… (keep the temple/abomination questions in mind…)

Way back when the temple was first built, on the day it was dedicated, Solomon asked this question: But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built! (1 Kings 8:27 ESV)

From the get-go, the Bible has taught that purity before God—and God’s presence—is not a matter of the right building, right location, or the right race, food, etc. See our review of Episode 10 for a more thorough explanation of all this.

What Wise-Old-Solomon knew was that the physical building is not the dwelling place of God. This truth was forgotten not just by the cast of A.D. but also by the real people living in those real times. Even Jesus’ disciples struggled to understand. During Holy Week they were noting the glory of the temple and even at Jesus’ ascension they were still confused about what God’s Kingdom would/would not be.

Picture it this way: Someone threatens to come into your home and hang the cross on your wall upside down! This would hurt/affect God…not at all. Jesus’ work for you on the real cross is not undone by incorrectly hanging your decorative cross. The orientation of that cross does nothing to increase or decrease the power of God.

For yourself and for your children you should treat that cross reverently; not because there is some curse attached to doing otherwise but because it is a symbolic reminder of what God did for you. If you were to get used to treating it irreverently, hanging it upside down or throwing it across the yard; well, while your behavior might tell us something about your lack of appreciation, still there is no effect on God and His power.

Caligula’s plan to place a statue of himself was offensive. Both times that Jesus cleansed the temple He made it clear that it was to be a house of prayer to God; a house of mercy, of forgiveness, of renewal…

But Caligula’s statue would not diminish God and would not cause God to leave the temple.

The temple was to be about one thing: That house of prayer, house of mercy, that place where the Word of God was proclaimed in its truth and purity.

A.D. falls victim to its own fictitious scenario when we hear Matthew preaching about having light in Jesus’ but we never hear Matthew speak of Jesus’ work of forgiveness which is the light that gives life to men. The Word of God is not set forth in its truth and purity.

A.D. falls victim to its own fictitious scenario when we hear Philip tell the Ethiopian that Baptism is about us choosing to be a new someone.
Again, the Word of God is twisted from Good News about what God has done to expectations about what you’d better do from now on.

A.D. falls victim to its own fictitious scenario when Mary, who cannot bring Tabitha back to life, calls for Peter who has more faith than she. Read God’s Word; faith is not something measured in ounces or bushels, faith is not about amounts. Faith is about the object of faith—Jesus Christ who is the resurrection and the life.

(Plus, Jesus never “commissioned” Mary/made her an apostle, like He did Peter. The very thought of her “doing” a miracle is as ludicrous as Simon the Sorcerer thinking it was a skill he could purchase!)

(Plus PLUS, remember the last scene with Simon the Sorcerer? It seems Peter is gaining better control over the Holy Spirit, making it answer his beck and call. Though I do hope he perfects this soon so that he no longer needs to yell when he wants the Spirit to do something. Maybe when Peter has really got the Spirit house-broken he’ll be able to raise people without having to raise his voice.)

This temple/abomination question speaks to who/what God is. Robert Farrar Capon, in his book Between Noon and Three, depicts it well:

A woman stops in to talk to her minister. Seems her daughter had been critically injured in a car accident. Mom was so desperate to bargain for her daughter’s life, she promised God she’d break off her extra-marital affair.

That was a few weeks ago. Now, her daughter is out of ICU and on the road to recovery. “Since God kept His end of the agreement, what would happen to her if she didn’t keep hers and continued with the affair?”

The minister replied by asking what sort of god she had? If she had a Greek, Roman, or other-such god, then “yes”, she’d absolutely have to keep her end. Otherwise her daughter’s recovery would be in jeopardy.

However, if she believed in the God revealed in Holy Scripture, then “no.” This God was not warning Mom about adultery by punishing her child. This God does not deal with us in a straight, tit-for-tat, way and He doesn’t use innocent bystanders as pawns to make people behave better.

The “abomination” everyone should be worried about is a Christ-less Christianity (or in A.D.’s scenario: A Scripture-less religion).

• Shame on Caiaphas for entertaining the notion of compromising with people he’s declared to be heretics!
• Shame on James (and most of the rest) for suggesting that such compromise will be good! (“We just want the persecutions to stop.”)
• Shame on John for the scene when Peter says he can’t forgive the man who killed Jesus, responds by equating “forgiveness” with “compromise.”

The rare highlight of this week’s scene was the fictitious execution of Johanna. She didn’t just look Cornelius in the eye and forgive him, she said “I forgive you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

THANK YOU! There’s the Truth; there’s the fulfillment of Isaiah 53 which our banished Eunuch was reading, there’s the Author of Life by whom the real Tabitha really was raised back to life, and there’s the focus of all the Old Testament worship in-and-out of the temple.

Lets keep those statues of self-made gods out of our churches because to allow them would be to become indifferent to what we teach ourselves, our children, and the world. Let’s keep our crosses right-side-up because those crosses are reminders of what God promised and accomplished for our sake. And above all, lets keep the pure Word of God in our churches and homes so that all may hear of forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ.