Before
the movie’s screening, there had already been quite a lot of hoo-haa, with
calls by Christians to boycott the movie. Despite also harbouring fears of what the movie
would depict, I eventually decided to go ahead and view it for myself. In my
earlier walk as a believer, my fellow Christian mates had always advised me to
steer clear from all stuff controversial to Christianity. Under this topics
included philosophy, readings on other faiths, even taiji and wuxia! Now as a
slightly more mature and assured Christian, I’ve dared to assert that staying faithful to
God does not necessarily imply shunning all these, and they can be actually
reconciled to the Christian faith. I exercise taiji at least once a week, and
to me it is merely a form of physical exercise to enhance one’s blood
circulation and breathing patterns, with the meaning of “yin yang” merely being
“inhale exhale”. During my recent RCIA session, the Father from the church mentioned that other
faiths are partial revelations of God’s truth, thus reaffirming my decision to
continue reading books on them, just that I take care to look out for the
elements of their teachings which parallel what the Bible states. I know some
believers may dispute my methods, saying that this form of engagement may lead
to spiritual chaos. However, here I’ll counter by saying ignorance is definitely no way
to overcome fear either, as it is akin to an ostrich mentality, which I consider worse for myself.
It
is with this same train of logic in mind that I finally decided to go ahead and
watch the film. There’s some arguments put forth by other Christians on how
un-Biblical it is. The examples they have stated are the blatantly pro-green message implying that Noah’s family were vegans, and the depiction of fallen angels
turned stone monsters helping Noah build the ark. Personally I think these two
points of contention are really juvenile. With regard to the vegan message,
I’ll just shrug and say, the Bible never said they ate meat either, so
there you have the ambiguity for narration. Darren Aronofsky simply wants to encourage us
to go vegan, each to his own then. The stone giants argument is slightly more
difficult to refute and resolve, though I’ll also use the same sequence of
logic, saying that there was no mention of the exact way of manpower
deployment of labour for construction work of the ark. We regular
consumers of popular culture should be well aware that this part of narration
helps create a wonderful opportunity for the production team to add in loads of
actions sequences with 3D effects and thus is really a very market-related factor.
I’d rather define these two areas as more Biblical-neutral, pardon me for the concoction
of this hideous term. As for another major issue, that of God being eerily absent in the film, I'll speak in the film's defense, saying that the terms Creator comes up frequently enough, that being one of the many names God takes on.
However,
if there are un-Biblical or even anti-Biblical themes in the film, I’d readily admit
that there indeed are. Two major ones in fact, though surprisingly I’ve never
seen them being mentioned in any articles pertaining to the film. First is the
depiction of Noah’s emotional turmoil, climaxing with his inability to kill his
grandchild. The early narration of Noah’s struggle was originally very
relatable and touching for me, being a very realistic portrayal. I mean,
definitely if God announced impending doom for the entire world with the sole
exception of your family, one would at least feel slightly disturbed, no matter
how much one doesn’t get along that well with the rest of the fallen world.
Even mid-way when Noah goes on to misunderstand God’s message, thinking the
“destroying of fallen mankind” implies that even his family not to be spared, it is a very convincing depiction. Many believers
do not have the ability to comprehend the logic behind God’s commands, and read
His motives off-key, though their actions carried out may still be in line with
His orders, I myself being admittedly
one of them. The fact that in the film, Noah is humble enough to classify his
family and himself to be fallen and sinful, actually proves how much of a believer
he is, worthy to be chosen for the task. This brings up the famous verse by Paul
in Romans, about how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is
just that the devil played on Noah’s misinterpretation of God’s commands to
lead him into spiritual confusion, as shown by his mistaken decision to forbid
Shem from having a child with his wife.
However, I
look upon the narrative sequence of the birth of the grandchild onwards to be
openly contentious. If you watch it carefully, you’ll be able to see how
this parallels and then perverts the Abraham sacrificing Issac test in Genesis.
If we lay aside historical accuracy (after all biblically, we really don’t know
exactly when Noah’s grandchildren were born, thus giving the director the
chance for freedom of expression), I think the director purposely wrote this
into the script to reflect his own views towards God, of how he is simply unable
to accept a God who can command you to commit deeds out of a mere whim to assess
your faith. Thus the actual Biblical character under attack is the Abraham, not Noah.
This
is further evidenced by the depiction of the character of Ham, Noah’s second
son in the film, which is a vivid magnifier of the director’s train of thoughts
in relation to this. Perhaps, it is a “blessing” to the director that the Bible
is generally silent on the nature of Noah’s sons, which gave him a prime
opportunity of free rein over how he could choose to sculpt this character. Ham
starts out alright, being the typical teenager he is, anxious about his
impending adulthood, slightly envious of his brother’s blossoming romance with
his future sister-in-law. Thus when news of the doomsday is confirmed, he
naturally worries that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy this blessing now that
practically all other women apart from his mother and future sister-in-law are
not going to survive. He tries to go on a desperate search for a suitable wife,
finds a girl he fancies enough, but yet she gets abandoned to death by Noah. Noah’s
character development by that point in the film has missed the mark, with the
character thinking that mankind must die as in really ALL mankind. This part is
outright un-Biblical as it is very clearly specified in the Genesis 6:18 & 7:13 that Shem,
Ham, Japeth, their wives and all family members were readily allowed in the ark. Midway in the film,
as an act of rebellion and spite against Noah, Ham even sneaks the villain
Tubal-Cain into the ark, and after things nearly go out of hand, he murders
Tubal-Cain, with Tubal-Cain pronouncing something akin to a curse on him. During
the grandchild dilemma, Ham adopts a highly cynical bystander attitude, and the film concludes with Ham’s decision to
leave the family and go on his own, when he sees the resolve of Noah to kills the
grandchild crumble, while Noah goes on to bless and ordain Shem’s family. Nevertheless,
I’d still advise fellow believers to look out for the character of Ham when
watching the film, as this character gives us great insight in the logic
processes of many atheists, explaining to us the rationale behind their rejection
of God, would assist us greatly during any future chances of engagement with them. Also, kudos to Logan Lerman for using of this blatantly
anti-Biblical depiction of a Biblical character as an opportunity to showcase
his acting abilities.
I’ll
end off with this verse by Paul, telling us believers to rejoice as long as the
Word is being preached, regardless of how pure or impure the intentions of
those who preach the word are. It is the responsibility of us as mature
believers to do the filtering of the message, since the period of time for spoon-fed understanding from God is finite. What matters is that God must
always stay present to us, never falling into oblivion and indifference.
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy
and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so
out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former
preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me
while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is
that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And
because of this I rejoice.
Philippians
1:15-18 (NIV)
