I heard the hype about the series A.D., The Bible Continues on N.B.C. One of my favorite preachers, Dr. David Jeremiah, even wrote a book about it and highly endorses it. I watched the first couple of episodes and it was following the Bible accounts in my opinion. I realize the dramatic parts are added to imitate what life may have been like during those days. Last evening, Sunday, April 19th, was about the Day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples. I was disappointed with this episode because they did not follow what Dr. Luke recorded happened in the Book of Acts.
They had the disciples waiting in the Upper Room along with Mary as Luke wrote when the Holy Spirit came upon them. The program followed the Bible at this point. The problem comes after that. They showed the disciples speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance as the Bible teaches but they stopped in the Upper Room. Then they came out of the Upper Room into the crowd below and walked through them like hero's. Here is the problem. Dr. Luke writes this; "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?" Then he writes, "Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people." Then Peter closed his sermon this way the Bible says, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Read it for yourself in Acts, Chapter 2.
They skipped that entire section! Peter never peached, people never asked what to do, repentance and forgiveness was never offered, and it was never mentioned that each would be given the Holy Spirit.
If you take the preaching out of what happened that day, and they did, you have missed the whole point of why God sent His Holy Spirit upon the disciples to begin with! The show portrays the disciples as rebels against Rome instead of servants of Jesus. The episode went on to show Peter and John reaching out to the invalid and then being arrested; totally leaving out the entire Peter preaching to the crowd sequence. They slighted the Holy Spirit and His work in a major way. You don't have to be a Pentecostal Preacher to know they left it out, just read it for yourself. When you take the ENTIRE work of the Holy Spirit out of the initial founding of the church, you have left it up to just those disciples present to be the "hero's" of the faith by following Christ and rebelling against Rome. The Bible says; "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." They totally went right over that part. The whole point of Pentecost was to build the Kingdom of God, the Church that Jesus said He would build, and they never showed it. I am utterly disappointed but not surprised. We are living in the last days people so get ready for more and more "half truths" to be preached. Dr. Jeremiah, I would have thought you would have caught that. Read your Bible's people to get the WHOLE truth.
They had the disciples waiting in the Upper Room along with Mary as Luke wrote when the Holy Spirit came upon them. The program followed the Bible at this point. The problem comes after that. They showed the disciples speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance as the Bible teaches but they stopped in the Upper Room. Then they came out of the Upper Room into the crowd below and walked through them like hero's. Here is the problem. Dr. Luke writes this; "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?" Then he writes, "Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people." Then Peter closed his sermon this way the Bible says, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Read it for yourself in Acts, Chapter 2.
They skipped that entire section! Peter never peached, people never asked what to do, repentance and forgiveness was never offered, and it was never mentioned that each would be given the Holy Spirit.
If you take the preaching out of what happened that day, and they did, you have missed the whole point of why God sent His Holy Spirit upon the disciples to begin with! The show portrays the disciples as rebels against Rome instead of servants of Jesus. The episode went on to show Peter and John reaching out to the invalid and then being arrested; totally leaving out the entire Peter preaching to the crowd sequence. They slighted the Holy Spirit and His work in a major way. You don't have to be a Pentecostal Preacher to know they left it out, just read it for yourself. When you take the ENTIRE work of the Holy Spirit out of the initial founding of the church, you have left it up to just those disciples present to be the "hero's" of the faith by following Christ and rebelling against Rome. The Bible says; "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." They totally went right over that part. The whole point of Pentecost was to build the Kingdom of God, the Church that Jesus said He would build, and they never showed it. I am utterly disappointed but not surprised. We are living in the last days people so get ready for more and more "half truths" to be preached. Dr. Jeremiah, I would have thought you would have caught that. Read your Bible's people to get the WHOLE truth.
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