Biblical Fiction

by Pastor Mark Andersen

About a month ago, I saw a promo for a miniseries that was to premiere on the History Channel in early March about the Kennedy family. They were building it up pretty big. Having been born in the post-Kennedy era (and not generally a fan of made-for-TV movies) I wasn’t terribly interested, so I didn’t really pay too much attention to it.

A couple of weeks later a college friend posts on Facebook that the miniseries had been cancelled by the History Channel. On Friday, January 7, 2011, the History Channel released a statement about the cancellation, saying of the miniseries: “this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand. We recognize historical fiction is an important medium for storytelling and commend all the hard work and passion that has gone into the making of the series, but ultimately deem this as the right programming decision for our network” (www.usatoday.com). I didn’t pay much attention to it either.

Then, last weekend, I caught a show on the History Channel called “Ancient Aliens”. In typical documentary style, the producers interviewed several individuals who all gave “expert” testimony about the subject at hand, and the subject at hand was how earth had been and continues to be visited by extraterrestrials.

The show suggested that human beings are actually hybrids of early hominids like the Neanderthal. The show suggested that aliens visited earth millennia ago and genetically engineered homo sapiens mixing their own DNA with that of the hominids living here on earth. “All the ancient texts say that the gods made human beings in their image,” one expert said.

I liked this story better when it was called the X-Files. What a good show.

Some experts suggested that the aliens altered our genetic makeup in order to foster our evolutionary development and to help us reach our greatest potential.

I liked this story better when it was called Babylon 5. I have the complete series on DVD.

Some experts suggested that because of their vast technological superiority, the aliens appeared as gods to the early humans and desired or allowed themselves to be worshipped as such. The ancient gods of Babylon, Egypt, India, Greece, and others were really powerful alien beings, many of whom sough to enslave the human race.

I loved this story when it was called Stargate! I have all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1 on DVD, too.

Actually, the first time I encountered the idea that the ancient mythological gods were actually very powerful alien beings was in a Star Trek (the original series) episode called Who Mourns for Adonais? which first aired on September 22, 1967. (I didn’t see it then, of course. I was born in the post-Kennedy era, remember?)

Some experts suggested that these ancient aliens brought about great disasters like the flood described in the Genesis in order to control the human population. Others suggested that aliens provided people with the means to escape natural disasters like the flood by providing them with a way to escape the disaster (like building a big boat).

These experts also suggested that aliens may have telepathically communicated with people like Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein, making them to be the exceptional and brilliant people that they were.

Suddenly the History Channel’s decision to cancel the Kennedy miniseries became very, very interesting.

The History Channel cancelled the Kennedy miniseries because, according to their own statement, they felt that its type of “historical fiction” didn’t fit their brand, yet they seem to have had no problem airing Ancient Aliens (which felt very much like historical fiction and was certainly highly speculative) as if it were recorded history.

I posted some thoughts about the show and the History Channel on Facebook, and my brother Scott made the following comment: “Mark, I used to like the History Channel. The last few years I have seen a lot of historical and Biblical fiction. The shows are designed to discredit the Bible. They mix lies with truth to give the lies credibility. Because many are being led astray or never come to a saving knowledge of Christ, so when talking with someone, I never miss an opportunity to defend the Bible’s credibility.”

I’m an avid science fiction fan (you may have noticed), and Ancient Aliens seemed like it might more appropriately fit on SyFy than on the History Channel. The History Channel feels like it shouldn’t mess with the story of the Kennedy family, but it has no problem suggesting that the God who created earth and heaven and all that is in them was really a kind of little green (or gray) man. I wonder what their standards for what qualifies as “historical fiction” really are.

The History Channel’s Ancient Aliens is only one piece of a larger, cosmic struggle between the Word of God and the ways of the world which has been going on since the fall in the Garden of Eden…a struggle for the hearts and minds of human beings.

Beware, friends, of the tantalizing tales of historical fiction told by the History Channel and other experts about the Bible, Jesus Christ, and his church, for they may seem like truth, be shrouded in history, clothed in authority, and be espoused by many “experts”, but they are not truth, friends.

If you want truth…if you want to know the truth about the Bible, about God, about Jesus Christ, or about the nature of the world, don’t look to the History Channel or any other channel. Read scripture, pray, and seek the company, guidance, counsel, and teaching of those who believe and who belong to the community of the faithful.

If you prefer biblical fiction, friends, then, may I suggest the History Channel.