From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians [VHS]

From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians [VHS]
by William Cran

From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Holland Lee Hendrix, Jeremiah Kissel, Paula Fredriksen, Will Le Bow, William Cran
Director: William Cran
Producer: Marilyn Mellowes
Writer: Marilyn Mellowes
Producer: Bernadette McDaid
Producer: David Fanning
Producer: June Cross
Producer: Mary C. Brockmyre
Producer: Michael Sullivan
Producer: Peter Rhodes
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 240 minutes
Release Date: 1998-05-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Pbs Home Video
Studio: Pbs Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians [VHS]

Movie Review: Beware of this Wolf Attack
Summary: 1 Stars

The Bible is the only true account for what actually happened to Jesus and the first Christians. This documentary does a hatchet job on the Bible. It tries to reconstruct the Gospel account based on some archeological data and in the process second guesses the actual account. Jesus was probably NOT born in Bethlehem, it states. They try to say he was probably born in Nazareth (a few mile away), because it was a hot bed for fanatics. There were fanatics throughout Judea; how could they possibly guess where He was born based on archeology? Why such an effort to invalidate the actual story? That is what this documentary does throughout. I have read the Bible through and through and studied the history of the time and area. The Biblical account is very much in keeping with the history! They slam the early Christians and say that they "shaped" the gospel to fit the Old Testament scriptures. How outrageous. Jesus purposely died on Passover to fulfill the OT scriptures and foretold His timely death. This was not an after thought. They also state that Paul decided to convert the gentiles out of his diverse life experiences. The account of Paul as a staunch separatist Jew (before his conversion) is recorded in Philippians 3:2. PETER actually had the vision to bring in the Gentiles. The Old Testament scriptures also prophesied much that the Gentiles would indeed come in as the new spiritual Israel to join with Judah (the Jews) thus unifying God' previously divided Kingdom. The disciples discuss this and quote OT Scriptures to the effect in Acts 15. Paul also elaborated on it in Romans 9 and Galatians 4. Finally, this documentary goes as far to state that Paul made a money "deal" and offered the Gentiles financial support for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem order to let them in. This is a blatant lie. No where is that found in the scriptures. You do see where Paul takes a GIFT from a Gentile's church to the persecuted church in Jerusalem OUT OF LOVE in Romans 15; but NO suggestion of any "deal". I could not watch anymore after that. This was obviously a wolf attack on Christians! After the Bible; there are plenty of truthful Christian history resources available; do NOT waste your time on this.

Movie Review: Flat-out Biblical Denial Disguised as a Historical Documentary
Summary: 1 Stars

I went into this series expecting to see a highly-detailed dissection of how the early church rose up after the life of Christ, but what I got instead was 4 hours of idle speculation and blatant denial.

Christians, do not be deceived. This "documentary" perverts the Bible to such a degree that it's sickening. They pick and choose verses about certain people while talking about them, and then continually completely ignore the divine aspect of it, and substitute their own speculations based entirely on the modern notion of skepticism and realism, dethroning the Gospel and Christ with it.

An example of the idle claims:

-Jesus spent His whole youth in Galilee, and was not in the peasant class. And their backup for this? There is no backup at all for the claim that he was always there, and then they claim that just because a Roman market was found in Galilee, that Jesus must have been there and therefore must have had to be educated and known Greek to be respected there.

-The Romans disposed of Jesus because He was a threat to them. Backup? Rome exerted control over everything, and therefore must have seen Him as a threat when he overturned the money-changers' tables in the temple. This completely denies the fact that Herod was in charge, not so much Rome, with Pilate a mere governor, and completely denies the Gospel account of how the high-ranking Jewish officers had him killed to protect their political standing. It doesn't even give the gospel account consideration at all.

-Jesus' death struck a mighty blow to His followers, and even the apostles did not know what to do afterward. Backup? None. Just the realist assumption that it is impossible for Him to have risen from the dead. This again quietly denies the possibility of the resurrection, and tries to paint early Christianity as emerging from a bunch of confused sects of radicals who followed Him but then walked around blindly not knowing what to believe after His death supposedly broke their Messianic expectations. Where's the Gospel and the Old Testament predictions of this very event, and the accounts of Christ risen appearing to the disciples? Non-existent.

-The only reason that faith in Christ gained popularity was because of Paul's own gospel. Backup? None at all. They just ignore the gospel and present their view of it as fact with no backup whatsoever. They completely ignore the beginning of the book of Acts, Pentecost, the apostles, Paul fighting against the apostles in the begging and then converting, and basically paints the early Christianity as a mere attempt to reform Judaism, which then only changed into a new religion because of Paul.

-Paul and Peter were rivals, one preaching Jewish dietary restrictions as law, one preaching freedom. Backup? Again, basically insignificant name plate and a blatant misreading of Galatians, which also completely ignores the account in Acts where Peter is in fact the one who first receives the command to preach the gospel to the gentiles, and ignores anything relating to the Holy Spirit or any of the accounts in Acts.

-Claims that Jesus was not considered to be the Messiah until after the destruction of Jerusalem, and it was only to console the Jews who had just lost the temple and didn't know what God wanted anymore. Backup? Nothing. They just say that it's because no written gospel existed until the mid first-century, and because Paul's letters were the first Christian writings. This is very sneakily calling every one of the gospel writers, and even Paul and Luke, blatant liars.

This is what you can expect with this "documentary." Little speculation, little evidence, and a complete denial of everything significant written in the Bible.

Movie Review: Don't bother if you are a Christian
Summary: 1 Stars

If you are a believer in Christ, this documentary is not worth your money. PBS starts by saying that the documentary is based on the latest academic, historical, and archaeological evidence, but what is shown is the same team of academic atheists (from Harvard, Yale, Jesus Seminar, etc) who proceed to speculate on who Jesus was and how Christianity came about. It basically dismisses the New Testament evidence as myths and stories invented by the Jesus movement of the first century. After quoting a verses out of context, the resurrection accounts in the Gospels are quickly dismissed as historically worthless. One "expert" claims that Paul's letters in the New Testament can be summarized as "doing good because the end is near". This message would be laughable if it didn't come from the lips of a president of a theological seminary.

From the resurrection to Constantine, Christianity is painted as a bunch of various cults that lack coherence and focus.

This is another in a long line of documentaries that attempt to paint Christianity as being a religion founded on stories and myths, lacking evidence and feeding on naive believers for growth. Just once I would like to see the producers interview someone like William Lane Craig, Don Carson, Knox Chamblin, Simon Kistemaker, Norm Geisler, Tim Keller, John MacArthur, RC Sproul, or one of the other scores of New Testament scholars who understand the bible and the Christian doctrines at a level far beyond these so-called "experts". But that approach wouldn't fit the agenda of the producers.

Movie Review: An unbalanced and therefore misleading review of scholarship
Summary: 2 Stars

This video series is a good introduction to the scholarship of the third quest for the historical Jesus and specifically of the so-called Jesus seminar. Unfortunately, that scholarship is at one end of the spectrum and is fairly controversial. What this series fails to do is to seriously consider the evidence and arguments of scholars who hold less radical viewpoints and who have raised serious objections to the kinds of claims made in the series. For a brief example of such scholarly objections, see http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Five_Gospels.pdf

For more complete treatments see:

Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels

What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible

or

Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ

to name a few.

Movie Review: Rational,calm and civilised presentation
Summary: 5 Stars

Four hours of an overview of the life and times of Jesus--the real Jesus as opposed to the ridiculous figure invented by the church.

Write your own review

Summary of From Jesus to Christ - The First Christians [VHS]

Explore the life of Jesus and the movement he started, challenging familiar assumptions and conventional notions about the origins of Christianity. Drawing upon new and sometimes controversial historical evidence and interviews with the nation's leading New Testament scholars, the series transports the viewer back two thousand years to the time and place where Jesus once lived and preached. The film traces Jesus' life, focusing on the events that occurred after he died and on his first followers, the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created a major movement that transformed the Roman Empire in the space of only three hundred years.

Becoming a Christian at the beginning of the first millennium was a sure-fire way to get transplanted to the outer fringe of society and expose oneself to an unprecedented level of intolerance. Times were harsh and this rising renegade sect of Judaism had more then their share of obstacles to overcome. These men and women were forced to wrestle with their Jewish faith and traditions and confront the Romans and their "zero tolerance" policy during the Pax Romana, while facing infighting among the various Christian sects about how to interpret and understand the teachings of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Frontline's From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians is not a tale of joy, peace, and acceptance but of the perseverance of the early Christians, whose daily lives were shaded with conflict as they struggled to practice and spread their newfound faith.

From Jesus to Christ recounts the life of Jesus Christ, the events that occurred after he died, and the hardships his first followers faced while teaching his message. The story is told not from a religious angle per se, but is effectively presented in a historical, sociological, and humanistic manner by today's leading New Testament academics. Drawing on the latest, and often controversial, historical evidence and interviews, the documentary vividly transports the viewer back to the times of the Christians whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom would create the movement that would turn the Roman Empire upside down in the next three centuries. --Rob Bracco

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