Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Falling Plates: The Gospel in Video

Here is the latest video portrayal of the essence of the gospel.



What do you think?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it! One of the most powerful visual presentations I have ever seen!

Anonymous said...

I struggle with the theology of this visually engaging, but simplistic view of the gospel. "For God so loved..." seems to become God wants you to be happy. Am I wrong?

Unknown said...

You pose an interesting question. Actually, two critiques: 1. This is a simplistic view of the gospel. 2. I reduces to "God wants you to be happy."

I went back and re-watched it through the lens of your second and I don't see where that becomes the focal point of the message. Rather, it "reduces" more to the broken relationship between the creation and the Creator, the sin and betrayal of the created, the substitution of the Savior and the invitation back, ending with the subtle call to follow me. So I would say it conveys God's gracious invitation to reconcile a broken relationship (only through what Jesus did) rather than a promise or path to happiness. Why do you think it reduces to that?

As for the first critique, is this a simplistic view of the gospel? My response would be that the word "simplistic" may mislead. Simplistic means to treat a complex issue as if it were more simpler than it really is. Is that what happens in this video?

The gospel can be expressed in its essence (so 1 Corinthians 15:1-11). But communicating the essence doesn't make the gospel simplistic. Likewise, this presentation appears to communicate four (traditional) gospel truths: God's creation, man's rebellion, Jesus' salvation and our response.

I would agree that this would be "simplistic" if one held the view that this was sum and the total of the gospel. But the fullness of the gospel is so much richer. See my blog entry: "The Gospel - Essence and Fullness" (March 2, 2009) and other entries in the Gospel tag.

Hope that helps.