The Bible: A History #7 of 7 - Revelation - The Last Judgement

TX 07 03 2010

In the final programme of the series, Dr. Robert Beckford firmly takes the former's side in the old allegorical vs. literal argument regarding the final book of the Bible - Revelation.

Applying the text to various uprisings throughout history, such as the black rights movements in the 1960s and climate change today, he argues that its purpose is to inspire men and women to surge forward in their responsibility to bring Heaven to Earth themselves.

This final entry sums up the rest of the series rather well. The tone throughout is respectful, contributors with opposing views are listened to, and as usual someone tells us that the original Biblical text is wrong. The only sections of the Bible that seem to have escaped this accusation this series are the wisdom and prophesy books, perhaps because there aren't any programmes on those two.

Also like the preceding editions, Beckford's film is uplifting and full of encouragement. I have watched this series because I wanted to hear new perspectives on these texts ("It's not true" isn't new) and it's certainly delivered on that.

What I didn't expect was for it to be true to its title "The Bible: A History". While at first the series looked to me more like seven films about what famous people think of the world's most famous book, a sense of the individual components' histories has indeed come through, behind the opinions. All history is, after all, subjective, including scientific history.

After their Revelations series last year, Channel 4 is doing a good job producing these docos for their Sunday-night God-slot, and I hope the respectful tone to all parties continues throughout the next one. I've spent most of Easter watching these.

What a shame though that their website - channel4.com - has just taken them all down at 11pm… a full hour before they said! I just squeezed this last one in in time.

It just goes to show, you can't project the future with 100% certainty, any more than you can project what happened in the past.

Click here for review of programme 1 - Creation.
Click here for review of programme 2 - Abraham.
Click here for review of programme 3 - Moses and the Law.
Click here for review of programme 4 - The Daughters of Eve.
Click here for review of programme 5 - Jesus.
Click here for review of programme 6 - St. Paul.