There is a trend lately to reduce Jesus Christ to just a philosophical teacher, an inspirational preacher, or even a figurative figure that did not really even exist, but is solely a creation of the minds of men. These ideas have made it mainstream, and are now explored in the media, such as in PBS documentaries like Frontline’s “From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians.”
A new seven-part documentary has been filmed to give an answer to these inquiries, entitled “Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God.” It is produced by The Neal A. Maxwell Institute, the College of Religious Education, and BYU Broadcasting. It will air on BYU Television in December. The Neal A. Maxwell Institute notes the work that has gone into this production:
This documentary is the result of over 200 hours of interview with LDS experts in their fields. Filming was done on site in Israel, Egypt, Denmark, and on a specially built stage at the LDS motion picture studio. (http://mi.byu.edu/)
Other notes on the documentary:
In a day when many scholars have reduced Christ to a historical or purely figurative being, this seven-part documentary series stands to affirm His divinity by reconciling the historical Christ with the Christ of religious tradition.
Filmed in part on location in the Holy Land and in conjunction with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God is the first documentary that covers all phases of the Savior’s life – spanning His premortal existence to the resurrection and restoration of the gospel – all told from a Latter-day Saint perspective. (http://messiah.byu.edu)
Below is a 15 minute sneak preview of this new documentary series on the life of the Savior, which is scheduled to premiere on December 6, 2009 on BYU Television. You can view the video below (on the website), or at messiah.byu.edu.
Bryce, thanks for this. I have heard about this project — it sounds great. I saw that PBS special, and I think it is off in many respects, although in some respects it has good things to add. The LDS version should help repair some of the damage. Every time I see pictures of the Holy Land I start wanting to travel there.
They had a screening during education week at BYU but I missed it. While I enjoy the PBS-type documentaries, I am very excited to see this one. Bryce,thanks for the post.
I’m looking forward to seeing this! Thanks for the heads-up!!
Thanks for making us aware of this, Bryce. While I don’t quite like the added graphic backgrounds–seems a little over the top for me–it looks like a fantastic project.
Thanks for the heads up – marked on my calendar!
This appears to be wonderful. Will it be available on DVDs for sale in the near future?
We just watched the documentary, and were very impressed with the quality of this work. It will be worth watching a number of times.
This will be wonderful. Please keep us informed.
All I can find is that it premiers Dec 6th. We’ve passed that, and I’ve missed it. But its supposed to be a 7-part series. Have the other parts already played? messiah.byu.edu is still saying Dec. 6th as if that date hasn’t passed.
The 7-part series will air on BYU Television beginning January 10th, 2010. See the link below:
http://www.byub.org/programaz/program.asp?id=1795
Thanks Bryce!
We just learned of this film in the Mormon Times so missed the first showing,please notify me of future showings. The Messiah the Lamb of God. thank you
Bryce,
Thank you.
Your the man.
God bless you and yours.