The (Movie) Exodus: False Gods and Real Kings

Dr. Randy White

Having recently seen Exodus: God’s and Kings, I don’t really think it is worthy of much of a serious review. It was entertaining, but had so many discrepancies to the Biblical text that one review could not cover its error. There is, however, one theological error that I think is important enough to write about.Strangely, it is an error that is rampant in the church today, even among those who claim to be conservative, Biblical inerrantists.The error: Making God into what you want Him to be.It happens all the time. You’ve likely seen it in your Bible study, maybe heard it from the pulpit, and definitely seen made-up-god books sold at LifeWay and other Christian booksellers.In Exodus, God was portrayed as a rather creepy pre-adolescent boy. Not the kind of God you would take your shoes off and fall down before, but the kind of god that gives you the heebie jeebies and makes you wish he would go away. I have no doubt that the writer created “God” to be this way because that is the way he wants God to be.And what is different about that from authors like William P. Young who creates “God” to be a loving and large African-American woman? Or Sarah Young (no relation, I presume) who creates Jesus to be a romantic conversational escape to enjoy with a cup of coffee?When it was still a best seller, I wrote LifeWay executives about selling William Young’s The Shack. I was told, “it’s allegory, get over it.” They told me it was no different than “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” in which God is portrayed as a Lion. That didn’t seem to compute with me, since the Bible presents God the Son as a Lion, but never presents God the Father as an African-American woman (or the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman, or the Son as a bumbling hipee). At first, LifeWay had the scruples to at least put a disclaimer. Later they lost their scruples, and the book is sold disclaimer-free.I think designer gods are false gods, even if they are warm and affable. It’s time that we recognize that God is transcendent, which means He is outside of our realm. Being outside our realm, the only way we know His identity, characteristics, or existence, is in His own revelation of Himself. When we begin to go beyond what God has revealed, we’re simply making it up.And making up our own god.