The Mystery of the Disappeared Record Keeper
by Lawrence G. Downing: On a recent Saturday night a group of us met to view “The Record Keeper” (TRK)—all eleven episodes with a two-hour run-time. I had viewed the TRK trailer, but that short exposure hardly prepared for the full-blown product. My response to the film, after the credits were completed, was mixed. The occasional violence was graphic. I do not think less bloodshed would have diminished the film’s emotional impact. Other scenes were a challenge to place within the context of the previous ones and those that followed. I strained to follow the dialogue that was overpowered by the sound effects or music. At other times, when little was taking place on the screen, my attention wandered and stayed removed until brought back into focus as the characters began to speak again.
As the story developed, I found it difficult to identify with the characters and was not emotionally caught up in the plot lines. It was fascinating and a challenge to place the film’s action scenes with the underlying documents upon which the storyline was based. A person unfamiliar with scripture and Ellen White’s The Great Controversy will be hard-pressed to know why certain scenes were included and why the storyline unfolds as it does. The film is clear: evil is real, but evil does not have the final say. In a closing scene, the film opens the possibility that the beings who sided with the General, Satan, and who were once dedicated to promote and live evil are offered the chance to cross over to the good. This choice is not a biblical option, but the telling of a story does not demand that every presentation have biblical authority. There is room for possibilities and “what-ifs.” The joy and magic in telling a story is to entice the reader to hear old ideas bundled in new wrap.
Having said the above, I found “The Record Keeper” to be one of the most creative projects ever produced within the context of the Adventist church. Powerful segments that juxtapose good and evil demanded attention. The death struggles between the General and his minions and those who have chosen to remain loyal to the Prince catch the viewer’s attention. The fate of the aborigines (human) race is at stake.
The film’s target is not the biblical scholar nor the traditional Adventist member. Look to other media presentations to satisfy these groups. Nor was it the intent to present a replica of what one reads in scripture. The film is an art piece that, like a jazz musician, takes an established and well-articulated theme, turns it about, deconstructs it, and then, at the end, brings order and sense to the finished product. Yes, the producers took liberties and challenged stereotypes. This is the beauty of the film. The producers cobbled together visual and audio effects to shatter expectations and open new vistas of comprehension to create a memorable visceral experience. The one tragedy in the production is that the very organization that funded the film blocked its release. How could such a misguided decision gain traction? This is the great mystery! Did one (or a group of) influential, i.e., generous donor(s) demand that the film be quarantined? Did the Biblical Research Institute (BRI) objections have veto authority? As an aside, I find the objections from BRI an organizational embarrassment. Under several headings BRI enumerated their objections to the film. Examples:
VIEW OF GOD AND HIS PERFECT CREATION: The beauty and love permeating God’s perfect universe is never really represented. The original creation of the earth is never described, nor is its eventual re-creation, and there is almost as much conflict in heaven as on earth.
VIEW OF CHRIST AND THE ATONEMENT: Having characters in the film say of Jesus, “He’s not human,” and “He cannot die” denies the foundational doctrine of Jesus as fully human. He is both God and Man.
VIEW OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Holy Spirit is the one member of the Godhead who has no visible form. Not only is it blasphemous to depict the Holy Spirit as an angel, but to depict the Holy Spirit as a woman suggests the pagan notion that the Father has a consort and that the Son is the product of that union.
(For a full reading of BRI’s objections, see GOOGLE, Biblical Research Institute response to The Record Keeper.)
Gentlemen, TRK is not a theological document. It is not a Confessional Statement. TRK tells a story, and a downright good one! Imagination? Yes. Bending of biblical accounts? True. Blasphemy? Be serious!
BRI members would have pulled their learned-beards in anguish and loathing had they been asked to pass judgment on the Man from Galilee’s story of a Rich man and Lazarus. And the story of the crooked manager? Veto! The story commends a businessman’s duplicity, so scratch it!
Put aside the message that the veto to TRK project sent to the Adventist artistic community. Ignore the million or so of our (tithe?) dollars that the General Conference spent on the production. Consider what might have been. The current Adventist media productions, whether by design or by default, appeal to the middle-aged-and-above traditional Adventist believer, and they have a relatively poor track record at doing this. I’m part of that demographic, and I watch none of the current Adventist programs, nor do thousands of others like me.
TRK targets a dramatically different audience. The very group that church administrators time and again claim they long to reach and the ones they lament are walking in droves out the church back door are the target audience. Does TRK catch their attention? How did test audiences respond to TRK? I don’t know. What I do know is that a creative package has been assigned to the trash heap because one person or a few persons decided that the project did not reflect traditional Adventist expectation.
In the fall 2014 Spectrum, Tompaul Wheeler interviewed Pacific Union College alum Paul Kim. Kim shared with Wheeler his views on Adventists and the media. Kim, a former senior producer of Adventist Media Productions at the Media Center and now associate professor of documentary film at Andrews University, observed that the biggest issue within the Adventist structure is a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium. “I think the reason why we fear what I see as a renaissance in visual culture happening around us is because we really do not understand it. Most of our leaders see those things not as a core part of who we are and how life’s truths come to be known, or even as elements that fulfill our innate desires and ability to create, but rather as some kind of trump card handed down from the divine to help fulfill the apocalypse.
“And so rather than studying and seeing those visual and narrative idioms for what they are, we are truly ignorant about both their origins and processes, using them as replication tools to regurgitate what it is that we are already doing” (p.37).
And what we fear, and what we do not understand, we castigate and crush. It might have been a great run, TRK. But “might-have-beens don’t count for much, do they?
Lawrence: “Nor was it the intent to present a replica of what one reads in scripture. The film is an art piece that, like a jazz musician, takes an established and well-articulated theme, turns it about, deconstructs it, and then, at the end, brings order and sense to the finished product. Yes, the producers took liberties and challenged stereotypes. This is the beauty of the film.”
Funny enough, the more I learn about the Bible and how it was made, about the gift of prophecy being ‘God with the penmen and not in the pen’, the more this is how I actually think of scripture. God doesn’t change but human perception (even divinely inspired by admittedly very human perception) certainly does.
Lawrence: “As an aside, I find the objections from BRI an organizational embarrassment.”
Yes agreed. The reasons given by BRI seem scant, pedantic and perhaps a little meanspirited.
“The original creation of the earth is never described, nor is its eventual re-creation, and there is almost as much conflict in heaven as on earth.”
Did the BRI expect this film to be a 20-hour series. All stories have edit things out for lack of space. The end of the Gospel of John makes that clear itself!
“1.Having characters in the film say of Jesus, “He’s not human,” and “He cannot die” denies the foundational doctrine of Jesus as fully human. He is both God and Man”
I’d be interested to know in what stage of the story this is said? As for suggesting Christ cannot die, but did die, it is a bit of a theological mystery. The NT does say God cannot die, and the NT also said death could not hold Jesus down.
“The Holy Spirit is the one member of the Godhead who has no visible form.”
True, but I don’t think the Father who is the Source (see Nicene Creed and our own SDA FBs) has visible form either. The Father exists outside of space and time even as the Holy Spirit is everywhere in it. But that doesn’t stop Christians, Adventists included, nay Ellen White included, nay Jesus Himself, in anthropomorphising the Father.
“Not only is it blasphemous to depict the Holy Spirit as an angel, but to depict the Holy Spirit as a woman suggests the pagan notion that the Father has a consort and that the Son is the product of that union”
Don’t Adventists consider Jesus a type of angel, Micahel the Archangel? As for a female depiction, doesn’t the OT do just this in talking about the Shekinah glory and Wisdom with feminine language? Is it equally blasphemous to talk about the Father in male gender when clearly He has no reproductive genitals, and is above gender? As for pagan misunderstandings, people do that all the time with the analogy of Jesus being a “Son” of the Father, wrongly seeing it is a metaphor and not suggesting Jesus is merely a created being. This seems like such a petty complaint.
I’m glad to say that I’ve been accredited with helping to get the Record Keeper sacked. That is probably not true, but I did send emails to some church officials asking them to carefully consider the many points where the series deviated from the truth. Yes, the Record Keeper is definitely broken, and I praise God for it being taken down. I do wish someone would make the original, 1858 Great Controversy into a professionally-done movie, keeping true to God’s words.
If God is willing and able to use imperfect, sin-infected people like you and me to imperfectly communicate the Gospel and bring people to redemption, then why do you uphold an imperfect book written by another imperfect and sin-infected person as the exclusive standard for communicating the Gospel? Is God not capable of using other, talented people to communicate effectively today?
Many very talented screenwriters have attempted to translate “The Great Controversy” into film. It has never worked. The story is too long and complicated. There is no central, human character with whom viewers can identify. Plus, written pages do not translate easily into visuals. So, dream on about seeing “The Great Controversy” in film. You’ll be among a small handful who view it at a single screening in an obscure theatre before it disappears into that great film vault storing the movies that never drew an audience of any size.
“I do wish someone would make the original, 1858 Great Controversy into a professionally-done movie, keeping true to God’s words.”
I suspect that the dying generation of traditional Jewish Christian believers made similar comments to each other when the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ began to make the rounds. Why can’t we just study the Torah and the prophets, instead of twisting-up their writings into something we can barely recognize? Not to mention all of those “un-Biblical” and “misleading” and even downright “false” actors and symbols and metaphors!
Barnabas, call-up Polycarp right now and tell him to ban that bizarre book before too many copies are circulated!
And a number of us signed a petition to banish this monstrosity which should * never* have been made in the name of Adventism.
I viewed trailers and that was enough to indicate how lacking this film is.
Maranatha
OK, so how’s your concept of how to spread the Gospel working? The SDA Church is growing at a rate ranging from pitifully-positive to seriously negative in most of the industrialized world. So here’s your challenge: Stop criticizing others and show us your involvement in an outreach method that produces results.
Early, Any idea what the “early SDA” really were? A group, dry as the Hills of Gilboa, i.e.,devoid of the Spirit, didn’t know what they were talking about when it came to righteous by faith, known for a love of debate i.e. contentious spirit.
The leaders opposed the gospel of Christ. Kellogg was practicing what would now be considered genital mutilation i.e., putting carbolic acid on the genitalia of young girls. He was shocking the penis of young boys with electricity; all the EGW was endorsing him as the leader of SDA medical work.
If this is the kind of organization you are “proud” to be a part of, you are a deeply disturbed person.
And then to add insult to those injuries he gave us…….. cornflakes! How much illness and misery has that brought to humanity!?
“The film is an art piece that, like a jazz musician, takes an established and well-articulated theme, turns it about, deconstructs it, and then, at the end, brings order and sense to the finished product”
This is an excellent description of what the Apocalypse (ie Revelation) of Jesus Christ does, but in a different medium.
I consider the Apocalypse to be in once instance, the most complex and the most difficult and the most brilliant piece of literature in the entire Bible.
Re the role of the BRI, there was in fact a BRI representative who reviewed the scripts as they were being written. A different BRI representative was assigned to write a “bill of particulars” after the project was “withdrawn”.
BRI had nothing to do with the decision to produce this series, or the later decision to bury it.
“The current Adventist media productions, whether by design or by default, appeal to the middle-aged-and-above traditional Adventist believer”
There is a very good reason for this. Most of the funding for these ministries comes from their viewers, and most of their donors are Adventist retirees.
And one of the main reasons that The Record Keeper was buried was strong push-back from an Adventist Oligarch of that same demographic and mind-set.
Meanwhile the target audience for The Record Keeper is young adults between the ages of 20 and 40, who are largely unchurched. The people who oppose it and killed it have no clue how to speak to that audience.
So Jim, are you in favor of using error to try and teach truth?
Didn’t Jesus use error to teach truth in the parable about Lazarus and the rich man in hell? Or do you believe in an immortal soul?
NO
(that would be NO to EarlySDA, not to Steve F)
What you describe is further reason why I believe the majority of the silver-haired generation must die before we see the church revitalized, energized and effective again. Still, considering what a large percentage of our youth that we’re losing, a person has to wonder how much of the church will be left in North America ten years from now. Will Adventist missionaries be coming here from the rest of the world?
There are a few of us who downloaded The Record Keeper from the YouTube leaks…and still show it to those who might profit from it. Thank God, TRK isn’t totally dead!
Telling stories is an art, and like any other true art, it leaves out some details in order to emphasize others. Of course I’d tell it differently, and I do…but that doesn’t mean *this* telling has no merit. I’m older than 50, but I’m an artist so maybe that makes me different…??? But can’t we learn from the Greatest Teacher that Ever Lived, and tell stories for the point they can make?–rather than getting hung up on the necessity for actual-factual reality?
Of course, He was an artist, too…so He would undoubtedly understand TRK. Oh–but He was actually *there*…during the whole thing. I wonder what He would say about the project?
This series was really great.
Anyone who operates outside of the paradigm that Ps. Downing describes (middle aged, white, suburban) will get that.
I think this is the best telling of the story rather than a preachy, verbose, literalistic, biopic (which certainly won’t be without controversy either).
I think that in time this series will be released.
I just don’t think the Church is ready for the types of people will respond to this message.
Put another way, if those who respond to the Record Keeper enter our churches and meet up with the traditionalists Ps.Downing describes then they’re going to go right back out the door.
So I think this is providential possibly.
I also think that in a sad way, most of those traditionalists do not know (neither have they ever known) what our message is.
I believe that Maxwell tried to show them but was roundly ignored.
And therefore that is why they cannot recognize their own message in The Record Keeper.
They won’t go back out the door of my local church.
These are the kind of people we are reaching-out to.
ATT – re: “I believe that Maxwell tried to show them but was roundly ignored.”
I’m not certain what you mean by Maxwell being “roundly ignored.” Perhaps you were disappointed that he didn’t have a more grand impact on more Adventist thinking…I know I was. There are many of us “codgers” who, but for Graham, may have missed the phenomenally beautiful picture one can obtain about the love of God in the scriptures. I am deeply indebted to him, his intellect, his courage and his immovable faith. He put me on an endless journey…I will never arrive. That’s the trouble, I believe, with most of us. We think that we have all the “truth.” How arrogant…and how limiting to one’s growth. I haven’t seen TRK series and will probably never get the opportunity. I’m not as sad for myself as I am for the younger whom, I fear, get their “authority” from film these days.
Yes, that is what I meant.
I am so glad I found out about his message/emphasis.
Yes. Maxwell revolutionized my thinking and my theology–and my parenting, and my whole system of motivation. I’ll never be the same again, thank God!
*I* would love to see something like The Record Keeper with more of the theological insights woven through it…like the Truth that Law is not arbitrary, but a description of how God designed the universe to work. And God Himself is not arbitrary even in the creation of Law, but designed it as the only way people could be *free*!–because we are more free while living in harmony with the way things were designed to operate, than trying to escape from that reality.
I’d like to see included a discussion of the divine/human nature of Jesus–*could* He die? His divinity could not, but He became human–one of us–so that He **could** take our sin…and allow it to kill Him. I’d like to see the non-legal nature of salvation, the *healing* of the soul, the restoration of trust–and the resultant growth as we stay in that relationship of trust and healing. “In the growth and development of nature were seen the principles of His kingdom.” The branch stays connected to the Vine, and fruit is the result. It’s a powerful model!
But it’s the Resurrection that convinced me that the death of Christ wasn’t “legal.” If He died to take the punishment of eternal death for every sinner, and we all are sinners, then why was it fair for Jesus to come out of the tomb on Sunday morning? Years ago, my Bible teacher told me that “an Infinite life laid down for a finite time was equal to finite life laid down for infinite time.” That satisfied me for awhile…’til I read that when Jesus hung His head and died, *Divinity did not die*!!!
So it wasn’t **about* being “fair”! Jesus showed that sin kills, just as God had said it would, and He showed that God values freedom enough that He’d rather die than change it. And He loves people so much, He’d give anything to restore them!
Just a few thoughts. [Man, I wish I were a movie producer!]
So where does one get a copy of “The Record Keeper” to watch and evaluate for oneself? For that matter where did the author get a copy? What if someone or some group were to offer to buy the rights to The Record Keeper and thereby take the loss off from the hands of the GC and put the production into the hands of those who would make use of it to reach the original target audience?
The Record Keeper is on my DropBox at
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yrjjdel83nzgzob/AAAHhLif_kaaJaXDlWA2KW_-a?dl=0
You may find The Record Keeper on YouTube. Just look it up by “The Record Keeper” and watch all 11 episodes. I found the original episode somewhat confusing until I figured who was who. And, yes, there is some violence (there was war in heaven–what are we talking about here?), but remember who this is aimed at–it’s a young adult, unchurched audience–who are used to watching very different things than, perhaps, many of us would choose to watch. There are study guides that go with it which were used in an evangelistic series in which, if my numbers are correct, 40 were baptized. We have used these episodes with the study guides with our small group with unchurched and churched non-Adventists all of whom have been deeply impressed. The lessons have led to deep discussions and profound insights about why sin was allowed, why it’s still here and the nature of God’s love.TRK well depicts why a third of a perfect creation was deceived. The Record Keeper has made a deep (and favorable) impression on our unchurched friends. We intend to use the series again.
Thank you Carolyn! I hope many other Adventists also have an opportunity to watch The Record Keeper, discuss it and use it as they share the story of our salvation from sin and its effects.
Greetings from Europe.
I have not seen the movie, but I believe that we ought to have been given a chance to see it. Secondly, whatever is shown either biblical or not I believe we must not put the Record Keeper away or place it in a vault for no one to see. I think it would have been a great idea to allow it still to be sold (with some minor changes) and with the money received from it we can really make a great controversy movie. Ever since I became a member in the sda church it was my dream to put a team and make the most spectacle movie ever on the return of Jesus. There has been no such movie as this day and I believe we can have a chance to make one if we use the money that we cash in for the record keeper. With that we can make one so powerfully i know for sure people will buy it. Sadly we have chosen not to show it and i believe it is a true waste to have spend money on a project no one can see. I wish i pray we can have a movie one day. I am dreaming everyday about it. Greetings from the znetherlands kevin figueroa
Interested “Friend” and “Early”SDA:
Have you read a quote about how those who seek to be conservative in reaching the lost will be responsible for their lives. I am away from home and don’t have the text, but you might find it with a word search of “conservative” if you have the program from the EGW foundation..
I can’t help but wondering if people with this mindset have any compassion for the lost/secular. Are their prejudices more important than souls? Do they think people in the world will come to evangelistic meetings? What do they think of the judgment scene in Matt 25? Hunger is not only physical but spiritual. This is God’s true Word. It is the principle by which we are to live. It was not ethical for whoever made the decision to take monies for evangelism and ban this film which could be used for a younger generation and secular people somewhere.
The reactionary contingent within the SDA church want to bring-in souls who are recognizably “like us”.
Reminds me of what Jesus said to the Pharisees about their proselytes.
I am a 70-year old mother of a 30-year old Christian filmmaker who counts as his friends and associates the young filmmakers who produced TRK. Our denominational history reveals that our 19th Century church fathers thought they were too “wise” to listen to the young Jones and Waggoner and as result, missed the opportunity of hastening the coming of Christ. And here we are almost 130 years later possibly making the same mistake. Our church was started by young people, and the work will be finished by young people. These creative and gifted filmmakers love this church and its distinctive message, but realize that they cannot expect to use the same same methods used in a bygone era to attract the tech-savvy, postmodern generation of today. TRK targeted a group of people that we old people will never identify with and, may I add, never teach the dramatic love of God. It is so sad to think that if those of us with hoary heads continue to be unreasonable, we will have to “go to our rest” before any progress can be made. And I for one will be disappointed to have missed the excitement their wisdom will generate in encouraging people to honestly relate with God.
I’ve always considered GC a feeble work of fiction, a fable, salted with some selected historical nuggets. That it contained enough vital elements to be fleshed out in some sort of dramatic, cinematic, production never crossed my mind. And apparently not that of a lot of others, either! Perhaps, treated as fiction, is the best that can be done with the story and that is the frightening truth to realists who see it a real war in a real heaven with a real outcome to be surely to determined in favor of the Good Guy. Could the cinema spectacle, or the prospect of it, have the unintended consequences of elevating the fantasy value over the religious value? Is that why it is has so far been secured in what amounts, apparently, to protective custody, in the SDA soundproof/viewproof chamber?
Of course I haven’t seen it, probably wouldn’t if I could. (I don’t watch any of the Biblical or pseudo/relgio productions, knowing the endings ruins it for me). From what is revealed here, I do give the SDA creators credit to what appears to be a boundary penetrating burst of light in a relatively staid, controlled, Adventist firmament. Are those beams of light shining out a port hole of cloistered Adventism? Might they be flashes of science fiction special effects? Wild guesses, of course.
“I’ve always considered GC a feeble work of fiction, a fable, salted with some selected historical nuggets.”
“Always” Bugs? And I thought you taught at Sunnydale Acad. and told me you supported the religious program?
But as I said, You were right to abandon Adventism if this statement represents how you felt all along. Those in the know, are aware that this book is the heart and soul of the SDA message as she understood the bible and its end time message.
We could wonder how many others who hold positions of influence also hold your opinion? At least your honesty is refreshing compared to some who will claim a paycheck while working continually to undermine the basic spirituality of the SDA understanding of the bible.
“Always” should be taken as a hyperbole here, but I can understand why clarification is required in regard to my attitude to GC. When I said I taught pure Adventism, it was absolutely true. (I was in internal intellectual churn at the time, but it was my business only and I knew the conflict had to be resolved at some point). Not the same subject, but the same attitude on my part, is illustrated by a photo taken of me in a classroom at the academy by a visiting teacher from Union College (Peter Luna) where blackboard illustrations are shown, where I can be seen explaining the prophecy of Daniel. Send me an email address and I will send it over to you, if you wish. I’ve always felt an employer has a right to expect loyalty and the alternative is for the employee to move on. I did. Without anger.
““Always” should be taken as a hyperbole here, but I can understand why clarification is required in regard to my attitude to GC.”
That helps to clarify your position, past and present. I am reminded of what EGW said to Kellogg. “I would help you if I could.”
First, EGW never taught nor stated that anyone could merit and/or earn heaven by keeping the moral law. That is because the moral law is not a legal document nor agreement that anyone can do or fulfill. It is a moral law and mandate for all those who believe in Christ and desire to obtain a fitness for heaven. Thus, it is a family law, not a legal code.
In which case, the Investigative judgment is not for the purpose of determining who has earned and merited heaven. This would be a Catholic view of the law and how it is applied and the value of keeping it. For those who do not understand the difference between the legal and moral aspects of God’s kingdom, it is inevitable they will convolute the bible message and EGW as well. But the legal and moral aspects of salvation are so closely linked, that anything that is not legal is also immoral, and anything immoral is also illegal.
Because the SDA theologians and scholars do not understand and /or know the difference, they fall all over themselves trying to explain the bible and EGW. There is more confusion in modern Adventism than has ever existed since its inception shortly after 1844. The church is self-destructing just like modern apostate Protestantism.
Rome simply waits until the false view of the Reformation is embraced by all Protestants in general and the whole Protestant movement self-destructs. Historic Protestantism is unknown in the world today. The first, second, and third use of the law is unknown in present day Protestantism. Adventism in its inception was a third use of the law system of theology. It was sanctificational in its emphasis. It was a moral law system of theology.
When Jones and Waggoner pointed out the full dynamic of the 2nd use of the law, Smith and Butler could only see it as a negation of the law in every context. As a church, we are still bickering about this issue we know very little about and so the confusion continues as the SDA movement self-destructs. But I believe God will yet create a bible community of believers who know law and gospel in their true biblical context.
I don’t have a clue how your reply relates to our discussion. except for the first line.
I still have hope we can design a powerfull movie on the return of Jesus. If only the sda church would allow such a project to take place. We could easily worldwide ask for donations and contributions and with a range of 10 to 20 million dollars we could make a spectacle and use it for evangelism. We will easily get the money back from sales and even have more in return. I can already envision the coming of Jesus on the white screen, and The saints being carried through space into heaven. The movie would start with a group of people who will have to pass through the time of trouble. While plaques are falling and persecution is announced they must ever go deep into hiding in the mountains. With a climax of men finding them they have to escape one more time to the highest mountains. Angels appear and at times protect them and as they near the mountain, earthquakes shake the cities and they must climb for their lives. As they climb again a huge multitude is on their tails and with the multitude about to give them one fatal blow. Suddenly they are encircled with vivid rainbows of light and the multitude afraid and going back the earth and skies shake. Then They see Jesus coming on the clouds in all his glory and afar they see huge cities crumble at the brightness of His power. Billions of angels fill the sky and the heavens open and the nations run away. The saints are transformed and the graves open as the voice of God calls them to life. In a grand journey of angels, saints and the redeemed they all hoover in a huge exodus leaving earth and our galaxy. Through the timeless space they venture with Jesus through space and behold galaxies, stars, and planets. They arrive at orion and suddenly the stars glow and fade and a door is opened. They pass through a 3dimentional corridor and arrive to the homeland of God. The great Jerusalem. With celestial beings and angels await the redeemed they are mesmerized at the reality of it all. As tears fill their eyes they behold that which cannot be explained in words. After the thousand year are passed the redeemed go out and in the city of jerusalem they pass through space. What a scene to see the city of jerusalem hoovering in all its glory with the saints in it. I can go on and on but you guys get the idea. With the technology we now have we can make a movie unlike any other movies. I pray this may be a reality. God bless.
That won’t work for a simple reason: it is only the conclusion of a struggle. While people enjoy triumphant conclusions, they identify with characters who are struggling to overcome and are finally victorious.
I get the feeling your real objective is to teach the doctrine of the Second Coming as a real, literal event instead of the teaching of the secret rapture. The rapture works as drama because of the stories spun about people struggling under circumstances beyond their control. The doctrine of the Second Coming is irrelevant so long as people lack daily reasons to desire it. So I would like to suggest that your primary focus not be on teaching doctrines but on teaching people how to live in ways where their relationship with God makes such a difference in their life that they want to see Jesus return.
It would be a great fictional movie as most are.
Yeh like all ‘based on a true story’ movies are. Just like Braveheart, or Apocalypto, or Schindler’s List, or Ghandi, or Selma, or The Patriot, or Band of Brothers etc etc. In fact, the Bible is fiction in a manner of speaking, as are our history books.
American Revolution – fiction. American insurgency by 18th Century Al-Qaeda or Viet-Cong equivalent against your rightful king more like it. Bill of Rights – fiction. Equality for some (white, rich men) more like it.
Even true things are fiction, in a manner of speaking.
Having early on made a copy of the complete set of The Record Keeper files so I could return to it as time and interest happened… I can say with a great deal of certainty that NO one who has not viewed EVERY segment at least three time… and pondered their messages in between… is in the least bit qualified to write a review of any segment, any bit of dialogue, or any characterization.
It also helps that the set that I downloaded had not only the words as they were spoken in print on the screen, but had them translated into English.
The last time I checked the episodes were still available on YouTube… in both formats.
Any prospective reviewer also needs to consult with those who have used it for its stated purpose… that of being presented one episode each night of an evangelistic meeting as a place to start real dialogue with those in the audience … (or at least consider what some have written who have done this).
It is, I believe, not a dead project, but only one that has gone into “hiding” for a period of time. Again, any reviewer who is serious about his reporting should consult with the makers of the episodes so as to determine what level of reporting at this time will be advantageous in preparing many to understand what it is all about… and what level will NOT be helpful to the eventual overall success of the project.
But someone should be preparing him/herself NOW… so as to be ready when the most appropriate time comes to post such a review and analysis.
“I can say with a great deal of certainty that NO one who has not viewed EVERY segment at least three time… and pondered their messages in between… is in the least bit qualified to write a review of any segment, any bit of dialogue, or any characterization.”
In that case let me be the first to apologize for my mistaken two-part review of The Record Keeper and the reactions to same, posted here not quite a year ago. Unfortunately I have only watched the series Twice, not the mandatory Thrice. Though I have listened to and engaged in several hours of direct and group dialogue with Jason Satterlund, I am sorry that I have missed so much of the intended meaning as to be disqualified to comment to any of the particulars.
“any reviewer who is serious about his reporting should consult with the makers of the episodes”
This I have done so I beg for grace.
“Any prospective reviewer also needs to consult with those who have used it for its stated purpose”
I studied the reports of the pilot evangelistic series that used this approach with some success. I did not personally contact those good people but I referred to their reports in my review.
When I left Adventism I considered whether the church might be nudged in a new direction, toward an understanding and a practice of a God of acceptance and love. But I concluded that wasn’t possible, it really is the immutable church of Ellen White and she is its DNA.
Bill Sorenson says about the book Great Controversy: “Those in the know, are aware that this book is the heart and soul of the SDA message as she understood the bible and its end time message.” And I say: That is the sad truth, the dream world, which reveals the immutable dysfunction of the church dooming it to osmosis and irrelevancy.
I have stated before and that that the soul of the Adventist church was built on a lie (1844 and all its contributory flimflam) and its variety of face saving myths created to elevate it above the wreckage it wrought. The Great Controversy, the Heavenly Sanctuary with the Investigative Judgment, the End Time, the One Hundred Forty Four Thousand, The rise of the “Papacy,” The Mark of the Beast, The Three Angels Messages, The Spirit of Prophecy, and a number of others were developed as visible markers, at a right angle to other Christian churches, to demonstrate that Adventism’s miscalculations weren’t fatal, but were, in fact, the first step in its recognition above all the others that God had anointed it with a unique, singular role in the “end time.” It proudly labeled itself the “remnant” church and broadcast for all to see that it was exactly that by giving itself a legal name that announced its Biblical and prophetical destiny.
How dare I call it a lie? It wasn’t true and when the leaders realized it, they didn’t admit it. Instead of conceding the obvious that interpreting prophecy was useless for divining the future, they doubled down and set off on a new road of “present truth” to nowhere.
For one hundred fifty years, the church has futility acted as if its “messages” were true and now the mess has accrued. The distortions of Adventism are plain for all to see, apparently, except for itself encased its soundproof chamber. Not one thing predicted by the entrance of Adventism which such promise onto the world stage has happened, including the second advent. Signs of the times are as defunct as the magazine, the screen play lustily scripted for itself as the star attraction for “The End” has nothing but shredded billboards flapping in the wind. The lights are out. No revival. The “End Time” has come and gone.
And now a large organization has to redirect. It apparently wasn’t so special to God, after all. Else why this dilemma? I think Bill is correct. The core of Adventism, but as best as I can see, still clings to the war in heaven scenario with no audience except itself, a last hope of self-aggrandizement and self-deception.
It is a novel, Alice in Wonderland. It cannot be a documentary. Only fodder for creative video guys. Those are produced after the war, when there is one.
Bugs I can’t but help think the Jews said the exact same type of thing against the first Christians? That this business of a risen Messiah, who was shamefully executed as a criminal and supposedly rose from the dead, was simply a face-saving device? And these Christian doctrines, especially the notion that they were now the chosen ones, not the rest of the Jews, was simply putting ideas a right-angles to existing Judaism.
Maybe it’s all cognitive dissonance? If so, who is to start pointing fingers at whom?
I have no intention of watching “The Record Keeper” but can someone in a brief paragraph or two, explain what it is about and what and who is the intended audience?
I did all that and more in my two-part Opinion series published on this web site last year.
Elaine,
To your questions, let me say that The Record Keeper is NOT a depiction the EGW book Great Controversy.
It IS a series of dramatic allusions to various biblical episodes where there is overt or inferred conflict between Divine and Demonic forces, as seen through the eyes of fallen and unfallen angels. This involves a fair amount of clever imagination and artistic license, as must be inevitable in such an undertaking. Given that nobody involved in its production had the ability to directly consult with angels it could hardly be considered a documentary.
I like that last line!
It’s no documentary, but it’s thoroughly Adventist in my opinion.
It portrays a serious understanding of our message.
I have watched the entire series of The Record Keeper.
It is clearly designed for a segment of society that is not typically sitting in our congregations on Sabbath morning.
It invites discussion and is best used in a setting of small groups that will discuss it.
I am sorry that it has been buried and is not likely to be resurrected in the near future.
Rightly used, it will have value.
I too have watched the entire series, at least twice. I did not get to see them when originally aired. I kept watching for them online and managed to ‘capture’ them when they were leaked. I was awed.
I think it is a great piece for the audience and purpose for which it was intended. Many people who would not otherwise pay any attention to our message would watch this and, as a result, be moved to investigate further. Let’s be honest, for the last 50 years, people have grown up watching TV and movies!
I would dearly love to get my hands on a copy of the study guides that were to accompany the viewing of the segments.
Here are study guides that I produced for The Record Keeper. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8braavqpmy10g0w/AABfcVnerHgAmEaFrjNRjua4a?dl=0
Pastor Downing hits 100% again. May all Adventists who care more about a 2015 than a 1858 versions of the Great Controversy, demand that those who buried this treasure, be reprimanded and censured. The Administrators who did this and the BRI members who sanctioned this suppression are guilty of opposing the Holy Spirit’s activity in our church.
Even the comment about those “bragging” that their influence helped quench the Spirit, want the “1858 version” of the Great Controversy. This alone shows they are against the Spirit directed revisions of that book, with the 1884, 1888, and 1911 revisions done by Ellen White. Our prophetess aged and died after that, but the principle she demonstrated is clear, tell, revise, and update the message as often as you can.
There is no possibility that Ellen White would endorse using an 1858 version of the message in 2015. Not a chance.
Father forgive, us, we have no idea of what we are doing to your truth. And young bright eager Adventists who made this film, forgive us please, we are so wrong in this suppression. Your work will be justified some day when we remove the Spirit suppressors from positions of authority.
Just wathced the whole series on YouTube – very good. I posted the link on Facebook and had several non-Christian friends watch it. They didn’t even know it was a Christian series at first, they were so hooked in the story. Fantastically well done.
Far from being theologically deviant, I found it to be quite profound in certain parts. For example, I was deeply moved to consider:
1. The idea that Satan and His angels don’t die in the same immediate way we the children of Adam do because the latter can’t create life, whilst the latter do. So the affect of sin is different for our respective species.
2. That Satan and His angels are so focused on we humans, partly because they are fascinated with the one thing we have and they don’t – the ability to create life. This is linked in with Ellen White’s ideas of Satan and His angels trying to storm the City in Revelation to get to the tree of life. It also links to those Nephilim and perhaps dare I say White’s “amalgamation”?
3. The Christus Victor (which is just the ancient form of Great Controversy) atonement theory really comes through well. We really see how Satan’s angels are told Jesus’ arrival is an ‘invasion’. However, even Satan’s angels are horrified with the way Jesus quietly goes to the slaughter on the Cross, and how this shames Lucifer, revealing him not as a freedom fighter but deceiver.
4. Similarly, the story really lets you think about what Satan must have said to convince the fallen angels. Again, the series emphasises how the fallen angels originally thought themselves as freedom fighters against a stagnate ‘administration’.
5. The concerns of others are pedantic. I was awaiting all the violence – so called, and maybe it is just my modern under-40 sensibilities, but I didn’t think it that violent at all. If you want violent – read the Bible!
6. The female Holy Spirit character is a pedantic criticism. If anything, the problem is portraying God is Tritheistic rather than as one Triune God. But again, that is how White portrays God herself in her writings, no doubt because she struggles to put in limited human words something indescrible.
7. In any event, the OT alludes to the Holy Spirit in femine words anyway. If the Holy Spirit can appear as a dove, why not a woman?