May Pop Culture and the Bible, Bible Study

What is: Pop Culture and the Bible, Bible Study?

It's an opportunity for Youth/Young Adults to practice putting their faith to work while looking at pop culture. We generally watch movies and then explore how Scripture intersects with what we've watched. This way of thinking about media can be applied to music, film, literature, television, art, and just about any other form of cultural production. We hope that the people coming to this would become wise consumers of media and be able to apply their Christian faith to whatever they are looking at.

Time: 3PM Saturday May 11^th at Mount Olive, we will break half way through the film and have some food, we'll order from a food allergy friendly location, and then we'll watch the rest of the film and have our study.

This Month:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 film directed by Peter Jackson. It stars Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage

A younger and more reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out on an "unexpected journey" to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of Dwarves to reclaim their stolen mountain home from a dragon named Smaug. If you’re familiar with the Lord of the Rings franchise you’ll know some of the characters in this film, this is a prequel to the LOTR films but is based on the 1937 J.J.R Tolkien children’s book that came out first.

We will watch the movie and then we'll spend some time looking at what it means to be in exile from your homeland like the Old Testament Jewish people experienced, as well as checking out themes of Greed and Coveting.  

Something to get you started, read this section from the Revelation of St. John, it has a Dragon in it:

"Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”  And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea." (Revelation 12:7-17 ESV) 

Parents Guide for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey