If you sit down with the family to watch a movie, it’s hard to imagine how long it took for that movie to be made. Without commercials, the movie lasts about an hour and a half. “But given all of the phases of production, an average Hollywood studio movie from beginning of development to the end of post-production typically takes around 4 to 5 years to produce.”1 The actual “shooting” of the movie will take anywhere from 30-120 days.
For a movie, “the expected average would be a 120-page script with approximately 2 to 3 pages per scene thus resulting in about 40 to 60 scenes… While some scenes can be shot in one or two takes, some scenes are more difficult to get just right, and may take up to several hundred takes.”2
Now, there is a reason I’m telling you all of this and it’s not so that your head will be filled with Trivial Pursuit facts. Have you ever watched a movie and caught the errors? For instance, one scene is shot from different angles. In one angle, the iron is standing up on the ironing board but in the other angle, it’s down.
One movie scene is shot in a school classroom. One angle shows two girls sharing the same table. The next angle shows them sitting side by side but at two different tables.
Background items can change. Items not fitting the time period make an appearance like incandescent lightbulbs in a gas-light era. A woman goes from wearing heels to flats or the color of shirts change mysteriously. A 50-star American flag is used before there were 50 states. Crew members accidentally become a part of the film. Or, there were scenes like in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the singing candyman lifts the counter and whacks a young actress in the chin. The camera barely captures it as her head flinches backwards but the film keeps rolling and most viewers missed it.
With hundreds of people involved in the making of a movie, wouldn’t you think the errors would be nonexistent? How did these errors not get caught during the postproduction editing?
Here’s my point. It took over 1,500 years for the Bible to be completed. It was written in three different languages, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Portions were written on three different continents by about 40 different men ranging significantly in professional and educational backgrounds. And yet…
The Bible is without error.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Peter 1:20-21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Bible is authoritative.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
The Bible is infallible.
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
The Preservation of the Bible is promised.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
There are going to be goofs in movies but there are no goofs in the Bible because its authorship is of God. Perhaps we ought to be spending a lot more time in the Word than at the movies!
1https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-make-a-movie/
2https://profound-information.com/how-many-takes-does-the-average-movie-scene-take/
