Christian Bale on Moses

Once again I have not posted in a while. I would like to talk about celebrity news though. So I saw recently that Christian Bale called Mosses 'barbaric, a terrorist, and schizophrenic".
Now to be fair Christian Bale only said Mosses appeared to be a terrorist from an Egyptian point of view. Now as for the schizophrenic area this is just dumb. You cannot psychologically evaluate a person that long ago especially when the story doesn't even center on it. If however a peer reviewed account of Moses is found and dates back to that then I'll consider it. Now keep in mind Christian Bale was talking to Ridley Scott a very staunch atheist that extrapolates extremists beliefs to normal Christians. Now as for the barbaric part I want to engage in some good old fashion apologetics. I'm going to start discussing a few examples of "barbaric" behavior and use reason to explain what is actually going on. I would appreciate any and all help from those here.

Now I don't believe Christian Bale actually knows what he is talking about. Christian Bale has over simplified the issue and it disappoints me so much. I guess in today's world disappointment is just the norm.

Moses "murders" a the Egyptian
I want others to submit responses on some of these issues so I will partly answer this. The Egyptian was in the process of beating a Hebrew severely and Moses came to his aid.

The tenth plague is apparently viewed as an abhorrent act, but has already been debunked.
http://christianthinktank.com/killheir.html
  • Although the innocents died because of the 'sins of the nation', the innocents were not punished for those sins
  • the Tenth Plague was a last resort. The Plagues-process could have been precluded altogether by a 'reasonable' Pharaoh and could have been stopped anywhere along the way.
  • God was enforcing the Egyptian law(Hebrew population control back onto Egypt)
  • God set the innocents that were struck down "I set them apart for myself." Although there was suffering god clearly did not abandon the Egyptian children.Num 8.13

Golden Calf: Moses orders "every man" among the Israelites to slay his brother, companion and neighbor, as a punishment for the idolatry of all, and 3000 die (Ex 32:27-28).
  • JP Holding "Begged question of the seriousness of idolatry in a world that always bordered in chaos and anarchy and the alternative "faiths" sometimes involved child sacrifice and in any event worship of the wrong deity risked eternal damnation
  • Keep in mind that this was basically an act of treason and taking advantage of the suffering of the Egyptians. These people wanted to have their cake and eat it. Most of them probably witnessed the plagues of Egypt and narrowly escaped Pharaoh's army. Then after all that they engage in idolatry, became hyper chaotic, and vulnerable to their enemies. Funny enough there was another chance when Moses said "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me". This is not a case of "cruelty" but rather stupidity on the disobedient's half.
 
It is quite 'funny' how Moses pleaded with God to spare them all in Ex 32:11-13, God did in vs 14. ...then when Moses goes back down to them...we have Moses enforcing Ex 32:27-28. I think it is important to note that he first called all those still loyal to God Ex 32:26 out from among them before the killing took place.

I think we can only properly comment on the film once it is done. Everyone was complaining about Noah, but on release it was really not that bad.
 
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