A.D. The Bible Continues– The Epic Begins

Starting on Easter Sunday night, tomorrow night, and for twelve Sunday nights thereafter, the story of the early church will be told in considerable detail, beginning with the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection and then working through early Christian history. The first series climaxes on Father’s Day and it is intimated that if this series does well, there will be more next year. Unlike the scope of ‘The Bible’ films done for the History Channel, this series covers much less time and goes into much greater detail. If you are thinking, ‘wasn’t there a series before called A.D.’ the answer is yes, and it is still available on DVD. It was done more than three decades ago, and while it has its merits, its not on the same scale as this production. Like other Biblical epics, this A.D. was filmed in the Moroccan desert on a huge set built for the film. Let me just say that in an age of increasing hostility towards Christianity even in America, and a growing number of Christians martyrs abroad, we owe a great debt of thanks to Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett for making a series like this, and managing to convince a major TV network to show it. My hope is the Christian community will support this series so there will be more such programming on major networks. This is Roma and Mark’s Easter present to us all.