In 2014, Noah did what many Christians hoped it would not do in the movie’s first weekend in the theaters. It was far and away the most watched, beating out the second- place entry, which had led to that point. Noah knocked off Divergent, grossing more than $44 million at the box office, as compared to Divergent’s $22.6 million, according to studio estimates from Rentrak.

Despite calls by a number of ministries for a boycott of Darren Aronofsky’s film, moviegoers turned out in proverbial droves to see what the hoopla is all about. The hoopla, itself, generated greater interest than otherwise would have arisen to give the filmmaker the ticket-sales victory that was achieved. A number of critics, professional and otherwise, predicted at the time that the movie, after the big box office in its week of release, would be the big loser in the second week of its run and beyond. This prediction is based upon the opinion of those making the forecast that Bible-believing people who flocked to the theaters were so turned off by the film’s hit piece on God and Noah that the word will spread and subsequent days of the run will suffer immensely.

I remember back then not being so certain… I must preface this essay by saying that this is a blind guy writing about a movie he never saw, and whose sound track he’s not even heard to this day. I haven’t “seen” a movie–or anything else—in more than twenty years, due to retinas that no longer function. So, I must offer analysis based upon what others who have, in fact, seen the film are saying about it. In that regard, I assure that I have read everything of pertinence, by way of reviews, that I can find.

Before you delete from your cyberspace files my effort, however, I will tell you that I possess/offer perhaps some small degree of gravitas in the matters involved in the Genesis story of Noah.

I have written or coauthored somewhere around thirty books, many of which deal in-depth and directly with the story of the Flood and with the Genesis chapter 6 account of what really happened during that antediluvian time. I say “what really happened,” because what I’ve learned from the plethora of reviews of Aronofsky’s Noah–both religious and secular reviews–is that it diverges from the real story so greatly as to defy any claim the movie makers had to this being a Bible-based film. As a matter of fact, the movie might have better been called Divergent, the name of the film it dethroned during its debut weekend.

All of that said, this is not an opinion piece on the many literal aspects of the making of this Hollywood version of what happened during those pre-Flood times. We should expect no more or less than what the movie-going masses got from the world’s glitter capital for their big-ticket bucks. What is crucial, in my view, is to try to dissect the intricacies of what was going on with this film and what has gone on since with all other efforts to inculcate this generation.

We–Americans in particular—are face to face with Ephesians 6:12–the battle that’s not with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities in high places. It is spiritual warfare of the first order as we rage toward the end of this decaying age.

The same supernatural entities that caused the Lord to finally have to destroy all flesh in the Flood of Noah’s day are at their nefarious work at this very moment. They are doing all within their considerable power to reeducate, inculcate, hypnotize each and every individual on the planet who hasn’t put on the whole armor of God.

Sadly, that is an enormous number of human beings–a massive majority of people who don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior. Perhaps even more depressing is the fact that this great number of people who aren’t prepared to stand against Satan’s last-days assault because they haven’t been fortified by their pastors and teachers in their churches includes Christians. They haven’t been trained to fight the spiritual battles they face, using God’s armor, given in Ephesians 6:11-18. Neither are they aware of the devices being used to attack them.

We are witnessing at this late hour in man’s Church-Age history plans by the supreme enemy being laid at every juncture. None of his schemes are cleverer than the preparation he is laying for what comes next in the battle of good versus evil.

We will look deeply into this scheme next week–Lord willing.