Alexander the Great

While out in California, Lina and I watched Oliver Stone's Alexander. The film, suitably epic in its ambition to capture an epic story, fell short. Nearly epic. Yet, it did seem to be an accurate retelling of the rise and fall of Alexander the Great.

Stone should have told Angelina Jolie to can the Russian accent. She played Olympias, the diabolical and duplicitous mother of Alexander. Everyone else in the film, except a minor actor in a small role who seemed to be channeling a Scottish accent from Braveheart, spoke in a more or less American accent. But Jolie laid the Russian accent on thick as the Femme Fatale. She sounded like Natasha, Boris' sidekick, from this Rocky and Bullwinkle clip.

After watching the film, I went a reading about Alexander. I found that when he had entered Jerusalem he had been shown the prophesy from Daniel about how he was to subdue the East. He took this as a sure sign to proceed. In the aftermath of the battles fought and the victories won, Alexander Hellenized the conquered lands and made Koine (Common) Greek the Lingua Franca--a bridge language spoken as a second language among many differing peoples and cultures.

That opened the linguistic door for the preaching of the Gospel a couple of centuries later. Today, the Lingua Franca of the world is English. Hence, God is calling us to write and speak well in English so that the world may know of His plan of salvation.

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.