Tim Mahoney and His Patterns of Evidence

I became a fan of filmmaker Tim Mahoney’s work in 2014 when I stumbled upon his monumental documentary: Patterns of Evidence Exodus.

In that film, Mr. Mahoney explained to his audience how a “crisis of faith” drove him to make the movie. For he had learned that a great many so-called scholars and bible experts rejected the Exodus story, citing the absence of any credible evidence that it ever happened.

Thus Patterns of Evidence Exodus documents his journey to answer the critical question of whether the Great Exodus as described in the Book of Exodus actually took place as it is described in the text.

What Mahoney found and pointed out in the film was a series of archaeological and textual proofs that he called patterns of evidence, that ultimately affirmed for him (and hopefully the film-watcher) that the Exodus actually did take place as the text described.

If you’ve not already done so and are interested, I would highly encourage you to see this movie. As a Messianic, the movie was a testimony of YHVH’s greatness and to the Truth of YHVH’s Word.

The film won critical acclaim in a great many faith-based and secular award bodies. If you’re interested in checking those things out I would encourage you to go on over to https://patternsofevidence.com for the details.

Brilliant But Humble Truth-Seeker

Hilary and I had the distinct privilege of meeting Mr. Mahoney and one of the stars of his documentary, Dr. David Rohl, in 2014 at a conference highlighting the film. I personally found him to be a quietly brilliant, yet humble man whose heart appears to be in the right place. Needless to say, I greatly respect his work and was excited to see his latest installment of the Patterns of Evidence series this past week.

Mahoney’s Latest Movie—Patterns of Evidence-The Moses Controversy

This past Th-rsday evening, Hilary and I were blessed to have watched Mahoney’s latest addition to his Patterns of Evidence series entitled “The Moses Controversy.”

Mahoney continued his search for truth—sort of a left over from his last film—which he referenced quite a bit in this film—still working to overturn his stated “crisis of faith.”

This film focused on what he entitled, The Moses Controversy.

Without divulging the content of the film, suffice to say that Mahoney goes on a journey to prove that Moses wrote the Torah.

A Well Appointed Cast

In establishing his coined phrase “patterns of evidence” by which he would attempt to prove or disprove that Moses wrote Torah, he employed the expertise and talents of experts such as:

• Randall Price—Co-Director of the Qumran Cave Excavation Project.

• Douglas Knight—Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

• David Rohl—star of the previous film—Egyptologist and Research Professor at Liberty University.

• OS Guinness—prominent social critic and author.

• Rabbi Manis Friedman—Biblical scholar and author

• Christopher Rollston—Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages at George Washington University.

And a host of other equally qualified and accomplished experts.

Top-Rate Documentary

The film was nothing short of quality. It was first rate and very professionally done, especially considering that it was a faith-based piece of work.

Mahoney used graphics and special effects in the film that I would describe as nothing short of astounding.

It appears that Mahoney spared no expense in traveling to whatever location on the planet he deemed necessary to establish patterns of evidence.

As I just pointed out, the caliber of experts he interviewed were more than well qualified.

What I Did Not Like About the Film

1. For me, the central question of the film was never answered: that being, “Did Moses write the Torah.” In a sense the patterns of evidence that Mahoney established throughout the film strongly supported Mosaic authorship of Torah. However, I would agree with my daughter’s assessment that the patterns of evidence Mahoney established in the film was more conjecture than proof that Moses penned Torah.

2. I found the film a bit long and slow in parts. Many of the established patterns of evidence tended to be repeated to ad nauseum, which to me, only served to drag the film out longer than it should be.

3. I feel the premise of the film was somewhat wasted. Although Mahoney was able to establish some very interesting patterns of evidence, those patterns of evidence in reality never came close to answering the question whether Moses wrote Torah or not.

I believe the answer to any question of authorship for any of the books of the Bible is one of faith, for it is impossible to prove authorship beyond that which is attested in the body of the texts. So all that we the viewer was left with in terms of the patterns of evidence was no evidence of authorship whatsoever.

What I Like About the Film

I already stated some aspects of the film that I felt were excellent. But the one thing that stood out most in this film for me was the revelation of an overall “Crisis of Faith” that has engulfed the Christian Faith in the last century or so.

Mahoney expertly showed just how atheistic and agnostic many so-called theologians and bible scholars of our present age are. These are a most pathetic lot. Most started out their academic careers as self-proclaimed, bible believing, born-again believers. Most of these, after being exposed to the liberalities of their chosen academic institutions of higher learning and established archaeological and religious paradigms and affiliations, out right lost their faith. And sadly, none of these lamented their loss of faith. Instead, they held even tighter to their denial of biblical truths and their abandonment of Faith altogether.

Despite my stated negatives on the film, I still highly recommend it. It’s a little over 2-hours run time. But overall, I think it’s time well spent.

Faith—Or The Lack There Of–The Big Take-Away

Tim Mahoney’s Pattern of Evidence series is a fantastic documentary series that is extremely well done. However, it can never serve any true disciple of Y’shua Messiah as a replacement for outright, die-hard, unshakable Faith in the primacy of Scripture.

In many ways the film is an excellent witness and having those witnesses played out for us from time-to-time is a good thing I think.

However, we should never find ourselves in a place in our walk that we require hard facts to support our Faith.

Faith is paramount to our walk in Messiah. The writer of Hebrews penned:

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6; KJV).

The same writer defined what true faith consists of:

“Faith is the substance (ie., “hupostasis” or foundation) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

It’s one thing for us to seek after evidence of specific things related to our living and walking out our Faith, such as how we are to keep certain elements of Torah. But it’s an entirely different thing when we come to a place in our journey that we doubt that which is contained in the pages of our bible to the point that we even start to doubt the existence of YHVH and our Master Y’shua Messiah.

(Our nation’s secular, and even some of our nation’s theological seminaries, are nothing more than temples of hasatan!)

And as Mahoney showed in his two films, it doesn’t take much for one to fall into such a trap. It can start off with someone who we believe is an bible expert emphatically tells us that the Exodus of Hebrews from Egypt never happened and that Moses could not have possibly penned Torah.

And as enticing as convincing as some of these so-called experts and scholars may appear to us from time to time, we must always be weary of the tricks of the enemy.

We’ve placed more “trust” in the wisdom of man than we do in the existence of God.

Concerning faith, Paul counseled the Corinthian Assembly:

“That you faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5; KJV).

I know it’s very difficult to trust in God over that which men who we might happen to trust say from time to time. But we have to always remember that our walk is based on faith. Granted, it’s not a blind faith. It’s a faith that is confirmed through the bible and the work of the Holy Spirit operating in our lives.

Because without faith, we cannot do the works of YHVH (Mar. 16:17,18; Joh. 14:12)!

For it will be those who lack true Faith who will fall for the Lie in the End Times. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 The. 2:9-12; KJV).

Now is the time that we must strengthen our Faith. In in strengthening our Faith, we strengthen our resolve to see this thing out to the end. Because, it appears that by the time Master returns, true Faith will be a rare thing in the world. Master asked:

“When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth” (Luk. 18:8; KJV)?

Let us remain strong in our conviction and in our Faith as we anticipate the return of our Master Y’shua Messiah in the ahead.