'The Bible Continues' Brings Book of Acts to Life

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An epic television series,"A.D. The Bible Continues," made its debut this month.

The series follows on the heels of "The Bible" miniseries, which drew more than 100 million viewers to the History Channel in 2013.

The new network television series picks up where the successful cable miniseries ended: at the death and resurrection of Jesus.

'Game of Thrones'-Esque

Executive co-producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett spoke with CBN News about bringing the pages of the Bible to life for today's viewers.

"Clearly, the story of the Bible, and in the case of 'A.D. The Bible Continues,' the story of the Acts of the Apostles, really grabs people emotionally," Burnett said. "But then you have got to make it very well and execute on the promise. And that is our job. I guess we are probably experts in making television."

Watch a behind-the-scenes look on the making of "A.D. The Bible Continues."

Burnett undersells his success. He is the engine behind nearly a dozen television hits, including: "Survivor," "The Apprentice," "The Voice," "Shark Tank," and "The Bible" miniseries.

"When we were filming 'The Bible' series in Morocco, we'd wished we'd had more than 10 hours," Downey said, recalling production for the miniseries.

"We'd wished we'd had 100 hours because the stories are so deep and so rich," she added. "And we decided while we were there that we would take a deeper dive into the Book of Acts."

This 12-hour series takes audiences through the first 10 chapters of the Book of Acts and the first decades following the resurrection of Jesus.

It's an epic production Burnett described it as "Game of Thrones meets the Bible."

Describing that biblical period, Burnett said it was "a very tumultuous and bloody time."

"Those apostles and a growing group of disciples could have been killed at any moment," he said. "It was a power struggle between the Romans, the temple authorities, the zealots. In the middle of it was a group of followers of Jesus who were spreading the word. They could have been killed every day."

No Sugar Coating

Following Christ wasn't popular at that time. And the real-life script is now moving from the Bible and history books to today's headlines.

"Here we have with 'A.D.' so much of the story is about the persecution of the early disciples, and it is easy for people to say that happened 2,000 years ago," Downey said. "But it is happening today. And we need to step up and we need to take care of each other."

In addition to shining a light on biblical persecution, Downy and Burnett have started a fund, called the The Cradle Fund, to help rescue, restore, and eventually return thousands of Middle East Christians who have fled their homes to escape persecution at the hands of the ISIS terror group.

"This fund has managed to bring 72,000 Middle Eastern Christians safely through the winter," Burnett told CBN News. "You know there were 500,000 displaced. Imagine escaping being killed, crucified, in fact, but then to freeze to death in the Syrian winter, Iraqi winter."

"Because of the success of our shows, we have a spotlight that lands on us from time to time and we are just a catalyst and God is the author," Downey added. "But as the light is shining here, we thought it is an opportunity to reflect it back and to make some noise for the persecution of Christian overseas."

That noise will continue as this rare and epic television series plays out on the small screen for at least 12 episodes.

"There are lots of big, epic event series on television. But [on the Bible, there is] only 'The Bible' series and now 'A.D. The Bible Continues,'" Burnett noted. "And so, we are hoping this goes on for many years. We are not thinking of this as one year. We are already in anticipation of great ratings, scripting season two."