For months I anticipated the movie, The Passion of the Christ, by Mel Gibson. The movie had been reviewed by Evangelical Pastors nation wide. It was claimed to be able to bring a new wave of revival to our land and would be used worldwide to proclaim the gospel. Such was the shallowness of the shepherds of Christ's church.
With just a few months before the movie was to come out controversy began surrounding the movie. It turns out that the movie itself was extremely Roman Catholic. After seeing the movie for myself, I could see the Roman Catholicism all over it (stations of the cross, Eucharist in RC sense, ect...). Yet, I was told most people would never notice those things. They could easily be overlooked. Having dealt with lay Roman Catholic apologists first hand; I knew the movie had far more ambition.
Sure enough, RC apologists were admitting that Protestants had no idea that they were watching an extremely RC film, and that they would use it for proselytizing. Crossed the Tiber has reported another Assembly of God pastor to have...well...crossed the Tiber. He explains that the movie had a major impact in the conversion of this pastor.
Again, I would have to ask a couple of simple questions of this pastor. Is he now rejecting the Protestant doctrine of Justification? Does he now reject the non-imputation of sin and the imputation of Christ's righteousness? In essence, does he now reject Substitutionary atonement for the synergistic treasury of merit system?
Having come from an Assembly background myself, I wonder if he was grounded in the truth at all. Much of the charismatic and pentecostal movement is very unsound to begin with and has often gone into outright heresy. So I suppose I should not be surprised.
So in one sense, I welcome movies and works of art that are more positive and even promoting a positive view of religion. Yet I have to wonder why Christian pastors think that just because a movie may have good qualities and being promoted by men who claim to be Christian automatically gives the movie a pass. Men like Dr. James Dobson were calling Mel Gibson anointed by God.
Are there any Christian pastors with discernment?
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***Again, I would have to ask a couple of simple questions of this pastor. Is he now rejecting the Protestant doctrine of Justification? Does he now reject the non-imputation of sin and the imputation of Christ's righteousness? In essence, does he now reject Substitutionary atonement for the synergistic treasury of merit system?***
The article you linked to has a link to the guy's website. Why not ask him?
I thought about mentioning that, but I didn't bother. If you have followed other posts where I have asked this many times of other converts to RCism, you will see the answer is still in the snail mail.
:-)
don't know if you'll see this since it's a little late but I just notices this post and thought I would mention that, in my opinion, no descerning Pastor needs a movie to evangelize others or himself. People were converted quite well before film came along. The Passion of the Christ is an admirable artistic achievement - not the second coming.
Howard,
I agree that the film was quite Roman Catholic. However, as drama it was a good film. It was especially useful for portraying the brutality of Christ's suffering. But it was not an effective evangelistic tool.
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