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| Luke 18:8 "...Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" The Bible warns us over and over again that in the Last Days, there would be a departure from the Faith; apostasy-- departure from the Truth. As well meaning as some Christians may be and even though they are sincere, one can be sincerely wrong. The Bible states that Faith comes by HEARING the Word of God. Modern Christianity wants to excite the senses-- to make the Bible come alive through sight... BUT the Bible proclaims that we walk by faith and not by sight. True faith sees without natural eyes. There is the glory that belongs to the Lord God alone and cannot be seen with mortal eye today. We see Him through spiritual eyes but someday face to face. Jesus Christ is God-- The Second Person of the Trinity; and He declared that one must worship God "in spirit and truth." For any human to depict the Lord Jesus Christ in a movie or a "passion play" is an insult to the glorified Risen Savior. Such "adds to" the Bible and "deletes from" it. For such productions rob Christ of His glory, His Deity; and also transgresses the Second Commandment, as we shall explain. Webster's Dictionary defines "blasphemy" as the following: "Blasphemy is an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and belonging to him, or attributing to him that which is not agreeable to his nature." According to an article by OneNewsNow.com, TBN recently acquired the Christian theme park called the "Holy Land Experience" in Orlando Florida. The "experience" boasts models of the Temple, Tabernacle, Garden Tomb, etc. But the theme park also goes a step further, to the astonishment of Bereans everywhere, featuring a "jesus"-- a human actor with long hair and beard, pretending to be Christ in a graphic passion play. According to the article, the Anglo-Saxon "jesus" is crucified six days a week before the eyes of adults and children alike. Visitors get the chance to see "jesus" die before their eyes in graphic portrayal. And just as Mickey Mouse is the star of Disney World, so a real live "jesus" is the star for the Holy Land Experience, along with other Bible "characters." Children get a chance to see these "bible characters"-- just as they see at other theme parks characters such as Santa, the Easter Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Snow White. And there are opportunities to snap photos of "jesus" during the passion play. Consider the following: "There are photo ops built in," explains Reynolds, who helps script the continually changing performances. "When he shows a child the camel and weaves through the crowd with the dove, those are strategically planned for people to take photos of him." source Photo ops? Yet JESUS CHRIST-- THE REAL SAVIOR-- THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE IS SEATED IN HEAVEN, IN HIS GLORY -- AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER! Children should be taught this-- not brought into confusion from over-zealous parents, ignorantly wanting their children to "see" what they are meant ONLY to HEAR. (Romans 10:17) As stated before, the Bible declares that faith comes by HEARING. Concerning religious dramas, A.W. Tozer wrote: It violates the scriptural law of hearing...the Bible rules out pictures and dramatics as media for bringing faith and life to the human soul. CHRIST - THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD Colossians 1:14-15 In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature... verse 19: For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.. The Lord Jesus declared in John 14:9, "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Yet Christians insist on seeing mere man playing the role of God! Yet the Lord Jesus said in John 20:29, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." We do not doubt the sincerety of the actors involved but what a true sacrilege if there ever was one-- an actor-- a mere man-- playing the role that he is the Only Begotten Son of God! And what more blasphemy is there to depict the darkest hours of human history-- crucifying the Son of God afresh almost every single day of the week? The Lord Jesus died ONCE for our sins-- never to be repeated. The Book of Colossians declares that Christ is "the image of the invisible God" but yet when one visits the homepage of the Holy Land Experience website, the first thing one sees is a picture of the actor ("jesus") with a little girl and the captions says: "Look into the eyes of the One who changed the course of history..." How dare they place a man's picture with the caption, "Look into the eyes of the One..." We cannot look into the eyes of the ONE -- until we reach the Heavens where He is seated on high. We, Christians, see now with SPIRITUAL eyes-- by faith. Mere man can never portray the ONE who changed the course of history and he should never try! It is a violation of the Second Commandment! Isaiah 42:8 declares: "I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another..." THE SECOND COMMANDMENT Exodus 20:2-5 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Any likeness! It's there in the Word of God and since the Lord Jesus is in Heaven, we are to cease from using mere man to depict the very Son Of God! The Second Commandment prohibits making material representations of His Person. The Christ, who came down and lived among His own for thirty-three years is the SAME One who dwelt of old with Israel-- in the Tabernacle. He is the Same One, whose glory was seen in the midst of Israel and whose glory filled the Temple. Consider the following verses which explain the glory of God, the frailty of man, and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ-- who has in Him the fulness of the Godhead bodily: Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? 1Peter 1:24-25 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Exodus 24:17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; And let us again quote Colossians 1:14-15: In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature... verse19: For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell... Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Please let this sink in. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God...In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Yet people professing to know Him are using mere man to depict the VERY image of God! It is blasphemy. For those of you who yet do not see, please pray that the Lord would open your eyes. It is the "norm" today for Christians to play the role of Jesus in film and stage but yet it was considered blasphemy to do so just 100 years ago! Christians have been conditioned over the years to accept things that would be a sacrilege a century ago. Christendom has become irreverent concerning the Lord of Glory. THERE IS NO RESPECT. Today, there are "jesus" action figures, "jesus" machine-washable ragdolls, and "jesus" cartoons. Children are conditioned to walk by sight rather than by faith and are conditioned to accept man's invention of what they believe Christ to look like. It is idolatry. Yet the things of God are spiritually discerned and we are to look unto Him by faith. Ephesians 3:17a That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From the article: http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/christian_theme_park_gains_pop.php Christian theme park gains popularity ORLANDO, Fla. - Jesus Christ is crucified and resurrected here six days a week. Snarling Roman soldiers whip and drag him, and somber audience members watch. Some quietly weep at a pageant bloody and cruel. It is the grand finale at the Holy Land Experience, and not the attraction most tourists envision in an Orlando vacation... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A VACATION?? "What happened in those three mysterious hours, when the Cross and the Lord of Life were enshrouded in darkness, when He tasted death, deeper death than physical death, when His soul was made an offering for sin, can NEVER be discovered. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" ~ AC Gaebelein Almost two thousand years ago, the crucifixion of our Lord was so terrible that the sky grew black as night-- The Holy Son of God hung between Heaven and earth, receiving the fullest punishment for our sins. God veiled the horrific crucifixion with DARKNESS. How dare mere humans try to recreate it in the light of day! And charge money to see it! Have they no fear of God? Do they not know it is blasphemy to depict God in the likeness of SINFUL flesh? We have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God! The Lord Jesus NEVER sinned. He walked in human flesh but never sinned. None of us alive have ever seen what a sinless man looks like. The Second Commandment clearly forbids graven images, likenesses of God. And Jesus, the Christ, is God! He has no equal and no mere human could ever do Him justice. Nothing grieves the Holy Spirit more than dishonor done to the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus wanted His image plastered all over, He would have drawn a self-portrait of Himself and had it etched in stone on some mountain. If He wanted mere man to portray Him in dramas, He would have given the commandment to do so. No, God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth! He gave us the Second Commandment. He gave us His Word. The Bible is the WORD of God. No pictures are needed; no "passion plays" are needed. Reading the Bible builds faith. Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The crucifixion of Christ was the blackest day of human history-- Christ died ONCE for the sins of mankind, never to be repeated and He is glorified today! Luke 24:26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? What would the Saints of centuries past have to say to TBN and their Holy Land Experience? Thomas Watson from the 17th Century wrote: The Ten Commandments: "Nor the likeness of any thing" means, "All ideas, portraits, shapes, images of God, whether by effigies or pictures, is hereby forbidden to be made." God is to be adored in the heart, not painted to the eye. To set up an image to represent God is to debase him. Idolatry is devil worship...If it be not lawful to make the image of God the Father, yet may we not make an image of Christ, who took upon him the nature of man? No! It is Christ's Godhead, united to his manhood, that makes him to be Christ; therefore to picture his manhood, when we cannot picture his Godhead, is a sin, because we make him to be but half Christ - we separate what God has joined, we leave out that which is the chief thing which makes him to be Christ. Matthew Henry wrote: "Our religious worship must be governed by the power of faith, not by the power of imagination. Idolatry is spiritual adultery." John Gill: "No image of God was to be made at all, since no similitude was ever seen of Him, or any likeness could be conceived..." Charles Hodge: "Idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images." A.C. Gaebelein in 1914 wrote concerning the passion play: "Again we say what a blasphemy it is to depict in such a way the suffering of the holy Son of God! That no protest is heard against this Romish playhouse and some of those who should protest, known by the name (and in name only) of Protestants, laud the wicked travesty to the sky. No heart which loves and adores the Lord Jesus Christ can have any sympathy whatever with this passion play." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bonner Sancroft, concerning the Passion play said in 1870: [To] "excite the feelings without informing the understanding, and therefore without supplying any material motives to the conscience; A dangerous thing to quicken the feelings without informing the mind, or conferring any safeguards upon the character. Steady old preaching will do the work best." And why did he say that? Because the Bible commands us to "TELL" of the Lord; to preach His Word. Nowhere are we commanded to dramatize the Bible for to produce or "enhance faith." FAITH COMES BY HEARING. We are to SPEAK, TALK, TELL, PREACH, PROCLAIM... Psalm 145:10-13 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reverend Wilbur Fiske Crafts in 1885 wrote: As the pulpit and press of New York prevented the proposed sacrilege of reproducing the Passion Play in a theatre... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A bit of history, how Protestant ministers in the past reacted toward the "passion play"... "Religious leaders frequently enlisted government authorities and newspaper editors in high-profile crusades against various forms of entertainment that today are considered benign. The theater was one frequent target. In 1879 an eccentric Jewish entrepreneur named Salmi Morse attempted to stage in San Francisco a theatrical version of Christ's passion. Insisting it was sinful and sacrilegious to put the life of Christ on the stage, outraged ministers besieged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which banned the play. Morse went to court, but lost when a local judge ruled that his Passion play offended Christianity, which government had a right--indeed, a duty--to protect: "The Board of Supervisors," wrote Judge Morrison, "has seen fit to prohibit the exhibition in question because such an exhibition is, in their opinion, against good morals, because it is calculated to bring religion, which is the foundation of all morality, into ridicule and contempt, and because the sacred mysteries of the passion and death of the Redeemer upon the cross are too solemn and sacred to be made the subject of a theatrical exhibition." Morse had equally dismal luck in the supposedly cosmopolitan New York City. Egged on by a crusading newspaper editor named Harrison Grey Fiske, the city's Board of Aldermen drafted legislation banning the play. Three years later, when Morse was finally able to stage the Passion play briefly in New York, a state senator quickly prepared legislation to prevent "any attempt to personate or represent Jesus Christ, the Savior of Mankind, in any exhibition show, play, dramatic or theatrical performance." Morse was effectively put out of business. Source: http://www.libertymagazine.org/article/articleview/143/1/43/ The role of "Jesus" in Morse's play was played by James O'Neill, in the year 1879, which caused local authorities to arrest him under ordinances forbidding impersonation of the Deity. It drew nationwide attention. A.W. Tozer wrote: "I believe that most responsible religious teachers will agree that any effort to teach spiritual truth through entertainment is at best futile and at worst positively injurious to the soul...In order to produce a religious movie some- one must, for the time, disguise his individuality and simulate that of another. His actions must be judged fraudulent, and those who watch them with approval share in the fraud. To pretend to pray, to simulate godly sorrow, to play at worship before the camera for effect--how utterly shocking to the reverent heart! How can Christians who approve this gross pretense ever understand the value of sincerity as taught by our Lord? What will be the end of a generation of Christians fed on such a diet of deception disguised as the faith of our fathers?" http://www.av1611.org/Passion/menace.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To view the sacrilege of God's holy prophet, Moses, depicted with the Law in his hands and smiles for the camera: http://bp3.blogger.com/_L2ntjWYZMw0/ReD1KwUqyCI/AAAAAAAAAAs/n8YRqeqlaSg/s1600-h/Moses.jpg The Bible tells us that Moses had to veil his face because of the glory that shown so bright, after meeting with the LORD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Consider an excerpt from the following press article (bold emphasis is ours): What would Jesus view? A dramatic Passion Play. A collection of ancient Bibles. A model of ancient Jerusalem. Camels and sheep. Movies and musicals. By Paul Lomartire Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 17, 2004 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/local/holy_land.html Jesus does not sign autographs. And unlike Mickey at the Magic Kingdom, the Messiah will not pose for photos. Although visitors are encouraged to stop any costumed Disciple, Roman soldier or Israelite to ask questions about life from 1450 B.C. to A.D. 66, Jesus is off-limits for such chats. At The Holy Land Experience, close to Universal Studios in Orlando, the star doesn't have to pander and pose to sell tickets. The King of Kings need only show up to minister in the morning and be crucified in the afternoon. "We're not a theme park," says Iris Reynolds, who trains Holy Land performers, including the actor who portrays Christ. "We're a living biblical museum where you see people from the past." But it is a park with a definite theme: Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For the daily 20-minute Via Dolorosa — or Way of Sorrow — Passion Drama, Roman soldiers appear to kick and spit on the bloodied and bruised Messiah as they drag him along a curving walkway lined with tourists ready with cameras (some licking milk-and-honey ice cream cones from a nearby stand)... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When doing research for this article, we found an interesting quote on a message board concerning the theme park: "To me at least: it was beyond unnerving: it was creepy. The 'Disney-fication' of Christ's message has been going on for a few decades, slowly draining it of both Power and Passion...The 'Gospel of Jiminy Cricket' is a Far Cry from the life-transforming power of Passover and Pentecost..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Former Catholic Priest, Richard Bennett wrote: "...in the New Testament, we see that no “similitude” of Christ Jesus was given, and the commandment must remain unabridged. Any similitude or image of Father, Son or Holy Spirit is sinful and insulting to the majesty of the Lord God." Source ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Isaiah 40:18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? All "jesus" pictures, images, human actors, etc. are not true representations of the Holy Son of God. Such are man-made inventions. CONCLUSION "Passion plays" do not belong to people of biblical faith. Our Lord was humiliated ONCE and it was for our sins that He died. We are to remember His death and resurrection but we are NOT to add to Scripture with human ideas; nor are we to rob Christ of His glory-- His Deity. God's Word must be read and through His Word, He speaks to our hearts. The Holy Spirit will put in our minds what HE wants us to see. Our Lord Jesus is risen and seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. He is not hanging upon a cross! We serve a living Savior-- in Heaven! Glorified! And Christians MUST walk by faith and not by sight. Romans 10:6-9 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ©2007 Cobblestone Road Ministries All Rights Reserved Further Reading: What Is Wrong With The Passion Movie? Jesus Films For All Faiths? Trendy "jesus" films Unbiblical Things - Female Angels, Little Cherubs and "Jesus" Pictures Jesus Christ - The Great "I AM" Psalm 40 - The Death and Resurrection Of The Messiah The Christ Of The Cross - By A.C. Gaebelein Idolatry in the Evangelical Camp - By Bereanbeacon.org Please take a moment and sign our Guestbook with your comments. Thank you and God bless.. |
| Beware of the Passion Play At The "Holy Land Experience" Christian Theme Park in Orlando, Florida |
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