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| ***UPDATE: To read why we will not view nor endorse the new "passion" film, click here. Posted: November 2003 There's a lot of talk about the new "jesus" film that will premier very soon. Now I have not seen the films but I have read many articles and reviews, as well as seen clips of the "passion" movie on TV. Upon seeing the clips and reading the information, I feel I must write this important article. From what I have read about this passion film on various news websites: 1) Satan is depicted as an evil woman in the film. This is blatantly unscriptural and has no scriptural basis whatsoever. That alone would make a christian wonder how any Bible believing christian would endorse such error. 2) The story is told from Mary's point of view and the viewer sees it through her eyes. Clearly we know from reading Scripture that the Gospels scarcely even mention Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the crucifixion except to say that she was there at the cross during the time of Jesus' crucifixion. The Gospels were not written from Mary's point of view,not even one passage. The Lord shows us through Scripture...His Written Word... the poignant moments of Jesus's birth, earthly ministry and his death and triumphant Resurrection. 3) The movie is filmed with actors speaking in Aramiac. Which of course, the majority of the people who view the film will not even understand the language. REMEMBER FAITH COMETH BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD....NOT SEEING. Something that truly puzzles me is why, in these last days, are movies coming out about supposedly the "true depiction of Jesus"??? So many Bible teachers, who are endorsing these films, are hailing them as "increasing our faith" but truly the Bible says: (Rom 10:17) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Luk 18:8b) Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Heb 11:6) But 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. So we already know from the above passages that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. That in the Last Days, before Jesus comes back, there will not be much faith found. And that without faith, it is impossible to please God. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIM. UPON READING THE ABOVE SCRIPTURES, LET'S ASK OURSELVES THESE QUESTIONS: - Do these Jesus movies do more harm than good? - Can one watch them and leave with greater faith than before entering the theatre? - Is is possible that maybe these films will actually cause unbelief? HERE MAY BE THE PROBLEM WITH ALL OF THESE FILMS: In reality, we were not there 2000 years ago. We do not know what Jesus looked like. To have an actor- any actor portray Jesus is lowering our Savior and doing much disservice to the passages found within the Bible. The Bible tells us that we must come to God by faith. First of all, Jesus had power in His teaching and in His voice. Luke 4:36 "And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." John 7:45-46 "Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. " Mat 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Mar 1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. Every man is beneath the Lord. No one can possibly have His character or His eyes because Jesus is God ...the Second Person of the Trinity and when He walked the earth, He was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. (John, chapter 1) He is the ONLY one who is both God and man. Jesus never sinned. Pure in every way. What does a person look like who has never sinned??? None of us know. We have all sinned and only Jesus was sinless. So, in my opinion, to have any actor portray Jesus is truly insulting Him. He is God. He is Holy. He walked the earth 2000 years ago and when He ascended into Heaven, He gave us the Holy Spirit who teaches us all truth and we have the Word of God which is a living book that gives us the true visual portrayal of who God is. God did not need films to get His message across for the past 1900 years. All who received Jesus, received Him by hearing the Word of God and believing. We are to preach the Word. We are to preach the Gospel...the good news that Jesus saves. Let us read Jesus's words to His disciples and to us: Mark 16:15-19 And he (Jesus) said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. PREACH YE THE WORD!! The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been preached for close to 2000 years. Folks over the centuries have read the Word of God and received much comfort and increased their faith by reading the Scriptures. Are we trying to walk by faith or by sight? Is it possible to increase one's faith by watching a movie that does not follow Scripture completely and has to depict scenes from Jesus' life without actually having witnessed it first hand? This would seem like a travesty to the words of the Gospel. The Gospels were inspired by the Holy Ghost and the passages give us the visual portrayal within the words of Scripture that we need to understand. In my opinion, to make a film to accurately portray Jesus is insulting the very author of the Bible, God Himself, who gives all the visual portrayal that we need found right within in the pages. From my viewpoint, to show the actor's face and eyes is truly offensive because Jesus never sinned. Peter, from his heart, said to Jesus, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Something within the eyes of Jesus made Matthew follow him. Something within the eyes of Jesus prompted Pilate to want to release Him. A purity and a holiness within Jesus that cannot be matched or replicated and therefore actors may do Jesus a great dis-service for especially that reason. **Man cannot lower Jesus to their standards. Jesus stands alone in history as the most important person to ever walk the planet for He was God in flesh and He rose from the dead, victorious over death, hell and the grave. No one can portray Him accurately and no one will ever surpass Him...He is worthy of the highest praise!!! Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Rev 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. WHAT KIND OF FRUIT WILL THESE "JESUS" MOVIES PRODUCE? WHAT DO THE ACTORS THINK OF JESUS? You decide...CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING: ________________________________________________________________________ The Movie: "JESUS: GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE": Actor Brian Deacon, who played in the Jesus film (Gospel According to Luke) said the following: "Every day when I go to the set (of the movie Jesus), I realize how mortal I really am. How can mortal man portray immortality? " When speaking of the film, Deacon said in a recent interview found on the following link: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/story.jsp?story=425274 ... excerpts from the article: ..."There were rows about interpretation. The producer wanted his hand on the helm, and he was a very impatient man. He would lose his temper and get very angry. Sometimes, if you were doing a crucifixion scene, you'd be strapped up on the cross and somebody would be screaming at the crew. It's not exactly conducive to creating a good atmosphere," says Deacon, 54, who now lives in Wimbledon, south London. "The Disciples went on strike one day. I think they felt, 'We've done a month on this film, we can't be replaced, and we're going to ask for more money'. ..."I remember once complaining after I'd been up on the cross for a while, saying, 'Look, please just put a stepladder under my feet', and someone said to me, 'What are you complaining about? You're going to come down. He never did'. I thought, what's this? Emotional blackmail? I'm an actor!" ..."I found it quite difficult, because people would come to me on set and tell me their problems. I used to say, 'Look, I'm just an actor, I don't have any fine words for you'." When a fire broke out at Deacon's hotel, his stand-in told him it was the work of Satan who was trying to kill him for spreading the word of Jesus. Deacon also said in the article: "There was a lot of pressure on me. People said, 'When were you reborn?', and I said I wasn't, and they didn't understand that. I said I had a faith, but I don't go to church and I can't proselytise, I'm afraid." ________________________________________________________________________ THE MOVIE: "THE GOSPEL OF JOHN" From the Article Titled: "At last, a Jesus for all faiths" (Filed: 13/11/2003) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/11/13/bfjesu13.xml&sSheet=/arts/2003/11/13/ixtop.html |
| A couple of excerpts from the article, which interviews the man, Henry Ian Cusick, who portrays Jesus in the new film: Cusick said in the interview regarding preparing for the role; ..."It kept me in my trailer while the disciples were out having fun," he says. "When I emerged, they would go, 'Hey, JC, how are you doing today?' I would have loved o hang out with them more, but there just wasn't time." The article goes on: ...The extras were Spanish gypsies. "They would bow slightly when I walked past, as if I really was Christ," recalls Cusick. "And on the day of the crucifixion, when I came out of the trailer wearing a crown of thorns, the whole set went quiet. It was eerie. The gypsies were saying, `Ay mi Jesús', beating their breasts, and then they broke into song." ..."I had to revise my own ideas about Jesus when I read the text," says Cusick. "I couldn't play it like Robert Powell, all gentle and soothing. This Jesus can work up a crowd. He tells people: `If you don't follow me you won't go to heaven.' I didn't want to say that, but I had no choice." ...The outdoor scenes were shot in the scrubland of southern Spain. "Oh, man, walking those distances in sandals," says Cusick. "The disciples and I kept leaning on each other, saying: 'Bloody hell, this is uncomfortable.' The stones got in right here." He lifts a crocodile-skin boot to show me. ________________________________________________________________________ Excerts from: http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/1226972.html ...Take producer Garth Drabinsky, who is Jewish. “Everyone who worked on the project found it emotionally very, very uplifting – even if you weren’t reared in Christianity,” ... ...“It’s one thing to know Christ as a compassionate man and maybe even as teacher,” says Drabinsky, “but to know him as a provocateur – as one who \challenges those in his way as forcibly and aggressively as he did - was very enlightening to me. ..." ...For British stage actor Henry Ian Cusick, taking on the role of Jesus meant accepting an unparalleled acting opportunity. “The chance to play Jesus was incredible, though I don’t think I realized the enormity of it until someone said to me, ‘That’s quite a responsibility.’ Up until then, I approached it like any other project.” ________________________________________________________________________ Another Article found on the web: Excerpts from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsC/cusick_henry_ian.html ...(Christopher) Plummer says Cusick impressed him because, instead of pretending to have a halo around his head as the son of God, he put subtle humour, toughness and a sense of reality into the role: "And that's a relief!" ...Indeed, Cusick plays Christ as thoroughly human, a Jewish prophet who challenged the Pharisees in what turned into a power struggle over ideas. "I'm very pleased and flattered," Cusick said when told of Plummer's compliments. ..."I don't think you can act like a God," he said of the most significant and challenging role of his career. "It's the other actors in the story who will give you that reverence. That's the art of filmmaking, I guess." ________________________________________________________________________ According to "The Gospel of John" movie reviewer, Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher of Movie Guide and CEO of the Christian Film and Television Commission: http://www.demossnewspond.com/john/presskit/tedbaehrreview.htm ..."Christians need to go into all the world to bring their friends to watch the Good News of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in The Gospel of John." ... "Also, as with any portrayal of Christ, one’s image from reading the book will be different from what one sees on the screen. For one, I was enthralled by the cleansing of the temple. It was totally different than I had expected. " ________________________________________________________________________ The Toronto Sun says the following: http://www.demossnewspond.com/john/releases/pondrls092403.htm “Superior to almost all religious films ever made. Henry Ian Cusick is the finest and most refined Christ in film history!” "Henry Ian Cusick is a marvelously human Jesus Christ.” —Toronto Sun ________________________________________________________________________ Excerpts of CBN "Gospel of John" Review http://www.cbn.com/living/entertainment/screen/movie_gospelofjohn.asp ...Christians should be thrilled beyond words that there are a couple of movies portraying Jesus and His ministry coming soon to a theater near you. Just as there are four different gospels with four different interpretations of Christ and His ministry, so can (and should) there be a multitude of distinctly different movies telling the truth about Jesus and who He was and is. ...I have seen Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion and it is a completely different story, focus and interpretation from The Gospel of John, so why would anyone think one would hurt the other or that one would be better than another? Isn’t that the beauty of telling a story, that there are many different ways to do so? ...Because this is a literal translation of the Gospel of John there are a few scenarios and characters missing that are familiar to many people who have read the other gospels. For instance; there’s no explanation of what happens to John the Baptist after he recognizes Christ as the true savior. After Judas betrays Christ we don’t see him hang himself. Jesus isn’t shown praying in the garden and asking that the cup be passed from Him. There’s no explanation of who Mary Magdalene is and why she’s constantly hanging around the disciples and Christ. During His trial Jesus is never taken to Herod, no man steps from the crowd to help Jesus carry His cross and the thief on the cross who's repentant, isn’t told he would be in paradise that day with Jesus. And (perhaps most important for a person who might not know the story of Jesus nor be familiar with the scriptures) there’s no explanation of His appearance before many in that area or His ascension into heaven, so literally we don’t see or know what happens to Jesus after He appears to His disciple and lets them see the holes in His hands.... The movie made me appreciate the scriptures that have (through the years) become so familiar and seeing Jesus’ uniquely human character in dialogue form gave me a renewed intimacy and appreciation for the sacrifice He made on the cross. His radical personality, His passion for the truth to be told so that many would be saved, His compassion, His heart, I fell in love with Jesus all over again and I bet it has the same effect on you! ________________________________________________________________________ Garth Drabinsky, the producer, said in a recent interview: http://www.demossnewspond.com/john/presskit/ajc092003.htm ''You can draw from the movie whatever you want: spirituality, education or pure entertainment. It's not religious outreach.'' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Remember This: Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. For almost 2000 years, people have come to God by faith through Jesus Christ. The Bible was written so that we would know and believe on Jesus. He was and is the Savior of the World. The Lamb of God...the Jewish Messiah. He walked the earth as a man but He was no ordinary man. He was God in flesh! Sinless and Holy. He was not like you or I. He was so different than you and I. The Apostle John writes, "And we beheld His glory..." Jesus did not speak as others spoke. He did not teach as others taught but there is more. He was not just a man. He was God in flesh. Sent by God the Father on a mission to redeem mankind from hell. That is what the Gospel is all about. God's unfailing love for sinful and hopeless humanity. The world wants to portray Jesus as a "provocateur – as one who challenges those in his way as forcibly and aggressively" but those who really KNOW JESUS AS THEIR SAVIOR AND LORD do not need movies to help them with their faith. They KNOW in Whom they believe in. They read the loving words of God found in the Holy Bible and within its pages lies all truth and food for the soul. Within the Written Word lies all the spiritual food that one needs. We find comfort and hope because we believe what the Bible says. Moreover, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ not because of a great actor portraying Him on film but because of what the Bible says of Him. We know Jesus because we have received Him as our Savior. We believe the Bible...not man's interpretation of the Bible. The Bible is the only accurate record and true portrayal of Jesus and ... The Bible should be enough. 2Tim 3:16: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: Copyright © 2004 Cobblestone Road Ministries All Rights Reserved |
| Like a God? What about the God? |
| Power struggle over ideas?? Is that what the Gospel of John shows us? |
| Jesus is not just some character in history or in the movies. He is the Son of God! |
| Trendy Jesus Films ...A New Face for "Jesus" |
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| Further Study: What's Wrong With the Passion? The Antichrist and The DaVinci Code Call His Name Jesus The Greatest Sin Jesus Died For Us What's Wrong With Tribulation Films? Did Mary Have Other Children? |
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