- Released Friday, The Ten is a movie about "ten blasphemous
and hysterical stories inspired by the Biblical ten commandments. 1 In
the film, "Jesus H. Christ" deflowers a sexy virginal librarian;
each episode portrays characters preoccupied with doing the opposite of
what the Bible commands. The Ten, says Village Voice, is a film "http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0731,wilonsky,77376,20.html
- obsessed with prison rape and puppet dicks."
-
- "This is going to be a very negative attack on faith
and values," says Dr. Ted Baehr, chair of the Christian Film and Television
Commission. "It's very sad society has descended into this attack
mode."
-
- Is it really "society" that attacks Jesus in
this film? Writer and director of The Ten David Wain is a celebrated Jewish
comic actor and movie producer. Including Wain, four of the movie's five
producers, Jonathan Stern, Paul Rudd, and Morris S. Levy, are Jewish. Is
it a coincidence that the names of most of the movie's executive, co-executive
producers and technical staff are also Jewish? City Lights Pictures, producer
of the film, announced that The Ten was acquired for domestic distribution
by THINKFilm, which is owned by Jewish film financier and producer David
Bergstein. The film is important enough to also be distributed by W.E.A.
Corp., named 2006 Large Distributor of the Year.
-
- Pattern of Jewish Anti-Christianity in Media
-
- The Ten continues an assault of media body slams against
Christianity and its values over the past several decades. Jews constitute
only 1.5% of Americans yet are responsible for virtually all organized
media attacks on Christ. If you find that fact hard to swallow, consider
the following.
-
- In 1988, Jewish-owned MCA produced The Last Temptation
of Christ, portraying Jesus as a fool, charlatan and lecher. (See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/lasttemptation.html
- 'The Last Temptation of Christ' An Unnecessary Disaster
in Christian-Jewish Relations)
-
- During Christmas 2005, Jewish-owned CBS aired a primetime
Christmas special titled, The Mystery of Christmas. The special didn't
consider the mystery of how God was incarnated to redeem us from our sins.
Instead, the "mystery" it probed for an hour was whether Jesus
was a bastard - illegitimate son of a Roman soldier and a Jewish slut.
(See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/easterbashing.html
- More Christian Bashing from Media This Easter?)
-
- In NBC's The Book of Daniel, Jewish producer Jeff Zukor
and predominantly Jewish writers of NBC TV envisioned a dysfunctional "Christian"
family rent by backbiting, alcoholism, homosexuality and fornication. The
robed "Jesus" who materializes to counsel the father, an Anglican
rector, is a simplistic, bumbling fool. (See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/bookofdaniel.html
- Who's Behind NBC's 'Book of Daniel'?)
-
- In National Geographic's magazine and TV special The
Lost Gospel of Judas, the Geographic Society dramatized the possibility
that Judas Iscariot was a Jewish hero who delivered Jesus to the Pharisees
at Christ's own request! Both the NGS codex advisory panel and codex team
were disproportionately represented by Jews. Freida Tchacos Nussberger,
promoter and alleged owner of "The Book of Judas," as well as
Herb Krosner, TV producer who bought the story, have Jewish names. (See,
<http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/judasjewishhero.html>Judas: Historic
Jewish Hero)
-
- In The Da Vinci Code film, Jewish-dominated Sony Corp.
of America - headed by Jewish chair and CEO Howard Stringer and president
Emily Susskind - sold the lie that Christ had sex with Mary Magdalene.
The largest Jewish publishing houses, Random House, Doubleday and Anchor
Books, monopolized production and sales of the book, making staggering
millions from this blasphemy. (See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/behinddavinci.html
- The Jews Behind Da Vinci Code)
-
- Jesus: Butt of Jewish Humor
-
- In a recent article for the Jerusalem Post, Stephen Vider
relates how Jesus is a favorite butt of satire and mockery for Jewish comedians.
Precedent for such evil humor comes from the Talmud, says Jewish historian
Peter Schafer. The Post summarizes Schafer:
-
- "the rabbis of late antiquity hardly shied away
from mockerythe rabbis contended that Jesus was not the son of God nor
a scion of the Davidic line; rather, he was the bastard son of a Roman
soldier with whom Mary had an adulterous affair. So much for the virgin
birth.
-
- "That counter history is echoed in the Toledoth
Yeshu, an unauthorized biography of Jesus thought to have been told and
retold for hundreds of years before it was finally recorded in the tenth
century C.E. Not only does it dispute Christ's lineage, but also his bodily
resurrection - after his corpse turns up in a garden, it's dragged back
by horse to Jerusalem bearing a sign, "This is Yeshu, who is said
to have ascended to heaven."
-
- "Far from denying it, both the writers of the Talmud
and those of the Toledoth Yeshu seem to delight in claiming that the Jews,
not the Romans, could have executed Jesus - and that he deserved it."
(See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/judasjewishhero.html
- Judas: Historic Jewish Hero)
-
- Jewish comedians such as Larry David, Lenny Bruce, and
Sarah Silverman specialize in similar anti-Jesus mockery. The Jerusalem
Post quotes Silverman in her 2005 film "Jesus is Magic" as saying,
"I hope the Jews did kill ChristI'd f--ing do it again in a second."
The Post comments: "The title joke of Silverman's film is not, after
all, too far from the whole Toledoth Yeshu which depicts Jesus' miracles
as the work of black magic" 2
-
- Talmud: Wellspring of Anti-Christianity
-
- Where does this anti-Christ hostility, which spews from
Jewish media execs and creators, come from? It saturates the Talmud of
the ancient Pharisees who, like modern Jewish comedians, mocked Christ;
the Pharisees also had Him killed. The Post's article, written by Jews
primarily to be read by Jews, is unusually candid in its admission that
Jewish mockery of Christ comes from the Talmud.
-
- Today, religious Jews venerate the Pharisees' Talmud
much more than the Bible. And the famous Lichter-Rothman poll of 104 top
media executives in America found that a staggering 59 percent were "raised
in the Jewish religion." 3
-
- The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia tells us, "The
Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent without a break through
all the centuries from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found
expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal
is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single
piece of that literature" 4
-
- Christ described the Talmud's creators, the Pharisees,
as "full of all uncleanness" (Matt. 23:27). We should not be
surprised, then, that their creation, the Talmud, is full of moral
filth. The earliest (and therefore greatest) rabbis of the Talmud, the
"Tannaim," actually advocated pedophilia! They justified child
rape as "halakah," Jewish law. 5 In many extensive passages,
the Talmud endorses a rabbi's right acquire 3-year-old baby girls in marriage
through rape. The Talmud also provides generous loopholes for rabbis to
seduce Gentile servant girls and have sex outside marriage bonds. (See,
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/pedophiliasecret.html
- Pedophilia: The Talmud's Dirty Secret) The Pharisees
considered sex with boys of 9 years to have no moral consequences, especially
allowing adult women such sexual privileges. (See,http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/judaismhomosexuality.html
- Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell) Perusing
the Talmud, one can't escape the eagerness of the rabbis to get on the
subject of sex and allow the most outrageous sexual immoralities. Oft-referenced
Talmudic dicta teach that a woman who has intercourse with a beast is entitled
to marry the high priest. 6
-
- Today most American Jewish leadership - primarily Reform,
but soon Conservative - endorses the homosexual agenda. Little wonder that
Jews have spearheaded the gay rights movement, providing disproportionate
leadership and staff of pro-homosexual organizations in America. (See,
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/judaismhomosexuality.html
- Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell) The
Talmud's sexual ethics also help explain the ADL of B'nai B'rith's promotion
of the homosexual lifestyle; their "anti-hate" laws especially
protect sodomites, and criminalize moral truthtelling about homosexuality.
-
- The Talmud's moral rot may also help explain why Jews
dominate the pornography industry worldwide. Al Goldstein, pornographer
extraordinaire and creator of Screw magazine, tells us why he believes
Jews are so attracted to production of porn: hatred of Christ and desire
to corrupt Christian civilization. "The only reason Jews are in pornography
is that we think that Christ sucks, Catholicism sucks. We don't believe
in authoritarianism." 7
-
- Jews dominate international organized prostitution
in Europe, United States and South America and have for at least
125 years. (See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/israelwhorehouse.html
- Israel: Whorehouse of the Middle East)
-
- As previously explored, Jews also dominate the greatest
anti-Christ fountain of evil in America and the world - the Hollywood film
industry. The big three TV networks were founded and controlled by Jews.
In fact, Jews hold hugely disproportionate leader - and ownership positions
throughout all American national media, both news and entertainment.
(See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/jewsconfirmbigmedia.html
- Jews Confirm Big Media Is Jewish and http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4452153918748081072
- Christianity and Zionism: Unholy Alliance video)
-
- Sheep among Wolves
-
- Christ sought to protect His church from the deceptions
of the Pharisees and those who would carry their false teachings into the
future. He went out of His way to condemn Pharisaism and its oral law,
the Talmud. He warned the church to "beware of the leaven (Talmudic
teachings) of the Pharisees."(Lk. 12:1) He described such Jews as
the "synagogue of Satan" - literally the church of Satan in this
world (Rev. 3:9). The Apostle John described them as embodying the spirit
of anti-Christ (I Jn. 2:22) and St. Paul warns they are "enemies"
of the gospel (Rom. 11:28).
- Being a Christian means believing that such Biblical
warnings are inspired by God and should be taught and acted upon. To do
less is to frustrate Christ in His attempts to orient and guide the church,
especially in this time of overwhelming Jewish media powers of deception.
Yet evangelicals, for the past century, turning their attention from New
Testament warnings, have romaticized the Jews, empathizing with their
past sufferings and national aspirations. They ignore the words of
Christ and His apostles. Pastors virtually never teach these warnings with
any specificity or emphasis. Instead, evangelical leaders work closely
with the descendants of the Pharisees, carefully concealing the Jewish
identity of those who corrupt Christian culture.
-
- In fact, if any Christian leader breaks ranks and takes
Christ seriously, studying the "leaven of the Pharisees," the
Talmud, and reveals to the church what it really says, he will be made
into an ecclesiastical non-person; evangelical leaders will boycott him
as "anti-Semitic."
-
- Rising Anti-Christianity
-
- As I receive calls from listeners on many radio talk
shows, I notice a disturbing trend. Many, both right-wing and left, are
so disgusted with evangelical support of Israel's injustices in the Mid-East
that they reject Christianity altogether. Christ predicted that in
the last days His true followers would be "hated of all men"
for His name's sake (Lk. 21:17). Yet the name of Christ will probably also
be universally despised because "Israel-first" evangelicals,
more than anyone but Jews, are responsible for building up the walls of
Babylon the Great - the most oppressive, anti-Christ system of bondage
and corruption the world will ever know. (See, http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/israelempireinmideast.html
- Israel: On the Way to Empire in the Mideast)
-
-
-
- Endnotes:
-
- 1 www.movies.monstersandcritics.com/newsarticle, August
4, 2007.
- 2 www.thejewishweek.com, August 3, 2007.
- 3 Public Opinion Magazine, December/January 1983.
- 4 Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Pharisaism, p. 474.
- 5 Yebamoth 60b.
- 6 Ibid 59b, Sanhedrin 69b, Sotah 26b.
- 7 According to one anonymous industry insider quoted
by Dr. E. Michael Jones in the magazine Culture Wars (May 2003), "The
leading male [pornography] performers through the 1980s came from secular
Jewish upbringings and the females from Roman Catholic day schools.' The
standard porn scenario became as a result a Jewish fantasy of schtupping
the Catholic shiksa [sex with Catholic girls]Extending the subversive thesis,
Jewish involvement in the X-rated industry can be seen as a proverbial
two fingers to the entire WASP establishment in America. Some porn stars
viewed themselves as frontline fighters in the spiritual battle between
Christian America and secular humanism. According to [Luke] Ford, Jewish
X-rated actors often brag about their 'joy in being anarchic, sexual gadflies
to the puritanical beast.' Jewish involvement in porn, by this argument,
is the result of an atavistic hatred of Christian authority: They are trying
to weaken the dominant culture in America by moral subversion Al Goldstein,
the publisher of Screw magazine, said (on lukeford.com), 'The only reason
that Jews are in pornography is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism
sucks. We don't believe in authoritarianism.' Pornography thus becomes
a way of defiling Christian culture and, as it penetrates to the very heart
of the American mainstream (and is no doubt consumed by those very same
WASPs), its subversive character becomes more charged"
-
-
- Comment
Alton Raines
altonraines@minister.com
8-8-07
-
- Ted, et al
-
- Whether the collective of producers, writers, directors
and actors in Hollyweird are composed mostly of Jews or not, you'd have
the same, if not worse, results! Unbelievers are unbelievers! You cannot
EVER hope for anything from Hollyweird that is inspired by such -- if it
happens it's because somewhere there is a believer involved. It seems the
people of faith in Jesus continually, like spoiled, ignorant children,
forget that we live in an unredeemed world of the flesh, which as Paul
said cannot comprehend the laws of God neither are they subject to them,
for they cannot apart from faith fulfill them in the slightest degree!!
That should tell you something and curb your expectations dramatically.
-
- I also must take acception to your throwing Scorcese's
'The Last Temptation Of Christ' into the mix of "evil" Hollyweird
productions supposedly aimed at defaming Christ. On the contrary, LTC was
a powerful, moving, inspirational vision of Jesus the Man, his struggles,
temptations and humanity -- another aspect bubble-gum Christianity likes
to conveniently ignore, which only brings reproach upon us all among non-believers
who are not so stupid as to believe Jesus the Man was some whispy ball
of purity whose feet never touched the filthy earth. He was "tempted
in all things, yet without sin" -- and that is exactly what LTC tries
to examine. I won't even debate the political, mystical and artistic elements
of this movie as I believe such things are not even remotely understood
among knee-jerk reactionary Christians. They wouldn't know Art if it bit
them in the butt and have no respect for it. Having known several people
who came to faith in Christ Scorcese's LTC first moved them to consider
the Gospel message (The name of Jesus never returns void, you should know
that!!), shame on you and anyone else who denounces it; the Spirit comes
and goes like the wind, but those in the flesh don't know where it's coming
from or where it is going. "God has chosen the base things... "
- you know the quote.
-
- You have many reasons to disparage the Jews in Hollywood,
but this is not one of them. And might I remind you it was the Jews who
founded Hollywood who built an entertainment empire that for more than
45 years produced some of the most remarkable classics, all of which demonstrate
absolutely remarkable grasp of civility, morality and even religious honor,
respect and reverence for sacred things. That includes dozens and dozens
of films written, produced and even starring Jews on the theme of Jesus
or events and/or characters of those times, all of them uplifting films
regarded as wholesome, family oriented, even pro-Christian values films.
The Jews and non-believers who worked on these productions clearly left
themselves open to honoring things which they may not have personally agreed
with, religiously, but spiritually understood to be universal truths of
goodness, love, self-sacrifice, faith and charity -- the fruits of the
Spirit. These works set a tone for the nation that helped established one
of the greatest countries on earth. Most of Television for the first 20
years followed the same course, catering to a Christian/gentile audience
and managing to sustain the same integrity of content. Can you imagine
of Hollywood had been founded by, say, immigrant Islamic Pakistanis? I
don't think we'd have seen the likes 'Ben Hur,''Sparticus,' 'The Robe,'
'The Ten Commandments,' 'King of Kings,' etc. There was, at one time, a
noble effort on the part of very powerful Jews in Hollywood to instill
and maintain traditional moral values in film and television. Where did
THEY go? They were succeeded by a generation jilted by higher-criticism
in the universities, Watergate, the scandals excesses of the churches,
Vietnam and a myriad of other national sins which the faithful were unprepared
for dealing with having been suckled on years
- of blindness to the reality of sin.
-
- What's happening in Hollyweird today has less to do with
Jews as it does the overall collapse of moral values in the nation from
coast to coast. And that is the fault of the Churches.
-
-
- Comment
RKG
8-8-07
-
- I would like to comment on what Alton Raines said about
the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ."
-
- Against the advice of my fellow Christians, I decided
to see the movie anyway, in order to get the facts straight and make up
my own mind.
-
- While the movie was very moving and powerful, it was
also really, really WEIRD. It portrayed Jesus as a man who really didn't
know who he was or what his purpose in life was supposed to be. First
he thought God was against him, then later he decided that God had chosen
him to be a prophet.
-
- During his ministry, he first preaches love, but after
meeting with John the Baptist, he changes his mind and preaches about God's
judgment instead ("laying the axe at the root"). This causes
Jesus' disciples to be confused. One disciple says to the other, "First
it's love, then the axe. I wish he'd make up his mind!"
-
- Jesus convinces Judas Iscariot to betray him so that
he (Jesus) can be crucified (like in the gnostic Gospel of Judas). His
guardian angel shows up, rescues him from the cross, then somehow gives
him a normal life -- he marries, has children and grows old. It isn't
until he is on his deathbed that he finds out that his guardian angel is
actually Satan the Devil! Satan tells him "If you die now, you die
as a man." Jesus chooses instead to die on the cross, and suddenly
finds himself whisked back in time and on the cross, at which point he
says, "It is finished!"
-
- In short, it portrayed Jesus as a fool, a charlatan and
a lecher, just as the Reverend Ted Pike stated. It also had a few scenes
which I consider to be lewd and unnecessary, such as the one which shows
a topless woman sitting at a well. No context, just a pair of naked breasts.
-
-
- Compare this to the Jesus of the New Testament. At the
age of twelve, when his parents find him at the temple, he says, "Didn't
you know that I should be in my Father's house?" At the wedding feast
in Cana, when his mother tells him that they have run out of wine, he says,
"Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not yet come."
Jesus knew from an early age that he was the Son of God, and that it was
his destiny to die for our sins. Jesus was always in the bosom of the
Father (John 1:18), which is to say that he enjoyed spiritual intimacy
with God his entire life, except when he was on the cross, when he took
our sins upon himself (Mark 15:34).
-
- Also, Jesus preached both God's love and God's judgement,
but preferred that people would turn from their sins in order to be forgiven:
-
- "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love
one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."
(John 13:34)
-
- "And fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)
-
- "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33)
-
- ...And Jesus said unto her, "Neither do I condemn
thee: go and sin no more." (John 8:11)
-
- I am not a "knee-jerk reactionary Christian."
I saw the movie (which most Christians refused to do) and I compared it
to the New Testament (most Christians don't read the Bible, much less study
it). I found the movie to be wanting, to say the least. Did those who
"came to Christ" after watching the movie actually get saved,
or did they only have a religious experience? Is their understanding of
Jesus accurate or faulty? God is the only one who really knows (Psalm
94:11; 1 Corinthians 3:20).
-
-
- Reply RKG
From Alton Raines
-
- RKG,
-
- I was not defending 'The Last Temptation Of Christ' as
an authentic portrayal of the Gospels or life of Christ. Scorcese never
intended it to be. Everyone knows it's based upon a fiction, the purpose
of which is to address certain questions millions of people have posed
regarding the Christ as a man, and as Messiah, which the Bible (or their
lack of Biblical knowledge) leaves inconveniently (or as they perceive,
conveniently) unanswered. Maybe movies like this wouldn't be made if more
of us who are His followers were truly ready, in season and out, to give
an account of the Gospel of Christ, able to answer any question given.
I don't know.
-
- You will notice that in the scriptures, Jesus is never
very cleaverly challenged. Things seem very precisely staged. It has entered
the mind of more than a handful over the centuries, "How would Jesus
have stood up to truly fierce scrutiny?" If you have someone in your
midst right now claiming to be the literal Son of God, one might have a
few poigniant questions for him. Such never happens in the Gospels, no
one ever challenges Jesus to prove his omniscience with, say (a silly as
this may seem) a gargantuan math problem or what-have-you. The fiction
is just a way of addressing some possibilties. I didn't find those possibilites
offensive, just interesting, though I knew from scripture where answers
to those questions could be found. Most do not, unfortunately. And I spent
many a night with atheists and agnostics and people of other faiths, after
having seen the film, answering questions they would have never raised
in the first place; getting an opportunity to reveal the scriptural truth
over the fictional "alternative." I haven't had such rich opportunities
provided by, say, "Jesus of Nazareth" by Franco Zepharelli, which
stuck almost exactly to the Gospel of Matthew. It, like most "religious
movies," comes off as difficult and staged as the scriptures for the
unbeliever.
-
- I think any Christian having read the Gospels must honestly
say that it is written in such a way that questions are naturally left
wide open. It is this that generated "The Last Temptation" as
a fiction (among others). I notice that you misunderstood the pivotal moment
of the whole movie, however (or it seems you did). The "guardian angel"
who tells Jesus "That's enough, God is satisfied, He knows you are
a faithful servant, you've suffered enough..." and then shows him,
in a vision, what his live would be like (at no time is it suggested that
this really happened! That is the point of the TITLE of the movie. Jesus'
last temptation would be to be a normal man) if he was not the Messiah,
and lived a normal life as a man, having a family, children, etc. If you
do not think in the final moments of Jesus' torment the though crossed
his mind, "Am I just insane? Have I just imagined all this?"
then your scope of Jesus' actual temptation is too short, too limited!
-
- Jesus was indeed tempted in all things, yet without sin.
Do you not think this particular temptation burned in the heart of our
Lord perhaps more than any other, as a man? I certainly do! Take a moment
and think of all the myriad of sins and sinfulness he was tempted with,
and resisted, and triumphed over to perfection (as Hebrews states, he was
perfected through his temptations and sufferings). Jesus was tempted with
every conceivable sexual sin, every imaginable sin of vice or concupiscence...
I'd hate to think of what your reaction would be to a movie THAT honest
about the temptations of Christ, if the mere suggestion of Jesus living
the life of a normal man with a wife and kids has you so offended.
-
- Even Jesus asked the Father if there was any other way,
to the let this cup pass by Him. This is no invention of fiction writers
or hollywood scripters. Jesus desired another way in his flesh, he was
so tempted to withdraw, and was so ground down by the weight and horror
of the cross and knowing that terrible moment of abandonment by God would
come (to taste hell for every man) that he broke out in a sweat of heaping
drops of blood! I appreciated the way Scorcese handled the "last temptation"
on the cross, which I have no doubt Jesus suffered. If not then at that
moment, throughout his whole life. In the end, when the last temptation
is complete, Scorcese reverses the whole thing -- Jesus crawls from his
death bed in the vision, pleading with the Father, "Take me back...I
want to be the Messiah! I've been an unfaithful son..." He's begging
for the cup now NOT to pass him. He has overcome the last temptation. He
is fully embracing his task with his last breath, and suddenly we find
him still hanging on the cross, in agony, saying "It is finished!"
-- Come on! That's a scene to rival some of the most soapy religious movies
they've ever attempted (most of which come off so corny and stilted, it's
just painful to watch, ie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. Max Von Sydow
as Jesus?!? With a crewed beard, huge Germanic underbite, cold icy blue
eyes and absolutely little or no humanity emphasized at all? Ulgh!)
-
- The other peculiarities in the film are simply ones of
various perspective. There were times when Jesus spoke in a way the disciples
understood him, and times when they were so confused and frustrated many
were tempted to leave him. For someone yet to be converted (and they were
not yet truly converted), he would appear to them to be just like the Jesus
in Scorcese's movie -- one minute sounding like John the Baptist, the next
presenting an entirely different message. This is borne out in scripture
also, as Jesus did not emphasize his personal role in the redemption forcefully
until the time neared, and you can see the confusion in the disciples.
Peter even contradicted Jesus when he told him he had to go to the cross,
and for it was called "Satan," right on the heels of being blessed
for having recognized him as the Christ.
-
- As for those I know who have come to faith, I didn't
say they came by the express message of this movie, only that it served
as a powerful motivator in getting them to open their eyes and heart and
minds to Jesus as they had never done before. All the insultingly insepid
tracts handed to them in malls and overly dramatized relgious movies and
Christmas specials never budged them. This film made Jesus less of a distant,
difficult-to-believe painting hanging in the Louve and more of a personality
and character steeped in humanity with whom they could relate.
-
- It's not a perfect film, even as films go, and I certainly
don't recommend it as a film with the "Gospel" truth; it is a
work of Art. An unusual painting of Jesus, in colors people are not used
to seeing. Nothing more or less. It is, nonetheless, still Jesus Christ,
son of God, Savior of the World, Redeemer, Deliverer and Messiah taking
on the sins of the world. Such, no matter how distorted or tainted by man,
has the power to draw hearts close to God. "And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." I'm glad you noted
that only God knows who is truly converted, but in a way you were suggesting,
I think, your disbelief that someone could come to Christ through the agency
of a movie like LTC. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. Not all
people are alike. Some hearts are harder than others. I think on the day
of judgment, we will all be remarkably surprised at the many ways and means
the Lord used to bring the called, the chosen and the faithful to Himself.
And we are all of us on our journey in faith, so we cannot look left and
right and make judgments along the way of that nature.
-
- I know a lot of professing Christians whose lives scarcely
reflect the faith their mouthes attest and bumper stickers declare, and
a lot of 'heathens' who so outshine these believers in unselfish love to
the least of these His brethren that I often truly wonder. (Remember, the
sheep on his right who are found worthy!). We've had enough of the teaching
of the "trap door" God looking to bake people in hell at the
drop of a hat. There's going to be a lot of people in the Kingdom with
imperfect doctrine, but outstanding faith. I trust that what God has begun
in them, in Christ, He will bring to completion, according to His perfect
Will. You know, if God reckons faith as righteousness through the blood
of Jesus, He could very well reckon love as faith as well. I believe the
infinite mercies of Almighty God are a sorely neglected as a topic of
discussion, thanks to unbridled religiosity and Pharisaism.
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