THE MOVIE SON OF GOD . . . Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Drivel fame, is quoted as saying, concerning the movie Son of God, If you have to choose between church and movie, go see the movie this weekend. Well, Ann and I went see the movie today and our take is different, in fact, radically different. We would instead, and quite earnestly at that, say this to you: If you had to choose between church and movie, whatever you do, make very sure that the movie you choose is not Son of God. For if it is, you will be right up there in infamy with those Israelites who, before Joshua and later Elijah were given the choice of Baal over God. (1 Kings 18:21, Joshua 24:15). And this statement is principally based upon the fact that my love for biblical accuracy is infinitely far greater than it is for biblical imagery, no matter how graphic and sensational it may be. This movie took unbelievable and at the same time, unforgivable license with the Sacred Text, appearing in the process, to be more interested in satisfying select segments of society whom they felt might be offended and thus a stumbling block to its financial or bragging success. When it was not employing additions and deletions, which it served a plenty of, it was masterfully manipulating the minds of those who have only a marginal grasp of Scripture by employing the fine art of Mixture. Scenes and events, many of them of great import and impact relative to the Christian Faith, were haphazardly placed wherever thus stripping them of their intended meaning and message. For instance, rather than Jesus commenting in the garden of Gethsemane that the disciples could not even give to him one hour, he is instead at the Sea of Galilee begging Peter to give to him one hour of his time, apparently to make his pitch to Peter to become fishers of men. The presence of Black Roman soldiers and a very Black Simon of Cyrene is certainly proof enough that the producers could have sought for a more historically, geographically and racially accurate Christ than the one settled upon to play the role. Mary, and it is obviously Mary Magdalene, is very prominent in this movie, in fact the clear leader and clearly one of the chosen disciples of Christ making the number to be a bakers dozen rather than the dozen actually chosen by Jesus. When Jesus is assailed upon by his enemies, Mary alone is seen in this movie to boldly and bravely stand up for him while his wimpy merry men slink quietly in the background. Nicodemus, who in Scripture, became a follower of Christ, albeit a secret one until at least the end, was, in this movie portrayed as a secret spy working on the behalf of the Sanhedrin Council members and Jewish Leaders who themselves were portrayed not as conniving, threatened, position hungry political pawns but of Zionist patriots. To the Movies credit though, Peter retains his legendary temper, with, however, a greater penchant for violence than Scripture unfolds. In addition to cutting off the ear of the soldier Malchus, Peter is seen being restrained from cold-cocking the High Priest and if that was not enough, he actually sucker-punches Judas as he is planting upon Jesus the kiss of betrayal. Rather than being with his disciples only, who are bragging about Solomons magnificent temple, when he prophesies to them about the destruction of Jerusalem which would later take place in AD 70 (Matthew 24:1-3), Jesus tells this instead to a little girl, all the while poking her in the chest repeatedly which reminiscent of the Pillsbury dough boy commercial. Jesus appears at time to be both a psychic and a magician. He grants to Peter a huge drought of fish by appearing to magically stir the water and it is while he is hugging Peter that he appears to receive some sort of psychic premonitions concerning Peters betrayal. He gets another one while looking into a basin of water, seeing in the water his coming crucifixion. The final scene of the movie has John who incidentally, is narrating the movie, being joined by Jesus on Patmos Isle. Jesus quotes to him Revelation 21:4 and then ascends or rather re-ascends to the Father. Beloved, although Rick Warren presumably was speaking only to his congregation when he suggested that seeing this movie would be akin to or even greater than a church experience, I do not at all share this view nor can I in good conscious endorse it. To the contrary, I believe this movie to be dangerously deceptive and one that Christians ought to give prayerful consideration to in terms of its support. The truth is, throughout the entire movie, I felt somewhat like the character Sam on the movie Ghost when he said to false psychic and seer played by Whoopi Goldberg; Odie Mae, please!! It is seriously inconceivable to me that this movie could have been made and endorsed by anyone with any kind of love of and appreciation for Biblical Accuracy and Integrity. This movie made no case whatsoever for being the son of anything, let alone The Son of God!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 01:31:00 +0000
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