MEL GIBSON’S FILM “THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST”
Updated February 20, 2004 (first published February 6, 2004) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
Hollywood actor-director Mel Gibson’s controversial film on the death of Christ is proving popular among Christians even before its February 25 release date.
The graphic, $25 million film “The Passion of the Christ” depicts Christ’s life from the Garden of Gethsemane to the resurrection.
After a private showing, Billy Graham praised it. Mission America Coalition plans to use the movie for evangelism. Campus Crusade is promoting it. Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in southern California purchased 18,000 tickets. The Evangelical Free Church of Naperville, Illinois, purchased more than 1,000. Two members of Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, Illinois, have offered to buy out two screenings of the movie at a local theater. Morris Chapman, president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention said, “I don’t know of anything since the Billy Graham crusades that has had the potential of touching so many lives.” Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, “The movie is biblical, powerful and potentially life-changing..” After Gibson showed part of the movie to a convention of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, he received a standing ovation. Afterward, the daughter of the organization’s president laid hands on Gibson and asked Jesus to “bind Satan, bind the press, we ask you, Lord” (Peter Boyer, “The Jesus War,” The New Yorker, Sept. 15. 2003). Worship Leader magazine for Feb. 2004 offers a free guide to Gibson’s movie and says, “There has never been a film like it! Powerful, life changing, an unprecedented opportunity for evangelism & discipleship.” Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral was given a private showing and afterward proclaimed, “It’s not your dream, this is God’s dream. He gave it to you, because He knew you wouldn’t throw it away. Trust Him.” The movie has been recommended by psychologist James Dobson and by Don Hodel, the current president of Focus on the Family. Ted Haggard, president of the National Evangelical Association, called Gibson “the Michelangelo of this generation.” the American Tract Society proclaims on its Web site that the movie is “one of the greatest opportunities for evangelism in 2,000 years.” Teen Mania says at least 3,000 youth leaders have bought kits that instruct young people in how to use the film to bring their friends to accept Christ. The Catholic League purchased 1,200 tickets at $9.75 apiece and will make them available to members for $5. The film was shown to members of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and all of them expressed unanimous appreciation and approval.
A positive review of the movie is making the rounds via e-mail under the name “Paul Harvey’s Comments on The Passion,” but it was actually written by Roman Catholic apologist Keith Fournier.
Gibson belongs to a Traditionalist Catholic group that performs the mass in Latin, abstains from meat on Fridays, eschews ecumenism, and other such things that were changed at the Vatican II Council in the 1960s. Gibson built his own Catholic chapel, called Holy Family, near his California home. During the filming, Gibson attended a Catholic mass every morning with the misguided desire “to be squeaky clean.”
The script was translated into Aramaic and Latin by Jesuit priest William Fulco. Originally, Gibson did not plan to include even subtitles in English, but he was convinced of the necessity of this by evangelicals who reviewed the film.
What gospel is Mel Gibson trying to preach through this movie? It is the Catholic gospel of sacramentalism. When asked by a Protestant interviewer if someone can be saved apart from the Roman Catholic Church, Gibson replied, “There is no salvation for those outside the Church” (Peter Boyer, “The Jesus War,” The New Yorker, Sept. 15. 2003). This was the official teaching of Rome prior to Vatican II.
According to Romanism, Jesus Christ died on the cross and purchased redemption and then delivered this redemption to the Catholic Church to be distributed to men piecemeal via the seven sacraments. Man cannot receive eternal salvation directly from Christ through faith; he must approach Christ through the Catholic Church, via baptism, confirmation, mass, confession to a Catholic priest, etc. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not once for all and sufficient but must be perpetuated in the mass, which is called a non-bloody sacrifice. Consider this statement from the Vatican II Council: “Hence the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, is at the same time and inseparably: a sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated … For in it Christ perpetuates in an unbloody manner the sacrifice offered on the cross, offering himself to the Father for the world’s salvation through the ministry of priests” (Vatican II Documents, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, Introduction, C 1,2, p. 108). The New Catholic Catechism of 1992 said, “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice ... “In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner.” The creed of Pope Pius IV which authoritatively summarized the teaching of the Council of Trent stated: “I profess likewise, that in the Mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that, in the most holy sacrifice of the Eucharist, there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In accordance with Catholic theology, Gibson identifies the Mass with Christ’s sacrifice. He told Eternal Word Television Network that the “sacrifice of the cross” and “the sacrifice of the altar” are “the same thing” (EWTNews Feature, Jan. 13, 2004, http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=42801).
The movie is not based solely on the Bible but also on the visions of Roman Catholic nun-mystics St. Anne Catherine Emmerich and Mary of Agreda.
Of the visions of Emmerich, Gibson said, “She supplied me with stuff I never would have thought of” (The New Yorker, Sept. 15, 2003).
Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was a German nun who allegedly had the stigmata or wounds of Christ in her body. Emmerich supposedly “had the use of reason from her birth and could understand liturgical Latin from her first time at Mass.” During the last 12 years of her life, she allegedly ate no food except the wafer of the Catholic mass. Her visions on the life of Christ were published in 1824 under the title “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” They are still in print and were consulted by Gibson. An advertisement for Emmerich’s Life of the Virgin Mary says, “This book is filled with unusual, saintly descriptions that are not recorded in the Gospel story -- descriptions that supplement and illustrate the Biblical narrative in a way that makes the actual Scripture passages truly come alive.” Thus these alleged visions go beyond the Bible. According to Emmerich’s visions, Protestants also go to purgatory but they suffer more than Catholics because no one prays for them or offers masses for them. She taught that it is more holy to pray for souls in purgatory than for sinners who are still alive. Her deceptive visions on the suffering of Christ describe His scourging and crucifixion in great detail, giving many “facts” which do not appear in Scripture. For example, she claimed that Christ “quivered and writhed like a poor worm” and that He “cried in a suppressed voice, and a clear, sweet-sounding wailing” as He was being beaten. She even claimed that Christ “glanced at His torturers, and sued for mercy.” She also claimed that Jesus suffered from a wound on his shoulder more than any other.
Mary of Agreda (1602-1665) was also a Catholic nun and visionary mystic. Her entire family entered monasteries and convents in 1618, which means that her mother and father disobeyed 1 Corinthians 7 and separated for the sake of the Catholic church. She was given to trances and even claimed that she could leave her body and teach people in foreign lands. Her book The Mystical City of God is about Mary. Like the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, those of Mary of Agreda go far beyond the Bible. For example, she claimed that though Joseph ate meat, Jesus and Mary seldom did.
Not surprisingly, therefore, Gibson’s film contains errors when judged by the biblical account. For example, after Christ’s arrest and as He is being escorted to the high priest’s residence, He is beaten, knocked down, and thrown off a bridge. After Christ is whipped, Mary gets down on her knees and wipes up the blood. Mary is shown assisting Jesus on the way to the cross, with Jesus telling her, “Behold I make all things new.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, the devil is depicted with Christ.
In an interview with Rachel Abramowitz of the Los Angeles Times (“He’s Bruised, Defiant over Persecution,” Jan. 15), Gibson said, “Now the message he [Christ] brought was one of peace and love and tolerance -- all the messages of tolerance that I put in there, particularly toward the end.” The message of peace, love, and tolerance is popular today, but it is not exactly the message that Jesus Christ preached. He did exemplify the greatest love known to mankind, but He also proclaimed Himself as the only Lord and Saviour, that no man can come unto God except through Him (Jn. 10:7, 8; 14:6). He preached frequently on eternal hellfire, warning that all men will go there unless they are born again through faith in Him (Jn. 3; Mat. 25:46). He warned that men will be judged in every area of their lives, even every idle word (Mat. 12:36). He warned that He did not come to bring peace to the earth but division and a sword (Mat. 10:34; Lk. 12:51).
Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in the Gibson film, is also a staunch Roman Catholic. He prayed to St. Genesius of Arles and St. Anthony of Padua for help in his acting career. He has visited Medjugorje to witness the site where Mary allegedly appeared to six young people. One of the things that Mary allegedly told them is that the pope “should consider himself as the father of all people and not only the Christians.” Caviezel said, “This film is something that I believe was made by Mary for her Son” (Interview with Jim and Kerri Caviezel by Catholic priest Mario Knezovic, Radio “Mir” Medjugorje, December 2003; http://www.medjugorje.hr/int%20Caviezel%20ENG.htm). Caviezel also said that his goal with the movie is to “bring mankind back together.” Caviezel said that he was given “a piece of the true cross, which he kept with him all of the time during the filming of the movie. He also had relics of “Padre Pio, St. Anthony of Padoua, Ste Maria Goretti, and saint Denisius, the Patron saint of Actors.” He prayed the Rosary to Mary every day.
The Jesus in Mel Gibson’s movie is depicted in the typical fashion with long hair, whereas the Bible is clear that Jesus would not have worn long hair (1 Cor. 11:14). Gibson got his inspiration for the long-haired Jesus from the Shroud of Turin. He attempted to re-create the face depicted on the Shroud.
Monica Bellucci, the actress who plays Mary Magdalene in Gibson’s movie, is a famous pornography star in Italy (“The Passion of the Christ: An International Hoax,” http://www.watch-unto-prayer.org), and she has also played in R-rated movies in the States.
Mel Gibson is famous for his roles in R-rated films such as Braveheart and Lethal Weapon. In fact, “The Passion of the Christ” is R-rated for violence.
Those who go to the movie theater and view this film will also see trailers for upcoming filthy Hollywood movies.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we would warn that attempts to portray Jesus Christ are idolatrous. The law of God forbids man to make any likeness of God.
“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female” (Deut. 4:15-16).
Man has no divine authority to do this type of thing. It is presumptuous in the extreme for a fallen man to attempt to portray the holy, sinless, eternal Son of God. As for Christ’s deity, that would be impossible to depict, and even His humanity is not depicted properly in this film. The only thing the Bible tells us about Christ’s earthly appearance is the following statement from Isaiah: “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). Further, we know that Jesus Christ was a Jewish man. Thus, whatever Jesus looked like, he certainly DID NOT look like the tall, blond, and handsome Caucasian Hollywood movie star that plays the part in Gibson’s film!
The following warning about depictions of Jesus is from Andrew Webb: “Billy Graham in his endorsement of The Passion of Christ said, ‘Every time I preach or speak about the Cross, the things I saw on the screen will be on my heart and mind’ (“What Others Are Saying,” http://www.passionchrist.org). This is unfortunately part of the problem with all visual representations of Jesus. Although we may intend for them only to have a role in teaching, they inevitably become part of our worship and adoration. As a result of seeing this film James Caviezel, the ‘Jesus’ of The Passion of Christ, will become the figure countless thousands if not millions of people think of when they worship Jesus Christ. To do this is to fall into the trap of changing ‘the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man’ (Romans 1:23) and to violate the Second Commandment.”
Finally, God has ordained that men approach Him by faith, and faith does not come by seeing; it comes by hearing God’s Word.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” (Rom. 8:24).
“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” (Heb. 11:6).
Evangelicals and fundamentalists who are supporting this movie are supporting godless movie theaters, a Roman Catholic producer who preaches a false gospel, and a movie that is based not only on the Bible but also on the Mary-centered visions of deluded Catholic mystics.
