'The Passion of the Christ' (Hugh Hewitt on impact of Mel Gibson's controversial new film )

WorldNetDaily ^ | January 29, 2004 | Hugh Hewitt

[ultima ratio]

'The Passion of the Christ'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: January 29, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Last Thursday night, I spoke to a conference of Christian college students and young professionals organized by the North American Missions Board and conducted at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. There were approximately 2,000 in attendance, and after I talked for about a half hour, I stayed and took a seat in the audience because the organizers had arranged for a screening of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."

Though Prestonwood is a state-of-the-art facility, the conditions for viewing the film were not ideal because of the size of the screen and my distance from it, but the reactions of some of my friends who had seen it, including the very serious theologian Mark D. Roberts and my Salem Radio colleague Michael Medved, as well as the controversy that has surrounded it for months, prompted me to stay put.

"The Passion of the Christ" is a phenomenal work of art – a moving and inspiring film that will certainly be shown again and again for generations to come. Though I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I do not believe that one needs to be a believer in the divinity of Christ to appreciate the majesty of the movie and its extraordinary commitment to authenticity and an objective recounting of the story of the passion and death of Christ as relayed through the Gospels.

If you do believe that Christ is the Son of God and that His death and resurrection are historical facts, the film will impact you because it assists faulty human understanding to grasp the immensity of the suffering and death of Christ that was required for our salvation. Scores of the young people in attendance at Prestonwood – young, media-savvy, almost impossible to impress, X-Cube playing and MTV-watching 20- to 30-year olds – wept after the film.

I was reminded of the only other time I had seen reactions of that sort occur in a theater: among veterans of World War II when "Saving Private Ryan" concluded. Those veterans wept because they had lived the drama they had just seen, and they were recalling the intensity of the conflict and the sorrow it entailed. Many Christians will weep in response to "The Passion of the Christ" for similar reasons, and millions more will more deeply understand the sacrifice their God made for them.

No doubt non-believers will not understand why the film will be celebrated and why attendance will be strong and the appeal of the film enduring. Mel Gibson has provided a tool to help the faithful understand what they already know, and those who do not already know will be puzzled.

It will surprise many – it certainly surprised me – that Satan is a co-star of "The Passion of the Christ," and his evil presence provides the movie's theological weight. This crucifixion is no mere crucifixion. There were hundreds of thousands of such executions in the Roman world. A hundred years before Pilate ordered Jesus crucified, Crassus lined the Appian Way with 6,000 followers of Spartacus, crucifying every one of them. Jesus' death was horrible, but the means of his execution wasn't unique.

In the film, Satan speaks the words in the Garden of Gethsemane that may help a non-Christian understand the unique aspect of the passion of Christ: "No one can bear such a burden." The burden Satan refers to is the total guilt for all sin of all humankind from the first man to the last. I had wondered how Gibson could convey the theological significance of Christ's suffering and death to a viewer unfamiliar with the Gospels, and his art in this instance is complete.

I doubt if the film itself will inspire much conversion among non-believers as some of its more enthusiastic viewers have been predicting. Certainly it will present many opportunities to explain the claims that Christ made for Himself, but the work of conversion, as C.S. Lewis so richly described in his memoir, can sometimes take years and years. Movies cannot overcome doubt and ridicule, only the Holy Spirit can do that. But we will have to wait and see.

What is not in doubt is the talent of Mel Gibson, and of the entire team and cast. I have read a great deal of Roman history and seen most of the films that purport to convey what it was to be a Roman and to govern with Roman authority. The depiction of Pilate, his problems, his legions, his wife and his limits are simply the most realistic rendition of a slice of the Roman world ever recorded on film. I believe his depictions of first-century Jerusalem and its citizens – overwhelmingly but not exclusively Jewish – generally must be as faithful as his treatment of Pilate and the Romans.

I do not understand the accusations of anti-Semitism – for except for Pilate and his soldiers, all of the players are Jewish, the most noble, the flawed and the corrupt. I do understand the long history of Christian anti-Semitism, and how it perverted the Gospels to its cause, but this film is not part of that shameful legacy. Should anyone try and pervert the movie to that end, there will be millions of Christians condemning such a kidnapping.

The actor who portrayed Christ, James Caviezel, made a brief appearance after the film concluded, and spoke quietly about his Catholic faith preparing him to make this film, and about the rigors of its production. I have interviewed a lot of actors over the years, and watched hundreds of interviews more of the men and women who play other people, and I have never heard such quiet and sincere intensity come from any of them as came from Caviezel. It will be interesting to watch his career from this film forward, as it deserves to flourish given this performance.

"If the world hates you, you know it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." John 15:18-19. These words of Jesus are a guarantee that the maker of "The Passion of the Christ" is in for a rough go of it, as well as its cast and crew. If anyone knows Mel Gibson, please pass along my thanks.

[anniegetyourgun]

Agreed. However, faith in His finished work on the cross for the forgiveness of sin is the essential tenet here. Unless you are saying that your soteriology is such that no one can enter in, but that he embraces the doctrine of limited atonement.

[cyncooper]

Somebody posted a link the other day that showed where it's going to be playing. It is going to be at the theater closest to me and at least four or maybe even five theaters total here in Tucson...I wish I had the link handy...if somebody else doesn't provide it I'll try to find it for you.

***Notice to those interested: I saw an ad last night that ABC will be doing a special Primetime on February 16 on this movie. Gibson cooperated, it is him explaining and showing extensive clips.

[cyncooper]

I see the link was posted right away...if I'd only kept reading...

[MrConfettiMan]

I responded, "When the last scene ends go to black, scroll these words across the screen: "During the Roman occupation, 250,000 Jews were crucified by the Romans, but only One rose from the dead."

Mel Gibson became very excited, and said, "Perfect! I will do it. Yes, I will do it. I needed something for that spot anyway. This is it. I will do it. Thank you."

Any idea whether Mr. Gibson is / has actually done this? Source? Seems to me a better spot may be at the beginning of the movie...

[MrConfettiMan]

ping

[Zipporah]

No problem .. I do that as well at times, respond as I'm reading threads without reading the entire thread.

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[Brian Allen]

<< God bless [Mr Gibson] >>

Amen.

bumPing

[blackie]

Thanks for the ping, John ~ powerful piece!

[dangus]

Can you cite an authority for it, or is it only your personal hunch?

I'll overlook the belligerent tone, and presume you ask with an open mind.

"Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life." -- Romans 5:18

There are many passages which talk about the remission of sin in the universal sense, such as this one:

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. " ("World"=Kosmos) -- John 1:29

These don't say "some of the sin of the world," or otherwise qualify it. The gift is given to ALL men. A few passages say that stuff along the lines of God taking away the sin of those that believe; that is so we can know the means of our salvation, not to say it is given only to a certain group. Keep in mind this passage:

"Know the LORD: for they shall ALL know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

So, there is no man whose sins are not forgiven. Even those who crucified Christ, their sins were forgiven. They showed no signs of repentence, but rather their sins were forgiven before they were even finish being committed.

If the sins of the entire world are forgiven, and if the sins of every man are forgiven, are all sins forgiven? No. (Please read very carefully to see the distinctions made so that this is not a contradiction!) While a man may be forgiven of all other sins, there remains one sin for which forgiveness is offered, but which can not be forgiven: the refusal to accept forgiveness. The gift is given to all; it is not accepted by all.

So who is condemned? "And this is the condemnation; that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

Notice, this isn't about belief; they know OF the light; they reject it.

[Minuteman23]

Thanks for the ping. I guess we'll see on Feb. 25, how the public reacts to this film. I've had enough of the experts' takes. Even the ones crying about anti- Semitism have brought the film into the public eye.

I'm guessing it's going to go down as a classic. A masterpiece.

[ahadams2]

LOL! first off I am a heterosexual male, thankyou very much...Yeesh! 'Arlin' is on variant of a name which can otherwise also be spelled 'Arlan, or Arlyn'...it all depends on where one's ancestors came from (in this case Germany) and how they chose to spell it (my name goes back a number of generations in my family, though more generally used as a middle name), to a time when literacy, at least for rural farmers, wasn't all that high. It might be advisable in the future to check a poster's freeper home page before responding to them.

now as I was saying Christ died once for all - and that means *all* people. The Holy Spirit alone can empower us to make the choice to serve Christ, and indeed He does do so, but it is still up to the individual to make that choice.

[ahadams2]

first off you misunderstood what I said. Let's start with the basics:
One of the unique Gifts with which God endowed Adam and Eve was free will. He did not pre-program them to be always obedient, but sought their willing and chosen obedience - thus the test of the Tree of Knowledge. In choosing to disobey God, they failed the test, but in no way does that mean that God suddenly took their free will away from them.

HOWEVER, when sin entered the world through the actions of Adam and Eve, the entire world became tainted with evil. An easy way to see this taint demonstrated in the world around us is that prior to the fall there were *no* carnivores - see Gen. 1:29-30. In other words, since the fall *everything* in the world is tainted with sin and all one has to do is look at the number of species of carnivores which exist today to see a very clear demonstration of that fact.

Because of our fallen sinful human nature we *cannot* by our own efforts alone choose to follow God and do His Will. Only God can empower me to the extent that I can even make the choice to follow Him. Paul talks about this in Romans 7: 15-25

15For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

So then, if only God can empower us to choose to do His Will, how do we know that we still have a real choice? Well that's exactly what Jesus tells us Revelation 3:20

20“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

Notice He doesn't say anything about *Him* opening the door - *we* have to do that. It has to be *our* choice, and as He tells us in Matthew 16:24, it's neither an easy choice, nor a comfortable one, but it is a choice:

24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

Note that Jesus said nothing about forcing anyone to follow Him; rather He phrases it as a choice.

Now we see that we have a choice, but that we cannot, in our own fallen nature ever *make* that choice by ourselves. Only God can empower us to make the choice. But at the same time God *forces* no one to follow Him, since then there would be no choice; and we would merely be preprogrammed robots, showing no more real love to God than a computer programmed to tell it's owner 'I love you'.

In no way does that mean God empowers us to choose sin! We are already fallen sinful beings, in that we have no choice. It is rather that God the Holy Spirit calls us and frees us to choose to turn away from our fallen sinful natural inclinations and accept Christ in our lives, and in our hearts. The choice, by God's Grace, is ours.

[stands2reason]

Don't bother arguing with Calvinists. They are always right, and they don't even have to cite scripture to back them up.

[stands2reason]

So are you saying that you came to Christ of your own accord, by your own free will, as the result of your consideration of a message that you heard or read? And this message gave you the options of either accepting or rejecting an offer of salvation, to which you responded by your own independent personal decision to accept the offer?

Certainly that doesn't happen. The saved are pre-selected, they don't even need to hear the gospel or make a "choice."

[pegleg]

The saved are pre-selected, they don't even need to hear the gospel or make a "choice."

So who needs to hear the gospel and how do you know if you’re one of the pre-selected?

[stands2reason]

Sorry, I was being sarcastic.

[BipolarBob]

Looking at your previous posts, I can see that you are caught up in the Calvinists vs. Arminian sand trap. Noone wins those. Both sides go home unconvinced. Friend, I ask that you consider a better choice. Covenant theology. God offers you such a gift and all you have to do is believe and accept this gift. It will change your life forever.