© 04-12 Colin Melbourne
(First published a week before the film's release)
For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Holy Bible, Lk. 6:44; Jas. 3:12 KJV
It will be interesting to observe which people and groups endorse Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of Christ. You'll have another opportunity to distinguish between true believers and make-believers. Between those who follow the Living Christ, and those who follow an imitation of Christ. It will separate Christ honouring God-pleasers from Ecumenical men-pleasers.
I have no hesitation deciding whether I support it or not, because I don't follow men: I follow the LORD Jesus Christ, and His Spirit. I'm not waiting to hear what so and so says about it, because I already know what God says about it. You will too if you are born of God, and listen to His Voice in your heart.
If you need to ask Him twice, there's something seriously wrong in your fellowship with God. Walk in the Spirit, and you will know immediately, and beyond doubt, that God has nothing to do with Gibson's project: nothing. It is a film made by an idolater, financed by the wages of sin, backed by demon spirits, and promoting vile idolatry.
I'd no more sit and watch 'The Passion of Christ' than I'd watch pornography. God views idolatry as spiritual adultery and prostitution, unfaithfulness of the first order, worthy of damnation.
Mel Gibson is a fine actor; his performance in the anti-war film 'Gallipoli was outstanding. I commend him also for reminding us, in directing the Oscar winning Braveheart, of the brutal subjugation of 'rebellious natives' in the early days of the British Empire; the process of hegemony America has also embarked upon so vigorously and tragically. The rest of his work is typical Hollywood filth, propaganda, and mindless violence.
Mel's publicity machine informs us that he has; principles, integrity, and is a loving father. That may be the case, but he is also a child of the devil, still in his sins, and a devout Roman Catholic idolater. Until Mel Gibson is born of God, he will remain a tool of Satan, just like you and me, before we were born into God's Family, through genuine faith in the LORD Jesus Christ. Do you recall what you were like, how confident that you were right, noble, honest, and good? Then in His great mercy He began to open your eyes and show you The Truth, and how far short of God's Standard you fell.
Is it not shocking to look back and see how deceived you were by your own heart? God declares that the unregenerate heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. (Jer. 17:9) That is why you must be born again: You must receive a new heart from God, one that is filled with God's Spirit, and a reliable guide and instructor.
<< 37 Basic Catholic doctrines straight from their own Catechism compared with what the Holy Bible says. Clear, scriptural help to open the eyes of Catholics.
When any Roman Catholic is truly born again they always renounce, and denounce the idolatrous system of Roman Catholicism, and they obey the command of God to,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev. 18:4 KJV
Mel is a Catholic idolater, and as such, his 'interpretation' of the Gospel, however much he claims is an authentic portrayal of the Bible account, is inevitably going to be false, flawed, and demonic.
In a TV interview, Gibson explained the grip the blasphemous Catholic Mass holds on him, despite it being in the dead language, Latin,
'I don't go to any other services. I go to the old Tridentine Rite. That's the way that I first saw it when I was a kid. So I think that that informs one's understanding of how to transcend language. Now, initially, I didn't understand the Latin... But I understood the meaning and the message and what they were doing. I understood it very fully, and it was very moving and emotional and efficacious, if I may say so.'
The Director believes the Roman Catholic blasphemy that each time the Mass is performed, Christ is dragged down from Heaven and killed again. A profound heresy emphatically denounced by Reformer, John Knox
Listen to Gibson contradict God's Word by equating the,
'sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the altar - which is the same thing'.
He also repeated another Catholic heresy in an article in the The New Yorker, 15th. Sept. 2003,
'There is no salvation for those outside the (Catholic) Church - I believe it.'
Mel Gibson believes only Roman Catholics will get to Heaven.
Gibson says that he was looking for a film project and was inspired to make 'The Passion of Christ' when a book by a Roman Catholic Mystic Nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, 'leapt off his shelf into his hands'. Worryingly, he didn't qualify this as a metaphor, so we either give him the benefit of the doubt, or assume he's been reading Harry Potter to his children.
Nuns are not Christian; they are idolaters following a false Christ. Devoted service, righteous acts, rites, and sacraments, get nobody into Heaven. There's only one way into Heaven. Christ told us all, You must be born again! When any Nun becomes a genuine Christian she will repent of idolatry and denounce Catholicism.
Look at 'Mother' Teresa, she lived her life fixed to her idols just like Ephraim. (Hos. 4:17) In her hospices she let sinners die in their sins instead of pointing them to salvation through Christ. As soon as she was dead and buried, Catholics made an idol out of her, literally creating a stone idol as a focus of yet more hideous idolatry; an event heartily endorsed by 'Mother' Teresa's handpicked successor. Would a genuine Christian lead souls to Hell like this? Of course not.
If you need proof that the film is ungodly and best avoided, look no further than the current tottering claimant to being 'Christ's infallible vicar on Earth' giving it his approval. He has seen the movie and said 'That is how it was'.
That should be sufficient evidence for any Bible believing Christian to be certain it's way off. Pope John Paul II is a lifelong idolater; unsaved, still bound to his sins, following a false Christ, and proclaiming a blasphemous false Gospel.
Pope John Paul II denying God's Word by worshipping Fatima, one of his favourite idols.
If you take his word for anything you are surely in an awful place of ignorance of Christ. Truly the blind leading the blind, and both will fall into The Pit.
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: Deut. 5:8-9a KJV
What would you think of a Christ who taught people to turn from idols to God, whilst his pocket was packed with idols and fetishes? Of course he'd be a hypocrite, another false Christ, a deceiver.
Christ is Almighty God in the Flesh, the God who taught us to flee from idolatry throughout both the Old Testament and the New.
Why? Because behind every idol is a demon spirit seducing people to trust in objects, religion, and superstitions, instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. God hates idolatry, and so do real Christians.
Listen to the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking after His resurrection (Rev. 22:15 KJV), telling us that idolaters are banned from Heaven ("without" here means outside), and thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8b KJV)
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
That is the real Christ warning idolaters.
The Holy Spirit is emphatic too, clearly declaring that idolaters are condemned to Hell along with the sexually immoral, adulterers, homosexuals, and the rest. Listen to God speaking in 1 Co. 6:9-10 KJV:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Roman Catholics; the Ecumenical Movement, Mel Gibson, his cast, and supporters of this film, have been thoroughly deceived into idolatry, and follow another false Christ, not the LORD Jesus Christ.
The actor portraying Christ, James Caviezel, like Gibson is a Catholic idolater. Both of them participated in the idolatrous Mass every day during filming. He says that he was inspired by the demonic 'apparitions of Mary' at Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina. If that isn't alarming enough, how about this statement Tinsel Town's 'Christ' made to a Catholic Priest;
"Ivan Dragicevic and his wife Lorraine gave me a piece of the true cross. (sic) I kept this on me all the time. They made a special pocket in my clothes for it. I also had relics of Padre Pio, St. Anthony of Padoua, Ste. Maria Goretti, and Saint Denisius, the Patron saint of Actors. Every day everyone could see me with the rosary in my hands."
A bead counting dyed-in-the-wool idolater is Mel's choice to star as Hollywood's Christ.
Hand me a bucket quick!
There are some Christians who believe that any film depicting Christ on screen is idolatrous in and of itself, citing the Scripture:
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, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air...
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: De. 4:15-19 and 5:8-9 KJV
I have a lot of sympathy with this view; I respect such people, particularly when they are ex-Catholics who have been born again. Though I don't agree with them.
The key to deciding if depicting Christ in a film is idolatry, is this; does it entice people to bow down and worship an image of Christ, a false Christ, or does it lead people to worship the real and Living Christ?
The answer is simple: ask the Lord if He wants you to see it. Unless you get a definite leading to do so, don't watch it. Personally, I would not watch any purportedly 'Christian' film made by Catholic idolaters, or any sinners. But one made by genuine Christians, one that leads people to the Living Christ is fine.
A good example is The Jesus Film, made in 1979, and truly authentic to God's Word both textually and spiritually. Millions of souls have come into God's kingdom through it. They don't become idolaters; they get saved, and bow down and worship the Living God, not stone and wooden idols created by the hands of men, or the Ecumenical Movement's counterfeit Christ.
If you would like to comment on this article confidentially, please feel free to: Email us
Your comments:
"I liked what you had to say about Mel Gibsons Passion of the Christ movie. I saw it in April with my brother out of curiosity. We both did not like the movie. We felt it was blasphemous and had a lot of false doctrine... 'The Passion' cannot be an effective tool for evangelism." Sharon
"Hello, thank you for your warning about the Passion of the Christ movie. I will never see such filth, and left my Southern Baptist church because the misinformed Pastor was pushing this movie. I am ashamed at the US church leaders for pushing this film too. God bless you in your ministry, and please pray that the so called 'leaders' of the US churches obtain some discernment." John
"I was searching for a new movie and happened across your website. I read your page that said "read why we don't endorse The Passion of Christ Movie"."
"Praise God! Thank you so much for putting the Word of our Lord in front of money. I was so excited about this movie almost a year before it came out. I was telling everyone about it."
"A few days before the movie, I had terrible feeling that the movie was bad, but could not put my finger on what it was, and unfortunately I went, and saw the movie. As I left, all I saw was hundreds of people thinking they witnessed something good, when I knew they were tricked by the enemy. I was shunned by my church for my views because people do not understand that you can't get good from evil, no matter how 'real' it seems."
"I just wanted to say thank you for standing on the truth." Robert
"Found your website whilst searching for info on Mel Gibson's new film. I was starting to think I was the only person on the planet opposed to this film. I have been horrified at the number of 'Born Again Christians' who have been lining up to see it, and people like Billy Graham publically endorsing it."
"I am not what you call an 'over the top' sort of person, but honestly, every time I hear the name of the movie my blood runs cold, and I just know in my spirit it is not of Christ. Anyway keep up the good work I'll be sure to pass your info on to anyone who will listen." Angela