'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.

[BlackElk]

Doctor, do these guys really sit around "dialoging" with books? Do they think the Book is listening? Do they talk to any other inanimate objects?

If they believe that they can talk to books, no wonder they think every Tom, Dick and Harriet is his or her own Scriptural authority!

We are going to have a lot of fun with this guy. Wait until you see some of his posts about the RCC on other threads. He also writes hilarious private e-mails and is quite full of himself.

[ninenot]

I love Calvin in the Springtime....

I love Luther in the Fall....

I love her'tics, each and ev'ry schism-pusher,

......

[I] Wish they all could be Y-O-PIOS Girls...

....

Schism in the Mornin'
Schism in the Even'n
Schsim at supper-time

Be my little L'Febvre,
And love me all the time...
(Signed, Satan.)

.......

It's a Grand Night for Schism....

[Polycarp IV]

Wait until you see some of his posts about the RCC on other threads. He also writes hilarious private e-mails and is quite full of himself.

Like I said, he sounds like the_doc. See my old profile page for one of the_doc's classic screeds, and look for similarities. The_doc wrote hilarious private e-mails and was quite full of himself

[Polycarp IV]

You are a wicked, evil little man ;-)

[GirlShortstop]

Schism in the Mornin'
Schism in the Even'n
Schsim at supper-time

ROFLMAO!   The talent in the Gentleman's Club is much more extensive, and far deeper than one would've expected!!

[ninenot]

High on the Hill stood a Lonely Luther,
Layme yodel Layme yodel Layme, hoo...

Off in the distance, a lonely Sister,
Layme, yodel layme, yodel, YOU!

...............

[ninenot]

Oh, give me a home
Where the Calvinists Roam,


.....

I've Been Working on a Schism,
All the Live-Long Day,

I've Been Working on a Schism,
Just to Pass the Time Away,

Don't you hear ol' Satan Calling?
Rise up! So early in the morn?

Can't you hear old Weakland calling?
PILLA!!! Blow your Horn?

......

My schism, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of Libertines,
Of thee I sing

.....

[Desdemona]

Now, if you could do something with Andrew Lloyd Webber...

i.e.


Masquerade
Pseudo-Christians on parade,
Masquerade, live in sin,
'Cause the Lord will never leave you.

Masquerade,
No confession for me today,
Masquerade,
He came for all, so we'll live on Judgement Day.

(Never did like Phantom of the Opera.)

[BlackElk]

I think we have a definite and good start here on that much needed actually Catholic songbook. A few ads in the Wanderer, Crisis, New Oxford Review, Catholic World Report; Thirty Days, National Catholic Register (not antiCatholic Reporter) Inside the Vatican and, voila, the best seller list beckons!

Buy the book that drove AmChurch to collective suicide! Buy the book that drove potato molestors fully over the edge!

Special ad for National antiCatholic Reporter subscribers: Buy this book so that the Catholics can't. You just wait until Mrs. Elk sees the initial work. The little elks will be beside themselves.

[ninenot]

You should hear what my teenaged chilluns think/say about me.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

They do! It was so beautiful. I *felt* it!

[rwfromkansas]

Christ only bore the sins of his elect. If he bore the sins of everyone, his death failed. Hewitt makes the heretical Arminian mistake.

[rwfromkansas]

Did you look at www.thepassionofthechrist.com for their listsings? There should be plenty of theaters.

http://www.thepassionofthechrist.com/cinemas/results.php?st=OH

[rwfromkansas]

Disagree. Universal atonement like you are defending is the ancient heresy of Pelaganism (sp).

[rwfromkansas]

We are slaves to sin before our conversion. The only way we can come to faith is if the Holy Spirit converts the hearts of those God has predestined.

There is not even a hint of Scriptural evidence that the atonement was intended for everybody and we somehow have the ability to choose anything godly when we hate all things godly. The Holy Spirit must do it all.

[rwfromkansas]

The brethren are already divided; you can't divide them when it already is the case...

[rwfromkansas]

some cuties there...

[rwfromkansas]

Amen. You on the GRPL?

[rwfromkansas]

"There is no one who seeketh after God."

[rwfromkansas]

“Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14)."

“Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” (from Romans 9)

Verses 1 Thessalonians 5:9 and Acts 13:48 both say Christian believers are "appointed to" salvation and eternal life. Both passages, in their context and textual statements exclude this appointment from being given to everybody (and logic would argue for only some being appointed since not all are saved and an appointment is an act of decree). At the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus prayed for the salvation of some people, not everyone. Why would Jesus do this if it was God's will to save everyone? This supports the conclusion that Jesus did not die for everyone, but only a group of predestined people. It says in John 17:1-2:

"Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.'"

Another predestination passage, Ephesians 1:4-5, says, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will." In 1 Peter 2:6, Jesus is referred to as a "chosen cornerstone." In verses 7-9, it states this to believer:

"Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message-- which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

2 Thessalonians 2:13 gives comfort to believers by saying, "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth." God chose people to be saved. Names were written into the Book of Life from the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8).

It says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Gospel of salvation in Christ comes from the Holy Spirit. This only makes sense because it is a spiritual (Spirit-given) truth. Scripture declares God chooses to use the “foolishness of preaching to save (1 Corinthians 1:21).” The Gospel is what is preached to the nations and if preaching is foolishness to human minds, the spiritual truth of the Gospel has to be even bigger foolishness to people without the Spirit, everyone not saved. As Romans 3:11 declares, "There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God." This is a quotation the author uses from the OT, which proves the continuity of the total depravity of man from the fall of Adam to the current dispensation of grace through Christ. Romans 8:7 shows that the sinful, carnal man does not have the ability to submit to God's law and is hostile to God. The Psalmist admits he was sinful from conception (Psalm 51:5). Every inclination of the heart of man is wicked (Genesis 8:21).

The dry bones in Ezekiel 36-37 only come alive by direct command of God; they are spiritually dead and can't come alive by some "choice" they make.