Posted on 02/24/2004 12:46:27 PM PST by Hank Kerchief
Rebecca Hagelin asks, "Can you handle the Truth?" in today's, WorldNetDaily. "If you only go to the movies to be entertained, don't go see The Passion of the Christ," she said, adding "but if you want to experience an artistic achievement beyond any scale you could imagine, you must see The Passion of the Christ.
If the portrayal of death and suffering are now, "an artistic achievement beyond any scale you could imagine," Sadam Hussein and the Taliban have been greatly misjudge. They were only misunderstood artists. Instead of having our stomachs turned at the images of Taliban atrocities and Sadam's sadistic tortures we should be exulting in these images of such artistic importance.
The only real difference between glorying in the portrayal of suffering and death in Gibson's film, or the actual images of its modern day counterpart, is that Gibson's is a fake. That does not deter the superstitious masses who hold suffering, pain, and death as their highest ideals, however. It is what their God, whom they believe condemns the vast majority of mankind to eternal torment and suffering, teaches them. Of all the things one might place a value on, the thing their God values above all others is suffering and death.
Of all the things their God might have accepted as payment for man's salvation, it was not Jesus' healing the sick, or feeding the hungry, that was valued. Their God would settle for nothing less than the most excruciating pain, pointless suffering, and agonizing death possible as "payment." What kind of God places such a high premium on such evil?
Rebecca describing the experience of 5000 people who watched the film, said, "We were not entertained. We did not laugh. We did not leave relaxed." In other words, they did not enjoy the film, they suffered it. Rebecca regards suffering a virtue. She said about her discomfort watching the film, "the flogging scene didn't end quickly ... so why should it end quickly for me as a mere observer?"
Because, Rebecca, suffering is evil. Pain and death are not virtues, they are the opposite of all human life is about. The purpose of life is not to pain and anguish, the purpose of life is joy and happiness.
We have no doubt, Rebecca is correct to say, "The Passion is powerful – it is reality," because the world is full of suffering and brutality, made possible by the very kind of perverted psychology that not only accepts suffering, but positively worships it.
OP, Job was definitely worthy of salvation, in God's eyes at least, and he is not the only one even in the OT. Jews, unlike Christians, do not believe man(kind) needs saving. Jews, (remember) believed that works make one righteous and that a decent human being was acceptable to God. Christianity, among other things, sees a slightly different, more complex, yet perfectly simple God.
One's salvation in Christianity is never earned. We will never be perfect, but we can keep trying. Theosis is a life defined by a firm belief that trying to be as much as possible in God's image will make us better human beings. It may not be enough for slavation, but where is the error?
I am well aware of the Calvinist view. Calvinists are not alone in their belief that God sees humans as little more than tools in His workshop, to use and discard as He wills. Muslims and Hassidic Jews share those views and deny free will. Forgive me, but how does such a belief protect against moral depravity, since all human actions can be attributed to God's will?
In the end it's always God's will that prevails -- whether He wills it or whether He wills not to will it. In other words: do Calvinists allow for God to allow something to happen without His intervention, because He wants to?
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