I finally broke down ...

From what I gather from scripture, there is no way to avoid the claim of anti-Semitism. It was the high-ranking pillars of Jewish society who wanted Christ dead, and the Romans had to be persuaded to crucify him.

Am I way off ?

 

Some of you are way too harsh in your criticism of this movie. It is very clear and well documented that Jesus has moved in a lot people's lives who watched the film. Many "lost sheep" have been found. I know that it is not Mel Gibson who is the Good Shepherd. Who is the Good Shepherd? Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ blessed this film and sent the Holy Spirit to move in many who witnessed it, and He did it at a time when a lot of lost souls truly needed it. How else could you explain the lives that were changed? It is not some type of mass hysteria folks! It is not some RCC conspiracy. God can and does work in many different ways. Why are you criticising something that has brought many to Him? Nobody or movie can save a soul and bring that person to Christ, only Christ Himself can do that. If one soul or many souls were saved, then I am thankful for it and praise Jesus!

Praise Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior Forever!
Deborah

 

Try not to focus on the trivial little things some here are complaining about if you do watch the movie. There are very few scenes that are not scriptural, and even those are not heretical. Some people here are trashing a truly gut wrenching reminder of what our Lord went through for us. Just remember as you watch this film....He was the only perfect person to ever walk on this Earth, and He took on all the sins of the world since the beginning of time until the end of time. The flogging scenes are very gory, but what would you expect when you think of all the sins that have ever been committed.

In my opinion, it is a very powerful and emotional movie!

In Christ,
Deborah

 

Huh?

Non, no, no, we were listing strange song titles. A chior friend of mine nominated "All We Like Sheep" from Handel's Messiah. Context, my friend, context!!!

 

Well, I remember it caused quite a stir, my brother.

 

Anyways, my point was that we can reprimand each other without sounding like, well, a Catholic school teacher.

 

Since when is the test of whether or not something is biblical that it moved people, something happened to them, it 'worked' in their lives?
Isn't the test supose to be if it is in scripture or not? It was for the Beareans.
See, a comprimise becasue of this movie.
How many more comprimises, based on how many other sources of authority other then scripture are people willing to make?

 

And comprimising scripture is not trival.

 

Keith
Passion plays reinactments of what happened on Good Friday. They were not invented to stir up anti-semitic progroms.

 

Just a note on another aspect to this movie:

During Christmas my mother-in-law invited some foreign students from a local university to celebrate the season with us (look for another thread if you want to debate the merit of the holidays). We had three Thai college students over. Grandma had our kids (5 and 3/boy and girl) put on a "play" of the nativity. Actually started with creation (believe it or not) and ended with the resurrection. Primary focus was the birth. All in 30 minutes. Truly amazing.

Anyway, the subject came up of The Passion. These three girls were actually Muslim (not Buddhist as I expected for some reason) but only one had ever heard of Jesus. She went to a "Christian" grade school in Thailand. The others had never heard of Jesus. They all saw the movie, but had no background or perspective, no context to place it in. The "play" allowed them to place Jesus in a certain context of Christian belief - Creator, God, Son, Savior, etc.

Sadly, they had another place to go so our time with them was limited. Barely had time to till the soil.

 

Maybe it's not "Sadly" at all. More likely, all the Holy Spirit wanted you to do was plant the seed and till the soil. Don't be upset if it's someone else's job to water, weed, and pick.

GOd's time, not ours.

 

I am honestly not sure of the history of Passion plays and did not intend for anyone to think that I believe Passion plays stir up anti-Semitism. At least not at this time. My memory of the cursory research I did a year ago suggested that Passion plays originally served this purpose in the Middle Ages. This information may or may not be correct because I got most of it off the internet and it could easily have been biased.

However, this was a charge levelled at me by the Jewish fiance of my father-in-law in April of 2004 after the movie was released. They are both older (70+). She was active in Judaism when her children were younger - not so much now. At that time I felt the need to respond to her and did some very cursory research. I responded that this sentiment may have been true 500 years ago, but not today. Those who are already anti-Semitic do not need this movie to encourage their beliefs and those who are not anti-Semitic will not become so because of this movie.

In Eureka Springs, Arkansas they have The Great Passion Play. Also have fairly large grounds with a replica of the Tabernacle from the Wilderness Wanderings and other stuff. Pretty fun for a day trip for my family.

 

The issue is that there were SOME Passion plays that were used to foster antisemitism, during a time when antisemitism was socially acceptible. That does not, however, mean that passion plays as a whole are antisemitic.

The same charge was made with Gibson's "the Passion" but those charges, as anyone who has seen the movie will attest, are unfounded.

 

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here.......

I say that the RCC is an anti-Semetic orginization at it's heart. They teach that God took his blessing away from Israel, due to bad stewardship, and placed his representative on earth in Rome.

 

Look up Christendom in the New Advent to see what the RCC teaches about the Kingdom on Earth.

 

"I say that the RCC is an anti-Semetic orginization at it's heart."
"
A little less so nowadays, but certainly true throughout most of it's history. In fact throughout most of the past 2000 years one would have been hardpressed to find any Christians that weren't at least somewhat anti-semitic.

 

We must accept the fact that Christianity as a whole (the institution we created, not the faith that Christ ordained) has been guilty of its share of antisemitism in the past. In fact, when formation of the State of Israel was bring pondered, it quickly became an opportunity for some countries to solve their "Jewish problem".

 

Is it really anti-Semetic to point out it was the Pharisees & Saducees (sp?), who were the Jewish authorities, at the time, that wanted Christ dead ? That they had to convince the Roman government to kill him ?

 

No. Definitely not. But in the past, many Christians have broadbrushed that to include anyone who's Jewish. That is wrong. Doesn't matter if it's from a Catholic, a Baptist, Methodist, or any other -ist.

 

All of Christ's closest disciples, followers, most likely the recipients of his miracles, the people he surrounded himself with, the ones who followed him to Calvary, were they not all Jews ?

I agree with your point. There is a "clansman" mentality that lumps all Jews in with those who rejected Christ. But the bible does predict he would be rejected by them. Maybe that'w where they get it, but it is clear not all Jews at Christ's time rejected him.