Note: This is the text of a brochure prepared
for distribution as a witnessing tool in Fayetteville, NC
See the Associated Articles: at the end of the
Brochure
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"Proclaiming the True Passion of
Christ"
Grand Rapids Press Ad for Saturday, Feb.28, 2004
Protestant Reformed Churches
To whom he showed himself alive after
his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the
just of the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. (I Peter 3:18)
This past Wednesday with much
promotion and acclaim from Protestant and Roman Catholic churches the Mel Gibson film
“The Passion of the Christ” began its public showing. It purports to tell by way
of dramatic characters and images the true Biblical story of the suffering of Jesus
Christ. In graphic detail it points the viewer to the immense and incredible physical
suffering Jesus endured in the last twelve hours of his life.
Most professing Christians and
churches are excited about the film and its prospects for evangelizing the world. Many
Evangelical and Catholic leaders are hailing it as the greatest opportunity for the spread
of the gospel since the times of the apostles! Now at last the message of Christ's
suffering and death can reach the lost and gain them to the Lord! That explains why
churches also throughout West Michigan have reserved special showings at area
theaters. People must see this film! It will be a life-changing experience!
But we are not so excited. In fact,
we condemn the movie and urge all true Christians NOT to see it. Not simply because it may
have inaccuracies and additions that distort the true account of Christ's suffering (which
it does - it is a Roman Catholic film endorsed by the pope - something every true
Protestant should reject!). Not because it may
stir up anti-Jewish feelings on the part of Gentiles. There is no reason for this, because
all peoples of the world are equally represented in those who put Jesus to death in that
first century A.D. (Pontius Pilate and the soldiers were Gentiles who acted in full accord
with the Jewish crowd that cried for his crucifixion.).
No, we condemn this movie for three
main reasons. 1st, because it is blasphemous to portray Christ's suffering and
death in this way. We believe Jesus Christ was not only real man but also true God - the
eternal Son of God in human flesh! No man may portray this Christ either via an
actor or any physical image. To do so is to blaspheme the Son of God and deny His great
glory and power. That is what God means by His 2nd
commandment - no graven images of Him, and that includes His Son.
2nd, because the film fails to reveal
the heart of the gospel - the once-for-all atoning and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ.
Christ's suffering was not merely physical; it was chiefly spiritual. It was a suffering
in soul and body of the eternal wrath of God for the sins of His people. From that point
of view Christ's suffering must not simply stir up feelings of sympathy for him. It must
break our hard hearts and lead us to repentance and faith in Him!
And 3rd, because this film
is not God's ordained means for the salvation of sinners. We are certainly in favor of the
message of Christ's passion being proclaimed to the world. But we must use God's method
for doing so - the preaching of Christ crucified through His official ministry instituted
in the church. This is what Christ himself called his church to do (Matt. 28:20). This is
foolishness to man in these modern, high-tech, visually - dependent days, just as it was
in the days of the apostles. But the preaching is God's power and wisdom unto salvation to
every one that believes, whether Jew or Gentile (I Cor.l:l8-24).
With these things in mind we call you
to avoid this movie and instead attend a church where the passion of Christ is purely
preached. The
Protestant Reformed Churches listed below are such churches. We welcome you to join us
in worship and under the Word.
Rev. Charles J. Terpstra 1st
PRC, Holland,MI cjthprc@earthlink.net
=================================================
Friends,
The media are buzzing with news about Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of the
Christ," which opened today, Ash Wednesday in the Roman Church-State calendar.
Showing in 2800 theaters nationwide, the movie is expected to recoup its production costs
in 5 days, due to the enormous numbers of "evangelicals" who are buying tickets.
The important questions are not, as most commentators seem to think, Is the movie
historically accurate, or Biblically accurate, or anti-Semitic. Of course it is neither
historically nor Biblically accurate, despite what leading "evangelicals" have
said. The movie is informed by Gibson's traditional Romanism, which is radically
un-Biblical and historically inaccurate. Rome also has a long and undeniable
tradition of anti-Semitism, which makes many suspicious about Gibson's movie.
The important question is, rather, Why are millions of "evangelicals" flocking
to see a Romanist movie? The answer is one that no one wants to hear: So-called
evangelicals are Romanists at heart.
In the crucial debates over salvation five centuries ago,the difference between Rome and
the Reformers was not merely grace versus works, but, at a more profound level, imputed
righteousness versus infused grace.
The Reformers (and the Bible) said that sinners are saved only by the imputation of
Christ's perfect righteousness to their legal accounts. Sinners had broken the law of God,
and their just punishment could be averted only by someone taking the punishment they
deserved and fulfilling all God's Law perfectly as their Substitute and Representative --
their Mediator. So Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died an innocent death for his
people. His righteousness is imputed to believers, and they are saved.
The Romanists said that sinners are saved by grace infused into their hearts through the
sacraments. This doctrine of infused grace, with its focus on the interior life and
experience of the sinner (who actually ate the physical body and drank the physical blood
of Christ in the Mass), gave birth to all sorts of bizarre "spirituality" during
the Middle Ages: mysticism, monasticism, asceticism, masochism, and sacramentalism.
The Reformation recovered and preached the Biblical doctrine of salvation by the extrinsic
righteousness of Christ imputed to believers through belief alone. But even during the
Reformation, many who were outside the Roman Church adopted its subjectivist view of
salvation by religious experience.
Luther himself never repudiated the Romanist superstition of eating the physical body and
drinking the physical blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. The German Enthusiasts and
Pietists, the Dutch Arminians, and even some of the English Puritans became quasi-Romanist
in their focus on "experimental religion" and religious experience. The
Wesleyans in England and America made religious experience central to their new doctrine,
and John Wesley vehemently attacked the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone.
All of these groups ignored or repudiated "extrinsic justification," that is,
justification by a righteousness wholly outside the sinner and imputed to him by an act of
God. The whole theology of religious revivalism in "evangelical" circles is
Romanist at its heart. They now see this Romanist movie as a tool and opportunity for
revival -- the greatest, one of them has said, in 2000 years.
Louis Bouyer, a convert to Romanism who became a Roman priest, pointed out the rediscovery
of Romanism in "Protestant" Revivalism nearly 50 years ago.
In his 1955 book, "The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism," Bouyer wrote:
"The Protestant Revival...recalls the best and most authentic elements of the
Catholic tradition.... For we see in every Protestant country Christians who owed their
religion to the movement we have called, in general, Revivalism, attain a more or less
complete rediscovery of Catholicisim."
In the 19th and 20th centuries, "evangelicals" used new terms to describe the
plan of salvation -- terms not found in Scripture: "personal encounter with
Christ," "personal relationship with Christ," "let Jesus into your
heart," "put Christ on the throne of your heart." Both
"evangelicals" and the Neo-orthodox adopted and taught the Medieval religion of
religious experience. All of them rejected the Biblical doctrine of justification by an
extrinsic righteousness imputed only through belief of the Gospel.
And that is why we now see millions of "evangelicals" flocking to theatres to
watch an R-rated Romanist film: They seek a religious experience, and this movie -- a
high-tech version of a Medieval Passion Play -- will give them an overwhelming religious
experience, and they think that is Christianity.
John Robbins
The Trinity Foundation
February 25, 2004
For further reading, visit the Review Archives at www.trinityfoundation.org.
=========================
Dear Editor, (sent to the Fayetteville Observer and
MSNBC)
There is much discussion in the media concerning various controversies over the
movie "The Passion of the Christ". In those I have read or viewed, I noticed
that no one has mentioned that several of God's commandments are being broken with the
making of the movie. I will name just two.
First of all, Jesus is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the 2nd
commandment forbids making any likeness of God. This serious issue was dealt with at the
time of the Protestant Reformation.
Secondly, it bears a false witness, in that it cannot be true to all Jesus said and
did when there is departure from scripture in the making of a movie script. This violates
the 9th commandment.
There are Christians who will not see or recommend this movie for these and many
other reasons, for it pleases God to save His people through the "foolishness of
preaching" and this movie is not preaching but entertainment.
Yet God could be using this to cause His true ministers to:
"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables." (2 Timothy 4:2-4)
That is my hope and I believe the hope of many other
Christians.
Sincerely,
Pierre C. Le Master, MD
======================
Dear Mr. O'Reilly, (sent to Mr
O'Reilly)
After watching several episodes of "The Factor" in which you have had
discussion of the "Passion of Christ" movie, I notice that no one has mentioned
that several of God's commandments are being broken with the making of the movie. I will
just name two.
First of all, Jesus is God and the 2nd commandment forbids making any likenesses of
God. This issue was dealt with at the time of the Reformation.
Secondly, it bears a false witness, in that it cannot be true to all Jesus said and
did when there is departure from scripture in the making of a movie script. This violates
the 9th commandment.
There are Christians who will not see or recommend the movie for these and many
other reasons, for it pleases God to save His people through the "foolishness of
preaching" and this movie is not preaching but entertainment.
Fox news promotes "balance" in the news, so I think you should have
guests on who share this view.
Sincerely, Pierre C. Le Master, MD
===============
Quote
from the Heidelberg Catechism LD 35 written in 1563
Concerning
True and False Worship of God
Question 96.
What doth God require in the second commandment?
Answer. That we in no wise represent God by images, nor worship him in any
other way than he has commanded in his word.
Question 97.
Are images then not at all to be made?
Answer. God neither can, nor may be represented by any means: but as to
creatures; though they may be represented, yet God forbids to make, or have any
resemblance of them, either in order to worship them or to serve God by them.
Question 98.
But may not images be tolerated in the churches, as books to the laity?
Answer. No: for we must not pretend to be wiser
than God, who will have his people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching
of his word.
====================
Scripture References
"To whom will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? To whom will ye then liken me, or shall I be equal? Saith the Holy One?" Isaiah 40:18,25
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no
priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy
children." Hosea 4:6
"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." Matthew 24:11
"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thes 2:10-12
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1
"God is a Spirit and they that worship Him mus worship Him in spirit and in
truth." John 4:24
Note: This Brochure was compiled and edited by Pierre C. LeMaster, MD
====================================================================
Associated Articles: be like the
more noble Bereans who "received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Acts 17:11
Articles written by PRC ministers
Passionate Believers and the Passion of
Christ by Rev. Mitchell Dick
The Passion of the Christ: Are We There?
by Rev. Mitchell Dick
The Passion of Christ..Movie Review
by Rev. Gise Van Baren
Why a Reformed Christian May Not
Attend the Movie, The Passion of the Christ, and What He or She Must Witness
to Those Who Do Speech by Professor David Engelsma
Jesus Christ and the Movies
by Rev. Rodney Kleyn HTML
format
Audio Sermons By PRC ministers:
The
Testimony of the Supper to the One Sacrifice of Christ Heidelberg Catechism LD 30 Q/A
80 by Professor David Engelsma
(exposes the blasphemous idolatry of the Roman Mass which is contained the the
"Passion" movie)
Audio Sermons from the Reformed Witness Hour:
March 21, 2004 "3194 The Passion Of The Christ Part 1" Mark
15:16-39 I
Corinthians 1:17-31 Listen 
save 
March 28, 2004 "3195 The Passion Of The Christ Part 2" Mark
15:16-39 I
Corinthians 1:17-31 Listen
save
Covenant Protestant Reformed
Fellowship in Northern Ireland Many good articles and audio sermons
Articles written by PCA ministers
The Second Commandment and
the Passion of Christ..Movie Review by Rev. Ron Gleason
Five
Reasons Not to Go See The Passion of the Christ by Rev. Andrew J.
Webb
Should We Make Images
of Jesus? by Rev. Andrew J. Webb
Fundamental-Independent
The Animated Crucifix by
Pastor Jonathan Crosby
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