I went and seen the Passion of Christ movie today and would like to give my thoughts on it. I have heard a lot of discussion and read a lot of articles regarding this movie, both negative and positive.

The main concerns that have been voiced being:
1. The fact that Mel Gibson is catholic and that the content may be persuasive in that direction.
2: The unbiblical material that would add or take away from scripture.
3. The anti-Semitism.
4. Even some questioning the sources from where the movie was derived.

I would like to express my thoughts on each of these points.

1. I am not sure where Mel Gibson got his source material but the movie did not advocate at anytime for a person to follow “Catholicism.” It did not glorify Mary in any way nor did it give her any reason to be exalted. It only appealed to what one would consider any mothers love and passion for her own son. It gave no reference to Catholicism doctrine regarding the “sacrifice” being done more than once. As I said, I saw no indication of anything promoting or alluding to Catholicism.

2. The transitional material; was it accurate? Who really knows? From what I saw it did not cause any deviation to the scriptures. No one will ever know what really happened outside of what the Bible tells us but to demonize everyone that puts their thoughts out there is rigid and unfair. What was in this movie did not change the Biblical account but simply gave one of the thousands of scenarios that could be used. If sources were used that were questionable in content they were not used in a way to subvert the Gospel message in this movie.

3. Quite simply there was no such thing as anti-Semitism in this show. It portrayed the Jews just as the scriptures do and it made it clear that Jesus “willingly” gave His life and it was not the Jews or Romans fault. To find what was in this movie as anti-Semitism would mean that the Bible itself is guilty of it.

   Yes, this movie is graphic and there is lot of blood and violence but that is true to what the Bible tells us. I know this, it left me speechless at the end and several times during the movie it was all I could do to keep from completely losing control and crying. I had tears running down my cheeks several times during the movie. It causes you to search yourself and realize that it was “you” that was responsible for this pain. I have never heard a theater so quiet at the end of a movie. Some were wiping their eyes and you could hear several blowing their nose. Most got up quietly and just slowly walked out, some just sat there for a while quietly.

   I do see this movie as a great witnessing tool and a way to reach countless individuals that would never go into a church. It just amazes me how so many people can be so quick to find something wrong with this movie and many that have not even seen it.

   Some spend a lot of energy and time to demonizing things like this movie yet they do little to reach the lost as this movie will accomplish. I believe it is best to see it and then judge for yourself. It is also worth saying too that it would be wise to not be so eager to criticize and judge things like this, cause it seems like there was another group that done the same thing, the Pharisees and Saducees. Not exactly the company I would want to be in.

   For what it is worth this is my take on the very unnecessarily controversial film.

God bless, Adam