The passion of Christ – A movie by Mel Gibson. After watching the passion last nite, these are some of the 'raw' thoughts that came to me. My reaction to this film surprised me, as going into it I fully supported what I THOUGHT Mel was was doing through it. My best advice is to pray before making a decision to go and watch this moive. The brutality is designed, not to inspire, but to leave people shocked and emotionally drained. Numbness Little hope - alot of oppression. Desolation - the work of the devil. The first scene in the garden was unbiblical and a mockery and it set the stage for theatrically techniques geared to 'control' the audiance in order to evoke 'emotion' weather fear, or greif, or anguish. The beginning failed to show many of the biblical events and falsley portrayed others. It took huge creative liberty. Throwing Jesus off the bridge was a HUGE exaggeration another creative liberty. If these many details fail to be accurate, how accurate can we presume the beating and flogging and crusifiction events are portrayed. This movie leaves alot of young and old minds to dwell on events that are false and pure speculation - leaving the people with a numbness and heavy sense of hopelessness and impeding danger. These things do not come from God, but from the evil one. It was as if the film was produced by satan and his demons gathering together (one last time) to celebrate and share all the moments they had Jesus 'seemingly' knocked down. It serves as satans 'remember when' as a last ditch attempt, a scare tactic of the evil one, to christians, of what they may face if they take a stand against him. I left the theatre litterally having the throw the demons off my back, they were crawling over the entire place - all to willing to introduce us to this 'new jesus' A sense of fear and oppression hung in the air - not fear of God, but fear of the evil one. A finger pointing in the dark to all who were willing to listen, 'you are guilty of this..so guilty that God may never forgive you...his own son had to plead with him to forgive you' ...the absolute sense of hopelessness portrayed in mary mirrored the film in its entirety. Little focus was put on the hope we have. On three perhaps 4 occassions God was able to speak through the film, during 'flash backs' in which they quoted from the bible. During those breif occassions, Gods light was able to flicker in and begin to take hold of the darkness looming all around. It was during those breif times that God spoke of his deep and enduring love - a love so strong - stronger than death. Gods Love is stronger than our sin. This film stands as a blatant act of disobediance. It is an example of Gods permissive will rather than His perfect will. God is so great, that even in an atrosity such as this, HE is able to work for the good. The film left me with a sense of embarrassement and a sense of Jesus being mocked. It leaves me with the feeling that as christians, we blindly endorse any material that contians the word 'Jesus' We fail to look at it and discern the evil it embraces and spreads - Gods perfect will does not include this type of falsehood, though His permissive will allows Him to work for the good, even in this. Part of the flash backs in the movie were part of Gods perfect will and included His voice and His message of love and victory as indicated above, but several of the flash backs were oppressive to the hilt, used directly by satan as threats. They seemed to 'lead' one to think, during the most violent parts of the flogging, that 'if they persecuted me, they will persecute you' 'this is what love is..if you love someone this is what you will have to do' The oppressiveness came in, with the message being sent out that: 'you are failures' ...this is what God requires of you, and you fail!' One flash back in perticular while Jesus is being beaten, is of Jesus telling his disciples 'if they persucute me[like this] they will persucute you[like this]' The actor playing Jesus stopped and looked directly into the audiance. Using this tactic, it was impossible for anyone to miss the 'connotation and implied threat' It seemed to come from satans own twisted mouth - a threat that in this same way he persucted Jesus he would persucute those in the audiance - clearly a 'test' of faith most would 'fail' Does satan not know that nothing can touch us but that which Gods infinite love allows? satan knows this, but so many who have watched this film don't know it. satans threat hangs over their heads, pounding them into the ground. ''this is what God requires and you don't measure up! you fail! you can't do it!" "you won't pass the test! no point in trying!" ...no hope, no love, no light at the end of the tunnel. No hand held out telling us that: 'Jesus has already done it for you.' 'trust in God' ...people and youth, those young in their faith especially, are left in the position of fear - not fear of God that leads to eternal life, but the fear of the evil one that leads to self condemnation...they realize and feel guilty( an oppressive; no point in trying guilt) that their faith is not adequate to withstand the type of on slaught that Jesus endured. Instead of confirming to us, that Jesus did what no one else could do, proving for ALL TIME that Gods Love IS strong enough to overcome our sin...instead of this message of love being sent out, the film sends out the message that 'you can't measure up to what God is asking' is being sent out. The same message satan taunted Jesus with at the start of the film 'no one can carry this burden' is the same message the whole film seems to taunt the audiance with. Instead of the hope shining through in the knowledge of our unworthiness, a sense of desolation, hopelessness, and condemnation is pushed onto the viewers. sickness to the max. God is able to work for the good in all things but "give the devil his due" on this one. "its satans moment of 'glory' in the spotlight" In light of the Truth - the movie was terrible. The only good point the movie INADVERTANTLY showed was: Gods Love is stronger than our sin. - this came in during one of the inspired flashback scenes. From a personal belief, that love endures all things, this movie did portray that endurance - though unless you held that belief prior, the movie would not have made that clear. These were some of the thoughts that the film left me with. I can't imagine some of the emotions that youth might experience after watching this movie. These are a few of my thoughts after several days of contemplating the movie. The fact that children were portrayed as demons after judas bothered me..the fact that they altered between normal and bizzar looking. It also concerned me that demons were portrayed in a victorious role here...attacking a guilty party. What about all the demons that Jesus cast out of innocent people? This gives a shaded view of who the demons attack. Good material for nitemares, little material that gives glory to Gods strenght to overcome. It bothered me greatly that satan was shown in the garden attacking Jesus in his weakest. Although many of us feel this is the case, that satan did infact take this opportunity to taunt Jesus, nothing is documented in the word of God. To portray this 'personal view' was irresponsible of mel gibson, and it has the potential to falsey color peoples perception. The bible only tells us that an angle of the Lord was in the garden to help strenghten Jesus. Why was this not shown? Why instead did mel choose to portray satan there? In Gods Love, Gwen