Thursday, February 20, 2014

"Son of God" THE MOVIE... and Rick Warren

"When God gave to Moses the blueprint of the Tabernacle He was careful to include every detail; then, lest Moses should get the notion that he could improve on the original plan, God warned him solemnly, "And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shown thee in the mount." God, not Moses, was the architect. To decide the plan was the prerogative of the Deity. No one dare alter it so much as a hairbreadth."
  A.W. Tozer, The Menace of the Religions Movie
Well, this is amazing.... Brace yourself.  There is a menace ahead.  

Heralded as "the best Jesus movie ever," Son of God will be officially unleashed February 28th and the state of this blogshow is in on it.  Rick Warren is more than simply involved,
he is integral  and even has a bit of a financial interest in the films success. Rick has  created and published a small-group Bible study on DVD to be used in conjunction with the film Tou may  purchase at Saddleback,com for about 20.00. There is a drive to get churches everywhere into the movie, doing the study study guide with their friends.


The DVD study guide features six sessions and it uses actual video clips from the Son of God movie as well as videos of Rick Warren teaching,  He will teach  participants to find their purpose in studying the life of Jesus. Consifering many of the participants with be Rick's church and church congregations, what we can see hapening here, if we look closely, is a move away from the sctipres to the movies... under the direction of "Pastor rick.  for six weeks, at least, everyone will have their noses in his study guide.... and learning about JEsus from a religious film.


If you have never read Tozers Article, you can read it here

Regarding this study guide, movie producer Burnett says that it is essential for congregations to dig deeper into the life lessons of Jesus’ ministry” conveying that thiss movie is not about leading the unsaved to Jesus Christ, trather it is about churches everywhere watching the film to "go deeper" in study....which, by the way, is planned to happen by conveniently using the study guide that Saddleback is selling, prepared by "Commander" Rick.  Apparently, Mr. Brnette seems to think that he and his film explains Jesus life, lessons and ministry much better than the bible ever did.

In another article promoting the film, this one written by Jeremy Burns for Christian Retailing,  Warren is quoted as saying,  “Jesus’ teaching will transform you from the inside out, so I developed a curriculum and DVD-based study to better understand key scenes and valuable teaching moments from the movie and connect the teaching of Jesus to your life’s purpose.” He is not saying that hs is 
going to connect you with Jesus, but that he will connect the teaching of Jesus... to YOUR 
life's purpose. 
This is so-o-o-o-o-o weird.

To help promote the film, Rick Warren and other pastors who will follow Warren's lead, are buying out entire theaters for showings of the film.  Warren gave the command for them to do this saying, ""I want every other faith leader in America to do the same. Whether you can buy out a whole theater, or just one screen, now is the time to show up."  Interesting that he didn't use the word "pastor" in this  Christian Post article.
The word he chose to use was  "faith leader."  Well known names in the faith world, buying up theater seats for  this movie include Joel Olsteen, Craig Groeschel, T.D. Jakes, l and Archbishop Jose Gomez.  These guys are on-board with the movie too.  

It's apparently a pretty big deal when churches invest in booking theaters.  This is supposed to impress you.  It is also supposed to impress you that this movie cost a lot of money to produce.  

Warren hosted an after-screening gathering of pastors on stage to speak out and encourage others at the viewing.  Warren took the opportunity to encourage pastors to buy theater seats and talked to them about how they should be appreciative to these brave film makers for making a Christian film.  But is it a Christian film?  Does faith come by seeing and seeing by the work of movie producers?  No.

The short video of the after-screening includes a scene from the film that is anything but biblical.   You can watch  this  after-screening and clip of the movie in question at the link above or here. Do you know, can you find in the bible texts,  anywhere in which John says of Jesus,  “He will bring a new age of righteousness and justice. His  power will draw all men to a new world?  This is not any biblical teaching recorded in the bible.

Rick says that this  movie is unlike any other Biblical movie he has ever seen. Maybe this is because of the unbiblical nature of it all,   take a minute and view the movie trailer. Watch and listen as Jesus tells one man, "Come with me." The  man responds, "What are you going to do?"This is not scripture... nor are audiences given a biblical answer. 

 In this movie Jesus's answer is "Change the world." 

 In case you do not know, Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  He also came that we might have life.... instead of death.  He came to be a ransom for many.  He is not known to have ever said that he came to "change the world."  Change and changing the world are a whole different concept than what he came for... and its a political platform too.

Charisma Magazine's articleWhy Pastors Like Rick Warren Are Renting Out Theaters for 'Son of God' Premiere by Sarah Pulliam Bailey,told readers,  "The unusual move, reflects the confidence Christian leaders have in Burnett and Downey’s work in the wake of The Bible, a hit miniseries on the History channel."

It really is not that unusual to hear of churches doing this. We have seen churches do this for a vast array of movies already, like the Passion of the Christ, Facing the Giants, Fireproof and even Narnia.  This is just more promotion.  This is not the first time this has been done. Everyone with something to gain is happy to promote the film, like Rick.  He  will be selling his specially created DVD with study guide, for twenty bucks.

  “I've seen most of the films about Jesus produced in the past 50 years. SON OF GOD stands alone, in a class by itself. It is a powerful and poignant movie, the best Jesus movie I have ever seen. I am thrilled that Twentieth Century Fox is distributing this film and I know it will be a blessing to millions when it opens all across America on February 28, 2014.” 
- See more at: http://wadeoradio.com/son-of-god-best-jesus-movie-rick-warren/#sthash.7qO1uk25.dpuf



MOre refernces for learning about this film:

http://sharesonofgod.com/
http://thebibletourexperience.com/


"..., the vogue of the Miracle Play coincided exactly with the most dismally corrupt period the Church has ever known. When the Church emerged at last from its long moral night these plays lost popularity and finally passed away. And be it remembered, the instrument God used to bring the Church out of the darkness was not drama; it was the biblical one of Spirit-baptized preaching. Serious-minded men thundered the truth and the people turned to God."
A.W. Tozer, The Menace of the Religions Movie



MOVIE ENDORSEMENTS by
Andy Stanley
Cardinal Wuerl
Rick Warren
Joel Olsteen
Santiaga Mellado
Archbishop Jose Gomez
Carl Anderson
Tom Peterson
Lins Hendey
ra Sang Choo
Brandon Vogt
Ro Chang Soo
Jim Bob Park
 and a few others

http://sharesonofgod.com/Endorsements
MaxLucado
T.D. Jakes and various Roman Catholics
http://sharesonofgod.com/Endorsements

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RICK WARREN POEM  Click Here


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