Easter Sunday Show: $24.95 - Comments (1)

Category: Applied,Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 31st March, 2005 @ 06:53:42 AM

I was talking to an older woman this week, and we both had the same unanswered question: how much did it cost for a church to have segments of “The Passion of the Christ” playing in their theatres in “celebration” of Easter?

I found the answer: $24.95.

Of course, that does not include the equipment, large projection screens, amplification systems, and other production items and labors necessary to project the drama of Mel Gibson, and the face of Jim Caviezel before the eyes of probably millions of worshippers last Sunday morning.

So, with me you may ask “What’s wrong with this picture?” Everything!

It’s simply the fact of pictures. We walk by faith, not by {sight|2Cor 5:7}. Without faith, we are not {pleasing|Heb 11:6} to God. {Faith comes|Rom 10:17} by hearing the Word of God. The woman told me she was attending the “alternative worship service” at the large C&MA church in Omaha that is off Interstate 680.

I don’t want to be too hard on Christ Community “Church,” though, because it is hardly the only formerly Christian institution tumbling at breakneck speed toward apostasy. Thousands of other “purpose-driven churches” most certainly featured the {“worship of Caviezel”|1Cor 10:7} as part of their most recent liturgical schemes. And really no wonder: at $24.95, it’s a whole lot cheaper than doing a passion play, and maybe even more entertaining than dressing up grudging church members in flowing robes, fake beards, and cheap sandals to try to {“make the Bible come alive”|Heb 4:12} for their congregations!

But with Hollywood video, these liturgies almost make the Catholic Mass, of which Gibson is so fond, seem tame and anachronistic. What a master stroke it appears to be when a traditionalist Catholic (Gibson) makes, in a single year, more inroads into Protestant Churches than the Jesuits have in 2 centuries! It’s incredible to realize that so quickly, thousands of churches have taken up morality (mystery) plays like the ancient Greek religions in place of the preached Word of God!

The older woman – who visited that church as a favor to her granddaughter who attends a Jesuit University, and would not otherwise attend on a Sunday morning in such a “church,” having herself been delivered over two decades ago from the Roman Catholic Church – left the Easter celebration with an uneasy feeling.

“I felt like I did not worship the Lord,” she said. “There was no preaching, just a lot of music, and very loud banging of drums.”

And Caviezel, of course.

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