GCO Focus: The Passion Movie

Actor Mel Gibson, who portrayed Mad Max in previous violent films, returned to the faith of his childhood and, having become a very traditionalist Roman Catholic, has now produced the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” This movie is a representation of the last tweve hours of the life of Christ from the standpoint of Catholic tradition. Although hailed by Evangelicals as an extraordinarily accurate and biblical depiction, the film is filled to the brim with numerous unbiblical traditions and embellishments that powerfully promote Catholic understandings of Eucharist, Mary as immaculate co-mediatrix, and so forth.

Astonishingly, many either blind or unaware Adventist ministers have sent their flocks to see the movie, or even rented movie-theaters to show it. All this, when the world church upholds a ban on theater-going. Because of the unwillingness of some to tell the truth about this movie, GreatControversy.org (GCO) has devoted some space to outlining problems in the film.

—March 20, “An Adventist Perspective on Mel Gibson's ‘Passion,’ and on Theater-Going in 2004, pt. 3 of 3, by Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick. (Focus on the Roman Catholic theology of the film.)
—March 13, “An Adventist Perspective on Mel Gibson's ‘Passion,’ and on Theater-Going in 2004, pt. 2 of 3, by Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick. (Focus on the numerous unbiblical errors added to the film.)
—And THREE PAGE HANDOUT COMPARING PASSION TO THE BIBLE.
—March 18, “Ten Reasons Not to See ‘The Passion of the Christ’,” by Phil Mills, MD.
—March 11, 2004: A Misleading Passion, Pr. Brian Jones.
—An Adventist Perspective on Mel Gibson's ‘Passion,’ and on Theater-Going in 2004, pt. 1 of 3, by Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick, February 28, 2004. (Focus on mistaking emotional response for spiritual response.)
—21 Feb 2004: An Open Letter to Seventh-day Adventist Pastors Concerning Mel Gibson's, ‘The Passion’ (PDF Format).