Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/71483/religion-themed-movies/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Ladies and gentlemen, excuse me. I am King Arthur!! Get down from there!! One, two, two!

[0:10] You are not King Arthur! Charles, you're going to tell him a great story about forgiveness.

[0:26] Can we do this without the cat? Stop right there. Our story begins 2,000 years ago when baby Jesus came into the world.

[0:38] Wait, wait, stop. If it's not about a king, then I'm not interested. This story is about the king of kings. If you're with me, then I know that I will.

[0:50] I will fly! It has angels and wicked kings and miracles. What? What's this?

[1:01] Oh, so you want to hear the story now? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Why don't we help Jesus along the way? There's not nearly enough food here to feed all of these people.

[1:13] I hope this helps. This was a miracle to some, but a threat to others.

[1:28] Why don't we just turn the people against him? Open up my eyes and see him. I'm not only wishing, dreaming. Thank you.

[1:41] Can't you help us? I will fly! Yes, but not the way you think. Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Daddy. It's time. I will fly! This is what my father wants. I'll accept it.

[1:52] And so should you. I will fly! I will fly! I will fly! You see, a true king serves his subjects. I will fly!

[2:03] I will fly! If you have faith, you'll become stronger than before. Hey! Hey! Hey! It is a great story.

[2:20] The King of Kings from Angel Studios is the first major animated biblical movie since the Prince of Egypt. So we want to do something special to celebrate.

[2:31] For each ticket you pre-order, you get a home. Okay. They're just advertising it. So anyway, that's the trailer. Pretty good trailer. Looks very exciting.

[2:42] I would watch that and think, hey, let's go to the movies. But let's move on. Now that we kind of have an idea of what the movie is about, we're going to watch this other video.

[2:56] This one is about 15 minutes. And they're just talking about one of the, there's two guys discussing the movie. And the title of this video is, this quote, Christian movie tries to please everyone and fails miserably.

[3:12] So that's the title. So you get an idea or a gist of their, their viewpoint. But one of the guys went to actually see the movie. I think, maybe, I don't know if it was an early release or maybe they just went to see it when it, when it first came out.

[3:28] Because this, this is maybe a week old video. So we'll, we'll watch this for about 15 minutes. Maybe take some notes. If you have any thoughts or comments that you want to make, just write them down.

[3:39] And then we'll have a discussion afterward. To curmudgeon corner, every, welcome to curmudgeon corner.

[3:52] Everything that he's about to say that agitates you isn't even going to come close to how annoying I'm going to be. It's my spiritual gift. Why? We're going to review, ooh, it's all the rage.

[4:05] It's a box office sensation. It's King of Kings. It's a cartoon about Jesus. I mean, it is a movie animated to portray the life of Jesus. And we'd like to do a review.

[4:16] And yeah, we might sound a little curmudgeonly, but it is not intended to just be crabby. Hey, I watch TV. I don't have cable, but that really isn't the point.

[4:28] We, we, we're, we're okay with like living in the 21st century, but our highest regard isn't for being culturally engaged. It is making sure that our God is represented right.

[4:41] To that end, we would like to challenge you to perhaps think perhaps a little bit more critically before you consume Christian content, especially the stuff that's aimed at the kids.

[4:56] This is our very own Dalton Teal. Dalton Teal, we sent you to the movie theater. You did send me the movie theater. Yeah. How much, how much, how much did that cost the ministry? Well, it hasn't cost anything yet.

[5:08] I haven't turned in receipts. Let's get to the review, shall we? King of Kings. It's a cartoon about Jesus and it is based on the theology of? Charles Dickens. Okay. Now that's maybe going to strike people odd because during his lifetime, he never published a theological treatise, but he did publish something posthumously.

[5:25] What was it? The Life of Our Lord. So, like you were saying, it wasn't published by Charles Dickens. It was actually his great-grandchild or his grandchild one that came together and decided, okay, we actually need to publish this 60, 70 years.

[5:37] It was basically a letter to his kids. That's correct. He wanted them to know about Jesus and even called him Our Lord. Sounds good. What's the problem? Well, there's actually a lot of problems. The first one is he was actually a Unitarian, though he lived most of his life in the Anglican Church.

[5:52] Yeah. So his view of Jesus was not the view from the scriptures. Here's a little rule for you. Now, this will guide you the rest of your life. Any time when you see a denomination and it has the letters U and I in that order, run for your life.

[6:06] Fast. Unitarian, Universalist, just run for your life because that is the sign you're dealing with apostasy. So he was a Unitarian, denied the Trinity. Correct.

[6:17] What about original sin? Correct. Though in the movie, it did actually address original sin. So it wasn't consistent with the theology of Charles Dickens. Very inconsistent. Well, they said it was going to be based on this letter to his kids.

[6:31] So it wasn't apparently a great representation. But did it represent it well when it came to Charles Dickens' understanding of Christianity? His understanding, I would say yes. So his understanding was on the moral basis of Jesus.

[6:43] He believed that we needed to look at Jesus from a moral lens. To be a Christian, as he said, is to do good to others. No, that ain't Christianity. That's his definition of Christianity. I know, but that is not Christianity.

[6:55] Not in the slightest. Well, but I truly dread that most people think that's what Christianity is about. It's a moral code. Jesus was a good teacher. In other words, the Jesus of the imaginations of Jordan Peterson.

[7:06] Great story. Great morals. Can't go wrong. Dickens told his kids, can't go wrong if you follow the precepts of Jesus. But that's not the totality of Christianity. Not even close.

[7:17] And what's interesting is the Christian Post, I have an article in front of me, actually posted an article that said, Charles Dickens and the King of Kings shares the gospel. Did they share the gospel? Not a moment. Okay, see, and that's, I don't know which one this is, but that's one of my pet peeves.

[7:30] And it's not just the Christian Post. It's anytime somebody, like a famous person, like asks a question about Jesus, and the person responds no matter what they said, they shared the gospel. No, that's not sharing.

[7:41] Talking about the morals of Jesus is not sharing the gospel. It has to have components in it that actually equal forgiveness of sins found in Christ alone.

[7:52] So, they claimed it. They preached the gospel. Your contention is there was no gospel in King of Kings. There was no gospel. And that was the sad reality of it. My wife walked away from it and went, where was the gospel?

[8:02] Wait a second. We paid for your wife to go to a movie, too? Again, not yet. This is a ministry, mister. But we are a ministry that loves marriage. And when a wife gets popcorn.

[8:13] So, she left the movie and said? Where's the gospel? Yeah. And that was our major question coming out of it. Where is the gospel? You think, you have a captive audience. Yeah. You have a captive audience for an hour and 40 minutes.

[8:24] Mm-hmm. Did it talk about sin? It did talk about sin. Okay. So, it traced back Genesis 1 and 2, how God created Adam and Eve in the garden in perfection. And then in Genesis 3, the serpent tempted them to sin.

[8:35] They stepped into sin. Right. And then sin was introduced to the world. Yeah. And that was the line in which they drew and said. Did they define what sin is? No. Did they explain that sin is an offense against God?

[8:47] No. Did they explain that sin is an act that deserves a payment and that payment is death? No. Okay. Well, then they didn't explain sin.

[8:59] No, no, no. Did they? They used the word. Oh, that's something. For the Christian post, it'd be great. But, you know, that's easy. Okay, so fine. Yeah, people are sinners. Those people. I, every man will proclaim his own goodness with his mouth.

[9:12] They need to be convicted of sin, righteousness, and justice. Was there any use of the law to explain that? No, it wasn't even present. Okay. So, did Jesus go to the cross in this cartoon?

[9:24] He did. Yeah. They didn't water down everything about the cross and everything about leading up to the cross. So, though they covered it up, you could tell that Roman centurions were whipping Jesus. Yeah. That was present.

[9:35] You had Jesus actually being nailed to a cross, though you couldn't see it fully. You saw them hold nails before they drove it. Sure. So, they had that present. And what's interesting, so Charles Dickens is telling a story to his son, Walter.

[9:46] And Walter stops the story right as Jesus is going to the cross and saying, why did he have to die? Great question. He didn't explain it. Uh-uh. There was no answer. And that is what was so sad about this movie.

[9:58] You had so many opportunities. So, what was the point? Why did it example Jesus? Basically. Basically. How to love your neighbor Jesus? I think that was the goal of the entire movie. See, now, the problem with that idea that Jesus went to the cross to show what true love is, I would say, without understanding of propitiation, forgiveness of sins, the wrath of God taken upon himself on our behalf, it's actually a lesson in insanity.

[10:24] So, you got yourself crucified. How is that loving? Why is that loving? Without the component of, I am doing this for your sake, well, that's kind of a crazy man that would do that.

[10:36] And they said, he needs to die for our sins. But explain, what does that mean? Okay, right now, people are listening to that and they're going, you are picking nits, pally.

[10:47] And cynical, and you fill in the blanks. Okay, but, and I get that, because it's like, come on, what do you want? A systematic theology treatment in a cartoon? They talked about he died for our sins.

[10:58] But without the explanation of what sin is, what it deserves, what God has done in the person of Jesus Christ, well, then it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[11:10] Correct. And it's hiding, you can't understand the good news without the bad news. And they didn't really emphasize the significance of our sin and the cost of our sin like you were talking about earlier.

[11:20] And nothing about the wrath of God. Did he say it is finished? He did say it is finished. What is finished? It. See, if you're listening to these two curmudgeons and you're going, mmm, you're just a little hypercritical, looks like some cage stage, it's not.

[11:35] We want people to get saved. And if the gospel is not presented in a coherent manner, then with all due respect to the Christian Post, it ain't the gospel. And maybe the Holy Spirit will use it despite its message, but not because of its message.

[11:51] We've got to get this right. This has been, in my estimation, I maybe would alter this and say top three, but perhaps the single greatest deficiency in evangelical Christianity for as long as I've been a believer.

[12:01] And that is we don't articulate the gospel well. We have simply lost the scent on the gospel. All right. Here's another question for you. The movie is called King of Kings. Did they explain why Jesus is the King of Kings?

[12:14] I wouldn't say fully. So the story begins, Charles Dickens wrote the Christmas Carol, and he's actually acting out the Christmas Carol in front of other people. So it begins with Ebenezer Scrooge.

[12:25] And then Walter, his son, interrupts it because he's acting out his fantasies of being King Arthur. And Dickens begrudgingly says, I'm going to tell you a story about the true King of Kings, that he is the King overall. There's no explanation of what that meant.

[12:38] Did we understand that Jesus is fully God, fully man? No. Actually, what's sad is the beginning of the movie, it skips over the Immaculate Conception. It skips over the Virgin Birth. Well, that's another Unitarian dogma.

[12:50] No, but you also look, and it's Mormon producers going behind that. Oh, now you're just being a drag. Who are the Mormon producers behind this movie?

[13:02] Oh, I don't know their names. Angel Studios. Angel Studios, the actual producers. I couldn't tell you. No, no, but Angel Studios, it's a Mormon production house. And then the ones that came up with The Chosen until The Chosen got a lot of money and moved up into the world.

[13:14] Yeah, sure. So the Mormons were producing it. If you're going to produce a movie, if these Mormons care at all, it can't be about Jesus being the divine Son of God, the unique, only begotten Son of God.

[13:25] Because in Mormon dogma, he's a created entity. Correct. In Mormon dogma, it's not grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone. It's you do the best you can. You do your best, Jesus does the rest.

[13:37] That isn't grace alone. That isn't the gospel either. Would a Mormon go to this movie and go, hey, that's all Protestant? I think they'd be pretty comfortable with the movie.

[13:47] All right, here's a question. Would an unbeliever be comfortable with the movie? The New York Times says so. In fact, the New York Times, in a review that they did, said that this movie would be comfortable and enjoyable for an unbeliever.

[14:01] Okay. I think the gospel should make unbelievers uncomfortable. Yeah, it should be a stumbling block. Yeah, it should be an offense. Okay. It wasn't.

[14:11] All right. So do you think any kids got saved at that movie? I would have a hard time explaining how they could have. Despite it, not because of it. And there's potential. And hopefully it was because their parents sat them down and said, hey, this is the gospel.

[14:25] Okay. Have you been smoking the crack again? I have not. Okay. Do you think those parents knew the gospel? One would want to hope so, though I can't speak and say they do. Of course, we can't say it.

[14:36] But did you hear any chatter going on in the theater? Behind me, there were a lot of questions of what does it mean to be crucified? What is sin? Why did Jesus have to die? Ew. And for the first 10 seconds, I thought, this parent's got it.

[14:46] Here we go. They're going to lay it out. Easter's about the Easter money. Oh, no. It went downhill fast. Oh, no. Downhill fast. No. But I'll bet they go to a church with a great Easter egg drop.

[15:00] Oh, I guarantee you. Oh, yeah. All right. Anything else on the film? Because I've got one less curmudgeonly remark that will be perhaps the most agitating so far. I think the biggest scene in terms of its push for moralism, there's a scene in which Charles Dickens and his son are walking through the triumphal entry.

[15:17] And this whimsical cat, we've talked about this already. You love when I say whimsical cat. How do you know the cat was whimsical? What made a cat whimsical? Oh, it was causing problems. It was strutting around the scene.

[15:27] Nobody has used the word whimsical except maybe a Broadway writer. Anyway. So it's a whimsical cat. The cat gets lost in the scene and they're running around trying to find it. And it cuts to where Jesus is standing in the triumphal entry.

[15:39] And he picks up this cat that's not supposed to be there. And then a pastor by walks in front of him. And all of a sudden, it's Charles Dickens. The scenery and the imagery in this movie was interesting because you can tell there were several layers of messages that they're wanting to lay out.

[15:51] And knowing the theology of Mormonism, knowing the theology of Unitarianism, it is as if they were saying to be like Jesus is to do good towards other people. Cats, specifically.

[16:01] And specifically to whimsical cats. Right. Which we know for sure isn't biblical. Dogs. Fine. We're going somewhere better. Right. But not cats. So the scene ended and the cat frolics away saying, I don't live for kitty litter because he's whimsical.

[16:16] What is whimsical? I don't know, but you are going to get cut into a meme for what you just did. I'm a whimsical cat prancing around at the crucifixion. All right. Here's my last comment.

[16:27] This is my critique of the movie without seeing a frame of it. I saw the trailer, but without seeing a frame of it, I have a critique that I think we need to spend some time talking about.

[16:43] And that is the actual vehicle itself. The genre of communication that we've turned our savior into a cartoon character. That is, I think, the most diminutive way to present him.

[16:53] It is the least transcendent way to describe him. And I think it's an attempt. We want to reach kids. I get that. But philosophically, it's the mindset that says, we got to go down to the kids.

[17:06] I say, let's bring the kids up. The story of Jesus is better. It doesn't require turning him into a cartoon so that they can get it. The word is better than a cartoon. We need to teach our kids that.

[17:17] So I think that we need to really think long and hard about turning our savior into a cartoon character. Now, people would say, but the kids watch it. They learn about Jesus. But I would say that's pragmatic.

[17:29] If, indeed, we should not be presenting our savior in cartoon form, then the ends don't justify the means. I think the same thing is true with taking license and liberty. We didn't even get into that.

[17:40] Did Jesus say everything? Was he just quoting Bible verses in this movie? They made it appear like that. But if you look a little bit closer into the movie, they would just tweak it just enough to push a different message.

[17:50] So they would start quoting the Bible, and then they would change the message at the very end. See, I don't think we get to do that. We don't. I don't think we get to add to the Bible. I think Revelation 22 puts the kibosh on that.

[18:00] You just don't get to embellish the text. That's why I don't think we need any of these movies that do this, or TV shows for that matter. And I think in this instance, without being entirely curmudgeonly, although I'm not afraid of that moniker, Jesus isn't trite and silly and trivial and a cartoon.

[18:21] He's our God. He's our God. He's the creator of the universe. Yes, he is near to the brokenhearted, but he's also transcendent. And if we don't portray him that way, I think that we've done it an injustice.

[18:33] And we're not doing the kids a favor. And my last thought on that would be this, just to make the point. For years, we've been doing this with Jesus with the kids. Well-intentioned.

[18:43] Let's make a cartoon. Let's turn Jesus into a cartoon in kids' books. Here's my question. How's that been working out? Have you seen the fall-away rate?

[18:56] I just read that. I think it's like four million Christian youths will say skedaddle. They'll just leave the church. They're going to abandon their faith once they get out of the home. We need to rethink how we're teaching kids.

[19:09] And rather than going down and making Jesus look trite and trivial and potentially silly, let's bring them up and introduce them to the God who really is the King of Kings.

[19:23] Discuss. Hi, Todd. Thank you for your faithful partnership with us. Thank you for loving the truth. Thank you for proclaiming it the way you do.

[19:39] All right. Turn this. Can everybody hear me through here? Okay, great.

[19:52] Enough light here. We'll turn on some more lights. Okay, as he said, discuss. So thoughts, general thoughts, specific thoughts. There's a ministry.

[20:06] It's a radio program, but now, you know, on YouTube and the like called Wretched Radio. Been around for, I don't know, 15 years or so.

[20:18] Todd Friel is the main guy who kind of runs that program. He's been on the radio for a long time. Okay, in the back.

[20:30] Brad. Overly critical. Okay. Yeah.

[20:45] Right. Here. I'm going to, just so that John and Shirley can hear us in the back.

[21:00] Hello. Test. All right. So, there were three points in particular that caught my attention that either I didn't think they did a good job portraying or I thought that they needed to expound upon a little bit more.

[21:20] Yeah. The first was right at the beginning when they were talking about Unitarianism versus the Trinity. Yeah. Can you hear me?

[21:32] All right. All right. Sorry. All right. So, regarding that point, they may or may not have a point, but they didn't address the point, really, at all.

[21:44] I didn't feel like. So, that's kind of like the same thing that the movie is doing. Well, and with the whole Unitarian thing to Charles Dickens, you know, that may have been Charles Dickens' view, but was that the view promoted in the film?

[22:01] They didn't really clarify that. But a lot of their commentary was about how the film skipped over important pieces. And I thought that if they're going to be that critical about the film doing it, they ought to not do that.

[22:15] Sure. Okay. Good point. The second thing was their comment about the cat. Okay. I thought that was a little bit silly because it seemed like, at least from the clips that they showed in the video, that that was mainly just like a plot point to get the little boy to interact with Jesus.

[22:34] Right. Right. So, I didn't really see an issue with that. Yeah. And the third point. And what topics did they mention right at the end of the video?

[22:51] About turning our savior into cartoon, that one? Yes. Or... Yeah. The kids asking questions at the theater, things like that. It's an animated movie.

[23:03] I don't like... Either... It's going to be a cartoon. It's an animated movie. What do they expect? Yeah. He was saying that you shouldn't... That...

[23:14] Maybe... Maybe... I don't know if he was solid on it, but maybe we shouldn't be making animated movies about Jesus. We shouldn't animate Jesus or turn him into a cartoon, I think was his point.

[23:25] Okay. He didn't really... He used words like trite, and I forget what else. I guess the reason that... The reason that I have a concern with that...

[23:38] Yeah. Is that if... If we try to limit how people express their understanding of Jesus or the Bible in general, then that's going to limit people's expression in other forms eventually as well, because it's not good enough now.

[24:00] Well, when we take that off the table, what's not going to be good enough next? So... But that kind of leads into a question, because we animate Jesus in all kinds of ways and have for a long time.

[24:12] I mean, we have books out on our bookshelf there with the Children's Action Bible. We have lots of children's Bibles out there. We have books out there that try to tell the stories of the Bible in an animated way.

[24:28] Do we need to take pictures of real actors and put those in the Children's Bibles or what? So... Thanks, Brad.

[24:41] Yeah. Okay. To begin with, the gentleman... I think you said his name was Todd on the right-hand side. Yeah.

[24:51] He's obnoxious. But setting that aside... He said it at the beginning, right? Didn't he use the word curmudgeonly?

[25:03] He said, you're not going to like this. So I think that came across that way. Okay. But setting that aside, whether or not... And I haven't seen the movie. Whether or not you like the movie or did not like the movie or you like it being a cartoon or not being a cartoon or animated.

[25:22] They have done surveys where they have asked children and teens about Jesus. Mm-hmm. And they don't even know the name.

[25:33] Right. So if nothing else, this is getting the name out. This is causing people to ask questions and children to ask their parents. Yes. Who's Jesus? You know? Yes.

[25:44] Whether they are Christians or religious in any way, if they go to the movie, even with their friends who know Jesus, they're going to say, hey, who is that?

[25:55] So it's going to help to spread the word. And according to them, that's exactly what happened in the theater. And they kind of focused on the bad response from the parents. But how is a movie maker supposed to, you know, be responsible for that?

[26:09] How the parents ask or answer the questions from their kids. What a tremendous thing for kids to be asking questions about Jesus and why did he die? And what is crucifixion?

[26:20] And what is sin? Just because parents don't have the right answer doesn't mean that it's great that, hey, they're asking those questions. So, yeah, I thought that that critique was not well-founded at all.

[26:35] Yeah. David, could you help the mic? Thanks. When I was listening to them, I was wondering if they were old enough to remember the old movies like the Ten Commandments, the robe, and they were not exact either.

[26:57] Right. But a lot of people went to see those movies. And a lot of people learned something from those movies. Without a doubt, yeah. Charlton Heston, the Ten Commandments, and yeah, the robe.

[27:12] I think I... Spartacus. Spartacus, yeah, has Jesus in there. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, some of them are made by Christians, especially back then.

[27:23] I know Cecil B... Cecil... Cecil B. DeMille. B. DeMille. Right? Was some kind of believer of some sort and wanted to portray those things.

[27:35] What about the criticism about the studio? Angel Studios, which they mentioned is a Mormon production company, and they're the ones, one of the ones behind The Chosen.

[28:00] What do you think about that? Is that a valid critique? Well, let me just say this. I think they either misunderstood or miscommunicated.

[28:11] They said that the Vid Angels... Or Vid Angel. Angel Studios produced the movie. That's not true. I looked that up. They did not produce it. They are known as a marketing company.

[28:24] They are very good at marketing. And with the series, The Chosen, that one is produced by Dallas Jenkins, who is a Christian.

[28:36] He's the son of Jerry Jenkins, who is most famous, I think, for writing the Left Behind series. And I don't know much about him, how solid of a believer.

[28:47] In general, it seems like he's a solid believer from the things that I've seen, whether I would agree with him on every theological point or not.

[29:00] But he partnered with Angel Studios to market the film because they are so good at marketing things.

[29:13] And so the same thing, I think, with this film. It was actually produced by Korean Christians. They're the ones behind it, but they partnered with Angel Studios to just market the film.

[29:30] From what I understand, Angel Studios, which, again, it is owned by Mormons, were not involved in the production of the film at all. But I think it would, you know, in trying to be discerning as Christians and what we watch and consume, knowing kind of who's behind things can be helpful.

[29:52] But knowing that accurately, I think, is important, too. Anything else? All right. David, you want to? Thanks.

[30:06] Did it say in the movie that the boy asked why did he have to die and there was no answer to it? Is that what it's saying? Yes. That's what I think they said.

[30:18] So somebody should have gave an answer when the kid asked that in the movie, in the cartoon or whatever. I wrote it down. No, no, no.

[30:31] Okay. So, yes, that was one of the weirdest things because they said that the question was asked, why did he need to die? And they said there was no answer.

[30:41] And then about two minutes later, here's the quote. They said he needs to die for our sins. And so they said there was no answer. And then later on they said, well, actually, they said he needs to die for our sins.

[30:55] I thought that's an answer. In fact, I think that's probably the best answer you can give, especially for a kid's film. There was a lot about, you know, the theology being not even correct but robust enough, you know, did you get into the details of what sin is.

[31:11] And I think, in my perspective, they're asking too much for a children's film. You know, and obviously you could do that in probably a way that would appeal to children and be appropriate for a children's film.

[31:27] But, again, I think maybe expecting too much or being a little bit too hard-nosed and critical.

[31:41] But one of the things they brought up was, well, is the gospel presented? And it was an outright no. But I'm thinking, what is the gospel? The gospel is that Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected, and he died for our sins.

[32:00] And according to them, anyway, that was in the film. And so I don't know why they would say that the gospel was not in there. So they said that they didn't explain what sin was.

[32:13] But what sounded like they were saying was that they had the Garden of Eden. God told them they couldn't eat the fruit, and then they ate the fruit, and that was sin. And so then they had to leave the Garden.

[32:25] That sounds like they're explaining that sin is disobeying God. Right, which seems like a very appropriate thing for a children's film. Wow. I never, I forgot about that they had the Garden in there.

[32:42] It seems like they had a personal film. I agree, and I wonder, and just to repeat, it seemed like there was a personal vendetta.

[32:53] And I kind of wonder, you know, you can try to analyze people's psychology. Why are they saying these things? But sometimes I think people feel like unless their group, their denomination, their circle of Christianity, unless they created it, they're just going to criticize it.

[33:15] And that's kind of the feeling that I get. But I don't know if, there's also people who just think that it's too risky to try to portray Jesus at all in any kind of media.

[33:32] They didn't really say that, but I kind of get the idea that nothing would make them happy in a portrayal of the life of Jesus. What's the fact that, these guys were actors, I watched the clock on it, so it never moved.

[33:49] Yeah, he's got a studio. If you watch it, he kind of has a studio, and he walks around, and he talks about things. It's all staged, and it's all designed to get people to do what we're doing.

[34:00] Go see the movie, spend money, and listen to these guys. But they're from gospel, four different directions. Only one thing a man said directly that was correct, and that was, soon as an offense against God.

[34:15] It's not a missing mark, it's not a holy chosen and becky. It's one of these subjects. Yeah. Sorry. Did you have something? Well, I was just going to say, you know, who makes movies?

[34:32] And more than they're for. Yeah. They'll make money. Yeah. And entertainment. And when you have kids involved, when you watch anything, you need to point out, this is entertainment.

[34:47] Yeah. This is what's really what Jesus is all about. This is. There's a balance there when you're making a film. You want people to go see it. Right?

[34:58] If you make a film that's going to be like a seminary education for children, people aren't going to go watch it. Right. So you need it to be entertaining for people to go see it.

[35:09] But you still want to promote the story of Jesus and some kind of message that they can walk away with. So if you don't agree with what's in the film, you're taking your kids to her grandkids, whatever.

[35:24] Yeah. And they ask questions. If you don't know what's in the film, then that's your opportunity to answer it for them. Yeah. Just take them to the Bible and say, this is what it was they were talking about.

[35:34] They may not have said the whole thing, but this is what it's all about. Yeah. Amen. Yeah, I think you have kind of two things to consider as Christians taking our kids to see it, but then also the value of making this available for unbelievers as well.

[35:49] And like you said, there are things that we watch as a family that I don't always agree with everything, but it's an opportunity to discuss the things that are in the film.

[36:00] Well, and I think the alternative is that there will be no movies about Christianity. Yeah. So I'm always thankful that someone made a movie that Christians can go to that don't have the F word or sex in it.

[36:18] Right? I mean, something that is child appropriate. I think of the movies that children go to see that are out there that are just terrible. Yeah. So I'm just thankful that someone makes movies that Christians can go to.

[36:33] Yeah, without a doubt. Yeah. And like I think we said this, there are so many young people today. You know, this is a Christian country, you know, or at least was, you know, I don't know if you can call it that today.

[36:47] But where everybody at least knew, they weren't all believers in this country, but everybody was familiar with the gospel, with the stories of the Bible. And today that is very different.

[36:58] There are kids growing up who have no clue what's in the Bible. And so seeing a movie that is exciting with the story of the Bible, and specifically the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, what a tremendous opportunity, at least in my view.

[37:15] Anything else? Let me see if I wrote some other notes here. The other question he asked, which I thought was silly, would an unbeliever be comfortable at the movie?

[37:32] And basically what they were saying was, unless you are uncomfortable as a believer watching this movie, then it's a bad movie. Isn't that what they basically said? I think that they were trying to make the point that Christians should be offensive.

[37:56] Christians should be offensive, yeah. To anybody that's not a Christian. But, I don't know.

[38:09] I don't really believe that that needs to be the case. I guess. Yeah, you know, the gospel is offensive to some people in the Bible.

[38:20] And there's lots of things in the Bible that are offensive to some people. But do we need to, yeah, try to offend people, like, intentionally? No, I don't think so.

[38:33] And just having something that is going to be an introduction to the Bible, you know, and you're going to make it as a, you know, put every offense and stumbling block in there.

[38:45] I don't know if that's wise. The other thing that they talked about was moralism. And they talked about, what's the, Charles Dickens.

[39:00] And so, Charles Dickens was a Unitarian. It seems that his view of Jesus was more of a moralistic teacher and not the savior of the world, saving us from our sins.

[39:12] I haven't looked into him. I'm not sure how true or not that is. But that is a concern. And that's what a lot of people over the centuries have tried to do with Jesus, with the Bible, with religion, is turn it into just moral teachings and take the gospel out of it, Jesus dying for the sins of the world.

[39:34] So I think it's always good to be aware, to look out for those kinds of things, people who are trying to transform the saving power of Jesus on the cross into just, you know, a good teacher.

[39:47] But from what I can see, from what they described in the movie, and from what we saw in the trailer, there was a lot in there that is pointing to Jesus dying for the sins of the world.

[40:02] And I think that's tremendous. And so I'd like to see this at some point and, you know, be able to discern better for myself.

[40:13] But I think it's great seeing a movie like this being produced. And from what I understand, doing so well at the box office, a lot of people are seeing this.

[40:24]  Well, we're out of time. Thanks, everybody. Did you guys enjoy this? Was this fun? Do this kind of thing more often, maybe? Yeah.