| Last night, members of my church went to the local showing
of The Passion. While the movie was playing, we set up banners
directly across the street from the movie exit. One banner read, "How
shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" and the other read,
"Repent ye, and believe the gospel." We had people with gospel
tracts waiting on the sidewalk on each side of the exit doors. They also
had a special tract for Catholics ready where needed.
The people came out mostly silent. I preached to them from directly
across the street. I only preached as loud as was necessary for all to
hear, which was not very loud, given the silence of the people. I let them
know that we do not assume that all seeing the movie are unsaved but that
we were there to share the gospel with the unsaved.
We gave out many tracts and had some good interaction. I believe that
the Lord did work among the people through our witness. Quite frankly,
those coming out of the theater showed no signs of revival but only
worldly sorrow for the man whom they saw tortured. Several Christians
seemed upset with us, even though our presence was low-key (for us
anyway). Several wicked individuals whom we know said the usual wicked
things. I received some angry looks from known Catholics when I preached
about the futility of attempting to earn salvation through sacraments,
indulgences, purgatory, or good works and spoke of the Catholic church as
a false church which is leading many down the broad way of destruction. At
the same time, some of the Catholics took our tract An
Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics. A newspaper reporter
interviewed me concerning our witness, and I told him that The Passion
is against the Bible in that it both adds and subtracts from God's Holy
Word.
We did have some good conversations, and I trust that the preaching of
God's Word will be used by Him for His purposes. We are going back out to
minister at the same theater tonight and tomorrow night. I would encourage
those of you who are able to go out and witness of the true gospel at a
showing of The Passion. Those who attend the movie surely are not
going to get it in the theater. What they will get is a Romanist
counterfeit filled with false doctrine meant to subtly turn their hearts
toward Roman Catholicism. I would encourage you to visit pcc.sermonaudio.com
and listen to a sermon I did last Sunday on The Passion. This movie
will reveal the hearts of many. Christians—and their leaders—will take
one of three positions on the movie:
- It is an unbiblical assault upon God's Word on behalf of the Roman
Catholic Church.
- It has some "bad doctrine" or "unbiblical
things" in it, but God will use it anyway.
- It is a fantastic evangelistic tool, a real blessing from heaven.
It will be interesting to watch this issue play out. Brace yourselves
to hear about the many conversions to Christ which this movie will
supposedly produce. We hear the same from the Billy Graham crusades, but
where is the revival? The Lord will not bless a movie that so assaults His
Word. May God help us in this hour of apostasy. I am going to preach on
this subject again this Lord's Day. |
