Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Last night I went with a group of homeschool moms to see "The End of the Spear". I was aware of the controversy surrounding the lead actor, Chad Allen, and his homosexual activism, but decided to go and see for myself. I can only pray that during the time that Mr. Allen spent with the people and Steve Saint that he was somehow touched with the truth of the Gospel because the film itself, while good, really minimalizes the Gospel and the work that the missionaries were doing there.

The movie is good, it moves at a good pace, although it can be a bit confusing because many of the people look alike. It has a realism about it. But...Jesus is only mentioned as God's Son in what is the only reference to the Gospel, and that reference is somewhat veiled. It is said in a way that made sense to the natives and believers would get it, but it is not a strong enough statement to make unbelievers in a theater get it.

We never really get to see what motivated the missionaries. I have read Elisabeth Elliot's book Through the Gates of Splendor and these missionaries were so motivated by the desire to introduce Christ to those who had never heard of Him. They were motivated by their desire to be obedient to God's call upon their lives. They weren't there to play games or rack up points on their scorecard, they had a sincere desire to reach these lost people for Christ so that they would one day join them in Heaven.

Why are we so afraid to present Christianity to a starving world? What do we fear? We are told not to fear man, they can do nothing to us, yet we dumb it down, we shirk away from the entire truth. I know that they say a movie with a strong Christian message would never play well or make money and that a weak Christian message is better than none at all and someone might find Christ, but if we don't preach and teach exactly what Christianity is, if we dilute the message and make it user friendly, we are fooling ourselves and people are not truly being saved.


2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Without repentance, there can be no salvation. Paul writes in Acts 26:20b (NIV)
I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.

If our deeds show no repentance for our sins, something must be wrong. Unfortunately, the movie does not show how the natives change, why they have repented, it just shows that some have.

At the end they had a wonderful opportunity to show what God's forgiveness is like, but they muted that as well. It's too bad, because they had an opportunity here to make a wonderful movie about committed Christian men dying for others and then seeing how God moves in people to draw them to Himself and grant forgiveness and salvation, but they softened the message to make it more palatable to the world.


All of that being said, you have to decide through prayer whether or not you will see this movie. I have chosen to pray that God will use this movie and the many opportunities Mr. Allen will have to converse with Christians to glorify Himself and bring Mr. Allen to Christ. If he is such an outspoken advocate for his current lifestyle, wouldn't he be a wonderful, outspoken testimony to God's grace, forgiveness, and righteousness. May the Lord bring conviction to his heart and may Mr. Allen receive God's truth.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was here. Great stuff!!
REALLY crafty! Hang in there!