Last Friday night over 100 youth from my church gathered to go watch the film Son of God. I walked into the theater pleased to see so many youth come together to watch the latest film from Hollywood about Jesus Christ. Our group and another church group had a private screening of this film. It was nice to see everyone come together. Then the film began....
We were brought into a political struggle between the Roman government and Jewish citizens, showing the persecution of the people, and within that we had the context of the High Priests staying in favor of Pontius Pilate for their own survival. Then there was Jesus Christ---to me he was portrayed as a friend, the kind of guy you would want to hang out with, the rebel against the Jewish High Priests. The film begins with John the Evangelist reading off chapter 1 of his gospel and we were brought into the life of Jesus Christ---and then the inaccuracies began.
My issues with this movie were the inaccuracies of Biblical text. So many have argued with me saying that Hollywood adaptations of books are normally incorrect, so I should be happy that there is something out there that shows Jesus in a good light. My response to this is the following: The Bible isn't any normal book out there, it's a Holy Book and if you're going to depict the events and sayings of a Holy Book, do it accurately--audiences deserve the truth, accuracy and honor of the adaptation of the Word. If this movie is going to be used as a teaching tool of the Gospel, then we have failed accurately teaching the Word of God. I am aware of the various English translations of the Bible that are floating in this world. Which brings me to another point? Are we trying to be accurate in finding the true translation? I mean stuff was so far off like telling Peter "Let's Change the World"--I nearly had an aneurysm and had to stuff more popcorn in my face in order to calm myself down. Or the part where Jesus tells Nicodemus in the film 'You must be born again of spirit'.--right there is a heresy on it's own completely changing John 3:5 verse in order to fit the interpretation of the producers of the film. Also for drama effects, Jesus told St. Mary 'With God all things are possible' as he was dragging the cross. NO IT WASNT SAID AT THAT TIME. There were other things that bothered me but will not go into detail for now. The lack of accuracy pretty much angered me because I felt it's misleading to the so many people who have spent money to watch a film on Jesus.
The cool parts of the movie was seeing some 'miracles' in action--ie feeding of five thousand and the healing of the paralytic man brought through the roof. Seeing this put to visuals helped me see the story from a different perspective. I like the raising of Lazarus scene but the inaccuracy of how he was brought back to life, killed it for me completely.
Many have argued with me about my views regarding this movie because I should be thankful that Hollywood has produced a successful Jesus movie that can move the hearts of people and teach others about our faith. I believe the vast majority who will see this movie are Christians themselves who are uninterested about the accuracy of Biblical text for the sake of the general joy that Jesus is portrayed in a good light. If you encourage people to go see this movie, I would recommend that you tell them to watch with caution since there are inaccuracies and not take everything as the 'Word'.
I personally would not recommend people to see this film (yes go throw tomatoes at me and call me names). It can cause confusion with the gross Biblical inaccuracies. I wish there was more attention paid to the Scripture instead of just really odd interpretations---or at least the film makers should have added a pretext that this is their interpretation of the Life of Jesus. If you want to spread the Gospel and the Word, do it right. Don't act on people's emotions and acting to attract people. Our church forefathers fought tooth and nail to preserve the faith. It's so easy for us to go with the majority saying that details don't matter, it's the big picture. However I feel strongly the opposite...the details do matter and they can blossom into something bigger.
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