WWUTT 365 Q&A Testing Christian Films?

How should we consider or test the theology being presented in Christian films? What are some verses that help us understand the doctrine of the Trinity? And how do we respond to a person who believes in God the Mother?

The answer to these questions and more when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

Testing the Theology of Christian Films

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody.

It is Friday. And on the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners. If you would like to submit a question, email is the best way to get it to us. Whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Now I've received quite a few emails lately that are not necessarily for on-air purposes. So if you're waiting for a response from me, thank you for being patient. With a new baby in the home, we're experiencing what it's like to not sleep again.

And our kids have been sick lately, too. Hasn't been anything serious, just runny noses and coughs. But it gets us up at night having to reapply the VapoRub and that sort of thing. So I'm behind on a lot of stuff.

And thank you for bearing with me as I try to get caught up. Today we are one month away from the theatrical release of the movie adaptation of the bestselling book The Shack by William Young. Earlier this week, I had an exchange with Lecrae, the rapper Lecrae on Twitter.

He made a statement about The Shack. He said that it was a great movie, nothing theological, just some deep thoughts about God or something of that nature. And I pointed out to him that if you are talking about God, you are being theological.

If what you're saying is not grounded in sound orthodoxy, then it's probably heretical. And then he deleted his tweet. But there's no indication that he has taken back his endorsement of The Shack. He's still supporting the movie, and we're going to see several Christian celebrities that will come out and support this film.

William Young himself has said that The Shack is theology. It's his thoughts about God. This is a quote from William Young. He says, please don't misunderstand me. The Shack is theology, but it is a theology wrapped in a story.

The word becoming flesh, living inside the blood and bones of common human experience, which is itself an extra biblical statement. That's unbiblical for him to apply. The word became flesh, a statement from John 1 to his fiction book, The Shack.

There's all kinds of problems with this book. I have read the book, have not seen the movie, but I know the film is going to be full of the same kinds of false teaching that's in the book. And there are all kinds of reviews that you can find to see just how off what it is William Young says about God in his book.

Tim Chalies has written perhaps the most thorough review of The Shack that I have read, but also Al Mohler, Josh Booth, The Cripplegate. There are several places where you can go and find thorough reviews of this book.

I've said previously that I was going to do a review of the book, but there are so many good ones out there. I really don't think I need to. There's more than enough material out there. However, we have put together a what video reviewing five of some of the most glaring errors in William Young's theology that he presents in The Shack.

That video is going to be uploaded to YouTube today. Here's the audio. The Shack, a novel by William Paul Young, has sold over 20 million copies and has been made into a feature film. It's about a man whose daughter was murdered, leading him to ask why a loving God would allow such evil.

He goes back to the place where she died and meets God as a woman who goes by Papa, the Holy Spirit also a woman, and Young's version of Jesus. Though The Shack is fiction, it teaches unbiblical ideas Young said he believes about God.

He believes God the Father was crucified with Jesus, a heresy called patripassianism that was condemned in the third century. The Son of God was crucified on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, absorbing the wrath of God the Father.

Young's version of Jesus says that he's the best way to have a relationship with God, but the Bible says he's the only way to God. Young's Jesus teaches that God submits to us. Psalm 2 says God laughs at such pride and holds them in derision.

He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. God submits to no one, but we are to submit to Him. Young's God says that He places no expectations on us, but God clearly commands that we turn from our sin and obey His Son, Jesus.

Those who do have eternal life, those who don't, are under His wrath. Young's God says that all people are His children whom He loves, but the Bible says only those in Christ are His adopted sons and daughters.

Those who do not believe are children of wrath, and their father is the devil. The Shack contains a false gospel and teaches only wrong things about God. We know the spirit of truth from the spirit of error when we understand the text.

It grieves my heart knowing that there are churches all over this country buying up tickets to this film and giving them to members of their congregation saying things like, it's just a movie, it's just entertainment, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just some things to think about considering God.

The Shack is heresy. Have nothing to do with it. A few weeks ago, I did a review of another Christian film entitled The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, and some of you may have read my review, which I posted on my blog.

You can get to the blog, by the way, by going to pastorgabe .com, it'll take you straight to the blog page. Well, it just so happens that the director of the film, Dallas Jenkins, read my review and sent me an email, and we had a little bit of an exchange, and I asked if I could read these emails on the broadcast, and he gave me permission to do that, which is important to me, by the way.

I know what it's like to be sending emails to a person and think that's being done in confidence, and all of a sudden, I'm seeing my emails in an article, or there was a YouTube video one time, I'm watching the video and seeing screenshots of my emails, like, thanks a lot, guys.

Anyway, Dallas did give me permission to read these emails, and he even said he would be willing to come on and do an interview, but because I do these so late at night, you know, if we do something like that, it would have to be at another time.

First of all, let me read the conclusion of my review. I said, the Resurrection of Gavin Stone is a lighthearted film that pretends to be a Christian movie, but is actually everything wrong with American Christianity.

What makes the scene where Gavin shares his mock testimony ironic is this. That's everything this movie is. It makes you think you're hearing and seeing something genuinely Christian, just as Gavin presented himself as somebody who is genuinely Christian.

But it's every bit as fake as fake Christianity can be. So in response to my review, I got this email, Hey, man, Dallas Jenkins here, director of the Resurrection of Gavin Stone. I'm not bothered at all by your review, although I do wonder, how did you get all the dialogue so accurate?

How did you watch the movie? Did someone send you a link or something? Negative reviews don't bother me, but I do think you should at least be accurate. And then he quoted from my review, Gavin's research about Jesus never involves reading the Bible.

He Googles some Christian catchphrases, but never opens up the scriptures. There's not one sermon, not even a Bible lesson. He goes to church, but we only hear a popular worship song, never any of the pastor's message.

He goes to a small group, but Gavin prays a braveheart prayer over pizza. Dallas goes on, leaving aside the fact that Gavin wasn't researching Jesus until after he first goes to church in small group.

It's simply factually incorrect that we never see him reading the Bible or listen to one sermon. Go back and check the movie, the very scenes that take place after she challenges him to learn more about Jesus, and I'm sure you want to at least be accurate in your assessments.

Either way, God bless, or should I say, blessings, peace be to you, Dallas. So I responded and said, hey, Dallas, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for emailing me.

Truly, I appreciate you reaching out. I apologize for not responding right away. We just had a baby this week. I was contacted by a promotional group who I believe was contracted by the studio distributing the movie.

They saw several of my reviews of Christian films and asked if I would critique the resurrection of Gavin Stone. They knew most of my reviews were particularly critical. I'm guessing it was one of those things where any kind of publicity is positive.

I was sent a link to watch the movie online under the agreement that I would get a review out by January 20th, and it was January 19th is when the review was posted. As far as the director's chair goes, I want you to know sincerely that you did a good job.

There were a couple paragraphs in the review that were technical in nature, and I deleted them when I published the blog because they didn't really fit. One of the things that I said was that the actors and the director made up for the weak script.

Pacing, blocking, cinematography, editing, all were done rather well and kept the movie entertaining despite its shortcomings. It wasn't dull, and I was never bored. By contrast, Exodus, Gods and Kings and Noah were ridiculously boring.

So well done, man. You did better with your material than Ridley Scott and Darren Aronofsky did with theirs. That said, the movie was not without its problems, and you read that in the review. The church is currently fighting through an era where biblical inerrancy is claimed but not practiced.

Andy Stanley says he believes the Bible is inerrant, but then he boasts in the same breath that he preaches entire sermons without quoting it, and I've heard him do this. He tells his congregation and other teachers not to use the Bible because unbelievers don't get it.

How authoritative and without error does he truly think the Bible is? The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10 17. Of God's own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.

James 1 18. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. He gave it to us and is growing us in it as well. Hebrews 12 to where the word of God is absent. So is faith. The film The Resurrection of Gavin Stone takes the same approach as Andy Stanley.

It's Christian, but not really. It uses all the catchwords but doesn't tell you anything about it. In fact, the Bible is so scant that if there were shots, as you said, of Gavin reading the Bible, I miss them.

And you can tell by my capturing of the dialogue how particular I am to detail. We see Gavin sitting in a church listening to a sermon, but we have no idea what that sermon is. Was there any Bible in that sermon?

Or was it like an Andy Stanley sermon where the Bible isn't even included? Even at the end of their passion play, the pastor speaks to the congregation for a moment, but we have no idea what he says. In this case, a picture is not worth a thousand words.

What little bit of the Bible we have, for example, during the passion play, which is portrayed in the film, what comes from the Bible is altered. When Gavin as Jesus is begging the rich man not to walk away, he goes off script and says, don't go.

You're going to miss all of this. All of what? The movie has literally not told us anything about Christianity. Dallas, my statement was accurate. What the movie did not include of that particular Bible scene was the disciples astonished by Jesus words and asking him who then can be saved.

And Jesus said, with man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Mark 10, 17 through 31 is where we find that story. And how is a person saved by the word of Christ?

As Colossians 3, 16 instructs, let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. And I'm adding in here something I didn't say to Dallas, but we never see in the film.

Gavin hearing the word of God, and therefore there is no evidence of his transformation from sinner to repentant saint. I then gave a plug for the, when we understand the text ministry and concluded my email, Pastor Gabe, and then Dallas emailed me again and said, thanks for responding.

All I can say is that this was a movie, not a church service, not intended to capture sermons or Bible readings. When Jesus told parables, they were different in content than when he quoted scripture.

I was telling a story, not capturing a church service on film. You can critique what was left out of the movie, but you'd be hard pressed to find one thing in the film that was contradictory whatsoever to biblical inerrancy, something our church and pastor hold to passionately.

Thanks again, Dallas. You know, when I worked in Christian radio, I used to make the excuse because I would get phone calls from people who would have a problem with some of the songs that were playing and how the lyrics were not biblically accurate.

The thing is that those people were probably sound in their doctrine and I was not at the time. And so I would argue with them and I would say things like, Hey, these musicians that you're hearing on the air, they're not pastors.

All right. This isn't a church service. If you want to get a sermon, you go to church to get a sermon. And sometimes we would play an Amy Grant song and we would get somebody that would call in and complain.

Amy Grant got divorced. Why are you still playing her music? And I would say, well, she's not a pastor. We're not holding her to that standard. And I was wrong to say those things. When a Christian musician is singing a song about God, whether it's in front of the church, on the radio, at a concert, they are teaching something in their lyrics.

It says in James three, one, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Movies, music, television are not in some entertainment category over here.

We don't test those things the same way. Yes, we absolutely should test them. Paul said to the Thessalonians to test everything, hold fast to what is good and abhor what is evil. Something is being taught through movies like the shack, the resurrection of Gavin Stone.

If what is being taught does not line up with solid historical biblical orthodoxy, then what is being said is probably heretical. In the case of the shack, I can tell you it is heretical. In the case of the resurrection of Gavin Stone, it was merely fake, but but nonetheless, nothing that you can truly learn about God and what is being portrayed in that film is going on in that church should never happen in any church.

Gavin Stone never should have had an opportunity to perform as Jesus in that play, and the pastor should have been discerning enough to pick up right away. This man has no idea who Jesus is, and it takes Gavin in the film confessing that he's not a Christian for anybody to for it to occur to anyone that he actually wasn't a Christian.

The Trinity and Biblical Inerrancy

Let's get to some other emails here. This one comes from Steven in Paris, Texas. Awesome. I got an email from Paris, even if it's Paris, Texas. He says, Dear, what I am so thankful for your videos and podcast episodes.

I especially like podcast episode 57 or 58, where you talk about the Holy Trinity in depth. I know there was one earlier than that. I just can't remember which one it was. Even your YouTube video is extremely helpful.

Also, my question would be to a friend of mine who believes in the oneness of God and denies the Trinity. He thinks that because the Bible doesn't say Trinity, it can't be true. Therefore, he won't listen to anything that I say about it.

How can I tell him that the Trinity is true without using the word Trinity, Triune or three persons in description? What scriptures would be best to show him also? Thank you again, Steven. Well, first, even you could tell your friend the word Bible isn't in the Bible.

So same with the words Old Testament and New Testament. You will find the Old Testament labeled the New Testament labeled, but within the text itself, it doesn't it doesn't ever say New Testament. There's all kinds of doctrinal words that we use that do not appear in the scriptures, but describe something that is being taught by the scriptures.

And that's the case with Trinity. Trinity is an essential doctrine. It is necessary to understand that God is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To deny that is to deny something fundamental about God.

We have it in the most famous evangelical verse that we use, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son and whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

So what are some other passages that we can use that display the triune nature of God? Well, one of the one of the biggest passages really is Matthew chapter three, verses 16 through 17, where you have the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.

And when Jesus was baptized immediately, he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Jesus is not a ventriloquist. He's not casting his voice into heaven. And then it's the voice of God that's coming down, you know, as Jesus is actually saying it. This is the voice of the father speaking about the son and the Holy Spirit has come to rest on him.

All three persons of the Trinity on display there at the baptism of Jesus. And then the very next verse, which is the first verse of chapter four, it says that Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

So there you have, again, a distinguishing title between Jesus and the Holy Spirit who is leading him into the wilderness. The prayers of Christ are another thing to use because who is Jesus praying to?

He's not talking to himself. He is speaking to God, the father. So Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, go to John chapter 17. That's a good one. The high priestly prayer that Jesus prays to God, the father.

So some of those passages will help you, I think, Stephen, in helping your friend understand a hermeneutical perspective concerning the Holy Trinity of God. This next email comes from Emmanuel. He says, hey, you guys, God bless.

Recently, a group of girls came up to me at school and tried to impose their beliefs on me. They claim to be part of World Mission Society Church of God. They were saying that there is a God, God the mother, and we need to come to her for salvation.

They were using Revelation 22, 17 as their backup verse. I didn't really know what to say to them. I know the only way to come to God is through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I told them that and they just ignored what I said.

So I was wondering if you guys can make a video about God the mother and how it's false. God bless and thank you. Hope to hear a response from you guys. I really need some help. Well, appreciate your email, Emmanuel.

If we're going to do an email or I'm sorry, if we're going to do a video on God the mother, it's probably going to be sometime into the future. But I have written before about this particular religion.

It was started by An Song Hong, who died in 1985. He founded a church called the Witnesses of Jesus Christ Church of God. And there was a schism after his death and the church split into two different churches, the New Covenant Passover Church of God and the World Mission Society Church of God, which is the one that you're talking about.

New Covenant Passover Church of God regards An as a teacher, but the World Mission Society Church of God believes that An Song Hong is God. So already you have something radically heretical in the church before you even get to this understanding of there being a God the mother.

Now there's estimated to be about two million members of this church and over 2000 churches in 150 countries. So it's not quite as widespread as like Mormonism or the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is growing and increasing.

They claim that all their teachings come from the Bible, which is it's actually just them twisting and contorting the words of the Bible. But they'll say that everything that they believe comes from the scriptures.

They believe that there is a God, the father and a God, the mother, based on Revelation 2217, which says the spirit and the bride say come, which is, you know, the spirit and the church welcoming a person to come into the body of Christ is simply all that's being stated there.

And also Galatians 426, where Paul says the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. All Paul is referencing here, it's just a poetic way of saying that we are the children of the new Jerusalem.

Paul is not saying that there is a God, the mother, but it's passages like this. Also some verses in Genesis where God is talking about himself in the collective we and they'll take those passages to say, well, he's talking about God, the father and God, the mother.

And as a matter of fact, there is a South Korean woman whose name is Zhang Gilja. If I'm pronouncing that right, they believe she's God, the mother. So so according to this church, the World Mission Society, Church of God on Song Hong is the return of Christ and is also God, the father, Zhang Gilja is God, the mother.

So what sort of passages can you use in response to this false teaching? Well, Jesus pretty directly confronted this in Matthew chapter 24, when when he said, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe it.

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect CI have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out.

If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the West, so will be the coming of the son of man. So again, the World Mission Society, Church of God believes that on Song Hong is the return of Christ.

And Matthew 24 directly confronts that as being a false teaching. In second Peter 316, the apostle says that the ignorant and unstable twist the scriptures to their own destruction. So we must heed the instruction of the apostle Paul is given to his servant Timothy in second Timothy to 15.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid a reverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

In the words of Christ our Savior, go and sin no more.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, gospel-teaching, Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.