Monday, January 23, 2006

"End of the Spear".

Carol and I saw this movie on Saturday. World Magazine has an article about it here. As a production, I would give it three stars (out of four) and call it a worthy effort, well worth seeing.

Of particular interest to me was that the following words (and others in their vein )did not appear in the movie, at least in English: Jesus, Lord, God, sin, redemption, repentance, Holy Spirit. Yet the movie presented the Gospel as the story developed. This was refreshing in a movie produced by Christians for a secular movie culture. I hope it works.

This morning on WMCU, our Christian radio station, the new DJ criticized the movie because it was not religious enough. You just want to grab someone like that and give them a good shake.

Yesterday Van preached on Acts 16: 1-3. There Paul meets Timothy, the son of a Jewess. Before they begin Paul's second missionary journey, Paul circumcises Timothy. Van pointed out the irony of this act, in light of the resolution in Jerusalem, described in the fifteenth chapter, of the controversy over whether one must first become a Jew before becoming a Christian. Paul, of course, was firmly on the side of those who said that becoming a Jew was not at all necessary and such a requirement was a needless stumbling block for Gentiles. The "apostles, elders and brethren" in Jerusalem agreed. Yet Paul is careful about observing the conventions with Timothy in order to remove what might be a stumbling block for those they wish to reach with the Gospel on the journey that they are about to begin. Paul said elsewhere that he would be "all things to all men" in order to communicate the Gospel.

So I applaud the producers of "The End of the Spear". We need more strategic thinking like that.

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