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"The Cross" Movie: Is This The Old Cross?
3/27/2009
I just finished watching “The Cross” and I’m not sure what I feel. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel sort of numb and sad. It’s a weird mixture of emotions sort of like spaghetti with grape jelly sauce.
Let me say up front that I love and respect Arthur Blessitt and I pray for him almost everyday and have done so for years. He’s is one of the few people in the world that I truly feel the fear of the Lord concerning saying anything critical of him because I have no doubt that the Lord has guided and used him in a mighty way. Who am I to offer advice to or critique a man like him? It’s like all of the millions of middle-aged men with bulging bellies gathering around the television watching football and yelling their advice to the quarterbacks. If I had accomplished a tenth of what God has done through him it would be beyond my wildest imaginings.
Every since I met him as young Christian in the mid-70s I have admired him and wanted to be like him. Even during the years when I was running from God I still admired his honesty, purity, and simplicity. I’ve said for years that his life would make a great movie and I was thrilled when I found out that they were actually making one. But then I began to see some things that appeared to be warning signs. I won’t go into it all but you can read about it in my previous article.
When I found out that Matt Crouch of TBN was producing and directing the film, my trepidation deepened. TBN has not exactly been a bastion of sound doctrine and they embody what is often called “the prosperity gospel.” But I really hoped despite my reservations, that Arthur’s story would be accurately and professionally told without any TBN spin.
The day after the debut, I watched the video of the premier. I sat in my den and, again, felt a strange and hard-to-define mixture of emotions. To see Arthur walking down the rows of thousands of enthusiastic supporters shaking their hands thrilled me. I wept as I thought of how it was sort of a picture of the scene I had envisioned when we all stand before our Lord and I get to see Arthur receive his reward as I cheer him on. But Matt Crouch and his wife and the Pastors of Prosperity joining them via satellite from Orlando seemed to defile the proceedings. I skipped through their spiels when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I really wanted to see Arthur’s reaction when he emerged from the theater after seeing the film for the first time but the show ended just as he came out.
So today, my wife and I went to an early showing of the film. Most of his story I already knew but I listened intently as Arthur told story after story of his travels narrated by Matt Crouch. The production end of it left a little to be desired but it wasn’t my focus. At times I was deeply moved but oddly enough I didn’t shed a single tear. Perhaps I had already shed mine during the premier. The most moving part was at the end when I think Arthur gave us a peek into his heart about what God had enabled him to do. I don’t think Arthur would know how to put on a false front and his transparency was both painful and beautiful to watch.
But I was disturbed by a recurring theme brought out by both Matt and Arthur. They spoke of redefining the cross. One of the Pastors in Orlando during the premier spoke of how the cross wasn’t going to take away anything from you. That it was, in fact, a “big plus sign” and that it was going to add to your life. Arthur said in an interview concerning the movie that “it's part of my life's mission to reinterpret the meaning of the cross for people so they can see that the cross is not something that's against them, but the ultimate symbol of God's love.” 1 He spoke of the cross being “friendly.” As Matt said, the cross is “a message of hope, love and unity -- not divisiveness, death and killing. And, everyone can get behind that.” 2
The message that was given was that God loves you and all you had to do was believe in and accept Him. There was no mention of sin (although Arthur said once in the film that “people already knew they had problems”), the necessity of repentance, the death of self, and the reason they needed a Savior (i.e., the reality and justice of God’s judgment and Hell).
So my question is, how does Jesus view the cross? Does He see it as “friendly” and a symbol of unity? Does He see it as a” big plus sign?” Or is it a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” as stated in Romans 9:33? Is not the cross the place where we must each give ourselves up to death so that we might receive the life of Christ? Can a person be resurrected to new life without the old life being ended first? Isn’t THAT what the cross symbolizes?
Matthew 10:38 “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Romans 6:3-7 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Romans 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Galatians 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The Gospel that many of our spiritual forefathers (including the apostles) were martyred for consisted of the whole counsel of God and not just the single concept that God loves you. That is at best an incomplete picture of who God is and lays an incomplete foundation for new Christians to build on. The inevitable result will be immature Christians who are easily deceived and who easily fall by the wayside.
The concept of a “friendly” cross and a “big plus sign” keeps giving me a mental image of a cross with a big “Happy Face" on it. And I think it grieves God’s heart. A. W. Tozer said it best:
From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique-a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, ‘Come and assert yourself for Christ.’ To the egotist it says, ‘Come and do your boasting in the Lord.’ To the thrill seeker it says, ‘Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.’ The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence against him.
What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Savior, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God's approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.”
Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
If the only message we give to the world is that God loves you then there is certainly nothing there for them to be offended at. If the cross doesn’t mean the end of your self but it just wants to add to your life then, again, who could be offended at that? This message can be gladly received by all people of any religion or of no religion. But when the idea of responsibility for and punishment of sin comes up and the fact that you must die before you are born again, then you can count on opposition. When the idea that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God is presented then the stones will start flying!
“All unannounced and mostly undeteced there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.
However, having said all thus, I believe that God has rewarded Arthur’s faithfulness in being true to the part of the Gospel that he had. But Arthur is simply a man like the rest of us and is fallible. If I can be as faithful to what God has given me I will have done well. It is my sincere hope and prayer that Arthur will take on the mantle of leading the church in discernment and sound doctrine as he has in evangelistic zeal. He has the respect of many Christian leaders around the world and they might listen to him when they would listen to no one else. Finish well, my brother.
1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29751966/
2. http://channels.isp.netscape.com/celebrity/celebgossip.jsp?feature=ce_cel_02252009