THE PASSION SNARE
I am troubled at my heart as I realize that many SDAs are buckling on their running gear to race out to view the latest snare of the devil, the movie by Mel Gibson, "The Passion".

Oh that they would realize all is not gold that glitters! This movie is NOT what Adventists and Evangelicals are believing it is. It is NOT going to glorify the Lord. It is a subtle attack on true protestant beliefs. For one thing it is a gory spectacle to delight the carnal heart, it is never good to look upon scenes of brutality- by
beholding we become changed!

Perhaps even more serious is it is based on Roman Catholic Mysticism. It is important to realize that the RCC looks upon the scenes of the death of Christ in a very mystical and spiritualistic way. For them the incarnation in the wafer on the altar is far more important than His life and death here on earth.

Mel Gibson is a staunch Roman Catholic; indeed yes! He has stated in the past that he believes that no one can be saved outside the RCC. Even though he is married to a 'Protestant' wife and admits she is a better Christian in many ways than he is, he stated he accepts what the church declares in this matter. And
yet now he is claiming to believe that all no matter what anyone believes, whether they believe in Christ or not, they can be saved. So he has gone to Universalism.

Mel has had a life long admiration for a certain Roman Catholic Mystic- Anne Catherine Emmerich. indeed he carries a relic of this person. It was his dream to make a movie based on her book of visions called The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The mystic is Anne Catherine Emmerich, and when one reads her life story, one sees that all her writings -- all her revelations -- carried the kind of power -- and caused the kind of controversy -- now being generated by the movie.

In her life, she suffered the stigmata. These are bleeding wounds that Roman Catholic Mystics claim to be the actual pains of what Christ went through in His Passion. When her convent was suppressed in 1811, she went to a private home, where she spent the rest of her life confined to bed until her death on
February 9, 1824, at the age of fifty.

Friends, we know that these things are just part of the miracles by which Satan will deceive the whole world into making the image to the beast! This poor woman was a victim of demon possession. There is great danger in viewing anything as deeply emotional as this movie is- and even deeper danger in viewing something based on writings of a person possessed. I believe that many SDA's are going to be hypnotized, or worse, if they go to see this movie. Reports call the phenomenon an 'unusual influence.'

My dear fellow SDAs - We have been given something that no other group on earth has been given, we have an EYEWITNESS account of just what the Lord wants us to know about Gethsemane, Jesus' trial and mocking, death and resurrection. Ellen White was SHOWN it like a movie- but it was no man made counterfeit ? it was the actual happenings shown her in vision. You can read them in the REAL Desire of ages and also in the accounts in the Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2 - and Spiritual Gifts, Volume 1. We have understanding and information the world does not have.

Here is what another writer shows about Mel Gibson: Terry Mattingly shows us another angle. His religion column, "The passion of old words and symbols" (01-21-04), relates Mel Gibson's goals and beliefs to the Catholic Mass: "It is crucial to realize that the images and language at the heart of 'The Passion of the Christ' flow directly out of Gibson's personal dedication to Catholicism in one of its most traditional and mysterious forms -- the 16th century Latin Mass.
"'I don't go to any other services,' the director [Mel Gibson] told the Eternal Word Television Network. 'I go to the old Tridentine Rite. That's the way that I first saw it when I was a kid. So I think that that informs one's understanding of how to transcend language....

"The goal of the movie is to shake modern audiences by brashly juxtaposing the 'sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the altar which is the same thing,' said Gibson. "This ancient union of symbols and sounds has never lost its hold on him. There is, he stressed, 'a lot of power in these dead languages.' Thus, the seemingly bizarre choice of Latin and Aramaic was actually part of the message. The goal of Gibson's multicultural, multilingual team was to make a statement that transcended any one time, culture and tongue."

Why- Oh Why- will we stick our necks right onto the chopping block of one of Satan's overmastering delusions?? Demon angels will accompany that movie- you can be sure. Satan just loves to see the suffering he inflicted on Jesus- he'll be on the front row. Many of the spiritualistic concepts put out by a thing like this are very subtle, often they seem 'logical' to our human minds- we begin to mull them over and Satan just walks in and takes over the throne of our lives. Adventists long believed that to go to view theatrical and movie shows would place them outside of the protection of the holy angels. Perhaps many of us laugh at such 'simplistic fears' now- but it is actually true. Friends; If you want to know the TRUTH about the death of Christ- read it in your King James Bible and in the parts about it in the Spirit of prophecy. But to chase after this new delusion of the devil- is to court demon possessionand destruction to your soul!