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A new movie will be thrown on the theater screens September 23 [1988] from Universal Studios in Hollywood. Unscrupulous, money-hungry, amoral movie producers have produced some awful things in the past, but this one will outdo them all. The film is entitled, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” It demonstrates just how sick the minds of some men are — how much enslaved to Satan some have allowed themselves to become.
The script of the movie, according to those who have read it, so perverts the simple and pure account of the life of our Lord that it is all but unrecognizable. The tragedy is, however, that Jesus is clearly identified as the one being described as a mere man such as the rest of us, and even worse, a far worse man than many. It is as though the author (Nikos Kazantzakis) of the novel upon which the movie is based was so determined that man should not live on the high plane that Christ sets before us, that he decided he would just bring the Lord down to the level of himself and other reprobates.
Some of the dialog is shocking in its blasphemy. Our sinless Savior is made to say to Mary Magdalene: “I’ve done a lot of wrong things. I’m going to the desert to be cleansed. The worst things I’ve done are to you. Forgive me.” (He is not qualified to be anyone’s Savior if He were not more than a sinful mortal Himself.) In one scene the Son of God is standing in line at Mary Magdalene’s brothel (a slander against Mary, not to mention the Lord!), and then entering the darkened room where she lies disrobed.
Christ is depicted as marrying Mary Magdalene and there is a bedroom scene involving sexual intercourse. He is made to say to her, “…now I know; a woman is God’s greatest work. And I worship you. God sleeps between your legs.” Mary Magdalene is eventually killed, after which, Jesus moves in with Mary and Martha and has children by both of them. Only a brief description at the end of the movie identifies the Lord’s relationships with the women as a dream.
A public that is sick on sin and sex and that is seeking justification for its barnyard morals will doubtless welcome this film with glee. It will be just the excuse they have been looking for— “Just as we thought; Jesus was not so ‘goody-goody’ after all! He was a hypocrite all along!” Given the abject ignorance of the Bible abroad in the world, millions will not be able to separate fantasy from fact and will swallow it all with an eager gulp! This is one more sign that modern man seems determined to outdo the generation of Noah and the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah combined in his evil inventions!
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in The Edifier, weekly bulletin of Pearl Street Church of Christ, Denton, TX, August 11, 1988, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
