The depiction of the Fallen Priest in Japan 17th C… has a strong message by director Martin Scorsese.
It’s not only Ok to Apostatize… it makes sense… it stops suffering… and is encouraged by the finally speaking Jesus himself.
If the officials are persecuting Christians… why is it posited that it is the Priest who are “causing” the torture and death?
Why is the premise of justified persecution Ok because the “bad simple minded Westerners” come and threaten a civilization with a counter cultural idea about Religion, God, and life?
Flip the premise… have Easterners come with a “Foreign” religion to the West… with the Westerners justified in persecution… torture… and murder… of “others” with different ideas that threaten the West. Oh… believe me… the values presented would be completely different. How could bad “Westerners (i.e. Christians)” be so horrible and wrong to persecute people with various ideas?
The hypocrisy is glaring. Why is everyone so ready to chastise a hypocritical Christian and be accepting and supporting of hypocritical “others”?
Let’s try to be fair. Please.
Even though I did appreciate the real life tensions in the struggle of faith, doubt, trials, and apostasy… the theology was horrendous.
Jesus finally breaks his “silence” and speaks to the Priest and tells him to apostatize in order to stop others from suffering because he already suffered for them… that simply is horrible… terrible… Theology. (I’m not asking you if you agree with that… I’m saying that that is a false presentation of what the Bible and Christianity thinks.)
“Hey… all religions are the same… there is no reason to stand for Jesus… go ahead… curse me… it’s no big deal.”
Is that congruent with what Jesus said… or is that counter to what Jesus said?
(I know what Scorsese depicts Jesus as saying in the movie… but is that true or false?)
“If anyone comes preaching another Gospel… or another Jesus other than the one we presented… you accept that easily enough.” 2 Cor. 11:4. Gal. 1:6-9.
Hmmm… here I am again… faced with… do I believe what the world says… or will I believe what the Scriptures say.
Hey… how about this… no one should support the killing of other people from other religions?
How about this… not forcing Apostasy with torture?
How about this… not always presenting Westerners as hypocritical, simple minded, fools… I mean… we can all share those traits as we consider history… right?
How about those morals for the story?
Don’t waste your time on this movie (2hours 41min)… not cause I am closed minded… remember… I paid $10 bucks to see it… it’s just not a good movie.
Mark
