Bringing the Gospel through the gates of Hell.

My cousin is working on the set of a new Nicholas Cage movie called Drive Angry. She forewarned us that this movie is a movie that contains gratuitous violence, sex, and nudity, has satanic spiritual themes and foul language. Obviously, these things dishonor God and are counter to his kingdom. So, why would she choose to work there if she is a professing follower of Jesus? Would Christ approve?

 

Of course, it depends on how she goes about her work in that environment. Many Christians today don’t talk openly about their faith in Jesus unless they are in like company.  They tend to be loud when in the majority and quiet when in the minority. Though the root cause of this is probably timidity, the message sent is often one of self-righteousness and hipocracy.

 

If my cousin were to go about her work as a private Christian, keeping her following of Jesus a secret, she would simply have no impact for the Kingdom of God in that place. This would be like hiding a light (Matthew 5:14-15). But, we are admonished to become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which we shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life (Philippians 2:14-15). Private personal Christianinty is not Biblical Christianity.

 

On the other hand, if my cousin were to announce her resignation upon discovery of the nature of the current movie, she would be removing herself (and in her, the light of Christ) from this temporary community. By her actions, and possibly by her words she would condem their sins. But she would be disobeying Jesus (Luke 6:37) and denying forgiveness to those that need it (John 20:21-23).

 

If she works on this set as an openly professing Christian, she becomes a disturbing presence to those around her. As she openly talks of the spiritual themes and questions in the movie, she can share a true message from God’s story. This movie talks about angels and demons, heaven and hell, good and bad, child sacrifice and escape from punishment. Does not the Bible speak to all of those things? How many chapters of narrative, how many pages of God’s redemptive story speak to those same themes? What a ripe environment for spiritual discussion.

 

Of course the question will eventually come. “If you believe all these things, why are you here with us? Doesn’t this all offend you? We do stuff that you’re not supposed to do.”

 

And to that, there is an answer: “Of course it offends me. It offends God. But I care more about you than I care about being offended. I am here because you are my friend, and I want you to know there is forgiveness of sin in Jesus.”