“Killing Jesus” – Movie
The movie from the National Geographic “Killing Jesus” is based on the book by Fox News Bill O’Reilly. It is a film that is not Biblical and misrepresents the Christian faith. The focus of the film is to portray Christ just as a normal man and great teacher who performed no supernatural acts nor ever claimed to be the Son of God. Bill O’Reilly does not believe in the inspiration of the Bible and the literal stories of the Old Testament like creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and Jonah…etc. but sees them only as allegorical accounts.
Jesus Himself affirmed the inspiration of the Bible and the literal Old Testament accounts of creation (Mark 10:6), Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4), Noah (Matthew 24:37), and Jonah (Matthew 12:40). And Jesus’ testimony is true because of His supernatural acts of healing (Matthew 4:23), feeding the multitudes (Matthew 14:13-21), raising the dead (Luke 7:11-16), casting out demons (Matthew 8:16), having authority over nature (Luke 8:22-25), and resurrecting Himself from the dead (Matthew 27:53).
Seeing that Mr. O’Reily does no believe in the validity of the Bible, it is no wonder that “Killing Jesus” does not focus on the divinity of Jesus and His miracles, His virgin birth nor His resurrection but rather on his humanity. In response to such insinuations, Jesus would say, “believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father’” (John 10:24-38).
The purpose of Jesus’ miracles was to establish and provide proof that He was indeed the Messiah. By being the fulfillment of old testament prophecies, having a perfect life, performing miracles, dying, and rising from the dead, Jesus proved that He was God’s Son in the flesh. No other man has claimed such claims and substantiated them with evidences. Yet, this movie extremely undermines Jesus’ divinity and His mighty works. If we remove or diminish the miracles, the “Jesus” that is left is not the Jesus of the Bible.
In the “Killing Jesus” movie, Jesus is also confused about his identity and mission. But according to the Bible, it is clear that Jesus Christ was well aware of His mission – to die for the sins of humanity on the cross and serve as the perfect sacrifice to provide atonement for all those who believe upon His name (John 8:23-24). Jesus never described Himself as a mere mortal man. He was not just a wise man,” philosopher or great teacher. Jesus declared to all, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).
Why did O’Reilly, a professing Christian, make such an inaccurate presentation of Jesus? The answer would be: Bill O’Reilly does not believe the Bible for he said, “I was taught in my Catholic school that a lot of the stories of the Bible are allegorical” (Fox News Channel). And he adds, “Of course we have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but they sometimes appear contradictory and were written from a spiritual point of view rather than as a historical chronicling of Jesus life” (Killing Jesus, p. 2). Catholicism teaches to trust more in church hierarchy and not in the authority of God’s Word. But Jesus and the disciples taught of the inspiration of the Bible both old and new testaments (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
In addition, “Killing Jesus” presented that the death of Jesus Christ was a historical political conspiracy. But the Bible says that it wasn’t the Jews or Romans who nailed Jesus to the cross. Jesus sacrificed Himself on behalf of humanity (1 John 2:2 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21;1 Corinthians 15:3).
Sadly, the Bible predicted that in the last days men in the church will fall away from sound Biblical doctrine into man-made theories and lead others away.
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In His service,
BibleAsk Team
