LifeWay, Rick Warren, and the Son of God | Part 4

Dr. Randy White

In post 1 and post 2 I pointed out that LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention had teamed up with Rick Warren and Son of God movie producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey to produce a small group “Bible study” resource called, “Son of God: The Life of Jesus in You.” The resource is more “you” than Jesus and more “study” than “Bible.”The third of the six sessions is “Jesus’ Suffering and Your Suffering.” As soon as I saw the title, I knew that this could never end up in a good place doctrinally. The substitutionary suffering of Jesus is so removed from my suffering that any attempt to connect them will miss the point.And miss the point is exactly what happened.  “America’s Pastor” talked about the “Man of Sorrows,” and then asked the study participant, “Have you ever been criticized, falsely accused, misunderstood, rejected, betrayed, abandoned by those you loves, or felt like God has abandoned you? Jesus understands. Jesus knows what you’re going through. He’s felt that very same pain.”  I began to wonder if this was a Bible study session or a therapy session.Each session of the resource features a movie clip from The Son of God. In the clip from session three, Jesus leaves the Last Supper after telling His Apostles, “you will all fall away.” The Bible, by the way, has this statement after they left the room and were headed to the Mount of Olives. One wonders why, on such a simple detail, the script writers couldn’t simply go with the events in the order in which the Bible gives the events.  As the clip continues, Peter, rushing out of the upper room to catch up with Jesus, gives his “I will not leave” comments. Jesus hugs Peter with great joy, then catches a glimpse of insight and his countenance suddenly falls as, enlightened, He tells Peter, “You will deny me.” The clear implication is that Jesus was unaware of Peter’s weak flesh until midway through the hug.  At the Garden of Gethsemane scene, Mary is present (in the Bible, Peter, James, and John are the only three present). One wonders if the Roman Catholic devotion to Mary is not what put Mary so front and center in so many of the scenes of the movie, in which she Biblically does not belong.  The movie writers then jump between scenes of pagan ancestral prayers, Jewish high priestly prayers, and Jesus’ prayer of suffering. Though I’m sensitive to this issue, it appeared to me (and to a Jew who was watching this clip with me) that the prayers of the Jewish priests were made with an anti-semitic tone.  As Jesus is praying in the Garden, His prayer is, “If you will it, Father, if you will it, thy will is mine.” Why, “if you will it?” The Biblical text is so clear, “not my will but thine be done.” There is really no question in Jesus’ mind about the will of the Father. This is yet another change in the movie script from the Bible script that is needless, distractive, and undermines the Bible.As the movie clip ends, Warren says, “We should never be surprised when we suffer….God will use your suffering to make you like Jesus if you let him.” This becomes the theme of the remainder of the study, in which the participant learns that suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope. Pastor Warren then gives the typical seeker-church platitude when he asks, “What is the secret to spiritual success?  It’s all in the attitude.” Then, with perfect alliteration he asks if we have “fear or faith, worry or worship, self-dependence or self-surrender,” then we are told to “make the choice to rejoice” and to “become a person of hope.”  It is this kind of empty chatter that has brought about the emptiness of doctrinal content in the church today.The three things that suffering produces were fine, and the presentation on these three things was perfectly in line with scripture. So what’s the problem? The problem is that my suffering and Jesus’ suffering are totally unrelated. As in episode two, none of the scriptures used were from the life or suffering of Jesus. In this “Bible study,” Jesus’ suffering was simply used as an example of human suffering, an illustration for the purpose of touching my felt need. I believe that this is nothing less than doctrinal malpractice.If I was leading a Bible study on Jesus’ suffering, I would first study what actually happened to Jesus, then I would note how so much of this was prophesied in the Psalms and prophets (like Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53). I would teach the doctrine of vicarious (substitutionary) suffering, and the truth of “by his stripes we are healed.” Instead, LifeWay seems content putting out a study on “How to be a confident Christian,” using the suffe