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Pastoral Letter Concerning The Passion, a motion picture depicting the crucifixion and death of Christ, and the 2nd Commandment

Pastoral Letter from
the Session of Beal Heights Presbyterian Church

1 February 2004

Subject: The Passion, a motion picture depicting the crucifixion and death of Christ, and the 2nd Commandment

Dear Congregation:

In a week or two, a motion picture will be released entitled The Passion, directed by Mel Gibson. The film seeks to present the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Gibson, a Roman Catholic traditionalist, wanted to depict the Passion of Christ Jesus. The film is causing a bit of controversy due to its forthrightness regarding the details and events of His betrayal, arrest, and cruel treatment at the hands of sinful men. A number of evangelical leaders have endorsed the movie, and we as a Session are sure that you will have a number of Christian friends and family members who will want to view this movie.

Your Session's counsel to you is to decline viewing of this film. While Mr. Gibson appears to have striven mightily to accurately portray the events, down to the detail of the characters speaking in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, the film lacks in an important matter.

The depiction of any member of the Godhead, the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, is a violation of the Second Commandment:

Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (NKJV)
In its exposition of the commandment, our Larger Catechism, Q&A 107-110, puts it this way:
Q107: Which is the second commandment?
A107: The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. [1]

1. Exod. 20:4-6

Q108: What are the duties required in the second commandment?
A108: The duties required in the second commandment are, the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word;[1] particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ;[2] the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word;[3] the administration and receiving of the sacraments;[4] church government and discipline;[5] the ministry and maintenance thereof;[6] religious fasting;[7] swearing by the name of God,[8] and vowing unto him:[9] as also the disapproving, detesting, opposing, all false worship;[10] and, according to each one's place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry.[11]

1. Deut. 32:46-47; Matt. 28:30; Acts 2:42; I Tim. 6:13-14
2. Phil. 4:6; Eph. 5:20
3. Deut. 17:18-19; Acts 10:88; 15:21; II Tim. 4:2; James 1:21-22
4. Matt. 28:19; I Cor. 11:23-30
5. Matt. 16:19; 18:15-17; I Cor. ch. 5; 12:28
6. Eph. 4:11-12; I Tim. 5:17-18; I Cor. 9:1-15
7. Joel 2:12-13; I Cor. 7:5
8. Deut. 6:13
9. Isa. 19:21; Psa. 76:11
10.Acts 17:16-17; Psa. 16:4
11.Deut. 7:5; Isa. 30:22

Q109: What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?
A109: The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising,[1] counseling,[2] commanding,[3] using,[4] and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself;[5] tolerating a false religion;[6] the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever;[7] all worshiping of it,[8] or God in it or by it;[9] the making of any representation of feigned deities,[10] and all worship of them, or service belonging to them;[11] all superstitious devices,[12] corrupting the worship of God,[13] adding to it, or taking from it,[14] whether invented and taken up of ourselves,[15] or received by tradition from others,[16] though under the title of antiquity,[17] custom,[18] devotion,[19] good intent, or any other pretense whatsoever;[20] simony;[21] sacrilege;[22] all neglect,[23] contempt,[24] hindering,[25] and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.[26]

1. Num. 15:39
2. Deut. 13:6-8
3. Hosea 5:11; Micah 6:16
4. I Kings 11:33; 12:33
5. Deut. 12:30-32
6. Deut. 13:6-12; Zech. 13:2-3; Rev. 2:2, 14-15, 20, Rev. 17:12, 16-17
7. Deut. 4:15-19; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:21-23, 25
8. Dan. 3:18; Gal. 4:8
9. Exod. 32:5
10. Exod. 32:8
11. I Kings 18:26, 28; Isa. 65:11
12. Acts 17:22; Col. 2:21-23
13. Mal. 1:7-8, 14
14. Deut. 4:2
15. Psa. 106:39
16. Matt. 15:9
17. I Peter 1:18
18. Jer. 44:17
19. Isa. 65:3-5; Gal. 1:13-14
20. I Sam. 13:11-12; 15:21
21. Acts 8:18
22. Rom. 2:22; Mal. 3:8
23. Exod. 4:24-26
24. Matt. 22:5; Mal. 1:7, 13
25. Matt. 23:13
26.Acts 13:44-45; I Thess. 2:15-16

Q110: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?
A110: The reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it, contained in these words, For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments;[1] are, besides God's sovereignty over us, and propriety in us,[2] his fervent zeal for his own worship,[3] and his revengeful indignation against all false worship, as being a spiritual whoredom;[4] accounting the breakers of this commandment such as hate him, and threatening to punish them unto divers generations;[5] and esteeming the observers of it such as love him and keep his commandments, and promising mercy to them unto many generations.[6]

1. Exod. 20:5-6
2. Psa. 45:11; Rev. 20:3-4
3. Exod. 34:13-14
4. I Cor. 10:20-22; Jer. 7:18-20; Ezek. 16:26-27; Deut. 32:16-20
5. Hosea 2:2-4
6. Deut. 5:29

To quote at length from Matthew Powell, a pastor in the Reformed Church in the United States:

"Now what is the reason that we believe that the 2nd Commandment applies to the incarnate form of Christ? We are perhaps on slightly more ambiguous ground here than on any other aspect of the 2nd Commandment. There is little doubt that we ought not have golden calves in our worship services, or the like. We must not worship other gods beside Jehovah. In traditional Protestant circles there is strong agreement that pictures in general should not be used in the aid of worship, although this understanding has eroded significantly. The Roman Catholic Church doesn't even view the 2nd Commandment as a separate commandment, lumping it in with the first, and calling the commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain the 2nd Commandment. Therefore, to the RCC, there is no unique commandment regarding the use of pictures in worship, and a good thing too because they use a truckload of them.

"Our complaint is, the only proper response to God is worship. That is, if I say "That is God", then whatever the That is, I have to worship it. If an artist pictures God, and I say, "that artist has pictured God," then I must worship that artist's picture. But of course I am then worshiping a false God because I am worshiping that artist's conception of God in his mind, which cannot possibly correspond in any meaningful way to the real God, who is a Spirit and cannot be represented by the physical. There was no idol in Solomon's temple.

"The same applies to a dramatic interpretation of Jesus. Even if they stick to the plain words of the gospel, the way Jesus looks, the way he talks, the way he walks, all will communicate the actor's and the director's understanding of who Jesus is, and if I say, "that's Jesus," I have to worship that understanding, and am thus worshiping a false God, because it's based on a human understanding. So we in the Reformed community avoid any dramatic interpretation of Jesus as well."[1]

Therefore, it is the counsel of your Session to not view any video or movie purporting to depict our Lord Jesus, or any other member of the Godhead. This would extend as well to viewing or otherwise supporting of or participating in the local Annual Easter Pageant at the Holy City of the Wichitas.
Yours in Christ's Service,
The Session
Beal Heights PCA

If you would like to read further on this issue, we suggest Seeing Jesus, the case against picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Peter Barnes (Banner of Truth).

[1]By Matthew Powell Taken by permission from http://wheatchaff.blogspot.com/2003_09_21_wheatchaff_archive.html.