Netflix released on December 6th a featured length film on Mary from before her birth to the Birth of Christ. The subject has been done, over and over again, though I decided to watch it and what I saw horrified me. I am going to due start with the positives, the cinematography is top knotch, I thought Sir Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Herod The Great was great, and there were moments I really enjoyed like showing Mary was an ordinary child playing with her friends in the fields, and the giving The Prophetess Ana who was there in the Gospel of Luke at Jesus' Dedication, a larger role was nice.
Now for the bad and ugly. Firstly, the film opens with Mary's parents cannot have a child, Joachim, her father goes to wilderness to plead with God and Gabriel in a blue scarf appears and tell him he will have a Daughter, who will matter. I know Roman Catholic have deuter canonical beliefs about Mary coming from a Virgin Mother, and some strange things, though I cannot claim if anything in this film is that, the insinuation is Mary's birth is miraculous, but since she is born nine months later, it is just as possible Joachim went into his wife as Abraham did to barren Sarah who gave birth to Isaac. Then when Mary is a tween, it turns out part of bargain with Gabriel is she has to become priestess of the Temple, this has no Scriptural support, none, there is nothing in Scripture that has Mary being of a preistly caste, though she is related to Elizabeth who was married to High Priest Zachariah, and who become the parents of John The Baptist, that doesn't mean anything because Elizabeth married into Zachariah, a Levite's family. Mary at this Priestly school has Lucifer appear, paw at her and seek to seduce sexually, this is so wicked! Gabriel shows up to battle Lucifer, but the scene is fantasy, I am sure the Devil did torment Mary, but not in this way, giving her doubt that she has lost her wits to believe she will give birth to the Son of God.
Oh it gets worse. None of Joseph's spiritually which is in Mark and Luke, where the angel comes to him even in a dream to tell them to flee to Egypt happens. Oh and the royal census under Cesar Augustus, the reason that Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem that is in The Gospel of Luke Chapter One? Nope, the reason in this movie they go is because people in Nazareth want to stone Mary to death and Joseph says he has family in Bethlehem! The most ugly fiction is that one point Satan appears as a Man and comes to Mary right before she gives birth to Jesus, she lets him carry her and he says he will take her pain away! That is a truly Satanic scene! It castes doubt on the whole Birth, that Satan is involved?! Satan was not involved in the Birth, do not tell me The Lord God did not have hosts of angels guarding Mary and Joseph during all this, I know he did, for Satan even mentions it in Scripture, "He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." (Matthew 4:5) and our LORD Jesus says, "He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and
the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man." (John 1:51), and in the Garden our Lord was strengthened by an angel, "An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him." (Luke 22:43). Clearly angels were about our Lord and would not allow the devil to paw at Mary or interfere in the Birth! Satan did not test Christ Our Lord till he was an adult in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).
Oh and Herod's slaughter of Sons of Bethlehem, well he orders it but instead the men at arms just bring all male babies back to Herod, because he wants to find the Christ child suddenly. Again fiction, but worse it messes up the real account, that Herod did have children killed, "Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2:16-18). The amount of rewriting of the Gospels, and the fictions inserted in its place as astounding! They even have scene were Temple Guards trying to catch Mary and Joseph, because the Head of Guard has it out for Mary, get torched in a house fire, and Marry and Joseph have to leap on horseback through flames. Stunning scene, but total fiction! Mary and Joseph did not have soldiers pursuing them, even the Magi chose not to tell Herod where the Christ Child was, "And having been warned [by God] in a dream not to go back to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way," (Matthew 2:12) and they fled to Egypt without incident!
Honestly, this is two for two for Anthony Hopkins. He was in the cursed Noah film that had Nephilim Golems helping build the Ark, when the Flood happened to destroy them (see Genesis 6:4-12) and Noah gone mad trying to kill his family which is a fiction too. I am seeing a trend of Biblical Apocryphal or Pseudo-Biblical films that remove Scriptural Truth and accounts to supplement their own fictions. This is harmful because for some this may be one of few films they watch to explore who Mary and the Christ Child is, and they are going to walk away with bad history and fiction with some shadows of the account. The greatest lies have truth mixed in, God said in Garden, "Do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil," (Genesis 2:16-17) , Eve added added, "you cannot touch it or you will die" (Genesis 3:3). She added touch, and that was what he used to seduce Adam and Eve, adding something God had not said and building on that; well this movie and others like it do the same.
If you want an alternative to this film, a better one is The Nativity (2005), it is closer to the Gospels, save for a Soothsayer making a remark to Mary in the crowd, though Mary does not heed her. All Biblical movies are going to take license, but its when they do something majorly off board, like having Satan carry Mary or try to sexually seduce her like in this Netflix Mary film its another thing! Its blasphemy! Honestly, I though Martin Scorsee directed this, since he did the sacrilegious The Last Temptation of Christ. I cannot say more reasons to have nothing to do with this film. It is mess, and not even our Messiah can save it, because the director and writers purposely tried to plant dark seeds. This Goat film, and Christ will do thus with goats, "All the
nations will be gathered before Him [for judgment]; and He will separate
them from one another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the
goats; [Ezek 34:17] and He will put the sheep on His right [the place of
honor], and the goats on His left [the place of rejection]. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life." (Matthew 235:32-33, 46). I feel bad for every soul involved in this film, they will have to give an account on Judgement Day to the Real Jesus Christ for spreading lies and tainting the True Account of Mary and The Nativity that is in Scripture. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment