Why what we believe matters

What we believe matters because it affects our actions.

• If we believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, we will not prepare ourselves for the tribulation.
• If we believe that Roman Catholicism is a Christian religion we will not evangelise Roman Catholics.
• If we believe that, as Christians, we cannot fall away, we will be complacent about deception and sin.
• If we believe in the power of positive thinking we will end up trying to pray a 2 deg rise in temperature from below freezing to above freezing. (I am not kidding - I have seen this being tried! It didn't work.)
• If we believe that the Bible is not absolute but has to be interpreted in the light of modern day thinking, we will accept homosexual marriage and female ministers.
• If we believe that we have to conquer the world as Christians before Christ returns then we will become militant and will try to impose Christianity on others rather than winning them to Christ.
• If we believe that we need to overcome the principalities and powers over a geographical area before we can evangelise, we will spend more time in so-called strategic spiritual warfare than we do in witnessing to the unsaved.

There are so many subtle deceptions coming into the church in these last days. The only way to avoid them is to know the Word. When tempted, Jesus answered Satan with 'it is written' - we should do the same. We need to be so familiar with the Bible - old and new testaments - that we can recognise a false teaching when we hear or see one. We need to check that what we believe is actually the truth because it is not only a matter of life and death - it is a matter of eternal salvation or eternal damnation.

'Take heed that ye be not deceived' Luke 21:8 KJV

Is there a Way of Escape?

The Daniel Project Movie – a review

The Daniel Project is a film about end-times Bible prophecy, produced in Scotland. It is being hyped as 'the most important film of the century?' and a 'film that some want to ban'. If that isn't enough to persuade you to buy it, the trailer on the film's website talks about a 'journey of a lifetime'....'life changing for all of us'...'only the wise will understand and live'...'tumultous events'......(if you listen long enough to get past the funny voices of presenter Jeremy Hitchin). The subtitle of the film (which for some reason is written in the Greek alphabet) is 'Only the Wise will Understand' and the overall impression I got is that Armageddon is about to happen but if you are wise, you will survive.

Really?

The phrase 'only the wise will understand' comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 12 verse 10. Unfortunately for the film makers, there is a full stop after the word 'understand' in Daniel. How inconvenient! However that doesn't seem to stop them using the phrase 'only the wise will understand and live' – after all, it sounds a lot better than the original and they are not claiming Daniel said it. Let's face it – anyone with any sense wants to escape Armageddon and any film which might offer information on how to do that is going to be pretty attractive. Someone has done their marketing homework.

OK, supposing you've fallen for it and bought the DVD. What exactly are you getting? Well it's a very slick, professional production. Thankfully Jeremy Hitchin leaves his funny voices at home and does a very reasonable job of presenting, looking suitably worried when the script requires it without going OTT. There's a long list of experts to back up the claims of fulfilled prophecy in the movie, most of whom I've never heard of before. (Interestingly, quite a few of them are Jewish or from a Jewish background. Perhaps not surprising given the nature of the prophecies.) The film has a lot of good material in it but could be shorter if a lot of repetition at the end was cut out – at 85 minutes it is definitely a bit on the long side for my liking.

What you will not get in this film, in my opinion, is a clear definition of how the 'wise will ... live'. Jacob Prasch, Director of Moriel Ministries and the film's main expert, says early on in the film that 'God gives the prophecy for our best interests so we will know what kind of action to take in anticipation of these events' and 'you need to know what it means for you'. It would be nice if the film then went on to give us some guidance regarding the action we should take but if it does, I missed it. Twice in the film Prasch says 'we are also warned by Daniel there will be an escape'. Are we? I can't find anything in the book of Daniel which says this. Near the end of the film Prasch says 'The New Testament teaches that when these events begin to unfold, at some point, there will be, for the righteous, a way of escape.' Where in the New Testament does it teach this? Chapter and verse would be helpful, as it would with the final prophecy, Prophecy 20 - 'Only the wise will understand and escape', because I can't find that phrase anywhere in my Bible.

Which leads me on to another question – who exactly is this film aimed at? I first heard of it via a round-robin email from a Christian acquaintance. I've been told that the film makers are Christian and at the moment it seems that Christians are the main ones interested in the film, however the email mentions world-wide cinema and TV. Regardless of whether the film is aimed at Christians or non-Christians, the inclusion of references to escape is a problem to me. I think that some Christians could well interpret the film as saying that when persecution comes, there will be a way of escape for them. I don't personally believe that that is true, much though I'd like it to be! We need to be preparing ourselves for hard times, not looking to be beamed up out of them! If the film is meant to be aimed at non-Christians then, I'm sorry, but I just don't think the message that the 'way of escape' is through faith in Christ, and Christ alone, comes through clear enough.

It may be that the film makers have avoided an explicit Christian message in order to get into the secular TV market. If this is so, it is a great pity because a) I suspect that their strategy will fail and the film will still not get a broad showing and b) they have possibly lost an opportunity to give a clear and unambiguous presentation of the way of salvation, albeit to a smaller audience. And that, to me, is a shame.