Is Anyone who Names the Name of Jesus Saved?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: 

“Dear Dave and Tom,

Would you please help me understand Philippians:1:15-18 [15] Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: [16] The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: [17] But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. [18] What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
See All...: ‘Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.’ It seems like this opens the door to anyone who ‘names the name of Jesus.’”

Tom: Dave, I wrestled with that Scripture, so I’m glad I get to ask the question, or at least pass the question on to you. The thing that seems difficult is Paul certainly isn’t saying, “Whatever Jesus you preach just as long as He’s preached.”

Dave: No, of course not. So, Tom, actually I think it’s quite straight forward. You notice the phrase that is repeated, “preach Christ.” They “preached Christ.” They “preached Christ.” He’s not saying what Christ they preached or the errors that they preach it with. “In every way,” he says, “I don’t care how they do it,” but he’s only mentioning two ways: some in love - love for the gospel - and the others “out of contention supposing to add affliction to my bonds.” I’m not sure exactly how that would do it, you know. But it seems, possibly, because he’s in prison; he can’t preach Christ anymore. So they’re going around preaching Christ, trying to show him up, and to show that God is with them, but he couldn’t have been with Paul, making Paul jealous, or whatever, of the fact that they can preach and that he can’t anymore. But there’s no hint in there that they’re preaching a false Christ or a false gospel. He says they’re preaching Christ, and “so long as Christ is preached, I rejoice.” 

Now, if it’s the real Christ, how would we apply that to our day?

Tom: Well, Dave, I can give you a good example, because I’ve taken some heat for Showtime for the Sheep, which was critical of The Passion of the Christ. This was a verse that somebody said, “Hey, look, as long as Jesus is being preached out there, and Mel used the Bible… So, Tom, you’re really working - you’re kicking against the goads here; you’re going against what God is using and doing.”

Dave: Right. Well, Tom, I’m sure you knew how to give a very straightforward answer to that letter.

Tom: Yeah, I did. I hope I did.

Dave: …because this is not the Bible and as you know, this comes from - what? What we’ve been talking about: the imagination, the so-called visions of a mystic nun. It’s filled…Tom, I’m shocked when I hear evangelical leaders say, “Oh, it’s such a Biblical film,” and we’ve been over this. It’s filled with unbiblical scenes - you know, the serpent in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus stomping its head; Jesus knocked over the edge of a bridge and He’s dangling on a chain, and there’s Judas cowering under there, so He’s able to confront Judas; or a raven plucking an eye out of…Tom, you’ve been in the movie business, what is that? That’s something to arouse the emotions - plucking an eye out of one of the thieves.

Tom: That’s what movies are supposed to do. Certainly it’s not truth, and some movies that we go to, we have like to have our emotions played with, and that’s part of the fun of it. But not God’s Word. Please.

Dave: So what about this Jesus that’s preached? Well, it’s a Catholic man who said he wouldn’t dare try to portray Christ unless he had Christ living within him. So what does he do? He takes the Mass every day. He thinks he’s ingesting Jesus into his stomach through that wafer that the priest has turned into Christ. What Jesus is this? Is there anything in there about God laying on Christ the punishment - the sins of the world? Not a bit. You get the impression that it was through the beatings of the Roman soldiers. The scourging, etc. And you’ve got Pilate’s wife gathering linens and giving them to the two Marys, and they’re trying to wipe up this blood…another emotional scene. Tom, it’s not biblical. It’s not the Jesus of the Bible, and it is not the gospel.

Tom: So, Dave, going back to this verse, you would say Christ is not being preached related to the Scripture - that’s so far removed from what the Scripture is talking about, because Paul is saying when Christ is preached, He’s preached in truth, even though the motivation and the heart of those who are preaching Him in truth were wrong.

Dave: That’s exactly what I’m saying. I wouldn’t give the visual of Christ credit for falling under that verse - preaching Christ; it’s not preaching Christ. 

And, Tom, I know this is a sore spot; I know that we’re offending people out there who just loved that. We’re offending pastors, if any of them are listening, because so many pastors and Christian leaders, evangelical leaders, my brothers in Christ - I love them! We agree on almost everything, but we don’t agree on this, because the Jesus in The Passion of the Christ is not the Jesus of the Bible. He’s not paying for our sins in the way that the Bible says. There’s almost nothing about the resurrection, of course. It’s kind of mystical. You see Jesus there for a few seconds, and you kind of - if you know about the resurrection, then you could say, “Jesus is coming back; He’s resurrected.” Or it could be something like some Hollywood movie, kind of a - I don’t know what - a mystical representation of…who knows.

Tom: Well, Dave, let’s go to the source: Mel Gibson, the director of the film, intended to present the 14 stations of the cross, a Roman Catholic ritual. I grew up with this. It’s not - it was no secret, and Mel never made it a secret, and he was astonished that the evangelical church would go for what he called his “Marian movie.” That’s what the stations of the cross are about. It’s not about Jesus, it’s about Mary - Stabat Mater. That’s the song we sang through this ritual. It’s all about Mary’s suffering along with Jesus.

Dave: It’s pretty clear in the film that she’s suffering. But then he says this is a movie made for Mary. He says, and Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus, says this is a move made for Mary. They really had Mary in mind; they’re glorifying Mary and her role. I mean, Mary is right there. You see her prominent figure. When Jesus falls under the cross, you have a flashback to Jesus as a little boy falling, and there’s Mary picking Him up and helping Him, and so forth.

Tom: Dave, why are we still talking about this movie? I mean, isn’t it over and gone? Do you know that the DVD sold 12 million copies primarily to the evangelical church. I know individuals who watch it every couple of weeks to be reinforced with this imagery, and with the power that the film had upon their lives.