I received a private message regarding the film Genius but the person who contacted me has private messages blocked so I will post what I wrote here. I hope some find it of interest.
I was asked...
My response...
No I had not been asked yet but here are my thoughts on the film.
I watched Genius last week.
While I don't like to cast aspersions on Ray or Kirk for their sincerity or hard work, nonetheless they hold to the errors of Reformed Theology and thus present the Gospel incorrectly.
It is a very subtle error which I think is why most people completely overlook it. The subtlety of the error is why so many support Ray Comfort and his endeavours. On the surface it really sounds like Ray Comfort is preaching against sin and is preaching for holiness.
The root problem though is that he holds to the fundamental error of Original Sin whereby he views sin as an aspect of human nature from birth. He uses the term "Total Depravity" in the Calvinist sense. This is why if you carefully listen to a lot of his material one moment he will teach that Christian's "turn from their sin and live holy lives" but then he will later contradict himself and say that "Christian's are totally depraved and will still fall into sin."
Thus because he believes in Total Depravity as a foundation of being human he is easily led into the error of viewing the death of Christ on the cross through Penal Substitution. Ray will often use the terminology that "Jesus paid your fine" and that because the fine is now paid "the law has no hold over a Christian." His error is that while it is true that a Christian is not "under the law" he views coming out from being under the law as a result of the Penal Substitution legal transaction. This transaction is where the sin of the believer is transferred to Jesus (and God punishes Jesus as a substitute) and the obedient record of Jesus (His righteousness) is credited to the believer.
The Bible teaches that a Christian is made righteous through abiding in the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ whereby they live by a faith that works by love which by nature fulfills the righteousness of the law, ie. when we are led by the Spirit (and we yield) we no longer fulfill wickedness but rather do good. Love fulfills the law. This is why God "imputes FAITH as righteousness." The Bible does not teach that God imputes the literal "righteousness of Jesus" to the believer.
Ray teaches that the righteousness of the Christian is due to the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. It is a forensic legal transaction in his mind. He has to teach this because he believes he will remain totally depraved until physical death. The error of inborn sin necessitates further errors and Ray is blinded to it all unfortunately.
When sin is viewed as a substance of the flesh which necessitates actual sinful conduct then the Gospel has to be twisted into something that "cloaks" the "sin disease." The Bible does teach a "sin nature" but it does not teach that you are born with it. The nature to sin is simply the hard wiring of the mind towards sin which occurs through the repeated submission to the lusts of the flesh (sin begets more sin).
Thus when he presents the Gospel in a film like "Genius" he neglects the aspect of the Gospel whereby the believer "dies WITH Christ" through a broken repentance experience. To Ray "dying with Christ" is purely forensic and thus he has no concept of what the crucifixion of the flesh with the associated passions and desires is really all about. If this death to self does not occur then there can be no reconciliation with God. This is a key point to understand in all of this.
Ray presents the Gospel by first showing people the law. He convinces them that they have violated the law and sinned and thus they are guilty before God and will be justly condemned. The danger of Ray's teaching is in the solution that he offers. He offers the "Jesus paid your fine" legal transaction as the solution, a solution which is purely fictional and is not found in the Bible. The Bible does not teach anything even close to what Ray is teaching and you will not find any allusion whatsoever in the Gospels, by Jesus Christ, to this legal transaction.
Thus an individual who is converted under Ray's message may have fallen under a certain amount of conviction and have been led to "receive the transaction (receive Jesus)" but the godly sorrow that works a repentance unto salvation is missing. Thus no actual reconciliation to God took place because you cannot be reconciled to God whilst still in rebellion. The purpose of repentance is to break the rebellious will of the sinner and to bring them into submission to God. It is only through submission to God that reconciliation through Jesus Christ can take place.
So, summing up, while there may be a lot of truth in Genius the foundation which it is built upon is in complete error.
It is a very dangerous film which serves to promote another Gospel.
God bless.
Scott.
I was asked...
My response...
No I had not been asked yet but here are my thoughts on the film.
I watched Genius last week.
While I don't like to cast aspersions on Ray or Kirk for their sincerity or hard work, nonetheless they hold to the errors of Reformed Theology and thus present the Gospel incorrectly.
It is a very subtle error which I think is why most people completely overlook it. The subtlety of the error is why so many support Ray Comfort and his endeavours. On the surface it really sounds like Ray Comfort is preaching against sin and is preaching for holiness.
The root problem though is that he holds to the fundamental error of Original Sin whereby he views sin as an aspect of human nature from birth. He uses the term "Total Depravity" in the Calvinist sense. This is why if you carefully listen to a lot of his material one moment he will teach that Christian's "turn from their sin and live holy lives" but then he will later contradict himself and say that "Christian's are totally depraved and will still fall into sin."
Thus because he believes in Total Depravity as a foundation of being human he is easily led into the error of viewing the death of Christ on the cross through Penal Substitution. Ray will often use the terminology that "Jesus paid your fine" and that because the fine is now paid "the law has no hold over a Christian." His error is that while it is true that a Christian is not "under the law" he views coming out from being under the law as a result of the Penal Substitution legal transaction. This transaction is where the sin of the believer is transferred to Jesus (and God punishes Jesus as a substitute) and the obedient record of Jesus (His righteousness) is credited to the believer.
The Bible teaches that a Christian is made righteous through abiding in the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ whereby they live by a faith that works by love which by nature fulfills the righteousness of the law, ie. when we are led by the Spirit (and we yield) we no longer fulfill wickedness but rather do good. Love fulfills the law. This is why God "imputes FAITH as righteousness." The Bible does not teach that God imputes the literal "righteousness of Jesus" to the believer.
Ray teaches that the righteousness of the Christian is due to the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. It is a forensic legal transaction in his mind. He has to teach this because he believes he will remain totally depraved until physical death. The error of inborn sin necessitates further errors and Ray is blinded to it all unfortunately.
When sin is viewed as a substance of the flesh which necessitates actual sinful conduct then the Gospel has to be twisted into something that "cloaks" the "sin disease." The Bible does teach a "sin nature" but it does not teach that you are born with it. The nature to sin is simply the hard wiring of the mind towards sin which occurs through the repeated submission to the lusts of the flesh (sin begets more sin).
Thus when he presents the Gospel in a film like "Genius" he neglects the aspect of the Gospel whereby the believer "dies WITH Christ" through a broken repentance experience. To Ray "dying with Christ" is purely forensic and thus he has no concept of what the crucifixion of the flesh with the associated passions and desires is really all about. If this death to self does not occur then there can be no reconciliation with God. This is a key point to understand in all of this.
Ray presents the Gospel by first showing people the law. He convinces them that they have violated the law and sinned and thus they are guilty before God and will be justly condemned. The danger of Ray's teaching is in the solution that he offers. He offers the "Jesus paid your fine" legal transaction as the solution, a solution which is purely fictional and is not found in the Bible. The Bible does not teach anything even close to what Ray is teaching and you will not find any allusion whatsoever in the Gospels, by Jesus Christ, to this legal transaction.
Thus an individual who is converted under Ray's message may have fallen under a certain amount of conviction and have been led to "receive the transaction (receive Jesus)" but the godly sorrow that works a repentance unto salvation is missing. Thus no actual reconciliation to God took place because you cannot be reconciled to God whilst still in rebellion. The purpose of repentance is to break the rebellious will of the sinner and to bring them into submission to God. It is only through submission to God that reconciliation through Jesus Christ can take place.
So, summing up, while there may be a lot of truth in Genius the foundation which it is built upon is in complete error.
It is a very dangerous film which serves to promote another Gospel.
God bless.
Scott.
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