Good stuff, Vinny.  Sounds like a timely entry into today's American culture
which is so despised by Christian martyrs throughout the world for
compromising on issues that they themselves are dying for daily.  I hope
this reminder to be either hot or cold rather than lukewarm and calling it
Christianity will wake up many in the United States especially.

Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "vinny samarco" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 1:08 AM
Subject: Fw: [anzac] LUTHER - THE MOVIE


> Hi Kathy and all,
> Thought you would like to see this review and hear the commentary.
> Vinny
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andrew Strom" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 5:26 PM
> Subject: [anzac] LUTHER - THE MOVIE
>
>
>
> The Movie "LUTHER" - two emails on this are below:
> *************************************************************
> From:     "Ms. Terry Mosley" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> The Time of Reformation that the church went through was
> a WORD REVOLUTION!
>
> Most Christians have no history on the warfare that
> surrounded those events, and some don't even know what
> happened.
>
> The recent release of the movie LUTHER is like a Big
> Giant Sign in the sky saying "LOOK, this is where we are
> now.  The Church is about ready to go through another
> WORD REVOLUTION.....
> *******************************
>
> From: "M Woelk" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> "Movie Must See"
> -Mike Woelk.
>
> The newly released movie Luther carries a prophetic word to
> the 21st Century Church that it dare not miss.  The film will
> attract a Church audience because its hero is the author of
> the most dramatic move of God through the first two millennia
> of Christendom.  Whether the Church hears the message of
> this movie and acts on it is another matter.
>
> A dramatic visual movie, the viewer experiences the castles
> and majestic cathedrals of Germany, the dress, the street
> squalor of 16th century Rome, and the dull desperation of
> daily rural life.
>
> This movie succeeds in turning theology and political
> principle back into the life-and-death events of an
> abrasive 5'3" monk and the millions he moved-some to
> love, some to hate, some to serve, some to murder, some
> to be martyred.
>
> Painfully aware of his own infirmity, Luther was moved by
> the weaknesses of those he was responsible for pastoring.
> His compassion for the oppressed masses became a
> linchpin between the Christ he found in the New Testament
> and a tyrannical Church that, alongside the feudal German
> princes, controlled their hopeless daily lives.
>
> Luther sacrificed his position, his place in the Church,
> and his future to be sure that the truth of Christ was not
> squelched.  Jesus said, "He who seeks the glory of the
> One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in
> Him."  This was also true of Luther.  Luther cared but for
> two things: to reveal the reality of a loving God, and to give
> his followers the liberating Gospel.
>
> At the 1521 Diet of Worms, Luther is called to church
> court. Many of them knew in their hearts Luther was right
> and that the Church badly needed his revelation. But as I
> watched them choose the stability and survival of Church
> hierarchy and organization, I too experienced a dark futility
> as I realized that good men were about to betray the truth
> and God's servant in favor of their own future.
>
> Hear this well: when leaders do not sacrifice themselves for
> God's truth, suffering resounds through the lives of their
> followers like a deadly bacterial plague through an
> unprotected village.  In the case of Germany, perhaps a
> hundred thousand died at the hands of compromised
> churchmen.  The Catholic Church had become the enemy
> of God, just as the Pharisees became the enemies of God
> when they beheld, and immediately rejected, Christ.
>
> But there was a more dramatic revelation: today it is not the
> Catholic Church who is becoming the enemy of God-it is
> the entire church, wherever and whenever organizational
> stability and reputation take precedence over obedience,
> the voice of the Holy Spirit, and a simple love for lost people.
>
> The Father expects no less from the Church than He did
> from His Son: "The hour has come that the Son of Man
> should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a
> grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains
> alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves
> his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world
> will keep it for eternal life." It can be said no simpler or more
> effectively: Today's Church must die.
>
> In most world cultures the Church is weak compared to the
> medieval Catholic behemoth-yet the church remains the
> oppressor.  How can a weak church oppress?  Because it
> represents Christ, carrying the good news of freedom in
> Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, and at the same time it does not set
> the captives free.
>
> The world is crying out for a church of Luthers. The
> established Church will do more than just cry out against them.
> ___________________________________
>
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