he beholds
Puritan Board Doctor
1 Cor 12:3, "Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit."I cannot see how the Lord's name can only be pretended to be taken in vain.
Gasp! How can Paul write those words with a clear conscience?! He placed himself in the "ROLE" of a blasphemer and uttered what he would have said!
Far be it from us to say that the Apostle has sinned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Again, this superficial logic assumes that the existence of the words themselves, whether written or spoken, are sin. It has been sufficiently demonstrated that that is not always the case; the words can be uttered in a non sinful way. It looks like we'll have to just have to disagree on this, cause we're going in circles here.
You guys are right about the sin that abounds in the movie industry, and I have always agreed (although it's not the point of thread). But sin abounds in every industry where there are sinful people. We live in a totally depraved world, what did you expect? In what work environment is there no temptation at all to sin? Should Christians not be soldiers, or lawyers, or artists? In my opinion, it's too bad that Christians run away from it and retreat into the desert as they have always done in order to get away from the defilement of the world, rather than engaging the culture and redeeming it.
What??? Paul is not speaking in vain, so he is not sinning. That's an easy one. It would not be in vain for an actor to say, "No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!" nor for me to say it, nor anyone else. Talking about God does not have to be in vain. We talk about him all the time. Using his name when you aren't really talking about him or when you are blaspheming him is. If an actor is told to say something bad about God or swear using his name, it would be the same as if you or I were to do it. He doesn't get immunity from pretending to be someone else. If it is something that you would consider to be sinful in real life, then it's still sinful if you were to REALLY do it on a stage. Either you really speak or you don't, when acting. That's why this is different than the mere depiction of other sins.