Stigmata!

FiveShadows

Has anyone ever seen the movie "Stigmata?" ... except for the actual stigmata..and the baptism...the message of the movie is inspired! "the kingdom of God is inside you...and all around you. Not in buildings made of wood and stone. Split a peice of wood and i am there; lift a stone and you shall find me." I looked it up in the bible and realized it was a mistransulation where it says "the kingdom of God is in your midst"...It's suppose to give the message of "INSIDE you" ... and the funny thing is...there IS AN actual "gospel" found in 1945 that, that message was written in. Any thoughts? ~FS

Edited by - fiveshadows on 14 September 2002 16:26:11

Joyzabel

Hey, we just watched that movie this afternoon! Interesting. Now I want to read Thomas' gospel.

j2bf

Valis

Something for you stgmatic folks to chew on and a fairly good historic look by a person who wrote a book on which some of the movie Stigmata related to.

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

jst2laws

Hello FiveShadows,

Loved the movie. A bit mystical. But built around the fact that there are several other Gospels of Jesus that go as far back as the four entered into the Bible Canon. If I remember right the Gnostics, a very liberal and philosophical sect of Christians, had a large library of writings of which the Catholic Church did not approve. The Church was trying to enforce control over Christianity at the time. The Catholics eventually defeated the Gnostics and burned their library at Nag Hamadi somewhere around the third century.

Some scholars believe the Catholic church is still hidding ancient writings written in the first century in Aramaic. Even the writings known as the dead sea scrolls (those regarding the first century) have been embarassing to the Church and thus their release was suppressed until 1992.

I love the history touched on in the movie but was simply intertained by the mystical part of it. Worth watching again.

Jst2laws

Edited by - jst2laws on 14 September 2002 17:18:33

FiveShadows

well as i said...beside from the actual stigmata..the message is true. I honestly don't believe that Christ would make us go through that same thing as he did. the stigmata itself was a lie..but the message i believe is Truth. Can't throw out the entire carton of eggs if one or two are broken. ~FS

Introspection

Good insight. We were talking about this on another ex-JW board, in looking over the Gospel of Thomas I found this part of verse 3 particularly interesting:

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.

This is so key, because frankly if you just believe something someone else tells you then you are basically selling your soul for a belief, and in that sense you might say you live in poverty and are the poverty. After all, the one thing that you can actually say you've received from God is your life isn't it? But then people go and use their life in service of some concept, some idea. What about appreciating what you already have, the one thing that's undeniably a gift? It's not something spooky, mysterious and complicated, it's simply life.

Faraon

I saw Stigmata in the CD.

It has the sound in Spanish, English, and French. You can also choose the subtitles in each of the preceeding languages.

What I liked the most is that you can also see it through the eyes of the producer. This is in English only.

He explains the use of colors and symbols that I would have missed by just seeing the movie.

TheStar

Five,

I watched Stigmata just 2 nights ago. It made me recall the mistranslation of "the kingdom is in your midst" as well.

It also peeked my curiousity to read the book of Thomas as well as the other books not included in the bible.

Like you said, besides the actual Stigmata the message is true. I thought it was a great movie.

MegaDude

I enjoyed "Stigmata" for the message that God was everywhere, not in the hands of the controlling church. I would think any former JW would appreciate the message of the film.

If you enjoyed that movie, I would also recommend "The Third Miracle" with Ed Harris. I also liked "The Last Temptation of Christ" with Wilhem Dafoe.

MegaDude

Valis,

thanks for the article. I have seen documentaries on supposed real stigmata. One was an American woman who was a faith healer. It was obvious she had cut her own hand to make it bleed.

What cracks me is these people always bleed from the palms. Christ was nailed through the wrists. Otherwise, the weight of his body would have ripped his hands off the very nails that impaled. him.

Stigmata!

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