March 7, 2004 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

John Debney, who wrote the rock & roll music score to The Passion of the Christ also wrote the rock score for the blasphemous movie Bruce Almighty. It is about a man who curses God for the difficulties in his life, and God replies by challenging him to try and do a better job. The man is granted divine powers to use as he pleases toward this goal. The God portrayed in Bruce Almighty is not the thrice holy God of the Bible. The blasphemy of Bruce Almighty is heightened by Debney’s soundtrack, which incorporates music by such ungodly artists as Mick Jagger, Fatboy Slim, Patti Labelle, Vertical Horizon, and Plumb.

Debney claims that he had a lot of trouble while writing the soundtrack to The Passion of the Christ. He says, “I was stretched by Mel Gibson. I was stretched by the Guy Upstairs and also I was stretched by the guy downstairs” (“A Passion for Music, a Battle with Satan,” Feb. 27, Assist News Service).

Thus we see that Debney calls the holy Lord God “the Guy Upstairs.”

As for “the guy downstairs,” I suppose Debney is referring to Satan, but the fact is, of course, that Satan does not live “downstairs.” The Bible tells us he is the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, not the “guy downstairs.” The popular idea that Satan is the king of hell is not found in Scripture.

Debney says that he had a lot of trouble with his computer equipment while working on the score for The Passion of the Christ, and he describes one experience: “I got really mad and I told Satan to manifest himself and I said, ‘Let’s go out into the parking lot and let’s go.’ ... I knew that this was war. I am not a physical person, but I was really angry on this occasion. ... I was walking down the stairs and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, ‘Manifest yourself right now.’ As I am walking out and saying, ‘Come on, let’s go now.’”

In other words, he wanted to fight with the devil. It is a good thing that he didn’t “manifest” himself!

We cannot resist the devil in our feeble power. In fact, an unsaved person cannot resist the devil, because before we are saved the Bible says we “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Only when a person is born again through faith in Jesus Christ is he delivered “from the power of darkness” and translated “into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:13).

And even the true believer cannot successfully resist the devil unless he is clothed in the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:10-18).

I cannot be emphatic enough about the danger of this Hollywood movie. It is causing a great stir and a lot of conversation, and that can surely be used as an evangelistic opportunity, but there are many serious warnings that church leaders need to be giving their people about this issue.