If anybody is wondering about MacArthur's view on this, I found this on Grace to You's website:


Phil Johnson, Executive Director of Grace to You, had this to say about The Passion of the Christ.

While I have not yet seen the film, I'm troubled by two things about it:


Mel Gibson's sources included the dreams and visions of a couple of Roman Catholic mystics who claimed God revealed more details about the crucifixion than we find in Scripture. Given the fact Gibson himself is a committed Latin-rite Catholic, I feel sure he'll include the "stations of the cross" and other extrabiblical Catholic superstitions. Those things will severely mar the account of the crucifixion featured in the movie, I expect.


I'm uncomfortable with ALL movie portrayals of Christ, because they cannot possibly convey an adequate sense of His glory. They instill in people's minds an image of Christ that cannot possibly be accurate. It seems to me a violation of the 2nd commandment.
In the providence of God, however, the movie will focus attention on the crucifixion and raise questions about the meaning of it. Since the movie itself is merely a portrayal of the event with no explanation of its meaning, I expect it will provide Christians with many opportunities to explain the meaning of Christ's death to those who will inevitably want to understand more than the movie spells out.
For that reason, I think much good may come out of it, and my public comments about it won't focus exclusively on the things I dislike about it, but on the truth that underlies the event it attempts to portray. That's the message I hope unbelievers get from the Christian public's response to the film.

For a detailed biblical examination of the crucifixion I recommend John MacArthur's book The Murder of Jesus.

Link: http://www.gty.org/IssuesandAnswers/archive/thepassion.htm

(Latin phrase goes here.)