GREENWOOD, Wisconsin.
Complimentary Story
Almost everyone knows what a Passion ‘Play’ is. It is a re-enactment of Jesus’ death and resurrection, with an audience observing. “The Passion Experience,” on the other hand, is a re-enactment where the audience is immersed in the event itself, participating in it as if they had just arrived in Jerusalem to attend the Jewish Passover. Even if one is very familiar with the Gospel story, they can expect to gain new appreciation and insights into Jesus’ triumph over sin and death -- not as mere articles of faith, but as actual events that occurred in real human history.Athanatos Christian Ministries will be hosting the event, which will take place on Saturday, August 5, 2017. It will be part of ACM’s second annual Christian Arts (and Apologetics) festival, located in Greenwood, Wisconsin. The festival begins on Thursday, August 3. It is FREE to attend the Passion Experience.
ACM needs actors and actresses! More than 150 people will be involved in putting on the event! Whether you want to play a role as one of Jesus’ disciples, help with set construction, or help promote the event, there is room for you to be involved. People who want to be involved should go to the website: www.christianartsfestival.us and click on the link for “The Passion Experience.” There they will find more information about the event, as well as an application form.
Submit your application for to be considered for a role in the production. Applications should be submitted as soon as possible.
ACM’s director, Dr. Anthony Horvath, says that “The Passion Experience” is a way to proclaim the Gospel message within the community in a way that people will find refreshing and new.
Horvath says, “People have heard the Gospel so often that they may have tuned it out. It comes across to them as a ‘religious-speak,’ with no basis in reality. Even Christians can fall into the habit of thinking of their beliefs as mere opinion. The truth is that the core claim of Christianity is that God became a man -- as a fact of history. As a man, He suffered and died at the hands of other men, who also were really part of history. His rising of the dead was also a fact of history. This same man, Jesus, who claimed to be God, said that He did all this in order to save us from death.
The goal of ‘The Passion Experience’ is to put this remarkable state of affairs in its historical context. That is, to make it clear that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection really happened in human history.”
ACM is fundamentally an ‘apologetics’ organization. Christian apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith, usually by offering evidences of various sorts for why Christianity is true, and attempting to meet objections of skeptics.
Horvath explains, “By re-creating 1st century Jerusalem, albeit with some necessary poetic license, we can educate and inform both Christians and non-Christians about some elements of Jesus’ last days that even they may have over-looked.
For example, the reason the Pharisees needed Judas to betray Jesus was because there were tens of thousands of Jews in town for the Passover, all dressed alike according to ceremonial requirements. One does not simply ring up the local hotel and ask for Jesus. So, how does one locate a person who is dressed almost exactly like the other hundreds of thousands of people who are present? The easiest solution is to have someone who knows that person take you to Him.”
According to Horvath, providing details about the context in which the death and resurrection of Jesus occurred helps people evaluate the claims of Christianity more fairly.
“We can’t bring people to faith, but we can help people understand what it is exactly that Christianity claims. If nothing else, it will help people understand that there are good reasons for why Christianity grew by the millions, despite being actively persecuted. It’s almost as if people understood there were a good reason to believe a man, claiming to be God, really did rise from the dead. We want people to have a better understanding of those reasons, by actually experiencing them.”
If you want to play a role in “The Passion Experience,” you should visit www.christianartsfestival.us as soon as possible and submit your application.
