Self-Styled

Our suffering can lead us into the love of God and the hope of Christ.  We can be drawn into humility and surrender as we recognize that He is drawing us to Himself in the midst of difficulty.  Romans 5
says:
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

God desires for us to humble ourselves before Him, and that involves recognizing His supremacy and the Lordship of Christ.  There are those who discover God and talk about Him, yet their lifestyle is not consistent with what the Bible prescribes.  You might call it "self-styled religion."  We have to be careful that we are not picking and choosing what to believe and what to reject, but that we are dedicated to pursuing the "whole counsel of God," as the Bible calls it, being willing to do whatever He calls us to do.

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In James chapter 1, we read about how suffering plays into a life of faith in Christ:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

It's not every day that you see a movie that deals with spiritual themes and features a main character who is endued with power from on high, including an encounter with the Almighty Himself.  You may have seen the movie, Bruce Almighty.  Plugged In gave it 3 out of 5 for family-friendliness - it summed up the plot in this way:

Like many people who don’t understand God, Bruce rails against the Almighty, blaming Him for his troubles. He shouts, "The only one around here not doing his job is you! ... Answer me!" Which God does. In fact, the Lord goads Bruce into a personal meeting and invites the whiny mortal to spend one week in His heavenly shoes, sharing His powers and responsibilities.

The reviewer highlighted the positive characteristics of a film, starring Jim Carrey in the title role, that was marred by its "coarse jokes, foul language and sexual situations." But, the review did say:

Morgan Freeman projects authority, dignity, kindness and a gentle sense of humor. Director Tom Shadyac does a nice job of making his Creator an omniscient, omnipotent, fully competent and loving personality rather than an impersonal force. God isn’t aloof, but intimately interested in seeing his children "be the miracle" to one another through acts of charity.

Jim Carrey is someone who has had quite the mixed bag with regard to spirituality.  According to GodReports.com, Carrey was raised Roman Catholic and "dabbled in Presbyterianism later in life."
He also had told Oprah that he advocates for the "law of attraction" and "visualization techniques." The piece states:

Carrey remains an ardent proponent of Transcendental Meditation, and seems to credit the practice for helping him to overcome depression and remove himself from Prozac and all other drugs, including coffee.

He had told 60 Minutes back in 2010: "I'm a Buddhist, I’m a Christian, I’m a Muslim, I’m whatever you want me to be. It all comes down to the same thing. You’re in a loving place or you’re in an unloving place, if you’re with me right now you cannot be unhappy, it’s not possible.”

Over the past few years, Carrey has been involved with Homeboy Industries in downtown Los Angeles, run by Father Gregory Boyle, which "provides hope and job training for former gang members," according to that GodReports.com article.

He spoke there last month, and at first glance, it appears he was peddling that "you're in a loving place or you're in an unloving place," simplistic philosophy.  Carrey is quoted as saying: “Ultimately, I believe that suffering leads to salvation. In fact, it’s the only way.” Also, "We either decide to go through the gate of resentment, which leads to vengeance, which leads to self-harm, which leads to harm to others, or we go through the gate of forgiveness which leads to grace."

Then things get interesting; Carrey stated:

“You made the decision to go through the gate of forgiveness, which leads to grace, just as Christ did on the cross. He suffered terribly and he was broken by it to the point of doubt and a feeling of absolute abandonment, which all of you have felt."

But he continued to advocate for meditation, and delivered this statement, according to the article:

"They talk about omnipresence in church and nobody really thinks about what that means. What it means is that every cell of your body is God. Everything is God. Everything is divine,” he said, veering into a pantheistic interpretation of God’s omnipresence.

Just as Bruce Almighty presented a viewpoint of God without Christ, Jim Carrey apparently pays homage to God, but doesn't quite understand the salvation message.  His words sound good, and he did present some references to Christ's suffering, and that's encouraging - it's certainly a God-moment in celebrity culture.

But, theologically, overall, he is certainly not sharing about traditional Christian truth.  Let's take some positives and negatives away from Carrey's example.  First of all, as he said to the LA group, "suffering leads to salvation."  The Bible says that the trying of our faith brings patience - God works through suffering, and through what we suffer, even before we come to Christ, He can use that to bring us to Himself.   So, you could say that's fairly accurate, in the Christian sense.

In complimenting the attendees for going through the "gate of forgiveness," embracing the good side of things, he talked about Jesus also went through that gate - in a sense that's true, He forgave the sins of humanity, but He did not have to receive forgiveness because He was perfect.  True, He was broken for our sins, but I would contend He not doubt God His Father.

Finally, Bruce in the film Bruce Almighty believed that he could do a better job of running the world than God Himself.  He learned a valuable lesson in the course of the film.  The actor who played him, Jim Carrey, in a sense, has developed a personal theology that is composed of a number of religious elements.  Christianity + Transcendental Meditation + pantheism does not equal the way that God intends - and nowhere do we see, at least here, the affirmation by Carrey that Christ is the only way to God and salvation comes through His death and resurrection.  It could very well be that Carrey has developed his own self-styled religion that doesn't acknowledge the atonement of Christ nor the importance of obedience to His ways.  But, there is definitely a seed here; one can pray that it would bear fruit to an accurate understanding of the ways of the Lord.  We have to be careful that our theology lines up with the Scriptures, that we are not engaging in "self-styled religion," and that we're not making up our own path and then attempting to put a God-stamp on it.