Rapper Jay-Z is no stranger to mocking Jesus and Christianity, and he’s back to making fun of the Bible.
The Book of Clarence, set to release in January 2024, is a blasphemous Bible movie that some call faith-based. But with this film he has produced, Jay-Z is making it clear that it absolutely is not.
A film that distorts the Bible cannot be called faith based, a ministry called Vision unSEALED says. In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Jay-Z says that “faith is only a backdrop” for the movie. He says he is most concerned that those who hear about the film and it’s premise might “immediately just focus on the religious aspect of it and not the human story.”
Vanity Fair goes on to say that “the film doesn’t make fun of religion or the biblical stories, but rather attempts to expand that world—a deceptive and dangerous point of view.
“Loving yourself or loving Jesus? Faith in yourself or faith in Jesus?” Vision unsealed asks. “Christians must be aware that Satan is working through his agents in Hollywood to undermine the authority of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus Christ.”
In the movie, Clarence “subtly” shows that he wants to be worshiped as God. At one point, he stands in front of a group of people and declares, “I am your new messiah.”
Clarence, a drug dealer, wants the kind of power that Jesus has, but he wants it for his own selfish goal of becoming wealthy and famous. Clarence achieves his “fame” by performing fake miracles, including giving sight to a blind man.
Crowds flock to him because of his “phony” miracle.
The film, directed by Jeymes Samuel, pushes the false narrative of Black Hebrew Israelites and a “race-swapped Jerusalem.” The movie paints Jerusalem with a majority black population, a belief held by many in the Black Hebrew Israelites camp who see themselves as the true descendants of a lost tribe of Israel. The anti-Semitic group charges white people with censoring history to deny their Jewish heritage.
The group includes celebrities like Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving.
In an interview with Ebony magazine, Samuel emphasized how important portraying ancient Israel as Black is to the narrative of the film. But, admits, “I knew I had to put our spin on it and inject our flavor into it.”
That statement alone reveals that he is changing and mocking the Bible.
A video on Vision unSEALED’s YouTube channel says that the sad part about Clarence is that “many people who profess to be Christians enjoy watching these blasphemous movies that disrespect our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
The YouTube channel says people are worshipping celebrities like Beyoncé in church and that they even have a Beyoncé Bible called, “Beyble.” A Beyoncé mass was held at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, on May 6, 2022.
In 2016, she did the unthinkable by releasing an album with a song that proclaims she used pages of the Bible for feminine hygiene products.
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Jeymes Samuels are only a handful of celebrities who have taken their contempt of Jesus and the Bible to a different level. But, Pastor Voddie Baucham says, there will come a time when God says, “Enough.”
Baucham, who serves as Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, says this spiritual battle is only beginning to amp up. Movies like the Book of Clarence are only part of the enemy’s schemes to deceive, but, in time, God will be exalted among the nations.
“God, will not be mocked,” Baucham says. “God says that ‘I am bringing My armies and that I am ready to go to war. I’ve got a huge army amassed. Are you ready to fight?’
“The dust will settle and the battle will be won. God will rescue and save His people through the person and work of His Anointed One, a king on Zion’s Holy Hill. And He will utterly destroy His enemies and He will be glorified. Be still and know that He is God.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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