Christspiracy Review

[ Warning: spoilers! ]

Here is our Christspiracy Review in video format:

Initial Impressions

Wow! I saw Christspiracy in the theater last week and it was amazing! They did such a great job of depicting exactly what Jesus was opposing when He disrupted the temple and its practice of selling animals for slaughter, as well as showing how this information has been obscured and covered up for centuries. They also did an excellent job picking out the best academic scholars to interview on this subject, including but not limited to: Robert Eisenman, James Tabor, Andrew Linzey, Keith Akers, and several others.

Regardless of whether you are a Christian or non-Christian, this film will deepen and revolutionize your understanding of the character of Jesus. Get ready to have your mind blown!

Before we continue, a little about myself.

Who am I?

• Committed Disciple of Jesus since 2003
• Vegan since 2009
• Pastor / Live Speaker at Creation Care Church since 2021
  • Live Talks + Q&A every Friday at 4pm pacific
  • Streamed live from CCC Facebook page and YouTube channel

• Academic Background
• Graduate degree in the History of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Toledo, 2008
• Research focuses on Early Christianity and Source Criticism
• Taught University courses in New Testament, Ethics, Critical Thinking
• Currently run a Vegan Christian Discipleship School through CCC and S2P

This film was right up my alley!

When I first heard about this project

I first met Kip and Kam in August 2019 at the Los Angeles Animal Liberation March where Kam told me about this Christspiracy film project he was working on. Our paths share a lot in common! We both live in a van and devote ourselves to studying and living out the character of Christ. It’s wonderful to finally see the finished product of all his and Kip’s hard work these past several years.

There I also interviewed Pastor Rob Munro where we discussed the meaning of “den of thieves” and “the least of these.” That interview can be watched here (sorry about the audio quality.)

Now let’s get into a few of the other really great points brought out in the film (18 total) :

1. Daniel was 10x wiser and healthier when he ate only vegetables

a. Evidence: Daniel 1 (note: he also abstained from alcohol, which was not mentioned in the film)

2. There was no death or bloodshed in God’s Very Good Design

a. Evidence: (Genesis 1:26-31)
26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itselfd and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.e
28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
29Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. 30And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth—everything that has the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.

3. Spokespeople claiming to represent Jesus (pastors, evangelists, etc) misrepresent him in so many ways when it comes to how we are supposed to treat animals.

Some examples of clips from the film:

a. God commanded us to eat animals
b. God created animals for us to eat
c. Jesus ate meat (fish, passover lamb)
d. Jesus did not die for cows, pigs, and chickens
e. Vegans are following a doctrine of demons

See: Friday Night Live # 69 – What is Biblical Veganism?
See: Friday Night Live #25 – Why aren’t more Christians concerned with creation care, especially church leaders?

4. Jesus disrupting the temple was about animal liberation

a. Evidence: (Moneychangers not even mentioned in Luke, and Jesus didn’t quote passages about doing dishonest business. Instead he quoted prophetic passages about God not wanting animal sacrifices).

5. The temple was a huge slaughterhouse where there would be rivers of blood draining into reservoirs underneath the temple

a. Evidence: Depictions of the temple throughout the Bible, and actually going to the temple and walking through these drainage channels.

6. Temple was also a huge money-making enterprise for the priests and king

a. Evidence: King Herod appointed Sadducees in control of the temple, selling animals for profit to be sacrificed
b. Evidence: Kosher and Halal are together a trillion dollar industry even today

7. When Jesus was disrupting the temple, he called it a Den of “Thieves”, which is actually better translated as ‘violent ones’

a. Evidence: Matthew 21:13, quoting Jeremiah 7:11, פָּרִצִ֗ים (pā·ri·ṣîm) meaning ‘violent one or tyrant’. See Strong’s H6530. This evidence was mentioned in the film when interviewing an expert Hebrew scholar, Deborah Rooke.
b. Further evidence not mentioned is that the context of chapters 7 and 8 of Jeremiah is the prophet accusing the temple priestly scribes of falsifying the torah by adding animal sacrifices that God never asked for. Jesus was not quoting a proverb about doing honest business with unweighted scales; he was quoting Jeremiah about the lying pen of the scribe falsely portraying God as asking for blood sacrifices. See Jeremiah 8:8 and 7:22.
i. “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie” (Jeremiah 8:8, ESV).
ii. “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Jeremiah 7:22, ESV).
c. Friday Night Live #125 – God Hates Violence

8. “Jesus the Nazarene” represents who Jesus was rather than what town Jesus was from.

a. Evidence: Prof Robert Eisenman, no town of Nazareth in the Galilee is found in Josephus, Hebrew Bible, or Talmud. Nazarene = righteous one, devoted one.
b. Evidence: Sect of the Nazarenes (in film).
c. Further Evidence: Acts 24:5; Matthew 2:23, referencing Judges 13:5 (not in film)
The Gospel of Philip, an early second century collection of sayings, self-identified as Nazarene, describe the origin of the term: “The apostles who were before us had these names for him: ‘Jesus, the Nazorean, Messiah’, that is, ‘Jesus, the Nazorean, the Christ’… ‘Jesus’ in Hebrew is ‘the redemption’. ‘Nazara’ is ‘the Truth’. ‘The Nazarene’ then, is ‘the Truth’.”
“I am the Way (of Redemption–Yeshua), the Truth (the Nazarene), and the Life (the anointing–the Christ)” (John 14:16)

9. Dominion means our responsibility of stewardship

a. Evidence: Andrew Linzey (used in film)
b. Further Evidence: Genesis 1:29-30, the passages immediately following the command to have dominion tell us that this dominion in God’s image and likeness entails being vegan (not mentioned in film).
c. Further Evidence: Vegan Christian Discipleship School: Dominion Lesson

10. Christians do all kinds of evil toward animals in the name of Jesus

a. Evidence: Interview with father and young son, members of the Christian Youth Hunting Club. Kid killed his first deer. Father took blood from deer and wiped it on his cheeks and told him not to wipe it off until the following day. Kid said “I felt kind of bad, but I went along with it.” And when reflecting on the experience, the kid, visibly disturbed at what had just happened, said, “I just killed an animal.” (in film)

11. Nearly every major world religion has kindness to animals as a central precept, despite few religious people (or non-religious people for that matter) actually living out this principle. So it is not just Christianity that is hypocritical in this regard.

a. Evidence: Despite the religion having a mandate not to kill sentient beings, the Dalai Lama eats meat. Also interviewed various Buddhists saying they will eat meat to show grace to a host, and it is ok to pay people to kill (in film).
b. Evidence: Despite the religion having a mandate not to hurt (ahimsa), Brahmins have animal sacrifice festivals just like the temple priests in Jesus’ time (in film).

12. Non-vegans have cognitive dissonance when it comes to animal cruelty

a. Evidence: people outraged over “Food for Louis” eating raw roadkill and eating his pet goldfish and rabbit, but then these same people eat animals every day, including Christians who say they’ll pray for him (in film).
b. Evidence: Outrage over Yulin dog festival while doing the same to turkeys, cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals (in film).
c. Evidence: Dr Melanie Joy “Carnist Matrix.” The perceptions of our behaviors are distorted; we love dogs and eat other animals, without seeing the contradictions in one’s values (in film).

13. Free-Range Regenerative Farming is not better, nor is kosher, halal, nor anything else short of full vegan.

a. Evidence: interview with farmer who says “killing animals every day is not good for your psyche” (in film)
b. Evidence: need to cull animals such as coyotes and bald eagles to protect livestock and the land needed for their grazing or for growing crops (usually soy) to feed them (in film).

14. There is ample evidence that Jesus and his earliest followers, including all of the apostles, were vegan

a. Evidence: Keith Akers interview. Gospel of the Ebionites, early attestations (in film). Book: The Lost Religion of Jesus.
b. Further evidence: Evidence for Veganism in the Early Church.

15. Jesus said, “I came to destroy the sacrifices, and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you”

a. Evidence: interview with Keith Akers (in film)
b. Evidence: Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16, writing of the Ebionites (origin of quote)

16. Was Paul against the vegan message?

a. Evidence: Andrew Linzey interview
b. There is some evidence to support this position, but I don’t think this is the correct reading of Paul. We did a live talk on each of the three main Pauline passages used against veganism, showing that it is incorrect to interpret them as being against the vegan message:
1 Timothy 4 (See: Friday Night Live #15 – Were animals created to be eaten with thanks?)
Romans 14 (See: Friday Night Live #38 – Does someone have weak faith if they don’t eat animal flesh?)
1 Corinthians 10 (See: FNL #22 – Why in 1 Cor. 10 does Paul say to eat whatever is sold or served, without raising questions of conscience?)
c. Paul says, “I will never eat meat again” (1 Corinthians 8:13, NIV), and he instructs the church: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV). This sounds much more like a testimony in favor of veganism rather than against it.

17. What would Jesus do in the world today? One thing He would do is liberate animals from their oppression.

a. Evidence: He would do just what He did two thousand years ago. He would nonviolently disrupt systems of violence and liberate the wrongfully oppressed.
b. Here is an example of a speech I gave just before a slaughterhouse lockdown: Preaching the Word of God at a Slaughterhouse Lockdown!

18. If we can transform religious establishments to become vegan, that would result in the whole world going vegan!

a. Amen! Hence the importance of leaving space in the animal rights movement for leadership from a religious perspective. Call out anti-religious discrimination within the movement wherever you see it. Say to the naysayers, “Have you watched Christspiracy? Jesus is the founder of this movement!”
b. Recognize the work being done for animal liberation by devoted Jesus-followers: (Creation Care Church, Christspiracy, Sarx, Milton Mills (SDA), PETA Lambs, all-creatures.org, Live Mercifully, Shepherding All God’s Creatures, Animal Christian Concern, CCC Book Club and many others).

Recap and Further Resources

1. I was impressed by the depth of research, the quality of people being interviewed, and the overall message of the film.
2. People often ask me why as a devoted follower of Jesus, I’m so involved in activism and disruptions. I always say it is because that is what Jesus did. This film does a great job of capturing that truth and how it has been hidden from so many for so long. 🙏
3. Christspiracy only scratches the surface. There is only so much you can include in a 2 hour film.

a. Creation Care Church has put out more than 125 weekly FNL talks, streamed live from CCC Facebook page and YouTube channel.
b. The Vegan Christian Discipleship School for an even more in-depth immersion.
c. Swords to Plowshares for more academic information regarding what the early followers of Jesus taught in the first century.
d. I recommend starting here: Evidence for Veganism in the Early Church

The two overarching messages I took away from the film, that I encourage you to likewise take away from it and share with others:

1. The knowledge that Jesus was an animal liberator who opposed the practice of temple sacrifice and animal slaughter, and that this truth has been covered up and hidden for far too long, despite it being in plain sight in our own Bibles!

Absolutely!

The other takeaway message, concerns what we as viewers of the film should do with this knowledge:

2. “Tag, you’re it!”

Now it’s our turn to put this knowledge into practice. Let’s all become disciples of Jesus, embracing His guidance, walking just as He walked, opposing the systems of violence and injustice that He opposed, and continue the movement that He started two thousand years ago!

On this Resurrection Sunday, let’s resurrect the message of animal liberation and incorporate it back into the gospel message where it belongs. The gospel is good news for ALL creation.

Jesus came not only to save humans but to redeem the whole world from the sway of the wicked one. Let’s renounce the violent and misguided ways of the world, and let’s walk according to the Way of our King Jesus.

Let’s all say in one accord:

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

Let’s all follow Jesus!!