Andrew Garfield, the actor who played Desmond Doss in the movie Hacksaw Ridge, had an experience with 'Christ' while preparing for another movie about a 17th century Jesuit priest
Garfield studied for a year with Jesuit priest James Martin in preparation for the aforementioned movie about Jesuits. During that year, he studied (and learned) the Ignatian Spiritual exercises--the 'holy grail' of spiritual formation. Garfield said that Martin helped him better grasp who God is.
"He gave me spiritual direction as if I were a Jesuit in training," he said. "It became a very personal journey for me."
"It is a transformational meditative process where you do these imaginative prayers" said Garfield. "In fact", he continued, "Stanislavski, who invented the basis for modern acting, was deeply inspired by Saint Ignatius' spiritual exercises. So I felt right at home as an actor. It was this very weird thing where you create this deep relationship with Jesus Christ" he stated in an interview.
"I hadn't studied the Bible, being an agnostic pantheist, and I discovered that the Jesuits are incredibly pantheistic in a way. They find God in all things. God is in the tree that was used to make this table, and I think that is a wonderful way to see the world."
The highlight of Garfield's Ignatian experience was a week of silence.
"The week was full of meditation in and attempt to get close to those deep inner voices and the spiritual exploration we were doing. After the seven days, I was traveling to the airport with another actor and the devil showed up in a disgusting, dark conversation between us for three hours. It was like the devil came in and made us say these nasty words, I can't even remember the words, they are like, blocked out of my memory."
Wow. This experience has become Garfield's experiential replacement for the Bible. It has brought moments where the Enemy took control of his thoughts and speech, and yet convinced him that he has found the true Jesus.
These spiritual formation exercises are flowing rapidly through their latest vehicle, the Emergent Church movement, and have positively affected not a few Adventists, who claim that they (Ignatian Spiritual exercises) might be a good way to get closer to God, or Jesus Christ. But which Jesus? There are lots of false Jesus' and only one real One. There are many spirits and one Holy Spirit, in our heightened spiritual culture. We must be wise, and test the spirits by the Word of God. There is much deception around us.
Andrew Garfield final words: "My philosophy is that a life of faith is not a life of certainty; a life of faith is a life of doubt." Huh?
Desmond Doss' life exemplified biblical conviction, and to be portrayed by an actor who says these things should remind us anew that Hollywood is no friend of truth. Now you know the rest of the story, and knowing it, you might say a prayer for this poor deceived man, Andrew Garfield. There might be more hope for him than for Christians who go down this dark path. In fact, our culture is not moving from Christian to secular; it is moving from secular to pagan.
"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him" (1 John 2:3-6).