The development of the game "I am Jesus Christ" was announced last week (December 2019) and with the announcement came a flood of opinion, and in my opinion, rightly so. The game is launching from steam and from their steam page it describes itself as “a realistic simulator game inspired by stories from the New Testament of the Bible”.
The About section for the game says, “Get into old times and follow the same path
of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.”
It is said to be covering “the period from the Baptizing of Jesus Christ to Resurrection.” They pose the question, “Have you ever wondered to be like Him - one of the most privileged and powerful people in the world?” Even that statement made me wince because Jesus did not roam this earth with a haughty spirit. He did not perform miracles to gain wealth and power on this earth. Everything he did was for the glory of God.
In Philippians
They go further by adding “Check if you can perform all famous miracles from the Bible like Jesus Christ. It is a simulation game and you can try to save the world as He did. Are you ready to fight with Satan in the desert, exorcising demons and curing sick people? Or calm the storm in the sea?”
“Pray like Him to get your Holy Spirit's power and help people around you. Fight with evil, make miracles, resurrect dead, feel and act like Him.
If you a game-lover, why not get to know His pass, His challenges, His sufferings, and His power!”
This game intro feels like it was just put together haphazardly. There are typos , grammar is wonky, they use a lot of Christian buzzwords and they use them wrong.
There are no user reviews, because this game hasn't been released yet.
RELEASE DATE:Coming Soon
DEVELOPER:SimulaM
PUBLISHER:PlayWay S.A.
According to Steam PlayWay is one of the leading producers and publishers of PC, console and mobile games in Poland.
I did some digging and it looks like they have a huge collection of simulator game trailers on YouTube. So many! They are all listed on steam as “coming soon” but none have been released yet. They have a Bum simulator, a priest simulator trailer, a drug dealer simulator, a handyman simulator, and I am your president just to name a few. They posted all of these to YouTube in January of 2019. When you click the links to the games, it takes you to the steam pages of each game where there are no release dates. A couple titles you might recognize that is under The Play Way Publisher is House Flipper and a car mechanic simulator. They just released a Cooking Simulator game this past June.
As for the developer, SimulaM ? When you google them you will find the game “I am Jesus” steam store page, and a Company fact sheet with the Jesus Simulator Game being the only game listed . You will find many articles saying he has caused a stir with the announcement of this game. You can see more screenshots on the steam pages showing that the game will also include biblical events like the last supper, washing of peter's feet, and casting out demons.
In this Jesus simulator game, I'm going to continue to call it that because I don’t like the actual title... we are given the opportunity to heal a blind old woman. After doing so, they flash a Polaroid style picture with the bible verse that is meant to accompany it on the bottom of the picture. The first bible verse that appears is a portion of Mathew 21:14
“The blind and the lame came to him” (at the temple, and he healed them.) I'm not sure why they don't put the entire verse on any of the pictures….
In the next scene the player playing as Jesus fills a man's bucket with fish . A bible opens and there is a Polaroid of the man with the bucket of fish full with the bible verse :
John 6:35 New King James Version (NKJV)
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
The next scene we are looking through the eyes of the games depiction of Jesus at stormy waters and we look down to see we are indeed walking on water and then they show our hands raise up and we calm the storm while also targeting a sale boat which is brought from a rocking chaotic situation to a coming one.
Then the bible appears and the bible verse Mark 4:41 is scribbled on the bottom the polaroid picture . It says “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
The games trailer ends with the crucifixion , showing our view from the cross looking at our hands with nails in them then across on the other two men being crucified with us on the cross. Then the next scene shows us in first person, Jesus rising off of where we lay, and raising his hands and moving the rock away from the tomb.
Each time we play Jesus in the game and perform a miracle , a bar on the left with a glowing gold bar and a red heart at the bottom of it , is drained. When Jesus (played by us) rises from the tomb our bar is filled up again….
I'm going to share my thoughts on this and try to see the pros and cons.
Pros:
The images and actions so far shown in the Game trailer are ones I can get behind. I subscribe to the idea that we can become what we behold. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 it states
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Our eyes are also part of our bodies, so anytime I sit down to watch something or play something I am very aware of what I am choosing to put in my body via my eyes. So , knowing this you can see why I lean toward the visuals of this game and the actions being performed in this game far exceed those that players partake in when they play games like Grand Theft Auto. Jesus spoke to prostitutes and shared with them the love of God, he did not beat them down in the streets to steal their money.
It may expose people to scripture by adding bible verses to each action if done like the trailer shows.
It may expose people to who Jesus really was by having them reenact biblical events.
It may inspire people to read the Bible when they find out there are so many great stories and lessons to be learned and read in the bible.
Perhaps the developer will also become closer to God through this games development. No one is out of God's reach so if this game can be used to introduce people to the Bible and to the Gospel , then I see that as a win.
I am thankful the=at they appear to be doing this simulator with some sort of respect by having the player in the game actually performing events out of the bible instead of having Jesus doing sinful things.
The Cons.
The title is a huge Con to me.
“I am Jesus Christ” should seem blasphemous the minute it leaves your lips. It sounds just like the new age message that is seeping into Christian Churches , where they remove the importance of Jesus Christ by whittling him down to the term Christ Consciousness. With this practice they teach that any of us can unlock the abilities that Jesus possessed on earth. So you can see that having this title is planting a seed of equality with Christ. We are not Christs Equal, We are cured by Christ, Saved by Christ, but not little mini Christs running around. We are children of God.
In Philippians 2:5-7 (NIV) it states: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus
We are called to have the same mindset, not call ourselves mini Christs.
In Philippians 4:13 Paul writes, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is our relationship with Jesus that makes this happen by allowing our strength to flourish even during times where we might otherwise feel weak without him. It doesn't mean that we somehow become like Christ and zip off doing Christ-like things without Christ present inside of us as many new Age teachings proclaim and have been seen seeping into our churches.
The first thing I thought when I saw this games announcement, was “WHY have us playing the role of Jesus? Why not have us be a by-stander witnessing the glory of God instead of being God.”
Well, after researching the publisher and the developer I think I found the answer to my own question. I don’t think they had nefarious intentions in having us, the gamer play as Jesus.
I think it was pure ignorance on their behalf regarding how this could be viewed sacrilegious in nature regarding this particular aspect of the game. I say this because the publisher has a huge list of simulator games they have scheduled to release. In a list that consists of a Cooking Simulator, Mechanic Simulator, Priest simulator, and a President simulator, the fact they landed on a Jesus Simulator doesn't seem too far out of their scope of simulator interests . I definitely don't agree with it, but I can see how they landed on this path, and I wonder if they intend to add other Gods that other religions worship to their list. I'd be interested to see how well that goes over with those religious groups.
I tried to think of other ways they could go about this game to remove the fact we are indeed playing a Jesus Simulator. I think they could have had it be a game where we witness the biblical events and have to enter in the bible verses where those events took place or answer other questions about the event to progress.
They could have done a disciple simulator and witness the “Power of Jesus”.
I think the best way to do a Jesus Simulator is to allow us to to create our own avatar and then have us be able to make biblical based choices . I would call it the WWJD simulator and poof there ya go.
My overall take on the game is that I'm not sold on the idea of having a Jesus Simulator in this form. The irony, IMO, is that we are all already living in a "Jesus Simulator" or an emulator of sorts . As Christians in this real world where we keep our name but our actions are to resemble that of Jesus Christ. We are to be walking billboards for God because we may be the only bible people read and the only “simulation” or version of Jesus they have ever come in contact with.