(OPINION) The film “Come Out in Jesus Name” ran in nearly 2,000 theaters nationwide earlier this month. All locations except one allowed a time of prayer after the movie, according to Pastor Greg Locke, who said he was ordered to leave the theater and the premises.
“In our hometown where we did the premiere, they weren’t even going to show it,” Locke told The Christian Post. “But so many people bought tickets, so they filled up the two biggest theaters.”
“Come Out in Jesus Name” follows Locke, who rallied together well-known deliverance ministers Alexander Pagani, YouTube preachers Isaiah Saldivar, Pastor Mike Signorelli, Vladimir Savchuck and Daniel Adams as they model Jesus’ ministry of deliverance as described in the New Testament.
Once a self-described cessationist, Locke now fully embraces the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The film encourages believers to embrace their authority in Christ Jesus to free themselves and others of demonic oppression or possession.
At the end of the film, a pre-recorded deliverance altar call led by Locke was shown in theaters nationwide, but the theater in Locke’s hometown refused to do so, according to Locke.
“Interestingly enough, right toward the end of the movie, I had made it over for the last 30 minutes.” So I’m sitting there [in the theater where the film is being shown], and the management actually came up to me and said, ‘You will not be speaking here tonight. You will not be praying for people and you will leave immediately when this movie is over.’
“So I came out, the lobby was packed with hundreds of people, people standing in line to be prayed for. They came up to me and they said, ‘We will have you arrested if you pray for people in this theater. You will leave now, you will not do it in the parking lot.”
Locke said he was saddened that he wasn’t allowed to show the pre-recorded deliverance portion of the film and was also told he wouldn’t be allowed to pray for people in person.
“They actually kicked me out of the theater in my hometown. So we had people follow us back to the church and we did deliverance in the middle of the night in the tent,” the senior pastor of Global Vision Bible Church added. CP called the theater to ask about Locke’s accusations and the theater’s manager declined to provide comment.
In other movie theaters around the country, however, moviegoers flooded social media with footage of mass deliverances occurring after watching the film. The minister said he and his team received tens of thousands of testimonies from people all over the nation about how they received deliverance following the film’s release.
According to The-Numbers.com the Fathom Events film grossed $973,795 at the box office in its one-day showing. But Locke said the project was never about the “income.”
“It’s about outcome. We won’t even break even on this movie, but we will need to see people set free. And God said, ‘You know what? I found some crazy radical people in Nashville, Tennessee, and we’re gonna go for it,’” he added.
