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Jesus World was fiction; Orlando's Holy Land is fact, and it has attracted criticism from both Jews and some evangelicals. The Living Bible Museum opened in February, just a few miles up Interstate 4 from Universal Studios Florida. There are no thrill rides, but Holy Land offers a considerable razzle-dazzle, covering Israel's history from 1450 B.C. to A.dD 66, from the time of Moses and the Exodus to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.

Highlights include a six-story replica of Herod's Temple faÇade; the largest indoor-scale model of first-century Jerusalem in the world; costumed characters; and multimedia, multisensory presentations recreating scenes from the Old and New Testament. On holidays like Easter, an actor portraying Jesus will carry a cross along the reproduced Via Dolorosa, and another actor will preach as John the Baptist. The attraction does not lack for show-business hyperbole; in the weeks before the unveiling, Holy Land's promotional literature proclaimed, "The Gates of Jerusalem Are About to Open in Orlando!"

The Holy Land Experience, as it is formally known, has a lot going for it, not the least of which is its location. Central Florida is a hospitable environment for evangelical Christianity, and local pastors have hailed the attraction as an asset. The new park joins a growing list of organizations and seminaries that have moved to the Orlando area here in recent years: Campus Crusade for Christ, Wycliffe Bible Translators (an animatronic figure of the pioneering church reformer John Wycliffe is being built for Holy Land), Reformed Theological Seminary, Asbury Theological Seminary, and Geneva College. There are just about enough interesting attractions for religion-minded tourists to put together a "Jesus tour" of the area. These include a model Presbyterian church in Disney's planned Community of Celebration, a large Catholic shrine, and the Morse Museum in Winter Park, which features the reconstructed personal chapel of the stained-glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

When guests enter Holy Land, said the Reverend Marvin Rosenthal, the man most responsible for the theme park, "They will leave the 21st century behind and embark on a journey that is unequalled anywhere in the world. It will be an experience that is educational, historical, theatrical, inspirational, and evangelical." The Baptist pastor came to central Florida with his ministry, Zion's Hope, and brought with him the idea for a place like Holy Land, located in Orlando's tourist corridor. In scale, the attraction is only a vest-pocket version of giant neighbors like Universal, Disney World, and Sea World. But its production values are equal, at least in the physical recreation of biblical Jerusalem, which is striking. And that is no accident. From the beginning, developers of the $16-million, 15-acre park knew they would face some stiff competition. Two other attempts to mount religious attractions in Orlando, a Bible World theme park in the 1970s and last year's Ben-Hur, a $9-million live musical based on the 1959 MGM film, both washed out in seas of red ink.

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March 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 4