The Christian-themed movies just keep coming these days.
If you recently went to see Son of God, God’s Not Dead or Noah, you probably sat through twenty minutes of endless previews for other films. The other night I must have gone out for popcorn and missed part of this, but there was one preview for the newest film in this genre, Heaven is for Real, co-produced by popular evangelist, T.D. Jakes, and directed by Randall Wallace, screenwriter for Braveheart and director for other well-known films, including The Man in the Iron Mask and Secretariat. It is based on a popular book, Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, written by Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo about his son, Colton, who had a type of near-death experience during appendectomy surgery in 2003. After his remarkable recovery, young Colton Burpo told his parents of things that he experienced regarding true events that were otherwise unknown to him, such as seeing his miscarried sister, as well as sitting on the lap of Jesus and seeing other people in heaven with wings where everyone looked young.
“Heaven” fascinates people because despite living in the “information age,” we know very little about it. So when someone claims to have visited “heaven” and comes back with a story to tell, it draws on our curiosity. Most people today are so preoccupied with trying to make it in “this” world, that we never really consider what it will be like, if anything, on “the other side.” I sincerely doubt that a film entitled “Hell is for Real” would garner the same type of interest, which tells us quite a bit about contemporary culture’s aversion to that side of the story. But, alas, an experience of “heaven” is more appealing, but frankly it is fraught with many of the same difficulties as with the concept of hell: Is it true and in what sense is it true?
If someone does report on having a “near-death experience” (NDE), how do you verify the trustworthiness of the story? Young Colton Burpo has caught our attention, but is it really true that people in heaven will have wings? As with other popular movies like Son of God (see Veracity review), God’s Not Dead (see review) or Noah (see review), we need some way to evaluate the validity of what the film director is telling us. After you check out the following preview for Heaven is For Real, go on and explore this rest of this analysis….
Have you ever heard anyone say something like, “Love is a commitment of the will?” Here’s an 11-minute Reasonable Faith audio from William Lane Craig and Kevin Harris that demonstrates the value of checking our theology.
Love is a commitment of the will. But if that’s all love is we had better work on our understanding of the character and nature of God. It’s really, really important to get this straight.
And for the record, not that I would want to argue with William Lane Craig, but I don’t think Calvinists have the corner on this issue by any means.
End-times prophecy fascinates many Christians. This is understandable. The Bible talks quite a lot about the fulfillment of prophecy.
Popular American preacher and Christian Zionist, John Hagee, has been recently promoting the idea that we are on the verge of seeing some “world shaking event”, a type of prophecy fulfilled corresponding to a rather unusual astronomical occurrence. Starting in April 2014 through 2015, observers on planet earth will be able to witness four “blood moons” in a relatively short period of time, according to researchers at NASA and other astronomers. A “blood moon” is simply an informal expression for a lunar eclipse, when the moon will appear the color of a blood red. In the following clip promoting a recent book, John Hagee summarizes his ideas:
In this latest turn in the analysis of biblical prophecy, Biltz suggests that the rare events of having four blood moons, a tetrad, happening so close together in time has been historically associated with major events in Jewish history. In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain, followed within a couple of years by one of these four blood moon events. In 1948, the modern nation-state of Israel was founded, followed again within a few years by a series of four blood moon events. In 1967, Israel fought the Six Day War, gaining full control of the old city of Jerusalem. Oh yes, soon after that, there were four blood moon events.
A number of biblically informed Christians are not enthusiastic about the blood moon teachings associated with Biltz and Hagee. I do not always agree with Gary Demar, but I would urge those who are drawn to the teachings of Biltz and Hagee to at least soberly ponder over what the founder of American Vision has to say.
Demar argues that the speculation over the future fulfillment of prophecy actually has a negative impact on the witness of the Christian church. From Hal Lindsey to Harold Camping, and to somewhat a lesser extent in the late Chuck Smith, those who are tempted to focus too much on future biblical prophecy have historically been wrong, wrong, wrong pretty much most of the time. When people have tried to nail down the exact date of Jesus’ return, their attempts have proven 100% incorrect. If it turns out that no spectacular “something” happens within the next couple of years regarding Israel, will the integrity of Christian witness in the eyes of a skeptical world be damaged?
If we as Christians repeatedly pay too much attention to even vague attempts at the “date-setting” of nebulous prophecies, will our non-believing neighbors trust us when we try to tell them about the prophecies that have been fulfilled already in Jesus Christ 2000 years ago?
What do you think? Is there a bad “blood” moon rising?
Some experienced students of the Bible might object that Gary Demar is a partial preterist, and therefore not trusted with respect to Biblical prophecy. Okay, how about this: for another dispensational, futurist perspective that objects to Hagee’s and Biltz’s understanding of the Bible, you might want to view the following 13-minute critique of the Four Blood Moon theory. The bottom-line: do not simply swallow everything some television preacher says. Check it out against reliable history and the truth of God’s Word:
A Veracity reader suggested that I review the Darren Aronofsky movie, Noah, if I happen to see it. My small group wanted to go, and since I had just seen God’s Not Dead, I figured I was on a roll anyway.
My biggest problem with Noah was that it really departed greatly from the story of the Bible without a compelling reason as to why this was necessary. To say that Aronofsky had a “creative interpretation” of the Genesis story is clearly an understatement. To put it in a nutshell, though I was fairly critical of some aspects of the God’s Not Dead movie, as a Christian if you had to pick between movies, go see God’s Not Dead instead, save the rest of your money and read the Bible story of Noah on your own. Probably the best thing to come out of the Aronofsky film is that hopefully it will encourage people to actually go read and study the Bible and talk about it (that is why I went to see the film in the first place with my Bible study small group!).
Please do not get me wrong. I really like well-constructed, imaginative sci-fi flicks and Noah was no exception. Noah clearly had a strong mythological feel to it, provocative reflections on the Book of Enoch’s “Watchers” (speculative ancient Jewish literature based on Genesis 6), a somewhat curious allusion to Abraham’s faith testing with respect to offering up Isaac as a sacrifice, and a strong environmentalist message with breathtaking views of Iceland. As a story with lots of Biblical elements, Noah was intriguing. I just think the actual Biblical story in Genesis 6-9 is far more interesting. Not only that, the Biblical narrative is also true. I will take the truth of Scripture any day over the speculative fantasies of Hollywood film producers.
The challenge for the Christian in reading Genesis is in trying to determine in what sense is it true. We already covered some of the basics here before on Veracity, but in light of the movie, a number of creationist ministries have produced material to help the church to process the Genesis Flood story.
Answers in Genesishas an extensive critique from a Young Earth perspective that embraces the Noah flood as a global event, including a two-hour teaching video analyzing the Noah movie.
Reasons to Believe has a number of helpful videos, podcasts, and other resources from an Old Earth perspective that sees the flood more in terms of a local event impacting the then known world of that time.
The BioLogos Foundation understands the flood from an Evolutionary Creationism perspective, viewing the flood with respect to the original, ancient literary genre of the text as the key to interpreting this passage of Scripture.
I want to highlight one approach from BioLogos given by Old Testament scholar, John Walton, from Wheaton College, who views the Noah story in terms of transforming the world of disorder into non-order and then into a world of order within the context of God’s covenant with His people.
One more closing thought: one of the problems with the flood narrative from a scientific perspective is that if you understand a pure literal reading of only Noah and his immediate family and their wives entering the ark, it makes the subsequent re-population of the earth problematic from a genetic diversity perspective. But if the human population on the ark also includes others in Noah’s extended family, household servants, etc. that the Bible simply omits to tell us about, this becomes less of a problem. Also, remembering that the flood was specifically sent upon the “world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5), this may allow for the possibility of the Noahic survivors of the flood contacting other humans who were not impacted by the judgment of the flood. I have nothing definitive here, as these are just some thoughts to stimulate further study in this most intriguing text of God’s Word.
The final takeaway: the movie is more than a little weird, but it has some elements that warrant good discussion and critical engagement with its themes, and it rightly presents Noah as a complicated man. Contrary to popular belief, the Biblical Noah was not righteous because of his works. Rather, he was declared righteous by the grace of God. Humanity is in rebellion against God. That includes Noah. Thankfully, God’s salvation is extended to us by His loving mercy. If we can get this central message of the Biblical Noah in our minds and hearts, then the rest of the details should fit within the proper Biblical perspective.
Apparently, Hollywood has discovered that Christians exist. This spring of 2014, we are witnessing a slew of Christian-themed movies. Son of God and Noah top the list, with Ridley Scott’s Exodus coming out later in the year.
My wife and I went to see the surprise film of the season last night, God’s Not Dead, directed by Harold Cronk, based on a book written by Rice Brooks. The basic plot set in Louisiana involves a young college freshman, an evangelical Christian, who gets pitted against a rather annoyingly obnoxious and atheistic philosophy professor. The freshman takes on the challenge to defend the thesis that “God is Not Dead” in front of the whole class under the glaring watch of the atheistic professor’s superior intellect.
I am not really much of a film reviewer, but I woke up this morning early with a little insomnia and since the subject directly covers matter that we address here on Veracity, I thought I would share an evaluation. Here is the trailer.
