When I first saw this movie advertised, I knew
absolutely nothing about the story, and just knew that it starred Willie
Robertson from Duck Dynasty and the Newsboys. Once I learned that
those were just small appearances, and that the movie was
really about a young man standing up for his faith against an atheistic
philosophy college professor, I was suddenly interested, but I was also concerned
about how the movie would deal with something so complex. To tackle such an
enormous issue, the movie would have to be of such high quality that
no major flaws would detract from its main point, and it would also have
to present truly convincing evidence instead of just going for "Oh, I
just feel in my heart that God is real!" I knew full well that the movie
would never intentionally go down that route, but as I considered all the ways
it could go wrong, I felt a sense of trepidation. The movie has such great
ministry potential that I desperately wanted it to be good, and knew I would be
sorely disappointed if it fell short.
Many Christian movies struggle to meet basic
standards for a good film, but since they have been improving so much in recent
years, I believed that this could be a decent movie. My real concern, then, was
for the message to come across clearly, unburdened by faulty logic, bad
characters, or logical flaws which would turn off those who need its
message most. Christian movies are notorious for preaching to the choir,
but this movie was truly meaningful in its message, with valuable things for
Christians to consider and thought-provoking aspects which I hope will
challenge those who disagree with the title's claim.
This was not a perfect movie, but it was much better than I
expected, and I was relieved. Both powerful and entertaining, this is something I look forward to seeing again. Because there was so much to take away
from it, I will have to see the movie several times before I feel like
I "get" everything. In addition to the spoken arguments about
His existence, there was an unstated theme of God's sovereign hand
orchestrating the events to bring about His purposes in the lives of the
different characters, and I appreciated that a lot.
So entertaining that I got caught up in the
story instead of merely evaluating the content, this movie was not just about
the philosophical proposition "God is dead", but showed
various people in different stages of life grappling with real life issues and
being confronted with the truth about God. Limited neither to a thinking movie nor
just a drama, it should be appealing to all kinds of people. It was realistic,
and it was powerful, and even if there are moments which are slightly melodramatic,
that is no different than from any other movie, Christian-themed or otherwise.
This movie is not just worth seeing because it has a good message, but is worth
seeing because it's good.
According to the box office statistics I have
seen, "God's Not Dead" has already made more in this opening weekend
than other Christian movies made in their entire theatrical run. It is really
encouraging to see what an audience this film is reaching, and to consider how
many more people will hear about it because of the publicity its unexpected
earnings are generating. Because we paid to see imperfect, often corny films
with faith messages, now this movement has grown to the point where we can
watch genuinely good movies and reach all kinds of people. If no one had been
willing to show Hollywood that Christians would go out in droves to see movies
supporting their faith, movies like "God's Not Dead" would never have
been thought of, much less successfully released. I am very thankful for how
Christian movies have progressed, and look forward to seeing the films that
will come in the future.
If you are interested in seeing the movie, here is a link to the official movie website.
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