My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:2
New International Version (NIV)
My wife and I recently watched the film God's Not Dead finding it to be highly moving, inspiring, and entertaining. This is the kind of film entertainment that the Christian community needs more of rather than the kinds of immoral and Godless entertainment often offered to audiences.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
Regarding the critical response to God's Not Dead, Wikipedia says:
The film has been panned by critics, currently holding a score of 16 out of 100 on Metacritic indicating "overwhelming dislike", based on six critics,[8] and a rating of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews as of May 2014.[9]
The article goes on to cite other negative responses by the critics. Would we expect much else from media spokespersons who continually rip anything related to Christianity while giving raves to films that promote lifestyles of sin and debauchery?
A few positive words are given from Christian sources, but even some members of the Christian community are critical of this film. To me their arguments are weak. I would wonder why Christians would not be wanting to come together rather than debate petty theological issues thereby discouraging some from seeing the film and detracting from the positive values the film attempts to convey. No wonder that the anti-God advocates look askance at purveyors of the message of the Gospel.
In contrast to the generally negative reviews given to this film one can look on the Amazon site where reviewers have given the film over 2400 five star reviews in contrast to the 150 one star reviews and comparatively small numbers in the other star ratings. Audiences generally respond well to this film and seem to want this kind of entertainment as indicated by the over $60 million in profit the film has made so far.
If you haven't seen God's Not Dead yet, I'd encourage you to read about it to see if it appeals to you. If the film sounds like something you'd like to see then I recommend purchasing or renting a copy. Consider it a vote for God-inspired entertainment. I'm looking forward to more of this sort of thing from the Christian backed entertainment industry.
Romans 1:20
New International Version (NIV)
" I would wonder why Christians would not be wanting to come together rather than debate petty theological issues ". And yet, we see it every day, in the media, on FB, in the churches. I posted a FB comment on a meme that said, "I am a Roman Catholic" in big letters, and "I believe in Jesus Christ" underneath. I brought up that I thought the focus was backwards and was on no uncertain terms informed I was a heretic by a woman who claimed a seminary degree.
ReplyDeleteI saw the movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think we need to see all movies that come out that have a God or Biblical theme to it, for instance Heaven is Real, even Noah, so that we can tell our friends who might not believe in Jesus the truth about movies that are portraying God or the Bible, especially if the movies are inaccurate. For instance, we saw Noah when we could rent it from Redbox for $1.30 as opposed to a movie ticket, but I'm glad we did because there were so many inconsistencies in the movie compared to the Bible. I wrote them all down and tucked them in my Bible at Genesis where the story of Noah is told so that if it comes up in discussion with friends, I can tell them the truth versus fiction. I think we need to support movies like God's Not Dead so that other similar movies will be made. I rather watch movies like that than action movies or science fiction myself.
ReplyDeletebetty
Interesting -- I just saw this movie last night for the first time in our small group. While I could perhaps understand why some critic might not consider it a 'great film' compared to 'Citizen Kane' or a Bergman film or something, I don't know why someone would overwhelmingly dislike it unless they were acting from a hate of God, much like the professor in the film. As a Christian I enjoyed the message and meaning in the film, but even if I weren't I could think of many worse films.
ReplyDeleteBut it ties to a larger phenomenon among the "arts": Why are things with positive, uplifting messages automatically panned, and things that glorify the ugly, depraved side of humanity praised?