Movie Review: God's Not Dead

OPINION

Imagine that you were asked to prove that God exists. You are a Christian in a room full of people that may never have heard the truth about God and His plan for their lives. How would you handle that question? Now imagine that the answer you gave not only affected the people in that room, but also affected your relationships with your friends and family, as well as your career and your walk with Christ. In the movie “God’s Not Dead”, the question is raised about how far you would go to defend your belief in God.

Set in present day, a college freshman by the name of Josh Wheaton has just enrolled in school. He is a devout Christian and is studying pre-law. As part of his semester electives, he chooses to take a philosophy class. In this class, he meets Professor Radisson and quickly realizes that Radisson is not a fan of God. As a professed Atheist, Radisson informs his students that in order to survive his class and to quickly put behind them coursework that he feels is a pointless discussion about God, they need to disavow God altogether. The only requirement was that the students had to write down three words on their paper and pass it in. Those words were “God Is Dead”. The professor was very content that every student quickly wrote down those three words in hopes to passing his course. As the papers were being passed to the front, Radisson noticed that Josh didn’t pass anything in. When confronted about why he hesitated, Josh told Radisson he couldn’t bring himself to writing down that God was dead. He informed Radisson that he was a Christian and that he believed that God wasn’t dead. To make an example of Josh and to show the other students how ridiculous it was to believe in the God of the Bible, Radisson demanded that Josh defend his position by giving him 20 minutes of class time for the next three classes to present his case that God existed. Josh accepted his offer, but was concerned about his ability to prove that there was a God and how his efforts would effect his grade and his relationship with his girlfriend. As a template for his arguments, he presented the information as if God was on trial. Josh would represent the defense, Radisson would represent the prosecution and the students would represent the jury. Those three class periods opened up conversations that were more than Radisson expected. The results of which Radisson wasn’t prepared to accept.

My wife and I went to a prescreening of the movie “God’s Not Dead” Monday evening. As part of their marketing efforts, PureFlix, the company presenting the movie, sent out requests to local churches asking for their help in bringing the movie to their town. Pureflix setup screening times for local church staff to review the movie in that effort. My wife works at Mims Baptist Church in Conroe and so I accompanied her to the showing hoping that it was a halfway good movie. She had mentioned the movie before and I think I had seen a quick YouTube trailer once, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard that Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty was in the movie and that Kevin Sorbo from Hercules was also in the movie. My daughter also informed me that Shane Harper played a character on the Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie. My daughter was hoping that I couldn’t make the show so that she could go instead. I went into the movie thinking that it was mainly a documentary in which the show interviewed various Christian celebrities. I was totally wrong and was excited to learn that the movie was a well crafted movie based on the book by Rice Broocks. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but this movie is not just a story about a college student and his professor. It is much more than that. “God’s Not Dead” tells the story of various families, including a Chinese student with his father, an anti-Christian blogger and her boyfriend, a Muslim family and how they handle their daughter that is a newly born-again Christian as well as two pastors. Dean Cain also stars in the film as a self-absorbed businessman. In addition, the movie highlights music from the News Boys.

There are many Christian films that have been made in the past that seem less than exciting for various reasons. Because of budget issues, the films are usually low end and do not have recognizable actors. During the last few years, I have watched a few movies by Sherwood Baptist Church like "Courageous" and "Fireproof" that encouraged me that the quality of Christian-based movies are increasing and the quality of the acting was becoming more competitive. I think this is due to the involvement of local churches as well as Christians determining that their entertainment money would be better spent on family friendly media like “God’s not Dead”. I thought that the acting was good and that the story was engaging. I would recommend this film to families and hope that they are inspired to present God to those that do not know Him.

After seeing the film, I have to admit that I was challenged to not just believe that God exists, but to understand that those beliefs need to be put up front and center in discussions with other people. The film showed me that God reveals Himself in creation and that there is more evidence that God exists than there is that He doesn’t. We may never know how people view God and it is not only our responsibility to present God to others, it is also our responsibility to support companies like PureFlix in bringing those conversations to our local area.

“God’s Not Dead” premiers March 21st. You can view the most current list of where the movie will be shown by going to the following website address: http://www.godsnotdeadthemovie.com/theaters

If you would like your church to partner with PureFlix on securing a theatre for showing the film in your area, please visit their site at: http://www.godsnotdeadthemovie.com/buyout

The official “God’s Not Dead” Facebook page is - https://www.facebook.com/GodsNotDeadTheMovie