Movie Review - God's Not Dead

By Khen Lim

Image source: Pure Flix

For Christians, it’s hard not to get excited with such a movie title. For many of us, this movie served up great opportunities to spread the Word to non-believers who are willing to be objective or open-minded but it seems that there have been reviews that slated the movie for various reasons but principally, they levelled on the movie’s weak arguments against atheism. There are too many and too complex issues brought up that I would raise here but suffice to say, all of them deserve some form of response here.

First of all, let us remember 1 Peter 3:15, which exhorts all believers to “sanctify Christ as Lord in (our) hearts, always being ready to make a defence to everyone who asks (us) to give an account for the hope that is in (us), yet with gentleness and reverence” (NASB). In other words we are to assume the role of defenders of the faith as and when the need arises.

In light of this, ‘God’s Not Dead’ is an opportunity for us to take action and equip ourselves – including our families – to make a difference in this world, to prepare our loved ones to face their future in a world that is intolerant of Christ. Let us pray that God will provide us with the ability to confidently and boldly defend their faith and share the Gospel. And if we believe these are important things to do, then let us view this movie with a less critical eye and focus on what – and not just how – it attempts to achieve this.

Synopsis

Devout Christian and university freshman, Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper) discovers very quickly that the class he had enrolled in – despite warning on registration day about being ‘thrown in the lions’ den’ – was nothing ordinary. The unmistakable bull in the ring by the name of Professor Jeffrey Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) is a dogmatic and argumentative atheist, frothing and seething at every mention of God’s Name.

Image source: Pure Flix

On that first day, Radisson informs the students - including Josh - that they must renounce, in writing, the existence of God or face the harsh prospect of a fail grade. And to do that, all students must write the words, "God is Dead" on a small scrap of paper. Josh 

On that first day, Radisson informs the students – including Josh – that they must renounce, in writing, the existence of God or face the harsh prospect of a fail grade. And to do that, all students must write the words, “God is Dead” on a small scrap of paper. Josh is caught between wanting a good grade and backing his faith and amidst the conundrum, decides to refuse the instruction, which predictable provokes a seething reaction from the professor.

Radisson throws down the gauntlet – of Josh refuses to admit that, “God is Dead,” then he must present his proof that He exists. He is given three opportunities before his peers over the course of the semester and in so doing, he finds that he cannot avoid engaging Radisson in a feisty head-to-head debate.

The outcome from this is simple – if Josh fails to move his peers into supporting his views, he will be evicted from class, fail his course and jeopardise his academic future. Seemingly there is no one who is willing to chance their students to back him; not even his girlfriend who threatens him to drop the whole debate or lose her. The persistent temptation is for Josh to quietly back down and get his degree without problems. Nobody gets hurt, nobody needs to know and he can then put his future ambitions back on track. After all, how easy is it really to prove that God is not dead when almost every university in America professes that He is either non-existent or He is, in fact, dead.

Revolving around the story of Josh in ‘God’s Not Dead’ are several other intertwining stories that weave around the very subjects of faith, denial, doubt and disbelief. Invariably all of these stories get meshed together towards the end and the big picture becomes increasingly clearer by then as well.

Image source: Pure Flix

The movie features some outstanding names in show business. Kevin Sorbo’s recent claim to fame was his leading part role in the TV series, Hercules, where he gets top billing. A very strong Christian, he plays the role of the mean professor, looking to tear chunks off the freshman student Josh Wheaton played by Shane Harper. Former TV-series Superman, Dean Cain plays Marc Shelley, an uncaring atheist who doesn’t appear to have any time for his mother who has dementia and live in a home or his girlfriend Amy Ryan (played by Trisha LaFache) whom he rejects once he discovered that she had cancer. The professor has a girlfriend Mina (Cory Oliver) who has been a long-suffering Christian. Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson and wife Korie, make their appearance as themselves in the movie.

Despite Tinseltown and the mainstream media not picking up much news about ‘God’s Not Dead,’ worldwide earnings shot past $62 million from March 21 to June 18 2014 from a humble $2 million budget. In America alone, 780 theatres opened the movie to a whopping $8.6 million in just the first weekend. Entertainment Weekly’s Adam Markovitz calls the movie, “the biggest surprise of the weekend” upon the movie’s launch. Surely something must be right if that many people watched it.

What’s there not to like?

Image source: Pure Flix

I watched the movie before I got to read the reviews online. And thankfully I didn’t do this in reverse; otherwise it might have derailed my idea of watching it in the first place. In the end, I felt that the movie delivered what we were looking for, which is an uplifting and encouraging movie for all Christians looking to a nice way to spend 95 minutes of free time.

Critical reviews pan the movie for inaccuracies in terms of the arguments put up to counter atheistic viewpoints. Some others picked on technical issues and made unnecessary but unsavoury comments about it being ‘surprisingly’ well produced for a Christian movie. The point is most of these comments represent a failure to understand the intentions of the movie. ‘God’s Not Dead’ is not a super-polished EFX movie meant to thrill and shrill. It is a movie with a specific viewer target. It is entertaining but not in the typical Hollywood fashion but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Image source: Pure Flix

Comments by Christian ‘experts’ also miss the point because the movie does not pretend to be a flawless expert’s guide to countering every wise-crack atheist and/or heretic. If we wanted to do that, we should understand that it’ll take a whole lot more than 95 minutes of Bible Study classes and theology workshops to equip ourselves. As a movie that needs to be commercially successful, the multiple story lines have to flow as seamlessly as possible and the script has to be practical. Being overly theological would have lost most of the viewers.

When we invite our non-Christian friends to come watch a movie like ‘God’s Not Dead,’ we don’t want to end up interrupted every few minutes to explore and explain some convoluted theology. To have the movie presented in the way it is, even Christians with minimal Bible exposure can find themselves enjoying and understanding the plot including the fierce debates between Josh and Radisson, which are the indisputable highlights of the entire movie.

And that, in gist, is essentially how the movie ought to be taken into account.

The movie reveals reality

Image source: Pure Flix

The primary setting for the main storyline revolves around the university campus; to be more precise, the lecture theatre. This in itself is pivotal for a simple reason – American universities are inundated with the same problem. The movie is a true reflection of some of the worst and most repressive anti-Christianity activities that we know of. It’s become a cesspool for Christian condemnation but a melting pot for leftism, socialism and Islamisation. And there are plenty of horrifying true accounts to back this up.

One such case involves a Texas Tech University professor of biology who publicly condemns students who believe in Creationism and then denying them of his recommendation to progress further. For him, the ‘fact’ of evolution is the only truth that is acceptable. There are no discussions otherwise. There is another case of a Christian mature-age student who, together with all other Christian students in his class, was advised by her professor to think things over before proceeding because he would simply “destroy your faith.” The open hostility is very real and for Christian students and their parents, it’s a case of living through a nightmare.

America’s ugly turn to atheism grows by the day and the unwitting young teens who come as freshmen are the victims. As they leave home to live in college dorms, they become ripe for the damaging transformation, never to return home with their Christianity intact.

The brutal fact is that American Christian parents often endure the emotional and spiritual pain of discovering that their children had abandoned their faith the moment they become indoctrinated within the grounds of American tertiary education. Malaysian parents who send their kids to America to further their studies face the same problems. If they’re not Christians, they have to fend against the liberal LBGT agenda. If they’re Christians, they face what Josh face with an abundance of lecturers the likes of Prof Radisson.

The movie ‘God’s Not Dead’ teaches a precious lesson to families and that it, they must equip their children to face the outside world as early as possible. The lure of sin – shrouded in so-called logic and rationalism – will swallow them up alive. If parents don’t wish to see their offspring falling prey to evolution, atheism and everything that is antithetical against God’s Word, then this movie is a stark reminder.

In that sense, movie reviewers are way off the mark with their scathing criticism of the movie. If you’re a concerned parent, you’d be thankful to spend some time watching this movie.

‘God’s Not Dead’ is not likely to be commercially screened anywhere in Malaysia. For churches interested in showing this movie, arrangements need to be made with Pure Flix. 

Although not confirmed, Hosanna EFC is looking into the possibility of making this screening a reality. 

Movie Cast

Company                             Pure Flix

Writers                                 Cary Solomon, Chuck Konzelman

Director                                Harold Cronk

Producers                            Elizabeth Travis, David A.R. White, Anna Zielinski, Michael Scott, Russell Wolfe

Genre                                    Christian drama

Duration                              95 minutes

Rating                                   PG

Cast

Kevin Sorbo                        Professor Jeffery Radisson

Shane Harper                    Josh Wheaton

Dean Cain                           Marc Shelley

David A.R. White             Pastor Dave

Cory Oliver                          Mina (Radisson’s girlfriend)

Trisha LaFache                 Amy Ryan (Marc’s girlfriend)

Cassidy Erin Gifford        Kara (Josh’s girlfriend)

Paul Kwo                             Martin Yip

Hadeel Sittu                       Ayisha

Marco Khan                        Misrab (Ayisha’s father)

Benjamin Ochieng           Reverend Jude