A Fatal Flaw
So after all the hype died down over the film God’s Not Dead, I finally watched it.
And despite the fine camera work, good lighting and audio, overall decent acting, and an actual story … it was still lacking something.
Something subtle.
But what?
Theology Matters
The problem, dear friends, is that Christian films are generally made with a theological perspective called Arminianism.
Some of you may be thinking, ‘Seriously, Ben?! You’re gonna get bent outta shape over some finer point of theology!’.
As a matter of fact … I am.
And for a good reason.
Arminianism has the ironic affect of turning God into the clock-winder of Deism with a minor upgrade … He gets to control the weather in real-time.
Marketing Jesus
No longer is God the Ultimate player on the field of reality, as the Bible portrays Him, controlling everything from natural disasters to the hearts of men. Now He’s just the coach, stuck on the sidelines, yelling encouraging words to us, the real players.
It’s up to us to convince all the pagans to stop sinning and start loving Jesus.
A “Christian” movie made from this theological perspective can’t be a good story anymore, it has to be a sales pitch to pagans or a motivation tool for believers.
Instead of proclaiming Jesus Christ, we’re marketing Him.
And God’s Not Dead did just that.
The title does double-duty as a hashtag.
Willie Robertson and The Newsboys function as sanctified product placement, along with the Newsboys song which doesn’t share the films title by accident.
At the end of the film, in a crescendo of emotion, Willie Robertson tells an audience to text all the contacts in their phone “God’s Not Dead”.
It’s painfully obvious that the filmmakers are hoping this call to action won’t end with the actors in the film.
So go ahead.
Text everyone in your contacts an obnoxious little message that will surely annoy the heck out of them.
At least we hope it will.
