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by Jesse Carey

“Christian” movies don’t exactly have the greatest reputation among film watchers. Christian cinema’s apocalyptic thrillers, morally concerned family films and social-issue stumping dramas have often been criticized for being a little too preachy for non-church goers, lacking the subtlety of their Hollywood counterparts.

Of course, there’s nothing that makes a movie (or any other piece of pop culture) “Christian,” but films with overtly Christian messages have in some ways, become a sub-genre of their own.

Here’s our look at eight movies with Christian messages that will restore your faith in redemptive films.

Believe Me

Believe Me follows the exploits of a group of college guys who attempt to pay off their student loans by crafting a fake, charity:water-type nonprofit and keeping the donations for themselves. Along the way, they discover they’ve got a gift for crafting the sort of highly emotional, faux-substantive Christian “worship” experiences that grease the pockets of the faithful, but they also start to come to terms with their own hypocrisy. Watching the dudes learn to perfect their Christianese is a stinging riot, but Believe Me has a lot more on its mind than just laughs.

Amazing Grace

The 2006 film about William Wilberforce’s campaign to abolish the slave trade in Britain works on several levels: It’s a gripping historical drama; it’s a compelling story about social activism and it’s a moving testimony to the power of faith and reliance on a higher calling.

Blue Like Jazz

The film adaptation of Donald Miller’s best-selling memoir may not have captured the same breakaway success as the book, but the movie remains a pretty charming indie. Unlike many traditional “Christian” movies (or films that are targeted to Christian audiences), Blue Like Jazz isn’t afraid to embrace the complexity of faith, coming of age and thinking about God. Like the book, the movie enjoys asking questions and exploring doubts, but ultimately, finding truth.

Into Great Silence

In 1984, filmmaker Philip Gröning asked Carthusian monks in a remote French monastery if he could make a documentary about their lives. Sixteen years later, the monks agreed. The resulting documentary is a wordless, but gripping, look at the lives of the reclusive monks who have devoted themselves to God and the Bible. What’s captured on camera is like a time-capsule from a group of men dedicated to prayer, and it soon becomes clear why their order’s motto is “The Cross is steady while the world is turning.”

The Mission

Based on actual events, the 1986 drama starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons is an emotional story of redemption, forgiveness, persecution and devotion. Set at a Jesuit mission in the South American jungles during the 1700s, the movie is about fighting injustice and how grace can be used to overcome the most powerful forces of might. It’s a hard-hitting movie featuring one of the most iconic scores in history. Don’t miss it.

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“Art of Salvation” is the Art section of DivineCouncil.org’s new online store!

Believing Artists celebrate the wonder of salvation in art. By their gifts — through the eyes of the Spirit — God is glorified. And with the work their hands find to do, another view of the Art of Salvation is revealed.

Our first offerings are from Angel (Isaiah McCann) with her “Eden Tree Collection” and J9 who’s been able to “realize on canvas” some long-held visions by working with Angel.

Click Here to View Everything in the Store!

Eden Tree Collection

Mark 8:24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.”
“It may be that my imagination gets carried away on this verse, but it inspired me to create people who look like trees.

Another inspiration for my trees, was an article titled “Sacred Trees in Israelite Religion”, that was later put in the book, “The Bible Unfiltered, Scripture’s Sacred Trees”, by Dr. Michael S. Heiser.”
— Angel Isaiah McCann

(NOTE: There are 14 available sizes for each work and please make sure to see the preview for your choice before ordering.)

Collaborations with J9

J9 describes how the collaboration with Angel came about:

It was in early 2017 that the Lord led me to what has become a very fruitful relationship with an Artist Lady, who co-incidentally goes by the name Angel.

Needing a way to describe the vision which I had in my mind for over a decade, I drew a rough sketch and, after some email exchanges containing “what-if’s” and “tweaks,” was presented with the finished product as you see it here.

Stay tuned for more inspiring and useful things to be added to the Store!

Textual criticism is an often misunderstood practice. If the Bible is supposed to be the inspired Word of God, how could discrepancies in the text exist? This excerpt from Textual Criticism of the Bible tackles this concern head-on. A properly aligned doctrine of Scripture recognizes the authority of the Bible while also acknowledging the human imperfections introduced over thousands of years of transmission.

A longtime Christian and student of the Bible posted the following comment about Romans 8:1:

“View the difference in versions here! You may want to add this to your NIV. I have an NIV Bible, but when I study, I always compare it to the KJV:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1 NIV).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit” (Rom 8:1 KJV).

Big difference, huh?”

This comment concerns an issue that surfaces throughout the Bible: differences in Bible versions that may affect the meaning. While some Bibles include footnotes to indicate when such differences exist, these notes are not always helpful for readers with no background knowledge of the preservation and transmission of the Bible from its original authors to the current day.

What should we think when we find disagreement between English versions? Which translations are right? Why would translators “change” the biblical text? How can readers make good decisions about these discrepancies between versions?

These questions are important for every student of the Bible, and textual criticism contributes part of the answer.

Many people are uncomfortable with the idea that discrepancies exist in the biblical text. Why wouldn’t God have preserved his Word with greater care? How can we really know what God has said when there are variations in the wording? These are important questions for people who believe the Bible to be God’s inspired, authoritative Word. To answer them, we must consider what Christians believe and have believed about the nature of the Bible—our doctrine of Scripture.

The doctrine of Scripture has developed over time, as have all theological doctrines. Early on, the church fathers recognized variants among their biblical manuscripts. However, they did not seem to view these variants as damaging to Scripture’s authority. Differences in texts became more problematic after the advent of the printing press. For the first time, Christians were able to have a fixed text—but which text should be fixed? Later, as European scholars in the eighteenth century sifted through a plethora of newly discovered biblical manuscripts, they began to understand how the biblical text had developed over time.

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Hymn to the Conqueror by Zechariah

What You Know May Not Be So

This transcript is of a presentation given by Michael Heiser entitled “What You Know May Not Be So — How Biblical Prophecy is Unclear and Why.” My best guess for the date of the presentation is January 5th, 2012 given to the first “Future Congress.”

Copyright © 2013 Michael S. Heiser

The transcript is ~8800 words and includes 50 slides. All the material (and excerpts, below) is owned and copyrighted by Dr. Heiser and please consider supporting his work in creating, presenting, and posting such presentations on Youtube.

The excerpts, below, are 1/8th of the entire transcript. They are a sample of the transcript, not a summary of the presentation.

What You Know May Not Be So

I’ve entitled this what you know may not be so. And the subtext here is how Biblical prophecy is unclear and why.

I should preface this by saying that the reason I proposed this topic and was interested in doing this, because I don’t really do prophecy, but I have a concern that there are a lot of believers who are sort of locked into one perspective and prophecy. And my concern is that if certain things don’t pan out the way you sort of expect them to, then it’s going to have a very dispiriting effect on the church.

The fact is that there is very little that’s self-evident when it comes to prophesy. Really, almost nothing. And I’m going to show you why that is. Why do people disagree so vehemently when it comes to Biblical prophecy? There are actually reasons for it, and I’m going to give you a few of those, by no means all of them, but a few of them.

So what I want to do is to illustrate the problems (by) plucking a few examples out and then apply the results of those difficulties.Roadmap

So, illustrating the problem. Problem number one is something I call clarity of intention. Basically, this is the issue or the problem of how do we really know what the biblical writer of a prophecy intended as far as fulfillment or what was the intended meaning or the intended outcome. How do we really know?

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Splitter or Joiner?

Why is it when we come to prophesy, instead of harmonizing, instead of joining, we split? It’s the only place we do that.

Here’s what I mean. Read 1 Thessalonians 4; a familiar passage. Again, the so-called rapture passage.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

A very familiar passage.

Then we look at this one. Zechariah 4, and they say: “Well, here it says, ‘on that day his feet shall stand the Mount of Olives and why that lies before Jerusalem the East, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two’ …blah blah. Hey, this doesn’t sound like this.”

Splitter or Joiner?

Or I could put Matthew 24 up here, which has a lot of similarities with 1 Thessalonians 4. But, you look for differences, and then you split them.

Here’s the point: the reason you believe what you believe about the rapture is because you have decided. If we put all the passages about a second coming, a return of Jesus let’s put it that way. If we took all those passages about a return of Jesus and put them all right here in front of us, you would either harmonize them, or you would look for differences and split them into two events. If you’re a splitter, you have a rapture and a second coming. If you’re a joiner, you don’t have a rapture. It’s just a decision you make. Neither one is self-evident.

The Bible doesn’t have like an instruction appendix in the back that says addendum to the last chapter the book of Revelation when thou shalt encounter a prophecy passage, split or join. We don’t have an instruction book. We just make this decision. Usually, because we’ve read somebody who splits and then we decide what sounds great I’m going to split, too. Or we’re going to be a joiner, and then we read a split. They’re interpretive decisions that color, that dictates, that compel, where you end up when you come out.

Imminence?

Another one: Imminence. Again these are all problems with certainty, with what we do when we talk about prophecy. Imminence whatever that means now why do I put it that way? Well, people define Imminence differently. Some people say Imminence means Jesus could return in the next I blink. In other words, there’s nothing preventing it. Some other people say Jesus will return soon, that’s what Imminence means. It means soon. But there might be some things that still need to happen.

Okay, other people will say well it means Jesus will return unexpectedly. So those are these are the three most common definitions of Imminence that you see.

Imminence? Now, here’s the point. you go back to these definitions of Imminence how would you apply them to first Thessalonians 5? Well, the reality is that anything that smacks of a sign in the New Testament, heavenly portents, celestial things happening, the appearance of the Antichrist, you know. Jesus even said you know things like about even what’s going to happen to some of the disciples again talking about you know that is coming and how do we handle that now that we’re dealing with a distant future, all this kind of stuff. Signs are relegated to the second coming only if you presume a rapture when you read 1 Thessalonians 5. If you don’t, then you have no problem with things appearing before the actual return.

In other words, these are decisions you make. I’m not saying any one of them is bad. What I want you to see here is that a lot of what you believe about prophecy you believe, not because it’s just so plain from the Bible. You believe it because you’re filtering it through, again, things you’ve read your experience and the exposure you’ve had to certain things. As you study you develop again presuppositions, presumptions, inclinations to look at things a certain ways, it’s just a natural human thing. Because I don’t know which is right. I don’t know if we should split or join because there’s no instruction manual. And I’m not inspired, so I’m not going to tell you that you would have to pay for that. I can’t do that.

What I want you to realize is that a lot of this stuff is really here. It’s decision oriented. It’s about presuppositions. It’s about thoughts you bring to the text when you read it that it’s going to inform and guide the way you think about it. And someone else will bring another set of thoughts to the same text and come out totally different, and this is why. Because there are ambiguities, it’s going on in the text.

So conclusion. What I want you to get out of this is that you just be aware you just be aware that this is sort of the nature of the problem. There are things going on in the text. There are things God does conceal, he did it a lot the first time, and it could be significant points. Things are cryptic there’s the problem of how do I know what an author originally intended.

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