There have been a lot of movies made this spring that claim to have strong Christian messages. So far there has been Son of God, God is Not Dead and Noah. Having seen all three of these movies, I can honestly say that none of them were good portrayals of the Gospel. The movie Noah was far more fiction than fact. For example, Noah believed that “the Creator” (the name God was never used) wanted him to see that all the humans in the ark were killed before it hit land. This was because men were evil. That is true (Genesis 6:5) but God saved Noah and his family out of His grace to the human race. Genesis 9:8, 9: “And God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ‘And as for Me, behold, I will establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you”’. There is no talk here of God eliminating Noah and his family. In the movie, Seth’s wife had twin daughters. Noah was to put them to death. He disobeyed the Creator and did not kill the babies for “love”. This is an unbiblical movie.
The one that would come closest to the truth was the Son of God but it was still lacking. For example, the person playing Jesus quoted the first part of John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life” but he did not say the end of the verse “No one comes to the Father but through Me”. (an oversight?)
I do not know why Hollywood cannot simply make the Gospel story true to the Biblical text. What is wrong with saying that first of all God so loved the world (John 3:16)? This means that He offers His love to all who receive Him. He offers His Gospel of hope to hopeless people. How did God find us? We believe in the doctrine of unconditional election which means that God chose us based on nothing that we have done. In Deuteronomy 7:7, 8 God said to Israel, “The Lord did not send His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you are the least of all peoples but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
It is the grace of God that our salvation is not based upon our looks, our income, our education, or our status in society or our goodness. If that were the case, we would all perish. There are many people who believe that they are not good enough for God. Again, if that’s the case, we would all be lost.
The end of John 3:16 says, “whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. What a wonderful promise Jesus makes to those who repent. Sadly the only reason that such a movie would not be popular is because of our sinful pride. We want to be autonomous people in charge of not only our life but our salvation. As Paul said in Ephesians 2:1: “We are dead in trespasses and sins until God in His mercy savesus”. Therefore, the purpose of a Gospel movie should be evangelism telling people the good news of Jesus Christ and praying that God would change their hard hearts and show them that what they are seeking is only found in the Lord Jesus.
Regardless of how a movie true to the Gospel is received, this is the only way that such a movie should be presented.
Grace Presbyterian Church 