My wife and I went to see this on a very difficult day. We had found out just that day that her niece had passed away. Our grief was very palpable as we watched this movie, and though we had many tears and wept along with the various parts of the movie that dealt with death and dying, we did hear the message that Kirk was laying out for the audience.
The "Journey" starts at the beginning, because that's simply what all who become Christians come to understand at some point in their walk with the Lord: That the beginning of the Bible, God's letter to us, lays out the groundwork for everything else that comes after it. The Book of Genesis is indeed a book about beginnings, and has as much relevance today as it did 3500 years ago when it was first written down.
This is the "Spoiler" part for those of you who have not seen the movie. If you're a Christian then you'll forgive me for going into it and "Giving away" the ending. But the answer to why bad things happen to good people, or the reason why if God is good, why bad stuff happens is simply the fact that there is sin in this world. There was originally no sin, and humans, specifically Adam and Eve lived in perfect communion with God. It was evil that crept in, and tempted Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, after which all of creation was messed up and subject to the ravages of sin and death ever since.
What the non-Christian can never understand is why God would write down this silly sounding story about it if he didn't intend to do something about it. And that, again, is entirely the point. God _did_ something about the failure, and ultimately He considered it His failure so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross at Calvary to take the penalty for all our sin - on Himself - so that we could be restored to perfect relationship with Him. We won't be perfect of course until after we die and live eternally with Him. But Hallelujah - the message of the gospel does explain why bad things happen, as well as provides the answer to all that bad stuff that we can have now, here, today.
That is not a complete gospel message, and the film does not claim to make anything like a gospel presentation, nor does it. If you wish to hear the full gospel, may I suggest you head on down and talk with a Bible believing Pastor at any Evangelical church and find out for yourself if this amazing story could be true.
I liked the movie very much, and I give Kirk Cameron a lot of credit for the work he did on this movie. It is not perfect by any means, but it is far better than average in terms of good Christian messages in any movies out there. The subject matter is difficult - even for Christians - to deal with. Most folks would rather pretend sin didn't exist, and that it's not really a problem. Well, for those of us in the U.S. it may not be, we have so much wealth and prosperity already. It's difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God Jesus told us.
The reason why is because the wealthy have no need of a "Savior" they already have all they need. Most of those out there who thumb their noses at God and desire to live their own life-style pretending that God doesn't exist are essentially telling everyone they have no use for God either, they're happy to self-medicate and keep pretending that judgement isn't coming. I hope that works well for those of you out there living in your dreams.
I could go on, but I will leave you with some curiosity so you can explore these ideas on your own.
The "Journey" starts at the beginning, because that's simply what all who become Christians come to understand at some point in their walk with the Lord: That the beginning of the Bible, God's letter to us, lays out the groundwork for everything else that comes after it. The Book of Genesis is indeed a book about beginnings, and has as much relevance today as it did 3500 years ago when it was first written down.
This is the "Spoiler" part for those of you who have not seen the movie. If you're a Christian then you'll forgive me for going into it and "Giving away" the ending. But the answer to why bad things happen to good people, or the reason why if God is good, why bad stuff happens is simply the fact that there is sin in this world. There was originally no sin, and humans, specifically Adam and Eve lived in perfect communion with God. It was evil that crept in, and tempted Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, after which all of creation was messed up and subject to the ravages of sin and death ever since.
What the non-Christian can never understand is why God would write down this silly sounding story about it if he didn't intend to do something about it. And that, again, is entirely the point. God _did_ something about the failure, and ultimately He considered it His failure so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross at Calvary to take the penalty for all our sin - on Himself - so that we could be restored to perfect relationship with Him. We won't be perfect of course until after we die and live eternally with Him. But Hallelujah - the message of the gospel does explain why bad things happen, as well as provides the answer to all that bad stuff that we can have now, here, today.
That is not a complete gospel message, and the film does not claim to make anything like a gospel presentation, nor does it. If you wish to hear the full gospel, may I suggest you head on down and talk with a Bible believing Pastor at any Evangelical church and find out for yourself if this amazing story could be true.
I liked the movie very much, and I give Kirk Cameron a lot of credit for the work he did on this movie. It is not perfect by any means, but it is far better than average in terms of good Christian messages in any movies out there. The subject matter is difficult - even for Christians - to deal with. Most folks would rather pretend sin didn't exist, and that it's not really a problem. Well, for those of us in the U.S. it may not be, we have so much wealth and prosperity already. It's difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God Jesus told us.
The reason why is because the wealthy have no need of a "Savior" they already have all they need. Most of those out there who thumb their noses at God and desire to live their own life-style pretending that God doesn't exist are essentially telling everyone they have no use for God either, they're happy to self-medicate and keep pretending that judgement isn't coming. I hope that works well for those of you out there living in your dreams.
I could go on, but I will leave you with some curiosity so you can explore these ideas on your own.