God's Not Dead: a review (possible spoilers)

Since this blog is called "Through My Eyes" - it stands to reason that I should write about what I see, and that includes movies.  I love movies.  I go to the dollar theater to see pretty much every movie I'm interested in, which can mean weekly.  Sometimes I splurge and go to the "big theater" and pay the higher price to see something I'm really interested in.

Today I saw God's Not Dead.  If you're not aware, the premise is a college philosophy professor asks his students to write "God is dead" on a sheet of paper and sign it, acknowledging they won't be wasting any time talking about God in this class.  Freshman student, Josh, can't sign the paper, so instead he must defend the antithesis in three 20 minute lectures to the class and they get to decide.

I enjoy apologetics, so I thought this movie looked fun.  It didn't hurt that my favorite Clark Kent (Dean Cain) was in the movie, as well as Kevin Sorbo as the professor.  I did enjoy the movie, but I will say that I don't think they proved the point they set out to prove.  (Here come possible spoilers)

Josh started out his lecture by basically trying to prove the Creation story.  He shared quotes from famous scientists, athiest ones, and shared how they sort of line up with the Bible.  While that's all well and good, how does that prove God is not dead?  If anything, it might prove that God was once alive, but something that happened thousands to billions of years ago (depending on your beliefs) hardly proves He is alive today.
It later gets a little better when Josh discovers why his professor is so adamantly against God.  When we start to hear the backstory, then we gain some compassion and understanding.  That's great.

I won't go too deep with the story, in fact, I think I'll stop there.  It goes on to show some divine interventions and one powerful miraculous moment with Dean Cain's character.

My thought in leaving is that if you want to prove God is not dead today, all you'd really have to do is the very things Bethel church is doing every day.  Bringing God's supernatural power into the here and now.  We see people healed every week of all sorts of things.  Pain leaves, cancer disappears, blind eyes open, deaf ears open, crooked feet straighten out, metal dissolves out of bodies .... the list goes on and on.  If those things don't prove God is alive and well today, nothing does.

Apologetics is fun, but I don't think an intellectual debate is going to have half the sway that an outright supernatural encounter will.  The thing is, a lot of today's church doesn't really believe in that stuff.  When we pray for people, not everyone sees the answer they're looking for.  So instead of continuing to take God at His word, we re-write our theology to say that God once healed people, but He stopped.  Why would He stop?  That makes no sense.  When we stop expecting a miracle, we stop praying for them.  

I know that not everyone gets the healing they were looking for.  I can't answer the why question that comes with that.  I know that when Bill Johnson and his team started praying and believing for healing, they didn't see anywhere near the positive results they do today.  I know that they just kept pressing in, believing that when Jesus told His followers to go out and heal the sick, He actually meant it.  Now, 20 yrs later, they have a totally amazing healing ministry with many, many healings every week.

 I was diagnosed with the need for a root canal in July 2012.  I told the dentist "no" and have gone to the healing rooms almost every week since then to receive prayer for healing.  It's been almost 2 yrs, and I still have a slightly tender tooth and a small bump on my gums.  But I keep going.  I know that God showed me a picture of some new teeth He was making for me.  I know that my time is coming.  I also know that it hasn't gotten worse, and I would expect after 2 yrs in the natural, it probably should have.  I believe that God is good, and in His time, I will get this tooth fixed.

Why do I believe that?  Well, because God's not dead.  ; )  I don't believe in God because some old book tells His story and I'm just supposed to blindly believe in it.  I don't believe in God because my parents took me to church and raised me to believe. (although that gave me a baseline from which to start)  I believe in God because He has revealed Himself to me in such personal ways. He has shown me love and spoken to me in my language.  He has physically healed my arm in a powerful way.  11 yrs of pain, gone in an instant when I watched online as Bill Johnson called out a word of knowledge about a left arm.  He's healed my heart, changed the things inside me that I hated but had no power to change, pulled me out of the miserable pit I'd found myself in.  There's too much to even list.  He has proven Himself real, alive, powerful, and GOOD to me beyond a shadow of a doubt.  I can't call a list this long coincidence.  There are no other explanations.

I did enjoy the movie, but I would much rather have seen them give testimony of God in the here and now.  He is here, He loves you, and He has an amazing plan for your life, for which He wants you to be saved, healed, and set free to do.  He's not out there with a lightning bolt waiting for you to screw up.  He loves you and wants more than anything for you to find what you were created for and do it with all your heart!  I've found my purpose.  He planted Uganda in my heart back in 2007 and everything about me makes sense in light of that calling.  I am thrilled to find what He made me for.  I look forward to stepping into the now with that vision.  I have hope and a purpose, because Jesus loves me.   He has only good things for me.  Life may throw me some curves, but I know that God will give me the grace to knock 'em out of the park.