Audacity: Love Can’t Stay Silent

Drama
50 minutes / 2015
Rating: 8/10



I used to think the main flaw with Christian movies is that so many of them are simply sermons disguised as dramas. But I’ve recently realized that the problem with these dramas wasn’t that they were sermons but rather that they were bad sermons… and paired with bad acting and worse writing.

In Audacity Executive Producer Ray Comfort has done something different. This is still a message movie – it’s for Christians, about why we need to, and how we can, spread the Gospel to homosexuals – but it's one in which pretty good writing and pretty good acting have been paired with an absolutely fantastic sermon. The end result is something every Christian needs to see.

The story begins in a typical office setting. When attractive Diana aggressively challenges bike messenger Peter to defend his biblical beliefs about gay marriage he heads to the Internet to do research. How can he present the truth winsomely?

Fortunately Peter finds YouTube videos from street evangelist Ray Comfort in which homosexuals are interviewed and challenged, and yet seem to appreciate the exchange. How does Comfort pull it off? By focusing on what we all – heterosexual and homosexual – have in common: our sinful tendency towards sexual lust.

Just that quick, Comfort shows that the tendencies we are born with can’t be our guide to what is right or wrong. His is also an inclusive approach. He doesn’t approach homosexuals as someone above or better than them, but rather as someone in a similar situation, also in need of a Savior. And he explains that because he believes the Bible to be true, if he loves his homosexual neighbors then he has to speak up.

In total Comfort’s witnessing videos only amount to about 15 minutes in this 50-minute production, but they are the crux around which the whole film revolves. In the dramatic sections we get to see how “everyman” Peter ends up putting into practice what he has learned. It’s believable enough that most viewers will be able to imagine themselves in Peter’s shoes and learn right along with him what it means to speak the truth in love. We can’t stay silent. We need to share what Jesus has done for us, and what he can do for homosexuals too.

To learn how to do it well, consider gathering a few friends together to watch and discuss Audacity. It’s available for free viewing online at www.audacitymovie.com (and the DVD can be had for $5 there) or you can click on the video above.

Living waters

Documentary
69 minutes / 2015
Rating 8/10

This is one part nature documentary and one part evolutionary takedown. Illustra Media understand that a great way to expose evolution is to take a close in-depth look at some of the creatures that God has made. In Darwin’s day scientists didn’t have the ability to look inside the cell, and only had a glimmering of how incredibly complex even the simplest living creatures are. Now we know so much more – it turns out that even the simplest cell in our body has astonishingly complex and coordinated inner workings. Some have compared the complexity of a cell to the complexity of an entire city! In other words, the more we know, the more apparent it is that evolution can’t be so.

In previous films Illustra Media took a close look at butterflies (Metamorphosis) and birds (Flight). This time they have turned their attention to four maritime creatures: dolphins, sea turtles, pacific salmon, and humpback whales.

Time doesn’t allow a full detailing of just how awe-inspiring this investigation is. But I’ll give you a small sampling of what the documentary shares about the complexity of dolphins. These creatures can distinguish between a ping pong ball and a golf ball via echo-location. This is a form of sonar, and better than anything man has ever constructed. The dolphin’s sonar system can spot fish up to six inches under the sand and can find a BB at the bottom of a swimming pool.

Dolphins also have a complex air return system which allows them to make the high frequency sounds they need for echo location by blowing air past two sets of “phonic lips” and then recoup that air and redirect it back to its lungs. This air return system allows it re-use this air and to echo locate for more than ten minutes without needing to surface for air.

This is only scratching the surface of the dolphin’s complexity but this is already enough to expose the impossibility of evolution. The dolphin is able to:

1. make the sonic sound
2. focus and direct it
3. receive it
4. and, finally, have the ability to interpret and understand the signal they are getting back 

All four of these elements are needed or else the system won’t work at all. So how could evolution – random mutation and natural selection – be responsible? The idea that all four elements evolved to be at the very same time is beyond fantastic. So too is the idea that they would evolve one after another and be selected for, despite having no function (despite having no evolutionary advantage) until all four are finally developed and the whole system is up and running. Evolution simply can’t account for systems such as this, which are so obviously and clearly designed.

Living waters is a remarkable documentary with wonderful visuals of all the creatures discussed. My pre-school children weren’t able to follow the discussion, but the close-up videos and computer animations kept their attention. Meanwhile their mom and I were stunned by the sheer brilliance and creativity of God!

I should mention that while mention is made of an Intelligent Designer, He is never specifically named as the God of the Bible. That is disappointing, but every Christian watching this will most certainly give God glory. I can’t recommend it enough – this is a amazing look at some seemingly simple but incredibly complex creatures.

You can by a copy at Amazon.com by clicking here.

Free online lecture: THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION

The Six Days of Creation: A Young Earth is Not the Issue

Lecture
50 minutes / 2002
Rating 7/10

The debate over whether God really created in just six days might seem to about the age of the earth: is it thousands or millions and even billions of years old? But, as presenter Ken Ham shows, the real issue is one of biblical authority.

"You don't get millions of years out of the Bible do you?" Ham asks. "I go to churches and sometimes they say: 'We believe in the local flood.' 'We believe in theistic evolution.' 'We believe the day age theory.' 'We're progressive creationists...who believe God created over millions of years and the Big Bang and so on.' 'We believe the gap theory.' And then they say, 'What do you believe?' And I say, 'What the Bible says.' Because not one of those positions comes from the Bible. They are all imposed upon the Bible. And by the way, when you impose man's ideas on the Bible, you know what you are teaching to generations in our culture? That you don't have to take God's Word as written; you can believe man's word is infallible and reinterpret the Word of God. You are undermining biblical authority."

That's the real issue underlying the battle over Genesis. Later Ham notes he doesn't even like to be called a "young earth creationist" because that makes it seems as if the earth's age is the key issue instead. But the reason we need to have a proper understanding of the age of the Earth is only so that we can have the proper respect for biblical authority - if the Bible doesn't mean what it says in the first chapter, then how can we trust it anywhere else?

Some of the points Ham addresses include:

• what the word "day" means in Genesis 1 and the rest of the Bible
• why so many Christians believe in an old earth
• and the danger in believing an old earth

This is a very good lecture, as lectures go, so if you are interested in the material you'll enjoy the presentation – it is a very good and thorough introduction to the topic. However this is not something that will grab attention – it is simply a man at a podium with some powerpoint slides. So, a good one for adults who want to know more, but not really something for kids, or those only marginally interested.

You can buy it on DVD at Answers in Genesis or you can watch it for free online, in 4 parts, at:

https://answersingenesis.org/media/video/age-of-the-earth/six-days-of-creation-a-young-earth-not-the-issue/

Rescued: the heart of adoption and caring for orphans

Documentary

62 min / 2012

RATING: 7/10

There is something a little unsettling about watching a documentary that passionately encourages adoption.  RC Sproul Jr. and Kevin Swanson, two of the many folks interviewed, readily assure watchers that not everyone is called to adopt. But then they go on to note how care for orphans is a godly act, an act that pastors should encourage off the pulpit, and an act the Church is currently not giving enough attention to. There are so many children who need parents, that it’s hard to watch and not wonder, “Are we just being selfish deciding not to adopt?” 

And, of course, that’s the very point: we’re not all called to adopt, but maybe a lot more of us are called to adopt than we think and we just haven’t thought through it all that carefully or prayerfully. These folks want us to think it through again…or for the first time. 

At just one hour this is a very “shareable” adoption resource, easy to pass on to friends and family whether they are interested in adopting a child, or whether they've never thought about it before. It is attractive, with good interviewees – including some notable Reformed names, like Sproul Jr. – and has a solid Christian perspective.

So buy it, share it, and talk about it. 

It can be purchased at Christianbooks.com.

The Green Prince

Documentary
101 minutes/ 2014
Rating: 8/10

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of one of the founders of the terrorist group Hamas, and served as his father’s right hand man. But at the same time he was working as an informant for the Israeli secret police, the Shin Bet. This is his unbelievable story.

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the background to everything, it’s clear that director Nadav Schirman is most interested in what was going on in Yousef’s head and heart. Yousef is adamant that, “I would never betray my father” but Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben Yitzhak also found him surprisingly easy to turn. The same young man who bought weapons to attack the Israelis later becomes passionate about working with the Israelis to save Jewish lives.

One of the explanations for this dramatic turnaround is Yousef’s conversion to Christianity. But he starts working for the Shin Bet before he becomes Christian: perhaps his willingness to work with the Israelis is evidence of how God was already stirring his conscience?

Another part of the explanation might be the type of man his Shin Bet handler was. Ben Yitzhak was supposed to see Yousef as simply a tool, but he wasn’t able to distance himself like that and today Yitzhak’s children call Yousef “Uncle Mosab.”

This is an excellent production, with dramatic re-enactments that give the whole thing a cinematic feel – at times this seems like an espionage thriller. It is a longer documentary and might be overly so for anyone not already interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but for the rest of us, this is about as good as any documentary you will see.

You can buy it on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Yousef has also told his story in a fascinating book, Son of Hamas. which I highly recommend.

As We Forgive

Documentary
2010 / 54 min.
RATING: 8/10

In Rwanda, in 1994, the unimaginable happened: approximately one million Tutsi Rwandans were killed by their friends, neighbors and fellow church members. As much as fifteen per cent of the population was murdered in just three months. The enormous scale of the evil left the government unable to offer any sort of justice. The jails couldn’t hold the tens of thousands of perpetrators, so the government eventually ended up pardoning most of them, sending them back to their villages, and homes, where they would live right beside the surviving victims.

Justice was impossible. But what about forgiveness? Is forgiveness possible when sins are this monstrous? How does a man who has killed a girl’s father dare go to her to ask forgiveness? And how could she ever find the strength to offer him that forgiveness?

As We Forgive has received all sorts of secular awards, but the story here is an explicitly Christian one. It is a film well worth watching twice, first putting ourselves in the place of the victims, and understanding how it is that God equipped them to forgive. If they can forgive, how much the more so us? And it is also worth watching from the perspective of the murderers. The two men we meet show what true repentance looks like. As one explains, he can never make up for what he has done, but he can try to show his repentance by doing all the good he can for his victims – he is building houses for the genocide survivors.

As you might expect of a documentary on such a grim chapter of history, there are some scenes – of the aftermath of the genocide – that are not suitable for children. But it really is a must-see. If you’ve ever said “I can’t forgive” then here is an example of what God can make us capable of, if we ask Him. Here, too, we see what real repentance involves. It is so much more than words. These men’s actions give evidence of the change that God has wrought in them.

Incredible Creatures that defy Evolution I

Documentary
47 min / 2006
Rating: 8/10

As narrator Dr. Jobe Martin explains to us, he was once an evolutionist. He became a creationist when, as a professor at a dental college, he gave a lecture on the evolution of the tooth – teaching that fish scales eventually migrated into the mouth and became teeth – and was challenged by a couple of his students to investigate creation science. He'd never heard of it, but was willing to take a look. And the closer he looked the more he realized that much of the evolution he believed in was based on assumptions.

His study led him to investigate animals and other creatures, and in this short documentary he shares with us some of the most incredible features of some pretty incredible creatures that forced him to acknowledge that there was a Master Designer behind all this. For example, did you know:

• ...the bombardier beetle repels attackers by shooting a fiery liquid out of its rear end?
• ...the giraffe's heart is strong enough to pump blood all the way up to its head? But what happens when it lowers that head to take a drink? The same strong stream of oxygenated blood will now be traveling with enough pressure to blow out its brain...except for the shut off valves in its neck that kick in when it dips its head. 
• ...the woodpecker has a barbed gluey tongue that sticks to bugs but doesn't stick to its own beak? And it has a skull that is designed to do the work of a jackhammer without giving the poor fellow a headache.

Dr. Martin shows us why we should be amazed by many other creatures including: the beaver, the Australian incubator bird, the platypus, the chicken egg, the chuckwalla lizard, the gecko, and us humans.

My preschool daughters were amazed, and while this is a video primarily intended for children, my wife and I were also engaged. We were floored by just how creative God is. It is good family viewing, with enough pictures and film footage to keep the attention of the very young, and for parents, a narrative that highlights just God's sense of fun and genius.

This might not be a good one to hand to any hardened evolution-believing folk you might know. It is just a children's video - it isn't meant to offer an overly detailed or complete argument against evolution, and hardened critics will seize on that lack of depth to dismiss it entirely.

So get it for your own family, or your Christian school. And if you know someone dead-set on evolution, then consider Evolution's Achilles' Heels and its more adult anti-evolutionary argument. I review it here.

I should add that there are two more films in this series, all of them quite good, and this one the very best of the bunch. You can buy it by clicking here or rent it online by clicking here. And for a four minute peek, check out the trailer below.

Illusionism: prepare to amaze

Illusionism: prepare to amaze

45 minutes / 2011

Rating: 7/10

Harris III is a Christian illusionist who thinks half the fun in doing magic is being up front that he’s tricking us – he’s an honest trickster. And he’s also a generous one: in this DVD he gives away the secret behind five of his illusions.

• Two card tricks
• A gravity-defying bit that has a ring travel up an elastic band
• A mind reading display
• And one where dollar bills mysteriously flip themselves over

Each one is simple enough for a ten-year-old to perform but mystifying enough to trick a close-watching 40-something year old (who isn’t above making use of the rewind and slow motion features on his DVD player).

So first we get to see the trick, and then he goes through how to do it step by step, including tips on getting your patter right – the way a magician talks is as important as what he does with his hands. To perform them, all that’s needed are a few common enough items: a deck of cards, a few dollar bills, a box of crayons, and an elastic band. Oh, and a bottle of rubber glue. Then it’s all about practice – lots of practice!

This could make a fun gift for any outgoing child who likes to perform, or maybe a kid who likes to think through and figure out puzzles. You can find it at Harrisiii.com.

Blue

Documentary
2014 / 58 minutes
Rating: 7/10

Blue is about an alternative – a Christian alternative – to the Green movement. Whereas the secular environmental movement too often sees man as a problem for the Earth, the Blue movement would start with the biblical understanding that Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation, and has been entrusted with the stewardship of the Earth. While the Green movement wants us to just leave things alone, the Blue movement knows that God has told us to take an active role in protecting and developing the Earth.

The strength of the film is King’s unabashedly one-sided, presentation: 100% of the film is spent talking to like-minded Christians, politicians and scientists, including some pretty big names like E. Calvin Beisner, Lord Christopher Monckton and Vishal Mangal Wadi (if you aren’t familiar with these names, please google them – they all have a lot of worthwhile things to say about the environment and the Green movement). And because this is the side we hear so little about from the mainstream media, this film can serve as a good counter-balance.

But the weakness of the film is this same one-sided presentation. I doubt that someone watching this who was already sympathetic to the Green movement would watch this any change their mind. I think it would be more likely that they would think King’s uninterrupted bashing of the Green movement must be unfair, and couldn’t possibly be a fair representation of them. Now the environmental movement is actually as bad as King portrays but because he never lets the Greens speak for themselves, it is understandable that a skeptical listener wouldn’t just take King’s word for it.

The presentation is good, and as documentaries go, it is quite entertaining. That’s another way of saying, if you like documentaries, you’ll like this one, but if you don’t like documentaries, this one isn’t likely to make you change your mind. Overall I’d say it is a great one for Christians, to help us better understand the difference between biblical stewardship and the environmentalist approach, but it probably isn’t a good one to give to your environmentalist friends.

You can buy it at Amazon.com by clicking here. Or you can, at least for now, watch the whole movie for free online. Check it out below.

BLUE (Blue Beats Green) Full Movie HD from JD King on Vimeo.

Wait Till It’s Free

Documentary

2014 / 82 minutes

Rating: 9/10

Why would Canadians be interested in watching a Scotsman take a look at the American healthcare system? Because this examination, of how capitalism and socialism impact healthcare costs, is very relevant for us too.

The film’s director and producer, Colin Gunn, is Presbyterian and consequently a capitalist. We Reformed folks know that the heart of man is wicked, so we are well aware that if an economic system needs men to be angels – as socialism does, requiring us to labor for no personal benefit – then that is a unworkable economic system. We know better than to be socialists.

But for some reason we don’t seem to think that holds true for healthcare. This comes out most strongly when Canadians, even the Reformed ones, start talking about healthcare with their American cousins. Then we seem to be quite proud of the socialistic nature of our healthcare system, which “costs us nothing, and is free for everyone.” But, of course, that isn’t really so. It certainly isn’t free – the costs are simply not seen, paid out in taxes, so that Canadians have very little idea of how much their healthcare really does cost. And that everyone is covered doesn’t distinguish it all that much from American healthcare, where everyone can get emergency care, and where more and more of the population is covered by the government-run Medicare. As Gunn points out, the American system is almost as socialistic as the Canadian.

Gunn’s main argument is that a good dose of capitalism would be good for what ails the American system. His most telling observation was that in the American system no one knows what the costs will be beforehand. There is no public pricing chart, and so no way of comparing what one hospital might charge versus another. And without an awareness of how much things might costs, there is no genuine competition. You can’t have capitalism without competition. So if we want to reform healthcare, this might be the first place we need to start: public pricing!

I'd highly recommend this documentary – it is a brilliant argument by a Christian filmmaker who has perfected his craft. The content is superb: Gunn has assembled an impressive cast of experts from around the world to make his case. And the presentation is even better: there are fun little animated bits, and great narration, and a wonderful story arc – this is packaged up nicely, and tied up at the end with a bow.

Who should see this? Anyone who thinks socialism is the answer to our healthcare needs. You can buy a copy at Amazon.com by clicking here. 

Wait Till It's Free (Trailer) from Wait Till It's Free on Vimeo.