Fireproof Redux

I went to see FIREPROOF this weekend.

I’m happy to say the movie lived up to my expectations and then some.

I wish every movie could be as inspiring, romantic, funny, and thrilling as this one. The brothers Kendrick have outdone themselves.

I honestly believe this movie could teach Hollywood a thing or two. I’ve written several screenplays myself and this one is polished and entertaining from start to finish. The storytelling is spot on and the plot structure is pretty much flawless. During the movie, one part of my mind was in awe of the pacing and the perfect placement of scenes that kept the story humming along. Character dramas like this one can be tricky, but Fireproof came through with flying colors.

The characters are engaging and real and very relatable. I loved the way Caleb hit bottom in his relationship, even as he’s attempting to follow the Love Dare, a last ditch effort he's only undertaking because of his dad. Only when all hope is lost can he finally see his need for God’s help to fix things and even then, the situation with his wife goes from bad to worse, just like it so often does in real life. Turning to God doesn’t mean the Almighty is going to wave a magic wand and fix everything that instant. I also like the way the film makers didn’t hit the viewer over the head with this aspect of the film. It’s a fine line to walk when you want to attract a general audience. They didn’t hide the gospel message either, but portrayed it in a moving and realistic manner. The ending is powerful and emotional and very satisfying in the best Hollywood tradition, but with a Biblical heart that you know means this marriage will go the distance until death do them part.

Ted Baehr’s MOVIEGUIDE magazine had this to say: “Fireproof may be a small movie in terms of budget, but it’s got a gigantic, well-produced Hollywood heart.”

Fireproof took in six and a half million dollars at the box office over the weekend and came in fourth with the second highest per screen average. This is good news indeed. Not only has it already earned back its diminutive $500,000 budget and then some, it’s well on its way to the kind of success FACING THE GIANTS had.

Even better than all this is that these guys (who are also pastors) have a great shot at helping marriages throughout this country thanks to the movie’s Love Dare which is now out in book form. The Love Dare is the 40 day program that Caleb undertakes to save his marriage and it’s based on Biblical principles like patience, thoughtfulness, and putting your partner first. It was wonderful to see these virtues at work in the movie, but it will be even better if word gets out and they can have a positive effect on the pitiful state of marriage in our society.

I can’t wait to see what Alex and Stephen Kendrick tackle next.

Ahmadinejad and the End Times

Every time I turn around, there are more indications that we’re living in the end times.

The latest example is Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York City to speak at the U.N.

I saw red when I heard how he stood there and trashed America and called Israel a cesspool and then got applause from the U.N. members for doing so. (Israel and the U.S. were not present at the time).

The Iranian leader was later interviewed on Larry King. Good old Larry asked him about his children and their ages among other things. Whatever happened to American patriotism? Can you imagine Washington or Jefferson inviting an evil man like this to the White House, never mind giving him this kind of credibility on the world stage? I can just see him returning home in triumph, showing the mullahs clips of him yukking it up on American T.V. so they can see for themselves how soft and lacking in integrity we are.

It’s enough to make your blood boil, but here’s where the end times angle comes in -- several U.S. church groups have invited him to an interfaith rally in his honor. The topic? “Has not one God created us?”

Reading the invitation, seeing our so-called Christian leaders kowtowing to this Hitler wannabe by engaging him in social interaction as if he hadn’t just spewed his usual anti-Semitic, anti-West hatred made me sick. The groups behind the event include the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker UN Office, Religions for Peace, and Worldwide Council of Churches UN Liaison.

These people should be ashamed of themselves. Have they learned nothing from history? That’s how we ended up fighting World War II -- because nobody would stand up to Hitler until it became too late for anything but war. The churches in Germany hold particular responsibility for not standing their ground.

Iran has recently voted to make the death penalty mandatory for the ‘crime’ of apostasy (leaving the Muslim faith). There is no freedom of religion in Iran. In fact, there are former Muslims, now Christians, waiting on ‘death row’.

And these Christian groups want to play nice with him??

I was listening to a call-in radio show on the topic. A priest phoned in to suggest that Jesus would have met with Ahmadinejad and worshipped with him.

I don’t think so! Jesus would have called him a hypocrite who was going to hell if he didn't repent. He surely would have confronted him about the jailed Christians. Jesus did not mess around as he proved when he knocked over tables and drove the money changers out of the temple.

The topic they plan to discuss is beyond ludicrous. Yes, one God created us, but his name isn’t Allah who incites Muslims to hatred, killing, and discrimination against women in the Quran. (If you want proof that God and Allah are not the same, just ask a Muslim to substitute the word God for Allah when they’re yelling ‘Allah Akbar’). All I can say is thank heavens 90% of Muslims have never read the Quran (according to a survey from Bielefeld University in Germany). Sad to say a majority of Christians haven’t read the Bible either which helps explain but doesn’t excuse this travesty.

Obviously these totally misguided groups did not get Jesus’ urgent memo about deception... not that Ahmadinejad is doing much to hide his true colors. I can’t join the protest in NYC, but at least I was able to go to the ACLJ website (American Center for Law and Justice) and sign their petition.

Fireproof

The creators of FACING THE GIANTS, Alex and Stephen Kendrick, have a new movie coming out this Friday called FIREPROOF.

It’s the story of a young couple whose seven year marriage is on the verge of collapse. The protagonist, played by Kirk Cameron, is a fireman who seems to be a hero to everybody but his own wife. His dad gives him a journal and asks that he not go through with the divorce for forty days while he undertakes the Love Dare, a series of steps he can use to save his marriage.

The movie opens this weekend, September 26th, and I urge everyone to go see it.

Many people don’t realize how important opening weekend is for a film. This is the one sure way we can vote with our dollars to let Hollywood know what kind of movies we want. If a movie doesn’t ‘catch on’ and do well opening weekend, it is often gone within the next week or two, especially a ‘smaller’ movie like this one.

I think this is part of what happened with THE NATIVITY STORY a couple of years back. Too many people I talked to about it told me they wanted to see it, but it was gone before they could get to the theater. If all those people had been there opening weekend, it might have been a different story. Hollywood sees this lack of enthusiasm -- and dollars -- and next time a biblically oriented story comes up, they pass.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST opened a lot of doors in Hollywood that are slowly closing again because nothing’s come close to the success of that movie. We have the power not to let that happen. We might not see another phenomenon like PASSION, but we can still flex our movie viewing muscles to support the kind of fare we’d like to see instead of the sex and violence Hollywood too often churns out.

The Kendricks’ previous movie, FACING THE GIANTS, a story of football and redemption, turned into a surprising success story. The movie was made for a measly $100,000. And yet this little movie-that-could earned $10 million! That’s how you get Hollywood to sit up and take notice. Because of that, the Kendricks were able to get a budget of $500,000 this time around and FIREPROOF will open in over 800 theaters this Friday.

What’s even more fun for us Christians is that Alex and Stephen Kendrick are associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Through the power of an emotional, entertaining story, they hope to help married couples keep their marriages intact and strong. Alex has also written a companion book, THE LOVE DARE, that lays out the steps for the 40 day love dare shown in the movie. According to John Thompson of B&H Publishing Group “The Love Dare is the fastest selling book we’ve ever handled.”

Check out the movie trailer at the FIREPROOF website. For more info on The Love Dare and fireproofing your own marriage check out Fireproof My Marriage.

And hie thee to the movies this weekend.

Persecuted Christians

It’s easy for us, as we sit in our comfortable churches with our Bibles on our laps, to forget that our sisters and brothers in Christ are being persecuted throughout the world. Statistics place the figure at an unbelievable 250 million. Muslim dominated countries are some of the worst offenders, but it’s going on in places like Mexico and Colombia, Ethiopia and Cuba, and of course, China.

These kinds of world wide occurrences have always felt so overwhelming to me -- after all, what can I do about dictatorships, hostile majority religions that hate Christians, and all the rest of it.

Well, I found something that’s small, but powerful in its way, and oh-so-satisfying. It’s something available through Voice of the Martyrs, a wonderful ministry that works to get the word out on what’s going on with persecuted Christians around the globe and how to help.

One of those ways is called Prisoner Alert and it allows you to write a letter to a Christian being held in prison for his faith where he or she is perhaps being beaten, tortured, and is often in danger of death.

The really neat part about it is that the site translates your letter into the language of the Christian in question. Then you simply print out the letter, use the address provided, and place it in the mail.

The way it works is actually quite simple. You select from a list of phrases and Bible verses to compose your own letter. You pick and choose, add and delete until you’re satisfied with the results (which show both the English and the translated version so you know what you’re saying). When you print out the letter, you have to make sure there’s no header or footer identifying Voice of the Martyrs since it’s not a good idea to show the opposition that a group like this is behind it. (I ended up cutting off the offending portion rather than changing the settings of my printer.) I added a few lines of my own, put it in an envelope, and it’s now winging its way to a Christian doctor who’s imprisoned in Eritrea.

It couldn’t be easier, and yet I had the great satisfaction of knowing I was doing something. VOM says that many times, if these prisoners get a significant enough amount of mail, they’re released early. How wonderful is that! Plus, you’re showing your solidarity with those who are suffering for their faith in Christ. This kind of involvement can also result in better treatment for a prisoner. The authorities in many of these countries are very sensitive about their image abroad. When they realize outsiders are getting involved, that someone is monitoring a prisoner’s situation, conditions may be improved.

VOM says that often these oppressors try to brainwash the prisoners into thinking they’re forgotten. I can imagine how a persecuted Christian must often feel utterly alone and isolated from everyone they know and love. A simple letter can demonstrate that someone cares.

You can also write on their behalf to the various officials involved. I’m thinking that will be phase two.

This is front line spiritual warfare and I’m proud to play this small part.

Is It Biblical for a Woman to Hold Public Office?

First we had the Left savaging Sarah Palin after John McCain chose her as his running mate. Politicians and the media crossed the line in so many ways, I left off counting, the most egregious occurring when they made cracks about her pregnant daughter and her Downs Syndrome son.

I have to admit, though, I wasn’t terribly surprised.

Now we have some in the Evangelical community questioning whether Sarah Palin should be running at all because a woman shouldn’t hold public office.

I can’t believe this is even up for discussion.

The Bible contains examples of women leaders. Some were good, some bad. Jezebel immediately comes to mind as one of the baddies. She also happened to be a pagan high priestess and a big fan of the false Canaanite god, Baal. Her main goal in life was wiping out the Israelites’ Jehovah God in favor of hers.

Let’s not forget sweet, modest Esther, who is often held up as a prime example of womanhood. Nothing is said against the fact she was a queen. Admittedly she didn’t wield the power of her royal husband, but she had major influence and the authority to send out the decree which ultimately saved her people.

During the era when judges ruled in Israel instead of kings, Deborah was a judge. Her command of the army ensured a decisive victory over her country's enemies with the help of another woman, Jael, who hammered a tent spike through the temple of the commander of the opposing army while he slept. These women did not mess around. Both are extolled in the Song of Deborah.

Nor is anything negative said about the Queen of Sheba who came to visit King Solomon and was herself one of the wealthiest rulers in the world. In fact, the Bible honors her conclusion that Solomon was the wisest man in the world.

The Bible highlights three earthly spheres of government -- church, family, and civil. The Bible says that men are to be in charge of the churches. They’re called to be the leaders of their families. However, the Bible does not comment on who’s to be in charge when it comes to civil government. This includes business leadership as well.

The Woman of Proverbs 31 bought land and sold her handmade goods. Women in the New Testament ran successful businesses like Lydia, a prosperous traveling merchant who sold dyes and dyed cloth from Thyatira. Women like her were a huge factor in the birth of Christianity because of their financial support of Jesus’ ministry.

And let’s not forget that both men and women believers are promised they will reign together with Christ.

Where were these anti-women-in-public-office types when Hillary Clinton was running for the Democratic nomination for president? I guess since Hillary is not an Evangelical Christian, they didn’t bother to engage her on this topic. This is almost as bad as the way the feminists have no problem with Clinton or any other liberal woman running for office and yet they come out with guns blazing against Sarah Palin, a woman who epitomizes everything they claim to want for women in this culture. Ah, but Governor Palin doesn’t share their rabid support for abortion or their radical stance against men in general and men as husbands and fathers in particular. It shows where their true agenda lies. After all, the famous feminist slogan says that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

It seems to me that women in government is one of those areas of discretion mentioned in the Bible. As a Christian, we have the liberty to decide how to handle all the aspects of our lives the Bible doesn’t comment on specifically. Some Christians might have a glass of wine with dinner while others avoid it altogether. Some eat meat, some are vegetarians. Neither is right or wrong.


At the very least, Sarah Palin running for VP falls into this category. I say let’s give it a rest.

The Prophetic War of Psalm 83

I’ve been reading a new book just recently released called ISRALESTINE: The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East by Bill Salus.

While it may be one of the worst written books I’ve ever encountered, with every violation of grammar and sentence structure and misuse of vocabulary you can possibly imagine, the content is definitely enticing.

The author talks about Psalm 83 and how it might apply in prophecy.

Many of us know about the Magog Invasion of Ezekiel 38 and 39 where Russia aligns with Iran, Turkey, Libya and others to invade Israel. God himself intervenes to blast the invaders, pretty much wiping them out. The left over weapons provide energy for Israel for seven years which seems to imply the use of nuclear weapons, an idea further implied by describing how professionals are employed to clear a possibly radioactive battlefield.

Various scholars have differing opinions on the timetable for the Magog Invasion with some saying it’s part of the Armageddon battle scenario at the end of the Tribulation while others feel it occurs before that seven year period even begins.

While Bill Salus sits squarely in the Magog first camp, he believes that before Magog happens, there’s going to be a regional war involving Israel’s closest Arab neighbors. Psalm 83 lists them using the Biblical era names, but we know them better as Palestinians, Syrians, Saudis, Egyptians, and Jordanians, along with Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaida. Israel will end up with more territory and resources and this new abundance will precipitate the Magog Invasion when Russia and company swoop down to take that spoil. According to Salus, the two events are tied together and will occur sequentially and fairly quickly, one in the shadow of the other.

No one can deny the constant turmoil in the Middle East. The peace talks are continually thwarted or stalled and the unchanging rhetoric from Israel’s enemies grows stronger all the time. Surprise attacks on Israel have happened before; a concerted effort on the part of her bitterly discontented, adamantly anti-Jewish Arab neighbors is certainly not out of the question in spite of potential nuclear deterrents. Using Scripture as his basis, the author lays out a compelling argument for a Psalm 83 war where Israel becomes large enough to be called 'Isralestine' as a result of prevailing yet again in the wake of another such attack.

If you’re an end times addict like I am, this book will definitely arouse your interest. Read it along with Walid Shoebat’s GOD'S WAR ON TERROR: Islam, Prophecy, and the Bible for an eye-opening new perspective on End Times prophecy, especially as it relates to Islam, and the way the puzzle pieces might fit together.

Darwin Day

I was shocked to learn there’s a call for a new global holiday -- Darwin Day, February 12, 2009.

Next year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his book, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Humanists throughout the world are getting ready for this day, working towards making Darwin Day a big event, hoping it will capture the hearts and minds of the world.

Once again we have a full frontal assault in the spiritual battle raging around us for the souls of men. These Darwinists intend to present evolution as uncontested truth, even though the science they’re pushing hasn’t changed at all. There have been no new discoveries. Even more important, no transitional forms have been uncovered, without which, as even Darwin himself admitted, his theory can’t hold water.

Micro-evolution is one thing. We’ve all seen evidence of this, i.e. the inter-breeding of dog species or new types of corn or wheat. Animals and plants can breed and change and adapt, each within its own species. What there’s no proof for is macro-evolution where fish become amphibians or reptiles evolve into birds.

Support from around the world is pouring in. The British Humanist Association supports Darwin Day. They hope it will end what they call “the privileged position of religion -- and Christianity in particular -- in law, education, broadcasting, and wherever else it occurs.”

The good news is those of us who believe otherwise and those who simply want to be able to raise questions must be doing a good job to raise such a fight against us.

Polls show the number of people who accept the evolutionary model of human origins is actually declining, in spite of all the propaganda. Even the British Humanist Association admits creationism appears to be gaining grounds in British schools.

Here in the U.S., places like the Creation Museum in Kentucky are attracting visitors by the thousands.

The Institute for Humanist Studies thinks Darwin Day will provide us with a new global holiday that transcends separate nationalities and cultures. The holidays we celebrate in America are Christian (Christmas) or strictly American (Thanksgiving). I’m not sure we need a global holiday. We certainly don’t need this one. (Check out Answers in Genesis, the organization behind the Creation Museum, for some of the ways they’re working to counteract this).

When I was growing up, we celebrated February 12th as Lincoln’s birthday. As far as I’m concerned, we got it right the first time.

Democrats and Christians

A friend said an interesting thing a while back. She wondered how any Bible believing Christian could be a Democrat.

I think she makes a good point.

The big stumbling block to being a Democrat is their pro-abortion stance. This should raise the hackles of anyone who knows their Bible and even for those who believe in the Constitution which promotes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life is at the core of every other issue. It’s certainly the number one deal-breaker for me.

The Democrats support homosexual marriage. The Bible is clear on this -- homosexuality is a sin, no worse than any other sin, but a sin nonetheless. The family unit which includes marriage between one man and one woman is the cornerstone of society and has been since the dawn of civilization. We certainly should not be celebrating what God calls a sinful way of life by enacting policies and laws to protect and even foster it.

Democrats believe in government supported programs for almost everything you can name from preschool to college to health care. This is socialism and very much like what they have in Canada and Europe. Governments are always more inefficient than the private sector no matter what they’re handling and this has proven to be true in Europe where there are waiting lists for various medical procedures and where you can’t even buy the drugs you need with your own money if they’re not on the approved list without being heavily fined or thrown in jail. Personally I do not want the government in charge of my health care.

The federal government should be there for our protection, to handle things like terrorists and other security issues. When the government controls, for example, our schools, we get what we’re seeing today -- the teaching of multiculturalism (which is another way of saying anti-Western), the pushing of the homosexual lifestyle as normal and good, a whitewashed version of Islam being taught, no criticism of Darwinism allowed no matter how valid and an overall outcome based education which believes every kid should get a trophy whether they earned it or not. Just recently I heard of one school that actually gives kids who flunk a class an NY which means Not Yet. You've got to be kidding!

The only method of education the Bible mentions is home schooling which means the Bible approves wholeheartedly the idea that parents should have control over what their children learn, a concept that is being lost more and more these days. Check out FROM CRAYONS TO CONDOMS: The Ugly Truth About America's Public Schools by Steve Baldwin and Karen Holgate if you want to see how parents are being shut out of their children's education and even bullied in the name of the politically correct liberal agenda. I was appalled.

The Dems and Obama in particular want to tax the rich to pay for the poor and for all the other programs they have in mind. The Bible is all in favor of helping the poor, but not by coercion. This kind of taxation is robbery pure and simple, and God says thou shalt not steal. The Bible comes down firmly on the side of the sanctity of private property. The Bible also says that anyone who will not work should not eat. There’s been absolutely no evidence to show that giving away money and goods helps the poor in a lasting way. The past 40 years of handouts has shown this. Welfare, for example, often begets generations of families on welfare. Americans are statistically the most generous people on earth, but the bottom line is that the more you tax people, the less they’re able to give to charity. Another aspect of this situation which is rarely talked about is the fact that people need to be held responsible for their own bad choices -- it’s been shown statistically that your chances of being poor go down dramatically if you don’t have out-of-wedlock babies, wait until you’re over 21 to get married, and finish high school.

I used to be a Democrat before I became a Christian. I couldn’t see how any thinking person would choose any other path. God changed my mind before I even knew what hit me. The Bible contains principles which can be applied to all the above topics and more as I quickly discovered with further help from a book called HOW WOULD JESUS VOTE: A Christian Perspective On The Issues by the late D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe. Check it out before the election this November. And by the way, the book is a lot more non-partisan than I am and is careful to simply lay out the issues.

However, I believe the facts speak for themselves.

The Shack

Having worked in the book biz my whole life (bookstores, libraries, publishers, writer) I was interested in finding out about THE SHACK, a purportedly Christian novel that's burning up the bestseller lists.

The answers I found were pretty much what I expected. Whenever anything becomes this popular, it’s usually because there’s something ‘off’ about it. Such was the case with this book.

The gist of the plot is that a man named Mac, who has lost his daughter at the hands of a serial rapist/murderer, gets a message from God to meet him in the shack, the possible location where his daughter was murdered.

When Mac arrives, he meets the Trinity -- but it’s a Trinity like you’ve never seen before. God the Father is a large black woman who asks to be called Papa. Jesus the son is an unattractive Middle Eastern man with a big nose. The Holy Spirit is also a woman, Asian this time, with a Sanskrit (!!) name which means ‘wind’.

And this is just the beginning of the blasphemous goings on in this story.

The questions author William P. Young wants answered are the same ones we all ask, with the main one being where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain? But why run to a fictional book for the answers, especially when those answers have theological implications that are wrong in far too many ways.

The bottom line conclusion the author comes to is that the Christian faith has never had it right all along. I’m sure this would be news to Paul, Peter, and the rest of the Apostles never mind the millions of devoted Christians down through the ages. According to The Shack, the entire Trinity became human -- Papa has the scars on ‘her’ wrists to prove it. The author implies that the trinity is in a circular relationship, when it’s actually a hierarchy as Jesus unceasingly demonstrated in the Gospels. It doesn’t even mention Jesus as the Christ.

The doctrine of Universal Reconciliation lurks beneath the surface, meaning that God will reconcile all those who rejected Christ in their lifetimes. Young says Jesus is ‘the best way’ to salvation and not the only way as the Bible repeatedly states. This is typical of the emergent church and lots of other non-Biblical trends we’re seeing today.

Sure the book draws the reader in emotionally, but feelings are not the answer. We walk by faith, not experiences or feelings. This book is like so many other ‘uplifting’ new age titles with its pantheistic, universalist leanings. It’s certainly a mix of truth and error, a dangerous combination for those who can’t tell the difference.

Bottom line: the choice to read this book should be a no-brainer for Christians who read the Bible.