This morning I was reading the Decision magazine, which is published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (by the way, if you want to subscribe to it, just go their website).

There I found an article that made reference to the movie “Son of God”, which I already mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago. They found a few significant issues with the movie, that I will describe a little later.

But first I have to take you through a detour, where my mind took me when I was reading.

The text made me remember a situation when I was in High School: I used to take public transportation to go home from school, and one day I sat next to a little lady who was reading a book.

Since I was taller than her (and not very polite) I started reading her book, without her noticing.

It was a religious book, and the chapter she was reading was a commentary on John 14:6. It quoted “I am the way and the truth and the life”, and it went on talking about how wonderful Jesus Christ is. But it bothered me that it never went back to complete the verse: “No one comes to the father except through me”.

I waited a little longer, she turned the page, and still the author would not go back to the that next statement. The tone was almost that Jesus is “a way” not “the way”. So, as the shy person I have always been, I interrupted her: “Excuse me, but I was reading part of your book, and I don’t think you should read it”.

She turned to me and asked why. I said “Well, on the previous page the author quotes John 14:6…” (obviously giving away that I was already reading it for a while), and I went on to describe the importance of the “No one comes to the father except through me”. She was very engaged in the conversation, until a certain point when she told me her stop was approaching, and asked me if I would pray for her. I said I would and I asked her name. “Sister Paula” she replied as she stood up and got out of the bus in front of a convent. I was presenting the Gospel to a nun!

That said, I can come back to the magazine article and the comment about the movie:

“Son of God opened to huge crowds in late February and gave a powerful depiction of Jesus’ life, death by crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, but failed to make it clear that the reason He died was for the forgiveness of our sins. It omitted “will not perish” from John 3:16, essentially removing the consequence of hell for those who refuse Christ’s offer of atonement. Three times, it half quoted John 14:6, leaving out the part that makes clear that Jesus is the only way to the Father.”

See why I made the connection with my situation?

Looks like it is not politically correct to talk about hell, or to present the message that there is only one way to reconcile with God. Forget your good deeds, forget any other mediator. Nothing or nobody else can pay the price to reconnect us with the Father. No twisting of the message, but the whole message.

Now you know the rest of the story (by the way, it is still worth watching the movie – it makes you very aware of Jesus’ sacrifice for us)

Have you watched “God’s not Dead”? Do you want to share your impressions? Write back to me.