Last week my family had the opportunity to see a preview of a new movie, Heaven is for Real. Debb and I get a number of invitations to a variety of movie previews throughout the year. I am not even sure how we got started with all these previews. I am guessing it began with an invitation to preview a movie as a pastor. One thing led to another and now I am a full-time movie critique for the Times (not really).
Some of the movies in the past have been thoroughly “Christian” movies: Soul Surfer, Facing the Giants, Courageous. Others have been clearly “not Christian”, like the movie we recently screened, Draft Day…an entertaining flick, yet generous with its coarse language and sexual themes (surprise, surprise). And there have been a number of movies in between, such as Blue Like Jazz…which not only exhibited gratuitous language, but paid homage to the anthropocentric, “need to find myself” form of Christianity so prevalent in our culture today.
So, the question is, how would I categorize Heaven is for Real? Squarely in the “somewhere-in-between.” Some folks might take exception to this categorization— for I know that the book was a New York Times Bestseller (so it must be good, right?). Truthfully, I cannot speak to the book, because (spoiler alert) I have not read it. But I can say that the movie’s message was a bit wishy-washy.
Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the title. The title alone makes the movie valuable as a talking point in a culture that seems to do its best to ignore the reality of death and questions about what comes after. Amen…Heaven is for REAL!!! Not only this, but it is always good to watch a movie which asserts that Jesus is for real and contradicts the demythologizing ethos in too much of Christendom.
However, the movie does not give the sense that the faith it portrays is firmly grounded in the Word of God. The pastor, played by Greg Kinnear, seems to have more faith in his son’s visions then he does in the Word of God, or in God Himself. I appreciated the portrayal of a pastor grappling with doubt and crying out in anguish to God. I can relate! However, his resolution, at times, seems more grounded in his son than in the Son.
Speaking of the Son, there is one poignant scene where this pastor/father offers encouragement to a woman who is bitter that God let her son die. And she is grappling with the uncertainty of whether her son, who I believe was killed in combat, is in heaven. However, instead of pointing this woman to Jesus as the basis for heavenly hope, he points her to the love of the Father, implying that since God loves her son, he must be in heaven.
Certainly, God loves all sons and daughters—“For God so loved the world,” as we read in John 3:16. However, the fact that He loves “all the children of the world” does not mean that all the people of the world will be in heaven. In fact, the rest of John 3:16 makes this clear, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It is faith in the Son, according to God’s Word, which is key to our heavenly hope.
It is not too surprising that Hollywood would fudge on what may seem like a fairly minor point of theology. However, for those who believe that the Bible is real—really God’s Word—this point is anything but minor.
In spite of this lack of clarity in the subplot, I am grateful for any movie which gets people talking about the things of God. Even Noah, which I have heard is more imaginative than it is Biblical in its retelling of this important story, has the potential to have a positive impact in this way. However, I am in strong agreement with one church’s challenge, “With all the buzz about the new movie, let's read the book first!” See, especially, Genesis 6-9, but the whole book is definitely worth reading!!!
Noah and Heaven is for Real notwithstanding, there is one recently screened movie I heartily recommend— Mom’s Night Out. Who knew that Patricia Heaton could put out a movie so funny, so good and with such a positive message on the value God places on moms? What better gift for mom on Mother’s Day weekend.
Well, there are my movie reviews for the year. Siskel and Ebert, eat your hearts out.
Pastor Dan