When It Comes to Bad “Christian” Movies, Leave Me Behind

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14).

Neither can a hastily built, poorly designed shack.

There is much disagreement in the Christian community about the appropriateness of movies depicting partial or entire portions of the Bible. Fundamentalists often lay claim to Christ’s command to go out into the world and declare His name: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). But those who disagree with some of the more rigid concepts of fundamentalism think differently. They say that Christ did command our proclamation of His time on earth and His subsequent return, but He did not intend for us to do this by making and releasing bad movies, or any other inferior production.

The series of books entitled Left Behind spawned a movie of the same title. Although it looked promising due to a list of decent actors – not the least of which being one-time teen heartthrob Kirk Cameron usurping the role of Leading Man – this movie turned out to be little more than a laughable, almost farcical look into the Biblical book of Revelation, containing what many people found to be horribly misaligned theology. In place of the mind-numbingly intricate details of earth’s last days as described in the book of Revelation, we were given poorly developed characters that seemed to accidentally (almost mindlessly, really) fall into the aftermath of the Rapture. (For those not in the know, the Rapture is what many claim to be the introduction into the last days of this earth, when those who have accepted Christ will be taken from this earth to be with God, leaving the rest here on earth to endure the complete acts of the Tribulation.) From the beginning of this movie until the end, the viewer is left to ponder what good, if any, was communicated by the shallow characters in the throes of what would be a most harrowing event for any human being to suffer.

A similar movie, The Omega Code, sought to draw its viewers in with much the same treatment. With an official tagline reading, “Revelation foretold it, Nostradamus predicted it…” is there any way the intelligent moviegoer can take such a movie seriously? It is in this shallowness that I find the majority of the problems with this sensationalist portrayal of a story of truly Biblical proportions.

Should a man truly seek to read the Bible as something more than a massive book of rules, he will find a love story equal to no other. Intertwined with betrayal, dishonesty, and heartache is the love of God – the kind of love that is beyond definition. His love is a kind that is painstakingly difficult to communicate, and even more arduous to comprehend. It has taken the physical church thousands of years to develop ways to portray Christ’s love for us, and looking closely, we find these developments sorely lacking in their ability to help people grasp a love so complete, so unconditional, and so honest. If we cannot, through the best efforts of the most scholarly men and women in history, successfully represent the message Christ set out to prove, is there any reason this can be done now with somewhat slick special effects and poor dialogue inside a mere 95 minutes? Is there even a need to attempt such a thing? Why, in fact, have Jerry Jenkins, Tim LaHaye, and a score of authors and screenwriters sought to sensationalize God’s love to form a movie palatable for the Christian community and even the general public? I feel it is for admirable reasons, and I do not insinuate for a moment that the men and women who create this media are less than sincere with their efforts. But I do feel that the end result simply cannot communicate Christ’s original intent.

Christ’s love is exclusive, plain and simple. Christ will accept no one who does not accept Him. This is the message He communicated upon arrival on this earth. It is not politically correct nor is it pretty for those who deny Him, but it is His ultimate Truth, uttered by His own lips: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). But what does it mean to confess Christ? How can a God who loves reject His own creation? Is there any short way to communicate such deep spiritual truths?

I believe that Christian movies may not have a reasonable support for their existence, since there is no feasible way to communicate within the scope of mass-produced, mass-consumed media a relationship that requires so much of us, yet gives us infinitely more. This relationship is something that takes detailed work of the heart to even accept – much less to understand. One may not realize it, but the subject matter dealt with in movies such as Left Behind and The Omega Code is as deeply woven into the tapestry of God’s love as any subject can get. Can anyone look at a God who gave His only Son to save His people, and then sum up in 95 minutes how that very same God is going to let the rest of the world (the ones who do not accept Him) endure horrible plagues and tortures and ultimately spiritual death in a very real place called Hell? Based on what I have seen thus far from this type of Christian media, I must sadly say, “No.”

If we are to have any hope of conveying Christ’s message to a world sickened by the twisting of sincere love by those who fall short of God’s standards (and, may I remind you, this is all of us), we must do so in the same way that He communicated it to us: in love. Within the safe perimeters of honest, loving relationships with one another, and not necessarily through palatable and well-marketed movies, we can truly share what we believe in ways that are healthy and have a lasting effect.