God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness - A Review

On Good Friday I saw the third installment of the “God’s Not Dead” movie series. As expected, “A Light in Darkness” begins where “God’s Not Dead 2” left off: A pastor had been arrested for not turning in copies of his sermons as mandated by a city prosecutor’s subpoena. The pastor is soon released but then faces more difficult challenges. His church is destroyed in a fire that takes the life of an associate minister. Then a local college tries to block the rebuilding of the church through eminent domain. The pastor prepares for a legal battle.

Mixed emotions are experienced both by the pastor and a young man who caused the church fire. The movie also addresses a dilemma Christians often face: when to continue fighting for our rights. It appeared this movie would feature a court hearing like its predecessor but takes an unexpected turn at the end. The overall message is that whatever we do for the Lord, love must always be the motive. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NLT) reminds us, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.”

“God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness” features returning characters from the two previous movies. Among the actors playing new characters include John Corbett, Ted McGinley and Academy Award-winning actress Tatum O’Neal. There’s also an appearance by gospel singer Cissy Houston (mother of the late Whitney Houston).

The original “God’s Not Dead” is still my favorite of the trilogy. The third one hasn’t done well at the box office compared to other new faith-based movies like “Paul: Apostle of Christ” (which I saw the week before) and “I Can Only Imagine.” Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to see the name of Jesus lifted up in theaters instead of being used as a cuss word.

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” - John 12:32

The Anti-Christian Liberties Union

Certain activists have campaigned to have the Ten Commandments and other religious materials removed from government and public properties in America because of “separation of church and state.” Contrary to popular belief, that phrase does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. It originated in 1802 from an obscure letter then-president Thomas Jefferson wrote to a group of Baptists in Connecticut. He assured them a state religion would not be enforced upon all citizens.

Nevertheless, numerous legal cases have come up to undermine the Christian values this country was founded upon. One organization responsible for this is the American Civil Liberties Union. While the ACLU has defended religious people in a few cases, many of them were groups expressing views contrary to biblical Christianity such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Westboro Baptist Church. 

If anything, the American Civil Liberties Union is known more for their anti-Christian stances. Their lobbying resulted in the Supreme Court removing prayer and Bible reading from public schools in the early 1960s. Current positions of the ACLU include supporting abortion rights, same-sex marriage and the right of homosexuals to adopt children while opposing the death penalty and government preference for particular faiths over others. With the latter, the ACLU doesn’t practice what they preach. They threaten Christians who pray and display crosses in public but have defended Muslims for practicing their beliefs.

In response to President Trump’s executive order to temporarily bar refugees and citizens of Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, a few companies have spoken out against that. One of them is Bandcamp, a website musicians use to sell downloads of their music. This past Friday, the California-based company raised roughly $120,000 in donations for the ACLU. That prompted me to close my Bandcamp account.

Christians should never let the American Civil Liberties Union and other secular activists stop us from proclaiming our faith openly. It’s part of the Great Commission. Even if you find yourself in court for that, don’t forget we have an Advocate in heaven who will defend us.

“Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.” - Luke 21:14-15

Copy It Right

How would you feel if you wrote a book, recorded a song, or produced a movie and someone duplicated and distributed copies of your work without permission? I’ve seen Christian artists and ministers respond differently to this. Some don’t mind because they see it as a way to get the gospel out to more people. I like what Mike Bickle says regarding his sermon notes he makes available publicly, “If you’re going to copy it, copy it right.”

On the other hand, a friend of mine was recently threatened with legal action by a ministry in response to him posting on YouTube an 18-second clip of theirs included in a video produced by another minister. I can relate to this ministry being protective of their videos made public. Certainly, I wouldn’t like it if someone posted one of my preachings if it was edited in such a way that my intended message was distorted (so-called “watchdog ministries” are notorious for doing this). However, legal action should only be considered as a last resort. 1 Corinthians 6 discourages us from suing the brethren.

Occasionally people have posted my work on YouTube without permission. Usually, I won’t make an issue about it if they use short snippets. There is a legal term called “Fair Use” which allows journalists to use portions of copyrighted work for news broadcasts, critiques, and reviews. However, I’m not in favor of people reposting my work in its entirety especially if it’s meant to make a mockery of it.

At the beginning of 2007, I uploaded a video of a minister I know giving a prophetic word for the year at a conference. Twelve months later, I deleted the video simply because it was no longer 2007. Later I discovered someone had copied my video and reposted it on YouTube with inserted comments questioning why it was no longer online. I contacted this person explaining why and asked him to remove the video. This person got defensive claiming this minister was a false prophet and threatened to write negative things against me. Since I couldn’t reason with this person, I contacted YouTube and got them to remove the unauthorized video. 

Also in 2007, I released the controversial video “Tokin’ the Ghost” featuring John Crowder (later removed at my own volition). Since then, “Tokin’ the Ghost” had been reposted in its entirety by a few individuals. I contacted each one asking them to remove it from their YouTube accounts. Most of them refused to cooperate. Once again, I contacted YouTube to get those recopied videos taken off the Internet.

Another time I posted a portion of Andrew Wommack’s TV program “The Gospel Truth” in which he interviewed historian David Barton about homosexuals in the military. David shared eye-opening information that I felt needed to be heard by more Christians. Although I didn’t receive complaints from either Andrew or David, I eventually chose to remove that video from my YouTube account plus a few featuring other ministers. Romans 15:20 tells us not to “build on another man’s foundation.” I believe men of God should share more on what the Lord has revealed to them personally instead of always echoing what other ministers say.

Romans 13 talks about obeying the laws of the land and giving honor to whom honor is due. That would include copyright laws. One ridiculous defense made by King James Only advocates is their favorite translation isn’t copyrighted. Of course, it wouldn’t be copyrighted. Copyright laws didn’t come into existence until 1710 with the Statute of Anne in the UK, 99 years after the release of the King James Version. 

Nowadays, all modern translations of the Bible have a copyright notice. Permission to use those translations in church bulletins, articles, and salable media has been granted by the publishers with certain stipulations. For those of you thinking “God’s word should never be copyrighted”, it should be pointed out the books in the Bible gives credit to the individuals God used to write down and proclaim His word.

Whether it’s a song, book, or movie; Christian musicians, writers, and producers should be properly represented and compensated. 

“For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’” - 1 Timothy 5:18