Movie
The Gospel Has Hit Movie Theaters in a Totally Different Way
Animators and film directors Tom Bancroft and John Schafer have a long history of creating inspiring Christian kids’ content. “Light of the World” is their latest quest to encourage young people with powerful biblical messages and themes.
The co-directors, who have previously collaborated on CBN’s popular animated series “Superbook,” came together to work on this new project, set in AD 30 at a time when “everyone was expectantly awaiting the coming Messiah.”
“This beautiful, 2D-animated story of Jesus is told through the eyes of his beloved young friend, the Apostle John,” a description reads. “From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry through his crucifixion and resurrection, ‘Light of the World’ powerfully illustrates how Jesus of Nazareth changed the world forever and still changes lives today!”
The directors told CBN News working on this project together has been a “dream come true” — and one that comes with true purpose.
Schafer said “Light of the World” offers a truly unique lens through which the Bible is being presented to kids and families.
“The biggest thing is the perspective — how we’re telling the story of life of Jesus,” he said. “For us, we really felt like, if we could take it through the lens of John the the Apostle but also … based on historians and theologians we’ve been talking with … they’re really stating that, ‘Hey, we do feel that the disciples would have probably been teenagers, upper teenagers, Peter being the oldest 20, 24.’”
With that in mind, the duo wanted to tell the story through that vein and through John’s eyes, making it “more of a coming of age” experience. The story is, indeed, conveyed from John’s perspective, which differs from what has been presented in other similar films and TV projects.
“Our goal was to make this for everyone, but also [keeping] in mind … people who have no … idea of the Gospel,” Schafer said. “Because our goal is not just a theatrical launch in the United States, which is our biggest, but, eventually, get it in the hands of ministries from around the world and use it as a tool.”
Bancroft said the responsibility of working on such an important project that merges eternal Truth with entertainment — an effort aimed at creating a fun, powerful, and effective evangelistic tool — was “intimidating” but rewarding.
“We would start praying before our story meetings and going, ‘God, give us the knowledge to know what you want in this movie,’” he said. “And, step by step, we kept doing that all through the production because we had to be rooted.”
“Light of the World” comes at a time when the appetite for faith-based content is more than evident. Shows like “The Chosen” and Christian films are becoming increasingly popular and more prevalent.
Schafer believes “people are searching” and that this reality is driving the intrigue.
“Parents are searching for content,” he said. “Children, they’re searching for certain answers. … I think people right now, especially in the climate we’re in, are looking for hope, and I think our story tells [it] in a very non-threatening way.”
Sources:faithwire
Movie
‘I Know God’s Power’: Dallas Jenkins Reacts Moments After Filming Last-Ever ‘The Chosen’ Scene
“The Chosen” creator Dallas Jenkins was filled with gratitude last Thursday night just moments after filming the final scene of his popular biblical series.
Jenkins, who exclusively invited CBN News on set in Texas to witness those last moments, expressed his profound gratitude for how the show is coming to an end.
“I feel awesome because there’s no more days hanging over my head, no more seasons hanging over my head, we’ve done the work that we set out to go,” he said. “God provided everything that we needed.”
The last scene, which featured the disciples on a boat, was memorable because the vessel used in filming was the same seen in the first season of the show. The scene offered a literal and figurative full-circle moment.
“God has met us here in the waters so often,” Jenkins said. “I have nothing but gratitude.”
Ultimately, Jenkins said the mission behind the show has never changed, even as the audience has swelled to over 100 million people.
“We haven’t changed,” he said. “We’re still trying to do the work for God. We’re still humbled, we’re still surrendered, we’re still grinding.”
As for how the seven-season journey changed Jenkins, he said it offered him insight into God’s character and relationship with mankind.
“I’ve been a believer as long as I can remember,” he said. “I know God’s power. … I don’t think I knew quite as much as I do now from doing this show how intimate of a God He is, how personal of a God he is.”
Sources:faithwire
Hot News
Netflix’s Narnia is an Attack on Aslan’s Christ Figure
For more than 70 years, Christians throughout the world have enjoyed C.S. Lewis’ epic seven-volume masterpiece, The Chronicles of Narnia. The story, set against the backdrop of the mythical and magical land of Narnia, is meant to be a Christian “supposal” of sorts, a clear parable of the Gospel told in a way that children can understand.
At the center of all of it is the hero, the great lion Aslan. Aslan is the “Son of the Emperor Beyond the Sea,” the creator and savior of Narnia. Aslan gives his life to save Narnia (and the children who discover it) and comes back to life to defeat the evil White Witch and restore the people. Lewis describes Aslan as more than just a representation of Jesus Christ. He is a “supposal” of our Lord, what Lewis imagines the Biblical Jesus would be like if there were such a place with talking beasts and magical creatures.
In the age of film and movies, there have been several attempts to bring Lewis’ masterpiece to life on screen, but each with little success. The most recent and celebrated attempt came in the early 2000s, when Walden Media (in partnership with a pre-woke Disney) put “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on the big screen with incredible box-office success. They then made a valiant but ultimately doomed attempt to do the same with all seven Narnia books, stopping production after “Prince Caspian” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” each failed to repeat the success of the first movie.
Fast forward to today: Netflix, armed with director Greta Gerwig and the movie rights to Narnia, stepped in and made Aslan transgender. Yes, you read that right.
Critics will argue that I am speaking out of bias. But the proof is in the pudding. Just recently, Empire magazine confirmed that Aslan, the Jesus figure of Narnia, would be played by Hollywood icon Meryl Streep. To add insult to injury, the magazine released a first look at the King of the Whole Wood, complete with rainbow-colored whiskers, multicolored feminized eyes and shades of rainbow in “his” mane.
This is a well-known ploy of the enemies of God, to subvert and destroy symbols of Christianity in an effort to win a war of attrition for the heart of the culture. It is not just an attack on Lewis or Narnia. It is an attack on our faith, no matter how subliminal it seems.
Lewis portrayed the Narnians to be archetypes of Christians. They are the people of Aslan, as we are the people of Christ. And when they remembered the “old stories,” the truth about their creator and savior, they prospered. When they did not remember, disaster soon followed.
In the final Narnia installment, The Last Battle, Lewis ironically and unintentionally gave us an unsettling foreshadowing of what Netflix would do a mere 70 years later. In that tale, in the “last days of Narnia,” a donkey named Puzzle appears in the land and wears a lion suit at the behest of a conniving ape named Shift. Puzzle dons the Aslan skinsuit; the people are deceived. The downfall of Narnia follows shortly thereafter.
Netflix is simply doing what Shift the ape already tried.
Friends, we need to remember our Creator. We need to know Him for who He is, and we need to follow Him to the very end. Let’s cling to the old stories and fight for the glory of our King, who created us and died for us and rose again to save us.
For all of us, my hope and prayer is that you will never even consider investing in the stock of a company such as this. For many of us, it may also mean canceling the account and not giving them another cent of your patronage dollars.
But no matter what you do, there is a lesson for all of us, and it is this: We need to know and worship the King of kings as He is glorified in the Bible, not some pretend Jesus that fits into whatever the godless culture around us desires him to be.
He is the mighty King of kings and Lord of lords. May we honor Him as such in our hearts.
Sources: Breaking Christian News
Movie
Do Prophets Still Exist? Meet the Filmmaker Who’s Investigating This Biblical Phenomenon
Filmmaker Matthew Thayer is on a mission to explore whether modern-day prophets are still delivering important messages.
Thayer’s new film, “Can You Hear Me Now?” tackles this timeless topic, exploring whether the biblical dynamic of prophets delivering God’s Word to humanity is still alive and active today.
The film director said he “absolutely” believes God still speaks through prophets, explaining his perspective that individuals with this ability happened to “just kind of show up in the Bible.”
“There’s nothing that actually says, ‘Oh, this is what a prophet is,’ and so what that means to me is that the ancient Middle East — they were just there,” Thayer said of biblical prophets. “So the people of that era and the people that were originally receiving the words of the Bible originally just understood what a prophet was and a prophet’s function.”
The director believes it’s been proven that people have had dreams and experiences they can’t explain — sequences that tell them what will happen; Thayer said these are often quite accurate. He believes that’s because God has enabled them, through Him, to witness elements of the unseen realm.
When asked why some people in the church world might dismiss modern-day prophecy, Thayer held little back.
“Honestly, I think it’s because the dark spiritual forces that we war against, according to Ephesians 6, knew that communications with God was the first thing that they needed to take out,” he said. “Communications are taken out in warfare first … that’s just a standard warfare practice, and, so, if we are actually in a spiritual war, it would make sense that they would target prophets first.”
Thayer advocated being careful about the sources people gather their prophecy from, as false prophets can open people up to deception. Thus, discernment is key.
“To me, it’s more about who the prophet is pointing to,” he said. “Because that’s what Deuteronomy 13 very clearly stipulates … that there’s going to be false prophets and they’re going to be accurate. But if they’re pointing you away from Yahweh, if they’re pointing you away from God, then they’re a false prophet.”
Thayer understands some of the hesitation people have surrounding prophecy, explaining that his own skepticism came when politics and prophecy collided. He said it felt like some of those making proclamations — especially surrounding President Donald Trump in 2016 — felt like they didn’t quite land. But, over time, the volume of so-called “words” surrounding Trump shocked him.
“The amount of words that were coming out just kind of made me go, like, ‘I think God’s actually trying to do something,’” he said. “He’s trying to alert people to what’s going on and so that’s kind of one of the things that I was exploring with the documentary.”
Thayer recalled being in an auditorium in 2007, when faith leader Kim Clement offered up a prophecy many saw as predicting Trump’s presidency.
“We’re all standing there going like, ‘What? Like the apprentice guy? What?’” Thayer recalled, noting how Clement said Trump would be a trumpet. “Well, what does a trumpet do? A trumpet calls to attention, a trumpet calls people to action, and that’s actually really kind of very close to what [Trump’s] doing — like he’s pointing at things that we didn’t even know existed, and darkness, and corruption that was happening within our government.”
Sources:faithwire
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