Click here to find out all about the conference in Southern California, June 22-24, 2017
I promise to shake things up with the truth about the Christian worldview in movies.
But there are a lot more people there that will help you in your storytelling.
So check it out:
Join Dr. Mike Heiser, Pastor Doug Van Dorn, Doug Overmyer, Brian Godawa and Natalina as we discuss entheogens—psychedelic drugs that are known to cause “mystical states” of consciousness.
Our hosts discuss Rick Strassman’s work on DMT, but that is merely a subset of entheogen study. Current research in the fields of brain science, psychology, and religion are struggling to explain how entheogens and the experiences they cause should be understood. The dilemma of consciousness, more popularly known as the mind-body problem, is at the heart of the struggle. Do entheogens simply affect part of the brain and its chemistry triggering new states of consciousness from inside your head? Or do these drugs separate consciousness from the organ of the body we call the brain, verifying that consciousness is distinct from the brain? Are God and other supernal beings experienced by people under the effect of entheogens just a product of the brain, or are they entities to be experienced by unhindered consciousness?
CLICK HERE to listen to podcast.
Tyrant: Rise of the Beast: Rome, A.D. 64. A Roman prefect and his Jewish servant are ordered by the mad emperor Nero to track down a secret Christian document that undermines the Roman empire and predicts the end of the world. But they’re not prepared for the spiritual warfare they’ve unleashed. The truth behind the origin of the most controversial book of the Bible: Revelation. A historical conspiracy thriller with angels and demons.
It’s coming. It’s controversial. It’s going to cause a protest.
But it’s going to entertain the hell out of you — with the truth of heaven.
It won’t be out until near end of February.
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And while you are waiting, Check out the first chapter for FREE!
as well as cool pictures of characters and synopsis of the novel:
I wrote the foreword to this mind-bending exploration of all things Lewis and sci-fi in media entertainment.
Here is the description:
The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis’s masterpiece in ethics and the philosophy of science, warns of the danger of combining modern moral skepticism with the technological pursuit of human desires. The end result is the final destruction of human nature. From Brave New World to Star Trek, from steampunk to starships, science fiction film has considered from nearly every conceivable angle the same nexus of morality, technology, and humanity of which C. S. Lewis wrote. As a result, science fiction film has unintentionally given us stunning depictions of Lewis’s terrifying vision of the future. In Science Fiction Film and the Abolition of Man, scholars of religion, philosophy, literature, and film explore the connections between sci-fi film and the three parts of Lewis’s book: how sci-fi portrays “Men without Chests” incapable of responding properly to moral good, how it teaches the Tao or “The Way,” and how it portrays “The Abolition of Man.”
You can get it on Kindle here.
You can get it in paperback here.
In the seventeenth century, two Jesuit priests face violent persecution to their faith as they track down their teacher and predecessor who is rumored to have apostatized.
I confess I have not read the book, so I do not know how faithful Scorsese is to Shusaku Endo’s original novel. But in movie adaptation, stories are shaped to the vision of the director, oftentimes subverting the original. So, despite some helpful appeals to the source material, a movie must nevertheless be understood in its own context and presentation apart from the book. And Scorsese seems to have made this story his own.
Silence is a timely and poignant, though at times overly long, exploration of the nature of faith in the face of persecution and suffering. For that reason, I applaud the discussion that Silence raises and the soul searching it inspires in the faithful.
Especially in this era of rising Christophobia and persecution of Christians by all forms of fascism worldwide. From the Muslim torturing and murdering of Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other Islamic nations, to the growing tide of violence directed at believers in America, hatred is being increasingly focused on Christians, not for being hurtful in their actions, but simply for believing in God’s Word. And such spiritual devotion is considered a hate crime by many in our culture.
The ultimate end of demonizing Christian beliefs as “racist, bigoted, homophobic, sexist, Islamophobic” and other phobias, is the justification of violence against Christians, the elimination of Christian cultural artifacts and history, and the suppression of the Judeo-Christian faith.
That is why Silence is so poignant at this time. Remember my mantra, movies are not made in a cultural vacuum. They often reflect the zeitgeist of the era, the spirit of the age they are made within. And this era no longer believes in freedom of thought and speech and the free exchange of ideas. It now says to Christians, “Shut up. Your beliefs are bigotry, so you must renounce them and outwardly support the zeitgeist.”
We are not in a post-Christian culture, we are in an anti-Christian culture.
But the trials and tribulations experienced by the Roman priests in this story are rooted in a deeper struggle that all honest believers wrestle with: the silence of God in the face of suffering, spiritual doubts, and weakness of faith.
If you have not yet signed up for my Godawa Chronicles Updates, do it right away.
I’m on the verge of a new book release and some discounts for fans who are signed up!
This one is going to be my best yet. Controversial, Entertaining, Thought-provoking!
Here’s a hint:
I saw an advance screening of Patriots Day, the dramatization of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the hunt for the young Islamic terrorists who perpetrated it. I must say that this is a movie that ALL Americans need to see when it is released. Put it on your calendars and keep an eye out for opening weekend December 21.
With Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and now Patriots Day, Peter Berg is fast becoming the official great all-American movie director in my book, along with Mark Wahlberg as the great All-American actor. Berg seems to understand the courage, sacrifice, and exceptionalism of American heroism, and he is unafraid to tackle the most important villain on the earth today: Islamism.
(We must forgive him for Battleship, as that was a studio monstrosity that I am sure he only did to be able to make the movies he really wants to.)
The movie’s first act introduces us to some of the lives of the victims and heroes of that fateful day, and gives us a taste of their desires, their loves, their hopes for life. We are made to care for these everyday people and first responders before we see them go through the horrendous attack and aftermath. Wives, families, parents and lovers, all, with dreams and plans. The emotional power in this story is thick and human and deeply moving.
He even gives us a glimpse into the Tsarnaev brothers “everyday life” that leads up to their Islamic everyday terror. Though not with the kind of typical Hollywood “terrorists are people too” moral equivalency.
Mark Wahlberg plays a character who represents a composite of a couple different homicide detectives for narrative flow. But the attention to accuracy and detail outside of the necessary creative license is strong. This movie is true to the facts, but more importantly to the spirit of this important historical event.
And that spirit is the American spirit of banding together, something we desperately need right now in our country. Continue reading
See the Wrap’s list of 29 WWII Films with a 7/10 rating on IMDB.
Woo Hoo! After all these years, it’s become a classic. Check it out. It’s 5th on the page list.
To End All Wars was my first feature film that I wrote that got produced.
It stars Kiefer Sutherland in one of his best roles ever, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you can on Amazon Video here.
ONLY $1.99 to Rent. What are you waiting for?
Makes a nice compliment to the awesome Hacksaw Ridge out in theaters now.
I cohosted this podcast with Dr. Mike Heiser, Natalina, Doug Van Dorn, Doug Overmyer and Trey Stricklin.
Sleep paralysis can be defined in several ways. In terms of the experiencer, it can be described as “a visitation by a malevolent creature which attacked its victims as they slept” (Cox). More clinically, sleep paralysis is understood as “a transient,conscious state of involuntary immobility occurring when falling asleep or upon wakening” (Cheyne, 2002). Research into sleep paralysis has produced compelling evidence that the phenomenon can be explained by brain chemistry and physiology in conjunction with REM sleep. But is that all there is to it?
Those familiar with my novel series Chronicles of the Nephilim should know that my latest favorite Bible scholar is Michael Heiser. His writing on the fantastic and the strange in the Bible will open your eyes to the supernatural like Elisha’s servant.
But he has a high view of Scripture and steers clear of Christian Crazy Land, that tends to dominate that discussion.
If you don’t know what “Divine Council” means then you must read this guy’s work. It will change your life as it did mine.
I highly recommend his work, and his blog and podcast, which I listen to faithfully.
(His Naked Bible Podcast series on the book of Leviticus turned the most boring book in the Bible for me into one of the most fascinating. Go to iTunes to find those past podcasts)
You can check out his blog and sign up for his newsletter here.
But also, he has a new online course out on Word Studies in the Bible that he did with Johnny Cisneros.
You guys, you need this to do responsible Word studies.
Sign up for the one-of-a-kind video course:
http://bible-word-nerd1.teachable.com/p/word-studies