Em Defesa de Cristo

Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6.

Our attitude toward the truth determines the outcome of our lives. If we don't love the truth, if we resist it, we resist salvation. But if we do love the truth then we embrace salvation and we receive the reward: the crown of life.

But what did Jesus mean when He said that He is the truth? What is the truth?

The truth about who we are and about who Jesus is God's Word is true, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) So the truth is the life of Jesus - which is to be manifested in us. (2 Corinthians 4:10) When we compare His life to our own lives and see how enormously different the two are, then a light turns on for us. The truth is that light which shines into our lives and reveals what we are really like by nature. It reveals the way that we must walk on in order to be transformed into the image of Christ. (Romans 8:29) The first step on the way of truth is taken when Jesus shines His light into our lives and we acknowledge that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, atonement, and justification. This causes us to repent.

This movie never gets out of the circus maximus tent.

It's as if the journalist decided to explore mathematics except they forgot something.

They go to the chalk board, in an attempt to prove '1' exists.

So they just write 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

OVER and OVER on the chalk board.

And yet ? somehow ?

This clown suit vacant of the clown ?

forgets to even DARE explore the beauty of ZERO.

Save yourself the trip - maybe stop off and visit Scientology? or a local Catholic Church ? same difference, only one I see is - Hubbard KNEW the only tax haven was through religion, most other families with 23 billion or more ? have family become senators to lower those taxes.

The only TAX you'll pay watching THIS film

is your OWN IGNORANCE TO EVER have brought it before your retina.

Me? I would have LOVED to just gone for a former Charlie's Angel's Kate Jackson flick on Lifetime - probably would have been more rewarding too !

I get Lee Strobel in a way that many of the reviewers of this obviously don't. At least in the sense that I, too, was an outspoken atheist who became convinced about the reality of the resurrection. Having become a Christian I later became a pastor. I'm not a fundamentalist. I generally disdain adjectives that serve little purpose other than to divide Christians into competing groups, but if I was forced to pick one I'd say that I probably lean toward the more progressive side of the Christian faith and have an open mind toward Christian universalism, although I'm not convinced of it. But I'm not here to shill for the Christian faith or to proselytize. I'm just here to review a movie. Lee Strobel's story interests me for obvious reasons. As a journalist he was bothered by his wife's sudden conversion to Christian faith and essentially set out to collect evidence that would debunk the Christian faith. Instead, the evidence he collected convinced him of the truth of the Christian faith. As a summary of Strobel's faith journey, I thought this was interesting and well portrayed, and Mike Vogel did a good job as Strobel, as did Erika Christensen as his wife Leslie.

I'm not convinced that this movie would convince anyone to believe. Nor am I convinced that the purpose of this movie was to convince anyone to believe. I think the purpose of the movie was to simply portray Strobel's own journey. How did this atheist turn around and become a man of faith? So, really, this is what I'd call a "niche" movie. It will be of interest to Christians - evangelicals who like stories of conversions and people like myself who can understand Strobel's journey. So negative reviews that are based on not being convinced by the evidence Strobel presents are missing the point. That's legitimate reason to dismiss the book (of the same name) that Strobel wrote - which did have an evangelical agenda - but as far as this movie is concerned all that really matters is that Strobel found evidence that convinced him, not whether that evidence would convince anyone else. He did, and the story is well presented.

My own journey was different. Although I believe there's more than enough evidence to support the basic tenets of the Christian faith (including concepts such as resurrection and incarnation) I readily accept that the evidence is circumstantial and subjective. The evidence can point one in a particular direction, but somewhere along the way there has to be an experiential element to a conversion that actually convinces a person to believe. Faith, after all, is indeed belief in that which cannot be proven. And the movie did make a valid point - that both belief in God and unbelief in God is really a matter of faith, since the existence of God can be neither proven nor disproven. It is by its very nature a matter of faith.

This is a surprisingly decent movie. There's a bit of a backstory about some of Strobel's work as an investigative journalist trying to uncover police corruption in Chicago, but mostly it's a Christian movie about the search for truth. It won't "convince" anyone - but it will provide an interesting enough account of one man's spiritual journey from atheism to Christianity. (7/10)

"Christian" movies have a reputation of being artificial, unprofessional, and only appealing to those who are already indoctrinated. "The Case for Christ" breaks these stereotypes, delivering the best piece of Christian filmography that I've seen, as well as a good biographical drama by more general standards.

As mentioned, "The Case" avoids the pitfalls that the majority of Christian films fall into. It does not vilify atheists, make Christians appear impossibly pious, stuff the script with corny and unnatural dialogue (or significantly lack any other production quality), or contrive situations in order to "prove" Christianity (this is a biography, after all).

While the primary character, Lee Strobel, isn't a very nice person for most of the movie, he is no more flawed than most protagonists, and these flaws are never blamed on atheism, per se. Mike Vogel's portrayal of a man doing what he feels is best for his family and dealing with life's stresses, especially those that come from having one's worldview challenged, is genuine and moving.

I don't think many folks will come into the movie theater as skeptics and walk out as Christians, but I think the movie's producers were mature enough that that's not what they were intending or expecting. The movie likely won't answer all of a skeptic's questions (though the questions they do address are relevant, not straw men), but it answers enough of them that they should realize that (some) people do indeed have reasons for their beliefs.

Altogether, Christians and non-Christians alike should walk away from this movie with the desire to learn more, and they'll have experienced a good piece of cinema in the process.

Reading the reviews here before watching, I was pretty sure I would not like this movie. Well I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Most of the negative reviews are based not on the quality of the movie but based on the fact that those reviewers do not believe in God.

I myself doubt that God exists but to pan a movie simply for that reason makes no more sense than giving Star Wars one star because you do not believe in wookiees.