Front Gate Media sent me a copy of Paul, Apostle of Christ to watch and share my thoughts with you. Honestly, my opinion of Christian based movies over the years has not been high. I lost interest in the late 90s, somewhere around the Left Behind Series. I was skeptical of this one but managed to convince the whole family to watch with me.
We LOVED it!
Even my skeptical, sciencey eleven-year-old was transfixed. When a friend stayed the night the following night she made everyone watch it again.
There were a few scenes a bit graphic for young viewers but I used the opportunity to talk to my nine, eleven and thirteen-year-old about what persecution looks like. It’s not about losing political power, or even a job, for the early church it was about laying their life on the line to show others what it meant to truly love as Christ loved us. Taking up arms to gain political power wasn’t the direction these men and women chose. For them living out Christ and Paul’s teachings were to take care of widows and orphans, to love beyond all else.
As a writer, the part that resonated with me was the method of recording Paul’s story. Inspiration is a tricky thing. As a child, I had this image of Paul and other writers being more in a trance as God dictated the words. As I’ve grown I’ve come to see it more as this movie portrayed, men going about their business living out their lives and faith to the best of their understanding and doing their absolute best to honor God in the process.
This movie felt real. It was full of moments that stick with you and make you think. It was relevant to today and so many of the struggles we face in our own culture. But isn’t that how God works! If God’s word is truly active and alive shouldn’t the story continue to have layers that develop and evolve as we do?
I am thankful for the opportunity to review this movie and add it to my collection. I am even more excited to share it with you.
Go to www.blessedfreebies.com/paulapostleofchrist.html to enter to win a copy of your own.
Paul (Faulkner), who goes from the most infamous persecutor of Christians to Christ’s most influential apostle, is spending his last days in a dark and bleak prison cell awaiting execution by Emperor Nero. Luke(Caviezel), his friend and physician, risks his life when he ventures into Rome to visit him. Paul is under the watchful eye of Mauritius (Martinez), the prison’s prefect, who seeks to understand how this broken old man can pose such a threat. But before Paul’s death sentence can be enacted, Luke resolves to write another book, one that details the beginnings of “The Way” and the birth of what will come to be known as the church. Their faith challenged an empire. But their words changed the world.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY:Andrew Hyatt
PRODUCED BY:T.J. Berden and David Zelon
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:Eric Groth, Rick Jackson, Harrison Powell and Jim Caviezel
STARRING:Jim Caviezel, James Faulkner, Olivier Martinez, Joanne Whalley and John Lynch
