The Case for Christ

Happy Easter to all!  Christ our Lord is risen today!  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is something that is the topic of the recent Pure Flix movie The Case for Christ.  It’s the story of former atheist Lee Strobel and his investigation into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It’s based of his book The Case for Christ.  This book was the second apologetics book that I’ve ever read after Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and it helped start me on my apologetics journey.  I actually got the book free when the Evangelical group Campus Crusade for Christ was handing them out for free during my University days.

I just want to point out that I have a love-hate relationship with Pure Flix.  I’m Not Ashamed was decent but in my opinion the God’s Not Dead series is just awful.  The casting and acting are decent on the part of Mike Vogel and Erika Christensen who play Lee and his wife.  In my opinion, apologists Gary Habermas and William Lane Craig were poorly cast.  The apologist who deals with the Swoon theory is quite good.  He really communicates it well and sounds simply brilliant when he calls the Swoon theory rubbish.  Are you listening Shabir Ally?

The first third of the movie didn’t seem promising.  There were a few God’s Not Dead moments and seeing that was pretty discouraging.  This was especially true when their young daughter says that she’s an atheist like her parents.  Part of me expected David A.R. White to make a guest appearance at this point.

The movie picked up steam during the Swoon theory investigation.  That was probably the turning point in the investigation.  He continued to get closer and closer to the truth and seemed to be more open to the idea as time progressed.

The movie also shows a less than flattering portrayal of Lee Strobel.  He starts out as an arrogant atheist who detests religion to no end.  It’s strongly suggested that he was going to divorce his wife if she kept going to Church.  Thankfully he converted before then.

In my opinion, this movie doesn’t present an option of movie or book.  The book should be read regardless as it goes into far more detail.  The movie is a good reinforcement of the key points of Strobel’s investigation.

I give this movie a 6 out of 10.  Pure Flix needs to make more movies like this.  In these days of vicious secularism, religion based movies need to be first rate to reach the secular culture.  This movie almost does it but not quite.  I would recommend it.  Is this the movie to bring your atheist friend?  I don’t think I’d go that far.  Pure Flix has a long way to go in order to recover from God’s Not Dead, but at least they’re headed in the right direction.

If you have any thoughts on the film, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Happy Easter!