God’s Not Dead was one of the surprising movie hits of 2014. With a budget barely over $1 million, it is said to have been seen by more than 25 million people worldwide and earned about $100 million in the box office—making it one of the most successful independent movies of all times.
The sequel, God’s Not Dead 2, opens tonight (April 1) in 2,320 theaters. You need to see it. I was sent a copy to review. It’s outstanding—even better than the first. I also had the opportunity to visit the set in Arkansas last July, which I wrote about in The Strang Report. I saw where the teacher in the movie, Melissa Joan Hart, was asked by a student if Jesus taught non-violence like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
God’s Not Dead told the story of a college student faced with defending his faith in a secular philosophy class when asked the question of God’s existence. No one—least of all me—expected the movie to be very good. But it was outstanding. The script, the acting, the special effects were outstanding, especially considering the budget. When I saw it, I was blown away. We were early promoters of the movie. Others agreed, and the rest is history.
This has now evolved into a movement. The movie, released on national Atheist Day, shows how Christians can stand up to secularists and atheists and win. It is encouraging to believers, and it makes nonbelievers think! It’s so important that we made it the cover story of our April issue, which is arriving in mailboxes now. Here, you can read Taylor Berglund’s outstanding article, which goes into more depth.
Then you need to go see the movie this weekend. To give you a sneak preview, here is a trailer for the film.
As our cover story says, the movement began with Rice Broocks of Every Nation ministry seeing the need to write an apologetics book defending the faith. When he shared that with businessman Troy Duhon, he said it needed to be a movie, and Duhon invested the money to make it happen. I interviewed Duhon on my podcast about the movie. You can listen to that podcast here.
Hardly anyone knew about the first movie, but by word of mouth, it took off. Now, there are millions of fans on Facebook and others who saw the first movie and undoubtedly want to see the second.
This movie will be successful regardless of what I write. But I want to encourage you to go and take family and friends. You’ll be inspired, and it’s a great couple of hours of entertainment.
Stephen Strang