Revelation Road 2: The Sea of Glass and Fire (2013)

Previously, we did a review of the first part of the Revelation Road movie.  And when I say that it was the first part in this movie, that’s really what I mean.  This is a movie in two parts, not two separate movies with the same characters.  I just don’t want you to be disappointed when you reach the end of Part 1 and it doesn’t end.

Part 1, you will remember, was about this salesman who enters into the most unfriendly town ever (both because of the criminals and also the annoying Christians).  Some bikers try to kill him, and he suddenly reveals that he is some awesome Jack Bauer-like kung fu beast and kills them all.  It was actually pretty cool.  I very much enjoyed the movie, except the “Christian” parts of it, which were almost all bad.

The first part ended with the rapture, which had been building up for hours in a massive electrical storm, then ended with the Christians glowing for several minutes, then being fried into a pile of ash.

Then Jesus appeared beside a road and was hiding from everyone.  Because that’s what He does according to Dispensationalism – comes back and hides.

So let’s get to this one!

This Present Darkness (1986) Part 1: Angels and Demons

This Present Darkness

By Frank Peretti

Crossway Books

This month, Christian audio is offering an abridged version of This Present Darkness as a free download.  It’s been many a year since I read the book, but I was a fan of it, so I devoured the audio version very quickly.  As a note, this review is on the audio abridgment, not the original novel, since I don’t remember the original novel well enough to review it.  Also as a note, they abridged way too much of the story out.  It looks like they were trying to fit the entire thing on three CDs, and I really wish they had added at least one more disc.

I am not generally a fan of “Christian” novels, at least the ones published in the last few decades.  They are either really goofy, or outright heretical.  Peretti is different.  I like his work quite a bit.  He’s a good writer, capable of fast-moving plots and good suspense, and he appears to be basically Orthodox, as far as I can tell.  He is certainly Pentecostal in his theology, so we should have differences with him there, but based on what I’ve read, I’m under the impression that he is a Christian brother who also writes well. 

Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End (2013)

I don’t know why I watch Christian end-times movies.  I know what they will be.  They will be

Dispensational, because the actual historic and orthodox views of the Eschatology wouldn’t make for good movies.  In those views (A-millennialism, Post-millennialism, and Historic Pre-millennialism), things either get steadily better until the end or worse until the end, but once that trumpet blows, that’s it.  It’s difficult to make that into a two-hour movie, especially one that is artistically satisfying.

Dispensational Pre-millennialism is different.  In that scheme, Jesus returns in a secret rapture either at the beginning of the Tribulation or in the middle of it, takes away his believers, and leaves the rest for the remaining part of the seven year Tribulation.  Then He returns again and starts the millennial reign on the earth.

This view is not at all historic.  No Christian ever has believed it until the 1800s.  Beyond that, it is simply not biblical.  And I don’t have time here to explain why, though I do recommend Kim Riddlebarger’s extended lectures on this topic.  I’ve listened to all of them, but if you get through the first few of them, you’ll get the gist of what is being said.  Scroll halfway down the page and you’ll see them on the right.

But that makes for interesting movies, because Jesus coming back and things end is actually the very definition of a Deus ex Machina, which is something you’re not supposed to do when telling a story.  But if part of the world disappears, leaving the rest in a terrible Tribulation with all sort of problems and craziness, then that’s more interesting. 

“Lean on Me” by DC Talk

Song: “Lean on Me”

Artist: DC Talk

Album: Free at Last (1992)

Track: 12

While everyone got really excited back in 1992 about “Jesus is Just Alright,” “Lean on Me” seems to be the more enduring cover tune of the two.  Like in “Free at Last” (the song, not the album), this proved to be a really great mix of hip hop, soul, and rock, which was the thing that really set DC Talk apart in this portion of their career. 

Derek, series 1 (2013)

I got an email recently that series 2 of Derek has hit Netflix.  There are not many such announcements that I

had as eagerly anticipated.  I started watching series 1 because some of the stuff Ricky Gervais does is pretty good, so I thought I would give it a try.

I was not expecting what I got.

It’s a comedy, and a comedy that is, at times, rousingly funny.  One thing I appreciate about British comedies is that they are more concerned with the content and the delivery than the look of things.  American television has to have good-looking people fronting their comedies, but the Brits don’t seem to care about that as much as the talent of the people there.  My single favorite British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances, is exactly that.  Patricia Routledge was already in her sixties when that show started, but she was downright funny.  It wasn’t her looks that kept me tuned in – it was her.

Derek very intentionally gets a very talented cast and makes most of them look a little off.  Then all the extras are elderly, because the whole thing takes place in an old folk’s home.  The place is drab and grimy, and a lot of the people are too.