AFA Staff
AFA Journal staff reviews movies, books and other resources
May 2019 – The Moses Controversy
|A new documentary from filmmaker Timothy P. Mahoney addresses a debate among biblical scholars on whether Moses could have really been the author of the Pentateuch and an eyewitness to many of its events.
Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy is a follow-up film to Mahoney’s similarly themed first documentary, Patterns of Evidence: Exodus.
In the new film, Mahoney interviews skeptics who challenge the authenticity of Moses as well as scholars who hold to the traditional belief in Moses’s authorship of the first five books of the Old Testament. The center of the controversy surrounds whether a written Hebrew language existed at the time of Moses. Scholars, authors, and experts on both sides of the question are interviewed on camera, so it gives both views equal opportunity.
Mahoney’s research and analysis are detailed, so viewers’ close attention is required. The filmmaker himself clearly comes down on the side of an authentic Moses as the Pentateuch author.
The Moses Controversy premiered at Fathom Events in selected theaters nationwide in March. Learn more at patternsofevidence.com.
Rusty Benson
FAMILY ALERT: Miracle Workers TV series
Movieguide.org has critiqued Miracle Workers, a new television series with cautions for its blatant mockery of God and Christian faith. TBS premiered Miracle Workers on February 12.
Tess Farrand, Movieguide staff writer, reported that the new series features a “God” – the main character – who swizzles beer with his snacks and demonstrates total disdain for people on earth.
He is egotistical and lazy, and he has little hope for humanity. In one segment, God expresses the opinion that a couple on their first date should have “real sex” to test their “prayers” for intimacy.
movieguide.org, 2/20/19
Hidden Agendas
In Hidden Agendas: Dropping the Masks that Keep Us Apart, author Steve Brown provides a down to earth look at the masks Christians wear and how they are affecting the Body of Christ. Though it is necessary to wear a mask at appropriate times, when it comes to building up the church, masks only serve to divide. While some of the truths in this book may be a bit blunt and hard to swallow, they hit home at a deep level that will challenge any reader.
Brown emphasizes how we must be open about our sins and not ashamed to speak about them to our fellow believers. At the same time, he warns that authenticity can become an idol. A balance of honesty and humility combined with the grace of Jesus Christ is the only way to find freedom.
Available at online and retail booksellers.
Canada Burns
What Am I Feeling?
In their new children’s book, What Am I Feeling?, husband-and-wife Dr. Josh and Christi Straub counter the current cultural tendency to value feelings over facts through a biblical and very balanced approach. In their colorfully illustrated story, a little boy named Sam navigates his way through several negative and realistic childhood situations that produce fear, anger, jealousy, and sadness.
Each emotion Sam and his friends feel throughout the school day is validated as normal, but then overcome by reliance on God.
Available at retail and online booksellers.
Joy Lucius
I Choose Honor
Since 1973, Pastor Rich Wilkerson Sr. has evangelized and ministered to youth and their families around the world. Now senior pastor of Trinity Church in Miami, Florida, Wilkerson has released his latest book, I Choose Honor: The Key to Relationships, Faith, and Life.
Beginning with the concept of honoring God above all, Wilkerson writes that honor may be the key to every successful relationship. Using biblical stories, wisdom from respected ministers and writers, as well as real-life experiences, Wilkerson details the power of honoring one another.
In each chapter, he offers practical ways to incorporate Christ-centered honor into daily life. I Choose Honor is available at online and retail bookstores.
Joy Lucius
TWO NOVELS CREATE INTRIGUING FUTURISTIC DRAMA
The Valley of the Dry Bones
In The Valley of the Dry Bones, best-selling author Jerry B. Jenkins creates an unspecified future in which the state of California is a desert wasteland. After countless disasters, the state is abandoned by the Federal Government, and civilians who remain there do so at their own risk.
In this challenging context, a small group of Christians decide to stay, seeking to spread the gospel and sharing their own meager resources. But when their pastor’s wife becomes sick with cancer, their difficult lives become even more complicated.
It begins a bit slowly, but The Valley of the Dry Bones is an edifying tale of how God is faithful and can work in mysterious ways, even in the harshest of environments. Available at online and retail booksellers.
Canada Burns
American Omens
Novelist Travis Thrasher weaves an intricate web of characters and plots set in 2038. American Omens: The Coming Fight for Faith is packed with people and events that don’t sound so different from today’s headlines. Consequently, the reader wonders, Could this happen? That soon?
The story begins when protagonist Cheyenne Burne is abruptly fired from her position at Acatour, the world’s top technology firm. Her father, who had converted to Christianity, has disappeared from the scene, and Cheyenne’s life goal is to find him, though she is not in the least open to his newfound faith.
A mysterious man known only as Reckoner is a major player. His goal is to restore the place of Christianity in the world and expose the forces behind the disappearance of Cheyenne’s dad and many other well-known citizens who had openly declared their faith. Available at retail and online booksellers.
Randall Murphree
