Movie Review: God's Not Dead 2

Following on from God’s Not Dead, there is another movie, this time it is called, wait for it – God’s Not Dead 2.  This time the film follows a teacher who is on trial for bringing Jesus into a discussion on Ghandi and Martin Luther King into the classroom.

The school suspends Miss Wesley for her actions and a court case starts with the defence lawyers trying to prove the teacher was innocent and the prosecutor trying to prove that God doesn’t exist – that he is actually dead.

This involves soul searching by some people, namely the girl Brooke who asked the question in class. She becomes a Christian despite her parents being against Christianity and who are the parents who brought this trial to court as they didn’t want their daughter being exposed to religion.  However, it turns out that Brooke’s brother, who died, was on a journey with Christ as well – and this makes Brooke questions her own faith.

The court case is going – well it seems to be going the way of the prosecutors. There is a minister on the jury but he had to leave due to taking appendicitis which makes the persecution claim that there is obviously no God as the defence team have now lost their only hope to winning the case.

The people who take the stand are very interesting including Lee Strobel who was an atheist but became a Christian when he set out to write a book to prove that God didn’t actually exist – however instead of proving his point, Strobel realised that God does exist and has since become a Christian.

Then there is another guy who sets out to prove that the eye witness accounts of the four gospels are all true and the reason why there are differences is because they are four different people – and when remembering details, these all differ from person to person as we all see things differently.

The case starts to look now that the defence may be winning.  Then enters Brooke, the 17 year old girl who asked the question in class. She wants to stand up for her teacher in court and set the story straight – to say that it was she who asked the question and all Miss Wesley did was answer it, and in a reasonable manner.

All Miss Wesley did was answer a questions on a historical figure in a history class – and even if people do not believe in God, they cannot deny that there are other people who do believe in God and that historians have proven that God did exist.

Brooke admits in court that she has become a Christian, much to her parent’s annoyance. On hearing this the prosecutor blames Miss Wesley for converting this child to Christianity.  The jury are now again on the side of the persecution.

During the case Miss Wesley feels our world is collapsing all around, so she does what she knows how to, she calls out to God to help her, which is what she should do at all times – even when we feel that God is not with us, He is.

At the end of the trial people are sitting outside the court holding hands and supporting Miss Wesley and someone says the most important words, “God’s got this” – and yes He does. God has got everything under control – He always does.

Then Miss Wesley is brought onto the stand and is asked to apologise for what she said in class, but she says she cannot do that because she has nothing to say sorry for.  Her lawyer is taking her through hell on the stand, and we are not sure why. But then he asks her to say the question that Jesus asked her “Who do you say I am?”  - And the answer “Jesus is the living Christ. He is personal to us all”

Now it is up to the jury to decide if Miss Wesley is guilty – and is God dead or isn’t He?

At this point in the movie I start to feel for Miss Wesley as her lawyer has just been very nasty to her on the stand and she feels all lost and alone.

We now jump to a Newsboys concerts where Michael Tait, the lead singer, asks the audience to pray for Miss Wesley at the time – this is showing that prayer does work. 

Now back in the courtroom, the jury have reached a decision - they find the defendant not guilty.  Some people are happy with the decision and some people are not happy.

As for the question if God alive or dead? – We are always going to have those people who say that He is dead and those who say He is not dead, he is very much alive.

The important part of the movie is that Miss Wesley stood up for what she believe in and that is something we all should do.