God’s Screenplay

Believers and unbelievers are subtly evangelized daily by the ambient glow of God’s cinematic masterpiece. They sense something grand but are confused by the incoherent cultural edits scattered throughout the film. The Good News is the deleted scenes are not lost but can be found in our shared human experiences, and once spliced back together, reveal an epic of Biblical proportions: The Director’s Cut of the Greatest Story Ever Told.

I take a unique “bottom-up” approach to apologetics by investigating experiences common to all people and conclude that they can only be adequately understood through a narrative filter. I treat the Christian worldview as a theatrical production with a set, props, characters, conflict, and a resolution. The goal is to empower Christians to confidently share their faith in a concrete, friendly, real-world context that effectively engages the day-to-day realities of their friends and family.
We are in danger of losing our identities as unique beings created in the image of God. Our culture, not wanting to answer to a higher authority, tries to expel God from the planet but, in the process, strips off the very image that makes us human. If we officiate at the death of God, we will also be forced to preside over the funeral of man. The good news is that despite the loud voices declaring that we are just evolved animals, most of us behave as if we are special. Since the characteristics that make humans unique are found nowhere else on the planet, we are compelled to look to the heavens. We have a choice; we can find significance in running with the pack or becoming children of God. We can howl at the moon or offer prayers to our Father, but either way, we will worship our maker.
Dr. Strandness explores what it means to be created in the image of God by examining those qualities that are universally recognized as unique to humankind. He makes the case that these characteristics have a heavenly origin and can only be adequately explained by a Biblical understanding of humans as God’s image-bearers.
Most people prefer to live with a hazy notion of spirituality because they don’t want a world where God is in control, yet they also don’t want to be forced to robotically dance to the tune of their selfish genes. A vague understanding of spirituality gives them a culturally acceptable opt-out clause from a dreary world ruled by chemicals while simultaneously allowing them to define the terms of divine engagement. We are united because we all have a spiritual hole in our lives, but the odd ways we fill it divide us. All paths don’t lead to the same God but begin with the same spiritual void.

It is here that our journey must begin.

God Spoke makes the case that our spiritual nature is due to the hardwired human longing to rethink the thoughts of a God who has already spoken his mind. We are inspired to listen to the divine discourse filling the universe by bending our ears to hear his creational words, open our eyes to his written Word, and transformi our hearts with his incarnate Word.
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