PneumaReview.com: Please tell our readers briefly what your film The Insanity of God is about.

The Insanity of God (LifeWay Films 2016).
Read the review by Pastor John Lathrop.

Nik and Ruth Ripken: The Insanity of God journeys with Nik and Ruth Ripken as they seek to walk in obedience and follow what God has asked of them. From the hills of Kentucky to the villages of Africa they see God working and shaping and moving them until they come face to face that sometimes it costs a lot to believe and follow Christ. This fact became a stark reality in the civil war, famine, drought and death of Somalia. How do you make Christ known when it could cost those who hear the message their lives?

Nik and Ruth are faced with the tragedy of the death of their son and then go on a pilgrimage that takes them around the globe to answer the question, “Is Jesus Worth It?” They do this by going to believers living in places where persecution for their faith is an everything event and they ask them to share their stories.

The Insanity of God allows the viewer to see and hear some of the stories of faith and then struggle with that question along with Nik and Ruth.

PneumaReview.com: How did you choose the nations you went to in order to conduct your interviews?

Nik and Ruth Ripken: When we first felt the urgency of this task we developed a “Persecution Task Force” to help guide us. The group sat together and decided to open the Bible and see where the verses that addressed persecution and the cost of faith and found that from Genesis to Revelation this has been the plan. Following Christ costs something. The countries were selected by using Open Doors “World Watch List”. Nik looked at the list of the 50 most persecuted places on the planet and then grouped them together. He started in the Soviet areas where they had experienced persecution for many years and were coming out of the worst times. He knew they would have much to teach us. Then he moved to the other Communist areas. After that he moved back through areas of Buddhism, Hinduism and finally landing in places where Islam is in control.

PneumaReview.com: What qualities impressed you most about the people that you met with?

Nik and Ruth Ripken: The answer to this question could take volumes. If we had to narrow it down to a few ways that these believers impacted us, first would be the deep joy they exhibit when they talk about Jesus and who He is in their lives. No matter the persecution that has tried to silence them, they live in joy.

Ruth A. Tucker, God Talk: Cautions for those Who Hear God’s Voice (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 173 pages.

Ruth Tucker confronts the popular notion that everyone can hear the voice of God. Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Evangelical bookshelves abound with books that instruct the reader on the normalcy for the average Christian to conversationally engage with God in prayer—hearing God’s literal voice in response. This book stands against the tide of popular-selling Christian books saying that you can hear God’s voice in “three easy steps.”

The reader must complete this book—not become frustrated or prematurely judge it, abandoning it mid-way. With great courage, Tucker bluntly speaks on the forbidden emotions associated with the silence of God. One’s first response to her thesis might be that she has missed the intimate blessing of God. Persisting through the whole of her argument will bring the reader to a new understanding.

From the opening subtitle to the subtle phraseology of the text, the reader may wonder if Tucker is embittered against the church or against God, and whether this book is giving vent to her disappointment. She does not flinch when shooting the sacred cow of popular Christianity (i.e.., God told me). The book unbraids the familiar stories of the “Guideposts guidance” kind of prayer. She does not avoid making the church wince when it hears the convicted criminal announce that the voice of God instructed him to do his evil deeds. She confronts the subjective, even naïve interpretation of events―mocking the assumption of sunshine or green traffic lights as a personal favor or as a special answer to prayer. She grapples with theodicy, echoing popular arguments for defending God’s goodness in a world filled with evil.

Midway through the book Tucker gives a brief solace for the bruised reader to rest as she finds a secure toehold in sola scriptura before continuing her climb (We let the reader decide if her direction is upward or downward). Moving toward her conclusion she bandages the wounds of the tender reader with the comfort of Christ-centered soteriology. When the final pages are turned, the reader may well be relieved that someone had the chutzpah to speak unguardedly. There are no “Sunday School” answers in this text. These are difficult issues—dragons that only the brave dare challenge.

Tucker says that in the mystery of God’s silence is a safe place to be—though silence is a stark contrast to our culture’s insistence on activity. She pulls the scarlet thread of this silence through the whole fabric of the book—the mysterious thread of the silence of God—as noted in Scripture, in the writings of Christian mystics throughout history, and in the reality of the serious moments of life. She warns that the fabrication of conversation or the embellishment of conversation with God is a serious offense. Even in the silence, God is there.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Preview God Talk: http://books.google.com/books/about/God_Talk.html?id=uFfIsfjiO-AC