Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Let’s just get it out of the way. The one real clinker in wide release today is the new Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers. Ferrell’s private parts… Need we say more? Jeff Walls doesn’t… much. “It’s just plain disturbing,” he says.

Greg Wright gives The X-Files: I Want To Believe a fairly cool review… but it’s not bad, he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Stumbled across this story via the Christian Persecution Blog about how the Chinese government is going to allow Luis Palau to distribute his book, A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, for free to athletes and coaches at the Olympics.

From the Christianpost.com article:

The Chinese government has granted an American evangelist permission to distribute a Christian-Atheist book to athletes and coaches during the Beijing Summer Olympics, the ministry announced Wednesday.

Evangelist Luis Palau will be giving a copy of his book, A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, to athletes attending the Games.

The book records a conversation between atheist Chinese diplomat Zhao Qizheng – a high-ranking Chinese government official – and the Christian evangelist. It offers both the basic beliefs of Christianity and a unique perspective on Christianity and philosophy of religion as seen from Chinese culture and beliefs.

Palau’s distribution approval comes just one month after China announced that it will print and distribute 50,000 Gospel booklets in Chinese and English for the Olympics. China said it will also print 30,000 Chinese-English New Testaments and 10,000 Chinese-English complete Bibles especially for the Games.

News of China’s seeming respect for Christianity follows contrasting reports of increase persecution of house church leaders. A report last week informed that the chairman of the Federation House Church and his wife were forced this month to live on the streets after Chinese authorities repeatedly forced them out of shelters.

Luis Palau has written close to 50 books and has shared his message about Christ to over 1 billion people. Check out his website for more on his ministry.

Is it possible that a 2000-year-old book could be relevant to people today? Christians hold up the Bible as the ultimate source of truth… but why would anyone believe that a collection of stories and parables from ancient Mesopotamia would be a reliable source of information about God and the human condition?

On the surface, it sounds like a shaky claim—and when critics of Christianity lay out their cases against the faith, it’s often the reliability and accuracy of the Bible that they take special aim at. But there are solid reasons to believe that the Bible is more than just another piece of literature. Listed below are essays from around the Gospel.com alliance that tackle the question “How can we know that the Bible is true?”

• Is the Bible true? And if so, how could I possibly know for sure? from International Bible Society, who know an awful lot about the Bible.
• Why do Christians believe the Bible? There must be something more than just the Bible’s own claims to truth, right? What reasons do we have to believe in it?
• Why should I care about the Bible? What makes it different from the countless other books throughout history that have claimed to contain the ultimate truth?
• “And God Said” Thoughts about the Bible’s accuracy at Answers in Genesis.
• How can I be sure of the Bible’s moral and spiritual reliability? Another take on the question, from RBC Ministries.
• Isn’t the Bible just a bunch of fables? How do Christians respond to common criticisms of the Bible?

The question of the Bible’s accuracy and reliability have occupied theologians and everyday Christians for centuries—but these essays are a good starting place to think through the question for yourself.