The Forge

The Forge: The newest addition to the Kendrick brothers’ collection is easily one of their finest yet. The film deals with the subject of discipleship and what is expected from a new follower of Christ. Certain aspects such as obligations, hierarchy, intercession and sacrifice for God are depicted and presented strongly in this movie.

Each of the actors is good in what they are, and also there were encouraging humorous interactions.

There won’t be many charted spoilers in this review especially in regards to the storyline but we must mention this is a continuation of the story portrayed in the movie “War Room,” hence those who have watched that film would be pleased to see some of their favorite characters back again.

The film is not over taken by the “War Room” characters as this is NOT a sequel in any sense of the word. The writers managed to suppress any War Room character’s influence to the level of supporting characters in this film.

The film chronicles a young man called Isaiah who is filled with rage, anxiety and hurt, drowning in confusion. Afterward, he befriends a man, Joshua, who guides him to know Christ and becomes his mentor. At several points of this film, the gospel is presented such as when Isaiah is shown reading the Romans Road.

Then, at this stage, the coverage then hones in on the abandonment of the self in the Christian life, after one has gone to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Joshua points out to Isaiah that anyone who wants to be taught has to be prepared to pay that price of seeking to be a disciple and that very few people want to pay that cost. So there is, of course, a particular hurdle that Isaiah has to deal with after he professes faith and it concerns forgiveness. They do this very well.

The discipleship focus is on a men’s group named The Forge, from where the title of the movie is derived. It’s the same group that has a commitment to discipleship. Where the movie is clear is that every single man in this fellowship has someone that they are discipling, and even though Joshua is the primary disciple to Isaiah, all the men assist him in his spiritual development.

“The Forge” puts an emphasis of the role of men on men and traditional male relationships. Joshua and these other men have a vested interest in pasker’s spiritual development and that is something that has to be more pronounced in our churches.

The Forge movie was encouraging as there is a local church within which the theme of discipleship is worked birthed and extended further. Alzao, the first image presented in the film, clearly states that he does not feel that he needs the church; that is before he becomes a believer.

The one who is doing the discipling, Joshua, goes to church. In the first part of the film, Joshua goes to an outreach event and takes Isaiah with him and after Isaiah gets salvation, we view him being baptized. It is necessary to underscore this as it is very easy to assume that a person can be a disciple without having to be part of a local church.

There, too, we observe the improvements she is bringing to Isaiah concerning discipline in his case. There are many life lessons demonstrated in The Forge film that includes how timely one should be. Joshua tells Isaiah that he ought to be a fountain and not a drain.

Here you are supposed to give to others rather than take. In a similar vein, he pushes him to commit to do to other people what he would like other people to do to him (Matthu 7:12).

Prayer is another very central theme in the film which conjoins with that of the “War Room” which is at the center of the film. Somewhere in the digital text, one of the characters says “There is no way you can use prayer as if it is some spare tire.” She too admonishes the other characters to commence prayer with “worshipping the Lord for who He is.”

While there is a segment of Isaiah inside his room having his time of personal prayer and it’s possibly the most realistic and heartbreaking prayer sequence that I’ve ever seen on a movie screen.

It is not uncommon for the audience to get the impression that Isaiah is raising his voice at the Lord in some places. This could have been his zeal at that time. At the same time, we can trust the Father, for we ought to approach Him with all due reverence – after all, He knows our zeal and our weaknesses.

Most of the psalms teach us this. Even though I can say that I am not privy to what went into creating each of the characters, I realize that like all of us he too is just another imperfect and brittle individual.

What was most certainly passed on at least in some measure was brokenness as well in able if one was willing even in that moment. Heart of Isaiah is shattered to pieces as he is uttering earnest prayer to God as there is a love for Go.

The prayer’s fallibility is a specific theme in this movie, and, indeed, inhabitants of this movie are textured in such a way, that their prayers are answered. Some may try to assert that, it does give the film seems that prayer always get answered in the way one expects it to be.

I don’t think that this is necessarily a fault in The Forge movie, simply because, this is a movie, and it is impossible to depict everything in precise correspondence with real life. Also, I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God indeed answers prayers (John 15:16) and I have such.

Moreover, it is without a shadow of a doubt correct to say that it would help encourage the believers to pray by showing them the requests that have been answered, although that does not mean that there is not plenty of stuff still to know with respect to prayer. Some prayers are not answered on the spot, and we have to be patient with the Lord for some time, in other words (Psalm 13).

There are moments when our prayers are fully submitted to God, but completely different from what God had in mind, and thus the answer is no. At times there is an answer, but it is different from the one we had anticipated. We also have to leave room for us to make errors in comprehension.

The better we understand God’s will as revealed in His Word, the more specific our requests will become and the more answers we will receive to them, so Jesus (John 15:7). But even these will always depend on God’s point of view, which is always true, not ours. These are all significant aspects with regard to prayer.

Another matter to note is that the film is trying to deal with the “sinful-nature” term which is what a word in Greek which means more deeply, ‘ … Again there’s a question of whether this term “sinful nature” is the correct translation. Believers use ‘flesh’ in permission to various meanings but one of those meanings address the sinful nature of believers.

This is used this way in Galatians 5:13. However more common translations just plainly translate this as flesh. The flesh is the sinful nature which dwells in the believer in opposition to the Holy Spirit who also dwells in the believer. (Galatians 5: 16 –26) This is the struggle of everyone who believes, and this victory is only possible through Jesus Christ (Romans 7:24-25; Galatians 2:20).

To sum up, this is a very good and powerful film on the whole. Weeks after that, my wife and I still sat down to consider, to broach the subject. I, for instance, found this film a challenge as well as an inspiration. There is preaching of the gospel, teaching of the word and there is a lot of relevant teaching. After this movie, which is appropriate for families and church audience groups – discussion would follow.

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