Warrior, the new film by Gavin O’Connor of Miracle fame, is set to be this generation’s Rocky minus the gloves.

Instead of the boxing ring, the mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters battle it out in a cage where one is declared the victor when the other is either knocked unconscious or he submits to a loss by taping on the other’s shoulder. It’s a violent sport, yet strangely compelling.

Watch the film trailer.

Warrior features up-and-coming stars Joel Edgerton as Brendan Conlon, Tom Hardy as his brother Tommy, and Nick Nolte as their father Paddy, but they are a family torn apart.

Brendan, a former fighter, now a high school teacher, and his wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison) work multiple jobs trying to make ends meet. He’s fighting for his family.

In contrast, Tommy is a former Marine, home for the first time in fourteen years to train for Sparta, “the biggest winner-takes-all event in martial arts history.” He is fighting for his country. Between the two of them is Paddy, the estranged, alcoholic father who has found sobriety and Jesus but no relationship with either of the boys.

Warrior is a classic Cain and Abel story with all the cliches needed in a sport film:

Wayward son? Check.

Alcoholic father? Check.

Long montage of training scenes? Check.

Unsupportive yet loving wife? Check.

Swelling patriotic music? Check.

Warrior also has something that Rocky never did — a huge endorsement for ESPN and Tapout merchandise.

This isn’t to say that Warrior is a bad movie. It isn’t. It just isn’t the “rousing ode to redemption, reconciliation and the power of the human spirit” as it says it is The acting is actually very good and believable, but the story is predictable and the lines hollow.

Some will no doubt compare Warrior with last year’s Oscar-winning The Fighter, a much better film. Fighter is based on a true story and feel’s like a true story. Warrior isn’t and feels like it as well.

However, what Warrior gets right is telling how this family fell apart in the first place a little piece at a time, and everything isn’t wrapped up neatly at the end. Nolte is especially good at portraying a man who’s trying hard to turn his life around and rekindle a relationship with his children even though it may already be too late.

He character doesn’t tell his pain — he shows it. The movie feels longer than it is and yet seems to end too quickly.

If you are an MMA fan, you will love this movie. The fight scenes are credible, feature some real MMA fighters and are surprisingly not over the top.

The highlight of the film just might be Sam Sheridan and Bryan Callan (the annoying guy in the Fusion razor commercials) playing themselves as sports reporters.

Watch the film trailer.

Originally posted here.

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Question: “Why did God require animal sacrifices in the Old Testament?”

Answer: God required animal sacrifices to provide temporary forgiveness of sins and to foreshadow the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Leviticus 4:35, 5:10). Animal sacrifice is an important theme found throughout Scripture because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). When Adam and Eve sinned, animals were killed by God to provide clothing for them (Genesis 3:21). Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord. Cain’s was unacceptable because he brought fruit, while Abel’s was acceptable because it was the “firstborn of his flock” (Genesis 4:4-5). After the flood receded, Noah sacrificed animals to God (Genesis 8:20-21).

God commanded the nation of Israel to perform numerous sacrifices according to certain procedures prescribed by God. First, the animal had to be spotless. Second, the person offering the sacrifice had to identify with the animal. Third, the person offering the animal had to inflict death upon it. When done in faith, this sacrifice provided forgiveness of sins. Another sacrifice called for on the Day of Atonement, described in Leviticus 16, demonstrates forgiveness and the removal of sin. The high priest was to take two male goats for a sin offering. One of the goats was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people of Israel (Leviticus 16:15), while the other goat was released into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:20-22). The sin offering provided forgiveness, while the other goat provided the removal of sin.

Why, then, do we no longer offer animal sacrifices today? Animal sacrifices have ended because Jesus Christ was the ultimate and perfect sacrifice. John the Baptist recognized this when he saw Jesus coming to be baptized and said, “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). You may be asking yourself, why animals? What did they do wrong? That is the point—since the animals did no wrong, they died in place of the one performing the sacrifice. Jesus Christ also did no wrong but willingly gave Himself to die for the sins of mankind (1 Timothy 2:6). Jesus Christ took our sin upon Himself and died in our place. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Through faith in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we can receive forgiveness.

In summation, animal sacrifices were commanded by God so that the individual could experience forgiveness of sin. The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over. Animal sacrifices have stopped with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrificial substitute once for all time (Hebrews 7:27) and is now the only mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). Animal sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. The only basis on which an animal sacrifice could provide forgiveness of sins is Christ who would sacrifice Himself for our sins, providing the forgiveness that animal sacrifices could only illustrate and foreshadow.

Recommended Resource: A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament edited by Roy Zuck.

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British columnist and former atheist, Peter Hitchens, has written a book about his conversion to Christianity.

Hitchens, a London Mail political columnist and former Marxist revolutionary, has penned “The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith.” The book has a different subtitle in the U.K., namely Why Faith is the Foundation of Civilization, the Washington Times said.

A Cain and Abel scenario has unfolded with Hitchens’ new faith. His older brother Christopher, who remains an atheist, and he have had heated public debates. Christopher has authored the tome God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, CBN News said.

Both brothers were raised in a Christian home with a devoutly Baptist grandfather. Their paternal grandmother, whom they never met, was Anglican. Peter said they had “an extremely religiously conscious household,” CBN News said.

Both brothers became Marxists but today Peter considers himself a conservative member of the Church of England. He attends a small church that still uses an “old prayer book,” the Washington Times said.

The brothers are estranged. Peter suggests that his brother is a “repressed seeker”. He hopes his brother “might one day arrive at some sort of acceptance that belief in God is not necessarily a character fault – and that religion does not poison everything,” the Washington Times said.

Peter said that when he was an atheist, “We were full of our own righteousness. We knew what was right. We knew we were right. We knew we were good. We defined our own goodness,” CBN News said.

He had no Christian friends at the time. “There is a lot of scorn in revolutionary socialism.  There’s a lot of scorn for the people who aren’t up for it. There is a lot of scorn for the people who are opposed to it. There’s a feeling that you are the vanguard and you know best, and everyone else is ignorant and stupid,” CBN News said.

“You see that scorn in the new atheists, in the way they treat their opponents – not with any kind of respect at all. They still act as if Christianity is a kind of stupid aberration that only an idiot could follow,”    CBN News said.

Peter’s return to Christian faith took place in stages through the years. There was a time he remembers distinctly when he genuinely felt a fear of God though he was still an atheist. He was looking at Rogier van der Weyden’s painting, The Last Judgment, depicting the terror of Hell. ”One of them was actually vomiting with fright,” Hitchens told CBN News.

At that point, Peter feared for himself. “One of my reasons for my change is that I am scared. But then again, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ironically, after the CBN interview it was learned that Christopher Hitchens had been diagnosed with cancer, CBN News said.

The Washington Times has speculated, “If Christopher turns out to be right, he won’t be able to tell his brother, “I told you so.” And if he’s wrong, well, he probably won’t be in any mood to admit it.”

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