Too good to be true? Well, yes. Plus the atheist Chinese student from the People’s Republic of China, the skeptical left-leaning journalist who learns that she has cancer, the daughter of a rigidly devout Muslim, and even the live-in girlfriend of the philosophy professor himself all get with the Message and choose to follow Christ. The only apparent losers are Josh Wheaton’s girl friend and his parents who conclude that by taking up such a lost cause, and shaming himself, he might as well toss in his chances to getting into a good law school. Of course, the opposite is probably likely. Given his triumph, he’d probably be pursued by the best of them.

The acting in this film is not bad, and the plot pretty believable, especially as the film ends with a list of dozens of actual court cases where universities have been forced by law to permit Christian students to meet on campus with official approval – despite the schools’ best efforts to delegitimize them. Persecution, although subtle, is alive and well on many US college campuses.

Hollywood is surprised that the film is opening to large audiences that defy box office predictions. It’s expected to gross well over $8 million, even though it opened in only 780 theatres. By contrast the Muppets opened in more than 4 times that many theatres and only grossed only $16 million. Of course it doesn’t hurt that Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson and his wife Korie make cameo appearances, and the vibrant Christian rock group Newsboys stage a rousing concert as the finale.

The film has its skeptics, naturally. Some fault its propaganda-like feel. One reviewer commented that it was as subtle as a stack of Bibles falling on your head. Another thought that Josh Wheaton, a Disney actor, comes across with the “passionate conviction of a what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation” report. Still another wrote that despite its heavenly orientation, with pretty-much everyone getting converted at the end, it still turned out to be a “less-than-heavenly-production.”

But I liked it, especially for the interaction between Josh and his philosophy professor. Real live atheists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins are cited, and Josh comes up with some excellent responses to their objections to God. His opening salvo on the “Big Bang” quoting John Lennox takes me back to this year’s Mere Anglicanism Conference at which Lennox, a mathematics professor at Oxford, was the main (but by no means only) luminary.

Tract or no tract, this film deserves to be seen – especially by any thoughtful teen-ager who is headed to college. They may not meet Mr. Satan himself, as Josh Wheaton did. But they will meet plenty of those who with greater subtlety undermine Christian belief. This is one fine way to get prepared for what’s coming.

Peter C. Moore is the Dean/President Emeritus of Trinity School for Ministry, the founder of FOCUS, a ministry to independent secondary schools, and currently the Associate for Discipleship at St. Michael's, Charleston. He is the author of four books, most recently his memoir, From Dry Bones