Films Reviews from a Christian Perspective by Phil Boatwright
   

    DVD SYNOPSIS:  Bent Pyramid Productions, LLC will release a special DVD exclusively for Christian retail, featuring the documentary film JESUS: The Lost Years on August 26, 2008. A bonus DVD, which includes breathtaking scenery and behind-the-scenes footage set to inspirational hymns, will accompany the film.
      The film, created by award-winning filmmaker Norm Miles (executive producer) and Paul Perry (New York Times best-selling author and the documentary’s on-camera personality), follows the trail taken by Jesus, Mary, and Joseph when they fled from the wrath of King Herod.  Matthew 2:12, “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt ...”

With approval from the Church in Egypt, 200,000 DVDs were sold in Egypt in May 2008 through a unique distribution deal between the producers and the Egypt-based National Egyptian Heritage Revival Association.  For more information please visit www.JesusTheLostYears-Movie.com.
     REVIEW:  For me, the positive about this film is the guided tour through parts of Egypt where Jesus’ family may have ventured, some places where tourists seldom vacation.  And there is a remark in the New Testament that acknowledges that all of Christ’s activities would take up volumes of books.  So, the unknown factor of what Jesus was doing throughout his first thirty years is an interesting area of conversation.  But because of who this man from Galilee was, any report on his life comes up short if it doesn’t put the emphasis on where he is rather than where he was. 
     The film contains a great deal of what is constantly referred to as “oral traditions,” which means the tales have been handed down through storytelling throughout the centuries.  Of course, it is defended here, but it opens the door to so much conjecture that one leaves the film not really learning much.  At one point, a monk shows us a footprint in cement that’s supposed to have been that of Jesus as a very young boy.  Then we’re offered a view of a stone table where Jesus as a toddler was to have slept.  To be honest, I found these segments more amusing than inspirational. 
     Though I found the production interesting, something in my spirit was checked.  So I asked my pastor to view the disk: “I was sitting here at my desk and noticed the DVD on the lost years and was thinking about the documentary.  One thing that they stressed was their ‘oral tradition.’  There is a slight problem with that.  The Catholic Church didn't begin until the 3rd or 4th century.  Who was passing down this ‘oral tradition’ before that?  Why would there have been enough interest in the people of Jesus’ childhood days to have cared where he went in Egypt?”  Rev. Jim Melrose, Victory Baptist Church.
     With every film I view concerning the life of Christ, I am reminded that we learn far more about the Savior of the world by reading God’s anointed Word.
     Not rated, I found nothing objectionable.