Film Review of A Late Answer: An Unforgettable Warning

By Xiaocao

Today, I’d like to recommend a film named “A Late Answer” to you. It is an early film of the Christian Church which records the real experiences of how many religious leaders returned before God. Though time has passed, it is still a memory that they are embarrassed to recall.

The “answer” in the title means accepting the work of Almighty God, which is the answers every created being must give God. If you accept God’s work early, your answer will be approved by God. But if you’ve done a lot of things opposed to God before accepting it, then this is “a late answer” and you might be in danger.

This film, using narration interspersed with flashbacks, tells a real story about Tang Jie, a religious leader in a house church. She had worked hard for the Lord for many years and established several churches. However, the once thriving church was becoming more and more desolate, and lots of believers lived in negativity and weakness and even didn’t participate in the meetings anymore. Seeing this situation, Tang Jie was very anxious but she had no way to solve it. At this time, many brothers and sisters in the church accepted Eastern Lighting. In order to stabilize the church, she fabricated various rumors to attack and vilify The Church of Almighty God, and arranged them into a small brochure and printed lots of copies to distribute to the believers. When she was busy “defending the Lord’s way” and “protecting the flock,” she fainted in a meeting. After being examined, she, who had always been healthy, was found to have heart problems. Despite of her struggling, the situation of the church grew worse and worse; even the co-workers couldn’t get along with each other. In the end, under a special background, Tang Jie was conquered by the words of Almighty God, and came to know that Almighty God whom she had always opposed is precisely the return of the Lord Jesus. Then she shed bitter tears, repenting her arrogance and ignorance. She had believed in the Lord for many years, and been eagerly expecting His return, but never thought that what she delivered to God was “a late answer.”

The story of Tang Jie in the film serves as a warning to some people and also indirectly reflects how the earliest Pharisees longed desperately for the arrival of the Messiah but condemned the Messiah. For the moment, let us not deliberate whether Almighty God is the return of the Lord, nor make a judgment of whether Eastern lighting is the true way. What is certain is that the prophecies of the Lord’s return won’t be unfulfilled. This is a fact that can never be altered. But we should figure out how on earth the Lord will come and how these prophecies will be realized and fulfilled. Otherwise, it will be too late to regret if we condemn God’s work and miss the Lord’s return.

God’s work is always moving forward, most of which don’t conform to our imaginations. Just as when the Lord Jesus arrived, His work surpassed the law. In man’s eyes, people should have fasted on the Sabbath, but the Lord allowed His disciples to pluck the ears of corn to eat. There was an adulteress who should have been stoned to death, but the Lord Jesus said: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). Hearing this, the crowd left without saying a word. The Lord Jesus proved with the fact that His work was always changing and couldn’t be restricted by the bondage of any regulation, because only He is the Lord of creation, the source of all positive things and the holy God Himself, and He will never make any mistakes. No matter how He works, it is all for mankind. In the end, the Lord Jesus revealed some people by His work; meanwhile, He gained a group of people who truly followed Him and bore witness to Him. The gospel of the Lord Jesus has already been spread to all over the world and everybody knows about it.

Everything has no rule, and the work of God is even more marvelous and unfathomable. Only knowing and viewing God’s work in accordance with God’s words is most accurate. Whether the Lord Jesus has truly returned is not decided by man; we need to personally seek and investigate. That is the wise choice. In a sense, this is the message that the heroine wants to send to us and what we can realize from this film.

A great film does not necessarily involve dazzling special effects, brilliant visual effects or wonderful montage of shots; the reality of film is also a beauty. In most cases, films adapted from true stories can easily touch people’s hearts and are hard to forget. A Late Answer is just one of them. It has moved countless Christian’s hearts and aroused numberless people’s emotions; it is also a cautionary tale which provokes deep reflection in many people. In this light, it is really a classic work that you can’t miss.