November 3 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and a new film by North Central University alumnus Stephen Krist ’12 aims to bring light to the issue of persecution around the globe.
“Defiant” is a new action and adventure film from production company Eyeland Images in association with Gateway Assembly church in Michigan. Krist is the filmmaker and digital media pastor at Gateway Assembly.
According to a news release from the Eyeland Images, “Defiant” seeks to shed light on the important spiritual, political, and cultural issue of global Christian persecution. There are an estimated 245 million Christians worldwide under persecution for their faith, according to the 2019 World Watch List report by Open Doors USA, a global non-profit organization focused on supporting persecuted believers in more than 60 countries. They estimate that 1 in 9 Christians worldwide experience high levels of persecution. And that’s only in the top 50 countries of the 150 experiencing Christian persecution that they survey.
The movie seeks to support these believers in two ways: 1) by raising awareness and prayer for them and their persecutors through what “ ‘Defiant’ Nights,” where churches and organizations can host a screening of the movie, and 2) by raising financial support for them through film sales. Eyeland Images is donating at least 25% of its earnings from the film to reputable organizations whose main purpose is the remembrance of, care for, and encouragement of persecuted Christian believers around the world. Every copy of “Defiant” sold or shown in some way helps reach out to these believers who often feel forgotten.
The goal of the film is simple: “Remember the prisoners. Pray for the Pauls.” The film’s creators believe that through prayer God will write new Saul- Paul stories out of the current conflicts of the world. Churches or groups that choose to host a Defiant Night receive a package with everything needed for a “powerful and stress-free event.” Anyone can sign up at defiantmovie.com.
“Defiant” is an action and adventure film about A51-317, an amnesiac soldier who is framed for the murder of the Sovereign Leader of The New World.
The world as A51 knows it is separated into two groups—Citizens: those loyal to the Sovereign Leader and his regime, and Defiants: those who remain faithful to a way of life from The Old World. Defiants follow a system of belief now illegal in The New World. A way of life espoused in the pages of what is known as “The Forbidden Book.” A51-317 finds himself in the crossfire of New World loyalties and Old World memories that seem to be coming back to him—a life he barely remembers and can’t imagine being his own, yet is becoming evermore real each day. When framed for the assassination of the Sovereign Leader, a group of Defiants save his life and reveal to him their plan: to risk all they have to release a copy of The Forbidden Book online for the world to see. And they want him to help.
The movie is intentionally a fictional story rather than a documentary. Many filmmakers have undertaken the task of telling the powerful stories of specific believers and the actual persecution they have experienced. The producers of the film have been encouraged by their work and the persecuted believers they faithfully represent. But “Defiant” is not intended to be the story of one group or believer but instead the story of all believers. It is a story of the power of taking up your cross, the story of what happens when we fight for those we deem hopeless, and the story of what happens when we truly believe that, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
