This is a biopic film that tells the story of a Pentecostal preacher who came to the conclusion that all humans and their sins are atoned for by the Cross of Christ, regardless of whether one has a relationship with Christ or not.
The film displays good acting and production value, but the script only skims the surface of the internal and intellectual shift Pearson embraced that took him into heresy and heterodoxy. As a Pentecostal and Evangelical, he believed in Calvin's doctrines of Total Depravity and Penal Substitution Atonement. Pearson finally admitted these doctrines make God look like a monster and threw them out. He reached for an extravagant love beyond what humans are capable of and concluded that God loves the world so much that he would not send people to hell, having previously concluded that God does send people to hell - as Pearson is depicted in this film, if not in reality. However, he consulted on the film.
Pearson and his detractors also assume to have the authority to interpret Scripture and are obsessed with "knowing" whether every person goes to heaven or hell after death. These assumptions go unchallenged in the script, but along with Calvanist doctrines are the underlying causes of the whole story.
The film is thought-provoking and worth watching. It displays the biggest problems with Protestant fundamentalism from the inside, but could have done so much better.
