Stephen's Test of Faith (1998 Video) User Reviews

A film for anyone who's ever been bullied or is afraid to stand up for their beliefs

[pdutney · 10/10 · 8 November 2010]

I was dubious about this film when I first started watching it, however I quickly realised that it is a really good film. Parents always tell their kids that they should stand up to bullies, and to stand up for their opinions and beliefs, but few can tell them why they should stand up for themselves, or how. That's exactly what this films does.

It takes the story of a Christian boy proudly showing his grandfather's Bible to his classmates, only to be mocked for doing so by the class bullies, and when the teacher tries to punish them, it only makes things worse. Naturally he feels very upset, and his faith is shaken by the experience, but he receives a vision in his dreams of how Christians have been persecuted from the time of Jesus to the 20th century, and how so many of them were prepared to die to defend what they believed in. After the boy awakens, he's ready to stand up to those bullies, but not through violence.

I was really impressed and touched by this movie, and was especially interested in how persecution of Christians never seems to end. I am a huge history buff, but I still learned a lot from this movie.

I recommend it to Christians, people who are interested in history, and anyone who's ever been bullied at school.

Interesting amateur film

[aleon1220 · 5/10 · 21 November 2021]

It was one of the first director's films. I think is OK. What i like is the acting of stephen boy and martyr.

Improvements are some to count 1-the timeline is presented in a harsh manner 2-they added too many epochs in the film making it look confusing 3-just showing stephen the martyr and the speech he gave before being stonned would have been enough

overall is an interesting quick watch.

Great short movie.

[fitforfaith-ministries · 9/10 · 5 May 2024]

I am a bit skeptical when it comes to visions, but Stephen's vision of the real Stephen is obviously not being sold as something that indeed occurred. Not to say that visions cannot occur anymore, which would be far from the biblical truth. But we all know how much abuse had been done.

This being said, we see a great idea behind the movie, to have the boy go in his dream through a quick time travel throughout Christian history. A low-budget movie, but well-made and without any expectation for more. It fulfilled its purpose in a wonderful way, to educate both children and adults about our history, and not to repeat (or at least to a lesser degree) the endless accounts of Christians going on a holiday trip to Rome and coming back with a big smile, knowing little about what place they had been.

This movie did probably a more important job than many other lengthy movies and dozens of books written without discernment and watering down the boundaries of the church.

It is very important in our times of increasing ecumenism, when we are about to forget the past of the 'church' and think that everything is at peace, just right before the other side will show one day its ugly face again.

Good intentions can't help a flawed film

[watrousjames · 4/10 · 3 June 2021]

The filmmakers who made this short film definitely had good intentions, but the film itself is very flawed. It's about a boy named Stephen who is bullied by classmates for being a Christian. That night he has a dream where he meets St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity. St. Stephen takes Stephen on a journey through the various parts of history where he meets other martyrs, including William Tyndale.

Unfortunately, the film was really heavy handed. I've heard the term Catholic guilt but this film was made by Evangelical Protestants and because of the heavy handedness of the film I now know there is such a thing as Evangelical Protestant guilt. Some of the acting was bad. Though the boy who played Stephen and the actor who played St. Stephen were pretty good.

There are some good films about martyrs, such as BECKET, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, ROMERO, OF GODS AND MEN, and SILENCE. There was also a reasonably good film about the Lutheran minsiter, theologian, and martyr Dietricch Bonhoffer titled BONHOFFER: AGENT OF GRACE. See those films instead.

a sketch

[Kirpianuscus · 11 June 2022]

The first temptation is to define it as modest film. And, no doubts, it is it. But its target is precise, the acting of two Stephen is decent, the trip and solution of dream are fair, the trip across delicate moments of Christian history is a good exercise to remind or present. So, not memorable, but real accesible for clear message , for support the faith, for bullying scenes and their new meaning and for the story about grandfather and his Bible.

So, just nice sketch, correct scene by scene. Maybe, useful, to.