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A new film billed as the New Testament’s “origin story” aims to make an impact as younger generations show an increasing interest in faith and the Bible.
“I could not have looked two years ahead and seen the interest in the Bible that we see now,” filmmaker Erin Zimmerman told Digital. “Last year, Bible sales were up 22%, and this year they’re up 36%. I couldn’t have planned a more perfect time for this film to come out.”
Zimmerman is the four-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker behind “Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament,” a new CBN Films documentary that explores how the New Testament was written and preserved.
It will screen in theaters nationwide Nov. 2, 3 and 5 and serves as the second installment in her five-part series on the origins and evidence of Scripture. The first film, focused on the Old Testament, premiered in 2023.
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Production stills from “Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament,” a CBN Films’ documentary releasing in theaters this week. (Fathom Entertainment/CBN Films)
While living in Israel in 2017, Zimmerman said she felt called by God to create a documentary series that treated Scripture from a “pure” standpoint, not as “secret” or “mistranslated,” as she believes some secular productions have done.
She described “Oracles of God” as the New Testament’s “origin story,” tracing how the Gospels and letters came together and why the early accounts of Jesus and the apostles still matter today.
Filming was delayed by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Zimmerman now sees that timing as providential, saying the experience deepened her faith and strengthened bonds with her Israeli crew.
She said she could not have foreseen that, two years later, renewed spiritual interest would sweep the culture.
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Director of new film, “Oracles of God,” Erin Zimmerman discussed the release of the film happening while there’s a warming to Christianity in the culture. (Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN))
The release comes amid a growing hunger for faith-based entertainment, with series like “House of David” on Amazon Prime and “The Chosen” continuing to draw large audiences.
Bible sales also jumped 36% in September following the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis, which previously reported a 22% boom in Bible sales in 2024.
Zimmerman said the recent turbulence of world events has left many young people “searching for peace.”
She believes figures like Kirk, a devout Christian who frequently quoted Scripture online, have inspired many younger Americans to explore Christianity, believing it might offer the meaning and purpose they’ve been missing.
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Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk prays as he attends Freedom Night In America at Dream City Church on Oct. 5, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“They’re seeing Charlie Kirk on TikTok and seeing all the times that he quoted the Bible and that he was calm and that he was happy,” she said. “I think something about that really appealed to them, and they said, ‘I don’t have that in my life.'”
Zimmerman said the documentary is the most accessible of the series and addresses common objections to the Bible’s accuracy, such as claims that it has been mistranslated or changed over centuries. The film draws on scholarship and historical evidence to show how early Jewish and Christian scribes handled Scripture with “great care and reverence,” she explained, noting that thousands of preserved Greek manuscripts of the New Testament help confirm its reliability.
She said the next film in the series, “Creating the Canon,” will examine how the books of the Bible were selected and compiled.
“Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament” will release in theaters Nov. 2, 3 and 5 nationwide. (CBN Films/Fathom Entertainment)
Zimmerman hopes viewers leave with renewed appreciation for the sacrifices behind the New Testament’s creation and with confidence in the evidence that the Gospels were compiled from eyewitness accounts.
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“Every apostle but John was martyred,” she said. “And John was thrown in a pot of boiling oil and survived it, according to historians. They, and those after them, gave their lives for this word and to keep Jesus’ story alive.”
