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Nik Ripken Ministries

The Insanity of God

A documentary following missionaries Nik and Ruth Ripken, who after the death of their son in Africa travelled through the persecuted church asking whether Jesus is worth it. It draws on hundreds of interviews with believers in Russia, China and the Muslim world.

ProvisionalFilm & seriesBaptist
Where to watch

Why this is listed

The ministry's film page confirms streaming for $10 lifetime household access in English, with Korean, Spanish and Portuguese versions also streamed there, a DVD on Amazon, and a $99 church licence. The Ripkens served with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board; the original insanityofgod.com domain no longer resolves.

Before you press play

A documentary following Nik Ripken's interviews with persecuted believers, built around his book. Accounts of prison, torture and the deaths of children are told to camera; a few reenacted moments. Adults and older teens.

Suited to Adults. Age judgements are ours, not a rating board’s — you know your own family.

How to start

  1. Open nikripken.com (opens an external site) and read what Nik Ripken Ministries says about itself before you read anything else.
  2. Read the note above first. It is there so an evening does not go wrong twenty minutes in.
  3. Watch it yourself before you watch it with children, if there are children.
  4. Read the passage it dramatises alongside it. The point is to send you back to the text, not to replace it.
  5. Afterwards, ask what the story added and what it left out. That conversation is worth more than the film.

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Put it into practice

Places doing this work that you could join. From New Grain; the picks change each day.

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    Wycliffe recruits translators and linguists along with the finance, IT, and aviation staff that keep field teams working on translation in languages that still have no Scripture. Many roles are support work that needs no linguistics training.

    Time
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  • Persecuted churchVerified

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    Founded in 1967 by Richard Wurmbrand after fourteen years in Romanian prisons, VOM provides Bibles, works alongside front-line workers, and cares for the families of imprisoned believers in around 70 countries. Its Prisoner Alert project lets a reader write directly to named Christians in prison and to the officials holding them.

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