Cinematic Doctrine

A Movie Podcast Hosted by Christians

Cinematic Doctrine is a mature, millennial-infused film/tv discussion podcast.

American Gospel – Christ Alone: Challenging, Empowering, Overwhelming


American Gospel: Christ Alone – Challenging, Empowering, Overwhelming


This movie was selected by my patron supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard!

American Gospel: Christ Alone has been a word-of-mouth juggernaut in Christian circles both online and offline. I remember the impact it had on social media Reformed groups back in 2018, and I even remember when my pastor was recommending it at the pulpit during morning announcements. It was crazy. Now, in 2020, it’s landed on Netflix and you would think it was American Gospel: Christ Alone’s second coming, as groups online and offline have been praising its successes.

Through-out the episode we talk about balancing an appropriate appreciation of the documentary alongside healthy critique, how American Gospel: Christ Alone has both an excitement and frustration within its response to the prosperity gospel, and in our closing section, which runs quite long this time around, Daniel shares at length his first-hand experience with the prosperity gospel, and reveals how deep its damaging roots have entered the American culture.

Featuring talking heads with Matt Chandler, Paul Washer, and Benny Hinn’s nephew Costi Hinn, American Gospel: Christ Alone explores the core question of Christianity – “What is the Gospel?” – and juxtaposes the gospel proposed in Scripture against the gospel proposed by popular western televangelists. In doing so, it shines a light on real-life accounts from several prosperity gospel survivors and the dangers that lurk around every corner when misunderstanding and twisting the word of God for monetary gain.

Church Cross shown in American Gospel Christ Alone, new Christian movie on Netflix, Pureflix

American Gospel: Christ Alone is Rated TV-PG. IMDB doesn’t have a detailed certificate, so I’m going to run off what Netflix describes in their certificate: suicide, substances, and language. It features Costi Hinn, Paul Washer, Matt Chandler, Mark Dever, Justin Peters, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson, and Todd White. Directed by Brandon Kimber. American Gospel: Christ Alone is currently available on Netflix.


Consider supporting Cinematic Doctrine on Patreon! As a bonus, you can gain access to a once-a-month movie poll where you decide a movie we discuss on the podcast, early unedited episodes of the podcast, and merch!!


Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Melvin Benson Cinematic Doctrine Christian Movie Podcast Host

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunesSpotifyGoogle Podcasts, and other major podcast apps.

Send us a Question!MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson's first feature-length film! The vibes are cozy and the dramedy is light, and the two get into discussions about classism (go figure!), easy-to-watch films, and what it is about Wes Anderson that makes him so mainstream. Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 23-minutes discussing Darren Aronofsky's AI-Slop studio "Primordial Soup" which specializes in producing "stories" and "art" through AI programs (LLMs and AGIs a la Chat-GPT and Midjourney) and how this endeavor is actually anti-art. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) Kathryn has stated that Bottle Rocket is her favorite Wes Anderson movie. Is this still true?It's nice to watch a Wes Anderson movie where he isn't overly controlling everything.Talking classism, adulthood, maturity, & empathy.Melvin isn't so sure he likes Wes Anderson's movies as much as everyone else, and he spends some time thinking what it is others see in them.Talking about Dignan, Anthony, and the unique characters therein.The climax of the film feels like a great representation of what Wes Anderson does best.Recommendations:Brick (2006) (Movie)Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) (Video Game)Support the showSupport on Patreon for Unique Perks! Early access to uncut episodes Vote on a movie/show we review One-time reward of two Cinematic Doctrine Stickers & Pins Social Links: Threads Website Instagram Letterboxd Facebook Group
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3 responses to “American Gospel – Christ Alone: Challenging, Empowering, Overwhelming”

  1. […] the MCU, and while you’ll see we took a momentary break to discuss our Patreon-voted episode on America Gospel: Christ Alone, as well as catch up on our monthly segments Trailer Talk and Monthly Movie News, we returned with […]

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  2. […] To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (the popular multi-cultural teen romance on Netflix), and American Gospel: Christ Alone (A Christian indictment of sleeping faith and the Prosperity Gospel. Also, our most popular episode […]

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  3. […] Daniel talks about how he followed a bunch of Christian twitter accounts of people who were in the American Gospel: Christ Alone documentary only to find they are more interested in posting about masks than things related to […]

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