The Great Awakening Movie Buzz

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of Faith and Culture. Thanks for joining us on this Thursday. We do Foundations of Freedom Thursday on Thursdays around here, which makes sense if you do Foundations of Freedom Thursday on a Thursday. Anyway, Rick Green here with David Martin and Tim Barton, and we're looking forward to your questions today. Radio at Wobblers.com is the place to send them, radio at wobblers.com. And then of course our wobblers.show website. If you missed any of the previous programs, you can go there and download the programs. And if you ever miss a Friday, don't miss a Friday. But if you do, you miss all the good news. So you got to go to wobblers.show and catch up on that. And of course, we'll have some of that for you tomorrow. But guys, we got some similar questions. Really exciting to see this movie, A Great Awakening, taking off. And we're getting more and more comments from folks, even as we're out there uh, you know, traveling across the country and speaking at events. But several comments we'll read today and questions from folks on that particular topic. First one comes from Maryland. She says, I don't have a question at this time. I just want to tell you that I've listened to the Wild Builders radio program uh for many years, and I'm often surprised at how people uh say I seem to know a lot about history, uh, but I shouldn't be surprised. In other words, she's listening to us and then she's repeating some of those things. People say, Wow, you know a lot about history. I like that. Anyway, she said everything I've learned from wild builders is a priceless treasure. When I went to the sight and sound movie, A Great Awakening, my eyes were filled with tears often, and I realized many of the tears were because I sat in awe of how much I already knew based on your fast knowledge that you have freely shared over the years. We had to find a theater out of town because none of our theaters were showing it, unfortunately. It was so worth the trip. Earlier that day I was at a store and shared with the clerk where we were going, and because of her interest, I talked about wall builders, and my excitement overflowed when she wrote down your website what a joy that was to know someone else was going to benefit from you, David, and Tim, and Rick. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Marilyn. Wow, Marilyn, thank you, thank you, thank you. Before I even go to the next one, guys, that's gotta that's gotta warm your heart as well. I mean, she's out there spreading the good news. She got to sit in the movie and recognize so many of those historical things that were happening in the movie because she'd been listening to the show. That's pretty cool. What a great force multiplier out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Hey guys, it's really fun. And uh, Dad, I want to brag uh for just a little bit on the decades of work you've been doing because this year there are a couple of movies coming out of stories that you've been telling literally for decades. And it's because you have the Young Washington coming out later in the year, actually very soon now, uh, which is the story of the bulletproof George Washington. Dad, you wrote that book like 30 years ago. Uh, it could be longer. I don't actually know. It was a long time ago. Uh, it's got a fresh cover on it now, but it is a story that you wrote a long time ago, and then you've been talking about that the Great Awakening being the foundation, really, of what brought the founding fathers together, what helped them unify. And there's lots of reasons for that. Lots of founding fathers wrote about it, but we've talked often about the Benjamin Franklin and the George Whitfield connection. But but and I say that not because like sight and sound and not reach out to us and say, hey guys, can you walk us through all of the details of Whitfield and Franklin? But I I I honestly do think one of the reasons that some of these stories have become more noted and actually have movies being made about them now is because Dad, you did help people begin to learn that story. And so that information became more readily available because there were more articles written about it, more people uh were highlighting some of those details. And so, and guys, uh and and dad, I'm saying this as a disclaimer for you now. You've never, you've never done any of this trying to find credit, and ultimately you just wanted people to know the story. So I know you're really just rejoicing that people are learning some of that story, but I do think it's really cool that some of these stories that you've been telling for decades are now actually motion pictures and at least the first one, The Great Awakening we have seen, and it was a pretty good one. And the young Washington looks like it's gonna be a really good one as well.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

I wish I had the power of the producer to mute David so that he can't say anything humble and act like he didn't have anything to do with this, because I know that's what you're gonna do, David. But I'm gonna reiterate exactly what Tim said the seeds you planted all those years ago, initially with the story of the Battle of Managahela, and then of course, you know, all the other uh, you know, stories about George Whitfield way before that. They have taken root. And I have evidence for that because anybody can go to wallbuilders.show and go back and listen to the interview with the guy that produced this movie, A Great Awakening. Josh also said the same thing, and thanked you and wall builders for all the years of history. It is it is so true. So, David, before you comment, let me add one other in here. Uh, this is from another listener named uh TJ out of New Mexico, and he said, uh, thank you, David, Rick, and Tim, for answering the email below in the past uh Thursday's radio show. So, in other words, we'd answered one from him before. He said, My wife and daughter enjoyed hearing you read it on air and answer with facts and stats. And uh, so anyway, he was saying thanks for that previous question, but he said, I also heard the next question from a mom about going to see the new Great Awakening movie. Uh, so we saw it today and were blessed and spiritually edified, fired up for the gospel by the story of the Reverend George Whitfield and Ben Franklin. A great contrast of Franklin's deism to Whitfield's clear gospel. I sure hope and pray many see and support this movie. I had not heard of sight and sound productions. Please consider highlighting each week on your radio show how we can celebrate America's 250th, and maybe even pick regions around the U.S., like our Southwest region, spiritual history of the church in a region would be neat to hear about. Uh may the Lord bless your work and ministry, Wall Builders Team. So yeah, I I think same thing there. I mean, and and that's great that they hadn't heard of sight and sound before. This movie will expose sight and sound and the wonderful productions that they do. And like you said, Tim, more and more movies coming out. Um, so yeah, before we go to an actual question, which our third email about the movie has a question in it, uh, David, you know, man, I I know you you you probably look at some of these things and and you still pick out some of the things that might not be exactly historically accurate, but you got to recognize that wall builders has been a significant impact in the nation and it's caused people to fall in love with history. You made me a person that hates history when I'm in high school and college. You made me fall in love with history because I felt like I was on one of those horses or in that battle, you know, when you're telling the story of young Washington or or even some of the other stories as well. So anyway, kind of cool to see that coming out in culture on the big screen.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Hey, but but guys, I'm in the same boat. I I grew up through school hating history. I was a math and science guy because I hated history. I was so tired of the stuff I'd heard. And one of the earliest stories I ran across, way back, I don't know, 30 something years ago, was that bulletproof George Washington story. I read that and said, no way, and read it again, it's a no way, and read it again, and man, this ought to be a movie someday. And we did that book, and other people read it. And see, this is what's so significant. I love the way the culture really works, is once something becomes kind of viral and people start talking about it, there's people listening to it and say, hey, that would be great for whatever. And so uh just the fact that you know, we started with Meryl, and and she was talking about how she was telling others what she was learning. That song of Psalm on 813, it says, Your friends do listen to your voice, so speak. And when we start talking about the things that we learn, and you know, I talked about that bulletproof George Washington story and did that back in the days of a slide projector, guys, a 35 millimeter slide projector, and and made slides to be able to tell that story. I mean, that was as high as the AV was back in the day. It was a 35 millimeter slide projector. People get that story and they start passing around. And I hope we get tons more stories like this coming out. And I think it's gonna happen. I think it's a change in America.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Well, Dad, I I do want to already preface and say that for those that are 40 and younger, they might already be asking, like, what's 35 millimeter slide projector? Good point. So I'm just I'm just saying, like, you're saying it was a long time ago. This is back like when houses used to have telephones, and actually the cord for the telephone was like spiraled and circular and got like it was a long time ago. Uh, for those, and I'm I'm joking now about the phone, but uh not not totally because that's still kind of true. Uh, but yeah, yeah, it was 30 or 40 years ago. You were using the most advanced technology, arguably, that was really available to tell the story. And then the the fun thing that you've always done is that made made a lot of what you did very different from a lot of the academic world, is you would show the pictures as you told the story. So it let people's imagination be able to participate on a greater level when they saw uh George Washington or him on a horse or the the cannons or the valley or whatever it was that you were showing. And then even including some of the quotes from the letters, so they're actually reading on the screen what he actually wrote back to his mom or whoever it was at the time. Um, but to your point, it was a very long time ago when this started, but look where it is now. It's incredible.

A Cultural Shift Toward Revival

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And you know, the the cool thing is I think it's only going to go up from here because I think it's started kind of a cultural awakening going on in America. We believe there's a revival going on. We hope it's gonna become an awakening, but people's heart want different kinds of stories and different themes from what they've had for so many years. And we're just seeing that resonate with so many good films and good entertainment things coming out and what sight and sound does anyway on so many other stories. I just think it's it's a really wholesome time in America. And the movies that are really doing well at the box office aren't the movies that were doing well 10 years ago. It's a whole different climate change. So I think there's something really positive going in the nation right now, which is great. David, you just said a climate change that I could actually support.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

I've always been against this whole, you know, climate change hoax thing, but you just mentioned a climate change that I can be fully behind.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

This is sorry, this is one I'm behind too, Rick. I was on the other side for a long time, testified against climate change. And, you know, it is amazing to me, by the way, you raised this. It is amazing to me how quickly that that Europe has abandoned climate change. You know, they've had those three conferences the Copenhagen Conference, Kyoto Conference, Paris Conference, and for decades it's the you know, the massive climate change. And within 18 months, they have completely abandoned that and moved on to something totally different. And it's just awesome how quick that happened. And we knew it wasn't going to change. That, you know, God's put the cycle of laws and nature, the laws of nature. And based on the laws of nature, we've done this so many times in history and throughout the history of the globe. This is not a new deal. And getting panicked over something that happens periodically, we knew it was not going to be a big deal, but it's really cool to see how fast even the secular folks have abandoned this nonsense.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Well, and dad, what you're saying is what's what is evident in nature is that there are times when it it it trends hot for a while and then it trends cold for a while. So that's a thing you're saying is very evident in nature. That's a thing that is now uh people have kind of come off that soapbox, but also one of the things, the old adages that is still true in this is follow the money. And uh, you know, so much of the narrative has been shaped by where there is money to be fundraised, uh, money to be promoted for agendas or for power and control for some of these kind of one world government kind of scenarios. Not to digress on this because that was not the question. Going back to the fact that part of the awakening movie is actually a little reflective of part of the awakening in the culture, which is the shift of culture, which is the climate change that we're referring to. And it's probably more of a spiritual climate change as much as anything else, which is just one more evidence of God moving in this nation, revival happening in this nation. Um, and having a film like A Great Awakening is a really fun thing to go see to be inspired to be part of this move of God.

Honest Accuracy Review Of The Film

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Yeah, I was thinking about what our first uh you know caller, not caller, writer. What do we say to somebody? What do we call our emailer? Anyway, the first person's comment, Marilyn, when she talked about my eyes were filled with tears often. Oh, Marilyn, I I same, absolute same. So many powerful, powerful scenes. And guys, we've actually got a lot of other questions specifically on the movie, both in person. We're getting this, you know, everywhere we go, but also more and more people are writing in and calling in. Just ask it for it, is it accurate? What kind of our I guess a report card from wall builders on the accuracy of the movie and specifically, uh, I think not only not only Whitfield stuff, but even at the at the convention, at the Constitutional Convention, which, by the way, I love the production itself of the room and and the conversations and all those things. That part was really cool to watch. But in terms of accuracy, was there anything that stood out to you guys that wow, they got that exactly right? Or anything that was like, man, I wish they'd done that a little different. Uh, people do want us to give an honest review on those things.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, and even before we do that, Rick, I want to throw something out from an entertainment standpoint. Uh, whether it's plays, Julius Caesar, with the the play with William Shakespeare, anything else, when you base entertainment on historical things, what you're looking for is the right tone throughout. You're not gonna get the exact words that they spoke back then. You're not gonna get those words from top to bottom. And you know, one of my favorite movies, World War I movie, is Sergeant York. It was done, it's an Academy Award winner, multiple. And there's no way that you're gonna tell me that every single line that Sergeant York said in that movie is something he said in his life, even though Sergeant York consulted in that movie, but they made sure the tone was right and the overall accuracy was right, the historical facts were right.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And so the narrative is the impression that people are left with, right? Like what are they what do they walk away from? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

It's the same thing with The Longest Day, which I think is one of the greatest D-Day movies that was done, is the longest day. And and the guys who consulted on that movie were landing on the beach, and 20 years later they helped do the movie. But you can't say that every single line that was in there was something, and it's the same with Woodfield and the same with Franklin. Now the tone's gonna be exactly it's it's really good, but you can't say that every line that was said is is written down in paper.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, and Dad, to that point, we we've talked about it. Um the tone is very good. I I would say, just to clarify for people listening, um I wouldn't say it's exactly right on every issue, but Rick, to your point of the question, uh one of the things that surprised me they got right was actually some of the conversation at the Constitutional Convention was verbatim language of some of the debates and the the objections and and the points and the counterpoints. They had some lines that were the actual lines, and and then they did a pretty good job representing some of the tone, the conflict. So there's a lot of things they got right. The one thing again, the overall tone of the movie was incredible. The one thing, and this is the one that uh bothered me the most. And it's it's there was more than one, but this was the big one that I was like, man, uh, I wish we would have done a little different. It was a good contrast, but where Franklin and Whitfield are in Independence Hall um late before Franklin leaves over to Europe to be the ambassador, and Whitfield's gonna pass away, and they're having the conversation, and Franklin tells him, he says, I'm a deist, and he says it very authoritatively. And I thought, ooh, hang on a second. Because the only time to this point, the only records of Franklin that have been discovered that has him claiming to be a deist were in his autobiography. And we've talked about it on the show before, but in that autobiography, and by the way, people can find that online where you actually you don't have to just buy a uh reprint of it. You can go to like Google Books and you can read it online, you can do a keyword search for the word deist and then read the page before the word deist and the page after the word deist. And what you'll discover is he's explaining a story. He says when I was 15 years old, I was reading the debates between these three pastors and and this deist. And as I read their debates, it struck me the deist was making better arguments than the pastors were. So I determined I was gonna be a deist. And and then my friends, they decided they were gonna be a deist, but but then I watched the way my friends begin to change and I watched the way they treated people, and I thought that's not good at all. And then the way they treated me, I didn't like it. So I thought, even though that deism might be true in some of its merits, that the belief itself was really of no benefit and of no use, and so he explains, like, I left that behind. Now, the reason it matters is this is when he's 15 years old. And when he explains that he found this belief of no use and no benefit, and therefore he leaves it behind, that's all in the context of when he's 15. So, like by his own explanation, he's a deist for maybe uh a week and a half, a month and a half. Like, we don't know the timeline, but it's not very long. Now, this is not to say he was a Christian, and actually, I really like I love the line too, because I kind of loved it because it was historically correct, but where Franklin says, Hey, anytime you're in the area, come stay with me. And he makes his appeal to Whitfield more than once. Where he's like, Whitfield, you live with me. And there was more things he said about it too than the movie included, because he also alludes to the fact that you're one of the only people I feel like is smart enough that I can really enjoy a conversation with. Uh, and so I would love to spend more time talking with you, like stay with me when you're in town, so we can have better conversations. But when Whitfield says, I appreciate it, and we will count this as uh and and I'm summarizing, I don't remember the exact language, I have to go look it up. But he says, We will count this as service to Jesus. And Franklin retorts, he says, Well, I'm not giving this gift to Jesus, I'm giving it to you. Uh and they they include that in the movie. And I was like, man, they are getting so many lines like absolutely correct with the tone of what was happening. But the one thing that I I did not like was the fact that Franklin professed to be a deist. And I I say that not because Franklin's life was ultimately really different in a lot of ways in a deist, because I think a lot of the things that he advocated for, he advocated for because of the pragmatism, recognizing that Christianity, if you follow the Bible, if you follow the two commandments, if you follow the teachings of Jesus, it's gonna benefit you and benefit those around you. And so I I think it's fair to say that a lot of what he argued was probably very pragmatic, not necessarily because he had a firm belief in Jesus. So I think that is correct. But the reason I wasn't a big fan of that line is because it just further uh kind of leads into this accusation that so many of the founding fathers were deists, which of course they weren't. Franklin is virtually one of the only ones in the category that we could even consider in the conversation that somebody might accuse him of being a deist, even though, again, in his own autobiography, he recognized the failures of deism when it came to practical living, and so he left it behind. But the overall things that impressed me about the movie is how many lines they got right, and then the tone was incredible. And then seeing Franklin at the end with his call to prayer, and and he literally like it is the actual speech verbatim, it just I mean, so incredible. So I loved it, it was very compelling, it was very moving. Um, and a little bit like for my kids when we watched the cartoon David, we uh have talked about that on previous shows, great soundtrack, also, but some people criticized it because uh it left some details out and they tried to cover too much ground, etc. But I was like, man, it it it it elevated someone like King David that we're we're actually giving kids someone to look up to, a guy that in this portrayal of the cartoon, he loved God or followed God. And so that's it's a little bit how I felt that like this this Whitfield Franklin movie The Great Awakening is yeah, they they definitely skip some details and and maybe they didn't get everything right, but the tone of it was so stinking good. You can't watch it and not be inspired. So even though we can nitpick it, overall highly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

And by the way, I've got to add, man, when a dude lives to be in the upper 80s, there's gonna be a lot of his lines that you that does make the movie. It would take you 80-something years to go through his life. And so to be able to reduce that 80-something year life to two hours, I mean, I think this is one that, yeah, we we see little things here and there overall, and we correct those. But to recommend it to people and to go see it again, absolutely. This is one that is worth patronizing and putting our money behind and sending people to see, it'll change the way so many people see the founding era and the founding fathers and the great awakening and so many positive things. It's it's just awesome to see this kind of stuff. I I've I've told some other folks this is kind of like a throwback to the golden years of Hollywood back in the 40s and 50s when they were producing really wholesome movies that were high quality, great acting, and just a lot of good stuff. And so this is a this is kind of a refreshing throwback to some great entertainment, which we really want.

Break And Patriot Academy Message

SPEAKER_03 20:59

Agrateawakening.com is the website, by the way, folks. We had the producer around a few weeks back when it uh first debuted in theaters. It's still in a lot of theaters across the country, and you can you can learn it uh where it is at that website, a greatawakening.com. Quick break, we'll be right back. It's Foundations of Freedom Thursday. You're listening to the Wobble Show.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

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Bible Reading In DC And Charge

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Welcome back to the Wild Boulder Show. Thanks for staying with us on this Thursday. Hey guys, before we go, and maybe we don't even go to another question because I was thinking y'all were just in DC. Here we got the speech from Franklin in this movie where he quotes what 11 different Bible verses in that speech. So he clearly knew the Bible. They studied the Bible. They had readings of the Bible allowed in public. And you guys just did that. We were talking about it earlier this week and last week, I think yesterday, y'all read at Museum of the Bible out of the book of Nehemiah in the America Reads the Bible. So just wanted you to tell us what it was like, how'd it go? Was it cool? Well, just give us your experience.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Well, I there's a lot of cool factor, but the coolest factor to me was seeing the president of the United States read out of 2 Chronicles 7, read those verses from uh, you know, 11 to 22, I think you read, uh, to see the president read that and to s to know that he's the guy that says, all right, next month, May the 17th, we want to rededicate America spiritually to the Lord. It's a time of renewal and rededication on the National Mall. I just this just blows me away to have a president say it's time to renew America to God. 250 years ago is what the founders did. And by the way, I'll read the Bible verse that if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, I'll hear from heaven forgiveness. It's just awesome to see the national leader not just doing lip service, but actually participating in something that I'm sure there's a lot of critics and and I'm sure a lot of political consultants will criticize what he did. But man, kudos to his courage for standing up and doing that and and not flinching from taking the criticism he's gonna get, whether people want to call him a hypocrite or he's being a Christian nationalist, either way you want to go. I just appreciate what he did. And it was it was an awesome time, bro, to see all the Bible read the way it was, and and to see people responding and 500 national leaders and cabinet secretaries and congressmen and senators and others reading the Bible out loud. It was just it was a really remarkable time.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Well, and the most important question I can ask is, Tim, did you pronounce all those names right? Or when you pronounced them wrong, was it noticeable? Like, did you have a good Texas accent as you as you said the names?

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah, so so first of all, for those that remembered and prayed for us Wednesday morning, I am very grateful. Thank you for praying. Uh no, I did not pronounce them all correctly, but uh I I know the ones I didn't pronounce correctly. There was one place um that I lost my line as I'm going through all of the children of, the children of, the children of. And and I I lost my line. I looked back up, and all of the names looked weird, and I couldn't remember which weird name I had just read. And I was like, I don't even know where to start now. Um, so it was really funny and silly uh that I got lost. And then, you know, all of these names, uh, they they they were not like John and Frank and Jimmy, and you know, these these recognizable names for me. So anyway, it was overall great. Um, the idea with some of the genealogy is you just you say it the best you can, you mess it up, you keep going forward because nobody else in the room knows how to say it either. Right. So you know, just just keep going. So it was it was incredible. It was as as uh dad, you mentioned it's such an honor to be part of something so significant. It it's been decades. Really, that that that since we can remember people taking time to read the Bible out loud in Washington, DC, and in in the midst of there being a hunger for young men and and different people coming back to prioritize the Bible. Bible sales are at an all-time high. God is doing something, and to be part of this was really fun.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Well, I can't think of a better way to close out Foundations of Freedom Thursday than to encourage people to get back to the foundation, get back into God's Word, saturate your mind in God's Word, read through God's Word every year, get you a Founder's Bible, go to wobblers.com, get a founders Bible. That way you get these stories we're talking about along with your reading of the Bible, and then you get the application of what you're reading in the Bible to culture and what's going on in your community and in our nation. Founders Bible, it's available right now at Wobblers.com. Thanks so much for listening today, folks. You've been listening to the Wobbler Show.