Harvard Atheist to Faith Filmmaker w/Tim Chey

[00:00:00] What is Atheism? We all know generally Atheism is a lack of belief in God and the word describes

[00:00:20] itself Atheism. So for instance you have apolitical, nonpolitical, asymptomatic, no symptoms. So

[00:00:28] Atheism is no theism which is a belief in God. But to be fair, I don't really care for when non-Christians

[00:00:36] describe the Christian faith inaccurately. So we're going to talk about Atheism today, but instead of just

[00:00:41] hearing my viewpoint of it, I want to make sure we get it right. So I'm going to read you a definition

[00:00:47] and some descriptions off of the American Atheist organization's own website on their self

[00:00:54] descriptions. I think you'll find it interesting. They say Atheism is one thing, a lack of belief in

[00:01:02] God's. Atheism is not an affirmative belief that there is no God, nor does it answer any other

[00:01:09] question about what a person believes. It is simply a rejection of the assertion that there are

[00:01:15] gods. Atheism is too often defined incorrectly as a belief system. To be clear, they say Atheism is

[00:01:25] not a disbelief in God's or denial of God's. It is a lack of belief in God's. That one hurt my

[00:01:34] head. Said to be clear and that was super unclear to me. Atheism is not a disbelief in God's. It's

[00:01:39] a lack of belief. Belief in God's. Atheism is not a belief system, nor does it religion. While there

[00:01:45] are some religions that are atheistic, for instance, Buddhism, that does not mean that atheism is a

[00:01:51] religion. They say to put in a more humorous way, if atheism is a religion, then not collecting

[00:01:57] stamps is a hobby. Despite the fact that atheism is not a religion, atheism is protected by many

[00:02:05] of the same constitutional rights that do protect religion. That, however, they say does not mean

[00:02:11] that atheism itself is a religion. They go on to say some groups will use the words like agnostic,

[00:02:20] humanist, secular, free thinker, or other terms to self identify. Those words are perfectly fine

[00:02:29] as a self identifier, but they strongly advocate to use the word people understand atheists. So when you

[00:02:36] hear those other terms, atheists say those are just other ways to say atheism without the stigma,

[00:02:43] the negative stigma sometimes that can be attached to the word atheism. A little bit more here.

[00:02:49] Agnostic isn't just a weaker version of being an atheist. It answers a different question.

[00:02:56] Atheism is about what you believe. Agnosticism is about what you know. Okay, a side step away from

[00:03:05] what they're talking about. To me that's a little confusing because as a Christian, I think they

[00:03:08] go hand in hand. I wouldn't be able to divide that. I feel like what I believe is what I know.

[00:03:12] That's why I believe it. I don't have a blind faith. Mine's based on what I feel is reality.

[00:03:20] All right, to finish up what they had here, I thought this was interesting. They say not

[00:03:23] all non-religious people are atheists, but the so-called quote nuns, not Catholic nuns, not like

[00:03:30] N-U-N-S, but nuns as in nothing, like N-O-N-E, like people who believe nothing or that there is

[00:03:37] not a God. The so-called nuns are the fastest growing quote religious demographic in the United

[00:03:42] States. Only about 5% of people actually call themselves atheists, but if you ask them,

[00:03:49] do you believe in God's 11% will say no. Those people are atheists, whether they choose to

[00:03:55] identify as that or not. A recent survey from the University of Kentucky found that as many as

[00:04:00] 26% of all Americans may be atheists if you tucked all these different titles under one

[00:04:06] category of a non-belief in God. That's a lot of people. Even more people say that their

[00:04:13] definition of quote God is simply a unifying force between all people. So you're talking

[00:04:18] like the New Age philosophies, you know, Star Wars, the Force and that kind of thing.

[00:04:23] That might be referred to as God, but not a belief in a God, just a universal something, energy.

[00:04:30] Atheists say those people are under our umbrella. Those are atheists as well.

[00:04:35] Being an atheist doesn't mean you're sure about every theological question

[00:04:39] or have answers to the way the world was created or even how evolution works.

[00:04:43] It just means that the assertion that God's exist has left you unconvinced or wishing

[00:04:51] there was an afterlife or wishing there was a creator or a specific God doesn't mean you're not

[00:04:58] an atheist. Being an atheist is about what you believe and don't believe, not about what you wish

[00:05:03] to be true or that you might find comfort in believing. So we're done with that website.

[00:05:11] So with that background of atheism, how could someone go from that belief system, which

[00:05:18] apparently is not a belief system. It's a belief system of not having a belief system,

[00:05:23] go to finding faith and being so convinced their faith is true. In this case,

[00:05:29] our conversation today is on Christianity that we're bringing somebody on that was

[00:05:35] graduated from Harvard, was in the law business as a courier and came to faith and believed so

[00:05:44] much that Christianity is true has now made up to I believe 15 faith films leading the faith

[00:05:52] genre. And his name is Tim Orlando Airport. If you hear all that background noise.

[00:06:05] Hi Ken, how are you man? Very good. Thanks for joining us.

[00:06:09] So you heard, I think you heard my intro there all about atheism.

[00:06:13] Sure did.

[00:06:16] Well it wasn't me. I read their website. But it was very interesting because

[00:06:23] how could, so that is my question for you coming out of that when you were considered yourself

[00:06:27] an atheist, what was your worldview? How did you view or did you care? Did you think about

[00:06:35] like existential questions or were you just focused on career? How did you view the world?

[00:06:41] I actually, Ken, I was a right wing conservative as an atheist. I was a right wing conservative,

[00:06:46] voted for Reagan and my extremism was hate actually as an atheist. I hated people who

[00:06:56] I deemed less intelligent. And so I would say I was horrible, I was a racist, I was horrible.

[00:07:06] I don't mind saying that, I could care less. The only one who didn't counsel me is Jesus.

[00:07:11] Disintelligent meaning, I'm guessing because I would feel the same if I didn't have a knowing

[00:07:18] that this was true. I would think religion is superstition, it's wishful thinking,

[00:07:23] it's a way to comfort yourself. Like Richard Dawkins, you know, a

[00:07:29] Apologist for Atheism actually, I would agree with him in that religion and Christianity could bring

[00:07:34] beauty to the world and their stories and in their music and in their art. But other than

[00:07:39] that it's ridiculous and you're believing in fables and folklore. That's exactly,

[00:07:46] you hit the nail on the head, Ken. And I think it is for us former atheists, it's hard to, at that

[00:07:53] time, to grapple the change that happens when you become a believer and that change is a miracle

[00:08:01] and I think the miracles of God, you know, like where does an orange come from, Ken? Where does

[00:08:08] a peach come from? Where does life come from? I think deep down inside, and I think Romans 1 says

[00:08:18] that everyone believes in God. But I think you have such a hostility that you want to make believe

[00:08:27] there is no God even though deep down inside you know there's a God. And I think you're

[00:08:32] angry at this God that he would allow you know all of these crazy things happening in the world.

[00:08:43] And why doesn't he stop it? Yeah, you know that scripture,

[00:08:51] scripture says God's revealed in two ways through his word and through his creation.

[00:08:56] And because of the creation part man has no excuse not to know there's something there.

[00:09:03] That's right. And you know, Ken, I went on, I was very blessed. I did a movie,

[00:09:08] our epic journey documentary for Daystar TV and took us to 29 countries around the world.

[00:09:16] And I talked to a lot of atheists. I talked to a woman who was an atheist in Africa,

[00:09:22] not an atheist but sort of a weak believer. And on Christmas morning she had no food to

[00:09:30] feed her 22 orphans. And she said on Christmas morning, she went downstairs, could not even find

[00:09:36] a can of tuna to feed 22 orphans on Christmas Day in Kenya, Africa. And so she went upstairs and she

[00:09:42] said God, if you don't provide food in this day of all days, I quit. I am out. She was screaming

[00:09:47] at God crying right then knock on the door right at that moment. She went downstairs,

[00:09:52] she opened the doors, there's a Caucasian woman standing right there. And she said,

[00:09:56] may I help you? She said, are you the head of the orphanage? She said yes. And she gave her a bag of

[00:10:01] cash for 5,000 US dollars and said Merry Christmas. And she walked out and then she fell on her knees

[00:10:06] and said, there is a God and this God is real. And I've had so many of those stories around

[00:10:12] the world of people who were agnostics atheists and they found God in incredible ways. We all

[00:10:19] know that John Newton found God in a storm as well. He wrote Amazing Grace. So these

[00:10:24] transformations, these coincidences as the atheists say are more than coincidences. And

[00:10:31] you know I had something amazing happen to me Ken when I first became a believer 22 years ago. By the

[00:10:36] way Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, he baptized me 22 Calvary Chapel Laguna Beach. And something

[00:10:44] strange happened to me that's inexplicable. I was in Hawaii and it was four in the morning

[00:10:49] because I'm from LA, Los Angeles. So it was three hours behind. So it was really 7am but

[00:10:54] four in the morning in Hawaii completely dark and I was struggling with my faith. I just became a

[00:11:00] believer just two months earlier. I lifted up my hands and I said God speak to me. You know

[00:11:06] and then nothing happened. And then I really shouted God speak to me. And right then it

[00:11:13] was a huge thunder clap. It was like that. It was it was loud as can be. And I'm not kidding again the

[00:11:21] sky turned red. The sky turned red and then it went back to quiet. And I almost fainted on the

[00:11:32] beach at four in the morning in Hawaii. So two months before that you just came to the beach.

[00:11:40] Yeah so what led you to how did that happen? How did I become a Christian? Yeah.

[00:11:46] I got fired from my law firm. I was practicing law and I got fired from my law firm because I had

[00:11:51] a bad gambling problem. And I was going to Las Vegas every other day and there's no law firm

[00:11:58] that would accept that. And they found out and they fired me. And then I went to Hong Kong

[00:12:06] to try to find myself. And I'm not Chinese. I'm Korean. Korean Japanese but I went to Hong

[00:12:12] Kong to find myself. Came back and I went to USC film school. So I decided to do the one thing

[00:12:19] that I thought I was called to do. Not called to do by God but you know called by myself to do

[00:12:24] for my talents. And I directed a film for Universal Studios within a year and a half.

[00:12:29] But then what happened was I went to Manila Philippines which is called the

[00:12:34] party capital of Asia. Went to strip club. And then what happened was I gambled away all of my

[00:12:40] director's salary and one night a blackjack. And so I went back to my hotel in the Shangri-La in

[00:12:45] Manila Philippines and almost had a breakdown and very suicidal. Reached for a Gideon's Bible.

[00:12:52] And I read the questions in the front of the Bible. Where are you going?

[00:12:56] What is the meaning of life? Does Jesus exist? Who is Jesus? And I accepted Jesus right there

[00:13:02] in my hotel room. The worst night of my life to not be the best night of my life can and

[00:13:07] never look back, never gambled again. Straight arrow the whole way. And it was really incredible.

[00:13:14] I was in my 30s by the way. I was in my 30s. I'm in my 50s now.

[00:13:18] So we have a lot of people listen to this that are Christian but we have a lot that aren't.

[00:13:24] As a matter of fact I always have new age psychic people wanting to be guests on and

[00:13:29] things. And so they made me understand the profoundness of what could happen there when you

[00:13:36] answer some what I call existential questions like why are we here? And their answer is Christ.

[00:13:42] So coming from an outside viewpoint, you're in a moment of desperation but what if it was a

[00:13:49] Buddhist handbook or what if it was a Hare Krishna pamphlet? What made it that

[00:13:54] Jesus became so real to you that it transformed your life and not just gave you a night of hope?

[00:14:01] It's brilliant, Ken, what you just answered. And what's interesting was when I first became a

[00:14:06] Christian I took a class called Perspectives. And in that class we read the Bhagavad Gita,

[00:14:12] the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist meditations. And it just confirmed what I always knew.

[00:14:19] And that is the Bible is history from beginning to end. And the meditations are philosophy, the

[00:14:25] Hindu Vedas are philosophy. The Bhagivad Gita which is a companion piece to the Hindu Vedas

[00:14:32] is philosophy. And so the Bible is the only book that has a beginning and an end and history

[00:14:40] behind it. But everything that I read just confirmed what I already know anyway.

[00:14:46] And that is that there's a savior, Ken. And I was able to talk to a Buddhist monk

[00:14:54] and I said, well what happens to Christians when we die according to the Buddhist?

[00:14:58] And he said it's honestly maintained the five moral precepts. They don't steal, they don't kill.

[00:15:04] And the same thing as the Ten Commandments he said, but you have 10, we have five.

[00:15:08] He said Christians will go to Nirvana. As long as you maintain those as best you can,

[00:15:14] the five moral precepts. And then I talked to a Muslim scholar at UCLA and I said,

[00:15:18] what happens to Christians when we're Muslim? He goes, only Christians will be forgiven by Allah.

[00:15:23] I said really? And he said yeah because you believed in Jesus, you just had it wrong.

[00:15:27] He's only a prophet, he wasn't the son of God. But anyway, only Christianity says look if you

[00:15:34] don't believe in me, the son of God, there's a problem. And where I'm not asking you for a lot,

[00:15:40] I'm asking you to believe that I sacrifice myself, my blood cleansed your sins because we're all sinners

[00:15:46] and that's what will get you to heaven. And it's profound when you think about what God did for us

[00:15:53] because he cannot tolerate sin. And I think just in my own life and seeing myself as a former sinner,

[00:16:05] and by the way, Cuba Gooding Jr., who's in my movie, became a Christian on our set.

[00:16:10] He reeked in life to Jesus. And so he's praying now with me. We're praying like 15 minutes every day

[00:16:17] and he's a changed man. Well we're talking about who's the biggest sinner. I'm saying no,

[00:16:21] I'm the biggest sinner. He's saying no, I'm the biggest sinner. And that's a transformation.

[00:16:25] That's no longer pride. That's no longer anything but we're just condemned before Jesus,

[00:16:30] before God above. And we're all sinners saved by the mighty hand and grace of God.

[00:16:36] And I think it's beautiful. It's a beautiful story, but I've seen too many miracles Ken

[00:16:43] from the Christian point of view. And it's interesting in the Bible, Jeremiah 29-11,

[00:16:50] if you draw closer to me, I'll draw closer to you. And I ask a lot of my atheist friends that,

[00:16:55] do you actually spend time trying to figure out whether God exists, trying to,

[00:17:02] have you ever read the Bible? You know, you read so much. You read the New York Times,

[00:17:05] but do you have to read the Bible? And they all say no. They all say no. They're too busy to

[00:17:11] read the Bible Ken. They're atheists on a mission. That mission, I don't know what it is,

[00:17:18] but that mission is emptiness. Maybe it's a career, maybe it's finding peace by being busy,

[00:17:24] maybe it's beer, maybe it's football. A lot of my atheist friends are football fans,

[00:17:29] you know? And I'm like, you're just as religious as me, man. I go to the stadium,

[00:17:34] even though I watch football. I'm not saying that as Christians we can't watch football,

[00:17:39] but they're just as religious and they're the New York Patriots fans. They're in

[00:17:43] zero degree weather Ken. So we don't even do that. As Christians, we don't go to church

[00:17:47] in zero degree weather. So they're very religious about, you know, Tom Brady and the Patriots.

[00:17:53] So they're all religious in many ways, but I'm sorry if I gave you a circumvented answer.

[00:18:01] Oh great. What advice would you give to those who are still seeking or they're looking into

[00:18:06] philosophies and or they're atheist or Gnostic or whatever then they view religion as a man-made

[00:18:14] institute or even if they believe in something it's one path up a mountain of many paths

[00:18:20] to the same God. And what advice would you give them to find what we call truth?

[00:18:28] You know Ken, my advice is just look around the world and you know I know it sounds crazy. My

[00:18:35] theology is more Calvary Chapel of course which is more eschatological and end times,

[00:18:42] but I will tell you something scary, Ken, that might scare them. That is Jesus predicted the

[00:18:47] COVID. He said there will be a pandemic that will be worldwide. He predicted the weather right now

[00:18:54] of extreme climate change. It has nothing to do with oil. I believe it's the Lord is coming

[00:18:59] sooner than later because he said the waves will perplex the nation, meaning whether we'll be

[00:19:04] perplexing a nation. Whether I'm right or wrong from a theological point of view and

[00:19:11] you may not believe in end times I do, but we're both going to heaven. So that's not

[00:19:14] a problem, that's not salvation. But I will tell you this much if half of the scholars including

[00:19:20] Billy Graham, John MacArthur, Charles Spurgeon many of them believe in the end times when it was

[00:19:27] the end times and right now if we truly are in the end times and the Lord is coming sooner than

[00:19:33] later and you're seeing mass shootings like we never have you know Ken I don't know if you're

[00:19:37] my same generation but I remember the 80s there was no mass shootings outside of the guy

[00:19:43] in McDonald's San Ysidro and then in the 70s there was a guy in the Texas Tower. Remember that too

[00:19:50] people in the University of Texas or whatever but that was mass shooting and that was it

[00:19:55] and then it got really brutal in the late 90s and now it's mass shootings every day

[00:20:00] or often weekly and it's so many mass shootings we can't even keep track

[00:20:05] and the Bible is very clear that in the last days and second time with the

[00:20:08] man will be brutal, they'll be violent, they'll be without mercy and we're seeing that more than

[00:20:14] ever so if the Lord were to come today I would tell every atheist man you know either if it is

[00:20:22] the rapture you don't want to be left behind and if there is no rapture second coming there's no

[00:20:26] chance. So whether you believe in the rapture or not if there isn't a rapture and second

[00:20:31] coming there's no second chance. If there is a rapture you do have a second chance but

[00:20:34] left behind seven years of the Great Tribulation that's going to be horrible. I mean it's going

[00:20:40] to be horrible and there's going to be bloodshed like you can't believe so if you think it's bad

[00:20:44] now with all these carjackings mass shootings store lootings it's going to be 10 times worse

[00:20:53] if half of the scholars are right and the rapture which is in the Bible by the way,

[00:20:57] raptureals in Latin, apostle in Greek and first Thessalonians 3 being caught up means rapture.

[00:21:06] If there is a rapture then we're in it I mean non-believers aren't in a world of trouble.

[00:21:11] There is one answer and that's Jesus and for all the things it's not Joe Biden,

[00:21:16] Donald Trump it is Jesus and you don't want to miss the boat with Jesus. You can miss

[00:21:21] the boat with voting for Biden but you can't miss the boat with Jesus.

[00:21:26] Yeah and that your passion in that is seen through your movies and tell us about the one you have

[00:21:32] coming out that you just finished. Oh thanks Kim, well Firing Squad opens in theaters nationwide

[00:21:37] August 2nd and we're trying to win 1 million people to Jesus through this film. We have an

[00:21:42] altar call at the end. This is based on a two-story of three Christians who are former

[00:21:46] drug dealers. I apologize I'm at the airport that's why I'm hearing this little racket

[00:21:50] sorry about that Kim I had an urgent flight to Atlanta for our premiere tonight but yeah

[00:21:56] the firing squad comes out August 2nd three Christians based on this true story three

[00:22:00] Christians were ex-drug dealers and they found all found Jesus in prison and they went out

[00:22:06] singing amazing grace to their execution all of them and they all came from various

[00:22:12] backgrounds to Ken. Two were atheists one was a Buddhist and they all came to Jesus

[00:22:18] story and they won even the award in the Christ so and I interviewed oh by the way a Yaku is a

[00:22:25] gang member and he did the same thing you asked me in the beginning of the show. He had a choice

[00:22:30] between being the Buddhist meditations the Bible he read them all while he was on a hospital after

[00:22:35] being shot in Tokyo as a gang member. He picked the Bible he went to Bible college he's now

[00:22:41] a pastor in Tokyo. Wow so and he had his fingers chopped off. That's crazy and you have some

[00:22:48] recognizable actors in this one you already mentioned one of them right? Yeah we have Oscar

[00:22:53] winner Cuba Gooden Jr. We have Kevin Sorbel of course one of the most recognized Christian actors

[00:23:00] God's Not Dead let there be light with Sean Hannity and a well-known Christian speaker very

[00:23:07] much an evangelist Eric Roberts is in our film James Barrington is in our film

[00:23:15] Tapua I know is in our film and Madeline Anderson is in our film she plays a love interest

[00:23:21] true story she got married to James the night before he got executed. Wow wow so how can

[00:23:29] people support that of course people could be listening to this and this movie was five years

[00:23:34] ago that's the age of internet right but assuming they listen to it pretty quick it's coming out in

[00:23:40] August use that August 2nd was that right? Yes nationwide 2000 theaters it's a real good.

[00:23:46] What can they do now to support you other than mark that on their calendar? Oh well

[00:23:51] they can go to a site called million souls dot org and there we're trying to win one million

[00:23:56] people to Jesus from that site they can just you know put their names down and and and they can

[00:24:03] be put in the book of life. Okay great yeah I'll put information website and all that in the notes

[00:24:10] and one thing I did notice I was a little surprised about when I watched it was

[00:24:15] Cuba Gooden Jr. can sing pretty well. Yeah it's so funny I would have believed that I can

[00:24:24] Oh boy you really uh belted it out I was pretty impressed oh thanks Ken

[00:24:30] all right well thank you for your time and thank you again good luck on your premiere tonight

[00:24:35] thank you and thank you.