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Tim Mahoney: The American Miracle - Re-educating Generations · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  I came to persuade you to avoid these dangers.
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  We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
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  We must find a path forward where they will have a future that is very different than their past.
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  He will become the founder of the Mighty Empire.
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  The fate of unborn millions now depends under God upon the conduct and courage of this army.
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  Americans of today should regain our bearings that our nation is no accident.
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  Welcome to Worldview Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity.
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  No topic, off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Firazo.
• 1:07
  Hey, friends. I'm excited to talk about the American Miracle, a brand new film.
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  We've got the executive producer and director Tim Mahoney here today, and he is the CEO of Heroic Pictures.
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  And their studio focuses on telling true, inspiring stories from throughout history, including this brand new and coming out next month, the American Miracle.
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  He's the executive producer of three feature documentaries and a director of six feature films produced by the production, distribution and publishing company he founded, thinking, men, films, and media.
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  And he spent over 20 years on a worldwide journey driven by curiosity.
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  He interviews the world's leading biblical scholars, archaeologists, and historians seeking answers to some of the Old Testament's biggest questions and mysteries, uncovering a pattern of evidence matching biblical events and revealing God's activity throughout history.
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  So I'm excited to talk about this brand new film, Tim. Welcome to Worldview Matters. Thanks for your time today.
• 2:10
  David, thank you for having me. I really appreciate and guess what? Worldview does matter.
• 2:15
  Absolutely. Absolutely. That's been kicked out of our schools, at least the biblical world view. We'll talk about that in a few minutes.
• 2:21
  Before we do, tell us about patterns of evidence. I saw the one on the Exodus and you had me hooked just that type of film and documentary dealing with the Old Testament and locations and archaeology.
• 2:34
  Tell us a little bit about that. The website is patterns of evidence.com. A lot of films. Tell us what you got. You got into this and about some of the projects you were blessed to be a part of.
• 2:48
  The very first film took about 12 years to make and it started back in 2000. Wow. I really wasn't planning on making a film about the Exodus nor was I had any understanding that it would take 12 years to make that film.
• 3:03
  But what happened was there were people that were searching for evidence of the Exodus and they were searching in the Gulf of Occupy for Red Sea, in the Red Sea arm of it for chariot wheels.
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  And in chariot parts and why would they look there? Well, they believe that was location where Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. And there was this area that seemed like you could, it's Occupy's enormously deep cavern of the Red Sea. It's part of the Rift Valley.
• 3:36
  And so there's this what they would call a land bridge. It was just sort of a plateau that came up in the middle of it. And that's where people started diving, searching for that. That fascinated me. And I met a Swedish researcher. He's a DNA scientist, Dr. Leonard Moeller.
• 3:52
  And he had been in a film earlier about this. And when I saw that, I was captivated by it. And that began me in this, I guess an approach, an investigative approach of filmmaking, which is, is there a pattern of evidence for the Bible or is there a pattern of evidence of God acting in history that we can find?
• 4:13
  And so in that particular one, we had to look for the main key events of the Exodus. And that's how this all began. So that began a series of patterns films.
• 4:24
  Yeah, I mean, you did the Moses controversy, the Red Sea Miracle, one and two, also a journey to Mount Sinai, one and two and the Israel dilemma so much. It's interesting. But there is evidence. But when you tackle the Exodus, that's going way back. So that no wonder took 12 years.
• 4:45
  Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, David, when you go out filming, sometimes you're like a vacuum cleaner, right? So you're at the, in the beginning, I really didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I thought I knew what I was doing. And I went out there to try to tell a film. And I really grew to learn how to tell an investigative film. And it took us a while to come up with what I think was a, the genius behind it is to search to find out what does the Bible saying? And can I find a pattern?
• 5:14
  You know, three or four or five different steps. So when you, when you look for those five different steps, you know, in the pattern, then you can, you can go, I'm going to look for this, this, this and this. And if I can find those steps in the correct sequence, then that's really a strong way to look for events, not just one, but multiples in a sequence. And that's basically the approach, plus I've also learned to hear from different viewpoints.
• 5:41
  And, and that's been the approach that I've taken in the last, you know, two decades of investigative filmmaking. And it makes it for, it's easier for the audience to take it on if you aren't just giving one point of view.
• 5:55
  Or as if you can hear from different points of view to basically say, okay, what, what is the truth here? As far as the information that I have, is it reasonable, for example, that an exodus event happened?
• 6:08
  And, and I think that in these films, I can show you, I can be non declarative, but I can show you a pattern. That's what we call it thinking man films.
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  So you've been given a brain by God. Okay, let's think it through. Let's reason it through. What do you think this pattern looks like? And does it, does it convince you?
• 6:28
  Well, that's new for a lot of younger people who have been taught for so many years what to think instead of how to think, how to critically think right now to take evidence and make their own decisions and draw their own conclusions.
• 6:39
  But the film is coming out next month, the American miracle I was blessed to get a media preview, a pre screening copy. It was just amazing, very well done.
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  Just amazing quality. I love the story obviously as a Bible believing Christian and who is proud of America and our exceptional nation.
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  I want to ask you about Michael Medved. He was one of the writers. By the way, Tim, one of my favorite books by Medved, the 10 big lies about America. That came out way back in 2008. He's done some amazing writing. How did you connect with him?
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  Well, it happened because of the Exodus film. I heard that he was coming into the Twin Cities. And so I contacted him and I went over to St. Paul Hotel and I did an interview on the Exodus. He was one of my earlier interviews.
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  And then later on, I could see that it would really be great if I could actually have him in a setting like a radio show. And we set that up, filmed that in L.A.
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  And so he was able to, he and I became friends. And then he saw the style of filmmaking that I made with patterns films. And he said, hey, I've got a pattern of evidence here of God acting in American history. And that's basically how we connected.
• 8:04
  So I don't want to put you on the spot. I'm going to ask you about the word Providence. But I like Paul Kanger. I've quoted Paul Kanger in a few of my books on writing about American culture and history. He's an amazing man. He said that's got to be the hand of God. That can't be coincidence.
• 8:24
  Talk about the idea of Providence. I went over to use Daniel Websters or Websters 1828 dictionary and it still didn't do it justice, meaning the Providence definition. I still couldn't find in your film. I think it was toward the end. You had the definition or the paraphrase of what Providence really means. They thought it to be God, not just.
• 8:47
  Can you explain that please? Yes. One thing that's very, as we go back two centuries, two and a half centuries, back how people spoke of God. And and because there were different denominations, there's Quakers and Puritans and Anglicans, Methodists and you know Baptist eventually and all these different groups that came to America.
• 9:12
  They had different doctrines, different theologies. But the one word that they used and by the way George Washington was very, very clear about bringing people together. And so the word Providence means the presence of God.
• 9:31
  I think that's the easiest way to say it probably has other meanings. But I would say that when they talked about Providence, the attending hand of God or it would be the presence of God came into a situation and that God attended to it.
• 9:46
  So in this movie, you're going to see historically documented times when God's protection over George Washington in certain battles, over certain battle situations where they were trapped by the British and a fog comes in and they escape.
• 10:03
  There are the times when they had unusual, a lot of times it was weather storms and things and kind of fought against the British. And by the way, and that's why we have these wonderful scholars from Robert George from Princeton and Joe Ellis and others that are saying, this is what the British said.
• 10:26
  This is this is the truth testimony because in today's filmmaking, you can make there's all sorts of fantasy. This isn't fantasy. This film records the historical events as they happen. And that's why it's a document. It's heavy on drama, as you know.
• 10:43
  But we have we have the documentary part of it to testify that something was happening that that was even the British said, God must be fighting for them.
• 10:57
  And there were some of the soldiers that were writing home to their family saying, there's no way we should have survived that battle or there's no way God had to intervene and the weather you mentioned the weather that that's the hand of God.
• 11:10
  I mean the clouds moving in in one case the fog was it on the Delaware.
• 11:15
  Yeah, it was on the I think it was the East River. What happened was that but in the Delaware crossing, there's weather to it was this winter storm.
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  So what happened in this film, as you see it, it's really going to be telling it from George Washington's storyline.
• 11:32
  But what happened in that case, in the very beginning, they tried to defend New York, which is impossible with a large army and ships and everything.
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  And George Washington was was pretty much the many of the troops were wiped out, generals were captured, I believe.
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  And Washington was on his last bit before they're going to take him. And that night, he decided that they could possibly escape across the river.
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  There were three battleships, three or four battleships in that river in the East River. And a fog came down covered.
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  And this wasn't the time of year for a fog, but a fog and covered their retreat so that no, the ships couldn't see on, you know, no one knew what was going on.
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  And God spared Washington and the continental army to live another day.
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  And soon after that, then Washington, they thought he was done. He hardly had anybody left.
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  Courageously, he went and attacked at Trenton and took on the henchins and weather again, a snowstorm came and covered him.
• 12:41
  It was so bad that there were no centuries out. They figured no, there's no danger because there's no way anyone would come in this weather.
• 12:50
  And Washington came by, I think, by divine, you know, leading.
• 12:57
  And that turned the attitude of the war. That was huge.
• 13:03
  Oh, my goodness. Several turning points in the film that were pointed out, but great acting, great production, great cinematography.
• 13:11
  I really enjoyed it. I know people will too. It's going to be in theaters nationwide. June 9, 10, and 11.
• 13:18
  Anything else, Tim? Did I get that those three days?
• 13:21
  Yeah. And tickets go on sale May 4th. So if you've heard this, and we encourage people to get tickets now and get them early.
• 13:29
  Listen, this is only for three days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, June 9, 10, 11. But it really makes a difference.
• 13:35
  If you get tickets now, they will, that'll tell the theaters were in over 750, hopefully 1000 theaters coming up.
• 13:44
  But if you go to patterns of evidence, I'm sorry, wrong movie. If you go to americanmiraclemovie.com,
• 13:51
  Americanmiraclemovie.com, you can look up your theater, put your zip code in there and get tickets.
• 13:58
  And invite your family, invite friends. This, as you've seen, you're the one who's seen it too.
• 14:05
  So I always interview people. So David, why should people see this film?
• 14:10
  We're going to, well, first of all, we could do in a whole other podcast on the miseducation of at least a generation in America,
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  due to the public schools, removing God, removing the biblical worldview, true American history.
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  And they don't like to talk about that, especially if it gives God glory or points to the Christian influence in our nation.
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  And it's a very unfortunate. And that probably started in the 50s, probably at least brewing anyway.
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  But so people need to know the truth. And as you said, we've got historians and writers that knew where the evidence was,
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  knew where the true information was. And this is not something that's fiction. And so that's what I really appreciate about it.
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  So there's your plug Tim. We've got to take a brief pause. Again, friends, the website is Americanmiraclemovie.com.
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  We'll be right back on World View Matters.
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  Today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily. World News Biblically Understood. Stay informed at Harbinger's Daily.com.
• 15:06
  Various founders talked about this providential experiment that God had ordained and intervened at this unique moment in American history to make all of this happen.
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  Most of them believed that there were no accidents in history.
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  That hope for liberty was the light that under God, he would lead them.
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  All eyes are open or opening to the rights of man.
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  Am I, all me and God?
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  We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that accept the Lord, build the house. They labor and vane that build it.
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  It cannot be denied that with America and in America, a new era commences in human affairs.
• 16:03
  Wow. Get chills just watching that again. So when you see this now, the completed project, all the work that you put into this Tim as director, I'm sure you have a sense of pride.
• 16:14
  Just watching these clips. What did you feel? Did it take you back to those moments, filming it, or what do you feel when you watch that?
• 16:21
  I've had the opportunity to sit in theaters and watch it. And there's a sense of God's providence, even in the making of it.
• 16:28
  There were locations such as Mount Vernon that we were able to film. And we were able to film in George Washington's office as he sat at his desk, you know, our actor Daniel Shippy portrayed a wonderful George Washington.
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  So what I would say is I believe that this film is an important film to tell the forgotten story.
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  And what it's done for me is it's made me more bold and realizing that I really need to participate as a citizen of this nation.
• 16:59
  That this nation is something that God allows nations to come into being and their seasons. And this nation was built on a lot of people who had, you know, knelt and given, you know, the legal documents and they built constitutions and built these different things because they're people of faith and they understood human nature.
• 17:22
  And I think that's the one thing, David, is this film was going to tell you the story of George Washington's life as a young man, how God protected him.
• 17:30
  But then it goes into the war and you see how God protected the nation. And then you're going to see something that the week we show, well, what did they fight for?
• 17:38
  They fought that declaration of independence had to be, had to be completed by a constitution and you're going to see the battle for the Constitution in that document.
• 17:51
  These two documents, the declaration and the Constitution are what brings us together. It's what constitutes us as a nation.
• 17:59
  And so it's what holds us together. And you're going to learn, I mean, I think people are going to learn something that they've never known before when they see all this.
• 18:09
  We've been doing testing, you know, and we see that, you know, the chest, it's an entertainment. It's entertaining, but at the same time, you're going to go, I never knew that.
• 18:18
  I'm very, very, very well done. And I'm so glad you included Benjamin Franklin standing up at some point when they're debating, they couldn't really, you know, reach consensus.
• 18:27
  And he being what some believe as one of the least religious founders, he stood up and said, we should pray. We should pray and ask God's help.
• 18:37
  That was a really neat moment to include. Did you, who decided on that?
• 18:43
  Well, I'm trying to think it was probably written into the script. And there was a number of scenes that weren't, but there were times when we said, we've got to include these different pieces.
• 18:56
  The discussion of slavery wasn't as much in that in the in the original script. And I knew with where the nation was that we needed to include more stories. And so we put in, we asked, I asked some scholars to help me with it.
• 19:10
  And they said, well, here are some stories, which was Elizabeth Freeman, her name was Mum Bet played by Nicole C. Mullins.
• 19:21
  And she is a during the Revolutionary War, she is actually struck by a hot shovel by her, by her owner. And we tell that whole story.
• 19:32
  And that is the beginning of the abolition movement. And so a number of states wanted to free the slaves, but there's this battle of keeping this whole group of states together. And you're going to see that story, you're going to understand what they were battling for and what they were dealing with.
• 19:50
  So we try not to hide away from that. And like I said, we've got great scholars that address that with Robert George from Princeton. And they're talking about about this, this battle of our, our God created us.
• 20:05
  First of all was that he, you know, we're created in the image of God. And there's a, you know, there's a divinity to us in a sense. There's a virtue to us. But then there's the depravity of being in the fallen nature.
• 20:18
  And so you've got these two different battles that you're trying to deal with. And that's what this nation was able to recognize in the constitution and in the declaration.
• 20:28
  Excellent. One thing I wanted to ask you, we don't have a lot of time to talk about this, but I alluded to education and the unfortunate fact that a lot of people have not been taught what your film.
• 20:43
  So I probably let me guess, just off the top of my head, 70% of the movie, most people, if they grew up, you know, if they went to school in the last several decades, they don't think that's true.
• 20:58
  They're not, they're going to watch that going, no, that can't be true. But it is, like you said, you got his stories. Would you get a speak to that? And is that one of the reasons that you and others decided we need to get this film out now?
• 21:11
  Well, for me, I think that it came from Michael Medved because many people have, as you mentioned earlier, he's written these books, these lies about America.
• 21:21
  Well, I think it's important for all of us. We can be pretty, we can amuse ourselves. And the word muse means to think, by the way, ah, means not. So when you amuse yourself, you're not thinking.
• 21:34
  This film is to help you to think now back to what, what is the truth of this? And that's why this film was, we had a historian, James Gallagher, who helped us with all the costumes and, and all the different things. But not only that, but the scholarship in this film is going to arm people in a sense with a basic historical reality that they might not have had.
• 21:57
  Because there's agendas out there. There's narratives that people have been telling. And this film, it wasn't my mission, but I could just see that Michael Medved had done a very excellent job of showing God's providential hand in America, and that these founders and these different people believed in God.
• 22:14
  They prayed, they believed in prayer. And God's supernaturally guided and protected the nation. You could call it a coincidence, but there's so many of these coincidences that you could probably actually say, no, this was God's providential hand, meaning his president presence in the nation. So our nation is no accident. We were meant to be here.
• 22:40
  Amen. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I wanted to ask you, if you had a favorite moment in the film, a favorite scene or a favorite moment or something that stood out to you.
• 22:54
  There's a few of them, could I? Sure. We got five minutes left.
• 22:58
  Okay, what one of them is it has to do with when George Washington was a young man, he went on this, he went out with in the battle of Manangahala. And they went out to go to the British went to stop the French from building forts.
• 23:15
  And George Washington was one of, I don't know if there's 50 or 80 officers. All of the officers were shot or wounded in this battle except for George Washington. And he had multiple bullet holes through his clothes, two horses were shot out from under him.
• 23:31
  And George Washington was a very big man. His hat was shot off. And later on, years later, the chief who was a part of that attack working with the French prophesied over George Washington.
• 23:43
  And he tells him that he says to him, we tried to shoot you and guns that were would never miss could not hit you. He says God is protecting this man, the great spirit or whatever, you know, you will be a leader of a great nation.
• 23:59
  And so he prophesied in advance to George Washington. I think it was about six years before the American revolution.
• 24:08
  And I think as I've heard from historians, Washington felt as if God had protected him and had chosen him for a role to play in the nation.
• 24:19
  Wow, that is, that is a great need. I need to see all the bullets flying and see his hat fly off. Glad you put that in the film.
• 24:27
  Before we run out of time, we're down to three minutes, Tim. What are you up coming up next? Are you going to do something patriotic, something back to the Old Testament? What are you working on now?
• 24:38
  Well, we're going to do the Israel dilemma part two, which is following up with, you know, it has got who are these people, the Israelites? Where do they come from?
• 24:49
  Part one basically tells the story of the first part of Israel's existence. Part two will be all the way up until today.
• 24:57
  And the second thing we're going to be doing is the American miracle. There's more stories as you probably saw. There's a whole story. There's a number of other films to be made on the American miracle.
• 25:09
  And that's the next that's what I can share about right now. There's other things going on, but those are the two current projects that we're working on next.
• 25:17
  Yeah, obviously to get people to the theater. So if people go to the American miracle movie.com tickets are on sale June or May 2nd.
• 25:29
  And then we move into, you know, the big release on June 9, 10, 11. I don't know if you can hear this, but they've got music playing in the office because they just put a new theater and they're testing the speakers. So hopefully you're not hearing all that.
• 25:43
  No, I don't hear it, but so if there's a chance that the three dates, June 9, is it June 8, 9 and 10, 9, 10 and 11.
• 25:54
  Yeah, if those get filled up, then you've got to add more dates, right? Typically what theaters do?
• 25:58
  Yeah, right. So please, this is a great for, you know, if your Bible study wants to go to your homeschool, you want to bring your family or friends. If you're a businessman, the Christian businessmen CBMC are behind it now, they're telling businessmen to use this film as a great tool to share evidence of God acting in history.
• 26:17
  There's a number of partners, the homeschool, like I said, League is behind the movie and we're just excited about having this opportunity. And I don't know if most people realize this, but we're approaching the 250th anniversary this coming year next 4th of July, not this one, but 2026.
• 26:34
  2026 with the declaration is 250 years old, and that's why this is so significant of a film at this time.
• 26:44
  Amen, brother. Thank you so much. American miracle movie.com. Think about that. A lot of great nations have come and gone. And here we are 250 almost years later. And you know, you have to look at that as providence, right?
• 26:59
  I mean, we have to attribute that to God. So Tim, thank you so much for your time. I love your projects and things you work on. Can't wait to see more, but I will definitely try to get people out there to see it. I've been privileged to see it myself, but so many great moments that are people, I think they're going to say what you said. I didn't know that.
• 27:20
  Right? So, and we'll get that out there. So reeducate America. Thanks for your time today, sir.
• 27:27
  Thank you so much for having you, David. And keep doing what you're doing. World View does matter.
• 27:32
  We'll do Lord willing, right? Thank you guys so much for watching and sharing the podcast member our new YouTube channel, World View Matters. David Fiorazo. God bless you. And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
• 27:50
  You