Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Billy Hallowell on Angels, Demons, and Investigating the Supernatural

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Billy Hallowell on Angels, Demons, and Investigating the Supernatural · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Billy, thanks for joining me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Journalist Billy Halliwell hosts of a new CBN documentary film
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  Speaker 2: investigating the supernatural, Angels and Demons. Billy, this is the
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  Speaker 2: second film in a series you've got about the supernatural.
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  Speaker 2: This film, of course follows your earlier project on miracles.
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  Speaker 2: Why did you want to follow your earlier film by
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  Speaker 2: doing one own Angels and Demons.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, when we initially started this project, Jared Anderson,
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  Speaker 1: the director, the writer, brilliant, really smart guy. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we were kind of looking through, what are the things
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  Speaker 1: that our most debated, most discussed, most interesting to not
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  Speaker 1: just believers, but but unbelievers as well, and so obviously miracles,
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  Speaker 1: you know, stretch across that. And our initial plan was,
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  Speaker 1: let's do a TV show. So we'll do three episodes
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  Speaker 1: of a series and we'll do thirty minute episodes. We'll
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  Speaker 1: do Miracles, we'll do Heaven and Hell, and we'll do
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  Speaker 1: Angels and Demons, and with miracles. As soon as we
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  Speaker 1: started getting into the filming, it was evident we needed
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  Speaker 1: to do a film. There were too many stories to tell,
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  Speaker 1: there was too much material. And when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: you know, angels and demons, it's such an important subject
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  Speaker 1: matter throughout scripture. I mean it's mentioned, both are mentioned
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  Speaker 1: so many times, and yet I think there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of confusion, a lot of misunderstanding, particularly even over the
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  Speaker 1: discussion of whether or not angels and demons still impact
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  Speaker 1: our world today. And so we wanted to get into
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  Speaker 1: that and look at some of the stories that are
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  Speaker 1: out there to see what's credible and which examples out
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  Speaker 1: there have some backing to them.
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  Speaker 2: Was there a particular story or interview that kind of
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  Speaker 2: challenged what you believe, maybe even strengthen what you believe.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there are pretty much all of them. Digus.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you, going into these interviews,
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  Speaker 1: I am always skeptical. You know, I'm a Christian. I
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  Speaker 1: believe the Bible. I believe all these things are real
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  Speaker 1: and true. But yet when people tell me they've had
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  Speaker 1: an experience with a demon or an angel, my first
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  Speaker 1: thought is, prove it to me. Right, you're saying that
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  Speaker 1: you had this experience, I need you to prove it
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  Speaker 1: to me, show me the details, the information that would
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  Speaker 1: back it. And so, going into one of the stories
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  Speaker 1: in particular, Bruce VENATDA. That was one that really challenged
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  Speaker 1: me because this is a guy who was crushed under
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  Speaker 1: a semi automatic truck, you know, semi truck and you know,
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  Speaker 1: just completely should be dead, should not be here, claims
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  Speaker 1: to have had not only a near death experience, but
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  Speaker 1: that he saw angels and you know, he had all
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  Speaker 1: these wild experiences, and I thought, is this true? Is
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  Speaker 1: this really real? And so you know, going into it,
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  Speaker 1: I was a little skeptical, and then after seeing the
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  Speaker 1: evidence and hearing what he went through, I walked away saying, well,
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  Speaker 1: there's there's another example that seems to challenge that skepticism
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  Speaker 1: because it was it's just a pretty incredible story.
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  Speaker 2: The seeing tangible evidence of the supernatural change.
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  Speaker 1: How you view God.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, does does it impact you and strengthen your faith?
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  Speaker 1: You know it does absolutely because you know, for me, look,
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  Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, faith is
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  Speaker 1: something that we know to be true in our hearts right,
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  Speaker 1: our experience, our understanding, and there's some debate around hearing
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  Speaker 1: God's and what that means and what that looks like
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  Speaker 1: for people. But when you start to see evidence of
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  Speaker 1: the supernatural, and this is somebody that's really challenged me
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  Speaker 1: because I would have said I believed in all these
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  Speaker 1: things years ago, but I would not have said to
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  Speaker 1: you while I've experienced them or i've seen them, because
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  Speaker 1: I hadn't. And you know, we don't always get to
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  Speaker 1: see or experience the supernatural or find the evidence. But
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  Speaker 1: when you do have cases like this where you're left
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  Speaker 1: with there's no other explanation than what this person is
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  Speaker 1: saying happened something clearly happened here, it becomes an apologetics tool.
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  Speaker 1: And that's something I never thought of until recently. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: even in the midst of these projects, there was a
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  Speaker 1: prominent politician's son and I'm not going to say who
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  Speaker 1: it was, and you will know who I'm talking about
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  Speaker 1: because this is a big story. And then everybody was
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  Speaker 1: upset because the name was given out and people didn't
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  Speaker 1: want it to be. But this politician son was having
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with an apologist on the phone, and this
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  Speaker 1: is a young guy who's nineteen or twenty years old,
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  Speaker 1: and the apologist was throwing everything at this kid, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: you know, here's why you should believe, and it really
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  Speaker 1: wasn't resonating. It wasn't until he mentioned that there are
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  Speaker 1: Muslims in the Middle East who are having dreams of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus and after those dreams, they're coming to faith. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't until that that this young person said, well, wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, what That's what piqued his interest. And I
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  Speaker 1: think we're in a unique era right now where these
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  Speaker 1: topics miracles, angels and demons, heaven and hell, all of
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  Speaker 1: these things, they're actually becoming for a generation that's been
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  Speaker 1: sort of pushed secularism on for so long, they're becoming compelling,
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  Speaker 1: evidentiary tools to help bring them to faith. So the
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  Speaker 1: short answer is, yes, I actually do think it can
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  Speaker 1: expand our faith and at least corroborate it and give
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  Speaker 1: us some peace in it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I've seen you say in other interviews that this documentary
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  Speaker 2: moves beyond sensationalism.
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  Speaker 1: Why was that.
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  Speaker 2: Important to you to move beyond you know, what is
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  Speaker 2: often making headlines.
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  Speaker 1: You know, for a lot of reasons. I think oftentimes
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  Speaker 1: the reason that these topics get sort of overlooked, especially
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  Speaker 1: the demonic topic, is because Hollywood turns out these movies
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  Speaker 1: every October. They turn them out. People go and they
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  Speaker 1: see them, and they're entertaining and they enjoy watching them.
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  Speaker 1: They're not always they're usually not theologically correct. Sometimes though,
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  Speaker 1: there are some movies out there that are theologically correct.
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  Speaker 1: But the point is people have an innate interest in
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  Speaker 1: this topic, and yet the way we talk about it,
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  Speaker 1: you know, peas spewing out of the pea, green vomit
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  Speaker 1: speeding out of the mouth, the head spinning like all
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  Speaker 1: this chaos in these movies. You know, there are chaotic
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  Speaker 1: spiritual experiences. We see them in scripture, right, We see
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  Speaker 1: what possession can look like in scripture, and it is
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  Speaker 1: it can be terrifying. But the point is we wanted
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  Speaker 1: to rely on what experts, you know, scientists, people who
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  Speaker 1: have looked at these things, what they have to say
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  Speaker 1: about it. And when you see ivy league educated people
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  Speaker 1: like doctor Richard Gallagher casting doubt on his former skepticism
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  Speaker 1: once he's confronted with evidence, it does make you say, well,
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  Speaker 1: wait a minute, if these people believe it, maybe there's
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  Speaker 1: something there to this, Maybe there's a truth there. And
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  Speaker 1: so that became very important for us to just look
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  Speaker 1: at facts and not just tell, you know, outlandish stories.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the stories in the film, they are outlet
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  Speaker 1: they seem outlandish on paper, but we really went to
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  Speaker 1: great lengths to make sure that they were vetted, that
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  Speaker 1: these were stories that we could trust, because we don't
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  Speaker 1: want to be putting information out that that's untrue or
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  Speaker 1: you know, playing on people's emotions. We wanted to bring
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  Speaker 1: people into the story and get them, whether they're skeptics
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  Speaker 1: or Christians, to think a little bit deeper about these subjects.
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  Speaker 2: Talk about demons. Were there any moments in your interviews
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  Speaker 2: that made you kind of pause and maybe the hair
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  Speaker 2: on your arm rise. I mean, were there any eerie
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  Speaker 2: moments that you know would have made a normal person scared?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think hearing people talk about their experience with
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  Speaker 1: the demonic doctor Richard Gallagher in particular, he shared a
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  Speaker 1: story about this woman Julia, a number of stories about Julia.
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  Speaker 1: She was really and this is this is rarer than
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  Speaker 1: you would expect. It does happen, but she was a
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  Speaker 1: Satan worshiper. She very literally worshiped Satan, and as a
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  Speaker 1: result of that, dealt with possession, very real possession. He
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  Speaker 1: called it a once in a lifetime, once in a
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  Speaker 1: century story. And so he was brought this woman by
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  Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. They brought her to him because she
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  Speaker 1: did want relief, even though she was engaging in this
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  Speaker 1: cult behavior, she wanted relief. And some of the stories
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  Speaker 1: that he shared were alarming. I mean they were alarming
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  Speaker 1: to the point of, here's this man who teaches at
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  Speaker 1: Columbia University, who is Ivy League educated, who was a
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  Speaker 1: skeptic no longer is because of Julia in her story,
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  Speaker 1: hearing him talk about her ability to astro project, her
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  Speaker 1: ability to tell you what somebody was doing miles and
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  Speaker 1: miles away when she was not with them, and his
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  Speaker 1: obviously inquisitive is to call that person and say, where
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  Speaker 1: are you, what are you doing right now? What are
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  Speaker 1: you wearing? And for everything she had been telling him,
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  Speaker 1: sitting on his couch in his office, matching what that
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  Speaker 1: person was doing and wearing those sorts of stories. They're eerie,
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  Speaker 1: But you have to come back to the reminder of Okay,
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  Speaker 1: as Christian, you have authority over this. You do not
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  Speaker 1: need to be afraid of it. I think there's a
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  Speaker 1: couple of things the enemy does that, and it's so tricky.
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  Speaker 1: The first is obviously to convince people that he's not there, right,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we don't need to talk about it. It's outlandish,
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  Speaker 1: it's funny. And you see Hollywood, even with some of
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  Speaker 1: the imagery that they've put out in recent years, almost
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  Speaker 1: mocking the existence of Satan, right or you know, putting
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  Speaker 1: the Satanic imagery out is though, oh, this is just
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  Speaker 1: a fun, silly thing. But I think the other thing
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  Speaker 1: that he does is he sort of hides out in
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  Speaker 1: plain sight. And so we saw that in these stories,
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  Speaker 1: and it is eerie, but he also wants us to
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  Speaker 1: be afraid of it and petrified. We should understand the
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  Speaker 1: power of it, but we have authority over it. We
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  Speaker 1: don't need to be fearful of it.
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  Speaker 2: As we close here, let's talk about to you as
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  Speaker 2: a personal journalist, how did you get into Christian journalism
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  Speaker 2: in the first place, and why have you stayed in
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  Speaker 2: this realm.
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  Speaker 1: It's such a strange story. You know, I don't get
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  Speaker 1: to talk about it very often, but you know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: forty two now, and when I was fifteen I started
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  Speaker 1: in media. So when I was fifteen, after the Columbine
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  Speaker 1: shooting of that year in nineteen ninety nine, I felt
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  Speaker 1: really moved as a teenager to try to do something
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  Speaker 1: to stop another school shooting. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful and
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  Speaker 1: greeting something that would do that, unfortunately. But I started
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  Speaker 1: a website back then called teenweb Online, and it was
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  Speaker 1: really intended to be a place where I would interview
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  Speaker 1: people and try to just inspire my peers. And that
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  Speaker 1: really just developed. That went into a column, went into
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  Speaker 1: I went to school for journalism. It just kind of snowballed.
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  Speaker 1: I was speaking and traveling by the time I was
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  Speaker 1: nineteen probably and writing, and that I wasn't doing Christian
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  Speaker 1: media at that point. I was a Christian. I then
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  Speaker 1: started doing some Fox News hits and going into politics,
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  Speaker 1: and I realized very quickly that God wanted to turn
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  Speaker 1: that and tweak that and really move me into faith
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  Speaker 1: content reporting. And so by my mid twenties that's what
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  Speaker 1: he had done. I was working at The Blaze as
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  Speaker 1: a faith editor there and that was kind of my
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  Speaker 1: first job in the faith space. And so I have
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  Speaker 1: not looked back. God has just been amazing opening doors.
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  Speaker 1: But I've been doing this for a very long time now,
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  Speaker 1: which is kind of crazy to think.
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  Speaker 2: So why is it important to you, though? Why do
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  Speaker 2: we need Christian journalists? Let's pretend there's a Christian journalist
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  Speaker 2: in the audience who's a Christian they're in college or
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  Speaker 2: high school. Why is it important to do what you're
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  Speaker 2: doing and for others to do what you're doing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's so many stories that need to
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  Speaker 1: be told that are not being told. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: people like you, people like our friend Jesse Jackson over
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  Speaker 1: at church leaders. There are people out there who we
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  Speaker 1: need more of them. They're telling these amazing stories, these
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  Speaker 1: life transformation stories. I mean, Jesus was a storyteller, right,
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  Speaker 1: And so when I look at the media, there's so
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  Speaker 1: much and there's so many great journalists in the secular
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  Speaker 1: world doing good job, a good job. But the point is,
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  Speaker 1: there are so many times I'm reading a story or
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: watching something and in the story, I'm five paragraphs down
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  Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait a minute, that's the story that's
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  Speaker 1: being missed, right, And so I think we can all
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  Speaker 1: relate to this, those of us who work in this
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  Speaker 1: space of wanting to tell stories that point people to God.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, doesn't matter. All the
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  Speaker 1: other stuff is fine and it's great, But whether it's
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  Speaker 1: a documentary or it's a podcast, or it's something that's written,
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  Speaker 1: I want to be a part of something that is
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  Speaker 1: going to tell God's story and as time goes on,
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  Speaker 1: that has become more and more important to me. Less
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  Speaker 1: of me, more of Him, and we just need good
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  Speaker 1: people in media who are doing that, telling those Jesus
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  Speaker 1: stories and pointing people towards the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: five star review.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: That's how we help more people just like you find
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: the show. A big thanks to the team at life
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. If
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find dozens
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  Speaker 3: of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
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  Speaker 1: See you next time.