This is really cool. You know, just seeing all of you sing that
"Growing Pains" theme song, it sort of threw me back 25 years. I wanted to run up here and just say, "Mom,
Dad, I was not sneaking out of the house to hang with Eddie and Boner on a school night! I was studying at the library! I know how important grades are to my beloved
parents and I figured studying was far more important than my curfew. Perhaps I was wrong." I'm here with my son and we're so excited
to be here at Liberty University. It's a real honor to be here. I'm amazed that so many of you know about
"Growing Pains," you're just too young! You guys are watching reruns? I'm seeing the signs, show me that smile,
and I'm sorry, I can show you the smile, but I can't show you the curly mullet and the
parachute pants anymore. Those are really bad fashions and hairstyles;
I can't go there anymore. But I'm excited to be here. I know my son's excited to be here. I hear 52% of the college campus is girls,
and so he knows there's over 5,000 pretty girls here. My son's 15, so he's kind of excited about
that. They're trying to recruit him here already
to Liberty. And I know there's such an amazing amount
of time, effort, prayer from so many of your parents, your family to have you here. And you're in such a good place. You're in a place where there's been a spiritual
legacy and a heritage that's being passed down to you through so many who have invested
their lives to teach the next generation. You, you're their hope. You're their hope to walk into this world
and change this world, to bring heaven to earth, to see this world become more heavenly
through you and your commitment through what you learn and what you do with what you learn. You're also my hope. Your generation is the generation that can
do amazing things and turn things around and spark revival in the hearts of the people
of the church, which is always where it begins for things to turn around in a culture. And it's my honor to speak with you this morning. Thank you for having me. Thank you for showing up. I know that I'm following in the footsteps
of some great people. In fact, I'm a little nervous here this morning
because I'm following, I'm glad I'm following David Jeremiah and not Donald Trump, because
after my talk this morning, I imaging, I can hear David Jeremiah saying, "You're forgiven,"
while Donald Trump would say, "You're fired." And if you had told me 20 years ago that I
would be here speaking with you at a Christian university like Liberty, I would have told
you you're crazy because I was an atheist at the time. I grew up in a house where we didn't talk
about God, I denied the existence of a creator, didn't go to church, and prided myself on
the intellectual position that God did not exist. But I can tell you today; I can tell you very
thankfully, that I am a recovering atheist. I lost my faith in atheism about 20 years
ago when someone took me to a church for the very first time and I went to the front of
this church, not because I wanted to find out more about God, but because I was so captured
by the message that this preacher had preached from the pulpit. You see, I was there simply because a girl
invited me to church and I wanted to get to know her a little bit better. Her family went to church, so I figured I
needed to go to church or I wouldn't get to see her again. And I heard a message from a pastor named
Chuck Swindoll. I didn't know who he was. But that was like sort of standing there at
shortstop and having Babe Ruth just hit a line drive to your head and I got an earful
of who God is. As Chuck Swindoll preached from the Word of
God and he talked about the power of God, and the holiness of God, and the graciousness
of God, and the cost of redeeming sinners, criminals who had violated God's law and their
own conscience and in order to redeem them, it cost the blood of God's only son. He talked about eternity. He talked about heaven and hell, about repentance
and faith, and I sat there listening and I was so captured not only by the way he could
articulate this story and this message, but at the depth of his understanding, his intelligence,
and it pricked my conscience and it didn't leave me alone until I answered those questions. He talked about sin and how all of us needed
a savior and that just didn't compute with me. I know many of you are here today because
you grew up in Christian homes and this is the next logical step, to go to a great Christian
university and further your faith. Some of you may be here singly because your
parents are hoping that you'll get a hold of some faith. Well, I would've been one of those. You see, I figured I didn't need a savior,
I didn't need any sort of imputed righteousness credited to my account from someone who died
2,000 years ago, because I thought I was a pretty good person. If you had asked anyone who knew me in the
days of "Growing Pains" at 17, 18 years old, when I would have come to college, they would've
told you, "Oh, what a nice guy, what a great guy. If he died today, he wouldn't end up in hell." But God paints a very different picture and
says there's only one good, and that is God. In fact, there was another rich young man
who ran up to Jesus and asked Him, "What do I have to do to get eternal life?" And Jesus began to run him through the 10
commandments. Why did He do that? Well, He did it because he wanted to show
him the standard of goodness and that the only one who's truly good is God Himself. And He said, "You know the commandments. You shall not lie, you shall not steal, honor
your father and your mother." And when you and I take just a quick look
into the mirror of the 10 commandments, we quickly see how far we fall short. Have you ever lied? Of course you have. You'd be lying to say that you haven't lied. Correct? Have you ever stolen anything, regardless
of the value? If you reach into my wallet and pull out a
dollar bill or a hundred dollar bill, it's stealing either way. Have you ever taken something that doesn't
belong to you and stolen it? And then think of this one. Jesus said whoever looks with lust has already
committed adultery with that person in their heart. God knows our secret private thought life. We share that with Him. A quick look at those commandments shows me,
and I would venture to say if you're honest, it shows you, that you and I are self-admitted
liars, thieves and adulterers at heart and that's only 3 of the 10 commandments! We haven't even looked at the other 7. As an atheist, this concerned me. Because if there is a God who is perfect and
Holy and judges me by His standard of goodness, not my fans, and I'm not winning a popularity
contest with the media in order to get the reward of heaven, but rather I need to meet
the standards of the creator of heaven and His standard is moral perfection, I fall short. And if He gives you and me justice, we wouldn't
be headed for heaven. We'd be headed for God's place of punishment,
which the Bible refers to as hell. That concerned me, deeply because I know that
I'm part of the ultimate statistic: 10 out of 10 people die. I can't get around it. It's an appointment that I will not be late
for, and neither will you. Does that concern you? I don't know where you are with God, but I
know where you are with the death ratio. It's at 100% and you're a part of it. And when you stand before God, you too will
fall just as short as I do. Maybe not as far, because I've broken 11 of
the 10 commandments, but I know you'll need God's forgiveness. And there's not a number of prayers, there
is not a quantifiable amount of repentance or good deeds that you and I can do to bribe
the just judge of the universe to let us off for our crimes. But God in His mercy, Pastor Swindoll said,
paid the price to pardon you and me by sending His son to sacrifice His own life's blood
after living a perfect life to pay the price for the crimes you and I committed against
Him. And then He rose from the grave and defeated
death and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning
in session with the trinity, defeating evil, offering forgiveness to all who will repent
and put their faith in Him. I thought that sounded like a really good
deal. And so, in my sports car, at 17 years old,
on the side of Van Nuys Boulevard in Hollywood, California, I closed my eyes and I prayed
for the very first time. I didn't know hoe to do it. I was not taught how, but I closed my eyes
and said, "God if you're there, I want to know. I want you to show me. If you're real, cut past all of the fake and
phony religion, I don't want to be like those religious fruitcakes that I see on television,
I don't want to be a fake. I'm an actor; I know how to pretend. I want to know the real thing. And would you please make me the man you created
me to be?" And the funny thing is, I knew that I had
to come to God on His terms or it was no good. You see, my whole life as a celebrity revolved
around my terms. If you or someone else wanted to have a meeting
with me, or have a conversation with me, you'd have to go through my agent or my manager,
they would set up a time that was convenient for me in a break in my schedule and a location
that was acceptable to me and then perhaps we would have a conversation when I was on
"Growing Pains." But I knew that as the star of "Growing Pains,"
sitting in my sports car, wanting to talk to the God of the universe, I would not be
the celebrity in that relationship. Make sense? And I needed to come to Him on His terms,
and that is humility and repentance and absolute trust and faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord,
the ultimate authority, and my savior, the one who would provide what I need. I can stand here and tell you today as a recovering
atheist that there's nothing I've ever done in my life, there's no one I've ever met,
there's no place I've ever been that is more exciting, that is more important and more
needful in my life than becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, of having my sins forgiven
and being made into a child of God through faith in His Son. Since those days, I didn't know what would
happen. I didn't know if suddenly I would lose my
career, if becoming a Christian would blacklist me with the media if I ever wanted to work
again. But you know what? I'm so thankful for all the jobs I didn't
get. I'm so thankful that I'm still alive unlike
some of my coworkers and friends that I grew up with in Hollywood. We auditioned for the same parts and now through
suicide, overdose, or just plain poor choices, many of them are dead and just not doing well. And I thank God, that God saved me from all
of that and put me on a different path and gave me a different agenda to glorify Him
and to bless all people. God's opened some amazing doors and He's closed
some amazing doors. The best door He opened, apart from salvation,
is He opened the door for me to marry Mike Seaver's girlfriend. I don't know if you remember her, but she
was gorgeous. She's beautiful. I married her. I stole her away from Mike Seaver. She played Kate McDonald on the show and we
got engaged, we got married. We're now married for 21 years and we have
6 children. And my kids are 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, and 9
years old. So pray for us. We're definitely looking for universities
and colleges and Liberty's pretty attractive right now. I also had the chance to be a part of a special
movie called "Fireproof." How many of you saw that? "Fireproof" is an exciting movie. I think marriage is important, how about you? I know many of you are hoping to meet your
future bride or your future husband right here on the campus of Liberty University. I can't think of a better place to meet them. And I'm all for getting married young, early. I got married when I was 20 years old. Spend as much time with that woman as you
can. As much time with that young man as you can,
and let your marriage continue to grow and mature and develop and become better with
time like a fine wine, just becoming something so beautiful and intoxicating to the world
around you as you release the fragrance of a gospel-centered, mutually-loving and exclusive
nature to your commitment and treasuring of one another. "Fireproof" was all about that. A man who was watching his marriage go up
in flames all the while rescuing burning buildings all around him. And it wasn't until his father stepped in
and tried to help him save his marriage that he realized the problem was not his wife,
his problem was his own selfish heart and he needed to get that right with God first
and then begin trying to win back the heart of his wife before she divorced him. It's amazing to me that a Christian movie
produced by a little church in Albany, Georgia wound up being the number one grossing indie
film of 2008 of all independent films in 2008. It taught me a lesson: marriage is still important. Marriage is the foundation and bedrock of
family and family is critical for civilization and society to exist and to flourish. While I was making the movie, "Fireproof,"
more opportunities came along. Most recently, I had a chance to be a part
of another film; it's a documentary film that I produced for the very first time on my own. I didn't come at it as an actor. I didn't come at it as a politician. I really approached this film as a father,
and just completed this spring. It's called "Monumental: In Search for America's
National Treasure." And while I was promoting that movie, I had
a chance to go on a lot of national television and worldwide television programs: CNN, NBC,
ABC, FOX, a lot of the programs, some of you may have seen the interview that I did with
Piers Morgan on CNN. And you know, sometimes when a Christian is
asked a question and has a conviction about not backing down and wussing out and being
honest about who he is and whose he is, it can get you into some hot water. And it seems that I hit the side of a hornet's
nest when I answered a question. I don't know if any of you have seen those
interviews, but here's a tip. If you ever get the opportunity in your life,
in your career to go on a worldwide television program and sit across the table from someone
with a diametrically opposed world and life view, and stare into the barrels of five loaded
questions, like, "What do you think of homosexuality? What do you think of gay marriage? What do you think of abortion, even in the
cases of incest and rape? What do you think of the Catholic Church having
to pay for contraception against their moral conscience? And who do you think will make the best President
for the next four years?" you should go for it. That will get your heart racing. That will get your blood pumping. What will you do? Will you try to change the subject? Will you worry about being politically correct
or will you stand up and will you bear witness and testimony to the God that loves you and
has saved you? And will you speak the truth in love because
the truth is always love speech; it's not hate speech. The truth communicated with compassion, with
a desire to see people in a right relationship with God, helped and healed and whole, is
the most genuine form of love speech you can give to anyone. Am I right? But you know, I also learned a lesson from
that. And that is that blasphemy laws are still
alive and well in America, and I seemed to have blasphemed the god of political correctness
and they tried to drag me out into the public square and crucify me. Blasphemy laws don't go away. It's just the god who is blasphemed changes. I made the movie, "Monumental," because it
was very important to me to see my kids walk into a world that was safe and blessed and
healthy. You guys are young. I practically qualify for an old guy now and
I'm concerned about the world that you and my children are walking into. When I turn on the news, I see that all signs
say "panic!" It doesn't look good right now in America. Financially, we're 16 trillion dollars in
debt. It's hard to really grasp and get the enormity
of that number. That's not millions, or billions; it's trillions,
and 16 of them. It's almost difficult to even conceive of. Morally, we're unraveling as a nation. I can walk down to the local mall or public
high school and see things there that I'm telling you, when I was your age, was just
unthinkable, and now it's normalized and celebrated and protected. And when you're around for a little while,
and some of us who have been around longer than the rest of us, can see this stark contrast
much more clearly than we can. And when you start to see your hair turn grey
and some wrinkles start to show up on your face, you'll be able to say the same things,
unless you do something about it. And so I made "Monumental," because I want
to do something about it. And when I turned on the news to get some
help, I find that most people are playing the blame game. The right blames the left, the left blames
the right, the rich blame the poor, the poor are blaming the rich, government blames big
business, businesses blaming big government, the church blames Hollywood, and the media
blames religion for all the problems in the world. So with everyone playing the blame game, I'm
not getting a clear picture of what we're supposed to do. And I think, wait a second, maybe it's simpler
than this. Maybe it's as simple as we've just forgotten
what made our country such a great nation in the first place. Maybe we just need to go back, in order to
go forward with the right plan. I brought a short clip of the movie "Monumental"
that I would like for you to watch. Can we play that now? There's nothing like bones to remind you of
your heritage. The set of ideas that is being implemented
and advanced. This capitol at this time is terribly frightening
to people who are students of history. When you look at the Roman Empire, the parallels
to what is going on in America are absolutely frightening. And the question is, are we going to go the
right path ourselves, or are we going to continue down the wrong path so many nations have fallen
into? So my plan was, change my name to Marty McFly,
buy a DeLorean and go back and talk to the men and women who built this country. But since I couldn't do that, I bought a plane
and went to England and began retracing the escape route of the Pilgrims before they were
called Pilgrims, they were called "separatists," and follow them into the dungeons of the castles
they were thrown into, into their underground worship meeting places, so they weren't found
out by King James. King James made a great Bible, but he didn't
make a great king. He was persecuting true believers in his last
and then followed them to Holland where they spent 12 years under the care of their pastor,
John Robinson, and learned all of the nation building techniques they brought with them
on the Mayflower over to the new world. You guy, their culture was in a much worse
state than ours is in now. Darkness was all around them. The king had tripled the debt. The people were, in essence, slaves to a king
who was a tryant on steroids. And guess what? They didn't bury their head in their lap. They didn't tuck their head between their
knees and say, "Oh no, the end is near; Let's just get ready for the end." They got off the defense, got on the offense,
made a 500 year plan, and went and built a new nation. And they brought with them the principles
that we've now become famous for and the things that have made us so successful and prosperous. Things like limiting the powers of government. Right out of Isaiah, they have the principles
of the three branches of government. Electing our own leaders, representatives
to represent us, not having a king at the top tell us what we have to do, and these
will be men and women of character. The free enterprise system, religious and
political freedom, freedom of speech. And you build a nation from the bottom up,
not from the top down. It's from the inside out, beginning with a
transformed heart. This is what made us so unique in all of the
world, you guys! History tells us this. And I wanted to find out: what was the secret
sauce, the recipe, that made America so unique? And let's get back to that. And I was hoping that the forefathers had
enough foresight as Christians to know that we would get off track one day, that we tend
towards selfishness and greed and pride as human beings, and we will get off track. And I was wondering, did they think enough
to leave us a reset button? So we could get back to original factory settings
if the hard drive ever got corrupted, if we ever needed a new operating system. How do we go back? And they did! They left it for us in the form of the largest
granite monument in the United States of America, and it's sitting on top of the hill in Massachusetts,
in Plymouth. And it's 81 feet tall, 180 tons of granite
making it the largest in the United States of America and it spells out a Biblical world
and life view and our forefather's strategy on how to build and sustain a free and just
society under the word of God, and no one's even heard of it. It's hidden behind a forest of trees in a
residential area. And "Monumental," the documentary, puts you
in the footsteps of the Pilgrims, and we land at that monument. And at the top, her name is Faith, she's pointing
to heaven with a star on her forehead, because the Pilgrims believed that wisdom was necessary
and you get it from the one true God of heaven and earth. And His word, which she is holding in her
left hand, it is the Geneva Bible. The first Bible complete in English with chapters,
verses, and study notes that inspired our forefathers to build this new nation. And she is putting her foot on Plymouth Rock. She's supported by four smaller statues, which
represented the way our forefathers envisioned faith working out in the world. You see, faith was not just a personal thing
to them. It wasn't about "how do I save my soul and
get my ticket to heaven?" It was about building a world around you and
heavenizing the earth through your faith. And it was expressed first through the smaller
statue in the one left corner called Morality, and Morality is sitting there with the Ten
Commandments in one hand and the scroll of Revelation in the other hand. This is a state government monument! To her right is the prophet Moses, to her
left inscribed in granite is the Evangelist penning the gospels, because they believed
true morality was not imposed on the outside by a king or a government, or even from your
parents. It had to begin internally through the gospel,
which transforms the heart. When you repent and trust in Christ, you're
made into a new creature, forgiven, accepted and love by God, and now you're empowered
to love the things God loves and you want to do what's right and your standard is the
word of God, no other standard. Once you're changed and you have an idea of
what is good and what is evil, you then formalize those things into law. And that's the second statue on the second
corner, Law. And Law is there with his hands stretched
out in mercy, holding the law book. And his book of law is directly under the
Great Book, which is the Bible, over his head. So a law that man makes must never be in contradiction
or violate the eternal rules of right. And to his right is inscribed Lady Justice
with scales and a sword because she doesn't bear the sword in vain but the laws are just
and the punishment must fit the crime. But to his left is Mercy. And mercy is available to criminals under
this just and merciful system. Once you have laws in a society, you have
civility, not anarchy. And you're not confusing calling good, evil,
and evil, good. And your laws are in place, now you can educate
your children. That's the third statue on the third corner. And it's a mother educating her child, and
she's sitting in victory, because that's how you win. You educate your children. And to her right is Youth and to her left
is an old man named Wisdom, because the Pilgrims believed that you train up a child in the
way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart from it. This is our forefather's strategy. And the old man has a long grey beard, he's
got the Ten Commandments and a Bible on his right hand and to his left, he's holding a
globe, indicating that you are to go in the ways of God, it's a lamp to your feet, a light
to your path, and to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations. And then the fourth corner is the final result;
the fruit of the strategy and his name is Liberty! He's Liberty Man! And he's this strong, young man seated on
his chair with a sword back in it's sheath, chains on his wrists and his ankles are broken,
and there's a big claw over his shoulder that's connected to a lion, and the hide of that
lion is draped over his back. And he has on the helmet and the breastplate
and the sandals and he's defeated the lion of tyranny, which is representative of England
and his eyes are looking out. He's vigilant. He's there to protect and serve his family
and his faith, and you don't mess with him, because these things are precious to him. He's not some passive, religious wimp who
just rolls over and says, "I want to share Jesus with you." He says, "I know who I am and whose I am,
this is my identity, this is my faith, this is my family. Character, love, compassion is of the utmost
importance to me and to our land. And we will call evil, evil, and good, good,
and you have freedom to come here, freedom under our laws and we will teach our values
to our children and to our children's children and you too can enjoy the sweet fruit of freedom
and liberty with us." To his left is his wife. Her name is Peace. You guys, that's the strategy! We've had it for 400 years. We've known the playbook. And we've simply gotten away from running
those plays. If we see the opponents marching down the
field and we're on our own 10-yard-line, we can't complain; we've got to play better. We've got the playbook. Let's listen to the coach and start running
the plays again. It's interesting to me that faith is at the
top of this entire monument and platform that spells out the strategy. And while one of our political parties has
questioned whether or not God should be in the platform, according to our forefathers,
God is the platform! You are the hope of our generation. You are the hope through your faith in Christ
working in partnership with God. Live our your faith and heavenize the earth. God bless you.
