He is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and songwriter who came to prominence by writing the screenplay for the 1995 film “Braveheart”. He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay Adapted Directly for the Screen for this film. He has also directed “The Man in the Iron Mask”, “Pearl Harbor”, “We Were Soldiers”, and “Secretariat”. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and the lyricist of the acclaimed hymn “Mansions of the Lord” which was performed as the closing music for President Ronald Reagan’s national funeral. He is currently working alongside Bishop T.D. Jakes to produce the family drama, “Heaven Is for Real”.
He says of his faith, “I grew up in a Christian home in Tennessee. My mother and father, along with my grandparents and my Aunt Betty, founded a church in the front room of their farmhouse, and that church is thriving even now. We went to church at least ten hours every week—Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, Wednesday night prayer meetings, Sunday school, Training Union, choir practice. During revivals those hours doubled. The amount of preaching I heard in those days seemed endless, but what affected me most in those services was the Bible itself, and the hymns. Baptists are big on both. The person who most embodied God’s love to me was my Grandmother Page. Everyone who ever knew her recognized that she heard the voices of the angels. When I was small and suffered from asthma, she would hold me in her lap all night long and sing to me. When we went to tent revivals and sang “The Old Rugged Cross” together, and I saw tears rolling down her face, I knew I might never have the purity of her soul, but I would always cling to that cross.”
He further says, “I am a Christian, no matter what else I do. I could change my name to something else, but I would not become someone else. My Christian identity doesn’t depend on my earning the title; the start of my journey as a Christian is my certainty that I don’t merit the love of God and I have it anyway—just as I am, without one plea.” Often crediting his Christian faith as an influence on his approach to filmmaking, he said, “If we call a man a Christian doctor, deep sea diver, or dogcatcher, we’d expect that he did his work the best he could, maybe even with special care for excellence. When we ask if someone is a Christian writer/director, we might become suspicious that he was trying to spread not simply the love God has given him, but his own theories about God and that love. I studied theology; I have many theories. But I believe in none of them. I believe that the death of Jesus of Nazareth opened a door to love and life that are, quite literally, a union with God. I don’t understand it, but Jesus didn’t ask for my understanding. He just said “Follow me,” gave up his life, and rose from the dead. So I try to follow. I’m not trying to spread my dogma. I’m trying to live my experience that God loves me, and the only way I can follow is by loving others.” His name is Randall Wallace.
This is the “Chief of Sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, and just as Randall Wallace gave her life to Christ, may I encourage you to do the same. Here is how:
First, please understand that you are a sinner and that you have broken God’s laws. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Please understand that because of your sins, you deserve punishment in hell. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death…” This is both physical death and spiritual death in hell.
But here is the good news. John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The phrase “For God so loved the world” means that if you are in this world, God loves you no matter what you have done.
The next phrase, “that He gave His only begotten Son” refers to Jesus Christ. He is God’s son who suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins and for mine, and He was buried and rose again.
Our next phrase is “that whosoever believeth in Him”. The word “whosoever” means anybody at anytime. The phrase “believeth in Him” means to trust in Him, to depend upon Him, to rely on Him, or to have faith in Him for your salvation.
Our next phrase, “should not perish”, refers to eternal punishment in a place called hell.
And, lastly, the phrase “but have everlasting life” means to live eternally in Heaven with God.
The Bible also says in Romans 10:9 and 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Dear friend, if you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, please pray with me this simple prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.
If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour!
Remember, friend, Believe by faith. Share the faith. and Keep the faith!