Documentary
2025 / 127 min
RATING: 8/10
83-year-old Christian author and apologist Os Guinness has assembled quite the cast for his new documentary Truth Rising, which will be free to see online, starting on September 5. The thesis is that civilizations have turning points, and ours is at one now. And we can watch it fall, or we can choose to start speaking up for the truth courageously. To that end, Guinness, along with co-host John Stonestreet, talks to all sorts of cultural warriors, including:
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali – Somalia-born, former Dutch MP, former Muslim, former atheist, and now a grateful Christian.
- David Berlinski – an agnostic intellectual, but best known for his devastating critiques of evolution.
- Jack Phillips – the baker who said no; Phillips would not bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because he knew God wouldn’t want him helping celebrate sin.
- Seth Dillon – CEO of The Babylon Bee, a Christian satire site targeted by Twitter for saying that a guy in a dress is still a guy.
- Konstantin Kisin – known for his YouTube clips, where he takes down the Left quickly and sharply.
While all the guests have demonstrated courage, and all of them are eager to defend the Judeo-Christian foundations of our culture, not all of them are actually Christian. Some, in effect, seem to be arguing for the fruit of the Christian religion without seeing a need for the actual tree. I watched this with a group, and the gentleman next to me was happy to applaud each counter-cultural point made, but kept asking “where’s Jesus?” and “when are they going to talk about Jesus?” He had to wait half the film for it, until Chloe Cole had her turn. She’s a young lady who underwent “gender-affirming care” in her childhood – they told a confused girl that she was actually a boy, and removed her breasts. As an adult she is now a passionate advocate against these medical mutilations… and, as she shared, a passionate follower of Christ.
That got a “hallelujah” from my friend, and I was grateful for it too. Because here, finally, the film stitched together its defense of Christian culture, with giving Christ the glory for it. This film’s notable fault is that it took this long. Telling, I think, is the way that John Stonestreet – as God-glorifying a man as you will ever find – finishes this line “As for me and my house, I choose….”
If you thought he was going to say “the Lord” I was right there with you. That’s how Joshua concluded his address to Israel in Joshua 24:15: “…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” John Stonestreet heads in a slightly different direction: As for me and my house, I choose revival.” This strikes me as a near miss… and the film’s notable flaw. Maybe you think I’m making a bit too much of this. Doesn’t the West need a revival? Yes, it does, but we need to be very clear about what sort of revival we’re looking for. Is it a revival of our culture? Or the Church? To put it another way,
- do we need more people acting more Christian? Loving their neighbor, valuing human life, caring for the elderly, working productively, etc.?
- Or do we need more people turning to God and becoming Christian?
For the majority of the film, the point could easily be understood as being the former rather than the latter. And in our own public witness to the world, aren’t we more likely to sound like Ben Shapiro, or Jordan Peterson than R.C. Sproul? We’ll talk about how unreasonable it is to extend MAiD to the mentally ill, but we won’t talk about how it’s wicked. We’ll talk about how the unborn are valuable, just like you and me, but how often do you hear, in the public square, someone speaking to how the unborn’s worth and ours too, comes from being made in the Image of God? Our culture is falling to pieces, but that’s because we’ve rejected God. And in response to the destruction – elderly being offered death rather than care, babies being torn out of their mothers’ wombs, healthy breasts being cut off – we don’t direct the culture to God, but to reason and sanity. We get so close to giving God the glory… and then pull back.
I loved this film, but like my questioning friend, I was also wondering, “where’s Jesus?” The filmmakers do give Him glory…. eventually. But in turning to non-Christians to give a defense of Christian culture, they also perpetuate the same problem the Church needs to repent of: defending cultural Christianity, or the fruit of faith, or defending the reasonableness of God’s law, but being too timid to name and proclaim Christ Himself.
So, am I saying don’t bother watching this?
Not at all. I think this one could be a great discussion starter. There’s a lot here on the fruits of Christianity that you may never have heard of before. And so many brave men and women worth knowing better. And you can watch it for free!
So watch it with your friends and family and listen and debate. And let me know if you think I’m way off base and far too critical, or if you think I’ve got a point worth considering. You can reach me via our contact form here.
You can see the whole film for free below, and dig into the background of the speakers and find all sorts of other study materials on the website TruthRising.com.
