Blaze Exclusive: 'Monumental' Producer Kirk Cameron Details His Journey From Atheism to Christ

Actor Kirk Cameron has been more than open about his concern for America's future. That's why he produced "Monumental," a documentary feature film that delves deeply into the nation's moral and social fabrics to seek solutions to help guide the U.S. back on course. Earlier this week, The Blaze spoke exclusively with Cameron about his faith and his recent film project; on Friday, the filmmaker also appeared on Glenn Beck's television show, where he promoted the documentary.

In a candid conversation with The Blaze, Cameron recapped his personal path from atheism to evangelical Christianity. While this is a tale many Americans can relate to, the actor's personal testimony takes some intriguing twists and turns as a result of his Hollywood career.

While Cameron said he wasn't into drugs or alcohol before becoming a Christian and that people wouldn't have necessarily dubbed him as wild, he explained that as a 15-year-old teen idol, the world revolved around him. Instead of being a follower of the Almighty, Cameron describes himself as an atheist during his pre-Christian years.

"You know, sometimes I say a little tongue and cheek...I'd still be an atheist today if it wasn't for God," he joked when asked to share details about his faith walk. "Ultimately, I wasn't looking for God. I adamantly denied his existence until I was 18 years old."

Cameron explained that his worldview began to change when he was dating a young woman who took him to church with her. The "Growing Pains" actor described how the experience caused him to start questioning whether God does indeed exist.

"At that time I was asking a lot of questions -- what happens when you die? How do you know this isn't a great, big dream? How did life come from non-life?," he said. "After going to church I started asking this girl's father a lot of questions."

These questions, of course, eventually led Cameron to fully embrace Christianity. One day, though, before this transformation was complete, he recounted an instance in which he was sitting in his car and thinking over what he calls his "ultimate appointment with God."

"Realizing I was part of the ultimate statistic -- 10 out of 10 people die -- I was sitting in my sports car...thinking -- if I pulled out and died...and others were correct..if there was a God and a heaven, I knew I wouldn't be going," he recalled. "I had never so much as said 'thank you' to my creator...and I certainly had been living a very blessed life."

These streaming thoughts led Cameron to officially see the difference between faith and empty, hollow religion. As he considered his own path and his failure to acknowledge God and juxtaposed it against the reality he was confronted with while visiting church and studying the faith, he made the decision to change his life.

"The more and more I questioned, the more I looked into the person of Christ -- I just became more and more drawn toward the biblical explanations of these things," he continued. "I began going to a couple of different churches, reading the Bible and [it] came alive to me. It just fit like that last piece of the puzzle."

Christianity is a faith system that requires -- to the ire of many who oppose its tenets -- that one "die in him or herself." This essentially means that believers must adhere to Biblical principles, while working diligently to be more like Jesus Christ and less like one's "self" (i.e. it is essential for adherents to work against the sin that Christian doctrine alleges is inherent in human nature). Cameron detailed this notion when discussing his own transformation from atheism to Christianity.

"I wanted to be who God created me to be -- not who I wanted to be," he explained.

Today, Cameron's faith walk is starkly different from the atheistic inclinations he held during his teen and young adult years.

"I can't breathe without God," he said. "[My family and I] go to a great little community church and we've got about 100 people [there]. We go to a tiny little church which we love because it's more of a family of people."

When it comes to his six children (four of whom he and his wife, Chelsea Noble, adopted), Cameron has chosen home schooling. The kids' spiritual education, he explained, comes from him and his wife. And these Christian teachings, he hopes, will have a lasting impact on his family.

"We trust God that when they're older, they won't be far from it," he said. "More than anything we want to teach our children to love. Forget the external. Is Jesus precious to you? Do you understand what he did for you and why you're here on this earth? Then faith becomes unstoppable."

As The Blaze has extensively reported, Cameron has carried his personal faith over to the big screen with his film, "Monumental." The documentary, which the actor describes as his "first solo project," has everything to do with his love for America -- and his family.

"I made this as a father of six children," Cameron explains. "I made it because with six kids -- I'm really focusing on the future for my children and wondering what the future's going to be like for [them]. I look around and all signs point to panic."

In setting out in an effort to find "the recipe that built America out of darkness," the actor-turned-producer believes that his project may be able to help the nation move forward.

Cameron reiterated these same ideas in an interview with Beck that aired on Friday evening.

"There is something truly sick in the soul of our nation and...we're headed down a road that we need to get off of," Cameron told Beck regarding the motivation behind his creation of "Monumental." "There is this heavy sense of urgency that now is the time that we need to do this. We can't wait."

In previous interviews, Cameron explained the film, which tracks his efforts to re-trace the Pilgrims’ escape route out of England to Holland and, eventually, to America. Additionally, he has promoted the need for both internal and external liberty in order to restore America to greatness.

Watch Cameron's most recent appearance on Beck's television program:

"We can't simply sit back and lament the darkness and put our head between our knees and wait for the end...you'll create a self fulfilling prophesy," he claimed in his discussion with The Blaze. "Those who sit on the fence get injured."

It is this lesson that Cameron hopes viewers of the film will take away from it. And "Monumental" won't be the last feature film to come from the actor. He's already laying plans out for a follow-up that digs even deeper, doing back to the Roman Empire to discover more far-reaching historical roots.

Even though "Monumental" was a one-night only event last Tuesday in theaters across America, Cameron is urging viewers to go to DemandTheMovie.com to request that the film be shown in their cities. On Friday, select locations in cities across the U.S. began including the film in theater lineups.