Kathie Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel, co-authors of their second book, "The God of the Way," a companion book for her new film, "The Way," told Newsmax Thursday the projects will allow people to learn more about God and see the Bible stories they've heard in a new way.
"When I was writing this film 'The Way,' I was hoping that people would be so intrigued by what they see and what they learn that they would want to go deeper and find out more details," Gifford said on Newsmax's "National Report." "I mean, you can only tell so much about a story through music and narration in a 1.5-hour period. But Rabbi [Sobel], he takes you deeper and deeper and deeper into what he calls the high definition of the Bible, much more the details and as a result, it just explodes exponentially."
The book is the second collaboration for Gifford and Sobel, and he explained that they "go through these biblical stories of these great men and women. [They each] have a promise attached to their life that applies to us. There's so much hopelessness in this world and hope is rooted in promise, and we want everybody to know there is a promise from God for each and every one of our lives that your future is going to be better than your past.
"And so we're taking people deeper into these stories, past the Sunday school version, and help them to see it in ways they've never seen it before."
The book is being released on Aug. 30, with the movie to hit theaters on Sept. 1, and Gifford said the film's cinematography "is absolutely unbelievable."
"I shot it during COVID, so I couldn't shoot all of it in Israel, but we found places in Utah, places in Texas, places right here in Tennessee that were absolutely perfect for the film," she said. "You'll know a lot of the performers.
"BeBe Winans plays the father in the [story of] the prodigal son and Jimmie Allen, probably the biggest star in country music right now, plays the son. Kathy Troccoli and Larry Gatlin are in it ... it's a fantastic cast, and it basically starts with the dawn of creation."
The book follows all that is in the movie while expanding on it, she said.
"It's hard to explain the film because this has never ever been done before, and that's what excited me about it, too," she said. "That's why I know it wasn't my idea. I did not know how to do what we have just done. But the Holy Spirit knew how and He led the whole way. And it was just an extraordinary experience."
Gifford said she was able to pay for the movie because of the book she and Sobel wrote before, "The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi: My Journey into the Heart of Scriptural Faith and the Land Where It All Began," and she decided that since the book did so well, she wanted to go to Israel and "shoot stories from the Bible with this money."
Sobel said readers can find inspiration from the book because "we live in this world where there is so much chaos and all of us need that promise of a hope and a future and that really is what this book is about ... it's a beautiful book with a great message that I think is really going to encourage people."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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