Transcription
Joe Rogan just said something that could make even the most committed atheists stop in their tracks. It's a single sentence, but it flips the whole conversation about God on its head.
"Like, if you were going to if you're going to demand faith of someone, you would."
And right after saying it in front of millions of listeners, Rogan admitted there's one command of Jesus he struggles with more than anything else.
"Like, imagine trying to explain that to people. They'd be like, 'What are you talking about? There's this guy, his name is Jesus.'"
But before we get into that guys, my name is Rouslon. If you're new here or if you're not new here, hey, thank you for tuning in. I've been following Jesus for about 25 years. And the commander Joe Rogan talks about in this video is actually one of the things that I struggled with as well when I came to the faith through the door of apologetics, knowing the good reasons there are for why it is reasonable to be a Christian. And this channel is an overflow of that.
Before I did YouTube professionally, I did music professionally from 2015 to 2020. Prior to that, I worked at a church. And so I wanted to create media and music and art and all that sort of stuff that encourages, empowers, and inspires people to live a life that blesses God. And so here we accomplish that with things like these YouTube videos, podcasts, live events, and Superfly apparel. But more on that later. So if you're new here, not new here, consider hitting that subscribe button. Let's jump into this video.
So in episode 2558, Joe Rogan hosts Navy Seal Chad Wright and he is, man, unapologetic about his faith. He's sharing his testimony. They're talking about Parsy Sproul and our buddy Wes and is at this point Rogan opens up again about his evolving view with faith and Jesus. But he adds a quote here that I found extremely interesting. Take a listen.
"Like that is the gift. That element of faith. That's the gift that I treasure more than anything else in I that I have in my life. But it's still tough. Remember I told you I'd have doubts sometimes."
"Of course. Well, that's where the skeptical person steps in and says, 'Well, this is ridiculous. It's all based on you have to believe in faith because logically it doesn't make any sense.'"
And so this is the problem with that is that you're making this assumption that the human mind is flawless and that it could perceive truth regardless of your learned experiences, regardless of what you know about the world. You could see truth even if it's a completely unique thing. You can know that it doesn't exist. Like there's no way. There's no way you know. And if it is a puzzle, what greater puzzle than you have to believe something that defies logic? Like if you were going to if you're going to demand faith of someone, you would deliver it in a way that this only way to buy into this is you have to get past your logic. You have to abandon it and you have to believe something that you've been told is impossible.
Now, in a moment, Rogan is actually going to give the steelman for the opposite of that. Let me just pause here and add a couple thoughts. I love that he is understanding that faith is a degree of trust that is often against our logic. The things that we have been conditioned to believe within the laws of nature are often in contradiction with the faith claims of scripture and following a god that is supernatural. Meaning that the story of Jesus, scripture, the idea that there is a god in general is beyond the natural realm. it is a supernatural argument. But oddly enough, that's actually where the atheist or agnostic get it wrong is they come from this presupposition that nothing supernatural can happen. So they're only arguing within the realms of the natural.
Now Rogan is right in that we have to go beyond our logical brain because our logical brain makes sense of what's happening in the natural. But that doesn't mean there aren't good and reasonable reasons to believe the claims of Jesus and ultimately why the Christian worldview makes the most sense of reality. Meaning that you may have something that doesn't make sense in the natural yet it's still reasonable. So now check out Joe Rogan in a way say the same thing.
"My answer like a good preacher one day man"
"my answer to that is isn't everything impossible? This is the problem with that. The problem is Terrence McKenna once said that science only demands of you one miracle. That's the big bang. If you believe in one miracle, everything else it says it can explain with materialist science. The the miracle of the big bang is way crazier to believe than the resurrection of a a human being. That's that seems more logical. It seems more plausible. People live, people die, maybe people come back to life. I'll buy that more than the entire universe is smaller than the head of a pin and through no process that anybody is adequately explained becomes everything."
"Oh, that that is just chef's kiss."
So, in arguing that faith is not always logical, Rogan makes a logical argument for why the claims of the bodily risen Jesus make more logical sense. Because the alternative theory is that you have a virgin universe. Meaning that the universe comes from nothing and creates everything. That that is the one miracle that atheist, agnostics, so on and so forth demand that you believe and then they can explain away the rest of reality. But did you know there's actually three more miracles that atheists, all atheists have to believe that they can't explain?
So the first is everything came from nothing. We as followers of Jesus say everything came from a creator. The second is orderly universe comes from chaos. No, we believe that order comes from order. The third is that life somehow comes from non-life. We believe life comes from life. And the fourth miracle is that consciousness comes from mindless matter. Well, as followers of Jesus, we believe that consciousness, which science is still having trouble explaining quite what it is, consciousness comes from a mind.
So Rogan is absolutely right that there's a miracle that all atheists have to believe to make sense of the universe. But it's even crazier than that. There's three other miracles they all believe. And that's the entire concept of our brand new collection, the miracles we all believe collection. This shirt I'm wearing right here actually outlines those four miracles with the strikeout of the false miracle and that ultimately everything comes from the creator. So head over to blesscot.shop as it's available for a limited time. Highquality, awesome message. When you put these on, you remind yourself the miracles that are true and you also make a statement that often turns into a pretty interesting conversation about these sorts of miracles that we all believe when you're out in public.
So now let's jump back into Rogan's thoughts on Jesus. He's clearly moved towards a biblical worldview and potentially following Jesus unapologetically, but there's still a couple of hang-ups. Now, let me just let the record show. We've been documenting Joe Rogan's evolution with faith and Jesus for about 3 years now. So, it's really cool to see this come into fruition and him being more and more overt. But here is the thing that still seems to be hanging him up with regards to one of the commands of Jesus that like I said, I've related to as well. It's the problem with unique experiences that are completely outside of the norm.
Well, what's more outside of the norm than the resurrection of Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ being actually the son of God? Like, imagine trying to explain that to people. They'd be like, "What are you talking about? Does this guy, his name is Jesus?" Like, shut the up. Like, what are you in a multi-level marketing scheme? Like, what are you talking about, man? This guy want money from you? No, no, no, no, man. It's not like that. Like, okay. Right. But if it really is true, you would be stuck. You'd be stuck with this story. And you can't leave that part out. No, you're you're commanded to tell the entire story. So you have this conundrum, right?
"This is part is going to sound crazy, but"
"you summed it up well, Joe."
So it is kind of crazy when you think about it. You're having to anchor your entire worldview on a supernatural event by a supernatural deity, God man, Jesus Christ. However, again, is it reasonable? Well, CS Lewis made famous the Lord, liar, lunatic argument for who Jesus is. And if you've never heard it, it's fascinating. CS Lewis basically says that you have three options with Jesus's identity based on his claims and what his followers believed and said about him.
The first is that Jesus was a liar. That he went around lying to people about his identity as a son of God, about his uh identity as being one with the father. The second is that he was a lunatic. It was crazy how many people today you walk through a homeless encampment or somewhere where people have mental health issues that also claim to be Jesus that also claimed to be God that also claim all kinds of crazy stuff claim to be aliens. Who knows? So the second option is that Jesus was a lunatic. He was out of his mind. And the third option, which I think is the most reasonable option, is that Jesus was who he claimed to be. That he was Lord. You don't get any other option. He can't just be a good teacher because someone who's good can't be a lunatic or a liar. Can't just say that he was a great philosopher and that he was an example because someone that's a good philosopher and example can't be a liar and a lunatic. So, you're kind of cornered from an objective standpoint of who was Jesus? He was either a lunatic, he was potentially a liar, or he's the son of God. He really is who he claimed to be.
Now Joe Rogan is right that we are commanded to share this good news. This is one of the last things Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. This is post-resurrection. Matthew 28 Jesus says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." Jesus makes it clear that we are commanded to not just make disciples and baptize people, but to also teach them to obey everything that he has commanded us. Everything he's commanded the disciples to walk in the fullness of who God has for us is on the other side of obedience.
And what Joe Rogan says next shows where he really seems to be landing with Jesus. And if I'm honest, as someone that's been tracking his journey and been a fan of his podcast for years and years and years, it's really inspiring to see. Check it out.
"But I always tell people, uh, look all that, look at it, but also know that if you live that way and if you believe that and if you follow those teachings, you will have a better life. There's something to it. There's a reason why people have been doing it. There's a reason why true Christians are some of the nicest, most compassionate, friendliest, charitable people that you'll ever meet. There's something to it. There's something to it. There's a there's an or the origin of it all. There's there's truth in the origin of it all. It's just trying to figure out what it means."
Now, Rogan is absolutely right. If you look at the data in terms of the people who are the most generous, the most charitable, who end up having the highest rates of uh success in their marriage, even most rates of satisfaction in their intimacy, it's all Christians, practicing Christians, people that go to church regularly and live out their faith.
So this time he kind of switches up with this comment. Meaning that before he says stuff like, "Man, if you just live by the rules, if you just do the things that Jesus commands, the things that the scripture teaches." But in this example, he actually changes it. He says, "If you believe and live by the rules,
"but if you live that way and if you believe that and if you follow those teachings, you will have a better life."
Did you catch it that time? If you live that way and you believe that and follow those teachings, you will have a better life. Now, a better life, just to be clear, doesn't mean that there won't be suffering and trouble and issues we deal with. We all will. Jesus said that in this life you will have trouble. But Jesus also said in John 10:10, one of my favorite verses, that the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come to give you life and life and abundance. And that word life there is that Zoe life, that abundant life, that full life. And Rogan, I think, is absolutely getting that right. that when you live by Jesus's ways and you believe who Jesus is and the fact that he died for your sins and rose on a third day and reestablished a proper setting for us and the father because of his atoning work on the cross that when you live out the overflow of that you will have a better life. You will have a more abundant full life. Doesn't mean it won't be without trouble. It doesn't mean it will be without stress. Doesn't mean you're just going to magically float to heaven because Jesus died for your sins. No, no, no. We still have work to do on this side of eternity. But it does mean that we will have peace. We will have a sense of serenity. We will have a sense of joy that can't be quantified by how the world measures happiness and success.
So I want to know your thoughts. Does it seems like Rogan is there? Does it seems like he's right on the cusp? But everything said here, I think anchor is on the reality that miracles are possible. And again, that's the collection that we just released. Miracles we all believe. You can go to blessgod.shop, hit the pin comment, check it out. It's available for a limited time. I think you'll love it. quality apparel that helps you be a representation of your faith when you're out and about. So, head over to blesscgod.shop, get yours now and check out this video of Wes Huff explaining how he even ended up on the Joe Rogan podcast. All right, I'll see you over there.