Podcast host Joe Rogan said it makes sense to him that in order to believe the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God requires both reason and faith.
Rogan and former Navy SEAL Chadd Wright waded into the issue during an interview published Thursday. Wright is the founder of Three of Seven Project, a health and self-improvement program for the body, soul, and spirit.
Wright first addressed how unusual the accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are that are found in the Bible: The son of God took on human flesh and died for the sins of man.
“If it really did happen, it’s the most bizarre way to get a message across,” Rogan agreed.
“What’s more outside of the norm than the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ being, actually, the son of God?” he asked.
“You summed it up well, Joe,” Wright responded.
Rogan continued, saying he always tells people that they can be skeptical of the Bible, but, “if you live that way and you believe that and if you follow those teachings, you will have a better life. There is 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.”
He concluded, “There is truth in the origin of it all.”
Have you read the entire Bible?
Rogan went on to allude to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls starting in 1947 as a basis to trust that what the original authors wrote centuries ago was accurately passed down to the current text of the Bible.
“It is ultimately fascinating that you have something like the book of Isaiah, where they found an older version that they didn’t even know existed. It turns out to be a thousand years older, and it’s verbatim,” he said.
The scrolls all date from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C., meaning that they predate Jesus’ ministry in the 1st century A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls are all Old Testament, like Isaiah.
The book’s 53rd chapter contains a well-known passage in which the prophet foresaw the suffering servant — Jesus Christ — who would die for the sins of mankind.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed,” it reads.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Read Isaiah 53 in its oldest manuscript. ‘The 54 columns contain all 66 chapters of the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Isaiah. Dating from ca. 125 BCE, it is also one of the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some one thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts of the… pic.twitter.com/TMoLA7MdHg
— Daniel Nessim (@dnessim) September 20, 2023
Wright told Rogan, “If what I’m saying is correct, in terms of what I believe about scripture, ultimately there has to be some divine influence over the preservation of those scriptures. … It would be the only way for the scriptures in their original language to be truly the word of the Almighty to man. The complete revelation of the Almighty to man.
“It does involve an aspect of faith,” he acknowledged. “We have to believe the Almighty is influencing man through the power of his Spirit in the man to write the things that the man wrote.”
Otherwise, it’s just the apostle Paul and 40 or so other authors writing their opinions, Wright argued.
He continued, “If we’re saying that the Bible is truly the perfect revelation of God to man, we have to understand that the source of all of that did not come from man. In some way, it was wrought by God through man, if that makes sense.”
“It does make sense,” Rogan answered. “And that is the ultimate truth where it all started from.”
Regardless, the podcast host pointed to the limits of human reason in trying to discern if the Bible is true.
“That’s where the skeptical person steps in and says, ‘Well, this is ridiculous. … You have to believe in faith, because logically it doesn’t make any sense,’” Rogan said.
“And so the problem with that is you’re making this assumption that the human mind is flawless and that it can perceive truth, regardless of your learned experiences, regardless of what you know about the world,” he added.
Rogan revealed recently that he has been attending church, but it’s not clear whether he’s decided to follow Jesus yet; however, he appears to be getting close.
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