Within the realm of Christian apologetics, Wesley Huff has had a meteoric rise to prominence after humiliating Billy Carson in a debate, exposing Carson’s intellectual ineptitude. Huff is the Central Canada Director for Apologetics Canada. After the debate, his YouTube channel more than doubled to over 271K from well under 100K subs. This garnered the attention of the world’s most influential podcast host, Joe Rogan, who previously had Carson on his program.
Over the course of three hours, Huff does a fantastic job at representing the Christian faith, not only to Rogan, but to his audience. The conversation begins with a discussion on the debate and Huff’s early childhood, in which he recalls how he was briefly paralyzed—something that gave him the drive in his foray as a track athlete. Then they shift into a multitude of subjects, each becoming more theologically impactful. Huff speaks at length about the nature of ancient languages and the difficulties of studying Ancient Near Eastern languages, which naturally transitions to Huff presenting a strong case for the reliability of the biblical manuscripts. Although it is not novel to address the oldest manuscript of the Gospel of John (P-52), he does so with clarity and after having already established knowledge in other nonbiblical languages. He further presents his argument for the historicity of Christ, to which he asks of Rogan’s opinion of Christ.
Joe Rogan is out there when it comes to matters of religion and is known for indulging more unconventional theories, including those of a spiritual nature. He is certainly a seeker, but his barriers to faith go deeper than arguments over the historicity of the Resurrection. In that sense, he is very Roman, as the Romans would not have considered a man rising from the dead to be a significant wonder and would have viewed Christ as little more than a magician. Hence Paul writes, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:22), of which Rogan is more needing of wisdom than proofs. To little end, he attempted to question whether it was possible for Christ to have survived the crucifixion which Huff easily counters. For Rogan, he needs to understand why the Gospel matters, not just that it is historically accurate. While this might be a deficiency in Huff’s gospel message towards the host, his presentation should resonate well within Rogan’s audience, of which the video has eclipsed over 2.3 million views quickly upon its release on YouTube alone.
On brand for Rogan, the conversation does entertain notions of Egyptian pyramids, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Dark Matter, and supposed human hominids. The latter issue might be a weakness in Huff’s performance, as he leaves wide open the door to alternate creation theologies, like Theistic Evolution or Old Earth Creation. He also used the “Bible isn’t a science book” line which while true, is often used to cover for novel interpretations. It did seem that he lacked knowledge of Dark Matter as he does not take a strong position on its existence or lack thereof. As an aside, Creationists often oppose the existence of Dark Matter since this mystery is used to sustain materialist models of the universe’s origins. Presumably, Huff was selective in his approach to Rogan interview. This would reasonably explain why he did not speak boldly about every subject.
Huff on Jordan Peterson
One of the viral moments from the interview was Huff’s comments on Jordan Peterson’s lack of faith after Joe Rogan posits that Jesus is a moral example.
He describes that Peterson views Jesus as an archetype, speaking with sympathy and appreciation of Peterson. Huff analyzes that Peterson values the “concept of Jesus as an example is more important” than whether Jesus actually lived, died, and rose from the dead. Huff calls this moralism, which he argues Christ condemned within the Pharisees. While his analysis on Peterson is astute, Moralism might not be the best phrase to describe it.
Theologically, Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism would logically reduce Christ’s sacrificial death to merely a moral example since the assertion of free will and the rejection of Original Sin naturally asserts that Man can attain eternal life of his own accord. The reduction of Christ to a moral example was, during the Reformation, seen amongst the Socinians who would influence the Unitarians and Humanists. To this day, this is a very common belief (or logical conclusion) in progressive or universalist churches.
His use of the phrase Moralism might be imprecise, but he is otherwise accurate regarding Peterson’s views of Christ in a succinct phrasing.
Conclusion
Doubtless, The Joe Rogan Experience will continue to elevate Wesley Huff’s profile within the Christian apologetic space. Christianity needs a better class of apologetics, and hopefully, Huff can fill this void. More importantly, Huff was able to present the Gospel to a major audience of primarily young men (18-35), which is the demographic driving the cultural changes underway in America. Contrary to the evangelical elites, he sowed seeds on the most fertile of soil that they had long neglected.
6 Responses
I found Wes because of the BC debate never knowing BC or Wes. The timing imho is God’s. Perhaps in His mercy that none should perish is coming to a close
for our dispensation? Your review is perfect
although, on the “moralism” vs “Theologically, Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism” would have complicated the message of salvation for JR and his audience. JR commented that if he did accept Jesus for who He says He is, in his understanding there would be a lot of other stuff lumped into his confession (I paraphrase JR’s comment) This is an open door that the LORD opened up. Let us all pray for a conversation with Jordon Peterson and that another open-door opportunity would take place very soon.🕊️
“Theologically, Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism would logically reduce Christ’s sacrificial death to merely a moral example since the assertion of free will and the rejection of Original Sin naturally asserts that Man can attain eternal life of his own accord.”
Are you some low IQ black or what? All they are saying is you have the freewill to decide whether you believe the gospel or not when you hear it. They don’t say there was no need for Jesus’ death. I’ve actually read Pelagius’ Commentary on Romans too, which was translated in 1993, unlike you braindead Calvinist imebciles. Stop with your Calvinist demon worship and wake up to reality.
I’ll add on Pelagius (the White Brit) versus Augustine (the black African) that original sin was created by the black Augustine bwcause he saw all the black children were criminals nearly from birth and mistook that as ingeritance from Adama rather than Ham(!) whereas Pelagius being from All White Britain and being a school teacher of White Roman children in Rome saw White children are not born sinners. Its a racial difference. And Augustine was wronf in identifying Adam as the source of his race’s deficiency since its actually Ham. White people who follow Augustine’s theology are not only retarded but also race traitors. Stop asserting that Whies are born sinful; that’s blacks because of Ham.
Everything dave s says is retarded. I realize he’s a troll, so I guess it goes without saying.
Yes. He’s pulling a James White gay op I think.
Certainly not. Different races think different and blacks think different than real Whites. If you want to be a black then believe in original sin which describes how blacks are born criminals. But if you want to be a real White then reject the black theology of the Roman Race Traitors and return to true British Theology with Pelagius; go get a copy of his commentary on Romans.