Semler is a queer artist and is a newcomer to the Christian music scene, gaining some publicity after her profanity-laced album briefly held the top spot on iTunes Christian and Gospel charts. Last year she toured with Relient K, the queer-affirming former Christian band, gaining prominence and visibility. She also recently wrote the “world’s gayest worship song” after channeling the hurt of someone who “broke my heart for Jesus.”
Semler’s real name is Grace Semler Baldridge. She’s a non-binary lesbian married (now divorced?) to a woman while purposefully altering her appearance to look like a man—giving the impression she’s about one upper chest surgery from becoming transgender. And no, she’s not really a Christian.
Ticking off all the boxes you’d expect to see from a woman with her haircut, last year she raged against the ruling to overrule Roe v Wade, tweeting out a link where people could give to nearly 90 pro-choice abortion funds, then pleaded to be considered for “Best New Artist” at the 53rd annual Dove Awards, an event she ultimately attended.
She also has a new single coming out on June 8, her song ‘Faith’, which she wrote on the way back from that award show. Seemingly about the disappointment she feels about the unjust & unloving way she’s treated in the Christian music industry, some of the lyrics include:
When my religion turned against me They said my hopes and dreams are faulty I showed the holes inside my hands And they claimed they couldn’t see So I’ve been walking with a blindfold Towards the promise of revival And it’s not the one you preach It’s the one we need
You got me singing Hallelujah and I don’t even want to do it I’m just trying to be free We’re just dying for some peace
But I still have faith When you call my name. Never been the same I still have faith How you comfort me. When they come for me Call that mercy
Semler is hoping the song goes viral so she can have the “opportunity to do the funniest thing ever to Christian radio this month.”
Jason David Frank, best known as the Green Power Ranger who appeared in multiple series over the last 30 years, has died of suicide at the age of 49. He is survived by his estranged wife and 4 children.
Apart from his movie career and frequent appearances at Comic cons, as well as a feature in the 2013 documentary ‘American Jesus’ he would go on to found “Jesus Didn’t Tap, a ‘Christian-based Mixed Martial Arts brand in 2014, whose website has been defunct for many years. Frank also tattooed the expression on his arm, explaining:
That means he didn’t quit, he didn’t give up – tap out. He could have tapped, snapped any time. He could have just called thousands and thousands of angels if he wanted to… ‘Tap out’ is an expression I can give mentally and physically, I give up, I give up. He never did that.”
It is unclear to what extent Frank continued in the faith over the last few years. A few brief interviews about his faith in God were conspicuously absent any substance and theology and a prolific presence on several Instagram pages reveals all content is either self-promotion of self-help schtick about the power of believing in yourself and law-of-attraction lite. At the time of his death, he was going through a bitter divorce, with court papers accusing the star of adultery and intolerable cruelty.
Christian Apologist Tyler Vela, the host of the Freed Thinker Podcast, has announced his ‘deconversion’ from Christianity after becoming disillusioned with God following a painful divorce where he did not feel the comfort of God, resulting in his loss of faith.
The announcement comes the same week that Cameron Bertuzzi, host of the YouTube channel ‘Capturing Christianity’ declared his apostasy in leaving the Christian faith for the corrupt clutches of the Roman Catholic Church.
Vela, who recently graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with a Master’s in Biblical Studies, specialized in debating atheists and defending Calvinism and the Doctrines of Grace, frequently appearing as a guest on many apologetic channels and pages. He explains:
For the past two years, I’ve been on somewhat of a roller coaster with God and faith and religion. And that trajectory while having some up swings, has been generally downward and away from any religious faith or commitment..
At this time no longer feel comfortable identifying as a Christian, at least not in the intrinsic, evangelical or religious sense. ‘Philosophical theists’, sure, possibly even ‘theistic humanist of the Renaissance variety’, even a ‘theologically conservative reformed philosophical theist’ at that as confounding as that may sound to many who are in the know and reformed or even just systematic theology.
..I fought for a long time against the growing tide of doubts and reservations and honestly, apathy and discontent, but found at the end of the day, that the more I fought, the more acute they became. Like an existential Chinese finger trap for which the more I struggled to free myself from, the worse it became.
Vela says that the news does not come on account of “unrepentant sin or addiction” or because he became disenfranchised by the Calvinism he was known to profess and defend, but rather because he stopped believing after God was silent after his divorce.
I’m definitely not an atheist. No, I don’t hate the Bible. I don’t think religion poisons everything or any of that nonsense. I lost my faith, not my brain, I still find Christianity and the Bible to be beautiful, meaningful to the human experience and in some significant sense true. But I just cannot remain tethered to the mast and pretend that I can, want to, or will order my life by the narrow precepts, though, its general equity is admirable
Vela pushes back on the idea that he’s only saying these things because he’s in a bad place:
However, many seem to think that I’m in a bad place now, that somehow this is a ‘right now’ decision because they think that I’m currently struggling. They want to pray for me and hope I find peace in this struggle and turmoil ‘right now’. That’s just an inaccurate. I’m actually in a really good and healthy place, probably the most peaceful, healthy and holistically happy place I’ve been.
I’ll make my feeble attempt to explain below, but my deconversion is happening, almost because my faith was of no value or help during the crisis I went through (his divorce). And so as I’ve healed and grown, I found it to be something that did not fit me anymore, something that was not authentic to myself. Like when you’ve lost weight and are more healthy, but then none of your clothes fit right anymore and are actually uncomfortable to wear.
As far as specifics, Vela reveals that God never helped him or heal him through his divorce, and because of this, he came to view his faith as a toxic relationship, where he loved God, but was never loved back or shown any affection or care.
My divorce wasn’t the cause or even the reason for my deconversion- it was more like a catalyst, not the cause. I didn’t lose my faith because I got divorced. Like, ‘God, if You’re real, I wouldn’t be divorced’. Now that would be shallow and honestly a silly reason. I mention my divorce because it’s an event that made me rip off a bunch of bandaids and come out of hiding. To confront a lot of very sinful and shameful aspects about myself in my life. My divorce forced me to confront myself and how I handled abuse and infidelity and how being a victim of circumstance had changed me into someone I didn’t recognize and I was ashamed of being.
What was weird, however, was that the more I healed and became more confident and at peace with who I am, I also noticed that the ministerial promises of the Bible seemed further and further from reality for me. That tension bothered me. A very strong cognitive dissonance set in. I begged and cried and asked God to get to make me more like Jesus, to love him more, to know him more to have the Spirit convict me, etc. But the more I did that, the less faith I had, because it started to feel that those are things that I shouldn’t have to beg God for. like a child shouldn’t have to beg their parents for love or care. They should not have to beg for a loaf of bread instead of a rock of fish instead of a poisonous serpent. My faith was diminished.
For those who seem to think that I’m letting feelings drive actions, ask yourself, What do you mean, as a Christian, when you say that God is your comfort? Is God your comfort? If you’re in fact, not comforted? Is it too emotional to desire to be like Christ?
He continues:
…It seemed to me that if God did not want me near him, or did not see fit to comfort me, why should I keep fighting for it? I had a painful tension between how strong my head believed the theology and what I thought the Bible affirmed, and how much, or rather how vanishingly little faith I had left, if any at all.
…I get the nobility of striving against sin and the devil and fighting for the kingdom and all that and never giving up. But should I have to fight for a relationship with God, especially if the promises are true that he is to be our comforter, our rock, our place of great shelter, the lover of our souls?
...I find myself almost saying back to God in his own words, if my child was saying that they didn’t even know if I loved him, and was begging to know me and to be near me. I wouldn’t hesitate to comfort him in ways that he felt comforted. If me being fallen and broken and sinful, as a father know that, how much more should you my heavenly Father. And yet that comfort never came.
…At some point, it almost felt like the toxic relationships we hear about where someone’s always demanding love and devotion, but never returns the favour. Says they love you, but doesn’t actually show you that you can have any value to them. But that’s just it. Right? I would expect on the Christian message…. something.
Surely something from my heavenly father who’s supposed to infinitely love and care for and protect and uphold his children, surely God would know what would at least be noticeable to me, right? Enough to keep me from walking out. I wasn’t expecting grand miracles or healing. I wasn’t praying for stuff or things for prosperity, or even for favourable circumstances. I just wanted him just like He promised. And God could have, just like I would for my sons, but crickets. For years, crickets.
With Josh Duggar found guilty and facing 20 years in prison for possessing and receiving child pornography- a sentence he will hear the outcome of in April 2022- his family has reacted to the news with a dismay and sad acceptance, with most asking for prayer for his wife Anna and their seven children that will be left without a father, possibly for decades, along with his many victims.
Of particular note is that many of the statements are deeply theological in nature. This is on account that many are professing Christians, either pastoring or attending conservative Christian churches.
Ben Seewald is a pastor of a small Baptist church in Arkansas. He and his wife Jessa (Duggar) believe in the Doctrines of Grace, and are frequently found quoting Charles Spurgeon, RC Sproul, John Calvin, and others. They write:
Jeremy Vuolo is a pastor who is currently attending Master’s Seminary in California, under pastor John MacArthur. His wife Jinger (Duggar) was baptized a few months ago at Grace Church, with her writing “I came to realize that although I was baptized at the age of 11, I didn’t really come to know and love Jesus until I was 14 years old. On Sunday, I was able to publicly declare that I have been joined to Jesus Christ in his life, death, and resurrection.” They brought the bible to bear on the situation.
Derick and Jill Dillard are both professing Christians and brought the scriptures as well, describing the trial as a type of’ funeral.’
Amy Duggar, their cousin, has been openly critical of Josh the entire time, and made her feelings known.
Last is a statement from the family’s patriarch and matriarch, who professed their love for their son, their desire to continue to pray for him, prayers for victims of Child Sexual Abuse Material, and for their daughter-in-law.
Mikhaila Peterson, daughter of famed Psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, revealed on her October 1, 2021 podcast, in conversation with Seamus Coughlin, a devout Roman Cathlolic, artist, animator and creator of ‘Freedom Toons’ that she ‘found God’ and tells of her conversion story.
It’s an interesting story, but there are more than enough red flags that we ought to be cautious with her profession of faith. Bare theism won’t do it it, but rather repetence of sins, faith in the biblical Christ, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and ongoing sanctification are needed.
Still, this is worthy of much prayer, and shows a fascinating “working out” of a new believer who isn’t immersed in a solid Church with solid and biblically faithful instruction.
I can talk about this because I haven’t talked about it before, but I grew up with dad so I learned a lot about the psychological significance of the bible, the YouTube series, and it was always kind of through that lens, like metaphors. And then I had way too many really absurd experiences that I couldn’t wrap my head around, where I was like, my life doesn’t make any- this doesn’t make any sense. This doesn’t make any sense. This is too weird, too coincidental and that happened for five years like every day.
Then I had some rough experiences over the summer. And about a month ago, I would say- I think I think I can say this- I would say I found God, which I haven’t before. Like I didn’t, I definitely haven’t before. And it was very sudden. I’m pretty new to this, and what I’ve been doing for the last month or so is reading the Bible and praying for it, I guess in a way that’s more like Protestant, probably.
And it’s been the like, the amount of peace that I’ve had, I haven’t had before. It’s completely absurd. I can’t believe it.
…I was looking forward to talking to you (Seamus) because my mom practices catholicism, and I haven’t really understood it very well. Because I felt like part of it was kind of, I don’t want to say vindictive, but I felt like there was a punishing element to it so that if you do something wrong, it’s like, you know, repent and kind of punish yourself, and I feel like with my type of brain I have enough guilt in me that I punish myself enough for anything I maybe even don’t even do that wrong. So I wasn’t very attracted to the whole catholicism thing because I thought there was a punishment element.
So I had this one day where I was worrying about… four really important parts of my life, and all of them were going really badly, like, in ways where I was like, ‘What am I- Am I not trying hard enough? Like what more can I do? I can’t do more to fix these four major problems.’
And then I met somebody and he’s Christian. And he was like, ‘Well, how are you managing with all these problems?’ And I was like, ‘I’m really not managing well.’ Like I’m working, and I’m keeping it together, but I don’t feel good. And I used to be clinically depressed, and it wasn’t depression. I just wasn’t feeling good.
And he was like, ‘well, that’s why you need God’. And I said okay, well that’s fine and dandy. It’s nice when somebody comes up to you and is like ‘well you need God’ because how are you supposed to wrap your head around that?
I was like, yeah, okay, maybe that sounds great, but I don’t know how to get there. And he said, ‘Just beg for him to reveal himself. Like- that’s what he said,- ‘ask him to reveal Himself to you.’
And so I went home that night, and I was was pretty upset about these four major problems. And I was in bed so I was praying, like seriously praying, like, ‘please give me some sort of sign, please reveal Himself to you.’ And the next day, all four problems cleared up in ways that made sense. It was a lot like they could have cleared up, but the likelihood of all four of them clearing up randomly that day was just too much.
So that happened. And I also woke up with this sense of calm I hadn’t felt- like the sense of calm right here. (points to heart) And that was enough. I was like, Okay, that’s good. That’s good enough for me.’
So it was kind of like a ‘click’ there, which is different for me. I’ve been talking about it on the podcast a little bit and bringing people on and talking to my mom but nothing clicked. So it was really sudden ‘click’ and then everything was great for about two weeks, so I was praying I was reading the bible, I was like ‘this is fantastic. Everything’s working out’ and then two weeks later, (there was a) little thought that was like ‘am i being silly?’ There are actual more logical explanations for why things turned around.
And that happened, and then I had two just miserable days. It was like ‘what is happening?’ Why do I feel this existential horror again, which I would differentiate from depression. Because I’ve been depressed before- this was really like existential angst. So it’s not like I’d stopped reading the bible or stopped praying, but I was just a little bit more removed from it and so I went back to it and then I had the most wild dream.
I was I talking to my parents about this and being like, ‘I think I found God, like isn’t that crazy?‘ And I went to sleep that night and I wokeup at 5:30 in the morning and I had a dream, and this loud thundering voice just yelled “Do it!” in the dream. And I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and was like ‘I think I just got yelled at by God. I think that just happened.’
That’s what it felt like. What does that mean ? What does it mean? So I had kind of a rough morning.. I was like ‘I don’t know what this means. Is that really what happened?’ And then it occurred to me that I think what it meant was ‘just go all in, don’t do this like 75% in. Anyway so it’s been a wild month. I’m doing really well, it’s just i’m a little bit shocked.
Justin Bieber recently granted a long-form interview to Zach Baron of GQ Magazine, spending nearly the whole thing talking about his faith and beliefs and the transition from the world’s biggest musical artist whose life was in shambles, to a stable, growing family man and husband. A few things worth highlighting.
On his marriage. How his wife is a “strong, consistent, stabilizing force in his life,” and how it has grounded him.
“The first year of marriage was really tough, because there was a lot, going back to the trauma stuff. There was just lack of trust. There was all these things that you don’t want to admit to the person that you’re with, because it’s scary. You don’t want to scare them off by saying, ‘I’m scared.’ ”
…[now] we’re just creating these moments for us as a couple, as a family, that we’re building these memories. And it’s beautiful that we have that to look forward to. Before, I didn’t have that to look forward to in my life. My home life was unstable. Like, my home life was not existing. I didn’t have a significant other. I didn’t have someone to love. I didn’t have someone to pour into. But now I have that.”
On how he relates to God, the call on his life, and how he talks to the Lord.
“He is grace. Every time we mess up, He’s picking us back up every single time. That’s how I view it. And so it’s like, ‘I made a mistake. I won’t dwell in it. I don’t sit in shame. But it actually makes me want to do better.’
…my goal isn’t to try and persuade anybody to believe in what I believe or condemn anybody for not believing what I believe. If it can help someone, great. If someone’s like, ‘Hey, I don’t believe that. I don’t think that’s true,’ by all means, that’s their prerogative.”
…I came to a place where I just was like, ‘God, if you’re real, I need you to help me, because I can’t do this on my own. Like, I’m struggling so hard. Every decision I make is out of my own selfish ego.’ So I’m just like, ‘What is it that you want from me? You put all these desires in my heart for me to sing and perform and to make music—where are these coming from? Why is this in my heart? What do you want me to do with it? What’s the point? What is the point of everything? What is the point of me being on this planet?’ ”
…I just kept trusting what He said and what He’s saying to me . And I just believe He speaks to me. It’s not audible. I don’t hear His audible voice. I don’t know if people do. I know people have said it, and in the Bible it talks about that, but I just never heard it. It’s more like nudges: Don’t do this. Or: Set these boundaries.”
On pastors who put themselves on pedestals and his attraction to new pastor Judah Smith, and why he trusts him.
“I think so many pastors put themselves on this pedestal. And it’s basically, church can be surrounded around the man, the pastor, the guy, and it’s like, ‘This guy has this ultimate relationship with God that we all want but we can’t get because we’re not this guy.’ That’s not the reality, though. The reality is, every human being has the same access to God.”
[Judah Smith] put our relationship first…[Bieber explains that he noticed Smith’s family seemed to care for one another] [That] was something I always dreamed of because my family was broken. My whole life, I had a broken family. And so I was just attracted to a family that eats dinners together, laughs together, talks together.”
Bieber is active on social media making consistent professions of faith, inviting a variety of pastors on to give the gospel. He will frequently talk about Jesus and his relationship with him, what parts of the bible he and his wife Hailey are reading, what he learned from a sermon, and will pray with his tens of millions of followers. He is a member of Hillsong Choir and has led worship at pal Judah’s Smith Churchome, as well as has preached from the pulpit.
Pastor Judah Smith lead Churchome, a hip-to-be-cool, celebrity-endorsed 10,000 member megachurch that recently cemented their theological obliviousness by bringing on Trinity-denying Modalist T. D. Jakes as a Board Member of their congregation.
The Seattle-based church, spread across its five locations in Washington State and California, joins other celebrity preachers like now-disgraced Carl Lentz and Elevation Church’s Steven Furtick in having very close ties with the “Jesus is a manifestation of God” Pentecostal Bishop.
By way of a brief profile, the Smiths are about as seeker-sensitive and biblically compromised as they come. They live in a multi-million dollar home and have a penchant for Gucci luxury clothes, where a single outfit can cost upwards of $ 5000$. They count Justin Bieber as one of their members and let him occasionally lead worship, with theoerotic songs like Reckless Love being a mainstay.
He frequently tweets stupid, unbiblical things like this, clearly having no knowledge of Acts 10:38, 2 Corinthians 5:10, John 5:22, 27, and other scriptures.
He is, by all accounts, emblematic of the skinny-jeans-wearing soyboy pastors that breed effemininity and are a blight on the church today.
As for where the couple stands on abortion and LGBT issues, more unbiblical, cagey, waffling garbage abounds. In a long-form article in Marie Claire that is worth the read, writer Jennifer Swann quickly zeroes in on the ethos of the couple, explaining they are as squishy as one can be.
We pray that Bieber leaves that church and find one where the scriptures and sound theology are actually taught.
(Reformation Charlotte) Apostasy is one of the most tragic phenomenons of Christianity. It never ceases to amaze how someone can live such a lie for such a long time only to end up renouncing their faith. Time after time, popular Christian figures have renounced their faith over the centuries–but it appears to be picking up at breakneck speed.
Now, another prominent Christian figure has renounced his faith–a former Desiring God writer and the author of the book, The Trauma of Doctrine, Paul Maxwell.
Maxwell made his announcement on his Instagram feed earlier today.
“What I really miss is connection with people,” Maxwell says, “what I’ve discovered is that I’m ready to connect again. And I’m kind of ready not to be angry anymore…
A stunning video has been released that seems to demonstrate that the work of the Holy Spirit is beginning to absolutely wreck the worldview of famed author and academic Jordan Peterson.
Peterson, who calls himself a “pragmatic Christian,” claims to follow the teachings of Jesus as best he understands them and holds that the First Century rabbi’s moral philosophy forms a superior and worthy ethos to live a virtuous life. Peterson, however, denies the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Christ, and the resurrection (in other words, he’s no more a Christian than was Martin Luther King, Jr).
In truth, Peterson is the thought leader of our age. A promoter of logic, reason, and general sanity, he has gutted the anti-intellectual emotionalism of the political left and has done so through a secularist worldview.
Jordan Peterson has gleaned more understanding about God and his created order from natural revelation than leftist Christians have gleaned about God and his created order from special revelation. Probably more so than any man has ever articulated it, Peterson has taken natural revelation as far as it can be taken, and now seems to be grasping for more.
Now, during one of his podcasts, timestamped and lasting for about 4 minutes, he talks about this clash between two worldviews – at one point his chin quivering and tearing up in what is a powerful emotional struggle to reconcile these two worldviews and realities.
To some degree, the conscience can be viewed as the voice of reciprocal society within, and that’s a perfectly reasonable biological explanation. But the thing is, is the deeper you go into biology the more it shades into something that appears to be religious, because you start analyzing the fundamental structure of the psyche itself, and it becomes something with a power that transcends your ability to resist it.
[Speaking about people who tend to say that Jesus is just another mythical Christ figure like Mithras or Horus:]
The difference between those mythological gods and Christ [is that there is] a historical representation of his existence as well… and so what you have in the figure of Christ is an actual person who actually lived, plus a myth, and in some sense, Christ is the union of those two things.
The problem is, I probably believe that, but I don’t know…I’m amazed at my own belief and I don’t understand it. Like because I’ve seen – sometimes, the objective world and the narrative world touch. You know, that’s union synchronicity. And I’ve seen that many times in my own life. And so in some sense, I believe it’s undeniable we have a narrative sense of the world. For me that’s been the world of morality, that’s the world that tells us how to act. It’s real. Like we treat it like it’s real. It’s not the objective world. But the narrative and the objective world touch and the ultimate example of that in principle is supposed to be Christ.
But I don’t know what to – that seems to me oddly plausible. But I still don’t know what to make of it. It’s too – partly because it’s too terrifying a reality to fully believe, I don’t even know what would happen to you if you fully believed it.
If you fully believed in Christ, the biblical revelation of who he is and what he demands – all of it – you would be born again.
Following the famed radio hosts death, Christian Author Joel C. Rosenberg, a friend of Limbaugh’s, wrote an article declaring that “Rather late in his life, in his final few years, Rush gave his life fully and completely to Jesus Christ. Though he had been raised in a Christian family, this was different. Something specific had happened in his life. He had made a very personal and profound decision. And it changed everything.”
Explaining that he had spoken to Limbaugh about his faith over the years, sharing stories and beliefs, and that he was concerned that he was a false convert and that his faith wasn’t genuine. This was compounded by some of the bad fruit from Rush he observed over the years. “I believed he was struggling spiritually…I worried that Rush was resisting a personal relationship with Jesus Christ…Or perhaps too busy and too successful to focus on such a relationship.”
Rosenberg recounts:
That’s why I worried about him – and a specific Bible verse kept echoing in my heart.
Jesus once said, “What profits a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul?” That’s what I feared for Rush. Maybe that seems presumptuous. Maybe it was. But it came out of my love for him. No other reason.
So, I would talk with him about the Lord when I could. We would email about lots of things, and occasionally I’d share a Bible verse with him. But mostly I prayed for him – for the past 28 years, I asked the Lord to bless him and draw Rush into the kingdom of heaven.
Though the two hadn’t seen each other in a long time, Rush invited him to visit him in February 2020, right after the initial cancer diagnosis. But the week he went down to visit, he stayed in a hotel because Rush was physically broken and too weak to host him. Rosenberg never was able to see him again in person and eventually had to abort the visit.
I worried that he was going to pass away without knowing for absolute certain that he was going to heaven. That grieved me. But something happened on that trip that changed everything.
I learned the greatest possible news – that just the year before, in 2019, Rush had given his life wholly and completely to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe he had made a decision to receive Christ by faith when he was much younger and had, like many of us, struggled to walk closely with Christ after that decision. That, I cannot say.
But I now knew that he was studying the Bible like he had never done before. He was praying like he’d never done before. He was growing spiritually and it was transforming him. And it wasn’t out of desperation. It wasn’t simply because he was contemplating his own death.
It was because he had truly wrestled through the claims of Jesus for himself, and come to the conclusion that Jesus really did die on the cross, rise again, and was the Messiah, the Savior and the King of the universe.
And having placed his faith in Christ’s love and forgiveness, he now had a certain, definitive hope that he was going to heaven when he died, and peace for every day before that.
I was overjoyed!
Joel joyfully references some comments Rush made after diagnosis of cancer, where things shifted and Rush began speaking of his faith in more personal, more specific terms, specifically:
I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is of immense value, strength, confidence, and that’s why I’m able to remain fully committed to the idea of what is supposed to happen will happen when it’s meant to. There’s some comfort in knowing that some things are not in our hands. There’s a lot of fear associated with that too, but there is some comfort. It’s helpful to be able to trust and to believe in a higher plan.
Rosenberg closes with this:
I didn’t feel at liberty to say any of this publicly, so I didn’t.
I told my wife, Lynn, and my sons and we rejoiced, because we had been praying for him and his family for decades.
But then another wonderful thing happened.
I began to hear him share about his faith in Christ and newfound hope with the radio audience he loved so dearly, and who so loved him.
For such a public person, Rush was also intensely private.
But he began talking about his faith in Christ, and I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt it was real.
Rush Limbaugh spoke about the afterlife a lot in his finals days, saying that ‘he knew he was going to heaven’ according to his wife Kathryn in a conversation with Todd Herman, who spoke of how she and her late husband prepared for his death.
In a recently released audio recording, Kathryn Limbaugh shared how they planned his funeral together, and told Herman that Rush didn’t know his February 2, 2021 show should be his last.
KATHRYN: So I am walking with Rush and explaining to him his event, and I told him all he has to do is show up, which I’ve also arranged. (laughing)
RUSH: (chuckles) Yeah, and it is an event, and it’s awesome! I mean, I hope you get invited to it.
KATHRYN: (chuckles) Yeah.
RUSH: I mean, what she just described to me is incredible. Sorry I’m gonna miss it. But —
KATHRYN: (laughing) You’re gonna have a front-row seat.
RUSH: But I’ve just said to her, “I can’t believe it. It’s so cool!”
Kathryn recounts that his funeral was beautiful, if small, due to the COVID restrictions.
It was very peaceful, very beautiful. And we followed behind the horse-drawn carriage until we reached the chapel. And when we reached the chapel, we had a small service in the chapel which is located in the cemetery. Rush was escorted into the chapel to his favorite version of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
And it was just stunning, if you can imagine, looking forward through a winding road to see this beautiful carriage with Rush in it and then flags around his grave site. So as we approached the gravesite you could see these powerful American flags waving in the wind and the sun was shining directly on that spot.
Speaking about his final show and peace he found, she said that they talked about heaven all the time, and that Rush knew he was going there:
He just got a little bit sicker and sicker by the day, and we had to take a bit of an emergency action for him. But the blessing in this is that he knew he was going to heaven. But he didn’t know that that was his final show, and didn’t know that he would not be speaking with all of you directly again. So that does provide some comfort that it was peaceful and unknown.
Todd comments that she must take great comfort in Rush knowing he was going to heaven, and she agrees that it did.
Absolutely, yes. We talked about it all the time, and you may recall he always said practically every show that he thanked God for being able to wake up that day. And that’s really how he took it, one day at a time, and knew that it was God’s plan and we would go forward as we needed to. But he knew ultimately that he would return to heaven and be greeted by everyone who’d gone before him.
