During an interview with famous podcast host Joe Rogan, famous WWE wrestler and recently baptized Christian Hulk Hogan shared his faith with Rogan, explained the foundation of his faith and how it really began. He then went on to share the most powerful verse in the Gospel and explained how hearing it as a young man impacted him so greatly.
Those comments came when Rogan, asking about the professional wrestling star’s faith and where it began, namely whether he grew up in the church or came to it as an adult, asked, “Were you always religious, or when did you start becoming religious?”
Hogan noted that he grew up Christian but that his faith began to fall off as he got older and entered high school, but then things changed much for the better when he was invited to a youth ranch. There people not only worked and were manly men, but also studied the Bible, sang Christian songs, and shared messages of faith.
Describing it, Hogan said, “So I was raised in Southern Baptist Church. And then I started playing in a rock and roll band when I kind of like got to junior high and stuff, kind of like wasn’t going to church at all. And a couple of buddies of mine who became ministers that were twin brothers, Ron and Don Satterwhite, they have asked me to come to a, to Hank Lindstrom’s youth ranch, because all the kids were there. It was like a Bible study thing, and Bible Bros and all that stuff. And they would all say that you think we play guitar. So they know I play guitar. So I went and I played all the three chord progressions for little Christian songs and stuff.”
That’s when Hogan dropped one of the most powerful verses in the Bible on Rogan. He said, “And then this, this minister, Hank Lindstrom hit me hard with the John 3: 16, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.'”
That verse, according to Hogan, led him to accept Christ, though he drifted from his faith as he grew wealthier and famous. He said, “And I accepted Christ as my Savior, I was 14, but then I derailed you know, kept playing music and rock and roll bands and get away away from my faith. And then as the years went by, you know, I started seeing how things went. And it’s gotten to the point now where I’m locked back in, I’m locked in and loaded, you know, after all the life experiences and, you know, seeing how people live and what money does to people, you know, and, you know, okay, money makes it easier, but it’s not the living dial situation. Some people say it is, you know, and it’s just that that relationship I have not so much with religion, but with our Lord and Savior as well I function on the character hold the training, the prayers and vitamins.”
After describing his wild lifestyle and how he drifted from his faith, Hogan got to describing how being around young, well-meaning kids started to have a positive effect on him. He said, “I got run around drinking smoking weed, doing Yahoo going crazy, run wild and my boys. And all of a sudden, all these Make a Wish kids want to come see me. And I had years where Michael Jackson, Mr. T, Mickey Mouse, I saw more what Make a Wish kids and as people, and all of a sudden that character started making me a better person, you know, in the character, this fake character, the training person, but I didn’t started making me a better person. And I kind of realized that kind of really, really worked.”
He added getting to how he found his way back to the faith, “And then I bottomed out, you know, with my first marriage. And all of a sudden, when I went through this divorce, and I really bottomed out, you know, it was a tough one. And then my wife split with a younger, younger man, it was, it was a little rough on me. And then I started searching, you know, to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and what I believe in, everything else is a distant second to what happens around me.”
Watch Hogan describe that faith journey here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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