Cliffe Knechtle Answers Tough Questions About the Bible, Demons, Israel, Judas, Free Will, and Death

Summary

The Tucker Carlson Show – Episode Summary

Guest: Cliffe Knechtle
Date: August 25, 2025
Episode Title: Cliffe Knechtle Answers Tough Questions About the Bible, Demons, Israel, Judas, Free Will, and Death

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Overview

This episode features a wide-ranging and candid discussion between host Tucker Carlson and Cliffe Knechtle, a veteran Christian apologist and campus minister. They explore challenging questions about Christianity, modern culture, evil, forgiveness, identity, the Bible, and contemporary societal issues. Tucker and Cliffe dive deeply into moral relativism, the nature of sin and forgiveness, judgment versus grace, the roots of Christian doctrine, questions about sexuality and abortion, and whether modern America is experiencing spiritual revival or increased hostility to Christianity.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Moral Relativism and the Loss of Objective Truth

• Defining Moral Relativism:
  Cliffe outlines how moral relativism – the idea that individuals or societies can define their own right and wrong – has become dominant over his 45 years preaching on college campuses. He argues this is a departure from earlier eras, where most societies anchored their morality in the idea of God.

  "If there is no God, morality is a crapshoot … a taste. What do you like, broccoli or spinach? ... No, according to Christ and the Bible, morality is not just a taste." (Cliffe, 03:36)

• Consequences of Relativism:
  They discuss how a relativistic ethic erodes inherent human value:

  "What's the difference between me stepping on a cockroach and me stepping on you?" (Cliffe, 12:33)

• Societal Impact:
  Tucker links moral relativism to the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century, positing that societies without limits (anchored in God) fall into abuse of power.

  "Big civilizations that don't acknowledge God, inevitably become totalitarian because there are no limits on the behavior of the leaders." (Tucker, 06:38)

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2. Innate Human Value and The Image of God

• Source of Human Worth:
  Both agree that true, inherent human value comes from being created by God, not from material success or social utility.

  "You take God out of the picture and you're up a creek without a paddle when it comes to explaining ... why is that baby valuable?" (Cliffe, 13:54)

• Societal Attitudes Toward the Poor and Vulnerable:
  Tucker laments the loss of concern for the poor compared to a century ago, linking it to declining Christian influence.

  "Concern for the poor in the United States has basically just evaporated … Could that coincide, not coincidentally, with the declining Christianity?" (Tucker, 16:58)

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3. Judgment, Forgiveness, and The Radical Call of Christianity

• Forgiveness as Radical:
  Cliffe shares a powerful story of radical forgiveness from post-apartheid South Africa and connects it to the essence of Christian teaching:

  "Intimacy is based on the ability to forgive. And to accept people who are different and who've hurt you." (Cliffe, 32:16)

• Limits of Forgiveness:
  Even child molesters and murderers retain human value.

  "You deface it [humanity], but … we all have defaced it to some extent." (Cliffe, 32:39)

• Debate with Students:
  Cliffe recounts campus confrontations, including with students outraged that he professes love for racists and criminals, even while condemning their actions.

  "Absolutely, I love racists ... I hate racism. But I affirm the fact that those racists are human beings created in the image of God." (Cliffe, 00:00; 29:49)

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4. Scripture, Theology, and Faith Traditions

• Minutiae vs. Central Message:
  Cliffe encourages focusing on the core message of Christ rather than sectarian theological disputes.

  "Let's focus on the majors, not on the minors." (Cliffe, 19:53)

• Old vs. New Testament:
  Discussion on divine judgment in the Old Testament versus grace and forgiveness in the New. Cliffe asserts seeds of forgiveness and God's grace are present throughout, though less explicit early on.

  "God is incredibly gracious to Abraham … The seeds of it [forgiveness] are all there." (Cliffe, 39:46)

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5. Modern Youth and Campus Culture

• The Emotional Fragility of Today's Students:
  Cliffe contrasts his father's wartime courage with what he sees as emotional frailty among modern students, related to breakdowns in family, materialism, and insecurity.

  "There's tremendous insecurity that comes from thinking that my value depends upon whether my body's a 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 … or whether I can post a better selfie." (Cliffe, 45:01)

• Changes in Campus Questions:
  Emotional reactivity is higher; Cliffe finds he must "be more careful" in how he engages modern students compared to the past.

  “Now I have to be careful I'm not going to blow people out of the water, emotionally … or I lose their ear.” (Cliffe, 46:48)

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6. Christianity’s Cultural Standing and 'Persecution'

• Why is Christianity Uniquely Offensive?
  Tucker asks why Christianity alone is “not allowed” among modern progressives despite the general moral contentment and happiness of many Christians.

  "Christianity is the one thing that a certain sort of modern mindset won't tolerate ... And that, to me, is evidence that it's true." (Tucker, 53:42–53:48)

• Judgment and Accountability:
  Cliffe and Tucker agree that part of the objection is Christianity’s imposition of judgment – a God who expects accountability for one’s actions.

• The Spiritual Battle:
  Cliffe references demonic influences and spiritual evil, citing biblical texts and M. Scott Peck’s "People of the Lie."

  "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood … but against the spiritual forces of evil..." (Cliffe, 54:27)

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7. Free Will, Sinful Nature, and Accountability

• Judas, Free Will, and God’s Sovereignty:
  Cliffe fields questions about free will versus divine predestination, arguing for human responsibility even amid divine sovereignty.

  "God is all powerful, but God has chosen to partially limit his power by giving us free will." (Cliffe, 57:05)

• Sinful Nature:
  He defines the sinful nature as a "readiness to sin factor," using vivid anecdotes from his childhood and referencing historical atrocities.

  "Everybody does incredible good at times … And everybody does incredible evil at times." (Cliffe, 61:00)

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8. Cultural Flashpoints: Sexuality, Abortion, and Race

• Sexuality:
  Cliffe emphasizes respect for all people and repents of past Christian mistreatment of gays and lesbians but adheres to biblical teachings about marriage and sexuality.

  "Gay bashing is not an option for a follower of Christ … all people are created in the image of God." (Cliffe, 67:45)

• Abortion:
  Cliffe argues that opposition to abortion rests on the recognition of when life begins, not personal prejudice, and prefaces his stance with grace and confession of his own brokenness when engaging those who’ve been touched by abortion.

  "I am a dirty rotten sinner … Jesus attacks self righteousness in the Gospels like no other sin." (Cliffe, 79:47-79:58)

• Discrimination and Identity:
  Both discuss the rise in judging others by demographic traits and how the denial of the soul reduces people to mere appearances.

  "Once you stop acknowledging the human soul ... then the most important thing about you becomes the way you look." (Tucker, 74:55)

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9. Persecution and Revival in Modern America

• Hostility and Martyrdom:
  Cliffe notes persecution of Christians globally is at historic heights, but that suffering for one’s faith, not imposing it, is the Christian way.

  "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church … to spread Christianity, I must not kill others but be willing to die for my faith." (Cliffe, 94:41-95:17)

• Campus Revival:
  Despite contemporary antagonism, he observes more young people excited about Christianity than in past decades.

  "The past year I have met more excited followers of Christ on campuses than ever before." (Cliffe, 99:04-99:15)

• Personal Struggles: Divorce, Drugs, Alienation:
  Cliffe sees pain from family breakdown and addiction as opening students to the message of forgiveness and belonging in God.

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10. Hope and The Ultimate Story

• Christian Hope:
  Despite cultural headwinds, Cliffe expresses optimism rooted in the sovereignty of God and the Christian story of history.

  "History is not a string of accidents. History is ultimately God's story... That is why I, as a follower of Christ, have hope for the future." (Cliffe, 105:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Illogicality of Human Value Without God (13:54):

  "You take God out of the picture and you're up a creek without a paddle when it comes to explaining … why is that baby valuable." – Cliffe Knechtle

• On Forgiveness and Grace (27:00):

  "This black South African woman said I got three requests ... allow me to walk across this courtroom now and give him a hug to try and convince him that my forgiveness is genuine and real ... that's the gospel of Jesus Christ." – Cliffe Knechtle

• On The Universality of Sin (61:00):

  "Everybody does incredible good at times … and everybody does incredible evil at times." – Cliffe Knechtle

• On Christianity’s Unpopularity (53:42):

  "Christianity is the one thing that a certain sort of modern mindset won't tolerate... And that, to me, is evidence that it's true." – Tucker Carlson

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Moral Relativism Defined and Its Cultural Effects: 03:36–06:38
• Human Value Comes from God: 12:33–15:09
• Forgiveness vs. Cancel Culture: 29:49–32:16
• Old vs. New Testament on Forgiveness: 35:08–41:28
• Changes in Campus Culture and Student Fragility: 42:07–47:06
• Cultural Attitudes on Christianity and Judgment: 49:12–53:48
• Demonic Evil, Spiritual Forces, and the Nature of Sin: 54:27–57:05
• Free Will, Predestination, and Responsibility: 88:06–93:47
• Debates about Sexuality and Abortion: 67:31–79:47
• Evidence of Persecution and Revival: 94:28–99:15
• Christian Hope and the Meaning of History: 105:31–107:58

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Tone and Language

• Candid and direct, blending personal anecdote, biblical reference, and philosophical reasoning.
• Cliffe is pastoral, humble, and passionate; Tucker is curious, sometimes skeptical, but open and probing.
• The conversation is honest and unafraid of controversy, yet marked by respect.

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a robust, nuanced defense of the Christian worldview in the face of modern skepticism and cultural hostility, addressing some of the hardest criticisms and questions head-on. Cliffe Knechtle’s long experience dialoguing with skeptical students offers practical wisdom, humility, and a depth of grace and realism about human nature. The discussion is both intellectually substantial and emotionally resonant, offering challenges and hope to listeners regardless of faith background.

Transcript

[Cliff Knechtley]

2 Lesbian at Texas State University a couple of years ago, a few years ago, stepped out of the crowd and said, do you love racists? And I said, absolutely, I love racists. I hate racism. I do not affirm racism, but I affirm the fact that those racists are human beings created the image of God. I don't really give a rip. Whether you're Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or Protestant. I care about what you think about Jesus Christ. Have you put your faith in him? And I got a boatload of Catholic friends who have put their faith in Christ, a boatload of Greek Orthodox friends who put their faith in Christ, and a boatload of Protestant friends who put their faith in Christ. But simply not the issue. There is a spiritual force of evil that is at work in the My.

[Tucker]

Lai massacre, acting on people from outside and influencing their behavior.

[Cliff Knechtley]

That's exactly right. And that's why Jesus cast demons out of people. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There's a spiritual battle that is raging.

[Tucker]

You have been preaching Christianity on college campuses and answering questions from skeptical undergrads, some of them very hostile, for 45 years. Am I getting your bio correct?

[Cliff Knechtley]

You got it.

[Tucker]

Okay, so you have seen this longitudinally over almost five decades. What are the changes that you've noticed, and what is your sense of the current state of young people?

[Cliff Knechtley]

The changes are the following. Moral relativism. Relativism in general has a stranglehold now on people the way it never used to. Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said, the good thing about science is it's true whether you believe it or not. Well, guess what, Neil degrasse Tyson, that's true about all truth. It's true whether you believe it or not. And yet you and I live in a culture where more and more people say essentially everything's relative, it doesn't matter what you believe. And my point is, if someone says that to you, take them seriously. Don't believe what they just said to you. So unfortunately, that whole idea of relativism, the truth is totally subjective, has a stranglehold on more and more people's lives. So I've watched that trend continue over the past 45 years. Secondly.

[Tucker]

Wait, mashup. So 45 years ago was 1980. So you're coming out of the 60s and 70s in 1980. I sort of remember 1980. It was a pretty flaky time, actually. Yep, the country changed during the 80s. But 1980 was still really the 70s.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

So you think there was less moral relativism then than there is now?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, that's a good question. I'm not sure of that. But it was not as clearly articulated. It had not been worked through philosophically as deeply as it is today. It was not such a part of a warp and woof of the American mind quite as much. Yes, it definitely was strong. And to watch that simply grow and deepen was frustrating for me to watch.

[Tucker]

What is moral relativism?

[Cliff Knechtley]

The idea is basically this Tucker who defines right and wrong. I only know of four options. Either the power elite define right and wrong, or the majority define right and wrong, or I define right and wrong, or God does. Now, if the power elite or the majority or me defines right and wrong, it is relative. It's just a creation of the human mind. But if there is a God whose mind precedes the human mind, then of course this mind, this character of God, which is good, can define right and wrong, which turns it into an objective, moral, absolute. No God. Morality is a crapshoot. Morality is a taste. What do you like, broccoli or spinach? Well, this is my taste. Well, what do you like, loving people or hating people? Well, it's my taste. No, according to Christ and according to the Bible, morality is not just a taste. Instead, human beings really have innate value and dignity. And that is why to dehumanize a person and trivialize a person is really wrong. So moral relativism is tragic. And yet it basically, as you have said so many times on your podcast, basically sin is deifying my opinion, deifying myself, putting myself at the center of the cosmos, which I could not agree with more. And a follow of Christ is someone who's allowing God to be at the center of the universe. And that's what worship is. That's what faith is. Worship is allowing God to drag me out of the center of the universe and allowing God to be the center of the universe, which means all of a sudden, morality is not totally relative.

[Tucker]

It's interesting. I don't, and I'm not a historian, I'm interested, but I'm not trained as one, so I could be wrong and I'd welcome any correction. But I don't think before the 20th century there was ever society, civilization at scale, formed on the basis of moral relativism. I think every society made the claim that our moral code came from God. Yep, because I don't think, and I'm a Christian, but I'm of course I'm not referring to the Babylonians, weren't Christians. You know, most civilizations not been Christians, so. But there has to be, at least conceptually, a God behind the moral code. Or else it's not really a moral code, it's just a preference.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

And so that just as a practical matter, doesn't work over time, does it?

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, it doesn't. But it is a neat way to justify me doing whatever I want to do, sexually, morally, in the use of power, I can do whatever I want.

[Tucker]

To do because there are no limits.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly. And I'm the one who defines it. And if I define good a particular way today, but I change my mind tomorrow, there's nothing wrong with it because it's all fluid, totally fluid. It's totally arbitrary. It's just a taste. So today my taste is this, tomorrow my taste is different. It's the opposite. It's not right or wrong, it just is what is, is. So chill out, Cliff, and just realize it is.

[Tucker]

So I think you just explained why, and many books have been written on this. Why did the 20th century give rise to totalitarianism in a way that the world really had never seen? Now, the obvious explanation is, well, technology made it possible, okay? But it has always struck me that's an inadequate explanation. It may be that societies at scale, big societies, big civilizations that don't acknowledge God, inevitably become totalitarian because there are no limits on the behavior of the leaders. There's nothing they can't do.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely.

[Tucker]

That is what you're saying.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. One of my heroes is Dr. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian novelist.

[Tucker]

Amen.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And Alexander Solzhenitsyn at one point in his life thought, you know, it's really the rich that have a problem with evil. They're the scumballs. But then he was put in a gulag in Siberia and he was living among very low income people and he was aghast at the immorality, the evil of those people. And suddenly Solzhenitsyn woke up to the fact the line separating good from evil does not run between parties, classes and countries. Rather, the line separating good from evil runs through every human heart. And then Solzhenitsyn understood, I need help, I need a savior. And he converted to Christ. That was sheer brilliance on his part and also real sensitivity, I think, to reality.

[Tucker]

Yeah, well, he learned from what he saw around him, unlike so many of us. Right. Who don't learn anything. So you think that this is accelerating?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

And what are the manifestations of it? How do you know that.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, obviously, when it comes to the issue of sexuality in our culture, it is tragic, absolutely tragic to watch people say, I don't know whether I'm male or female, but wait a second. I'm the one who defines it because everything is relative. So if I want to define myself as an individual or as they and them, that's cool. If I want to be he today, she tomorrow, they the day after tomorrow, that's okay. Because truth is something I create in my head. It's simply my perception. So if my perception today is I'm a he, tomorrow my perception is I'm a she, and the day after tomorrow my perception is I'm a they, that's all equally valid because it's all just a cosmic crapshoot. That's all life is. It's ultimately meaningless because God didn't create me. No intelligent mind put me here for a purpose. Life is ultimately meaningless, so I'll just create it according to my own desires.

[Tucker]

It's August, and something profound, maybe even countercultural, is happening right now. This month. It's called the St. Michael the Archangel Prayer Challenge. It's available on the Hallow app. Now. Before you start, ponder the question. When was the last time you really confronted your vices? Not the fake ones, the real ones. Anger, pride, envy, greed. The things that turn us into empty vessels and leave us vulnerable in a world increasingly hostile to truth and beauty. This prayer challenge will lead you to address those vices head on. And the benefits are enormous. It is good for your soul. You can say that about very few things. Now. The best is it's not just about everyone's bad habits. It's about the ongoing war happening inside your each and every one of us. The thing I want to do, I don't do. Vice versus virtue. Light against darkness. Humans have turned to figures like Michael the Archangel for support in the battle against evil for thousands of years. And that's why the challenge is based around him. It's perfect whether you are Catholic or not. Think you're ready to dive in? We cannot recommend it enough. It is a frequent topic of conversation at our dinner table. And you can begin yours. Get four. Three free months of [e-mail] Tucker. Hallow.com Tucker, you'll be grateful you did so flesh out why you think that's tragic. I mean, it's self evidently silly because you wind up making claims that are just counter to observable truth. Like, I can change my sex. No, you can't. It's determined at the DNA Level. So like, no, that's untrue. So you could laugh at that. Why do you call it tragic?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I call it tragic because I lose my understanding of why you're valuable. And if you rub me the wrong way, there is nothing that says I can't cut you off at the knees. And the whole idea of forgiving is ridiculous.

[Tucker]

Can you stop this? I feel like you're at the heart of something that I don't fully understand. But if you don't mind explaining it a little more fully, why do you does that statement, I can change my sex because I'm self created, I'm God of my own life? Why does that affect the way that I feel about you or you about me? Why does that make you less valuable or me less valuable?

[Cliff Knechtley]

It doesn't. But it's based on a philosophy. It's based on a worldview. And that worldview says that we all are cosmic accidents. Which means we define ourselves, we define our value, we define our morality, we define everything about us.

[Tucker]

Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Which means I will also define how I'm going to treat you.

[Tucker]

Exactly.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And if you rub me the wrong way, and if you cut me off at the knees, I'm coming after you to teach you never to do that to me again. And revenge becomes the modus operandi. I have never, ever heard of a porpoise forgiving a shark for eating his porpoise friend. But we're not porpoises. We're human beings created in the image of God, which means we have this ability to reflect the character of God, which is gracious and forgiving and also just and holy. But he was also forgiving. And he created us with this incredible ability to forgive and to be gracious and not just to cut each other off at the knees.

[Tucker]

So if you don't believe that other people have souls, there's really nothing you can't do to them.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

Why does it even matter?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly. What's the difference between me stepping on a cockroach and me stepping on you? You're both sentient beings. You both are alive. So if I can step on a cockroach, why can't I step on you? Oh, now you're going to give me this mythology that oh, but we're human beings and we have more value than a cockroach does. Oh, really? I don't think the cockroach feels that way.

[Tucker]

Right. To which you say, what?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Down deep? You know better than that. Down deep, you and I, I don't care what your worldview is. You know that There is something to human value down deep within your heart, within the depth of your being. You know that when you hold a little baby in your hands, you're not holding a cockroach.

[Tucker]

No.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And this is not based on human arrogance. Oh, I'm just superior to a cockroach? No. This has to do with some innate intrinsic value of a human life. But if there is no God, this deep, profound experience that you're having as you hold a little baby in your hands is just raw emotionalism. It's meaningless.

[Tucker]

And the value, as you just said, is inherent. It's not just utilitarian. It's not that the baby may grow up and become a famous scientist who creates a vaccine to prevent disease.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

The value is inherent in the baby because the baby exists. The baby is valuable because the baby was created by God.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Bingo. You take God out of the picture and you're up a creek without a paddle when it comes to explaining to me why is that baby valuable. Oh, that baby's valuable because I have a lot of strong feelings. Yeah, fine. So that's your genetic drive, right, as mom and dad, to care for your child. Well, guess what? I know a lot of deadbeat dads who could give a rip about their kids.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So don't give me this bit that dads have to love their kids. And yet the majority of dads understand that child is valuable, okay? So now the question is why? Why is that child valuable? And I would argue if there is no God, that child is a hunk of primordial slime evolved to a higher order. So don't give me this gibberish that this child is valuable. Instead, be intellectually consistent and acknowledge this child is a cosmic accident. The same way I'm a cosmic accident.

[Tucker]

That's so interesting. So you really can't say that any child or any person is valuable except for the products he produces or the services he provides.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Bingo.

[Tucker]

Unless you acknowledge that he was created by God.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Correct.

[Tucker]

Because where would the value come from?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly. And you know where the value comes from in our culture? The size of your stock portfolio. The size of your bank account. The style. Style of your car. The house you live in. The size, the grandeur of it. And that is so superficial. I mean, I was once speaking at a women's private.

[Tucker]

Can I also say.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

It suggests that if you don't have that portfolio or that car, that you have less value.

[Cliff Knechtley]

You are a loser.

[Tucker]

Right. You're a loser. But you can also be completely mistreated or killed.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Why not?

[Tucker]

Well, that's happening in the United States, by the way, to poor people.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

And we. I guess when you frame it the way you did, we shouldn't be surprised by that. You know, 100,000 people can die every year of fentanyl, and we're like, yeah, but they're losers. Like, whatever. Who cares?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

That is what we're saying.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Tragic.

[Tucker]

Because they don't have value apart from what they produce or own.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

Damn. I think you just. I think you just explained what's happening. I'm sorry I interrupted you, but you're squirting my brain a little bit. Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I was speaking at a private women's college in Massachusetts, and a woman came up to me with tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, you know, Cliff, you don't know what it's like to walk into a frat party, and as you walk into the door, you walk past a group of guys lined up, and they're whispering to each other. 2, 4.

[Tucker]

Yep.

[Cliff Knechtley]

8, 10. She said, you have no idea how dehumanizing that is, Cliff. And I had to look her in the face and say, you're right, ma'. Am. I don't. I don't know experientially how dehumanizing that is, but I can begin to imagine that is such a trashy view of human life. It's scary. But if there is no God, we're all hunks of primordial slime. We're all hunks of meat on a hoof. And if we're proportioned correctly, we're in 6, 8, 10. And if we're not, we're 4 or 2. Tragic.

[Tucker]

What did she say?

[Cliff Knechtley]

She began to seriously consider Christ in a way that was very exciting. I don't know what ultimately she decided, but she. She said to me, cliff, basically, this. This is really beginning to make more sense than it ever has before.

[Tucker]

I've noticed a lot that the emphasis in the United States. And I've always been a right winger, and I always made fun of people who prayed about the poor and all that stuff. I was wrong. I just want to say, but I have noticed that the concern for the poor in the United States has basically just evaporated. And that a hundred years ago, the country was humming with benevolent associations with what we would call NGOs, basically, rich ladies, just like now, trying to elevate the poor, take care of orphan children, teach them English, feed them, and that no longer exists at all. And could it. Could that coincide, not coincidentally, with the declining Christianity?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes, it Absolutely could. It's a searing of the human conscience. It's interesting you raise that issue because this winter and spring, like never before, when people ask me difficult theological questions, I try and give a short answer, especially when they start getting into, you know, what about the Catholics? What about the Greek Orthodox? What about the Protestants? You know, don't they really all have problems? My point is rather simple. My point is I don't really give a rip whether you're Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or Protestant. I care about what you think about Jesus Christ. Have you put your faith in him? And I got a boatload of Catholic friends who have put their faith in Christ, a boatload of Greek Orthodox friends who put their faith in Christ, and a boatload of Protestant friends who put their faith in Christ. But it's simply not the issue. Are you Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Protestant? The issue is, have you put your faith in Christ then? The issue is, are you seeking to introduce people to Christ and are you seeking to solve one of the biggest killers in the world today, which is starvation? If you had a kid who was starving and I say to you, I'm a follower of Christ, and I look at your starving kid and say, good luck, and I walk away, you have good reason to question the legitimacy of my faith.

[Tucker]

I think you do.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. If I have the solution for your starving kid, and it's called money in my back pocket, in my bank account, and I do nothing to help you with your starving kid, oh, my goodness. What on earth is going on? So to get all wrapped up in some of these theological debates, I just don't want to spend too much time on because we got a boatload of work to do, introducing people to Christ, helping them go from hell to heaven, helping them grow as people of integrity, people of honesty, people of strong values, and then people who share their financial resources with those who are less fortunate and solve the world's starvation problem.

[Tucker]

You're effectively a theologian. So it's interesting to hear you say, I don't want to get caught up in the theology.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, theology is very important when it comes to the basics. I like what Mark Twain said. Mark Twain said, it's not the parts of Bible I don't understand that disturb me. It's the parts of the Bible that I do understand that disturb me.

[Tucker]

Boy, is that true?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right on, Mark. Well, it's amazing how many Christians can get caught up in the minutiae. Is transubstantiation correct? So should I be a Catholic or not? Should I pray to Mary or not? If Someone comes up to me and says, cliff, I know you're going through a rough time and I'm praying to my aunt who was a saint for you. I'm not going to try and have this hour long discussion with them. Why? I don't think praying to your dead aunt is a good use of your time. I'm going to say thank you for praying to your aunt. I would encourage people to pray directly to God, directly to Jesus Christ, but how much time do I'm going to spend with another person debating upon whether you should pray to your aunt or not? I just. Let's, let's focus on the majors, not on the minors.

[Tucker]

Interesting. Yet a lot of energy is expended on the small stuff. Why is that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I don't know. I've got some fears, some concerns about why that is. There's a part of me that understands it too well, which is I want to be right. And if I have an opinion, I want you to agree with me. And if you don't agree with me, I want to try and convince you to that. And so there can be egotism in there and arrogance.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And I've got to be very, very careful of that. I mean, I have the greatest respect for President Lincoln. During the Civil War, a minister came up to him and said, Mr. Lincoln, let's pray that God is on our side in this terrible conflict. And Lincoln shot back, oh, no, no, no, no. Let's pray instead that we are on God's side. For God's side is always right. And it's far too easy for me to baptize my views with, oh, this is God's view. Got to be very suspicious of that.

[Tucker]

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[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, absolutely. And I've watched that in other people. You know, one of the most gut wrenching experiences for me during the 70s when I was at Davidson was I lived in the home of Billy Graham's sister Jean and her husband, Leighton Ford. And I watched the Graham's family struggle through the Watergate crisis.

[Tucker]

Wait, you lived in Billy Graham's daughter's house?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Sister's home. On the weekends. Just on the weekends. Leighton Ford became like a father in the Lord to me. And his wife Jeannie, who was Billy Graham's sister, was like. Became like a mother in the Lord to me. And so I had a front row seat for watching Dr. Graham realize I think I went too far with Richard Nixon.

[Tucker]

Wow. So you were there in 73, 74.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Correct.

[Tucker]

What was that like?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, it was a rather intense educational experience, to put it mildly. In terms of what are you going to spend your life doing? I had the utmost respect for Billy Graham. That guy was incredible. I mean, the temptations that that guy had to deal with, I will never have to deal with the opportunities to really mess up. He had them all over the place. And his integrity was incredible. And I have the utmost respect for him. But to watch him agonize through this issue of how close did I get to Richard Nixon, how much did I endorse him, and was that the wisest use of my time? I respect Nixon and Graham for the way they maintained their friendship till Nixon's death. I also respect Nixon the way he told some of his handlers to keep Graham away from me. I don't want to sully him any more than I have, so I respect that. But I also respect Graham for realizing God called me to preach the gospel. I got to be real careful how much I hop into bed with politicians.

[Tucker]

Amen. But I mean, I guess the. The counter argument. Would I. Let me just agree with You Completely. But I also see the compelling argument on the other side.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

Is that I have influence.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

I think I'm influencing people on behalf of what is true and good. Correct. And I have this chance to influence the President of the United States. Like, why wouldn't I take that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

What do you think of that argument?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I think that argument's absolutely correct. But then the question becomes, how strongly do you endorse the individual?

[Tucker]

Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Because the individual is a sinner, the same way I am, the same way we all are. And the individual is going to make mistakes, going to sin. How closely do I want to wed that individual with Christ when it comes to communicating Christ to people? And that's a real challenge that I face. One of my best lines is, I am a dirty, rotten sinner. And what I'm seeking to smash is the stereotype that a Christian is someone who claims to be morally superior to everybody else. That's a lie. I'm a follower of Christ because I need God's forgiveness, because I've messed up. And if I ever forget that, and if I think that my faith in Christ has produced a morally superior person named Cliff Kneckley, I have parted company with reality. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found Was blind but now I see yeah, that's where it's at. A story, Tucker, that I use a lot is Truth and Reconciliation Commission. After apartheid was being taken apart in South Africa, Officer Vanderwood was at one end of the court, and a black South African woman was at the end of the end of court. And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looked into the face of the black South African and said, ma', am, this officer went to your township, arrested your husband, brought him outside the township, partied and roasted him over a fire till he was burned to death. One year later, they did the same thing to your son, came to your home, arrested your son, took him out to a party outside the town and burned him to death. Now, what do you want us to do with this white police officer? And this black South African woman said, I got three requests. First request is, I want this white police officer to take me to the place where he burned my husband and my son to death so that I can gather up their ashes and give them a proper burial. Second request is, I want this white police officer to come to my township once a month and allow me to mother him, because I got a lot of mothering left in me. And he's taking my family away from me. And the third thing is I want to allow me to walk across this courtroom now and give him a hug to try and convince him that my forgiveness of him is genuine and real. And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said yes. Go ahead. This black South African woman stands up. And as she's walking across the courtroom to this man who was responsible for the murder of her husband and son, a person starts singing. Amazing Grace how sweet this sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found Was blind but now I see that's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[Tucker]

That's pretty far from what anyone naturally wants or believes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So.

[Tucker]

How do you make the case that acting against your own impulses, against your own instincts is good? Like, why? That's pretty radical. That's a little more radical, I think, than we appreciate normally.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely correct. It's totally radical. And so is me getting on a diet when the doctor says to me, you're getting close to being diabetic, Cliff. Yeah, I gotta cut ice cream out. I don't want to do that. But if I want to play with my grandchildren 10 years from now, I better do that.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So I'm free. I'm free to eat ice cream every night, A whole bowl full of it or a pint of it, whatever. Or I'm free to diet. I'm free to do that in order to play with my grandchildren 10 years from now. Yeah. If I want to get a good education, I've got to discipline myself. And if I want to play basketball at Davidson College, I'm really going to have to discipline myself because I don't have the innate talent to do that. So, yeah, if I want to achieve excellence in life, I'm going to have to discipline myself and put myself through some things that I don't naturally want to do. And that's what we call living a wise life of excellence, of using the gifts that God has given me to make a difference in this world for good, of using this incredible body that God has blessed me with to serve God by serving people more effectively, to develop this amazing mind, the most powerful muscle in our body that God has given me by developing that mind so I can think more clearly and help more people. Yeah, I don't necessarily want to do that, but it's what's best. It's what's wisest. So therefore I want to do it.

[Tucker]

What kind of pushback do you get from students when you say things like that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

2 Lesbian at Texas State University a couple of years ago, a few years ago, stepped out of the crowd and said, do you love racists? And I said, absolutely, I love racists. I hate racism, but I love racists. They're human beings created in the image of God. And these two lesbians erupted, you're an idiot. There's no way that you should be loving a racist. And I said, ladies, you're really getting mixed up here. There are some very sinful parts of me. I do not affirm those parts. I hate those parts. But I affirm my value as a human being created in the image of God. I do not affirm racism, but I affirm the fact that those racists are human beings created in the image of God. And I've got some former murderers coming to the church where I pastor. I abhor their murdering a human being, but I still respect them as human beings created in the image of God. And when I worked in a Lawrence County House of Correction in Lawrence, Massachusetts, while I was in seminary, the first visit I would make every Monday night was into the cell of a guy in protective custody who was there for kidnapping little boys, sexually abusing them and murdering them and burying them. And after spending an hour with him, talking with him, reading the Bible, praying with him, I would go to the gymnasium to play basketball. And the other inmates would come up to me and say, hey, man, don't you know what a piece of dirt he is? How dare you spend any time in his cell talking with him? And I said, sirs, I abhor what he did to those boys. But I can promise you, in spite of how he has messed up and defaced the image of God in him, he is still a human being created in the image of God. And I will seek to reach out to him, to offer God's grace and forgiveness to one confused, messed up man.

[Tucker]

How'd they respond?

[Cliff Knechtley]

They got quizzical looks on their faces. Some of them laughed. And I understand that, because that is foreign and it is absurd. And as you pointed out, it's really radical the way Jesus taught that. But that's part of why we have so many lonely people in our society today, because we live in a canceled culture, which means you rub me the wrong way and I cancel you. Well, guess what? Everybody's going to rub me the wrong way at some point. And if I'm just going around canceling people, I'm going to be a very lonely, isolated person. If I don't learn to forgive, I will be alone. Intimacy is based on the ability to forgive. And to accept people who are different and who've hurt you.

[Tucker]

Yes, that is such a wise point. If you think you're the only virtuous person in the world, first, you're an idiot. But second, you will have no one at dinner.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah, it's exactly right.

[Tucker]

Yeah, no, I think that's really wise. But a child molester, really? Shouldn't there be limits to humanity? Like at some point do you lose your humanity? I guess what you're saying is.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, you deface it.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And obviously some of us have defaced it in very, very unusual, grotesque ways. But we all have defaced it to some extent. I have. No, I've never committed the sins that that man committed that I would visit every Monday night. But I've lusted, I've been greedy, I've hated, I've had subtle racist attitudes. I've been sexist, chauvinistic in my own unique way, sophisticated way. So I'm not this wonderful person that I wish that everyone believed that I am. No, Solzhenitsyn was correct. The line separating good from evil runs through every human heart, including this guy's heart.

[Tucker]

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[Cliff Knechtley]

They were outraged. They said, that's impossible. And I said, ladies, from your perspective, I understand why. If there is no God, forgiveness is stupid. You don't forgive people. You teach them not to do that to you again. But if there is a God who's forgiven you, then you'd be very wise to be godlike in the way you forgive others.

[Tucker]

That's not the message of the Old Testament, which I read last year and was pretty shocked by, as I think many people who read it are shocked by the violence in it and shocked by the revenge in it, the genocide in it. What do you make of that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I understand why you say what you just said, but to be honest with you, Tucker, I disagree. I think what you see in the Old Testament is the judgment of God. It's not genocide. Instead, God chose to use the Jews to judge the Amalekites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the stalactites, all the other tights. But remember, a few hundred years later, he used first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to judge the Jews. Why? To commit genocide? No, no, no, no. To judge them for sacrificing their babies on altars, which is the same thing the Hittites and the Canaanites and the Philistines were doing. And God says, you pervert the worship of me in that way to the point of sacrificing your child on an altar to me. You will be judged for it. And he judged first those Hittites and Amorites and Agites, and then he judged the Jews for that kind of evil. I think the real question, Tucker, is, do we give God the right to judge? Now, here's what's fascinating about this issue for me. When I step onto a state university campus, I know that the majority of professors are going to basically say, cliff, if you abuse a young African American kid, and the police come up to you and they say, what are you doing, Cliff? And I said, well, this kid deserved it. I just beat him to a pulp. If the police officer looks at me and says, let's go to Starbucks together, you all would be outraged. What incredible racism. What amazing injustice. Good. Don't make the same mistake with God. If you define God as being lovey dovey and expect him not to judge me for whooping up on the African American kid, if you expect God not to judge me, for my evil, then let's be real honest. That kid doesn't matter to God. The same way if the police say to me, let's go to Starbucks after I whoop up on an African American kid, they're saying something very clearly, Cliff, that little African American kid does not matter. If God doesn't judge, he does not love. If God doesn't judge, it means people do not matter to God. And the opposite is true. People matter to God. And therefore, when we mess with each other's heads and bodies, he judges us.

[Tucker]

I don't, however, see the message of forgiveness between people in the Old Testament in the way that I see it in the New Testament. It does seem like there was a change. I mean, no one in the Old Testament that I read was saying, turn the other cheek, okay? That you can't be forgiven until you forgive. Which are like central messages, obviously, of Jesus. So it does it. I mean, that seems like a change to me.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Okay, I would agree with you that indeed, it's not articulated quite as clearly as it is in the New Testament. But, gosh, you got to read the book of Hosea. Jose is married to a woman named Gomer.

[Tucker]

Oh, yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

They have a little baby, and Hosea is holding that little baby in his hands, and all of a sudden he realizes, I ain't the daddy. Yeah, number two child, same thing. Number three child, same thing. Jose is holding that little kid in his hands, and all of a sudden he realizes, I ain't the daddy. It gets to the point where Hosea has to go down to the slave market to barter against other men to buy back his wife. And God is banging on Hosea's door saying, hosea, do you know the pain that you experience over your wife's sexual unfaithfulness? Well, that is the same pain that I experience over human beings who've been unfaithful to me, who I created to love me and live in relationship with me, and they turn their backs on me. I am a suffering God. I hurt over that. But I am a gracious God who offers forgiveness. God's patience with a stubborn Israelite people is incredible. They deserved his wrath long before they got it at the hands of the Assyrians and Babylonians.

[Tucker]

So you think that they were required to forgive in the same way that Jesus required his disciples and followers to.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Forgive, but it was not articulated as clearly. You're absolutely correct. It was not articulated as clearly. But the seeds of it are all there. I mean, God, when he confronts Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three, after their rebellion. God bless you.

[Tucker]

Oh, thank you. You are just the man to send a blessing of God to a sneezing podcast host. Thank you.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So God is very gracious to Adam and Eve. God is very gracious to Cain after he kills his brother Abel. He doesn't wipe them out. He puts a mark on him and says, no, Cain. Now, you keep going through this thing called life. God is incredibly gracious to Abraham, who says to Pharaoh, this woman Sarah, she ain't my wife. She's my sister, so of course you can take her to be part of your harem.

[Tucker]

He said that Twice. Two different cases. I was shocked by that and not impressed. I just got to be honest. Everyone loves Abraham. But what.

[Cliff Knechtley]

What?

[Tucker]

I know.

[Cliff Knechtley]

It's amazing.

[Tucker]

I know. I don't. They never taught that in my church. God is clearly gracious and forgiving. He created people, and he wants them to thrive. Yeah, I got that message all throughout the Old Testament. What I didn't get was the command that people should be gracious to each other. Didn't get that. Whereas that is kind of at the heart of the New Testament.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

I don't see that in the Old. But I'm no scholar. I just read it once.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, but you're right. There is a lot more barbarism in the Old Testament, and I think a lot of that has to do with culture. I mean, let's be honest, Tucker. I don't think that you and I are talking to each other the way we are by accident. I think there are a lot of reasons, and I think one of the reasons is that you grew up where you did, and I grew up where I did. And you and I were privileged to have a lot of wonderful people pour some very good teaching into our lives. We grew up where respecting each other was valued. And I think you and I are the beneficiaries of that, for sure.

[Tucker]

I know I am.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I certainly am myself. But when you go into a different culture where there are not those kind of practices and good habits, I think that there's a lot of problems that start rising rather quickly. That is why I'm a lot more patient with people who grew up where dad was just a monger, just roasted his kids.

[Tucker]

Yep.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Was so cruel. I'm a lot more patient in understanding those people than those people who grew up in homes. They had a mom and a dad who really loved him and cared for him.

[Tucker]

Yes. So you think the culture changed? The culture. Read about in the Bible.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. Correct. Big culture changes big.

[Tucker]

So the questions that you get from students in 2025. How are they different from the ones you got from students in 1980?

[Cliff Knechtley]

There's an amazing similarity. The biggest difference is the emotional change. My dad grew up in Switzerland. When my dad was 18, he had a gun sitting up in the Alps as he watched Hitler's Panzer divisions approach Switzerland. My grandpa was on the front lines with his gun. They didn't know whether those Panzer divisions were to crash into Switzerland or not. The gossip is that Mussolini called Hitler and said, my money's in Switzerland. Let's not go into there. For whatever reason, those Panzer divisions stopped and did not go into Switzerland. But that's what my dad had to deal with.

[Tucker]

Can I also say that the Swiss shot down American airplanes, A bunch of them. They shut down it. Oh, absolutely. They did.

[Cliff Knechtley]

They.

[Tucker]

They killed a lot of allied airmen.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Wow.

[Tucker]

You couldn't fly over Switzerland and the Swiss were like, pretty determined to enforce that rule. Wow. Being like ornery mountain people, which they definitely are.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And.

[Tucker]

Yeah, yeah. No, they don't want anyone in Switzerland, period.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right.

[Tucker]

Sorry. It's my favorite fact and I don't want it to be lost.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I love it.

[Tucker]

Yeah, I do too. I mean, I'm not for killing American airmen, of course, but I am for sort of independence.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah. Yeah. That's excellent. Sorry. Okay. So that's what my dad went through as an 18 year old. I was speaking on campuses when President Trump won the first time.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And I watched 18 year and 19 year olds and 20 year olds go for grief counseling because Donald Trump won. That's amazing. You talk about emotionally fragile.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

The. The difference between a guy sitting up in the Alps watching Hitler's panzer divisions come.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And having to have the emotional courage and the emotional strength to handle that versus I gotta go to a crying room because Donald Trump just won the election. I mean, that's pathetic. That is. That is tragic.

[Tucker]

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[Cliff Knechtley]

It's true.

[Tucker]

That sounds cool too. Feels like closing the door on your truck. Kathunk. It's solid. This in comes in cream, gray, green and black. And it is built to last. Your grandchildren will fight over this at your funeral. Throw it in your bag, drop it on the concrete, run over it with the truck, it'll still be there looking good and holding your alp. Get yours@al mouthpouch.com so you notice that in the questions that you get, people feel more on edge.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. There's an emotional sensitivity that I think at times is sad.

[Tucker]

Where do you think that comes from?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I think it comes from a lot of things. I think it comes from the breakdown of the home. If you don't understand love and experience love at an early age, and if you don't begin to understand that at the heart of the cosmos there's a God who really loves you. If you don't really begin to understand that, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. And if you think your value really depends on you winning a ball game, you winning a deal, you having a bigger bank account than your competitor, I mean, good gracious, how insecure. And so there's tremendous insecurity that comes from thinking that my value depends upon whether my body's a 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10. I mean, you think about that. I mean, you think about. My value depends upon whether I can put a better selfie up, whether I can post a better selfie to appear to be more together than you are. I mean, you talk about emotional fragility, you talk about identity crisis. I mean, it's scary. So the breakdown of the family, the whole emphasis of materialism, which is. Yeah. It's all about how you look and how much you own. Yeah. You build your life on that and come on, things are going to crumble fairly quickly unless you're very successful and then you get to be where Tom Brady is and you ask, okay, six super bowl rings. Now what do I do?

[Tucker]

Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

What's it all about, Alfie?

[Tucker]

Exactly. Yeah. Winning is often the worst thing.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

For a man. Yeah, I've noticed.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Because it. It shows in stark relief the. The limits of this world, like, doesn't it? Yeah, well, sure. I mean, you got everything you wanted and you're still not fulfilled. So, like, what else is there?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

No, I've seen that a lot. I've experienced it to some extent.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Same here.

[Tucker]

Yeah. So when you say they're more fragile, when they ask you questions like how. What do you mean? Like, how do you know they're more fragile? How do they behave?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I have to be more careful the way I answer their questions. In the 80s and 90s, I used to be able to come back more strongly. Now I have to be careful that I'm not going to blow people out of the water, emotionally, really? Because then I lose their ear.

[Tucker]

So, like, in the 80s, you would just be, like, at Wesley, and he'd be like, you're going to hell. But you can't say that now.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I wouldn't say that. Even in the 80s, even at Wesleyan. Well, I never was at Wesleyan, but I was at Wellesley. Oh, man. I went to Smith, spoke at Smith. Oh, my goodness.

[Tucker]

What was that like?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, that was painful. That was embarrassing. Can you imagine I, a white male standing up at Smith College and telling women that they needed to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? That did not go well.

[Tucker]

You didn't win a lot of souls that day.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, we did not. See, many people say, oh, that's interesting. I'd love to talk more with you. Wellesley was a little different, but, boy, Smith was intense.

[Tucker]

A lot of happy people at Smith.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

A lot of joy there.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Sorry, excuse me. I'm afraid you nailed that one.

[Tucker]

I mean, you know, I think it's fair to judge a worldview, a religion, a commitment of any kind, by its fruit. Right? I mean, well put, and I'm stealing the line, but I think it's applicable just to the world.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

Right. If it's so great, show me how great it is, by the way, that you yourself live.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

And if people are. I haven't been to Smith in a long time. Last time I was there, I picked up a hitchhiker outside its gates. But it was miserable in the 80s when I was last there. I'm sure it's miserable now. And so that's like kind of a bad advertisement for whatever belief system they're buying into, isn't it?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I certainly would agree with that. Yeah, it's exactly right.

[Tucker]

So then this leads to my sort of meta question, which is, why does everyone hate Christianity so much when there are certainly a lot of lousy Christians and hypocrites, of course, using the church for their own ends, and they're televangelists and whatever. I could go on and on and on, kid touchers. But generally, rank and file Christians are, everyone knows this way, happier than everybody else. So why is everyone mad at them?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I have a good reason to be mad at God. God impinges on my freedom to do whatever I want.

[Tucker]

Ah. Okay.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I don't want you telling me, Tucker, what I should do, and I don't want God telling me what I should do. I don't want anybody telling me what to do because I bought into a false definition of freedom, which is freedom means doing whatever you want to do. It's not true.

[Tucker]

But no one, no one believes it. There's not one person on the planet who believes you should do whatever you want to do. Everybody has a strict belief system. The ladies who confronted you about loving racists, like, their religion tells them that racists are not human, whatever a racist is, by the way, and you're required to hate them. So they've got their own rules, too.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well put.

[Tucker]

Everybody has their own rules.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

Christianity is no different from secular liberalism. It's no different from Buddhism or communism or in the sense that it has a code, a moral code, and people who step outside it are apostates. So that's just. That's the nature of moral codes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

I think the difference is the Christians seem, like, pretty happy, pretty joyful, pretty light. Certainly lighter than the ladies of Smith. So. So, like, why are people mad at them for that? I don't get it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah, well, God is offensive, that. In that God tells me what is right sexually, what is right financially, what is right when it comes to use of power. And I would just assume not believe in a being who can see through the keyhole into my life. I'd like to put my finger over the keyhole and say, there is no God who really sees me, who's going to hold me responsible. Come on. The day of judgment is intimidating. The idea that I'm going to.

[Tucker]

That may be the difference. Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And have to give an answer for my life. I mean, gosh. But that's where the cross of Christ comes in so powerfully. He bled and died on a cross to forgive me, to wash away my sin, to give me eternal life. And my confidence is in him, not in myself, in my moral rectitude.

[Tucker]

So is it the challenge of judgment? Is that what makes people mad?

[Cliff Knechtley]

It's part of it.

[Tucker]

You think there's a supernatural element here?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely.

[Tucker]

I do notice that. Like the free to be you and me people. I've always kind of been a free to be you and me person. By the way, for the record, don't actually want to convert anyone at gunpoint to anything.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right.

[Tucker]

But they draw the line at Christianity. Like, they, you know, you can free to be whatever you want, but the Jesus people aren't allowed. Right, I have noticed that.

[Cliff Knechtley]

But what I've noticed about you, Tucker, is you enjoy shooting guns.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

You don't want anybody telling you I, I can't shoot guns.

[Tucker]

I definitely don't want anyone telling me I can't shoot guns. That is.

[Cliff Knechtley]

That is definitely true.

[Tucker]

You got Me.

[Cliff Knechtley]

But one of the things I respect, that I've heard you say several times is, and I am committed to my wife.

[Tucker]

Yeah, I am.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And I don't have respect for a lot of politicians who have a real hard time understanding what commitment to their wife means.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I'm afraid those politicians would argue, yeah, I'm sexually free. And why are you so limited to one woman, Tucker? And I think Jesus Christ was spot on. And I think you're very wise to make the decisions you have.

[Tucker]

Yeah. And to put a finer point on, it's not just that I don't respect them for cheating, though. Yeah. I think that's wrong. But I don't respect them for not paying any attention. I think if you're. I look at someone who wants to make decisions for hundreds of millions of people whose wife is desperately unhappy, and I'm like, if you can't even make her happy, how are you presuming to make decisions for me?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well put.

[Tucker]

I'm. Well, I mean that. And not just the wife, the children. If your kids don't respect you, if your wife doesn't respect you, why should I respect you?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

And I absolutely mean that. And I know so. I mean, everyone has, like, whatever problems in their marriage. You know, life is long and people screw up and all this stuff, and.

[Cliff Knechtley]

We all have problems.

[Tucker]

Try not to be too judgmental about it. But long term, if your wife is not impressed by you, why should I be?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

And I think that's totally fair. I don't think that's judgy. And. And by the way, it's okay if your wife doesn't respect you. Just don't try to control my country.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Fair.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Like, why should you have a leadership position?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

I don't know. I mean, that's. Anyway, that's my position on it. But I. I just think it's interesting that Christianity is the one thing that. That a certain sort of modern mindset won't tolerate.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

Any other religion is fine. Christianity not allowed.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Fascinating.

[Tucker]

And that, to me, is evidence that it's true.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Very good. I like that. Tucker.

[Tucker]

I don't know, but I'm just guessing.

[Cliff Knechtley]

But you also alluded to the spiritual battle that we are in.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And anybody has a problem with the devil, with the demonic, I would encourage them to read M. Scott Peck, the great Connecticut psychiatrist book, People of the Lie. Amazing book, isn't it? And I think he does an incredible job pointing out, if you look at the My Lai massacre and you walk away saying, oh, that was Just human beings messing up. You're out of touch with reality, bud. There is a spiritual force of evil that is at work in the My Lai massacre.

[Tucker]

Acting on people from outside and influencing their behavior.

[Cliff Knechtley]

It's exactly right. And that's why Jesus cast demons out of people. It's why Paul writes in Ephesians 6, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There's a spiritual battle that is raging. And whether it's Paul, Jesus, or M. Scott Peck, they're all saying the same thing. Open your eyes and realize there's this personal force of evil called Satan. C.S. lewis put it beautifully when he pointed out there are two mistakes you can make in your thinking about the Devil. One is to make too much of him. Oh, the devil's behind every tree.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Devil always does it. Everything's a result of the devil's doing. That's to make too much of him, but the other's to make too little of him. Oh, you know who the devil is? The little dude in the red jumpsuit with a little black pitchfork and black ears. Ah ha ha ha ha. What a ridiculous stereotype. No, the devil is a very suave, very debonair personal force of evil who wreaks of evil and destructiveness. That's scary.

[Tucker]

I think everything you said is true, and I think every honest person can feel it. No matter what your religious faith, we are being acted on from the outside by unseen forces all the time. And it's our job to resist or obey, depending on the force, of course. But the message in some ways exculpatory though, I think. I mean, it's not a. It's not an entirely judgmental message. It's like actually you are a. You are being acted on by outside pawn is probably too strong. But you're still. I mean, Judas betrays Jesus and dies.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

On the other hand, it says really clearly he. Satan enters him.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

So he's like a bad guy stealing money from the other 11 and all that for sure. I'm not defending Judas, of course, but he is also in some sense, like he exists to fulfill a prophecy. He is kind of, in some ways, like not fully a player. He's. I don't want to say victim, but do you see what I'm saying?

[Cliff Knechtley]

That's an issue that a lot of people raise. How can there be free will and God be sovereign and all powerful? What's going on here? Who's pulling the levers Often. A passage out of Exodus that's brought up is the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. So did Pharaoh really have a choice in the matter? Six times before we read in Exodus, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. We read, Pharaoh hardened his heart.

[Tucker]

Yes. No. That's right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So I think we got to be careful with this one. Yes, God is all powerful, but I agree with CS Lewis that God chose to partially limit his power by giving us a free will. If I hold back, slap you in the face, and then say, oh, Tucker, God made me do it, you know, I'm a con artist. I'm a hypocrite, I'm a liar. God gave me a hand. He gave me the hand to respect you, to love you. But because he gave me a free will, I can roll this hand into a fist and send it crashing into your handsome face. And if I blame God, I'm a con artist. I'm a liar. So I would argue that, yes, God is all powerful, but God has chosen to partially limit his power by giving us free will. Why didn't God have Hitler's mother have a miscarriage? I don't know. Seems to me it would have saved a lot of lives. But God has chosen to limit his power by giving us a free will. Now the day of judgment is coming when God will hold me responsible for the way I exercised my free will. So I'm not just free to go out and do whatever and never be held responsible. I am responsible for what I do. And God will guarantee that justice ultimately triumphs, for there will be a day of judgment.

[Tucker]

The lesson that I take from the Me Lay mask. You're talking the Scott Peck book. Did you know him, by the way? Scott Peck?

[Cliff Knechtley]

No.

[Tucker]

You live in Connecticut, so I just.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Did you.

[Tucker]

I never met Scott Peck. He's gone now. But amazing.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Amazing, yes.

[Tucker]

And complicated person, but insight. Really insightful person. The fact that a Connecticut psychiatrist could wind up writing a book like that.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No kidding.

[Tucker]

Yeah. He did not play to type. But the lesson that I take from the My Lai massacre is these were, like, Callie and the rest of them pretty ordinary guys. I don't think they had histories of mass murder before they got to Vietnam, and yet they wound up committing just that and murdering women and children. And it was murder. The lesson that I take is that any of us is capable of that. Including me.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Correct.

[Tucker]

And so the temptation is, when you see somebody doing something really awful like, I would never do that. I try to remind myself, I think we all should that under certain circumstances, I'd probably do anything.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep, same here.

[Tucker]

And I think that's true.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

So what is that? What does that tell us about people?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, this is where a lot of people have trouble with the Bible. The whole issue of a sinful nature.

[Tucker]

Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Dallas Willard used to be head of the philosophy department at USC out in Los Angeles. And the way Dallas Willard described the sinful nature was a readiness to sin factor. We are all born with a readiness to sin factor. When I was 6 years old and playing with a little friend of mine in the sandbox, at one point, I picked up the metal truck and dropped it on the little kid's head. I had never seen that behavior modeled before.

[Tucker]

Did he deserve it?

[Cliff Knechtley]

No. He offended me, and I exaggerated the offense. Took too great an offense at it, and dropped the metal truck on his head. Pretty sad. So, yes, we're all born in the image of God. We all have a conscience, this innate moral indicator. But we also have this readiness to sin factor. And that is part of the human dilemma. And guess what? It's part of why Blaise Pascal believed in Jesus. Because Blaise Pascal understood the glory and the wretchedness of the human being. And it's one of the reasons I do. My observation and my experience of reality is everybody does incredible good at times.

[Tucker]

Yes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And everybody does incredible evil at times.

[Tucker]

That's correct.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I mean, I referred to my dad earlier, Tucker, when my dad was a Swiss Boy Scout, he was walking through the Alps with his Boy Scout troop one day, and they bumped into a group of Nazi officers. Now, I don't know if this is true, Tucker, but supposedly one of those Nazis was Adolf Hitler himself. Hitler did not cut my dad off at the knees. Hitler was very gracious to my father as a little Swiss Boy Scout, and then he went ahead and did some of the most horrible atrocities imaginable. All of us have incredible potential for good, and all of us have tremendous potential for evil.

[Tucker]

That's so obviously true in any one, you know, old enough to observe. The world knows that.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Observe himself knows that. Why did you say that? People have problems with that statement. Do you get resistance to that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, yeah. Because there's a type of evolutionary optimism that says we've been evolving for a long, long time, and we're at the point where we are really good people.

[Tucker]

Really?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, is it really?

[Tucker]

Is that right, Cliff?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Okay. And even Rousseau, the Frenchman, thought we were all born perfect and it was society that corrupted us. The fascinating thing is Rousseau had his nanny dump five of his Kids on the steps of the hospital, disowning his kids so they could either be adopted or starved to death. Wow. We're all born perfect. Is that right? Jean Jacques Rousseau? I doubt it.

[Tucker]

It's funny. I mean, things have changed so much that Rousseau was taken seriously. When I was a child, we read Rousseau. Yeah, I don't think anyone knows who Rousseau is now anyway, because everyone's on TikTok. But I think Rousseau is regarded as a villain and an idiot by most people now. No. Or maybe I'm just two of my own world.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, I understand.

[Tucker]

Can I just ask you. Pause. I just want to go back and have you flesh it a little bit more. What kind of reactions do you get from students when you say people are not inherently all good.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Tucker. If you were my son and I were to try and convince you, Tucker, you really do have innate value. But there is no God who made you. But you do have innate value. You do have real value, Tucker. Do you get it, Tucker? You're valuable. You're the greatest. You are the greatest. And I want you to go home now, Tucker, and I want you to repeat that to yourself a hundred times. I am the greatest. I am the greatest. I am the greatest. And you and I live in a culture that is so filled with that type of thinking that we just have to affirm ourselves. Affirm ourselves. Affirm ourselves. To try and convince ourselves that we really do have value. And that's a short walk into fantasy land.

[Tucker]

Well, it's also so obviously not true that it creates a lot of inner tension and anxiety in the person who's hearing it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Bingo.

[Tucker]

Because, you know, you're not the greatest, actually.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

And you know who you are on some level.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

Maybe not all the details, but, you know, you're a mixed bag like everybody.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

And so to have to con, to live in a lie like that makes you tense, doesn't it? I think it does.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I think it does also.

[Tucker]

So when. But. So when you say that, people get their dander up, yo.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely.

[Tucker]

What do they say?

[Cliff Knechtley]

You are so judgmental. Calling me a sinner. Who do you think you are?

[Tucker]

What do you say?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Do you support the law that says equal housing opportunity? Do you respect a law that says I'm not allowed to be biased against people of different ethnic heritages when I rent my apartment? Yeah, I think you do, don't you? And so do I. We all have to make judgments, so please don't tell me you don't make judgments. We all make judgments. And we better make Judgments between what is good and what is evil. Now, obviously the difficult ethical question is, what is good and what is evil? Where should we draw the boundary lines? But please don't tell me that I'm being judgmental. You're just as much judgmental as I am. And when Jesus says, judge not lest he be judged, he's not saying, suspend your critical thinking and blindly accept everything is equally valid. Baloney. Fourteen verses later, in Matthew 7:15, Jesus says, Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. And they will eat your lunch, guys. So don't be gullible. You gotta be skeptical. Jesus is teaching. Why? Because good and evil are so intertwined in this messed up world we live in that if you're not skeptical, you'll get ripped off. Don't do that. It's not smart.

[Tucker]

So again, you're just making the point that everybody has a kind of strict religion. Yes, but you know, only one is true, which is your position, and the rest are just silly.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I'm not trying to say that only one is true, mind, because I've made a lot of mistakes when it comes to defining right and wrong. What I am saying is because there's a supernatural God whose character is good. Therefore, throughout eternity, good is real, objectively real. It's not a subjective taste. It's real. And God has hardwired you and me in such a way that we have consciences and rational minds. And by exercising our consciences and rational minds in a responsible way, we can really begin to understand what is good and what is evil. I mean, Tucker, to be honest with you, the biggest ethical dilemma that I face in life is in light of the fact that we have the solution for starving babies. Why do I keep as much money for myself? Why do I not give more away? So for me to come riding into town on some ethical high horse is a little ridiculous, because I've got my own blind spots. I've got my own prejudices. But what I seek to do, Tucker, is to point people to Jesus Christ. To point people to have a relationship with him, to pray to him for wisdom, to ask His Holy Spirit to sensitize their consciences so they can begin to distinguish between what is good and what is evil, what is morally responsible and what is morally irresponsible.

[Tucker]

I bet you get a lot of questions about gays and abortion.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

So let's go in order. What kind of questions do you get about gays and how do you respond?

[Cliff Knechtley]

My first point is I have to apologize to the gay lesbian population for the way they have been viewed as inferior pieces of dirt by certain Christians. Unquote. That is false. Gay bashing is not an option for a fall of Christ because a fall of Christ understands all people are created in the image of God. That is the basis for our value and dignity. Second point, the Bible insists that all of us were created for a purpose. And according to Christ, the purpose of life is to love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbors, yourself. In the same way that God made us for a purpose, he made our sexuality for a purpose. And we read about this in Genesis 2:24. We read, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So it's not the federal government that created marriage. It's not culture that created marriage. God did. God created our sexuality. God could have had procreation happen at the end of a Q tip, when a man and a woman mix their earwax. Little babies could have been born from that. He didn't. He chose to create us, male and female. And that is beautiful. That is a precious, precious gift from Him. Now, he says it's such an important gift that it's to be experienced within the context of a lifelong commitment. You separate sex from a lifelong commitment, you're going down a destructive path. Christ says so. Third point would be, I have perverted the gift of sex that God gave me through my heterosexual lust, I have perverted that gift. I desperately need God's grace. I need His Holy Spirit to change me to live a sexually pure life. And that's not easy for me. That's hard. When anybody ever says to me, cliff, I was born this way, I often look them in the face and say, yeah, I was born a heterosexual male. Do you think my heterosexual sex drive motivates me to have sex with just one woman? And I'm waiting for the guys to laugh.

[Tucker]

I'm guessing not.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah, eventually they do laugh.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Obviously, we heterosexual males do not have a sex drive to have sex with just one woman. Instead, we have to exercise self control, make a commitment to just one woman, and then enjoy sex within the context of a lifelong commitment. That's marriage. So I communicate that as clearly as I can to people. They don't like what they hear. And it's fascinating, Tucker, over the past 45 years to watch the gay lesbian groups on university campuses around the United States become the most highly organized, the most passionate groups on Campus. I think that's changing though, recently, and I'm so excited over that. But there has been a clear agenda, a very clear agenda.

[Tucker]

And I, I mean, you don't have to agree, of course, but I also, the most hateful, I would say. I've never dealt with anybody like that ever. Did you so like. But in 1980, was that a question that you got?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, yes, occasionally.

[Tucker]

And now how often do you get it?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I think it's spiked and it's going down. It's not quite as prevalent. I don't know exactly why, but I'm not being asked as often about it. But when I aim, it can turn into a firestorm rather quickly.

[Tucker]

I think, you know, whatever you think of it, I think people are starting to understand that's not the road to happiness. And if it was the road to happiness, why all the hate? That's a bad sign. You know, people who are that hateful, whatever they're doing isn't, isn't working right. And that's not my fault, actually.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Sorry. Well put, well put.

[Tucker]

What, what kind of questions you get about abortion?

[Cliff Knechtley]

You got to be kidding me. You're a white male and you're telling me that abortion is wrong? Where on earth are you coming from?

[Tucker]

White male? What does white have to do with it?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, I think that there are certain stereotypes that exist and for some reason being a white male is not cool. I mean, one of the things that spiked our popularity on TikTok was a blonde haired woman at University of Texas came out to our open air meeting and really went after me. You got to be kidding me. You, a white male, are standing out here telling us that we need God, that we need Christ? Are you kidding me? This is the most absurd thing I've ever seen. And I said, now wait a second, wait a second. What does white have to do with it? What does me being a male have to do with it? We're talking about Jesus Christ and I'm not Jesus. We're talking about an historical figure who lived, taught, died and rose from the dead. The historical evidence is he's reliable. I'm not asking you to join me. I'm asking you to seriously consider Christ and to put your faith in him, for he is reliable in a way that I am not. You don't know me from Adam, so walk away from me. But please read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for yourself and ask yourself, does the historical evidence of the way Jesus lived, taught, died and rose from the dead point to his credibility, his trustworthiness or not? Well, she didn't like it. But it's, you know, there's so many stereotypes out there, so much prejudice, it's incredible.

[Tucker]

I kind of. I mean, by the way, if evolution is real, then why haven't we evolved past that? We seem to be evolving toward it. And I was taught as a kid in the 70s that prejudice like that, writing people off immediately on the basis of the way they look was like the one thing you weren't allowed to do. But it has become ubiquitous.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep. Yep.

[Tucker]

So why? Why? I mean, in 1980, no one could have stood up in public and said, shut up, black man, shut up white man, shut up Jew, shut up Christian. Like, you absolutely could not say that. But now it's just, it's everywhere. Why? Why is it culture committed to non discrimination becoming ever more discriminatory in ever dumber ways? Not discriminatory in the sense that like, I like fish, not steak, but discriminatory in like, you know, anyone. Appearance is the most important factor. Yeah, it's about somebody.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

I just think it's very weird.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep. Well, a great man once said, I'm looking forward to the day when my children's value is not going to be determined by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

[Tucker]

That's like considered incredibly racist. Now to say that it's like. And I do think it has something to do with what you so eloquently described at the outset of our conversation, which is once you stop acknowledging the human soul, which can only be granted by God, like if there's no God, there's no soul. You're just a hunk of meat. Once you discount that, then the most important thing about you becomes the way you look. Or who your parents were.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

Yeah. Wow.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Tragic.

[Tucker]

So there are people matter about abortion. So Roe v. Wade gets overturned. It's a big deal. We don't really talk about it that much. Anti abortion people lose a bunch of elections. So it seems like the country's becoming more for abortion, but is it becoming more for abortion? I mean, you're kind of out there talking to people in a way that most are not. What do you think?

[Cliff Knechtley]

I think there's a real divide. I think there are more people who are more committed to pro choice and there are more people committed to no pro life. For me, the issue becomes what does God say? The word abortion is never used in the Bible. No, but we clearly read in the Ten Commandments, you shall not murder.

[Tucker]

Yep.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So the question becomes, when does human life Begin in every major university hospital in the United States. If a body lying on a bed in an intensive care unit has brain activity and heartbeat, doctors and nurses are legally, ethically responsible to do everything within their power to sustain that life.

[Tucker]

And generally they do good.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So between six to eight weeks after conception, that little piece of skin in a woman's womb has both brain activity and heartbeat. So I would hope that majority of us would be able to agree between six to eight weeks, that's no longer just a piece of skin. That's a human life. It's got brain activity and heartbeat. So let's not abort after eight weeks. Hopefully we all can agree on that. Then the next question is, well, what's the difference between a one minute old fertilized egg and an eight week old fertilized egg? An eight day old fertilized egg. A 60 year old fertilized egg. And I would argue the only difference is in kind. Excuse me? The only difference is in degree of maturation, not in kind.

[Tucker]

It's the same thing, just a different.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

Point along a continuum.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

So is a one year old different from an 80 year old? Well, yeah, in lots of ways, but fundamentally it's the same person. Still the. Still a person.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

So this is not a conversation that you even hear anymore. You used to hear this conversation, debate about when life begins.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

Do you hear that conversation?

[Cliff Knechtley]

A little bit. You're right. It spiked a few years ago and it's been going downhill since then.

[Tucker]

It just seems like that debate, which is a debate about specifics, has been replaced with slogans shouted back and forth. Pro choice, pro life, which are phrases that I personally hate because I don't really know what they mean. Have you noticed that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep. Correct.

[Tucker]

How big a deal is abortion?

[Cliff Knechtley]

It's a humongous deal because we're talking about a human life. Euthanasia, Tremendous issue. We're talking about a human life. Oh, but they're senile. They have dementia, Cliff. They have Alzheimer's. Yeah, but they're still a human being created in the image of God.

[Tucker]

Yeah. They're probably still more aware of the world than my two year old. Can I kill my two year old?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

What are you even talking about?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right.

[Tucker]

I mean, what.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep. But the sad thing is Peter Singer, professor emeritus at Princeton, used to stand very strongly for abortion and even killing a newly born child. And yet I respect him because he really had a heart for the poor. And he personally. I happen to know that he personally gave a lot of money away to feed hungry People. So he's kind of a. Seems to me to be a confused gentleman who understands the value of human life and that we're going to feed starving people. But if I want to destroy a newborn infant, go ahead.

[Tucker]

I mean, it was always amazing to me that you could have a tenured professor at an Ivy League college which gets billions in federal funding.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

Advocate openly for murder. Why not just cut off federal funding?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Bingo.

[Tucker]

If he advocated for murdering black people or murdering Israeli settlers, they'd be like, no, we're not going to have this.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No way.

[Tucker]

No way.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

But you can advocate for murdering kids and it's you, you keep your funding. I don't understand that at all.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Neither do I.

[Tucker]

Do you think? I mean, part of the problem with abortion is so many people participated in it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

And a lot of good people, by the way.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely.

[Tucker]

Since I know a bunch of good people who participated in abortion and we all do.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

Whether we know it or not.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

So how do you speak to those people about it? I mean, it, it's hard if you've participated that either had one or paid for one or been the father of a child. Like, it's hard to talk to people about it at that point. They don't want to talk about it. How do you talk to people about that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, Tucker, I've got to be brutally honest with people. I am a dirty rotten sinner.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And self righteousness. Jesus attacks in the gospels like no other sin.

[Tucker]

That's for sure. That's the one thing he's really mad about. I noticed.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly, exactly.

[Tucker]

The Pharisees prostitutes are fine, but self righteous people, not fine.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. So we have to be very careful that we're not approaching this issue with a self righteous chip on our shoulder. That's for sure. We all are broken people. We all are feet of clay. I certainly have blown it. Secondly, I've received the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, and he offers that to every single one of us. And all of us are in desperate need of it. I mean, gosh, one of my favorite stories in the New Testament is that two thieves hung on either side of the cross of Christ. First thief turns to come on, says to Jesus, come on, Jesus, miracle boy from Nazareth, get us off these crosses and then we'll believe in you. Second criminal says, you idiot, we bleed and die here because we deserve it. But this Jesus, he's the innocent, holy, pure son of God. And that second criminal looks into Christ's face and says, lord Jesus, remember Me, when you come into your kingdom. Now, it's all right there.

[Tucker]

Jesus says.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Jesus says, get off the cross, Work in a soup kitchen, give me 12 Hail Marys and I'll think about it. No. Yeah, that's religion. You work your way to God. No, the opposite is what Jesus does. He looks the guy in the face and he says, I tell you the truth, today, you'll be with me in paradise.

[Tucker]

See you tonight.

[Cliff Knechtley]

CS Lewis was walking through the faculty lounge and they were having a debate. What's the difference between Christianity and every other world religion? And C.S. lewis said, oh, that's easy, Grace. Every religion says, hear the rules, keep them, and if you do a good enough job, maybe you'll make it. Maybe you'll work off your bad karma well enough to attain nirvana. Maybe you'll be a good enough boy to make heaven. And Jesus says, no, you never will be because you will have a problem with sin. But I bled and died on a cross to give you grace, forgiveness, and eternal life. Trust in me. That's why Jesus doesn't call us to a philosophy. He doesn't call us to an institution. He calls us to himself. Because it takes a personal God, a suffering God, to pay the penalty for our sin, to forgive us, and to reconcile us to himself.

[Tucker]

The last person Jesus forgives before he dies as a murderer.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep, that's exactly right.

[Tucker]

Wild.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Isn't that wild?

[Tucker]

It is wild.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

So if you explain that the. The very most basic precepts of your religion to someone before you tell that person, actually abortion is murder, do you get people who can hear you?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. Correct. Not everybody, but yes. I notice that people begin to listen a lot more attentively. The same way if you give a good answer to a difficult question, then suddenly, if people are thinking, they say, ooh, I dismissed Christ because I thought he was a joke. The evidence is he's not a joke. I'm going to have to begin to think more deeply and seriously. Jesus describes biblical faith as heading towards the evidence. This whole idea that faith in Christ is anti scientific or anti reason is total baloney. In John 14:11, Jesus says, Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father's in me, or believe me, because of the miracles that point to me being the truth. He doesn't say, just believe. He says, no, look at the miracles, buddy, and allow the evidence to drive you to faith.

[Tucker]

Do you think that people who, you know, participate in a murder and don't acknowledge that it's wrong and don't ask for forgiveness? For participating in it. How do they suffer in this life, do you think? In this life?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, the penalty for sin is sin. Sin has a way of unraveling life. We have human consciences. We all do. We all have a conscience. Now, we can sear it, we can rationalize, we can blame others for our sins, but we still have a conscience. And we have to shut that thing down in order to live with ourselves. Or we can turn to Christ for forgiveness.

[Tucker]

We have to shut it down in order to live with ourselves. Interesting. Can you more fully explain that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah. I'm not very intelligent, Tucker, until it comes to justifying whatever I want to do. When it comes to justifying what I want to do, I'm a genius.

[Tucker]

Yeah, I went to grad school for that. Yeah, actually did. Well, Dean's list.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Congratulations.

[Tucker]

Well, you know.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, man.

[Tucker]

No, that's really interesting. So what I think you're saying is once you accentuate, develop, hone the pattern of lying to yourself about your own behavior, it becomes.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep.

[Tucker]

It becomes a habit.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Absolutely. A finely tuned habit.

[Tucker]

Yeah. Well, I think we've all lived that. I certainly have. What about the idea that if you do something really bad, like you do, suffer for it. Like bad things happen in your life.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Okay. Now the challenge to that is Job. When Job suffered, his buddies came to him.

[Tucker]

Oh, yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And they were real smart. For one week they sat there and said, zippo. They just sat with him. Beautiful. Compassion, comfort, integrity. Then they opened their mouths.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And he went south real fast.

[Tucker]

Yeah. They blamed him for his whole family dying.

[Cliff Knechtley]

You're a sinner, Job. That's why you're going through this suffering. And God was going to judge them. And Job had to pray that the Lord would not judge them. For that screwed up advice. They gave him counsel. John, chapter nine. The disciples come to Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, this guy born blind? Who sinned? This guy or his mom and dad? Jesus said, neither this happened. That the power of God might be displayed in his life. Does sin lead to death? Absolutely. Is there always a one to one correspondence between sin and suffering? No. One of the main points of the book of Job is life is unfair. God is fair. Don't get the two mixed up. The challenge when I suffer is not to clench my fist and wave it in God's face. That's misplaced anger. The challenge when I suffer is to understand I'm born into an unfair world. Now, maybe I am suffering for some of my sin or from the sins of somebody else. That's possible. But it's also possible that because I'm born into an unfair world, the flak is hitting the fan in my life. Not because of anybody sinning or me sinning, but because of the unfairness of this world. Now the unfairness of this world is a result of you push it all the way back to Adam and Eve, rebelling against God, telling God to get lost, and creation begins to unravel. So, yes, we're born into a world where there are horrible genetic birth defects and life is unraveling. Life is unfair. And the reason I think that's so important to remember is if I have the false expectation that life is supposed to be fair, I'm going to be really disappointed with God.

[Tucker]

Yeah, life is definitely not fair. There are many. Can I hit you with some hard ones?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Go for it.

[Tucker]

So there are all kinds of references all over the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, about people being chosen. Well, the Jews being the chosen people being the most obvious. But it continues into, you know, the very end of the Gospels. In the end of John, Jesus is like, you all were chosen. What does that mean exactly? There are lots of people who weren't chosen. Jesus's enemies died with, according to Christianity, the sin of opposition to Jesus on them. Is there like an elect who were just like chosen to be followers of Jesus and then the rest who just weren't chosen and won't be. That seems to be what they're saying in there.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Very difficult question. And equally committed followers of Christ disagree. Oh, in my last sermon.

[Tucker]

Sorry, sorry to.

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, no, no, I'm not sorry. It's a. It's a great issue. In the last sermon I preached, I used an illustration from South Africa. In a very, very fine South African seminary, it was taught Afrikaners are the chosen people, which means they are superior to blacks, coloreds and Indians.

[Tucker]

And Brits.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And Brits.

[Tucker]

They hate the Brits.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Incredible. Understandably, I would argue that is a total misunderstanding of the word chosen in the Bible. I would argue that when the Bible talks about God choosing the Jewish people, it doesn't mean all Jews are going to heaven. It doesn't mean the Jews are superior to Gentiles. It simply means that when God chose to reveal himself more clearly than simply through creation, general revelation, he chose the Jewish prophets and he spoke through the Hebrew prophets. And then when he chose to reveal himself most clearly by becoming a human being, he was born a Jewish. I worship a Jew, Jesus of Nazareth. It does not mean that the Jews are God's pets. No, they're valuable human beings. Created in the image of God. But a Jewish thug is a thug the same way a Hamas thug is a thug, the same way a Hezbollah thug is a thug, the same way a Palestinian thug is a thug. We're all human beings created in the image of God with a free will, and we are responsible for what we do. So we got to be real careful how we handle that word chosen. And no, I do not think that God chooses certain people to go to heaven and he chooses others to go to hell. One of the most painful experiences I had was at Stanford. I was speaking in a dorm lounge and a lot of faculty, for some reason that I don't know, showed up and I tried to pull those faculty out to express their worldview, their faith, whatever it was. They refused to. They remained totally silent. And it was the students who dialogued with me. But afterwards one professor said, all right, Cliff, let's go to the kitchen there and let's talk. And I mean, that guy laced into me. It was incredible. And I mean, he called me some interesting words and it just was really negative.

[Tucker]

What was he mad about?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, that's what I didn't know until afterwards. I went to the students who'd invited me to Stanford and I said, gosh, I had the most intense discussion with your religion professor imaginable.

[Tucker]

No one hates God more than a religion professor at Stanford.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Sorry. What was so scary was the guy who invited me said, cliff, that guy grew up in a home where his dad was a minister and he had a brother. And one day their father looked them in the face and said. He said to the other brother, you're predestined to go to heaven. And he looked in the face of the guy who's now the religion professor at Stanford, but this was years ago our doubt. He's there now and said, and you're predestined to go to hell. Can you imagine that? What an incredible perversion of the whole idea of predestination, of the whole idea of chosen or elect. And yet here's a Stanford University religion professor who was treated that way by his own father, was a minister.

[Tucker]

It sounds like he was working to make it true, though. Oh, sounds like he was living in hell.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah. Doesn't it?

[Tucker]

If he's yelling at you. Yeah. For like talking about the gospel, which is like, you know, non violent love based religion. Yeah. If you're mad about that, like there's something, you know, you're the problem. I would say, but not to be mean, but there, there does seem to be. And I, of course, could be misreading it. Probably am, but at least one section, maybe a couple, where Jesus says, you know, like, no one can come to me except those who are chosen to come to me. I think that's what he says.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Okay. I think the language is, unless the Father draws him.

[Tucker]

Correct. That's exactly right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

So, Tucker, if I stood here and said to you, you know why I believe in Jesus? Because I'm a really great guy and I just made the right decision. I'm a fool. No, I love Jesus because Jesus first loved me.

[Tucker]

Right.

[Cliff Knechtley]

My love for him is not because I've got this love welling out of my heart and I'm just such a great guy. No, he first loved me. He chose me. He drew me to himself. I have never converted anybody. I have, simply put the gospel, the good news of God's love for you in front of people, and God's Holy Spirit works in people's hearts, and they either say yes or no. And I can't control that. I have no desire to control that. That's not my job. I've got to respect a person's right to walk away from Christ or to trust in him, because God created us that way. And when a rich young ruler, after asking Jesus how to get to heaven, finds out, he walks away with a sad look on his face. And Christ doesn't go run after him and grab his cloak and say, oh, wait a second, buddy, you got to believe in me. No, he respects the guy enough to say, okay, that's your decision. I respect your decision. I disagree with it totally. So I'm convinced that God allows us to walk away from Him. Tragic. And God also draws us to himself by His Holy Spirit. But look at anthropology. Anthropology shows us that every culture has some type of religion. So I'm convinced that the only reason an atheist doesn't find God is for the same reason a criminal does not find the police.

[Tucker]

Every running away, every site is based on religion.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Pardon?

[Tucker]

Every society is based on religion.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Including ours. Ours is the trans religion or whatever it is, but it's still a. It's an evangelical faith. They find the trans flag outside us embassies around the world. I mean, I. I'm not for it, of course, but I mean, I recognize what it is, which is a religion. It's a religion. You're flying. You're flying the flag, but instead of the cross, there's a rainbow. Do you. My last sort of overview question for you is, since you've been doing this for so long, do you think there's more persecution of Christians now, or do you think there's a revival of Christianity in the United States? Or is there. Both.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Both.

[Tucker]

Really? Tell me what you notice.

[Cliff Knechtley]

The 20th century had more Christian martyrs than all the centuries before that combined.

[Tucker]

Yeah, I noticed.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep. That's not talked about too much. Yeah. Really?

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Since the year 2000, over 50,000 Nigerian Christians have been slaughtered by terrorists for their faith in Christ. Beheaded right outside the church or inside the church building. That's tragic. That is so sick, so sad. And yet it's real. And yet I'm convinced that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. I'm convinced that to spread Christianity, I must not kill others, but be willing to die for my faith to be killed. And that's exactly what happened in the first, second, third century.

[Tucker]

Yes, big time.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And when Christianity got political power. Whoa. Things got really difficult, really perverted, really fast. So as followers of Christ, we have to be very, very careful about power. We need to use it. It's a gift from God. It's a good gift from God, but we better have that same degree of skepticism that Abraham Lincoln did when he said to that minister, no, let's not pray that God is on our side. Let's pray that we are on God's side. And that's one of the reasons that I respect a guy like Charlie Kirk. He does not buy into Christian nationalism. We're the best nation's number one. He understands Christ is number one. And now we better get off our backsides and help make this country more serious about following Christ in our policies, in the way we do business. And I think that's awesome. I think that's absolutely fantastic.

[Tucker]

There's a huge. Use the phrase Christian nationalism, which is. I hate this term, but a hot button phrase, but never really defined. So people.

[Cliff Knechtley]

That's right.

[Tucker]

Can impute whatever meaning they want.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Exactly.

[Tucker]

And the meanings differ greatly. So if by Christian nationalism, you mean you try to make it a more Christian country, that's what you just advocated for.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right.

[Tucker]

If it means put a religious leader in charge of the country and make a state religion, that's an entirely different meaning which you oppose.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Beautifully put.

[Tucker]

Right. So I couldn't agree with you more. Christian nationalism, I think its critics mean any effort to make it a more Christian country.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Correct.

[Tucker]

Right. And so I'm opposed to the critics of Christian nationalism. I'm against a state religion.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yep, same here.

[Tucker]

Good. Okay, good. I.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Sorry, just.

[Tucker]

But that's one of those phrases that just like evokes. All kinds of connotations that you may not have meant. So you just wanted to put a finer point on it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

And remember, Tucker, when I speak on state university campuses or Ivy League campuses, I am not speaking in an echo chamber. The majority of people disagree. Disagree.

[Tucker]

No, you're definitely not.

[Cliff Knechtley]

The majority of people strongly disagree with me.

[Tucker]

So when you're at Smith, I meant to ask you this. Did you use the phrase, can I get an amen?

[Cliff Knechtley]

No, you didn't. Okay.

[Tucker]

It would have been funny if you had.

[Cliff Knechtley]

I mean, just think, Tucker. Chris, this February, March, April, I was at. With Stuart. Stuart and I were at Stanford, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Harvard, mit, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Clemson. Those are not echo chambers.

[Tucker]

How long till you get stoned? And not in a fun way.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Right. I don't know. And there are some people I think are a little too concerned about that. I am not concerned. I think university campuses are still very safe places. Although I know there's been some problems. But no, I'm. And I know ultimately, Tucker, that my life is in the hands of Christ and I'm safe and secure. And I have a great deal of respect for the Apostle Paul when he writes in Philippians 1:23, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. And that's the hope that we have as followers.

[Tucker]

Yeah, I mean, he, like, wrote most of his letters chained to a wall in a dungeon somewhere.

[Cliff Knechtley]

That's exactly right, Tucker. That's exactly right.

[Tucker]

I know it's not a holy term, but what a badass that guy was.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Oh, no kidding.

[Tucker]

I mean, for real?

[Cliff Knechtley]

For real is right.

[Tucker]

Okay, so the second half of the final question, which is about revival. There is more persecution, you believe? I think objectively you're right. Harder to quantify is revival.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes, Harder to quantify.

[Tucker]

What's your sense?

[Cliff Knechtley]

All I know is the past year I have met more excited followers of Christ on campuses than ever before. I am very excited the way young people are taking Jesus more seriously. I do not think it's a health wealth gospel. I do not think it's a think positive gospel. I think it really grapples with good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, justice and injustice in a biblical way, not in a elitist way in the United States. So I am very, very excited about what's happening.

[Tucker]

Should you run into more students who are open minded?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes. I'm getting more really personal questions. You know, whenever things are getting a little tense in the crowds outside, all I gotta do is talk about divorce and the Pain of divorce. And it gets real quiet. Really?

[Tucker]

What do you say?

[Cliff Knechtley]

One of the reasons we all need Jesus Christ is because we all experience alienation. And too many of you in this crowd right now know exactly what I'm talking about. Because your mom and dad were so alienated from each other that they divorced. And you don't need me to tell you how much pain that brought into your life. And I'm sorry. It's wrong, it's not right. But what I plead with you is realize that there is a good God who wants to be your father in heaven, to really protect you, to really care for you, who has your best interests in mind. Don't take it from me. Read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Examine this Christ for yourself.

[Tucker]

And you think people are open to that?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Some are not.

[Tucker]

They've been betraying by their own parents. I mean, that's what that is. It's betrayed. I mean, I've lived, lived it, so I know, but that's. And many people have. At least half the country has. That's a betray. That's a betrayal of the child.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Bingo. You're absolutely right again.

[Tucker]

And you think that makes them more open to your message?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, yeah, because they understand alienation.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

They've experienced the pain of alienation. And that's why when forgiveness is pictured in a very graphic way and the practical nitty gritty boots on the ground description is given a forgiveness, hopefully it's going to begin to make a little more sense and the importance of it is going to become highlighted because they watched mom and dad who could not forgive each other and reconcile.

[Tucker]

Yes. That's ex. It's exactly. Wow, that's interesting. What about drug? Drug use? Drug use is. I mean, I thought it was bad when I was a kid. It seems. It seems totally out of control now.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Why do you think that is?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Why do I think that is?

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Well, I think drugs are very attractive. If I'm in pain, it's a way to assuage the pain.

[Tucker]

Yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Why not pop a pill? Why not get into alcohol? I'm in pain. I'm hurting and I can't stand this. So I need some relief from the pain. And I'll get used drugs. I'll use alcohol, I'll use promiscuous lifestyle, the thrill of orgasm. I'll do whatever it need to to take care of the pain, the meaninglessness, the angst of life. Yeah. Christ says, come and follow me. It's not going to be easy. You're going to have to do some hard work. But come and follow me and I will give you abundant life, a life that really flourishes. That's really good. When you submit to me and trust me. And it's fun to watch more and more people begin to take Christ seriously and say, you know, I don't think drugs and alcohol are really the way to deal with my pain. I mean, you know, I love to ask students the question, if you could ask God one question, what would it be? Well, I like to still play basketball. I don't really play basketball, Tucker. I waddle out there on the court, but there was this one guy out there in the Duquesne and YMCA who I went up to and I said, hey, if you could ask God one question, what would it be? He said, let me think about it.

[Tucker]

You asked us on. On the court.

[Cliff Knechtley]

On the court, yeah. Four minutes later, the guy comes back to me and he says, guess what? I don't ask questions of beings I don't think exist. Oh, I thought that was pretty abrupt, but I like dishonesty. A few weeks ago, he comes up to me and says, I'm started to pray. I said, really? I thought you thought that God didn't exist. He said, I almost killed myself with alcohol. I began to realize I gotta pray in order to live. I said, wow, that's great. I'm walking out of the Y and getting in my car and all of a sudden, from the other end of the parking lot, hey, remember Cliff, faith without works is dead. That's right out of the book of James, the end of the New Testament. So here's this kid who told me, I don't pray because I don't talk to a God who doesn't. And I'm not going to ask you a question about God because I don't ask questions about beings I don't think exist. Now he's gone to now I pray. And now he's gone to quoting the book of James to me.

[Tucker]

I'm not surprised. I'm not. It's the people who are mad at God who come around to God much more often than people who just don't even think about it. Someone comes up and is like, I don't think God exists. Well, God. Oh, you're God. He's really mad.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

And that suggests an internal tussle.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes.

[Tucker]

With his pre existing from birth deep knowledge that of course God exists.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Knows that.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

And he's like fighting it. And anyone who's fighting is probably in the end gonna submit. That's my Instinct on it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Anyway, same here. That's why when. When people really go after me out in the open air and people come, you know, humble people come up afterwards and say, clifford, are you all right? I mean. I mean, that guy was awful mad. He was awful offensive, wasn't he? I'm saying, wait a second. I respect the guy totally. He put right out on the table what he believes.

[Tucker]

Oh, yeah.

[Cliff Knechtley]

What he doesn't believe. I loved it. I love every minute of it.

[Tucker]

Yeah. It's always people like that. It's the person who's like, I've never thought of that before. You know what I mean? Like, what does that have to do with my job at the bank? People like that, you have a lot less hope of enlightenment for them.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tucker]

Than the guy who's wrestling with God.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yeah.

[Tucker]

Last final question. Are you hopeful for the future of the country?

[Cliff Knechtley]

Yes, I am. Because I, as a follower of Christ, understand that God is ultimately sovereign. History is not a string of accidents. History is ultimately God's story. He began it in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth, and he's going to bring it to a close when Jesus Christ returns in power and great glory. Billy Graham was playing golf with President elect Kennedy. And after their golf game, Kennedy was driving them back to their residence. And all of a sudden, Kennedy pulls the car off to the side of the road and looks at Dr. Graham and says, do you really think that Christ is going to return a second time? Graham swallowed hard and said, well, the Bible teaches that and all the church creeds teach that. So, yes, I do believe that this.

[Tucker]

Was pre Vatican too, before they're reading the Bible a lot to Catholic churches. No, it's true. It was.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Good point. Yeah, very good point. And gosh, am I ever excited about the number of Catholics that are starting to read the Bible now.

[Tucker]

A lot.

[Cliff Knechtley]

A ton of. Yeah, I am ecstatic over that development.

[Tucker]

So sorry, sorry to interrupt, but I. Not to defend Kennedy, but he probably never heard that before.

[Cliff Knechtley]

It's.

[Tucker]

Yeah, that's the whole message of the New Testament, but he'd never heard it.

[Cliff Knechtley]

That's exactly right. Well, just think if you have a worldview that says there is no God, history is a string of accidents and history is going to end when we all blow ourselves to bits in a nuclear holocaust or when the sun burns out, we all freeze to death. Entropy. No, Jesus Christ insisted that history is going to end when he returns in power and great glory. That is why I, as a follower of Christ, have hope for the future. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. We as followers of Christ, affirm life more than anybody because we know that there's eternal life out there. We, as followers of Christ, want to work harder to change our country, to change our world, because you don't work on roads that lead nowhere. And life is not a road that leads nowhere. Life is a road that leads to eternal life in heaven when you trust in Christ. So you begin to get involved in politics, you get involved in your corporation, you get involved in your family, because you know that life is significant and you know that there's an incredible future out there. Because ultimately Jesus is going to return a second time. Ultimately, Jesus reigns.

[Tucker]

Cliff, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[Cliff Knechtley]

Tucker, I can't thank you enough for the awesome privilege. Thank you for your honesty and your openness, your hospitality, my deep theological questions.

[Tucker]

Not very deep, but thank you. We want to thank you for watching us on Spotify, a company that we use every day. We know the people who run it, good people. While you're here, do us a favor. Hit, follow and tap the bell so you never miss an episode. We have real conversations, news things that actually matter. Telling the truth, always. You will not miss it if you follow us on Spotify and hit the bell. We appreciate it. Thanks for watching.