November 21, 2024

Can (In)Famous People Be Saved?

Christians serve a mighty God. The power that sees souls saved and lives changed is a power stronger than that which raised people from the dead. The Creator called Earth into existence, and vanquished sin for all time by the death of His Only Son on the cross, and we know we will rise with him because Jesus arose.

We believe and profess that the worst of sinners, the Apostle Paul, was saved by the blood of Christ. This man who saw the first Christian martyr stoned, and was on his way to kill and persecute more of them became the one who wrote most of the New Testament and told us to follow him as he followed after Christ.

So yes, we serve a Savior who can save even his enemies. The problem is that we also live in a time where it is hard to differentiate between those truly saved and those seeking to take advantage of the Christian faith.

Roosh V

Roosh was an infamous pickup artist. He ran blogs bragging about his ability to sleep his way through Europe.

Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh, one of the internet’s most infamous and noxious personalities, famous for his hate-filled polemics against women, says he’s a different person now. After years of writing about why women are intellectually inferior beings worth little more than what they can offer to a man sexually, Valizadeh—known as “RooshV”—is laying some new ground rules for his blog and the topics that can be discussed on it—and if it’s legit, it’s going to be a very different place.

Valizadeh says that he “received a message while on mushrooms” and has re-committed to the Orthodox Church he was raised in. He says he took “the God pill”, which seems to be a reference to the red pill and blue pill trope from The Matrix, which has more recently been memed by various fringe groups into a metaphor for “waking up” to the “real world”—for example, being “redpilled” means accepting certain conspiratorial beliefs that most people refuse to believe. In Valizadeh’s new paradigm, the “God pill” seems to be a final stage in redpilling.

Infamous Pickup Artist RooshV Says He’s a Christian Now

His forum that he was running is no longer being run by the man, and his blog is down. If someone was to truly try to change from who he formerly was, getting rid of his internet presence would be an effect way to demonstrate to the world that they had changed, and were not trying to profit off Christianity.

Kanye West

Kanye West came out a few years ago and said that he had decided to follow Christ and become a Christian. Many who were faithful followers were skeptical. It’s not that God cannot save someone with the language and morals of Kanye West– He certainly can. It’s that, often when someone with a large audience takes a tack toward Christianity it’s for further self-promotion.

West’s behavior after that was interesting. He released an album that was nominally Christian, and had some people praising him. He held events in a church but then went through a very public separation and divorce from his wife. He claimed that he was just growing, but his behavior has people scratching their heads.

A lot of his behavior shows that either he has really bad influences, or that his conversion was more just a show than anything else. He has signs of mental illness, and we pray that his conversion is true and he gets with the right people.

Nala Rey

Nala Rey went on the above interview with Michael Knowles, and her conversion seems more sincere– she left her Only Fans site, rid herself of her money, and was willing to follow Jesus, even if that didn’t fix her estranged relationship with her parents.

Her faith has cost her monetarily, and while some may say that she’s just changing her life when it no longer benefited her, they don’t understand that even passive income in the industry would have continued to be profitable.

As far as I can tell, she isn’t trying to market herself as Christian to get more views but to genuinely reflect the change.

Russell Brand

The last is comedian Russell Brand:

Comedian and actor Russell Brand recently shared he was baptized on Sunday months after expressing an interest in Christianity. “Yesterday I got baptized, and it was an incredible, profound experience,” Brand said in a video posted Monday. “Many aspects of it were very intimate and personal. The truth is this: as a person who has, in the past, taken many, many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence that I’ve always felt I’ve been looking for… something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible; overwhelming.”

He also revealed his baptism took place at River Thames, which is located in Southern England. 

“I felt changed. Transitioned,” he added.

‘Blessed’: Comedian and Actor Russell Brand Gets Baptized at River Thames – Milton Quintanilla

I’m skeptical of people who put too much emphasis on an emotional experience by baptism, and say that Christianity is more personal. I’m not saying it cannot happen that way, or that Mr. Brand might be truly repentant or saved. That said, he’s in a lot of trouble with the law and his behavior. We will have to observe his fruit to see if it’s true.

Conclusion

God can save anyone, and we shouldn’t expect that previous temptations would never show themselves in a new life, but we should see a counting of the cost and true follwership– people making a decision to follow Christ that costs them something, instead of trying to profit off the change.

When talking about the rich young ruler, He said that it’s harder for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter Heaven. I think that should warrant, from us, at least a little bit of skepticism, no?

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