God said, “Hold my beer.”
Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” It asked Balaam. “You have made me look like a fool! Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you.” “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?” “No” Balaam admitted. Numbers 22:28-30 NLT.
Donkeys talk, Angels sing, Serpents persuade, and now, non-Christians or adjacent Christians are preaching to Christians. Non-Christian prophets have replaced the Christian ones. It’s not a fluke, it’s not an accident. It seems as though God is in on it. In fact, he is blowing a bit of holy wind at their back. Some of these new prophets are aware, and they can feel the wind. Others are like Bob Dylan, “The answer is blowin’ in the wind,” not sure what is happening. I think that we in the West find ourselves in the middle of a spiritual revival. And the most surprised people of all are Christian church leaders, especially those who make their living trying to improve the church. Stepping back to take a hard look at it, we can see the church improvement industry has been sidelined from the action. We are like the intramural league, occupied with in-house matters.
God, having grown weary of waiting for us to get it, has gone ahead without our permission. He has rounded up a wild bunch of his own and has told us to “hold my beer” while he takes these marauders out into this hideous culture that offends us. He will return with throngs of new converts/disciples who don’t know much about religion, but do know Him and are lusting to work for him. And he will ask the church, “Now, what are you going to do with them?” The world waits for an answer.
Who are these non-Christian or adjacent to Christian prophets? They represent a casserole of spiritual views. It’s like the church dinner, when you dip your spoon into the Mac & Cheese, and pray and swallow. God is more relaxed with mixed theological dishes than his followers. But one thing the populace doesn’t want is progressive relativistic finger food with no nourishment.
Gourmet Theology
Theology is like gourmet food carefully presented, with lots of white space around lonely little islands; a pod of peas, a lump of polenta, a 3-oz filet, and an artistic dribble. For some reason, it’s called “fine dining.” Then there is store-bought food, ready-made casseroles, and ready-mixed salads. Once consumed, however, they are mixed and digested to nourish and strengthen the body. Every Christian who walks and lives on earth takes in a bit of sovereignty one day and free will the next. God’s plan one moment, and chaos the next. Life doles out joy and suffering, clarity and confusion, at one time or another, and all kinds of theological tribes are eating off each other’s plates. It’s all needed to get the job done. It seems that God has decided he needs a Mission: Impossible team; he is sending them in behind enemy lines, and they do what no conventional religious or “Christian” group dares contemplate. No compromises, no prisoners.
The leader of the pack is Dr. Jordan Peterson, a cancelled Clinical Psychologist once employed at Harvard and then the University of Toronto. Dr. Peterson sounds like an atheist at times, committed to an evolutionary story of the human species; five minutes later, he is crying like a TV evangelist as he speaks about the depths of the divine. He is as much an enigma as the funny suit he wears, which is half blue and half red, somehow signaling that he is politically neutral, which is very Swiss of him. He raises his hands before the throngs of his fans and says, “Don’t shoot.” Since Peterson’s Toronto days, he has become internationally famous, greatly loved by readers, especially by young people. His books have sold millions of copies, and he has become the darling of the Christian world and the devil himself to the progressive left who hate reality. His first bestseller was 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. It created a huge stir, and many talk show hosts regretted daring to tangle with him. Peterson is a high-IQ disagreeable person, precise with his answers and powerful in his retorts. Like King David, he has slain his tens of thousands. His latest work is We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine. A 500+ page tour de force, the stories of leaders from Adam to Jonah, who wrestled with God. His lectures on the Bible have been viewed by billions on the internet. Christian leaders talk to Christians about talking to non-Christians. Peterson is a non-Christian teaching the Bible to millions of non-Christians.
Peterson walks a tightrope since he revealed he is a Christian. Regardless, he started this journey clearly as one outside the camp. He ventures in and smokes the peace pipe with leaders from many different traditions. What makes him a prophet is that, unlike Jonah, he is willing to preach to those he despises, and like Job, he has suffered much, like Jacob, has wrestled with God, and he has spoken without fear like the prophetic greats. His wife and daughter have suffered greatly and are now both followers of Christ. He was pulled into Christ by a strong G-force. He doesn’t like church meetings; they bore him. He is too smart for his own good, but not too smart for those who need him. With all these qualifications, there is something else that makes him the leader of the pack.
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship
Peterson co-founded ARC to bring together the finest minds from a variety of disciplines. 4000 people from around the globe recently gathered in London. Leaders from business, politics, theology, journalism, economics, and the entire panoply. It also had a clear Christian voice, even an evangelical voice, without making it too obvious. They represented the moderate middle to the normal right and were a clear rival to the World Economic Forum that meets in Davos annually. The ARC conference was highlighted by speeches by New York Times columnist David Brooks, social critic and Christian author and intellectual Os Guinness. Other notables were Douglas Murray, historian Niall Ferguson, and his wife, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It was an intellectual feast, something short of celestial.
A panel that caught my attention was composed of Ferguson, who pointed out that every major societal change was more influenced by war than by any other force. Australian John Anderson spoke about the need to believe in our intuitions, but they must be run on the proper fuel. He related a story about putting diesel fuel in his petrol van. The van coughed its way to the side of the road and stopped. He drained the diesel fuel out and replaced it with the proper fuel, and the van began running great. He pointed out the mechanics of the van were sound, but the right fuel was needed. David Brooks had spoken just prior to the panel and had made a case against elites, among other things, and then delivered a body blow to Donald Trump. The panel disagreed with his diagnosis and (agreed with) spoke for the importance of elites. In fact, the entire conference was a gathering of elites. While Jewish, 2
Brooks is a known Christian convert, but has fallen in with its left wing who suffer from tribal hate of Trump. No one likes being out of power.
The ARC conference, numbering 4000, was easily sold out; they could have randomly called conferees from the audience to replace the platformed personnel, and the conference would still have been star-studded. The point is, Peterson has created something that no church, no classical church leader has been able to do now in this post-Christian culture. It is a spiritual revival. It just doesn’t look like what history has told us and what traditionalists expect. There isn’t a lot of hymn singing, firebrand preaching, and all-night prayer vigils. It is symposiums, panels, discussions, and drinks late into the night among people who, for the first time, can venture into God. It is a subversive, even subtle revival; the only holy rolling is God throwing the dice and putting down his money on these suspect figures. It is a quiet revival made up of younger people in the West, particularly in the UK. [1]
Mar-a-Lago & the man who wouldn’t mind being “saved.”
In a scene that makes Balaam’s ass speaking for God seem normative, there are scenes of worship at Mar-a-Lago. [2] Many rogues are running loose on the grounds of the Florida White House. Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC, estimated worth, 500 billion. Kid Rock bopping about in various crazy garbs, Herschel Walker, Mike Tyson, Robert Kraft, and Bill Belichick. But without doubt, the man who has become Trump’s most able ally is the world’s richest man, the man who wouldn’t mind being saved,[3] Elon Musk. At any moment, you expect James Bond to pop out of the ocean surf, strip off his wetsuit, and walk in his tuxedo right onto the grounds. It takes but a few minutes into this vision before you realize you are not in the famous “Bar” scene in Star Wars; it feels similar, but it’s real.
Trump, the man with the golden hair, and Musk, the one with a network of satellites, neural chips, sleek supercars, and who shoots ships into space, are two men who combine all the Bond villains. The women are all tens, and the men are all true believers. Trump and Musk have all the money and the power. And guess who is also there? “Jesus!” exclaimed one celebrating patron at the bar. Was he cursing or praying? For the first time, this is a real question. It seems that Jesus himself is there as promised, when two or three are gathered in his name, there he is in the middle of them. [4] Just as James Bond and Dr. No could not be friends, the Trump-Musk relationship could not last. But think of it as a lover’s quarrel; one cannot predict the ebb and flow. They put the “Motely” in “Crew.” But God isn’t put off with these guys who are just like his disciples, except with power, money, and private aircraft.
Jesus already had told the religious establishment to “hold his beer” while he went about loving, accepting, and converting the people they won’t go near. This group is not the one that the church typically talks about. The Western church is always talking about the poor, as though knowing them. Ministry to the poor is an essential sign of a right-spirited church, but the poor are an easy mark. The majority of the church doesn’t live with the poor. The poor are difficult; they are often ungrateful and have a certain smell. The poor church does the best job of reaching out to the poor non-church, and the middle-class church pays for it. And there is nothing wrong with any of that.
But this motley group smells bad. The prissy progressive church holds Faberge, Chanel, and Gucci scented tissues to its nose. They resent that their exclusive world has been invaded by the barbarians. They seem to have everything, but they are desperately needy. They are seeking redemption, hope, and meaning; they just can’t articulate it. They see through a $2000.00 drinking “glass darkly”; they are empty and full at the same time. Jesus told us about them, “I’ll say it again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” [5] Don’t forget the rich, it’s harder for them to get into heaven!
Among the worshippers at Mar a Lago, the Bible studies in the U.S. Capitol, and Christians in positions of power are true disciple makers. These are not cafeteria Catholics, lapsed Baptists, or weak-in-the-knees Episcopalians; these are committed followers of Jesus. Their main sin is that they are known to be friends with, agree with, or have been appointed by the man with the golden hair. And that makes them “Christian Nationalists” [6] persona non grata with progressive elites. Heaven can wait to hear from James Carville’s reptilian lips how he might connect trailer trash with the Catholic Mass. It might behoove us all to remember that old hymn that sums it up and appears on roadside signs that Carville drives by to attend Mass:
Sing above the battle’s strife, Jesus saves, Jesus saves;
By His death and endless life, Jesus saves, Jesus saves;
Sing it softly thru the gloom,
When the heart for mercy craves, Sing in triumph o’er the tomb,
Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
Bill Hull
[1] Fulcrum, Tucker Carlson: We Are In A Religious Revival, April 13, 2025. David Read,
[2] https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1541851266529639,
https://worshipleader.com/worship-culture/mar-a-lago-trump-prayer-worship/
[3] Please see “Elon Musk wouldn’t mind being saved” series in the 2025 release “Time to Stand Up” by Bill Hull.
[4] Matthew 18:20 Any theologian worth the air to blow him/her/they up with must consent to this possibility. Consider Jesus at Matthew’s Party. Luke 5:29-32
[5] Matthew 19:24 NLT.
[6] Christian Nationalism is hard to define. I think it means a person who conflates Christianity and Citizenship and wraps their conservative theology and politics into the same package. I have yet to meet such a person. I know they must exist, I will put it on my “bucket list,” but I consider them rare. I think those who talk about them the most are progressive Christians who wrap their Christianity and progressive theology into the same package. Possibly, both sides should spend a bit of time reflecting on what they see in the mirror.