As a kid growing up in the 1980s, I was a huge fan of professional wrestling. And, like most young boys at the time, I idolized the very massive, very cool, Hulk Hogan. I had the toys, sweatshirts, head bands, wrist bands, you name it. He was my hero. I looked up to him as the perfect masculine ideal. That, of course, was dumb of me because Hogan is just a man, flawed like everyone else, and certainly not a god as I made him out to be in my idolatrous young heart. But hey, I was only five or six at the time and knew nothing about Jesus Christ so cut me some slack.
Hogan recently came back hot and heavy into the spotlight after announcing he was baptized last December and walking with the Lord. I could not have been more thrilled by the news. My old hero following my ultimate hero? Whatcha gonna do, brother?
Celebrate, that’s what. Just like every angel and saint in heaven did when Hulk Hogan repented of his sins and trusted in Christ.
During a recent interview on TBN, Hogan shared an inspirational message with his fans and followers, urging them to turn to Jesus, saying, “Knowing of Jesus and knowing Him are two different things.”
Amen.
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“I was always a believer, but I didn’t completely surrender,” he stated during the interview. “I thought I could drive better than He could. I thought I could make the decisions better than He could. And now He takes His hands off the wheel and says, ‘Okay. You think you can do it better, go ahead and do it.’ So, like I said, I got tired of crashing and burning, and at this point, with a 40-year career behind me, in that whole platform, I understand now that it was just a temporary situation to set me up for this next run.”
“And now that that run is over, I’m getting ready to this new run. Now I realize why I’m here and why all that happened,” Hogan continued.
Here’s more from Christian Headlines:
Last December, Hogan and his wife, Sky Daily Hogan, were baptized at the Indian Rocks Baptist Church in Florida. Hogan shared a video on Instagram of him and his wife being submerged in a pool of water before coming back up smiling.
“Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life,” he wrote in the caption.
Hogan previously shared that he rediscovered his faith last April, CBN News reports.
“I accepted Christ as my savior at 14 yrs old and the training, prayers, and vitamins kept me in the game, but now that I am one with God, the main event theme of surrender, service, and love makes me the Real Main Event that can slam any giant of any size through the power of my Lord and Savior and so it is, even now brother, AMEN!” Hogan said in a post on X.
The Hulkster has also been posting a lot of Scripture on his social media profiles and sporting shirts with John 3:16 on them, which says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
“All those things in the past that happened to me – I tell Sky, I’m like the old, scarred-up SEAL that’s been in 20 million battles, and I’ve got scars all over me. And I feel that I’m not a poser because knowing of Jesus and knowing Him are two different things,” he said later in the interview.
Another great part of his message was his encouragement for folks to turn and put their faith and trust in Christ, regardless of how messed up their lives might look.
“So, at this point, knowing Him and being one with Him, I think all these scars and all these things I’ve been through – not that I’m leading by example, but I’ve been made an example of for people that think ‘I’m not correct’ or ‘I don’t have my act cleaned up’. Or ‘I can’t do this’,” Hogan commented.
“I think all those people that have all the excuses for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or not being good enough. You don’t need to be cleaned up. Come to Him. He’ll clean you up,” he stated in conclusion.
I have no doubt Christ is going to uses Hulk Hogan to reach a lot of people with the gospel that might never have heard the message or would have paid attention to it previously. To God be the glory.