‘Young people are taking Jesus more seriously’
Prominent Christian apologist Cliffe Knechtle recently discussed the reality of spiritual warfare with Tucker Carlson, noting he discerns a growing spiritual hunger among many young people who have been left reeling amid moral relativism and personal brokenness.
“I am very excited the way young people are taking Jesus more seriously,” said Knechtle, who has been preaching on college campuses for 45 years and serves as senior pastor at Grace Community Church in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Knechtle’s viral exchanges with often hostile college students have swelled his YouTube channel “Give Me an Answer” to more than 890,000 subscribers.
During a wide-ranging, two-hour interview with Carlson released this week, the two discussed the nature of the spiritual war that has manifested in what they characterized as the unprecedented scale of moral relativism in modern society.
Is there a Christian revival going on in America? Cliffe Knechtle would know. He’s been preaching on college campuses for 45 years.
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(25:12)… pic.twitter.com/nUIjY7LHRf— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 25, 2025
“Moral relativism, relativism in general, has a stranglehold now on people in a way it never used to,” Knechtle said when asked about the biggest philosophical change he has seen at colleges over nearly a half-century.
Knechtle suggested that the fallout from moral relativism has led to the breakdown of the family and the chaos of sexual and gender confusion that has left many young people “on edge” as they base their reality on subjective experience and feelings.
“Moral relativism is tragic,” he said. “Basically, sin is deifying my opinion, deifying myself, putting myself at the center of the cosmos […] And a follower 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.”
Citing Ephesians 6:12, both Carlson and Knechtle framed moral relativism in supernatural terms, noting an unmistakable “demonic” influence presented by the false freedom of dictating one’s own morality and becoming one’s own god — a sinful desire Knechtle noted extends throughout the Bible back to Eden.
“God is offensive in that God tells me what is right sexually, what is right financially, what is right when it comes to use of power,” he said, describing the mindset of those who reject Him.
“And I would just as soon 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.'”
“The Day of Judgment is intimidating,” he continued, adding, “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 and my moral rectitude.”
Knechtle emphasized his belief that Christianity is potentially experiencing a revival despite rising cultural hostility, which he observed echoes the situation of the early church.
He said within the past year, he’s “met more excited followers of Christ on campuses than ever before.”
Knechtle suggested that perhaps because of the core spiritual issues many of them are struggling with, young people are especially poised to respond to the Gospel while avoiding its superficial counterfeits.
“I do not think it’s a health-wealth Gospel. I do not think it’s a think-positive Gospel,” he said of what appeals to hurting young people who are searching. “I think it really grapples with good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, justice and injustice in a biblical way, not in an elitist way.”
“So I am very, very excited about what’s happening,” he added.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
