According to his brother David, Rush Limbaugh’s faith deepened in the final year of his life. David Limbaugh talked about his famous sibling’s spiritual journey in a recent interview with author Joel Rosenberg.
David Limbaugh said they were raised in a Christian home and attended church, and their parents taught them “great values.” After being skeptical when he was younger, David became a believer in his mid-30s.
“People think that Christianity is based on blind faith,” he said. “No, no, it’s based on evidence. But faith is critical. Without faith, meaning putting your trust in Christ for your personal salvation, you’re not going to get there, no matter how much you believe intellectually.”
After he accepted Christ, he wondered if his brother was a Christian.
“I mean, he thought he was in my view, and he embraced it intellectually,” David said. “But did he think enough about it? And did it really affect his life in the way you would think if you were truly a faithful Christian?”
He started witnessing to Rush, even straightforwardly asking whether he truly believed., and he responded, “yes.” David asked why his brother didn’t discuss his faith more, and Rush replied that he didn’t talk about it much because he didn’t think he knew enough about it. He didn’t want to make something he wasn’t an expert in the focus of his talk show.
“Even though he was not being intellectually dishonest about it, he didn’t quite yet get it in my view,” David said.
At one point Rush assured his brother that he never had doubts about his faith or Christ, which David found “heartening.” But he still wasn’t sure whether his older brother accepted Christ. His cancer diagnosis ultimately brought him closer to God.
“With Rush, he was experiencing this hardship, and he was taken down to the lowest point and he turned,” he said. “He had to turn; he had nowhere else to turn. Even if he hadn’t had faith in Christ before, he had such sincere, heartfelt faith.”
He said his brother began talking to God daily and reading the Bible, even texting him for insight on certain passages, something David had never seen him do before.
“It really doesn’t matter if Rush embraced Christ 10 years before or one day before he died,” he said. “What matters is, and I can say emphatically, that he did embrace him. I would say for sure in the early part of that last year. I think he did before, but I don’t know. All I can say is he had an exclamation point on it during that time. He got his faith through Christ, and he leaned on him.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice