Recently on The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert flipped the script, and had his guest Jon Stewart host, and interview him.
The conversation between the two old friends took an interesting turn however when Stewart asked Colbert about his favorite Bible characters. Stewart informed the audience that in addition to hosting the late night show, Colbert is a “noted substitute Sunday School teacher.”
Stewart, who is Jewish, asked Colbert about who is favorite Old Testament character is, and Colbert, at first, gave a somewhat unexpected choice: Aaron.
Colbert explained, “Aaron did so much and gets no credit. Moses gets all the ink, but Aaron actually led everybody because Moses had the stutter.”
Stewart went on to talk about the character of Isaac, who—even after being almost sacrificed by his own father—still chose to serve and follow God.
Colbert then changed his answer to Job, who famously refused to curse God, despite having everything in his life taken away. Colbert said, “He does not curse God. He endures all even though his neighbors are saying ‘curse God and die! What are you doing?’” Colbert then explained why the story shows so much about the character of God and the nature of man.
His Christian faith is a frequent themes in Colbert interviews.
He talked with Oprah about the Bible:
He and Yvonne Orji discussed the Holy Spirit:
He told GQ that, “I am here to know God, love God, serve God.”
He gave a very thought-provoking explanation of hell to NPR, saying, “I think the answer, ‘God is love’ is pretty good for a child. Because children understand love … My son asked me one day, ‘Dad, what’s hell?’ … So, I said, ‘Well, if God is love, then hell is the absence of God’s love. And, can you imagine how great it is to be loved? Can you imagine how great it is to be loved fully? To be loved totally? To be loved, you know, beyond your ability to imagine? And imagine if you knew that was a possibility, and then that was taken from you, and you knew that you would never be loved. Well that’s hell—to be alone, and know what you’ve lost.’”
He also famously shut down an author named Philip Zimbardo, who suggested “Had [God] not created hell, then evil would not exist,” telling him, “Evil exists because of the disobedience of Satan. God gave Satan, and the angels, and man free will. Satan used his free will and abused it by not obeying authority. Hell was created by Satan’s disobedience to God, and his purposeful removal from God’s love—which is what hell is. Removing yourself from God’s love. You send yourself to hell. God does not send you there.”
The Stewart interview, like many of his others, shows why he continues to be one of TV’s most compelling personalities.
