 I can't believe I'm saying that, bro, because I literally would have absolutely clowned on myself three years ago. Ryan Trahan. He's YouTube's fastest growing creator. Well, apart from MrBeast, but he's pretty tough to beat. Ryan began his journey with commentary videos and later on vlogs, but more recently embarked on a series across America, on a budget of only what he can make during his time on the road, doing odd jobs and trading up. His mission? Deliver a penny to MrBeast. Well, to some, this series may sound inconsequential, but it nevertheless has gained him global attention and skyrocketed his channel into becoming one of the fastest growing on YouTube today. Prolific YouTube interviewer Anthony Padilla, known for his videos like I Spent a Day with Satanist or I Spent a Day with Bisexuals, recently sat down with Ryan to pick his brain on the recent success and to dig a little bit deeper onto the core motivators of his life. During a key moment of the interview, one of Ryan's answers noticeably caught Anthony off guard. This video is going to be absolutely wild. We're going to touch on missionary dating. We're going to talk about what I consider to be the secular gospel, and we're also going to touch on how we cannot compromise the gospel when we're in conversation with unbelievers. And I'll give you some insight and guidance on how to stay true to the key points of the gospel. Now let's dive into the interview and hear what changed everything for Ryan. But first, I just want to give a huge shout out to my patrons on Patreon. It's only through your guys' support that I can continue to make this content, make these videos, and you're supporting my mission of equipping people to follow Jesus daily. If you want to get behind my mission in that, I'll hit the link in my description. We're so close to the 300 Patreon goal, and then I'll be able to go full-time. That would be amazing. That would be insane. And so anyway, if you want to help in my mission, that would be such a blessing. Now on to the video. The biggest thing, which is probably the most important thing to me. Tell me Ryan. Tell me Ryan. I'm ready. Christian. And when we started dating, I was not. I was atheist. Cynical atheist. Whenever I would talk to Christians, I was always very questioning their beliefs. I started dating Hailey, and I would ask her questions like that. Very hard questions. And I wanted to really challenge her because I loved her so much. I didn't want her to have this false view of reality. Conversation after conversation, she was very gracious with me. What I realized, though, was my heart yearned for an answer. I realized it all came from a place of like, non-closure with my grandma of like, I just really want to know. This basically culminated to this day, July 4, 2020. This is when my YouTube channel was doing very well. I had almost 2 million subscribers. I was making more money than I ever dreamed of. I was giving it all I had, and I received everything I thought I wanted. Why do I feel empty? And it was a crazy dude. And I realized like, I need to go on like a spiritual pursuit. I started taking a lot less cynical approach towards asking questions. Starting to pray, developing a relationship with God. I can't believe I'm saying that, bro, because I literally would have absolutely clowned on myself three years ago. Okay, so let's go back to the missionary dating for a second. So you're telling me missionary dating works? I mean, Ryan wasn't a Christian when he got in this relationship with his girlfriend. And then, you know, gradually over time, asking questions and their relationship together, and all of a sudden he comes to faith. And does this mean it's a prescription for all of us believers? Now it's like, hey, you know, it doesn't really matter who you end up, you know, dating because you can just convert them in the end and it'll be all great. Well, I think about it this way. Have you ever done something in your life that you knew wasn't right? I mean, it took you down a certain path and you knew like, okay, that was definitely wrong, but then ultimately something good ended up coming out of it. Does this mean that, oh man, I was justified in making that wrong kind of sinful decision? No, it just means he can bring blessings out of our bad choices and bad situations that we put ourselves in. That doesn't mean that we continue on and be like, oh my God, he's gonna fix this in the end. I can just do what I want and he'll fix it. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. That's not a prescription. But further than the question is, is missionary dating sin? And by missionary dating, I'm talking about a Christian going out with a non-Christian, either for the purpose of converting them or because they think it's no big deal at all. Is that really disobedience? Well, let's take a look at the scriptures. Okay, okay, okay. So 2 Corinthians 6 is where we find our answer to this question. It is in verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What does it mean to be unequally yoked with somebody? Well, okay, so maybe you guys have heard me talk about this before, basically two oxen are pulling something and they have this yoke on their shoulders or I don't know if oxen have shoulders, but their neck basically, okay? And they're pulling this thing and this is just to keep them in line and keep them level and in pace with one another so they can effectively pull this cart. Well, what happens when you get an oxen that's like way bigger and like a small oxen and you try to put this thing over their neck, it's uneven, one starts dragging the other and the cart just topples over and you, they don't fulfill the purpose that they were made for. Now, let's think about this from Ryan's girlfriend's perspective. First, it's important to realize that dating somebody is a serious thing or at least it should be. I think our culture undervalues the importance of really making sure that the person that you're going out with, if you're going to kind of go steady or move beyond just the talking stage, I don't know what terms people use, but like you're going out, you know, you're a couple at this point. I don't think our culture really values the importance of that kind of commitment in that stage. It's like, hey, are you really going to be in that kind of relationship with somebody that doesn't hold any of your core values? And also you should be thinking about, hey, does this person have the potential to be my spouse? And if they're missing that core aspect of their life, Jesus, being transformed by the Holy Spirit, so now they are not this dead in trespasses and sins type person, but now they're alive to Christ type person. That is without that, man. Why are you linking yourself with that type of person? That's just, that's not going to be good. Their worldview impacts the way they live their life in a holistic sense. So we're talking about money. We're talking about how they're raising their kids. We're talking about what they're going to do on their Sundays. Are they going to want to go to church? Because they don't share your faith, their perspectives are going to be different. You're going to differ because you have different standards. Now my question for you, if you're watching this and you're kind of considering, hey, missionary dating is not that big a deal, is are you prepared to marry this person? And I hope the answer would be no. I hope where your heart is at is, I would just like to try to convert this guy and I really like him or I'll convert this girl and I really like him and we'll figure it out before we get married. I hope that's where you're at because man, it would be a recipe for a lot and a lot of hurt if you do end up marrying this person that just doesn't hold your Christian faith. So if your answer, no, no, I'm not going to marry this guy until he becomes a Christian. Here's the thing, in a romantic relationship, intimacy is there, right? You're developing intimacy, emotional intimacy with a person even without being kind of physical yet because you're saving yourself for marriage, that emotional intimacy is building and it's going to become that much more challenging to actually share the gospel with this person and continue to be a light to them because you don't want to hurt their feelings or you don't want to let them down or you don't want them to think poorly of you so you kind of accommodate your beliefs to them to seem more reasonable to them to maybe even get them to like you more. If they don't become a Christian then you're forced to break off the relationship and that can lead to a lot of hurt and disappointment. But unfortunately, even if they don't become a Christian, a lot of people still stay in the relationship because they've already compromised to the point of being with them. Now they say, well, what's one more step in marriage? We can do it, we can figure it out. Yes, God can absolutely bring something good out of a sinful situation, but that doesn't mean that we're given justification for living in that sinful lifestyle. Let's jump back into the video and hear how Jesus has impacted Ryan's life and also how Anthony fits his spiritual journey that he has had into this whole conversation. It's real, like I can't lie about who I am and like I can't lie about where I get the source of joy and positivity because it's actually such a disservice to people that watch. In the past, I would have heard someone say something like I found Jesus, I found this new way of viewing the world through these beliefs of giving and love and all these things and I would have been like, cringy, that's totally, I like delusion. And I would have written you off, but I don't now because I've came to a similar conclusion just without the religion, without the Jesus. To me, I translate it through my own spiritual beliefs and I hear what I hear is kind of like the way that I view the world, which is I was able to find that I always had the strength and energy within me to express that. I feel like you and I have gone down similar paths, yours with a label of Christianity lying through my own personal spiritual belief. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I didn't notice this before, but I am not super happy with Ryan affirming this epiphany that Anthony just had. He says, I think we both had this same kind of spiritual journey and I just came to the same place, but without the Jesus and without the Bible and Christianity and Ryan says totally, it's not a good look. I was kind of thinking that, oh, when you're in conversation with somebody that you disagree with and have different beliefs with when they're kind of verbalizing their beliefs, you want to give them the courtesy of showing them that you're paying attention and sometimes you give a head nod and you're paying attention. But giving that verbal affirmation saying totally it is not good for me because you know what? When Anthony's talking about his conclusion, his conclusions are antithetical to the gospel and I wouldn't expect anything less. He's already said he's rejected Jesus and he's rejected Christianity so why would he come to the same conclusions? We'd come to. So his gospel is what I would consider the gospel of me that I already have everything in myself that I need to become the person that I was meant to be. I call it the gospel of me because gospel means good news and you know, it's basically the good news of me that I exist, that I am here, that I am present. I'm this gift to the world and I'm here to love me. So in other words, the gospel of me is pretty much just what Oprah believes and teaches. But now I kind of cringe on the past me that would immediately write people off for their beliefs. I agree, I feel like it's so crazy the transformation that happens. Like when you go on a spiritual pursuit you just can't be the same person that you were before. And it's so cool that so many people, they find so many things and I'm just so curious how that's been for you. It's so awesome. I'd be careful about that. I don't want to be nitpicky here but when we talk about spiritual pursuits, like yeah, people do change but often what happens in these kind of spiritual pursuits is people exchange one idol for another. Oh, I believe this one thing and like, you know, I'm really skeptical maybe like in the YouTube atheist space and just I'm all about law, chicken, reason. And then they kind of are like more open to, you know, new age stuff and they have this spiritual awakening and now, oh my goodness, I'm on this spiritual journey and I'm this changed person. It's like, well, actually you just kind of exchange one idol, the idol of reason and logic for now your feelings and these experiences that you have or any self-love or whatever that may be. So I don't really want to encourage people to just go on spiritual journeys. I want people to experience who Jesus is and yes, that will be a journey but you need to actually present concrete objective truth to them. Jesus, who is truth? He said these, he's the way, the truth and the life and so a spiritual journey can't really be complete or transformative without Jesus. And so for me, it's actually been so crazy to realize that in my personal beliefs, like I feel like there's a God who loves me even in my brokenness and even loves like the people who have hurt me in their brokenness. I feel like I'm able to look at people differently and even the people who have hurt me, I'm able to heal in a lot of ways like the traumas that I had through others hurting me I feel like I'm able to heal on that realizing that they, they're gonna fall short regardless, it's just like humans. It's human nature, you know? I guess like my, my mission statement for life is to make every moment that passes through me better because it didn't. That's so sick. I mean, it's, I'm not always successful. It's so beautiful and pure. Like your heart has an inclination to do that to the world. I think that's so cool. It's not actually biblical when you talk about it that way. You know, it's not innate that we have this desire to help one another and to, to do the right thing. And it's not this kind of pure thing. Like actually the Bible says without God we can do nothing good. So I get kind of trying to affirm like, hey, like, you know, that's kind of a good idea. But then if you don't introduce them to actually the person that can make them pure to make them clean to actually transform their heart in such a way where they will actually have a desire to do this stuff from a genuine place and not from a self-serving place. Like without Jesus, man, we're just in this for ourselves. So let's talk about the gospel for a second and was it presented here in a clear way and how can we try to include the key points in our conversations in the future with unbelievers? So in this context, what I think Ryan did really well is that he shared his testimony. I think that's a great way of going about it in a one-to-one setting. It would have made no sense for him to be, oh, hold the phone. You know, I know you're trying to ask me all these questions about online life and stuff, but I gotta tell you about Jesus. It doesn't make sense. So intertwine Jesus and his impact in your own life and your own story, that's a great way to start. I love it. The challenge is that in the midst of that, he missed some key bullet points of Jesus' impact on his life. If he is kind of a true Christian and I'm not kind of, you know, trying to away, like, oh man, people get nervous in these situations and I wanna have a lot of grace for folks because hey, look, man, if I were in that position too, I'm not saying I would share the gospel perfectly or include all the stuff that I wanna include. I hope I would, I hope I'd be prepared, but it's challenging. So we gotta give Ryan a lot of grace here, brother. And if you're watching, hey, I love you and I appreciate you sharing your testimony and sharing what Jesus is doing in your life. At the same time though, we didn't hear about sin and that's such an important aspect of the bad news so we can actually understand the importance of Jesus in our lives. So when we're thinking about it, it's like, hey, yeah, I was one way basically. Like that's how we share our testimony. I was this way. I was going down this path. I was rebelling against God and I came to my, at the end of my ropes and I understand I was convicted of my sin and then Jesus came and he was this kind of substitutionary atonement on my behalf. He made me right with God. He took the penalty that I deserved. That is such an important thing for people to understand because if you come in and you say, oh, I was just kind of sad and I was down in the dumps and I was lacking purpose, but then Jesus came in, he made me happy. He made me positive and my life began to get better. That is not the biblical gospel. That's kind of the modern gospel mumbo jumbo that I am not happy with. And it is not true because the fact is when we were with Jesus, yes, he does give us joy and our joy is made complete in him and he will give us peace and all these kind of things, right? But in the midst of that, there's trials and there's tribulations. So there's no promise that life's always gonna be positive or good or we're always gonna be feel better. I don't want people to get a faulty idea of what it looks like to follow Christ or what it means to actually come to Jesus. It's not so much about I wanna make my life better. It's not a life improvement plan. I mean, think about the disciples, man. They got martyred. So it wasn't a life improvement plan for them. They didn't sign up with Jesus so then they can have a happy, healthy, wealthy, you know, peaceful, positive life. We need to highlight of what the issue was. We were in our sin, in the muck, in the mire and Jesus scooped us out of that and we had no power to do that in and of ourselves. Man, we were drowning Jesus through us all life raft and we were, oh my goodness, I'm saved. Now like that is the excitement. That is the drastic and kind of the crazy nature of the gospel because without him, man, we would be at the bottom of the seat. So for you watching this, you're thinking about formulating your own testimony that if you're in a situation like this, maybe you're not being sit down by Anthony Padilla and asked about your life and deep dive and all that kind of thing. But maybe you have a conversation with your friend or you're in a group situation and somebody, people are sharing their stories, their life story and it's your turn and you're in this context with some unbelievers too so you wanna figure out how you can kind of intertwine the gospel but you haven't really thought it through. Well, here's some questions that you can ask yourself that'll help you work through this. Growing up, what were some of your thoughts around Jesus, the Bible, God, the afterlife, all that kind of thing? When were you first convicted of your sin and how did it make you feel? When you understood that you were guilty before God because of your sin, what were some of the thoughts that were coming through your head? How did the good news of Jesus intercept your life? What were you doing? What stage of life were you at when you actually heard the gospel for the first time? How did you respond? What stood out to you about Jesus? His mercy, his forgiveness, his patience with you? Through some of those questions about your own story and begin to write down some of those things. I think it's so important that we're ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. Ryan is a fairly new Christian and he was thrown into this kind of situation, lights, camera, action, all this stuff and kind of put on the spot to give testimony and so he did okay. I'm sure he looks back at this and he'll look back in this in the future and be like, oh, I wish I could have added some stuff and I've been there too. Just videos that I shoot in my room that I control over years later, months later. I'm like, I wish I could have added this missing piece or added this. So we're all growing together but it's all about just encouraging one another to continually pour into the truths of the gospel and not stray away from them just because they might be a little bit more controversial or some people might say they're judgmental or things like sin and like, oh, that doesn't make me feel good. That offends me. I'm like, hey, that's part of the story. That's part of our story and the quicker we stop denying it, the quicker we can get to the solution in Jesus. For us guys, familiarity is key. Get familiar with the gospel, the key points of the gospel because it's not just for the evangelists or the pastors or the online Christian influencers. It's for everybody so that we'll be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. Until next time.