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An International Missionary Outreach Dedicated to Evangelizing the Lost By Sharing The Gospel According to the Scriptures
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FROM HELL TO HEAVEN
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I can recall the experience as if it happened yesterday. It was a sub-zero night in the winter of 1961. I was fourteen years old. A large number of people had gathered to hear a high-powered evangelist speak about heaven and hell in our local High School auditorium I had gone to the “Crusade” because my Mother said I had to go. Although I attended church regularly, this meeting was different. All night, the evangelist paced back and forth on the platform yelling at the top of his voice. At the end of the meeting, he asked who wanted to go to heaven. As “everyone’s head was bowed and eyes were closed,” I lifted my hand up into the air. Of course, I did not want to go to hell. Who would? Then the evangelist said something that surprised me. He told those who had lifted their hands to stand up and walk to the front of the room. “You must make a public stand if you are going to follow Jesus,” he bellowed. “Get up out of your chairs and walk down to the front of this auditorium and get saved.” My heart seemed to stop beating. Is he talking about me? How could I do that? There are people here who know me. They will think I’m completely crazy! These and other thoughts shot through my mind. The evangelist made two more appeals, each time his words were more intimidating. Still I sat glued to my chair, my feet stuck to the floor. It was at that moment that something dramatic happened. An old lady seated behind me tapped me on the shoulder and whispered hoarsely in my ear: “Sonny, I saw that you put your hand up,” she said. “God wants you to go to the front and get saved. You don’t want to burn in hell do you?” I had already been in a state of trauma. Now I was in a fit of despair. Feelings of anger gripped me. I felt like I had been tricked and manipulated. Suddenly I jumped out of my chair, bolted to the back of the auditorium, forced open the door, and ran non-stop a mile-and-a-half home. Even now as I relive this experience, the same emotions replay in my mind. After running home from the evangelist’s plea to follow Christ, I continued to run, not from the evangelist, but from God. I ran for another sixteen years. It was not until I was thirty years of age that I realized I had made a serious mistake. Although the little old lady in the high school auditorium may have been wrong in the way she challenged me, I discovered later in life what she and the evangelist had to say was true. Although I have nothing against evangelists, my personal belief is that every believer should be an evangelist by sharing their faith with others - one-on-one - and not using theatrics as a means of manipulating people to make a decision for Christ.
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Understand The Times is an independent non-profit organization in
Canada and the United States.
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