In my early years in the Christian faith I was pentecostal....but not charismatic....there is a difference. Pat Robertson's 700 Club was very much a blessing in the beginning....but then David Wilkerson became more of an influence. Do evangelicals today know who David Wilkerson was....the author of The Cross And The Switchblade....and pastor of Times Square Church?
As I mentioned so many times in these posts....I was in Christian bookstores all the time....for they were everywhere. So I would read everything that came out by Wilkerson and other men such as Leonard Ravenhill. There was definitely something here that was changing something within me. Wilkerson would quite often mention these....Puritans? Well I knew who the Puritans were....but then again I didn't know much of who they really were.
I cannot pinpoint the year though I have tried....most likely it was the late 80s. I was browsing a Christian bookstore....and a neon orange book cover....as I have described it....jumped out at me. Banner of Truth has since changed that cover to black...a big mistake because it would draw no one's attention....but then there are hardly any Christian bookstores today for anyone to be drawn to a cover. I picked it up and looked at the back for blurbs....which was also my habit. "C. H. Spurgeon"....(I have the book in my hands by the way....The Christian In Complete Armour....Volume one....by William Gurnall)....I may have heard that name....and "David Wilkerson!" So I immediately just bought the book. I wrote the following in a previous post....
"In the introduction to the book he said that he [Wilkerson] was initially skeptical of the book given to him....but according to him....he scanned the first twenty-five pages...and it brought him to his knees. I myself wrote way back then....that I was....I think it was 15 or 17 pages into it....and I was brought to my knees!"
The metamorphosis in me was to continue...and about a decade later my wife and I had our own Christian bookstore....that sold primarily Puritan books....and today the name of Charles Spurgeon litters these posts of mine....but back to David Wilkerson....if only our pastors could preach with an unction such as he had. I still have 100 of his sermons on cassette. I listened to one today that you can easily Google if you want. You can listen to a shortened version....(11:52)....along with background music....or you can listen or watch the full sermon. Just Google....David Wilkerson....A Call To Anguish.
There is an old self-effacing joke that used to circulate in Presbyterian circles....Christian ministers of various denominations are having a meeting in a hall and a fire breaks out....a Baptist minister jumps up and yells....'Fire!'.....a Methodist minister jumps up and yells...."Water!"....and a Presbyterian minister jumps up and yells....'Order!' Well....if David Wilkerson were there he would jump up and yell...'God brought this fire to wake you men up! Christ is returning soon! Are you ready for that? Are you preparing your sheep?"
David Wilkerson died on April 27 of 2011 as his vehicle crossed over on a two-lane in Texas. He was 79 years old. I travel across the Pennsylvania Turnpike often....but today I usually need a break in the driving after only about two hours. If David Wilkerson were with us today....with evangelicals having fallen for a false prophet in Donald Trump....he would have been in the news....picked up across the media....warning evangelicals on what they have done....but God's will is perfect....
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" Revelation 5:3b
