Salvation
Hollywood
A Personal Testimony by Bob Turnbull
n p H A T ’s a s t a t e m e n t you may never hear from a church Jl- pulpit, but I heard it from a friend at a conference I attended at Forest Home, California. It made me a man! I had just finished some car racing sequences on loca tion for a motion picture ( “ Drag-strip Riot” ) that starred lovely Yvonne Lime. She suggested we attend the con ference after our location shots. I wasn’t too interested, but being attracted to this radiant Christian girl, I went along—just for kicks! At this annual college briefiing confab a buddy of mine jolted me with a blunt statement: “You know, Bob, Jesus Christ told lies— or He told the truth. Christ was either a phony, or what He claimed to be— the Son of God!” My usually closed mind suddenly opened! That made sense! No “ liar” could cause the greatest movement in the world for two thousand years. Christ could not have been just a great man, or a great prophet. Christ was the Son of God! He was Jesus the Man, Christ the Lord. I decided to listen! I thought maybe there was some thing to all this “ religious jazz” after all. Maybe Chris tianity was something for everybody —and not just for old men, women, sick people and children. My friend said that the Lord had great plans for me written on paper, and was I interested? I said, “Yeah, I guess so,” only half-meaning it. But I reckoned it wouldn’t hurt to look into what he was talking about. After all, he was a pretty rugged guy, so I didn’t figure he would put me onto something that was “ squirrely.” He handed me a New Testament and suggested I read the third chapter of St. John. That night in my cabin (I made sure the rest of the guys were asleep) I clicked on my flashlight and commenced to read. It was fascinat ing! John 3 reads like a typical Hitchcock TV plot. It was about Nicodemus, a brilliant leader of the Jews. And one night he crept along the shadowy walls of Jerusalem looking for this “ trouble-maker” who called himself the Messiah. Their ensuing chat was an eye-opener of truths.
Further down I read that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ” (John 3:16). To me that was the all-time love. I mean, how many of us would give up our child to die? But the passage that hit hard was the 36th verse; “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” There was certainly noth ing “ squirrely” about this. After reading that chapter, it was easy to see that religion and Christianity are different. Religion is man’s attempt to please God. Christianity is God’s way of reach ing man. A ll religions say you must do something. But Christianity says it is already done. Christ did it all; we can’t do or add anything to God’s perfect plan. God’s gift of eternal life is through Christ. Now most religions have some good philosophies, but their founders are dead. But you take Christ out of Christianity, and you have nothing.
Bob Turnbull has
found the oppor
tunity to witness
for Christ in a
difficult area o f
life and testimony.
50
THE KING 'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs