What Does It Really Mean to Be Born Again? — J. Edwin Orr

This morning we are privileged to have Dr. J. Edwin Orr as our special speaker. Dr. Orr began his evangelistic career 50 years ago and has spoken in 156 countries. He is Professor Emeritus at the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary.

At this time, Dr. Orr, would you come and share with us? Many people remember the Hollywood Christian group. You remember the conversion of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Colleen Tonsend, Red Harper, all about 35 years ago or maybe 40 years ago.

I remember there was a movie producer who used to come to the meetings, accompanied by his mistress. He was divorced from his first wife and separated from his second. This third girl was what was called in Hollywood a protégé.

He had some Christian background because he used to ask lots of questions. I remember Billy Graham speaking to us. Billy was just about to give his invitation when this man said, Billy, can I ask a question?

Dr. Graham said, certainly so. Billy, he said, do you believe once saved, always saved? Very interesting theological proposition, but not just when you're giving an invitation. And by the time Billy Graham had handled it discreetly, he had all forgotten what he was saying before.

And some people went away muttering, the devil sent that man. Now, his girlfriend was not talkative. In fact, I never heard her open her mouth in the meeting. But she used to come to the meeting rather provocatively dressed.

She was rather addicted to a certain type of costume. Being a mere male, I couldn't describe it. My wife said it was cut on the bias. Sort of sheathed dress. The Brazilians have a word for it in Portuguese.

They call it espada for caio. I hope it falls off. I was surprised when a deputation dated me as chaplain of that group asked me to put them out of the group. I said, no. It's not a church. It's a place for these people to hear the gospel.

I said, I don't mind if someone comes drunk. I said, besides, the guy may get converted. He didn't. But she did. And when Tim Spencer, the songwriter, called me up to tell me about it, he said, you know, when she got up off her knees, she said to my wife, let's go downtown and buy a new lock for my door.

Till then I kept ringing, but she changed the lock on her door. But I knew of another case connected with the Hollywood Christian group. Dr. Hubert Davison, who was pastor of First Baptist in Hollywood, told me that a lovely little blonde girl came to him and Sunday school wanted to be baptized.

Twelve years of age. He said, honey, your parents are not members of the congregation, so I must have their permission. But when he talked to the girl's mother, she said, certainly not. Mr. Davison, she said, I have tried for 25 years to try and get into Hollywood.

I didn't make it, but my daughter's going to make it. And don't you spoil it by having her baptized. That woman was so determined to get her daughter into Hollywood that she made a deal with one of the wickedest lecturers that disgraced the industry.

And the racist girl was only 16 years of age. He used to carry her around to save himself trips downtown. When he died of cirrhosis of the liver, the mother sued his estate for a million dollars for her daughter, claiming she was a common law wife.

His previous five wives clubbed up together and got a good lawyer and fought the case and won it. But this woman had so exposed her sordid side of the deal that the state of California arrested her and put her in jail for contributing to the malignancy of her own daughter.

And now a 17-year-old girl was floating around town and the target of any man that wanted to make a pass at her. I was traveling with the gospel, Brazil, other places, and I heard that she had started to come to the Hollywood Christian group.

Thank God for that. Then one night when I was at home, my wife and I were listening to news at 11. Paul Coates, I think he's dead and gone now, said, mentioning her name, she's in trouble again. I just shot a boyfriend through the head in the middle of the night in rather shameful circumstances.

She was now in juvenile hall. I called up the secretary of the group and I said, what's going on? Paul Coates said that members of the Hollywood Christian group were trying to get her out of juvenile hall into the custody of a godly Baptist minister and his wife who ran a home for children in broken homes, a ranch.

He told me this was the case. He said the judge is going to release her to their custody, put on probation. I said, now Paul Coates said she was a member of the Hollywood Christian group. That's not so.

Oh, he said, yes, she is. She couldn't be. I said, I wrote the constitution of the Hollywood Christian group and you can't be a member unless you're converted. Oh, she's converted all right. I let her go to the Lord myself.

I said, are we talking about the same person? He said, yes. I used Revelation 3 .20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, he will open the door. I will come in and supplicate him, and he with me.

I told her, that's all you need to do, just invite Jesus into your heart. She did. He said, I got her a decision card. Then he said, I got her a membership card. But I said, according to the constitution, no one can be a member of the group if they have a reputation regarding sex or liquor until after six months probation.

Well, he said, where did I go wrong? I said, look, Revelation 3 .20 was written to a church, written to believers about lukewarmness. But even if you use it out of context to try and bring someone to the Lord, before the word behold there's a space, before the space there's a period, and before the period there's the word repent.

Did you tell her to repent? He said, I don't even know the meaning of the word. I said, well, you haven't repented. He said, how can I say? I don't know what it means. I said, the word means change. Well, he said, my wife says I'm a changed man.

The New Birth Requires a Changed Life

I said, thank God for that. But did you tell her that? Why did one girl change the lock on her door and the other girl go on in as she was doing? Now, you know that today public health officials are concerned with what we call birth defects.

We find special parking places for handicapped people, ramps at the post office, the like. Some physical handicaps that afflict some unfortunates whose entrance into life was marred by some accident of nature.

Has that ever occurred to you that perhaps a lot of people who think that they're born again suffer in such a way? Their professed conversion is marred by a lack of understanding of what it might be. I was talking to Dr. George Gallup some months ago, in fact over a year ago.

He told me the number of people in the United States who claim to be born again has gone up from 46 to 53 of the population. I quoted that statement when I spoke at the Rose Bowl to 50 ,000 people and some began to applaud.

Some Christians will applaud anything. Some were utterly credulous. Believe anything they hear. I stopped them. I said, I don't believe this. I have lived in the same house, on the same street in Los Angeles for 35 years.

That must be a record in this part of the world. You couldn't kid me that more than 50 of my neighbors are born again. How about you folks? Would you say most of the neighbors are born again? Of course not.

As George Gallup said to me, I suppose it depends what you mean by born again. Do you remember a notorious pornographer who's still in the news announced that he was born again? At Fuller Cemetery, we were very curious about this.

I didn't subscribe to his magazine, obviously, but some student got a hold of an editorial, and there was an editorial. Born again? Yes, I am born again. And I follow the spirit of Muhammad, Buddha, and Jesus.

The poor fellow didn't know the score. But, who ever told him he was born again? No doubt someone said, is to invite Jesus into your heart. Now, because we need to understand what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be converted, what it means to be born again, let me ask some leading questions.

I'll tell you in advance that I believe the only evidence of the new birth is the new life. But, what is the first word of the gospel? Sometimes when I have more time, I ask people to make suggestions.

One man shouted, faith! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Somebody else shouted, love! God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. One man shouted, heaven! Another man said, hope!

One man suggested civil rights. Another man came to me and said, the gospel is so rich, it has so many significant words. How can any man say there is a first word to the gospel? Well, I say there is.

If you ask any kindergarten kid, what is the first letter of the alphabet? He will tell you the letter A. Ask him, why is A the first letter of the alphabet? And he will tell you, because it is. Ask him why, because it is, and he'll tell you it always comes first.

A is the first letter of the English alphabet, the French alphabet, the Spanish alphabet, the Norwegian alphabet, the Russian alphabet. Alpha, the same letters, the first letter of the Greek alphabet.

Aleph, the same letters, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Don't confuse me with Chinese. The Chinese don't have an alphabet. They have characters, they are ideographs, little pictures, simplified pictures.

The Chinese character for peace is composed of two little pictures. One is a roof. Underneath the roof is the other picture, a woman under a roof. The Chinese character for war is a roof, two women under the roof.

But ask any Chinese, what is the first letter of the alphabet? He will tell you the first letter of the English alphabet. He knows the letter A. It's as simple as that. Do you follow me? All right then, you say, how could you establish the first word of the gospel?

Well, I'll make a proposition. If the first words, in the mouth of John the Baptist, were the same as the first word in the mouth of the Lord Jesus, and that were the same as the first word in the mouth of the twelve disciples, that were the same as the first word in the mouth of the seventy disciples, if that were the same as the first word in the mouth of the apostle Peter at Pentecost, if that were the same as the first word in the mouth of the apostle Paul throughout his ministry, Surely that would be the first word.

If not, could you suggest a better test? He said, but couldn't he take all those into consideration? How about Billy Graham, how about Pope John Paul? How do they know, except through the ones I've just mentioned to you?

Repentance in the Preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus

What was the first word of the mouth of John the Baptist? In those days came John the Baptist preaching the kingdom, preaching the Jewdea, preaching the Jewdea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Make a mental note of that. In the fourth chapter, verse 17, it says,. Then Jesus began to preach. Had he preached before? No. This was his first message? Yes. Well, what was his first word? Then Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Notice, Jesus began to preach and to say. That means he kept on saying this, because you'll find the Lord occurs again and again in the gospel of Matthew, in the preaching of the Lord Jesus, when he was most compassionate, when he was most impassioned.

There are some good people who make a distinction between the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and the gospel of the kingdom of God. You'd have to turn to the gospel of Mark for this phrase, the kingdom of God.

It's recorded that after John was put in prison, Jesus himself came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Then he said, Repent, and believe the gospel.

What was the first thing he told them to do? To repent and believe. He trained twelve men to multiply his ministry. Scripture says they went out and preached that men should repent. Someone may suggest perhaps this first word, repent, gave way to some other exhortation if the ministry of our Lord and his disciples developed.

But if you turn to the gospel of Luke, you will find that after mentioning these instances already quoted by Mark and by Matthew, it occurs another ten times, always in the preaching of the Lord, whether he was scolding hypocrites or pleading his sins.

When he said goodbye to his disciples, and surely this must be the final test of what he continued to preach, he told them it behooved Christ thus to suffer. That repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

This is just as much the Great Commission as Matthew 28, where it says go into all the world and preach the gospel, teaching them to observe all things. This tells them what to preach. Repentance and remission of sins.

Peter and Paul Preached Repentance

Would the disciples carry this out? Peter at Pentecost preached Christ crucified, Christ raised from the dead. When he reached the climax of his message, they were smitten with conviction and cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do?

Peter must have recalled what he was told to say, because he said repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins. This is exactly what he had been told to say. When he came to the climax of a second great ceremony, he said repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out.

The same thing in slightly different words. And the Apostle Peter continued to preach this, if you like, to read in the Acts of the Apostles. It mentions here repent and be baptized, repent and be converted.

I am an ordained Baptist minister, I believe in believer's baptism, but it says repent and be baptized. I am an Evangelical, I believe in conversion, but it says repent and be converted. Keep that in mind.

Did the Apostle Paul preach the same message? Now we know that he was converted on the road to Damascus. He began to preach immediately, although we don't know what he said, because it does say that they were scared of him, they couldn't believe it to be true.

He had come up to arrest them. But many years afterwards, the Apostle tells us what he preached. He said to the King, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but first at Damascus, then at Jerusalem, then throughout Judea, and then to the nations I told them that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.

Notice what it says. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. What does that mean? The Apostle Paul had never met the Lord Jesus in the flesh. Because he was a chosen vessel, the Lord appeared to him in a vision.

The Lord must have told him to preach repentance, because he said I was not disobedient. But I told them that they should repent and turn to God. I told them where? Damascus, Jerusalem, all of Judea, and throughout the world.

How can anyone avoid the conclusion that the first word of the gospel is the word repent? Not only does the average Christian not realize this, but the average English speaking Christian doesn't know what the word means, anyway.

What Repentance Means in Scripture

Stop a man in the street, show him an item in the paper. For instance, it says, Sir Ham, Sir Ham, has shown no repentance whatsoever for the murder of Robert Kennedy. What does that mean? The man in the street says that means the guy isn't a bit sorry for what he did.

To the average American, the word repent means to feel sorry. But that's not what it means. Not at all. It might involve being sorry. It speaks about repentance working with godly sorrow. But Richard Trench, Archbishop of Dublin, one of the world's great Greek scholars, defined the word repentant very clearly.

Listen. That mighty change in mind, heart, and life brought by the Spirit of God. That was written over a hundred years ago, so let's update it. That mighty change in mind, heart, and lifestyle brought by the Spirit of God.

When Christians talk about repentance, they're not speaking about a mighty change. They're talking about feeling sorry. But the essential meaning of the word repent is to change. The Greek word is metanoia.

I'll spell it in English. M-E-T-A-N-O-I-A. It has two parts. Meta means change. Noia means thinking. Hence it means a revolutionary thought. We have words like that in English. When a caterpillar creeping along a twig becomes a butterfly, it's still the same creature.

But it changes form. So we call it metamorphosis. Meta, change, morphosis, form. And the word metanoia means change of thinking. It's one of the strongest words in the New Testament in Greek. It may apply to thinking, behaving, and feeling.

For example, when Nicodemus came to see Jesus by night, did he say, I have a moral problem? No. He had an intellectual problem. When the Lord said to him, if I explain earthly things to you, you don't understand me, how could I explain heavenly things?

Nicodemus' problem was in thinking. Just as if a Buddhist priest were to come in here. What's his problem? Immorality? Not at all. Buddhists have high moral standards. The Eightfold Way is high ethics.

The Buddhists teach, don't do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you. Christians say, do unto others as you have them do unto you. Same thing. But what's the problem then? A student at UCLA said to me, isn't the Buddhist way to God just as good as the Christian way to God?

I said, no. The Buddhists don't believe in God. They are agnostic. How could a Buddhist accept Jesus Christ as a son of God if he doesn't believe in God? There has to be a change of thinking. On the other hand, when the woman was dragged before the Lord, caught in the act, the Pharisee said, the Lord says she should be spurned to death.

What do you say? What did he tell the woman when he dismissed her accusers? Go and sin no more. Her problem was when he became him. Suppose an old drunk came in here and you say to him, do you believe in Jesus?

He might say, Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. He knows that. That's not his problem. His problem is behavior. The rich young ruler came to the Lord and said, Master, I have kept all the commandments since I was a boy.

And the Lord Jesus did not contradict him. He commanded him. That means he had. Otherwise he would have said, no you haven't. But the Lord put his finger on his emotional problem. Go and sell all that you have and give the money to the poor.

He went away sorrowful. He loved his money. And perhaps some speculator on Wall Street comes in. His problem is neither thinking nor morality, but just love of mammon. You have to change even your feeling.

And it means sometimes hating the thing that you once loved. Some professed Christians still secretly love their sin. How did this mighty change in mind, heart and lifestyle shift from that sense of what we call just feeling sorry?

How Translation Changed the Meaning of Repentance

It's a part of translation. The first English translation was made from not the Greek into English, but from Latin. Instead of using the word metanoia, which means change of thinking, revolution of thought, they took the Latin word penitentia.

That sounds familiar, like a penitentiary. That word means a sense of pain or suffering. Grief for an act that demands satisfaction, or sorrow looking back on something amiss. Consequently, the word repent and penitent are all mixed up.

Repentant, penitent, you say that's the same thing. No, no. Repentant means changed. And penitent means sorry. There is a Greek word for sorrow, but it's not the word metanoia. Why do words change meaning?

When I came to the States first in 1935, I had a campaign, a united campaign in Seattle. It was organized by a Presbyterian doctor who was chairman of the Christian Businessmen's Committee. He put me up in his home in Puget Sound, beautiful place, lovely hospitality.

I wrote to my mother back in Ireland and said, this is delightful, the way Americans treat their guests. They put a car at my disposal. Then I was saying goodbye. I thanked him for organizing such a fine series of meetings, but most of all for having me in his home.

And to say something to pass on to his wife, I said, I think your wife is one of the homeless women I've met in my life. He said, what? By extrasensory perception I realized he used the wrong word somewhere.

So I said more carefully, I think your wife is one of the homeless ladies I've met in my life. Well, he said, she isn't exactly a movie star, but she's pretty, don't you think? I said, yes, she's pretty, but even more humbly.

He said, what do you mean? That's what I say. He said, what does homely mean when you come from? I said, well, sweetly means sweet-like, nicely means nice-like, quickly means quick-like, homely means um-like.

He said, not in America. He said, I don't know how we got it twisted, but over here, he said, it means ugly. I was taken aback, and I said, what is it against homely? Isn't home sweet home an American song?

My little gray home in the West? Oh, he said, you mean homely. Talk baby talk. She sang so sweetly, he talked so nicely, he walked so quickly. Well, he said, I don't know how we got it twisted, but he said, if I hadn't been converted, I'd have punched you in the nose.

How did a nice word like homely, which obviously means home-like, change meaning? I don't know. It's an accident. My son, Alan, is an engineer. He was brought up in California. He's a good dad. It's like this.

There'd be a woman who's so plain that she ought to stay at home. Sometimes, words are changed deliberately. I was talking to a Christian science lady, and she said, I believe in Jesus Christ. I said, what do you believe?

She said, I believe that Jesus was the man and Christ was the idea. I said, now run that past me again. She said, Jesus was the man, Christ was the idea. I said, what do you mean? She said, Christ was the idea that God is in every one of us.

I said, look lady, Christ is a title. If I were presented to the queen, I would call her your majesty. I don't call the lady next door your majesty. The title belongs to the queen. You talk to the mayor, you call him your honor.

You call an ambassador your excellency. Christ is a title of Jesus. It means the anointed one. You see, some cults use the same words that we use, with a totally different meaning. And that's deliberate.

When I was in Europe, I noticed that East Germany is called the German Democratic Republic. Now which one is that? This is the one in the east which is under the dictatorship established by Stalin at the end of World War II.

Abraham Lincoln said that democracy is government of the people, for the people, by the people. In Eastern Germany, you have government of the people, by the party. And when you have an election, you can only vote for the party.

That's deliberate, isn't it? You may be surprised to know that every communist country calls itself either Democratic Republic or People's Republic. That's the full people. Would it not be a masterstroke of the enemy of the Christian faith to take the first word of the gospel, the point of the sword of the Lord, and so change its name?

It lost its appeal. That's what has happened. Could you imagine, for instance, during that brief Falklands War, the British officers calling for the men to fix bayonets but put a cork on the front of your bayonet so that no one gets hurt?

Blunting the point of the sword of the Lord. That's what has happened. A Canadian friend of mine showed me a tract he had written. It was entitled Peter or Paul. I read it with interest. In it, he said that Peter preached the gospel of repentance to the Jews, but Paul preached only belief to the Gentiles.

Repentance in the Conversion of Cornelius

And even when Peter first preached to the household of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, he didn't use this word, repent. That intrigued me, so I turned to Acts chapter 10. Sure enough, he was right.

Cornelius, captain of the Italian regiment, was a devout man who filled God with all his household gave alms limited to the people and prayed to God always. That was a good living man. Not only him. I read a story of Peter's visit.

Peter had this vision and he learned not to call anyone unclean so he broke the rules of segregation in fellowship with these people. Sure enough, it doesn't mention the word repent. But when Peter went back to Jerusalem to explain to the Jewish Christians why he had broken such rules and had been hard mobbing with Gentiles he said to them if God gave them the same gift that he gave to us who believe who was I to stand against God?

And when they heard this they glorified God and said then God has granted to the Gentiles also repentance unto life. Whatever it may be still the Holy Spirit called it repentance. But you may say if the word means to change, how did he change?

Did he stop being devout? No. Did he cease to fear God? No. Did he stop giving alms? No. Did he quit praying constantly? No. Then how did he change? Well up to that moment Cornelius was seeking salvation by his own good works.

After that he put his trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ and that was a change. A well-known woman speaker in this country told me that, well Edwin says I didn't repent I just didn't eat. I said maybe you misunderstand.

Personal Conversion and Trust in Christ

I was converted on my 9th birthday. My mother led me to the Lord. Now I can assure you I wasn't a wicked boy. Up to that time I hadn't shot a single policeman or robbed a bank or run away with anyone's wife.

I wasn't on drugs, nothing like that. Mother said don't you think you're old enough to put your trust in the Lord Jesus? I said but in my mind I believe in Jesus. I did. I went to Sunday school and church.

She was seeking the right thing to say to her little boy so she said can you say he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities? I finished the verse. The chastenment of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.

And mother said well can you say he was wounded for my transgressions he was bruised for my iniquities? And it sort of dawned on me. Up to that moment I believed the all family religion. Every family has its religion.

I believed what my parents believed. I believed what my Sunday school teachers taught me. But after that I believed it for myself. And I began to witness to other people. That was a change. Someone interviewed Ruth Grain in Canada said Mrs. Grain when were you converted?

She said I don't rightly remember. Which is I was brought up in a missionary family in China. But I found my old Bible I had in a little girl and in it I had written he was wounded for Ruth's transgressions he was bruised for Ruth's iniquities the chastenment of Ruth's peace was upon him and with his stripes Ruth is healed.

So Ruth Grain and I were converted the same way. But it was a change. This word repentance or repent is used in the writings of Paul to the Romans to the Corinthians to Timothy. It's written by the writer of the Hebrews as well as by the apostle Peter and it occurs ten times in the revelation of John besides all those times in the gospels.

Fifty times or more in the New Testament. Hebrews lists it as an elementary doctrine a foundation a fundamental. Yet today you hardly ever hear anyone preach repentance. Instead of that people go around trying to recruit people into the kingdom of God enlisting them.

Repentance in the Parables of Luke 15

The way we went to the Peace Corps or the army. There are three parables in the scripture that we call gospel parables. Luke 15 you know the stories don't you? The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son the prodigal son.

I was reading it devotionally and I happened to see how the stories ended it's very important you know when you learn to write a book that you have a good beginning and a good ending. This showed genius.

Here's the end of the story. The shepherd found his sheep and said to his friends and neighbors rejoice with me I've found my sheep that was lost. There's the end of the story. No mention of the shepherd or sheep after that but the Lord Jesus quickly said just so I'm telling you there will be no joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and over 99 already right with God.

Why did he add that? If he had not added that someone would have said the sheep didn't repent so you don't need to repent take the story of the lost coin rejoice with me I've found my coin that was lost.

That's the end of the story no further mention of the woman with the coin but the Lord Jesus added quickly to that just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Why did he say that? If he hadn't said that some theologian would have proved that a coin is incapable of repenting. Do you think this quarter could repent? Why did he add this? So that nobody would misunderstand and skip repentance.

How does the story of the lost son end? Your brother was lost was found, was dead and is alive again. That's the end of the story. No further mention of the father Lord brother of the younger brother.

But no injection of the word repent. Why? It wasn't necessary. Repentance is in the story. When the young man said I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him father I have sinned against heaven before you and now I am over to be called your son.

Repentance and Moral Transformation

That was repentance. The fact that the Lord found it necessary to inject repentance into two stories but not the third underlines the importance of repentance in all the stories. When I was chaplain of the Hollywood Christian group one night in another producer's home whom should I see sitting in front of my wife but Mickey Coon public enemy number one the leading racketeering gangster.

I can tell their age by looking around the meeting how many remember Mickey Coon. My first thought was how did he ever get in here he certainly wasn't invited by our hostess but I found out that Stuart Hamlin had said to him Mickey if you like to hear Billy Green speak and you don't want the press or the police to know about it I'll get you into a private meeting so he showed up.

That night Billy Green didn't give any invitation. Most unusual for Billy Green. I knew that already so I gave an invitation. I simply said if anyone here would like to talk to Dr. Green about the way of salvation making a decision for Christ would you raise your hand.

You can talk to him after the meeting or by appointment tomorrow. Half a dozen raised their hand and all half dozen came through are still professing the Christian faith. Then Mickey Coon raised his hand.

I gave him a new testament. Dick Halvorson talked to him. Bill Bright talked to him. Jim Voss talked to him. I gave him an appointment the next day with Billy Green but he didn't really come through. Then a friend of mine, a publisher quote led him to the Lord.

He used Revelation 3 .20. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice he will open the door. I will come in and supper them here with me he said Mickey all you need do is to invite Jesus into your heart.

That's all. Well I said Mickey I can do that. My friend was so pleased he flew him to New York put him up in the Royal Dorchester Hotel so he could hear Billy Green preach in Manhattan and Madison Square Garden for a week.

But he didn't come through. In fact they had a rather bitter parting when Mickey Coon found out what was involved. Mickey Coon said to my friend you didn't tell me that I had to give up my career. He meant his rackets.

You didn't tell me that I had to give up my friends. He meant the gangsters working for him. You didn't tell me this, you didn't tell me that if that's your Christianity I want no part of it. Mickey Coon had heard that Roy Rogers was a Christian cowboy and Colin Townsend a Christian actress.

Tim Spencer a Christian songwriter Don Newmore a Christian footballer Frank Carson a Christian senator. And he thought he could be a Christian gangster. He smiled at that. But in the best of our churches there are young people who think they can be Christian fornicators.

A girl came to me at a famous Christian college and said my girlfriend says there's nothing in the Bible against premarital sex. I said you must be kidding. She said. I couldn't think of a verse. I said let me give you one.

It says flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his body. But the immoral man sins against his own personality. Just what does that have to do with premarital sex. That's the word fornication.