Falwell’s home going.

In the mid seventies I read Jerry Falwell’s book on the book of Proverbs & was greatly blessed by his practical insights. I used some of his thoughts in my teaching of the book. I’ve also read his columns fairly regularly & always found them balanced & thought provoking. My last glimpse of him on video tape was a week or two ago when he sat on his church platform behind one of his guest speakers. He seemed to be very generous to other preachers. From all reports he was so revered at the great school he founded in Lynchburg that they cheered him like a rock star. Also, everyone called him Jerry, which tells you a lot about the man.

Falwell would never have had reason to know I was alive, but I knew him. At times I got aggrevated with him for his hair-trigger tongue. A case in point was what he said after 9/11 about the nation being punished because of the gays, abortionists & various & sundry other sinners. Being a preacher myself, I did understand where he was coming from. The record shows that he did apologize soon after these comments were made. I also was very upset with the way he handled the PTL situation. I knew I didn’t have all the facts but was just exercising my right to be upset. My thoughts at the time were that Jerry let the prospects of getting his own T.V satellite dazzle him but was disenchanted when he found out how much debt PTL was in. From what I’ve read, that debacle as well as the fall of Swaggert & other T.V evangelists cost him many millions of income, a deficit from which he never recovered.

Though I could be wrong, I seriously doubt we’d have ever had Ronald Reagan as our president were it not for Jerry Falwell & the Moral Majority he founded in 1979, the year before Reagan’s first term.

From what I’ve heard & read Jerry was vital & alive right up to the very end & most people’s memories of him will be of seeing him running back & forth from his plane or back & forth from his car. In that respect I’d be fairly certain his passing so quickly with his boots on was an answer to his prayers.

No- I didn’t agree with Falwell on some things but we shared one thing in common & that was our love for Christ & His gospel. I can recognize that in an individual & it always wins my heart. He called himself a fundamentalist which means he took the Bible literally but I have a feeling I took a few things more literally than he did. That would be another blog.

I know he’s in heaven now & because of the caliber of man he was I won’t say R.I. P Jerry.

Instead I’ll say “God’s Speed & Congratulations on a spiritual race well run!!” -------John