David Wilkerson

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David Wilkerson bigraphy, stories - American pentecostal evangelist

David Wilkerson : biography

May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011

David Ray Wilkerson (May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011) was a prominent American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York of evangelical doctrine and practice, in which more than 100 nationalities were represented.http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/about_david_wilkerson/times_square_church

Wilkerson’s widely distributed sermons, such as "A Call to Anguish," are known for being direct and frank against apostasy and serious about making the commitment to obey Jesus’ teachings. He emphasized such Christian beliefs as God’s holiness and righteousness, God’s love toward humans and especially Christian views of Jesus. Wilkerson tried to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination to which they belong.

Wilkerson was killed in a car crash in Texas on April 27, 2011.

Prophecies

Wilkerson received a vision in 1973 regarding the future of the United States, subsequently published in a book called The Vision. Some of the subject areas of this prophecy were: "Worldwide recession caused by economic confusion"; "Nature having labor pains"; "A flood of filth and a baptism of dirt in America"; "Rebellion in the home"; and "A persecution madness against truly Spirit filled Christians who love Jesus Christ".

Early years

David Wilkerson was born in 1932 in Indiana. He was the second son of a family of Pentecostal Christian preachers, and he was raised in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania, in a house "full of Bibles." His paternal grandfather and his father, Kenneth, were ministers. According to Wilkerson’s own testimony, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at the age of eight.

The young Wilkerson began to preach when he was about fourteen. After high school, Wilkerson entered the Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. The school was affiliated with the Assemblies of God. In 1952 he was ordained as a minister.http://www.celebratethewhole.net/saints/DavidWilkerson.htm

Ministry

In 1953 he married Gwen Wilkerson. He served as a pastor in small churches in Scottdale and Philipsburg in Pennsylvania, until he saw a photograph in Life Magazine in 1958 of seven teenagers who were members of a gang in New York known as "Egyptian Dragons".http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/nyregion/rev-david-wilkerson-79-evangelist-dies-in-crash.html?_r=0 He later wrote that as he felt the Holy Spirit move him with compassion, he was drawn to go to New York in February 1958 in order to preach to them. On his arrival, Wilkerson went to court in which the teenagers were being prosecuted. He entered the room and asked the court judge for permission to tell them something, but the judge ejected him.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/nyregion/rev-david-wilkerson-79-evangelist-dies-in-crash.html?_r=0 Margarit Fox, (2011), The New York Times, "Rev. David Wilkerson Dies at 79; Started Times Square Church" Upon leaving, someone took a photo of Wilkerson who was known at the moment as the Bible preacher "who had interrupted the gang trial".http://www.christianpost.com/news/interview-brother-of-late-david-wilkerson-on-his-life-legacy-50023/ Soon after, David left the city. However, upon his return his grandfather encouraged him to continue his evangelism. It was then that he began a street ministry to young drug addicts and gang members, which he continued into the 1960s.

Later in 1958, to achieve his purpose, he founded Teen Challenge, an evangelical Christian addiction recovery program in Brooklyn affiliated with the Assemblies of God, with a network of Christian social and evangelizing work centers.

Wilkerson gained national recognition after he co-authored the book The Cross and the Switchblade in 1963 with John and Elizabeth Sherrill about his street ministry. The book became a best-seller, with over 50 million copies in over thirty languages, and is included in Christianity Today’s "Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals". In the book, Wilkerson tells of the conversion of gang member Nicky Cruz, who later became an evangelist himself and wrote the autobiographical Run Baby Run. Nicky had been the president of the gang "Mau Maus", and he and his friend Israel Narvaez became Christians after hearing Wilkerson’s preachings. In 1970, The Cross and the Switchblade was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Pat Boone as Wilkerson and Erik Estrada as Cruz.