16 August 2015
Dear Phyllis,
One more testimony. Hopefully this will be the last one and perhaps I might get to a different subject next week. But today I want to tell you the story of an English musician who came to Karuizawa in June 1978. His name was John Lennon. When Lennon showed up in town I said, “The scum of the earth is here.” I was gravely mistaken. One day John was walking past the language school and Kjell Harjo hollered at him, “Hey John, come here and let me show you this place.” Kjell was a new missionary who had been born in Norway but had a US citizenship. He was as friendly and out going as they come. He showed Lennon the tabernacle of the Union Church there with the language school and John said, “This is terrific.” He and his wife Yoko came to church the next Sunday. I was preaching in my own Japanese church but when I got to the Union Church to pick Rosemary and Dave up the place was a buzz that John Lennon was in church that Sunday. That was the beginning.
The Lennons and Harjos became close friends that summer. I'm sure Kjell was John's closest friend. Kjell and I were close and he would come up to our house everyday and tell me what was going on. One day he said John had asked him for a list of good books to read. Kjell and I made up a list of the best books we could think of for an honest seeker. The Christian book store was in my office and the next day John came in and bought every book we had listed. He told Kjell that that summer he was doing little else but reading the Bible and Christian literature.
I had heard a lot of garbage about John Lennon how he boasted that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. I asked him about that and he said the way that appeared in the news papers and what they meant was much different. I had heard he was married in a cemetery in the Mediterranean. He said that he had been involved in drugs and all sorts of garbage but he had a death fear of black magic and he had never dabbled in that darkness. I was surprised that the media image and the real man were radically different. John actually was a very decent, genuine, man. He had an amazingly good heart.
One day the Lennons and Harjos went for a picnic to a quiet area up on the hill above TEAM Center. Kjell's wife brought her guitar and after the lunch she gave it to John asking him to play so they could sing some Gospel songs. After singing a number songs John put the guitar down and said, “This is it. This is what I have been seeking all my life. My friend George (Harrison) will be surprised when I go back and tell him I am a Christian now.” Indeed John bore every sign that he was a genuine child of God that summer. We thought this is going to be big news when I hits the media that John Lennon has been saved.
Very few people knew what the Spirit of God was doing in John's heart that summer. One zealous brother felt called of God to witness to John Lennon. He went to their house. The house maid foolishly told him that they were at the Manpei Hotel for supper. The missionary went to the Manpei dining hall and interrupted their supper to tell him the Gospel. Three years later that brother told me how he had witnessed to John Lennon. I didn't tell him that I knew all about that story and how the Lennon's didn't appreciated the intrusion in their meal that night.
Yoko was a serious problem. We all felt she was demonized and some brothers asked me if I thought they could cast demons out of her. I said that is unlikely as they obviously are there by her consent. John really was a wonderful man but he was a surprisingly weak man. Yoko was vastly more powerful and controlled his life. The next summer when the Lennons came back to Karuizawa, Kjell went over to see his friend, but Yoko met him at the door and declared they didn't need his company any more and “please don''t come back again”. She terminated our contact with him.
A year later I heard that John had appeared stark nude with his wife on the cover of a new music album. That is not a good witness for a Christian. Three months after that he was shot and killed. There is a verse in Isa. 57:1 that says, “The righteous perisheth... none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” Personally, I like to think John Lennon was a saved man but married to a very strong evil woman, and the Lord took him to keep what little salvation was in him. Had he lived longer she might have taken him further from the Lord.
I always felt someone should write up and publish John Lennon's testimony. After 20 years I wrote up a five or six page account as I recalled it that summer in Karuizawa. Kjell had retired as a missionary by that time and was pastoring a church in Seattle, Wash. I sent a copy of the brief testimony I had written up to Kjell for his correction and opinion what we should do. I was disappointed that I got a pretty warm response from Kjell saying he would have nothing to do with it. Kjell's objection was; “The reason John and I were good friends was that he knew anything he said to me was confidential and I would never make anything public that was personal about him. My main concern is the salvation of his wife Yoko and his son.” Kjell went on to say, “I want nothing to do with this. If you print this please do not use my name.”
I wrote Kjell back that I agreed with him about his concern for the salvation of Yoko and Sean, but I asked him, “If John is in heaven and we could get in touch with him by e-mail, what do you think he would say? Do you think he would be grateful if someone would publish his testimony for Jesus or be quiet? And if John is in hell what do you think would be the best shot for Sean's salvation; if he heard this testimony his dad had for Christ or keep that news from him?” Kjell never answered my letter and I have never made any attempt to write up anything and publish it myself. It couldn't have been too confidential as my niece heard Kjell on a Christian radio station in Los Angeles telling that story to a million listeners.
Our last exchange was in 2000. Tragically two or three years later Kjell was killed in a car accident, and the world will never know of the Christian side of John Lennon. I heard a video of his biographer who knew that John had expressed interest in Christianity and there was a mention about something in Karuizawa, Japan, but no one knew any details. That is two major testimonies; the North Vietnamese general Tha Dam and John Lennon who have had marvelous testimonies that have died with them. But Jesus has all this recorded in heaven and we will hear a better version of it then.
Looking unto Jesus,
bill
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