Dave Hunt

15 March 2020

Dear Phyllis,

I was reminded this morning of an event that happened in Dave Hunt's home one night. This was the real Dave Hunt before he became the internationally famous Dave hunt. In 1964, when I returned to the states from Japan for my first furlough I was staying with my sister in Woodland Hills, Calif. She said, “There is a fine Christian family that I want you to meet”. Two years previous she had met them when they sold their house to her. One afternoon they stopped by and I got a chance to meet them. They invited me to attend church with them and then join a youth meeting in their house that night. The church service was okay but the meeting in their house was something else.

To start with, their house was something like I had never seen before. I mean it was expensive. It was huge and had an enormous swimming pool. Dave was a developer at the time, and had build it to sell. But after he got it built the Lord told him to live in it. He told Jesus, “No way! I am not going to live in a house like this. Abraham lived in a tent and I am not going to live in a house like this.” . But Jesus insisted it was for him. Very reluctantly he surrendered and told the Lord, “Okay, I will live it in it as the caretaker, but this house is not for me - but for You.”. He had it stacked with college kids for meetings. There must have been 70 or more there that night.

There was one unimpressive man that I was talking to, when the boy who was leading the meeting that night, came up and excitedly said to him, “Is it true that you are a jet pilot?” Of course I knew he had made a mistake and was talking to him rather than to me. But I was shocked when the man humbly replied, “Yes I am.” And I was further surprised when I learned he was the speaker that night. When I learned he was a jet jockey I asked, “What do you fly?” I was stunned when he replied, “F-104”. Wow! I thought I was big news being a F-86 Saber Jet and F-102 pilot, but the 104 was the bird they called “a rocket with a man in it”. It had a four stage after-burner that they never could fully open up. It would go so fast that the wings would glow red and they had to slow down before they melted. But the real shocker that night was his message.

He had been a B-29 bomber pilot during the 2^nd WW and was in a special squadron that was selected to drop atomic bombs. His squadron commander, Paul Tibbets, had dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima and he was on a list to drop a nuke if the war continued. Because he was in that special bomb squadron he was one of the few people in the world that had been briefed on what we are doing in the nuclear world. That information shook him to the core. When the war was over, and he got out of service, he decided he better get religious, so he bought a Bible. He had never read a Bible and didn't know how, so he decided to read the back first, and read Revelation. That didn't help at all. What he read there was exactly what he had heard in briefings on nuclear warfare. He decided, “If this is what we are dealing with, I'ld better go the whole nine yards and really get religious.”; so he went to a Catholic seminary to become a Catholic priest.

While he was in seminary, one time he had an assignment to write a paper on the book of Hebrews. In preparation for that paper he got involved in a detailed study of the book. It became an obsession with him where he was studying it virtually day and night. One night he was walking back to his dormitory when the words of Heb. 10:11-14 came strongly to his mind, “And every priest standeth daily offering ofttimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But THIS MAN after He had offered ONE SACRIFICE for sin for ever sat down on the right hand of God... For by ONE SCRIFICE He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”. In a flash he saw the emptiness of the Catholic mass system of priests offering meaningless sacrifices. But what Jesus did in offering Himself paid the full price for sin forever. Light flooded his soul. He became so excited he couldn't contain himself and was sharing this new discovered truth with everyone on campus. He caused such a commotion that the administration called him in asking him what he had discovered. They said, “Oh, that is very interesting. Would you share this with everyone at a chapel meeting?” He knew it was a trap. He was causing such a stir that they wanted to embarrass him before the entire school. They would have him give his presentation, then put up one of their top theologians to make him look like the tail on Balaam's pony. He cried to the Lord to save him. The day came for his speech. Tremblingly he stood up and shared what he had seen in the Scripture. Silence fell over the auditorium, and not a dog moved his tongue. They couldn't refute him. After that, the administration called him in again, and suggested it might be better for him to leave school, and he was put out.

He felt just like Martian Luther, only he was the only soul on the planet. He got a job working in a post office. One day he was sharing his dilemma with a co-worker who responded, “It sounds to me like you got born-again.”. He had never met a Christian and had never heard of born-again. His friend took him to a Gospel church. Oh the joy to discover the Christian world! After he discovered the Christian world he craved to be a missionary. But Jesus said, “No, I want you to be a school teacher.” Reluctantly, he became a middle school teacher.

When I met him that night in Dave Hunt's home he was teaching in Pasadena and had a Bible study with 500 students every morning at school. This was in the days when it was still legal to share the Gospel with students in America.

I'm sorry that I forgot his name but I never forgot his testimony. The reason I share this story is because he perfect illustration a spiritual principle that I have long held that is contrary to the common conception of serving God. I don't know how we got here, but it is universally accepted that there are two levels of salvation. There are those who have accepted Jesus as their savior. That certainly is gracious that they are so condescending to accept God's offer of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Then at some later point in life the believer goes a step further to obey Jesus. I isn't presented like that but the term that is used is dedication. Or in other words, what they mean is, to make Jesus Lord of their life. Then there is another level where they use the term “full-time”. This usually means being a preacher or a missionary. Here I get confused. I have always thought following Jesus meant to obey Jesus and do what he says, and I have never been able to accommodate a view that that might be part-time. What is the difference between serving Jesus part-time and full-time? To me following Jesus means full-time regardless of where you are or what you do. Tragically we have created this category that only those who don't work are full-time servants of God.

I say I have never dedicated my life to Jesus. I didn't know you were supposed to. When I joined the Air Force I raised my right hand and swore I would be a soldier. Soldiers don't make some subsequent decision to obey orders. I thought following Jesus worked the same way. I have never had any concept of doing anything but doing what He tells me. For the next four and a half years after I accepted Jesus, my primary goal in life was to tell as many people as possible and see as many souls as possible come to Christ. Flying was just something I did as a job, but my main goal in life was to win souls. I always thought it was a step down to leave the service to stay in Japan as a missionary.

The brother that night in Dave Hunt's home wanted to be a missionary, but he was making a far greater impact for Christ as a middle school teacher. I call that full-time.

Let's give it all we have, full time, wherever He places us. bill