Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live in is to love--to love as Christ loved...
Dec. 20, 1924
The first chapter of memoirs, dictated in Berlin
Mel Gibson
Actor
When you look at the resons why Christ came, why he was crucified--he died for all mankind, he suffered for all mankind. So that, really, anybody that transgresses needs to look at their own part or their own culpability. It's time to get back to a basic message, the message that was given... He forgave as he was tortured and killed.
Jan. 14, 2003
The O'Reilly Factor
Jerome Hines
Opera Singer (performed a record-breaking 41 consecutive seasons with the Metropolitan Opera)
The purpose of " I Am the Way" is to help people solve their problems. Unlike modern operas, "I Am the Way" is based on music that resolves, because Jesus is the resolver. Jesus is the solution to all our problems.
Fall 1997
PCC Update
Mr. Fred Rogers
TV Show Creator ("Mister Roger's Neighborhood")
I can't imagine more surprising places for God to appear than a manger or a cross. Yet all through his life and resurrection, Jesus demonstrates the power of showing and sharing God's love. Every time I write a script or a song or walk into the studio, I pray 'Let some word that is heard be Thine.' That's really all that matters.
April, 1994
Christian Century
Natalie Cole
Singer (Daughter of Nat King Cole)
Most importantly, I thank my Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, for his unfailing grace and mercy in my life. You don't know what He's done for me--HE gave me the victory!!!
Notes in liner of latest CD, "Stardust" - Elektra Entertainment Group
Olivier Messiaen
Composer (20th Century)
I have always been impressed by the fact that God is happy - and that this ineffable and continuous joy lived in the soul of Christ. Joy is for me a transport, a state of drunkenness in the 'maddest' sense of the term.
Radix, Vol. 21, No. 1
Sir Cliff Richards
British Rock Star (holds more hits than Beatles and Rolling Stones combined)
[Commenting on his singing the Lord's Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne] It's 2000 years since Jesus was born and here we are on the eve of the Millennium singing lyrics that He gave to His disciples. The song won't offend anybody. It's just a really good positive thought for the future: 'Please give us food... please keep us from evil... please help us to be forgiving as we want others to forgive us.' It has all the great positive factors that everybody would desire for the new millennium.
Dec. 1999
Expression
Vincent van Gogh
European Artist
It is a very good thing that you read the Bible... The Bible is Christ, for the Old Testament leads up to this culminating point... Christ alone... has affirmed as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d'être of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist... made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals.
18xx
Van Gogh's letter to friend, Emile Bernard as researched by Kathleen Erickson
Athletics
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Cameron Dollar
Basketball Athlete (player for UCLA in winning NCAA championship game)
I entered the game wearing a 'Jesus Is the Reason' wristband as a reminder to focus on Jesus Christ and let my God-given playing abilities take over. I don't have to worry about filling anyone's shoes, because I play for Jesus Christ. I have no fear of losing or of failure because Jesus Christ has already won the greatest victory for me on the cross.
1995
Charisma
Chad Curtis
Baseball Athlete (outfielder for World Champion New York Yankees)
We're not going to talk about the differences. We're going to focus on what's central, that Jesus is who He says He was... We have the same core beliefs. We find that's our strength. Not for baseball, but for life.
Aug. 23, 1998
New York Times
Chan Gailey
Football Coach (head coach of Dallas Cowboys)
You are who you are in Christ. There is pressure sometimes and there is not pressure other times. But I don't flip a switch and turn my faith on and off. Once Christ's peace, joy, compassion, love and patience is in you, it affects everything.
May, 1999
Baptist Press
Chuck Norris
Martial Arts Star & Actor (first non-Asian to receive eighth-degree Black Belt Grand Master)
Real men do live for Christ. It is important to make your peace with Christ while the opportunity exists. Life is so fragile that you never know when it's going to be over. It could be over in the blink of an eye, and then it's too late to accept God's gift of salvation.
July, 2000
New Man
Don King
Boxing Promoter
Irrespective and irregardless to whatever [Evander Holyfield's] skills and talent are in the boxing ring, his heart is right with God, and that's what's first and foremost. I have come this far by faith, trusting in [God's] holy Word, leaning on Him, and He's never failed me yet. How does our success come about? Just look up and ask for Jesus Christ, the matchless Lamb, the Prince of Peace... and you will find the answer.
Sept., 1999
New Man - comments before the infamous Holyfield/Tyson fight
Karl Malone
Basketball Athlete (first player in NBA history to be named to 11 All-NBA first teams)
I wasn't put on this Earth to play basketball, although I love to play and I love to compete. And it's a great avenue for me to experience special moments when I can help people. Two things are sacred to me - my family and my religion. I am never embarrassed by Jesus Christ. Without Him I wouldn't be in the position I am today.
Sept. 13, 1999
Baptist Press
Michelle Akers
Soccer Athlete (FIFA Women's Player of the Century; U.S. National Team)
The most wonderful thing I have learned since I gave my life to Christ is that this Christian stuff not only creates and inspires a power within and a passion for life, but this Christian stuff is also personal, alive and real... Being a Christian is about knowing a living and breathing God.
1999
www.michelleakers.com
Mickey Mantle
Baseball Athlete (Hall of Fame)
"I'll just say, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.' I am trusting Christ's death for me to take me to heaven."
Aug. 1995
Springfield Newsletter, several days before he died
Paul Westphal
Basketball Coach (NBA)
{commenting on the secret of his success} More than anything, it's my relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't think anything is important in comparison to living for your Creator. Everything has to come from that foundation. Nothing really matters in the big picture other than what you do for the Lord
Jul-95
Inside Journal
Randy Johnson
Baseball Athlete (pitcher; 4 straight Cy Young awards)
I think everybody realizes there is a Lord Jesus Christ. Whether they're committed to Him or not, it's gonna be important to them before they die to make that decision. We're talking eternal life - we're talking forever.
Aug, 1996
Sports Spectrum
Tom Osborne
Football Coach (head coach of the University of Nebraska for twenty-five years; took his team to a bowl game every year)
It is important to recognize that Jesus came as a servant, not as a king. In coaching, there is often a temptation for the coach to see himself as the ultimate authority and the athletes as being subservient. If Jesus is the model, then the coach is truly a servant of his players.
1999
"Faith in the Game"
Businessman
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Derek Draper
"Spindoctor" for Peter Mandelson and Ad Agency Partner
I started to discover Jesus Christ, his life and teachings. I'm still learning about the liturgy, and there's no doubt that as I read I struggle both with aspects of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and with the actions, past and present, of the organised church. What I know, though, is that none of that matters too much. The core of my Christianity is a belief in the wisdom of Jesus's words as told in the Gospels.
Feb, 2001
The London Times
Foster Friess
Money Manager (Chairman of Friess Associates; $11 billion in equities)
I am reminded of a statue in an English church that was bombed in World War II. It was a statue of Jesus with his hands outreached and with the inscription, 'Come unto me.' When they were restoring this statue, they could not find the hands. Instead of making new hands, they simply changed the inscription to read, 'Be my hands.' I think this is a beautiful picture of what we are called to be in this world.
January, 1998
Religion and Liberty
J.L. Jackson
Businessman (Chairman and CEO of Global Industrial Technologies)
We should allow Christ to influence every word we speak and every action we take. I believe glorifying God in this way in the business world will bless everyone involved.
Fall 1996
Reformed Quarterly
Kevin Jenkins
President (Canadian Airlines International)
In many ways, Jesus was like a street person. He had no home and no net worth. Yet he has changed lives and the course of history more than any other man. Therefore I continued to study the Bible not to learn about a religion but to learn about Jesus Christ. Throughout the New Testament, Christ claims that he is God, not a prophet or a good moral teacher. No other man of credibility has ever made that claim. If in fact he was God on earth, I had to deal with it.
1993
Life Story
Clergy
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Billy Graham
Famous Preacher and Evangelist
I think that everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the Body of Christ....That is what God is doing today. He is calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Christian world or the non-believing world. They are members of the body of Christ because they have been called by God.
June, 1997
Quoted on television's, "The Hour of Power" with Robert Schuller
John Jaynes Holmes
American Clergyman
If Christians were Christians, there would be no anti-Semitism…Jesus was a Jew. : Such is the debt which Christianity owes to Judaism! Not Jesus merely, nor the Bible, the Church and the Sunday, but the whole substance of Christian teaching!
1933 : 1943
"Sensible Man's View of Religion" : Sermon
Martin Luther
Father of the Reformation
The gospel demands not works to make us holy and to redeem us. Indeed, it condemns such works, and demands only faith in Christ, because He has overcome sin, death and hell for us.
1483-1546
Preface to the New Testament
Mother Theresa
Nobel Prize Winner, Charity Worker, and Diplomat
Christ, who being rich became poor and emptied Himself to work out our redemption, calls us: to share in His poverty so that we might become rich through His poverty; to bear witness to the true face of Jesus - poor; humble, and friend of sinners, the weak and the despised.
1992
Blessed Are You - Egan & Egan
Phillips Brooks
American Religious Leader
In the best sense of the work, Jesus was a radical…His religion has so long been identified with conservatism…that it is almost startling sometimes to remember that all the conservatives of his own times were against him; that it was the young, free, restless, sanguine, progressive part of the people who flocked to him.
1883
Sermons
Diplomat
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
George V. Voinovich
Governor (Ohio)
Those without faith experience a longing and an emptiness that this earth cannot fill. I see evidence of that spiritual hunger almost every day in my job as Governor. Without my personal acceptance of Jesus Christ, I could not keep going.
Sept., 1994
Decision
George W. Bush
43rd President (United States)
As God's only Son, Jesus came to Earth and gave His life so that we may live. His actions and His words remind us that service to others is central to our lives and that sacrifice and unconditional love must guide us and inspire us to lead lives of compassion, mercy, and justice.
Dec., 2002
Presidential Christmas Message
Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick
Former United Nations Ambassador (United States)
The U.N. Preamble reminds me of a secular version of the Lord's prayer because they say, 'Deliver us from evil.' Yet, they say it not to God, but to each other: 'Let us eliminate evil.' ...I thought about Jesus Christ--the perfectly virtuous Son of God who was tried before an essentially indifferent Roman court and destroyed. God's own Son was not delivered from evil and violent death through the legal institutions of His society... I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.
Summer 1997
Reformed Quarterly
Frederick Chiluba
President (Zambia; from first free election)
Jesus was never against politics. He just wants us to recognize that there is a greater power above. We must all recognize there is a King of kings and a Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, who is above every political system.
April, 1995
Charisma
Jose Gavino
Marxist Labor Activist (Peru)
I grew up with visions of el Cristo doliente, the suffering Christ, but now I am realizing that he is el Cristo vivente, the living Christ... I used to get nauseous seeing people take Holy Communion and then leave the church heavy laden with their heads hanging down. Now I see it doesn't have to be that way.
March, 1992
Baltimore Sun
Kim Dae-jung
President (South Korea)
Love of God does not mean we must love Him first. Rather, He loved us first, creating the world and leaving it in our care, sending His only son to us to spread the gospel, and, finally, opening the way for us to deliver ourselves from sin through the crucifixion of His innocent son, Jesus. Through Jesus' resurrection, God gave us hope for eternal life. God is with you at this very moment. He loves you, and He creates the good for you from all the right and wrong in your life when you genuinely believe in and obey Him
1980
Letter from prison to his son when Dae-jung was imprisoned after losing the 1971 bid for presidency in a fraudulent election.
Rep. Dick Armey
Congressman and House Majority Leader (United States)
What I attempt to do in Congress is pretty straight forward. My job is to prevent government from destroying our freedom. But the most important work to be done is for a person to come to terms with Jesus. That's my advice for anybody.
Aug. 1996
World
Rep. Tom Coburn
Congressman (United States)
"People feel judged and condemned. Jesus didn't make them feel that way. He made them feel loved and valued." If the religious right "really acted like Jesus did, then Bill Clinton would feel our love".
July 12, 1999
The Washington Post
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President (United States)
(My) great joy and glory that, in occupying an exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach the practical moralities of The Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world.
1994
America's God and Country, by William J. Federer
Thomas Jefferson
3rd President (United States)
Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian.
June 26, 1822
Letter to Benjamin Waterhouse
Vladimir Putin
President (Russia)
Why did Christ come into the world? To liberate people from sickness, troubles, from death. In its essence, Christmas is a holiday of hope.
Jan. 21, 2001
Moscow Times
Yoweri Museveni
President (Uganda)
Even though I have not become a member of any special religious group, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ with my whole heart. I find in Him the inner strength, the precepts and the lifestyle that can help me and all the people of Uganda to solve the problems we face individually and as a nation. It is one of the interesting facts about Jesus Christ that people in every nation of the world regardless of religion, whether one is a believer or a non-believer, consider Jesus the greatest authority on human relations in history. His views on that subject have transcended all religions and cultures. It is remarkable that the person of Jesus Christ is accepted by everyone - even when they are not attracted by institutional religion.
?
Speech to other African leaders
Fidel Castro
Leader (Cuba)
To betray the poor is to betray Christ.
Slogan on Havana billboards
Benjamin Franklin
Diplomat and Inventor (United States)
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see, but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes.
March 9, 1790
Letter to Ezra Styles (of Yale)
Historian
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Cornelius Tacitus
Roman Historian
Christus... suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.
55-117 AD
Ch. XV (said to be the first historical reference to Jesus Christ)
Ernest Renan
French Historian
All history is incomprehensible without Christ.
1863
Vie de Jesus
Herbert Muller
American Historian
The essential teachings of Jesus... were literally revolutionary, and will always remain so if they are taken seriously.
1961
"Freedom in the Ancient World"
Thomas Carlyle
Scottish Historian
The difference between Socrates and Jesus Christ? The great Conscious; the immesurably great Unconscious.
Oct. 28, 1833
Journal
Military
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Mitsuo Fuchida
Navy Captain (Japanese; commanded air strike against Pearl Harbor in 1941)
I know the brutality and the cruelties of war better than many people. Now I want to work for peace. But how can mankind achieve a lasting peace? True peace of heart, mind, and soul can only come through Jesus Christ.
April, 1950
"God's Samuri: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor" by Gordon Prange 1990
Paul Goebbels
Propaganda Minister (Nazi Germany)
Christ cannot possibly have been a Jew. I don’t have to prove that scientifically. It is a fact. [Editor's Note: Unfortunately, he was denying the obvious.]
Feb. 6, 1935
Quote by John Gunther, "The Nation"
Novelist/Writer/Editor
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Andre Gide
French Novelist
There is more light in Christ's words than in any other human words. This is not enough, it seems, to be a Christian: in addition, one must believe.
1960
"So Be It"
Eugenia Price
Writer
When I say God, I mean Jesus Christ. Not for the sake of anyone's orthodoxy--far from it. Because in all my seventy-three years, I have found no more comprehensive, usable meaning. For much of my young life, I searched intellectually for what I felt secure in calling my concept of God. And then, through the life of a friend, almost by divine accident, I saw that my way of searching had been all wrong. I was making it all complex when God had two thousand years ago, already made Himself plain in the person of Jesus Christ...
1990
"What Do We Mean When We Say God?" - by Deidre Sullivan
Fyodor Dostoyevski
Russian Novelist
They think to order all things wisely; but having rejected Christ they will end by drenching the world with blood
1880
"The Brothers Karamazov"
HL Mencken
American Editor
But any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood, and this is what happened to Jesus.
1930
"Treatise on the Gods"
Jack Kerouac
Novelist (voice of the "Beat Generation")
I never thought about Buddha becoming any real part [of my life] . . . Jesus is the only one I've ever been interested in.
1995
Inkling
John Grisham
Author ("The Firm", "The Pelican Brief", "The Client", etc.)
I came under conviction when I was in the third grade, and I talked with my mother. I told her, 'I don't understand this, but I need to talk to you.' We talked, and she led me to Jesus. The following Sunday I made a public confirmation of my faith. In one sense, it was not terribly eventful for an eight-year-old, but it was the most important event in my life.
October, 1994
Christianity Today
Kevin Kelly
Executive Editor (Wired magazine)
I didn't come to Christ out of any kind of crisis. I was very happy, I was very content, which actually made it harder to change. I came as a mature, intellectually curious, and, still to this day, very un-acculturated person.
July, 1997
World
Leo Tolstoy
Russian Writer
But Christ could certainly not have established the Church. That is, the institution we now call by that name, for nothing resembling our present conception of the Church - with its sacraments, its hierarchy, and especially its claim to infallibility - is to be found in Christ's words...
1893
"The Kingdom of God is Within You"
Philosopher
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Denis Diderot
French Philosopher, Atheist
Many people have looked upon Jesus as a true theist, whose religion has been by degrees corrupted. Indeed in the books which contain the law which is attributed to him, there is no mention of worship, or of priests, or of sacrifices, or of sufferings, or of the greater part of the doctrines of actual Christianity.
1770
Footnote to d'Holbach's "The System of Nature"
Ernst Bloch
German Marxist Philosopher
It wasn't the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas - thinking that would prevent death - Christianity was in competition for eternal life, not morality.
April, 1996
Newsweek
Jean Jacques Rousseau
French Philosopher
Get rid of the miracles and the whole world will fall at the feet of Jesus Christ.
1750
Quoted in Shaw's preface to "Androcles and the Lion"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
British Poet, Philosopher
I believe in Plato and Socrates. I believe in Jesus Christ.
July 23, 1827
Table Talk
Voltaire
French Philosopher
If we were permitted to reason consistently in religious matters, it is clear that we all ought to become Jews, because Jesus Christ our Saviour was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew, and he said expressly that He was fulfilling the Jewish religion.
1764
"Tolerance" - Philosophical Dictionary
Scholar/Economist
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Glenn C. Louis
Economist and Civil Rights Activist (Boston University)
How do I know that the resurrection and the whole Gospel is real? I know not only because of an acquaintance with the primary sources from the first century A.D., or even because of the words of the Bible. I know primarily, and I affirm this truth to you, on the basis of what I have witnessed in my own life... Jesus Christ provides a basis for hope and for the most profound personal satisfaction.
1995
"One by One from the Inside Out"
Lawrence Kudlow
American Economist and Pundit (served in Reagan Administration)
I pray and meditate every single day, every morning. You know, I pray in cabs. I pray in airplanes. I don't really ask for anything - I just pray that Jesus will give me the strength to follow Him. That's all I pray for. And that I will always turn my will and my life over to His care.
July, 2000
Crisis
Other
Person
Description/Title
Quote
Date
Source
Sir Lionel Luckhoo
Trial Lawyer (won a world-record 245 murder acquittals in a row, making him the most successful lawyer in the world, according to The Guinness book of World Records)
I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.
