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"...he being dead yet speaketh." |
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Oliver B. Greene
The following biography was
originally published on the website of swordofthelord.com: "From
disgrace to grace" is not our title for one of America's
greatly used men of God-that was Oliver Greene's own
appraisal of himself. He was born on February 14, 1915
in Greenville, South Carolina.
Oliver's youthful life was that of a wastrel, living in
wanton wickedness. Drinking, stealing, bootlegging,
immorality-he was a veteran of all those vices. But at
age twenty, God saved that wayward youth when he
attended a revival meeting (solely in an attempt to date
a pure country girl) and heard a sermon on "The wages of
sin is death." That
night he was convinced, convicted and converted! He got
a mighty good dose of salvation! Five months later God
called him to preach. To prepare for this, he attended
North Greenville Baptist College but was expelled in his
second year because of his reluctance to cooperate with
the denominational program. In
1939, the 24-year-old bought a tent, and for 35 years he
conducted revivals all across America, until failing
health forced him to stop. Carefully kept records reveal
that over 200,000 found Christ under his ministry.
Perhaps his single greatest campaign was in Rocky Mount,
North Carolina, where 7,000 professions of faith were
registered. He held his last tent revival in
Bel Air, Maryland (this tent
was 100 feet by 300 feet). Surely
another genius of Greene's labors for Christ was his
radio ministry, which grew from one station in 1939 to
180 stations at his death. The Gospel Hour is still
heard coast to coast by his taped messages. He prepared
these taped messages "to continue on the Gospel Hour
hopefully until Christ comes back." Dr.
Greene was called Home to be with the Lord on July 26,
1976, but he "being dead, yet
speaketh," not only by radio but by his writings.
His books, pamphlets, tracts, totaling above 100 titles,
are still mailed out by the thousands. Aye,
DISGRACE TO GRACE, a fitting appraisal as well as a
fitting epitaph for a great man of the Gospel and the
greatly used messenger of the Gospel Hour-Oliver B.
Greene! |