R.I.P. David Wilkerson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to news reports, David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade, died in a car accident in Texas on Wednesday, April 27.\u00a0 May he find\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2011\/04\/r-i-p-david-wilkerson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"R.I.P. 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{"id":427,"date":"2011-04-28T07:51:06","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T12:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rogereolson.com\/?p=427"},"modified":"2011-08-18T19:27:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T19:27:34","slug":"r-i-p-david-wilkerson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2011\/04\/r-i-p-david-wilkerson\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. David Wilkerson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When I was a Pentecostal<\/a> preacher\u2019s kid and a student in a very secularized high school (where I was the object of much ridicule for being openly a believer) David Wilkerson\u2019s book and the movie based on it gave me great comfort and some ammunition.\u00a0 I gave a report on the book, the ministry (Teen Challenge) and the man in my Social Problems class.\u00a0 At least some of my fellow students were impressed with Wilkerson and his ministry because of that.\u00a0 (I invited them to a showing of the movie and some came and accepted Christ there.)<\/p>\n

I met David Wilkerson once in my hometown when he came to speak at an evangelistic crusade.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always respected him with one exception.<\/p>\n

Early during the charismatic movement<\/a> he predicted (prophecied?)that the Pope would squash the charismatic movement.\u00a0 I heard him say this at a Lutheran Charismatic meeting in Minneapolis in about 1971 or 1972.\u00a0 Of course, that didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 John Paul II especially warmly embraced the charismatic movement.<\/p>\n

In any case, in spite of Wilkerson\u2019s foibles (who doesn\u2019t have them?) he was a great evangelist and minister to drug addicts.\u00a0 He was a major force in my life when I was much younger.\u00a0 He will be missed.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"