In every generation there have been revivals. Massive moves of the Spirit that changed the course of history. In every revival, there were believers like you who chose to answer the call to become the one in their generation. Discover your call to be the one in your generation. Welcome back to Revival Radio TV. I'm Gene Bailey. And with me again, Roberts Liardon And thank you, Roberts. All right. So we're going to get into some controversial topics today. Hot show. A hot show.
So you may want to go ahead and share this video with everybody that you know, because this we're going to we're going to go into what was a blockbuster film this year. Good film, Jesus Revolution. What a wonderful. I cried. I did, too. I enjoyed it. Took me back the songs and, you know, you know, my kids, my adult children were asking me questions about that era. And it brought back a lot of memories.
So but let's talk specifically about Lonnie Frisbee, because you're you're writing a new book, God's Generals. It's going to have his life in there. So let's break down the life of Lonnie Frisbee and his impact on the Jesus revolution, the Jesus movement. First off you have to recognize he was God's answer to the sixties sex revolution and all that was going on in our nation at that time. God's answer was not a Billy Graham.
It was a hippie looking preacher that looked just like the hippies who God saved and begin to use. And Lonnie Frisbee was that man. So let's talk to talk about this history. Let's take it from the beginning. Well, I think we have to realize that he was saved in a very unusual way. As a story is told. He was on an LSD trip with no clothes on, dancing on one of the hills in California. And I know it sounds crazy, but welcome to the sixties. And so Jesus comes walking across the sky to him.
Now my brain says, you're tripping already. So how do we know what's real? Right. Now, as a historian, when you when you hear these wild stories, how do you know if they're true? You see what kind of fruit comes after that, over the years of their life that proof to that experience, they say, is true, is how I do it. So he says that Jesus comes walking across the sky to why he's in this LSD trip thing and Jesus paraphrase what he says, I won't use you, I need you kind of thing.
And so he accepts Christ and the call of God. And when that happens, he's back in his sober mind and he puts his clothes on. Praise the Lord. And he sits down and waits for his other friends who are still doing their trips to come off their their little dancing, LSD trips. And when they get next to him, he tells them the story... This Jesus man came walking across to me and asked me to help him. And I said yes. And his friends go, Well, can we help them too?
So they all kind of join in with the like, we'll do this. And they didn't know what to do next. So they knew that Christians and water had something. Somehow water and Christians went together. So let's drive down to the ocean, because in California you can snow ski in the morning and surf at night. So they drove down to the ocean to get in the water and they know they have to go under the water like these were baptism. That's what they were explaining.
And they said, well, since the Jesus dude appeared to you, you push us under. So he was sort of pushing the people under him and the other hippies on the beach because, hey, man, what are you doing? And he starts telling the story. And that to me is where the revival began, right there on the beaches of California. So he wasn't this definitely not one of those cerebral none at all seeking the truth and discovering who Jesus really was and knowing that it was real. I mean, this was a bizarre.
Here's the part I love about this story. First off, it's true. But God met him where Lonnie was at. On a hill. On a hill. On a LSD the trip. Clothes or no clothes. But I mean, he met him where he was at, reached him in a way that he could reach them. And then. And then this, you know, obviously, it birthed the movement. So take up the story from there. Then he kind of starts his journey. He he looks like Jesus anyway, the long hair, the beard.
So you kind of dress as a little boy like that's what he's doing and he gets excited about the Lord. Long story short, he ends up in in Costa mesa, California, Orange County. And Chuck Smith's daughter bumps into this guy and brings him home right. And that is the beginning of a very important relationship for the revival. Chuck Smith was he was a Foursquare guy at one time. Foursquare pastor.
He had been around the full gospel world to the point where he had become nervous about Pentecostal, charismatic manifestations of the spirit and the extreme extremities and the false ones where he was paranoid about all of it for his whole life. To be honest with you. He pushed it aside. He did embrace it like Lonnie did. Lonnie folded all the gifts in the miracles of the healings. Chuck supported because he saw that it was working. But yet when problems can you know what to do about it.
And so the two met I’m gonna have to minimize it, the two met and they became friends. And Chuck Smith, to give him credit, he was able to see that this guy God is really with, even though it's bizarre, he acts bizarre and do all these things that are not outside of his little box, but he welcomes them. What happens is they start having meetings and the kids have no place to have meetings. So Chuck Smith has a church. He's where you can do on off church nights.
And so they begin to pack the church out. And eventually he had to make a decision to embrace this. Lonnie Frisbee and the Jesus People revival movement or reject it. And so he embraced it and lost members of the church. But it was the best thing in his life because the revival took off and it became a tent. And they get water baptized on the beaches in California and it spread across the country as a counterculture thing to the the the sex sixties revolution all that make since?
Yeah, absolutely. So let me kind of recap here. We understand because I had to explain this to my adult children up to that point. The A guitar wasn't in church on a drum set was for sure, wasn't in church and something electric. You know, those days, those things were not in church. So this was a for the the Jesus movement, for someone to come into church with long hair and not wear a suit and have shoes or no shoes and be clean or not like that was really radical.
And then and then you put on top of that this new music, They birthed the Contemporary Christian music era. They really did in that. But that was so unnerving. And it's really easy to look back now and go, those people just missed it and no, it was a big no, it was a big it was a big shift in the Christianity in America because of suddenly we can, you know, it's okay to play the guitar and have music. I mean, so much less. Is it the hymns? Yeah, exactly.
So that was that was the atmosphere, the change. Yet he was seeing some miracles, signs, wonders. Talk about that. Well, Lonnie Frisbee had all the gifts flowing through his ministry. He had miracles, healings, deliverance, all kinds of things. And it's documented. People in California, I knew that were healing his services. And so it was happening and it was rolling through. It spread like that. Plus they were very bold in their faith and sharing their faith.
That's one thing about the Jesus people. They were right out there, was sharing their faith with anybody and everybody, and that was one of the great marks of the revival. They nobody were they scared to walk up to tell you about Jesus. They were just that bold and they're so bizarre looking. You didn't know what to do with it at first, Like run or listen, you know? So, you know, it wasn't just church people. It was society, too.
That whole sex revolution changed our view of marriage and sex and clothes and all that stuff. And the rock and roll industry went to new kind of music. So that whole thing was happening. And God found Lonnie Frisbee and Chuck Smith and the people to lead that revival and it became a worldwide movement. I was in Denmark a few months ago and I asked because I knew he'd gone there Lonnie Frisbee came there for about ten days and 15 churches were born that are still going today. Wow.
I'm like 15 He came in, People got saved and went home and started churches around the country. He was more of an apostolic kind of guy in the terms we use today, and I don't think they understood that because every place he went, he did it. Now he is responsible for two major church networks, the Calvary Chapel churches out of Costa mesa and the Chuck Smith and the Vineyard with John Wimber. Both of those are Lonnie Frisbee connections. And bless them.
So this guy was not just a novice or a side issue. He was a major character in church history and in charismatic history. And so but what happened was, like in every revival, there's things that go on that people have to deal with. It's called humans in the revival. It just happens. So Lonnie Frisbee had gotten married and had a good family, but they were having family issues and they didn't know where to go to work on their issues.
And so he left the church, and this is way before Christian counseling was the thing. Yeah, it's way before. So he left and went to Fort Lauderdale to be a part of what they called the new wine, or eventually was nicknamed the Shepherding movement. He went down there hoping to get help, but it was worse down there. So he returns back to California and goes back to Chuck Smith. And Chuck's brings him in. And it's a new parking lot ministry. So which is fine, But you had a guy that birthed you.
Now he has to be disciplined. This would be. And that's what they do. So that was a little hard on some people. Yeah, He was parking the cars, directing cars were a part of it. You know. And I'm sure that was a staggering. But he did it. He did it. That's the point. He did it. I don't think that would be the appropriate way to deal with him. But that was what they did back then. And but I look at it, I thought he did do it. So he was not a rebellious person trying to find a position.
He needed help. The problem with the Lonnie Frisbee story is the people that had influence did not know how to help him with his problems. They didn't have Christian counseling for the marriage that we do today or the other sexual challenges he'd have in his life. And so they didn't know what to do. So what Chuck said, well, things are happening. God is moving. We're not going to do it, that we're going to do this. That's what they did back then. So I don't criticize that.
That's not the best answer, It's just what they did. And so they did their best. So the marriage broke up. And Lonnie Frisbee backslid for a while and during that time would be backslid in his life. He got back into the old sixties lifestyle. Now, I want to talk about this because it happens to a lot of people before you get saved, what you do to medicate yourself, to get through pain or to get through tough times. If you're not careful you go back and do it again because that's what you know.
Sure. So when he lost his family, the church he was a part of did not embrace him or know what to do with him. He reverted back to how do I solve my pain, How do I do it? And he got back into the sixties drugs and sex activity in that in that in that time. So I want people know that you cannot I find it very hard to beat people up with people you're looking to. Don't help you. Right. And you've got to do something. And it may not be right. That's why some preachers go back into alcoholism.
They go back. Sure. That's what they were doing before they were saved. And now in the Christian world, they're not getting the help or they not whatever, and they go back to that. So I don't like it, but that's what it is. So during that time, he got he got HIV AIDS and so this is why people don't like his story. But I think it's a great story and it should be told accurately that he was not a gay man according to his own words. But he was a 16th happy guy.
Now, that means you drink and you sleep with everybody. Yeah, that's what they did. All right. So that's what Loni Frisbee and a lot of that generation came out of. That's why those young believers become elders in churches and we keep having certain problems at a higher percentage. Well, that's good, because that's what they did. That's when the sexual revolution in this country took place.
We broke down the family, we broke down the morality, and we had these big orgies in drugs and slept with whoever, whatever. That's what he did. So I'm not trying to excuse it, but I'm trying to explain it to where we're not killing him again because he's been unjustly dealt with because of that issue, because he died of AIDS does not mean that he was gay. It does not mean that we throw everything he did out the door.
So I, I, I hate that I have to talk like this about him so bluntly because it is. But I think we have to we have to come out. We have to tell people the whole story. Yeah. We don't want to not tell you what happened. You need to be able to understand what really happened. So. So he's a parking lot. Let's don't leave him in the parking lot. Okay, So he was a parking lot workman or this parking lot.
He finally gets back into some ministry and then a young man leaves Chuck Smith and John Wimber he was a part of the thing. And I talked to John Wimber, so he told me this story. So I'll tell the story. Thank God. I like to talk to people, hear all these stories when they go. He he talked about the meeting between him and Chuck, Chuck Smith, both good men of God working together. They separated without a lot of pain argument. They talked in separated.
And John Wimber told me as I was leaving that meeting, he goes, it was it was painful, but yet it was not vicious. It was just we were parting ways. We loved each other. He said, before I walked out the door, I said, Chuck, what are you going to do with all the power? He goes I don't want it. You can have it. And John was it. I took it. And that's what birthed the movement, the power.
So Lonnie Frisbee, Wimber takes this little group of vineyard churches, starts working, has him over for a service, and the revival hits like it did in the early days of the Jesus People. Lonnie would be a great Holy Spirit come...like his line that was is that we made that comment and pull he would hit the room with that Sunday it hit the room to the point that even though the elders were nervous, John Wimber was nervous.
They couldn't deny that God was up to something that they didn't want to do. And then John said, I knew it will be a lot of discussion next week with my board and my elders and stuff because we are nervous about this. But yet we knew something had happened. And so that's where the power side of the Vineyard movement got activated was that visit from Frisbee. And so he was a great preacher. He was a signs a wonderful man. He knew how to flow with the spirit.
He had all those what I call Pentecostal traits of a great leader. And it worked. The problem was the humanity side. There never was a person or persons who could help him get through the struggles of his marriage and the aspects of his life. He tried to find somebody to help him. They did not help him. So my wall, the story is, can we help the people that come to us? If we can't help them, can we find somebody that can and get to them?
Because sometimes we just throw them out, or we just push it aside? Well, it's uncomfortable and we don't know what to do, so we don't do anything. We see that in that time period, the the gay issue, the sex issue, the drugs all super sensitive. Today, we all deal with it in a different compassion than it did in the sixties and seventies. So imagine having these issues and contracting that disease at that time, it was still viewed as God's judgment upon the gay community.
And so navigating all that, what do you see in a Holy Spirit revival guy who has a marriage problem now is this issue, What do you do? They separate for safety and leave him alone and he dies almost alone. The last few visit were for some of his friends, but not not embraced like he should, in my opinion. So it's a great story with a little sad end. I think the movie is a great movie. I think these were the best Christians I've seen in a long time.
The storyline of the Jesus Revolution (movie) is pretty accurate to the story of the whole revival with a few little things, but it's not the little things. Yeah, we are starting to see the little things gripe about them, but overall it's a great, great story and people should see and it gives it a proper viewing. It makes Chuck Smith become the dominant personality there, which that's where I qwerk a little bit like I love the Chuck, but if it wasn't for Lonnie, there'd be no Chuck.
So she did not create a lot of creating. Chuck But Chuck was smart enough to embrace the revival and organize and give it room, and I have to give him credit. He worked through a lot of those traditional issues. Yes, he did. You got to give that guy huge. he did. You know, hippies. There's no politics like church politics. And these are hippies, like you said, come to church barefoot, making new music and all this stuff. And so we're still living loose. But they love Jesus. All that.
He did embrace all of that as a traditional evangelical Foursquare pastor. And he did well. He built a movement out of it today. And the weakness of that is that it was just Chuck Smith that had seen so many people misuse the gifts and abuse the gifts that he pulled back from it. And the whole Calvary Chapel Network, there's a Gulf. They believe that and they know it exists, but it's over there. And that's why they do it, because of their founder.
Now, you come over to John Wimber it's a whole different ballgame because John embraced it. And so power evangelism, all that came out of there, those are Lonnie Frisbee’s kids. Lonnie Frisbee kids. How was the story? It's good. It's a good story. And I want and I'm. You needed to know the truth. There's the truth of what happened. It's not the first time there was a problem. It won't be the last time there's a problem with a great leader. He just happens to be this leader.
It was one of the first one that had that particular challenge that went public, and the generation of that time did not know what to do. And what they do is they isolate and damn, curse ‘em and that's not Jesus. Jesus would been out there helping in some way. And what a great story of the grace of God on Lonnie, that he continued to come back and he kept coming. He kept bouncing back. What a what a great it's fruit like in Europe when he went to Europe.
I mean, the whole coffee shop type ministry concept comes out of that revival, right? He's on the cover of Time magazine. He's on the news 6:00 news in those days, which is a big deal. Yeah. And it it was a it was a force to be to be dealt with. Now, I guess I should do this. Him and Kathryn Kuhlman did a show together, which is the two extremes. That's right. You got Kuhlman with her white dress and all that on TV.
We're not in the white dress, but you know how she is, and he is invited by her to come on with Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee. And there's a film of it, and he's dressed as a hippie next to elegant Katherine Kuhlman. Now, that right there says only God can put these two kinds of people together. I mean, that is the work of the Lord to have the hippie and Ms.. Kuhlman, the two dominant figures of that time on her show. And she's just loving it. He's lovin’ it.
And all the kids are around her singing songs. When you're in the spirit, you could overcome barefoot, you can overcome the clothes because the commonality is the spirit that we all love and choose to obey. And you can see that with Katherine and Lonnie in that film. So this great massive move is birthed, Jesus movement. Lonnie's in the center of it. And it's interesting to me and you mentioned this at the very beginning of the story that it went straight to water baptism.
They didn't even really understand all of what they were doing, but they knew this something were supposed to go do. Yeah. Now let's fast forward to 2023 and what did we see? And really in 22 and up in Dawsonville with Pastor Todd...baptism again is a big deal move of God things are happening with water baptism. Isn't it interesting that we see that happening again that manifestation? It's a part of being a Christian, it's a part of following Christ example. And we're told to do this.
And I think it becomes a part of our desire as Christians to do it. And it's two things that are growing across America. Communion is a bigger deal, and water baptism is at an all time high. No longer are we doing once a month communion. We're doing it every week. Every time we meet, it's a holder and water baptism is happening in all kinds of places. I'm a part of the Dawsonville movement. I actually live there part time and they come from everywhere to get baptized.
They're getting healed and getting delivered. And that revival is being led so well by Pastor Todd and Karen Smith. It's beautiful. But I sat there at first. I thought, What is this? I mean, I knew baptism was always a part of revival movement, but that one, it's a focal point. That's where all the wild stuff happens when you get in the water in Dawsonville, that's where the stuff happens. It's God's emphasizing it for some reason. I like it when he says 3 seconds in the water.
And brother, it happens, It happens, it happens. Let me just say something, some people get upset by the way God does things. When you go to Dawsonville don't fight the baptism. Go get baptized like when you're with Oral Roberts. Don't fight the left hand, the right hand with the right hand, because the right hand has a miracle, cooperate with how God is working you. We have a well, let's I got baptized in 1971 at a Gerald Derstine camp in Strawberry Lake, Minnesota.
Hey, I've been there and it was cold, in the middle of the summertime. So, I mean, a lot of people have to point back to that baptism, you know, going going to some place like Dawsonville and you're seeing what God's doing. You know, your first place is, well, I got baptized. I don't need that. Is it okay to get baptized More than once? I asked Pastor Todd this. I want to hear what you had to say. I think it's okay.
I don't think you're redoing the first baptism, but it may be a recommitment or, you know, it might be for a miracle. I mean, there are Naaman was called a baptized dip in the water. If you want to look at it that way. So that's why I just started going through all those scriptures in my head. And plus the Jewish faith embraces baptism a lot bigger than the Christian faith because there's more baptisms in their faith.
So some of that I think we're discovering, and we were all and we're stuck in one. So being and also I had to sit there and think, okay, there's nothing illegal about this scripturally. It's my tradition talking. There is no scripture against you get baptized a second time. We're not re doing the first, but you want to make a rededication or you want to ask God to wash something out of your life? I'm okay with that. There's no scripture against that.
And that's what's happening. So to me, if you need 15 baptisms, get right, go get them. I'm fine. But the first one replaces the first one. The first one is of itself. But there may be other reasons that that type of thing before you. So when you look back on the Lonnie Frisbee era and the Jesus Movement what should we take now a little statistics, 40% of those that get saved. This is I think Barna did this a long time ago. 40% of those save during the Jesus movement remained.
The rest left for whatever reason. You know, I think a lot of that was because they weren't accepted. You know, churches didn't accept it. I remember when it came to our little chur the pastor didn't know how to handle it there. So they they didn't stay. They went somewhere else. Where do you think what does that say? What should we take from the Jesus movement that maybe we've left?
I think we're going to have to be able to open ourselves to different kinds of people and behavior that is not our custom or might infringe on our preferences for the sake of Christ being developed in a person's life or disciples. And we have to get rid of that tradition that that that preference. We all have it. There's so much I like to do church sermons that I do, but if they're not like that, can we fit? Can we do the gospel? Can we can we do that?
And I think in the times that we're living, when gross darkness is hitting the earth like we've ever seen, when those people start coming to our churches, they're not going to come clean up. They're going to come to get cleaned up and they're going to come with all that stuff. And it'll gonna be wilder Jesus people when it starts coming to our churches today, we've got people who think they're cats, we've got people. We have all kinds of people.
When they start coming to the door, folks, we're going to have faith and compassion. I agree. And I truly believe that's just my my belief, our Jesus movement that we have to deal with. Now, people come in with, you know, like I'm walking with shorts and flip flops. It's not a big deal. However, you know, what are we going to do with the transgenders when they come into your church? How are you going to handle that?
Are you going to stand up and let be open arms or are you going to let Grace rule or are you going to keep preaching the truth and not waver on that? This is our generation's big challenge. I believe, as we come through all of this, as we come through all of this, and even as the gender issue has gone on, people are we're already seeing the detransitioning people coming back out saying, this is not what I thought it would be.
The church has an awesome opportunity to stand in the gap there and say, Let us love you, let's pull you back in and understand. So a lot of prodigals, a lot of prodigals got saved in the Jesus movement. And, we've had a lot of prodigals now that need to be able to step into that place. So I want to ask you, pray for that Roberts, before we go off the air today. Let's pray for the people that have those kids at home. The the issues, they seem like they're gone.
They're lost forever, but they're not before we pray, I always tell people sometimes you're not the one to help bring your child to Christ, but you can pray for God to send the one that they'll hear across their path. Amen. And that way you're still working. Exactly. Because sometimes all you do is because you're family. We're.
Yeah, but God can bring the person who you're trying to listen to so I pray today for every one of you that have families with these kind of crises, that God will bring peace between you and your children. And Father. We ask right now that you would send the right person, the right people across each child's path that they will listen to. They'll believe they'll be able to talk, to send the right people across their path, that the seed could be sown, can be watered, can be harvested.
And Father, let the parents and the other siblings have a peace that you are working this situation out. And we refuse to be moved by what we see and hear. But we're going to believe that you're answering our prayer today, sending people across their path that'll help them become the place they need to be. We pray that in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. I want to tell you that there's a phone number on your screen that you can call. You need somebody to continue to pray with you.
Specifically, there's a license for a minister on the other end of that phone. 8772816297. Someone's there ready to pray with you and give you the maturity you need. Take advantage. That's absolutely free. We're here to be used, as Brother Copeland would say, We're here to be used So enjoy that opportunity and let's come alongside each other and see those prodigals come home. Thank you, Roberts. Thanks for taking care of this sensitive topic today. Yeah, it's a great revival story.
It is. It's a great one. We'll see you next time.