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What Happened After 'Jesus Revolution'? Greg Laurie Tells Stunning, Miraculous Story About His Adoptive Dad

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SPOILER ALERT: This story reveals a few important details about the plot in 'Jesus Revolution'

If you've seen the movie "Jesus Revolution," you may have left the theater feeling that some very big storylines were unresolved. Well, now Pastor Greg Laurie is revealing a stunning and miraculous testimony about how he eventually found his adoptive dad and what happened next.

While the film tells the remarkable true story of Pastor Chuck Smith, ex-hippie Lonnie Frisbee, and the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, in many ways it's a biopic about Greg Laurie. 

When he was just a young boy, Laurie was stunned when his mom walked out on his dad and moved him cross-country to California. That was one of the events in his life that left him feeling lost and made him vulnerable to the hippie drug culture. 

But Greg Laurie was a truth-seeker, and Jesus Christ redeemed his life forever during that time, as the movie shows. He went on to become a highly effective evangelist, and five decades later he still pastors Harvest Christian Fellowship, a 15,000-member church.

Greg Finds His Father

The movie has so many powerful moments, but it left lingering questions about Greg Laurie's family, especially about his adoptive father who was ripped out of his life during his childhood. Well, many years later, he was able to track down Oscar Laurie, the man who had been the one true earthly father to him. 

In a new video, Greg Laurie explains the stunning tale of what happened next. He was traveling to New York and had just discovered that Oscar Laurie lived in New Jersey, so he made contact and then they made plans to meet up.

Oscar invited Greg and his wife Cathe to come visit with him and his new family. As they ate dinner together, Greg shared about the gospel. His father, a lawyer and an intellectual, listened intently but said little at that moment. He simply said, "Greg, will you go walking with me tomorrow morning?"

It turns out Oscar had experienced a heart attack two weeks earlier and had almost died. Part of his new health regimen was to go walking early in the morning, so the two men went for an early walk at 6 a.m.

That's when Oscar suddenly said, "Greg, I listened very carefully to what you said last night about Jesus." Greg recounts, "And he said, 'I want to accept Jesus Christ into my life right now.'"

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Greg was stunned. "I said, 'Dad, let me go over it one more time,'" he recalls. 

After he explained the gospel again, Oscar continued, "Yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ right now. What do I need to do?"

When Greg said they should pray together, Oscar immediately dropped to his knees, right in the middle of the park. So he joined him on his knees too and led him in a prayer of salvation. "It was incredible, one of the most amazing conversions I've ever seen!" Greg says.

A Miraculous Healing

But that wasn't the end of their amazing moment together. Oscar asked Greg to pray that God would heal his physical heart too. 

"I said, 'I don't know if God will heal your heart, but we can pray,'" Greg recalls. 

After he prayed, Oscar, full of faith, said, "Greg my doctor's not far from here, his office is right over there. Let's go see him, I want to tell him my heart is healed." 

Greg says, "I said, 'Dad, we don't know if your heart's healed.' He said, 'Well let's go see my doctor.'"

He recalls Oscar then told the doctor, "This is my son Greg from California. He's a preacher and I just prayed and asked Jesus to come into my life and my heart is healed!" 

The doctor was doubtful about a physical healing, but he ran tests on his father and the heart condition was indeed miraculously gone! Oscar's heart was truly healed.

Greg was able to have a relationship with his father for 15 more years. Oscar grew in his faith, becoming a Bible-distributing Gideon and an elder in his church. 

"Just one of the most amazing things I ever have seen," Greg recalls. "In the movie, you just see Greg longing for his father, but in real life, Greg found his father."

WATCH Greg Laurie Tell the Whole Story:

Greg Laurie's Mother

In a separate video, Laurie also shares that his mother Charlene, his only family for much of his life, eventually did commit her life to Christ as well. It came when she didn't have much time left on this earth. 

He explains that she struggled in many ways and was married seven times. Plus, the movie Jesus Revolution depicts her as an alcoholic. But in the end, she turned her life over to Jesus.

"She chased after all of the empty promises of this world, and sadly saw the emptiness of all of it," says Laurie. "But thankfully she came back to her faith and returned to it one month before she entered eternity."

"She did become a believer eventually," Laurie says, "which just shows there is hope for anyone, no matter what you've done, no matter what mistakes you've made, no matter what sins you've committed. We serve a God of second chances, and third chances, and fourth chances."


 

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About The Author

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Gill

Benjamin Gill oversees all web content as the Multimedia Manager for CBNNews.com. He has been on staff with CBN News as an internet and broadcast producer since 2000. You can follow him on Twitter @BenGillCBN. Here are some of his commentaries and articles: Pursuing Truth in a World of Fake News: Reflections of a Christian Journalist After 20 Years with CBN News The Breaking Point: Pandemic Pain, Persistent Prayer, and God's Bigger Picture Plagues, the End Times, and Trusting in God's Protection: 'You Will Hear Us and Rescue Us' 12 Powerful Bible Verses to Build Your Faith and Fight Fear