The Richest Caveman - The Doug Batchelor Story

tonight's program is going to be a little different from all of the others I will be sharing with you a little bit about my personal story and how I became a Christian everybody wants to be happy much of the world believes that happiness comes from fame and fortune you know what the number one selling magazines are in North America it's not the Bible it's the supermarket tabloid magazines you ever read the titles on those things some of them are a lot more creative than others you know they'll always talk about the ghost of Elvis appearing in a bathtub somewhere I saw one that I never will forget it said Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer discovered in a meat freezer and let me say you know I got a better one here lady gives birth to twin sister people buy that stuff you know they'll believe that some space creature landed in Philadelphia Neath the whole city and they don't believe the Bible number one selling literature you know why those magazines are so popular because most of them deal with the rich and the famous and people maybe are trying to enjoy those things vicariously by reading about the very wealthy and the very popular I grew up in an unusual home and my parents are very different I was raised basically an atheist my mother was Jewish by heritage but you're aware that you can be Jewish without being religious at all and my father had been raised Baptist but he was pretty much an atheist after world war ii he was in the Air Force during the war he kept wondering if God is love why does he let all this definitely suffering to happen and so my brother and I my dad in the airline business named my brother and I after airplanes I was named Douglas right after my mom gave birth he was at the Burbank Airport there was a sign it said the only thing faster than the stork was the dc-3 that was McDonald sorry name me Douglas my brother was named Falcon kind of tough growing up with a name falcon backflip and on top of that my brother brother was born with cystic fibrosis which made it even more difficult for him and at times even for me but we quickly learned growing up then happiness does not come from fame and fortune mom started becoming popular several years ago writing songs for Elvis Presley and she wrote songs for Andy Williams and Frankie Avalon some of you great heads out there know who I'm talking about sure the kids are wondering what language I'm speaking and she was in all different aspects of show business a very talented lady and she was basically a high school dropout but she taught herself to play the guitar and the piano and sing and write and she could do just about anything she put her mind to and we grow up grew up in my parents divorced when Falcon and I were very young I was three born in Burbank California mom moved to New York City dad moved to Miami and my brother and I sort of got bounced around between my Jewish grandparents and my mom and my dad and we could see that the happiness did not come from fame and fortune a lot of movie stars were friends of ours and I've got a few slides here I don't know if you could see these this is mom with a Sally Field I think that fella lives in this area doesn't he Muhammad Ali he was at a restaurant with us last night where we were Jimmy Stewart that's my mother Clint Eastwood we just threw a few in here we have a lot more than this the late George Burns Bob Hope you know you tell people these things and sometimes they don't believe you so I'll bring some pictures in there's Paul Newman Paul McCartney mom and Natalie Wood people used to say they looked a little like what do you think a little bit huh they don't look the life at all that's Dustin Hoffman Warren Beatty a few years ago Roger Moore I think one of the James Bond's this is one of the last pictures of mom mom contracted cancer when she was 57 while Karen and I were doing meetings in Russia and when we came home she was in a coma she died very quickly very talented lady but one thing we learned is that people in show business were not happy this was one of the obituaries they printed it around the country and she was song writer playwright did musicals for television and Broadway road for Elvis film critic for Good Morning America some of you heard of Rona Barrett mom replaced Ramona Barrett on Good Morning America happiness did not come from fame growing up in New York City Falcon and I would often have moms friends over to the house movie stars Academy Award winners were friends of ours and a lot of these people were miserable we knew some that were so happy beautiful talented rich so happy they killed themselves because they lived for themselves and when you live for yourself you will self-destruct during the other side of the coin you know I don't know how my mom and dad ever got married they were complete diametric opposite you've heard talked about opposites attracting my mother was a hippie my dad is a redneck my mom was the head of the women's lib movement in New York City my father just wanted a wife to stay home and cook his food and she's a Democrat he's a Republican just the opposite that they could be it could be why'd that marriage didn't last very long dad was born very poor in Oklahoma after World War two he was a pilot a captain in the Air Force and fought in action he started buying airplanes had a great sense for business he was also did not complete his education but a driven man I had to driven parents and he managed to keep on buying and selling airplanes until he owned controlling interest in two or three Airlines I don't know if it was all at the same time but he used to own controlling interest in Western Airlines Capital air he still has Aero air and international air leases millions and billions of dollars just to illustrate that this is my dad with his third wife Betty a lovely lady she was my stepmother for about 30 years dad married her after mom I'm sort of opening up and being very personal with you tonight she was Miss Kentucky too yeah he always had good taste in women Betty divorced dad a few years back and you know who this fella is Donald Trump the Donald Trump a few years ago divorced his wife Ivana is that her name and because she signed a prenuptial agreement she was only able to get 14 million dollars and that terrible she's not fair is it well when Dad divorced Betty she signed the prenuptial agreement so she was only able to get seventeen and a half million dollars it was on the front pages of the Miami Herald as the largest divorce settlement in Florida history I'm sharing these things because like I said it was on the front pages very very very wealthy man this is one of the only pictures I have of dad with my new stepmother the dad 75 now I think that she was 28 or 29 then that's my brother Falcon on the far right and his wife sandy who is an attorney some this is Miami Herald the front page of the business section at 71 aviation pioneer George bachelor isn't ready to descend he runs one of Miami's most successful businesses pilots jets races cars water skis and is soon to Wed his bride age 29 another article at 71 Bachelor going on 16 and he's standing in front of one of the Aero air jets and you know there's a number of articles and magazines where dad's appeared he's received awards because he's a great philanthropist he's built hospitals for children down there gave a lot of money to cystic fibrosis because of my brother has been honorary citizen lots and lots of money races cars matter of fact the day he married his fourth wife the day before he drove a race car went waterskiing then he got married to a 29 year old I tell you it was quite a wedding too during the service his alarm went off on his wife on his watch and to remind them to take his heart medication he had the wedding at the John Deering mansion there right on the water in Biscayne Bay and he had his yacht this is dad's yacht and it's called the bachelor party of all things and it was there they had a gondola with musicians taking people out and all these waiters walking around with a star go and things you're supposed to enjoy I guess and they had a an army of valet Parkers greeting the people coming up in their limousines and their helicopters flying overhead and they all looked like reigning monarchs of dynasties and then Karen and I came with the kids you know we felt kinda out of place because we don't live like that let me tell you right marrow I travel I see a motel 6 this is inside dad's boat that's the living room during the wedding service Mary Ann had a ring so big as his wife she needed a helium balloon to hold up her hand she went around dad call it caused quite a fear he left his wallet at the counter and they didn't know what to do it was on the evening news just kidding I thought you'd enjoy that but you know with all that money happiness does not come from money all my life knowing my dad I mean he's had mansions and butlers and maids and drives a rolls-royce and has a Learjet just all the toys has trouble sleeping at night why he's actually sleeping a little better now because he had a stroke but he's a lot of stress my wife Karen's a physical therapist and last time we saw them he asked if she could help relieve his tension had to drink himself to sleep all of my life or take sleeping pills Solomon says with the increase of money just comes a lot of stress well happiness does not come from fame and fortune I knew that growing up now one thing I discovered because I was raised in a theist a person cannot be happy if they do not know where they've come from what they're doing here and where they're going young people are the number one group to commit suicide you wear event teenagers most of them not all but most of them are coming from public schools and I am convinced there's a connection between telling young people that you're nothing more than a highly developed ape and there is no purpose to life and they're figuring what's the use I started thinking about suicide when I was 7 years old you know kids get a little trouble when their parents divorce that's an understatement bouncing around between my mother and father mom was driven to be famous and dad was driven to make money and pretty soon you start to feel like you get in the way I try and talk to dad during breakfast and he'd be reading the stock market reports and every now and then he'd lower the paper and grunt only time I got his attention is when I got into trouble so I was a troublemaker I was always the class clown trying to get attention because I just wanted my parents to notice me and I might also mention for our friends that a lot of young people out there that are getting in trouble it's because they want their parents to notice them everybody wants love well I didn't think anyone cared about me and so I started thinking about suicide at 7 years old I thought about it all the time always wondered what would be the best way to kill myself I was afraid I'd mess up are you aware that more women attempt suicide than men more girls than boys but more men succeed men do things very permanent and girls don't like to be messy they'll take pills or something that doesn't always work man will jump in front of a truck for something when you commit suicide and so I wanted to make sure I died I used to play a game in New York City where I'd go up on the top of one of these buildings we lived in these skyscraper apartment buildings in New York my brother and I would my mother and I'd stand on the edge with my toes hanging over and look down at all the people and I'd see how far out I could lean before I felt my center of gravity only reason I didn't jump as afraid what if I don't die what if I just get maimed for rest of my life remember on one occasion my brother had gone to live with dad for his health New York wasn't very good for cystic fibrosis I was alone with mom she was gone working all the time and I just feel like no one cared if I kill myself maybe they'll notice me problem is I wanted to be there to see them notice me and there's no way to do that so I went into my mother's bedroom and went into the bathroom and in her medicine cabinet I knew she took sleeping pills every night I filled my hands with some pills she had some pills it said valium take one at bedtime and I just about took them I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up but I was 13 years old and I wasn't sure that valium was a sleeping pill I didn't say sleeping pill anywhere on the bottle I thought what if these are pills for ladies and I get sick I didn't want to get sick I wanted to die well somewhere along the way I decided you know if I'm going to die why do something boring like jumping off a building or taking pills I'm going to die having fun and so I got involved in crime quite a bit and while I was living with my father this is what I looked like at about 16 it's kind of hard to believe that's not a toupee when I was living with dad he lived on these exclusive islands in Miami Beach called the sunset islands and our friends when I was growing up we're kids like I used to date you heard Firestone tires I used to date Amy Firestone you heard of Hoover vacuum cleaners sandy Hoover lived on the island where we lived and he was a little different we would all light our bikes around the island sandy would ride his bike like it was a bus he wanted to be a bus driver when he grew up he'd pull up to the stop sign with his bicycle he took everybody head to the back of the bus we gave him a hard time do you know what Cindy's doing for a living now he drives a limo he's a bus driver the heir to the Hoover vacuum cleaner dynasty anyway so these were some of the kids we played with we would get bored you know we do we sit around in the summertime with nothing to do we'd say well let's break into a house and we started breaking into homes for excitement now I so much wanted to be loved I kind of gave up on my parents I thought I want my friends to like me I tried to develop a reputation of not being afraid of anything and they dare me to jump off the bridge into Biscayne Bay and like him dummy I would do it because I wanted them to like me we started breaking into homes and stealing just anything just so we could say we did it these are millionaires kids and we're stealing all we had to do is ask our parents for money you know and they'd say I dare you to break into that house and we keep people awake and walking around inside and so we started stealing started stealing from the other millionaires on the island and it really got so pitiful we get so bored we thought what do you want to do as well still break into let's break into your house we broke in our house last week you know and you know it was really strange they have a security guard and it's an island that only one way on the island there was this rash of burglaries on the island and so the people on the island hired police to patrol in boats because they were sure thieves were coming on the island by boat and it was the kids of the millionaires that were stealing from their own parents so I got into crime I started using drugs at an early age now I went back and forth a lot between my mother and father even though I only finished the ninth grade I went to 14 different schools to military schools first military school I went to was in Southern California called Black Fox military academy and I was 5 years old because my parents were busy so they put my brother and I in military school and then I went to New York military academy went to public schools and Catholic schools and Jewish schools several public schools a free school when I would live with mom mom was in show business and I don't know if you're aware of it but a lot of people in show business use drugs now the drugs of choice back then were LSD and pot and hash and one day mom said well duh I know sooner or later you're going to be doing these things I just assumed you did it at home so you don't get the trouble and so she rolled a joint and smoked it with me and it got to be a very regular practice for my mother and I to smoke pot and eat ice cream and watch TV once or twice a week now my brother because he had cystic fibrosis it's a kind of a lung disease Falcon could have smoked pot so mom loving mother that she was she would make him hashish cookies Falcon and I brought them to school one time and handed them out for the teachers when I was living with dad he had a complete bar in his house bigger than some bars downtown and when Dad was at work every day specially in the summer my friends and I would come over we'd start mixing drinks and my dad never knew it was missing cuz the butler kept restocking the bar the butler thought my dad was drinking it and so we could drink all we want now I need to say something here of all the drugs and I've used LSD and cocaine and everything but heroin basically pot and ups and downs and PCP I mean you just name it practically didn't use crack they didn't have that back then of all the drugs you know what the number one killer is for young people alcohol you always hear about the war against drugs but very little is said about alcohol because it's the drug that is consumed more than anything else in Washington DC you know what kills more young people every year then LSD crack cocaine pot heroin speed quaaludes all put together alcohol kills more young people than all the others combined now I think they're all bad but the reason I say that is there are still Christians out there that think using alcohol in moderation is okay I hope that if your children come home and say mom or dad I'm using the little crack moderately you'll accept that as a good answer I don't think Christians ought to drink at all amen you know one out of seven people that drinks becomes an alcoholic would you keep a dog that bit one out of seven people that came to your house well I ran away from home when I was 13 years old and now I was not getting into crime just for entertainment I started breaking into homes I ran away and I got arrested I was in a jail several times and I was becoming a thief I didn't really care about anybody because I didn't think anyone cared about me and I think I was trying to kill myself I kept doing more and more risky things we were breaking into homes and stealing TVs now I ran away when I was 15 again by the time I was 16 I was living on my own in Boston stealing cars stealing anything I could get from people's houses and then selling it and I had a part-time job as a security guard of all things truth you know I feel during the day no one thinks anything of it when you walk out of a house in broad daylight with a TV you look suspicious at night and but you know it's interesting I never stole from the places I guarded because they trusted me and I took it seriously I only stole from strangers I had a lot of strangers out there too well something interesting happen while I was living in Boston 16 years old a friend of mine who is a security guard he found out about my day job and he was very religious and I said Jerry you're gonna turn me in he said I don't need to turn you in Doug your Karma's gonna get you he was into these Eastern religions now y'all know what karma is karma is sort of this ethereal law that whatever you do comes back to you and it's really true jesus said with what measure you meet is measured to you again now I'm not saying I believe in the Eastern religions but the principle of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you is true because it usually works that way with what measure you need it'll be measured to you as a knock come on there's no God I was an agnostic or atheist anyway I said I stole that television set and I got rid of it nothing happened he said you'll see and a little while after Jerry told me that I woke up in my apartment in Boston and my TV was gone and my radio and I was mad do I call the police right away I wanted them to find those thieves and track them down they violated my home I was really upset and I started watching and I noticed everything I did kind of backfired I steal something you know and all of my friends were thieves they steal it from me I don't know where the stereo window or I'd steal something usually why I was hired drunk and then I'd hide it and I'd forget where I hid it as I know I went out last night where is this stuff or I would steal something get back to my place huffing and puffing I steal a stereo plug it in it's broken didn't even work risk my life I started thinking there must be a god this can't be coincidence what convinced me was a little thing I didn't quit feeling cold turkey I tried to taper off I went to somebody's home and I stole a box of Krusty's instant pancake mix I did it because it was the whole wheat variety and I was very health conscious back then and I was using drugs and smoking cigarettes and drinking but I said I only whole wheat I'm just pancake mix so I stole this box of holy pancake mix them there on the lid it was stamped a dollar 19 and that very same day some friends came through my place uninvited I had just bought a brand new jar of pain instant breakfast ring and even remember that and it was all gone they drank the whole thing and when I got back to my place there was the empty tank jar with a lid sitting by it and I picked up the lid that said a dollar 19 and I looked at my pancake mix him instead of dollar 19 uh but crime doesn't pay there must be a God and you know I that really scared me because I thought if there's a god then maybe there's a heaven and there may be the other place too and I knew where I was going so I thought I better look into this so I started looking into religion I believe there must be a power out there a dog and intelligence friends in just a moment we're going to return for the conclusion of the testimony but obviously what i'm sharing is a very condensed version of a bigger story we have a fuller version in my book called the rich caveman this book covers the whole story about how the Lord got my attention and brought me from a cave and eating out of garbage cans to serving the Lord and illustrates how he has a big plan for each one of your lives as well there's also several pictures in the book that are not seen in the slide presentation during the testimony now I've written some other books that would help a person in their walk with the Lord the second book is called seven steps to salvation I deal with the science of how God saves us and what the gospel means and I punctuate it with a variety of colorful stories some from my own experience that are not in the caveman's story and that finally the third book is for those who have made a decision to be Christians and join the church sometimes we encounter some struggles in God's family and it's called how to survive in a dead church it also deals with how do you survive in a big church or a little church how do you survive hurts and disappointments in God's family how do you survive in church when your spouse is not a believer I think you'll find this very enjoyable it also is illustrated with cartoons this trilogy is designed to help you in your walk with the Lord to find the Lord and to stay with the Lord if you're interested in any or all of these books you simply need to contact us at amazing facts if you want to write the address is amazing facts heal box 909 Roseville California nine five six seven eight if you'd like to call us the toll-free number is 1-888-936-3264 blowing up the protestants all in G his name it on Jesus says love your enemies and your Christian for killing each other I said off that's what a Christian is they're all hypocrites how many people I meet as I travel who stopped going to church because they ran into some hypocrites that really makes the devil happy don't look at people they'll always let you down you follow Christ in his word and you'll never be disappointed well so I started getting into other religions I got into the New Age movement they didn't call it back then that didn't call it the New Age movement but that's what it was I took a course in Shakti the spiritual science of DNA God is in your DNA molecules and you can channel it with your alpha brain levels and be at one with the universe and you can heal people from a distance and there's some very real strange things that happen they also say you can win lotteries too comes in handy I got into Buddhism yoga I just searched all around trying to find God and yoga the only thing you stand on your head trying to find God and all I found was my hair fell out when I did that I went to a Hari Krishna temple when I was hitchhiking around Southern California and the reason I went as I was living on the street with a friend named J Samuel and we needed a Emile the Christian mission gave us a free meal if we went to their service our equation has promised a free meal if you went to their service and their service involved jumping up and down for an hour and a half with drums and tambourines and electric bass and they were singing Hari Krishna Hari Krishna Krishna Krishna Hari Hara Hara Mahadeva Rama Rama Hari Hara did that for an hour and a half and all they gave us was yogurt and raisins and I said I'm not joining the net search I know that right now not to mention they wanted me to grow shave my head and grow a ponytail the only place my hair isn't growing I'm drawing six and wear pajamas all day long I was wasn't going to do that so I mean I really got into everything you know I looked into Scientology and they they hook up a battery charger to you to measure how much spirit you've got just really strange things out there and but I was sincere I was looking for God but you know the more I traveled around and looked I found out there's a lot of strange people out there my father flew to Boston and he pled with me Doug please go back to school and I said oh you know dad I'm on my own now I'm 16 years old I'm a man I had a lot of money in my pocket I was working two jobs at one point plus feeling and but now I was feeling spiritually I didn't quit cold-turkey I told you I thought as long as you steal from stores like Safeway and stuff like that it didn't matter because you know they had too much anyway I was able to justify those things and you me amazed how many religious people hang out in bars to talk about God all the time in bars well dad talked me into going to this school he found it was on a boat that sailed around the Mediterranean and he said there's girls and he can water-ski and snorkel and and he was pleading with me get an education get Falcon wasn't well and he wanted me to come and work for him and take over the businesses and so I said all right so he flew me right away that picture you saw earlier was my passport picture when I was 16 years old he flew me that day to Genoa Italy and I got on this school that was on a boat that sailed around the world it actually was two boats sailing together called the Flint school abroad soon as he left I found out he tricked me this was a school they took away your passport it was a school for the children of politicians and wealthy people in America whose kids were getting into drugs to get them out of their environment to straighten them out and they actually in it remember the loonies when that was a big thing a lot of kids were getting wrapped up in hari chrétien in Muniz and it was to try and D brainwash them I guess and they showed us films that said there is no God they showed us films about Darwin I was sure there was a God because too many things happened I could not explain any other way I was mixed up but I knew there was a god well I was really mad so I said I'm I'm I'm not going to class I've been living on my own all summer and driving my own well wasn't my own car but I was driving cars and you know when I stole cars I was so suicidal we would steal a car and pull up to a policeman and asked him for directions hoping that he chase us so I I said I'm not going to class they said we're not going to feed you then so I had my roommates smuggle me food and this went on for a long time and finally they said a Doug you're messing up the morale of the school now maybe I should back up for just a minute and share something here I told you I went to 14 different schools let me talk about two of them very quickly I went to two schools at our extreme opposites I went to the strictest school in North America New York military academy makes the Citadel look like Disneyland they had a rule about everything they had a rule about how you fold your underwear 1 inch by 3 inches by 6 inches your books had to be stacked a certain way on your shelf bed had to be made so tight you could bounce a quarter off it and stick it into the ceiling everything had to be and span you had to have your floor so clean you could eat off it and they might ask you to do it I'm not exaggerating these are kids strict then I went from that school to a school my mother found the school she told my father my dad liked the military school idea mom said Doug needs to express himself she found a school called a free school no rules it was an experimental school it's based on the principle you cannot force a child to learn they need to be placed in an environment where they're just going to finding themselves and they only had three rules you go to class if you want to you could not go to class if you didn't want to you could sleep all day or go to meals if you want to it just didn't matter and so I am three rules were no drugs No finding no sex and nobody paid attention to the rules there were nearly killed myself that year a lot of kids I talked to think yeah I'd like to go to that school no rules incidentally the experiment failed it closed after my year there partly because we raided the kitchen every day and I think they went bankrupt they they actually padlocked the kitchen with bars and bolts and we tunneled in I was so stubborn back then but I was so much happier at the military school than the free school I have learned that you cannot be happy without discipline in your life well now I went to this school I was overseas they said Doug you're messing up the morale now in military school when you misbehave they hit you you cannon threatened to sue them back then I don't know why but nobody did it our teachers were retired military personnel you misbehave they spanked you with these army belts you know the field belts with a grommets in it for hanging your canteens on here to hold field while they did that this school on the ship was a little more refined you don't hit politicians kids and so they said well we're not going to feed you and they tried to use all these social things to discipline me well you know I I was pretty smart and I wasn't falling for any of that so I just clowned around through the whole thing in policing the captain took me aside the captain's also the principal he said Doug what do we have to do to get you to cooperate I said you let me go home Christmas break and I'll be good now only model students went home Christmas but all the other kids were saying bachelors not washing dishes bachelors not standing watch bats was not going to class and so it was messing the whole school up he went right from that conversation to a telephone in Spain and he called my father our North African he called my father and said mr. bachelor we've got good news doug has shown remarkable progress they knew I was never coming back and they didn't want me to come back well I kept my deal I tried to behave for the last two weeks before Christmas I learned something interesting now the boat was supposed to be full of atheists we were sailing from northern Africa over to Spain from Tunis Africa the port of mahon Spain across the Mediterranean that sea does not look very big on a map you get out in the middle of you go days without seeing land halfway across we got into a big storm at night the waves it was like a hurricane big storm the waves were completely covering the boat 25 or 30 foot waves boat was 150 feet long two masts schooner things were washing overboard the water it was around Christmas was freezing the captain told us if you fall overboard we're not even turning around because it was dark he said we'll never find you and you'll die of shock before we can reach you we'll mark the spot and tell your parents mainsail ripped water was coming in everybody was seasick including the captain and that makes you really nervous captain wouldn't come out of his room what do you think people start doing when they're afraid they're going to die even atheists and nobody needs any lessons everybody knows just what to say and who to talk to nobody was going already Keesha higher education nobody was going on everybody was talking to God and the other interesting thing was people know when they're doing something wrong because when they're afraid they're going to die they're instantly aware of it they're promising god they'll never do it again if he'll just give them another chance and everybody was praying and making promises in between visiting the side rail well we survived the storm and what happened all those promises fear is a very bad reason to turn to God how many people go to church because they're afraid they want to go to heaven and they don't want to go to hell and they're motivated by selfishness now that might be a suitable starting point but a real Christian serves God because they love God regardless of what's in it for them that's the experience we'd like to share with you during these seminars well got back to Florida for a Christmas break went snow skiing with the family as soon as we got back from skiing in Canada sold all my earthly possessions to my brother who was always ready to make a good deal and I took off ran away from home for the last time I was 16 still took a bus up to Roanoke Virginia ran out of money started drinking and playing pool got stuck on the highway in Oklahoma and I stood there for hours now I was wearing clothes from Florida I didn't have any real warm floating it was freezing weather every time a truck went by I'd count to three and then the wind from the truck would hit me and I'd snap around while I whistled down my net now you know when you're hitchhiking you're asking someone for help and I guess I was a little insecure or something because when I would see somebody in a great big automobile going my way and I see they've got room and the heaters on and when you're hitchhiking you going would you please help me and whenever they went by I figured they were saying no and I'm not trying to make you feel bad this is just how I felt now if you take it personal and you stand on an interstate for eight hours that's a lot of rejection it got so bad at times I actually got on my hands and knees and I beg as the cars came by finally in desperation I thought I was going to die there on the side of the road I was sick from drinking I was hungry I had no food I was broke I didn't even like myself I was too proud to call home for help and I prayed and I asked God for four things I said Lord I knew there was a God I didn't meditate I just prayed and I said Lord and I prayed in my heart not even out loud please help me give me a ride to where I'm going I was trying to get to Southern California near where my grandparents live 2,000 miles to go please help me get some food I was hungry help me get some money I was broken the fourth thing I prayed for a ride was somebody normal because I kept getting picked up by there's a lot of strange characters out there I got picked up by people drinking that would start trying to impress me by turning off their headlights at night or they Corrine one guy his friend picked us up a smoking pot they went over the divider on an interstate into oncoming traffic and I said hey this is my stop right here [Music] or you get picked up by people that want to make bargains in exchange for a ride a lot of real sick people out there you think it's dangerous to pick up hitchhikers I've got news for you it's much more dangerous to hitchhike as soon as I finish praying the very next vehicle stop to pick me up he took me 2,000 miles to the door of where I was going in Southern California he fed me all the way out I didn't ask him to he gave me $40 when he dropped me off I didn't ask him to I also didn't ask him to preach to me all the way from Oklahoma to Southern California he was a born-again Christian he wanted everyone else to be born again too and I had to either listen to him or get out and you know since then I've learned it really is a good method for witnessing I pick up hitchhikers and what I do is I make my gospel presentation in about 55 or 60 and then I accelerate and ask them what did you like to accept Jesus and I don't look back at the road until I get a good response had a lot of conversions well about that time you know I had a really hard time believing in Jesus and the Bible because my mother being Jew a Jewish she told me the Christian started all the wars and they persecuted the Jews and in the Bible's a fairy tale this is what I believed all my life I moved into the mountains up outside of Palm Springs California I was 16 years old this picture I think I'm 17 and I found a cave way up there in the desert mountains and I moved into this cave and it was beautiful as far as caves go there was a waterfall just outside the cave it was an 11,000 foot mountain called Mount San Jacinto and I would climb up to 4,000 feet and overlook Palm Springs that's Palm Springs on my way down to my cave had to go from Palm Springs to this point down the other side into the valley whenever I went home took hours to get home it was beautiful because it was very very hard to get to some of you saw a reader's digestive thinkthere's last month it talked about trapped in tahquitz canyon and that's where I used to live some people fell off the cliff and nearly died a lot of people died why we lived up there hiking very treacherous terrain had a beautiful cave and the miracle is there was a Bible in the cave someone asked me one time was it a Gideon Bible did the Gideon's put it there you know they put him in all the hotel rooms I guess they figured they're doing the cage now too but I said well yeah Bible so fairy tale if so I didn't pay much attention to it had a waterfall a pool outside the cave I never wore any clothes I would hike down to Palm Springs once or twice a week yeah I put my clothes on the one time I did forget I put my clothes on and I would Panhandle play the flute beg for money or I'd go behind the market and I would dig in the garbage can now think about this I have a father who loves me I know he does he just has trouble like some of us showing our children if all I did was get on the phone as a dad I really need some help he would help me but for the longest time I was too stubborn and so I was digging around in a dumpster and when my dad found out it broke his heart worked hard all his life through the depression so his kids wouldn't have to live like that when he found out that after all he did I was digging in a dumpster just devastated him you have a Heavenly Father that has all the riches and resources of the universe to make you happy how do you think it hurts him when after he sends his son to die to make you happy we go to the garbage of the devil in the world breaks his heart well the miracle is that after a while people started meeting me in town these Christians would jump me and say do you know the Lord are you washed in the blood they started talking about things I didn't know so I thought I'm going to start reading the Bible so I can argue with Christians had no intention of believing it that's dangerous business friends got bogged down in the Old Testament I read you know Genesis and part of Exodus and then some Christians said no go to the New Testament he helped me find Matthew and I read Matthew Mark Luke and John I did not understand everything I read because you know I grew up in New York City where they don't hardly speak English my mother she lives until you tighten tighten ooh that's what my friends used to talk let alone King James Version and every time I came to the word brethren I thought that said breathing I thought it was a spiritual term when the the breathing gathered together Wow I'm Teddy you'd be surprised how much breathing they do in the book of Acts - you'd be amazed now I didn't understand everything but I did understand two very important points I was a big sinner and that Jesus was a big Savior and as I read my mind kept saying this can't be true this can't be true but the Holy Spirit kept telling me this is true I went to town I got an encyclopedia I looked up Jesus Christ and he's listed as a historical figure and I thought I've got three choices I've got the Matthew Mark Luke and John telling me the same story about this man the Encyclopedia says he really lived he was either insane or he was lying or he's telling the truth and God became a man for those of you who have been Christians all your life it's hard to understand and appreciate this but I would be reading along in the New Testament and I'd see where Jesus had turned the other cheek and I go so here's the one that said that I had no idea I'd be long and say love your enemies also Jesus is the one who said that that's where that comes from he who is without sin cast the first rock what do you know Jesus said that I thought that was Ben Franklin I had no idea that Jesus lute was the one who said all these things I knew he wasn't crazy he was the most quoted person in the world I knew he wasn't a liar because he had a lot of opportunity to lie to save his life and he did my only other alternative was that he was telling the truth so up there in the mountains I got down on my knees and accepted the Lord asked him to come into my life forgive my sins now I want you to know I was about as far away from Peart from God as a person could be I was running around naked up in the mountains a long hair and a beard eating out of a garbage can I was still lying and cursing and stealing using drugs living in morally and God said you can come to me just like that you can come to him just like you are friends no matter where you are and our friends that are listening on tape right now don't think that you've got to clean yourself up and come to the Lord you come just like you are and he cleans you up and he began to change me well I was so excited to be forgiven first thing I said was well I got to tell somebody but how can I witness living up here in a cave well you know what happened I called my mother up I said you know mom I'm a Christian she said that's nice she wasn't very excited about that being Jewish but she said Doug I've got some news for you channel to CBS and channel for NBC heard a millionaire son is living in a cave and they want to do a human interest story they flew in a helicopter up to my cave right after I prayed for an opportunity to witness about my favorite but how can I witness in a cave don't ever put God to the test bill Applegate in NBC CBS said they didn't want to share the story so they didn't come up NBC flew up in a helicopter with a news team my mother came up with them otherwise she'd never would have made it and she was writing for this paper back then she gave me a copy she's clowning around Special Delivery and I was on three times that day telling the world about you know why I decided to live up there and that I didn't think that God wanted us to all live packed in the cities I'd grown up in New York and I had a chance to witness that I was a Christian on national TV and they aired it three times I have a friend in prison he saw it all three times that's how I know I didn't even have a TV I had to fly the helicopter back down to town and go to a hotel lobby to see it don't test God he'll give you something to do that's my cat stranger showed up one day don't know where he came from so I named him stranger lived with me for a year and a half and then disappeared never saw him again used to sleep down by by feet in the sleeping bag and keep my toes warm purring at night my son Micah and I hike back up there when he was seven years old he's swimming in the waterfall in the pool just outside the cave and believe me that's cold water beautiful place up there you know we've run out of time and so I just want to conclude by saying this I know if God had a plan for me he has a plan for you would you like to be happy you can have all the happiness in the world tonight and it doesn't come from fame and fortune of the world but it does come from God's fame and fortune when you become a Christian you become a child of a king you become a high priest you become his son you're adopted into the eternal family an ambassador from heaven my brother passed away a few years ago I was able to hold his hand and he asked me to pray for him before he died when my mom passed away I was there holding her hand my dad is not well he's still gone to the office but he's had a stroke and and he's struggling with his health now I'd like you to pray for his salvation he thinks I'm a kook so does everyone else in my family that you could go to Florida you could work for your father you can have millions and millions of dollars my father and I don't have a very good relationship all I would have to do is sacrifice my convictions a little bit I could go out there and have everything money would buy but a scripture keeps on ringing in my ears and it says what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul you could have all the happiness in the world when you have Jesus amen and that would be my invitation to you friends that's why we're having the seminar I am much happier now having God's Word in my heart that's got all the treasures are my treasures in heaven now where moth and rust does not corrupt that I would ever have owning everything the world has to afford you can have that happiness tonight when you invite Jesus into your heart and that would be my appeal of you friends invite Christ into your heart and you can know you have eternal life and he'll have a plan for you that he'll activate when you give him your life Jesus soon you believe that he's got a plan for you he's coming soon and you can be ready when that time comes and I'd like to close just this session right here by asking everyone to bow their heads right now please bow your heads wherever you are if you'd like to say tonight whether you've said this before maybe you've never made this decision I want that happiness that Jesus came to give us I want to know that there's a place for me in the kingdom would you like to lift his hands lift your hand before God right now say Lord Jesus come into my life I want to be ready when you come praise the Lord father in heaven we want to thank you for your presence here please fill this place on each of these people with your spirit be with those who are watching this tape and I pray that they will be moved by what is simply one story of how you change lives there are millions and millions of stories of how you've turned people around and you can turn them around so please bless I pray Lord that you will activate the plan for their life as they give you their hearts as they empty themselves that Jesus might fill them this we ask in Jesus lovely name amen

Channel: alydhiends

Views: 142,457

Rating: 4.7560282 out of 5

Keywords: Doug, Batchelor, The, Richest, Caveman, Life, Story, Atheist, Agnostic, Drugs, Alcohol, Mountains, Churches, Seventh-day, Adventist

Id: PT2nRSvcuhY

Length: 49min 40sec (2980 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 30 2007