Struggling to answer someone's questions about your faith, Pastor Greg Laurie recommends a great book to help. You know, I remember the first time that I shared my faith. I was so young, and I was challenged by an atheist. I did not have a clue as to what I should say. And I wish I'd had a copy of this book by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler, and the title of it is "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist." And we want to send you this book for your gift of any size, available at.
Harvest. dot org. Today on a new beginning, a story you'll never forget. It's the multifaceted story of Louis Zamperini, an American hero whose story is told in the blockbuster movie Unbroken. After being swept into World War II, his plane crashed in the Pacific.
So we hit the water at an angle about forty five degrees, and the plane just blew up in the sea. I knew this was it. I'm gonna die. He survived and drifted on a life raft for 47 days, facing sunburn, starvation, and sharks. Saw the sharks swimming around.
I know won't make a sound for the next 10 minutes. They kept trying to jump in the raft. They kept grabbing at the oars. One day, he and his raft mates spotted a plane. As we were sure as the plane came down low, and I thought, "Are they going to wave at us?" Surviving the gunfire, he was taken to a Japanese concentration camp run by the heartless Matsuhito Watanabe, nicknamed the Bird.
Today, here on a new beginning, we're kicking off what we're calling Legends Week with a conversation between Louis and Pastor Greg Laurie. It's engaging and inspiring. Louis Zamperini, welcome to Harvest. We're privileged to have you here tonight. Thank you for coming.
Well, thank you. It was a privilege. Looking forward to it. All right.
So, World War II has broken out. You've enlisted to serve in the military. What was your position on the plane? I was a bombardier. And the first plane you were on, it was called Superman.
Superman. Yeah. Right. But then you were transferred over to another plane, kind of a rickety, broken-down plane called the Green Hornet. And you were shot down over the Pacific.
Well, actually, when we were shot down, we were searching for another plane that had crashed north of Palmyra, and they assured us the plane passed inspection, but nobody wanted to fly it. It was what they call a musher, and one motor quit, and we have to we have to feather the motor, and the engineer brand new engineer. Rushed up to feather the motor, and they feathered the wrong motor, and the the plane wouldn't hardly fly on four. And with one motor out, it was dropping already. With two out on the same side, that wing dropped because you're giving full power on the right side to try to keep aloft.
So we hit the water at an angle about 45 degrees, and the plane just blew up into pieces. I don't know anybody survived, but pilot and tail gunner were blowing free of the wreckage. I was trapped in the waste section. Then, to make matters worse, the tail snapped off, and the control wires go within an inch and a half of the tripod.
Now, those are very springy wires, and they coiled up all around me, so I'm completely entangled in wires. Around my my hopeless situation, so I knew this was it. I'm going to die.
Now my body's buoyant and the plane is sinking fast. I reached around on my U.S.C. ring, snagged on the waist window, and the pressure of my body floating upward, the plane going down, I bent the ring over and cut into the bone. I couldn't let go. Thank God!
So I pulled myself down, arched my back out the window, just skinned off my back, and then it seemed like forever getting to the surface, swallowing gas, oil, and blood. And got to the surface, met up with my two buddies, hanging onto a gas tank, and that was. Probably the the nearest death I'd ever been in my life, and I've had a few narrow escapes. You were out on your life raft, and you saw an aircraft approaching. You were hoping it might be a friendly aircraft, but it was Japanese, and it started firing.
Yeah, well, I took, of course, we all took a course in identification, but I had observation wings, so I knew planes. When I saw it far away, I knew it was a B twenty five. And until when he got closer and closer, we start taking our shirts off and waving our shirts. And the plane came down low, and I'm going, boys, they're going to wave at us. We heard machine gun firing, and two of us in one raft, and the the pilot in the second raft, last together.
And the bullets went, you know, between our legs and our arms, hit, and. And the one balloon hit the the pump. On the second raft, it ricocheted and ripped the raft in half.
So then, I just we decided to jump in the water next pass. But the pilot tail gunner didn't have the strength to get back to the raft. I had to boost him in.
So then, I got in the raft when they made another pass. I would jump in the water with two sharks.
Now I was taught how to keep away from sharks to keep them away from me. One thing didn't work: showing the whites of your teeth and your eyes. That didn't work. We were told, "This was a guy from the South Pacific. Make a violent motion with your hand." That didn't work.
But the thing that worked is a straight arm. Because their nose, they turn it up like that. You just hit them on the end of the nose, and they take off. And their nose somehow is very sensitive. But they always come back, and you do it again and again.
Now the most remarkable thing is, there's three of us finally in that raft in a space about half as big as this.
So we're jammed in there, and there are 48 holes. Under our armpits, just growing by an eighth of an inch. It's unbelievable. And you talk about a real miracle. The Japanese, when they finally picked us up, we were the object of attention until they pulled the raft ashore.
Then they lifted us, and they kept saying Nanda, Nanda, counting all these holes. And they looked us over for injuries. No injuries.
So after forty six days, you were made your way to the Marshall Islands. You were captured by the Japanese, and now they somehow find out that you are Louis Zamperini, the Olympic athlete. How did they know that?
Well, in those days, the Japanese knew more about American athletes than we did. They knew more about American movie stars than we did, and the largest. The largest children's club I ever spoke to was in 1950 in Tokyo. They came here to go to get educated. Also, they admired Hollywood and the movie stars.
They admired American athletes. They didn't even have a baseball team or anything. Yeah. So they knew all about me. But when I was declared missing, when I'm picked up, they're startled.
In fact, people say, "Well, what was the worst thing?" Forty-seven days on a raft must have been the worst thing that ever happened. No, forty-three days after capture was the worst time of my life. Much worse than the raft. And submarines came in there. Eighty guys.
They come through and spit on you. Throw rocks at you. Jab you with sticks. Then they injected us three times for some experiment. And then, but the first people we met when we got ashore was a panel of naval intelligence.
Interrogation officers, dressed in white uniforms, gold braids, white tablecloth, drinks, pastries, and one of those six, said Lieutenant Zamperini, "When you were entering USC in '36, I was graduating, and he was actually the most obnoxious of the six, a Trojan." At U.S.D. we believe in excellence in education, excellence in sports, excellence in morals, and this guy was really a creep.
So I finally, I finally had to come to the conclusion that he was a, a third-year transfer from U.C.L.A. That's good, but ultimately you ended up in a Japanese concentration camp, and Mutsuhiro Watanabe—am I pronouncing his name correctly? Who was given the nickname "the Bird"? This was a very cruel, vicious man. Why did you name him the Bird?
Why didn't that was the name given him? Most of the guards I couldn't repeat their names, but I don't know why they called him the bird. Because maybe if he found out what a dirty word, he might be even meaner.
So I don't know why the name was the bird, but he was vicious. He was a psychopath, and I believe he picked on me daily because of the. Propaganda broadcasts that I refused to do, and I think they told him to keep on me every day to make my life miserable, so I'd accept, you know, the hotel room and the restaurant, and do my broadcast daily with Tokyo Rose. Hello, you're fighting all things in the Pacific. How's Dick?
This is after her weekend. Back on the air, under duress.
So I refused to do that, so I got punished daily, right, right up to the end of the war. Right. You were. They wanted you, a celebrity, to go and do a broadcast on the radio that would be used as propaganda by the Japanese. And though it would have caused you to be relieved of a lot of suffering, you chose to not do that.
And you were punished for it.
Well, yeah, there's no way you can live with that for the rest of your life. Yeah. But the first propaganda was they kept me in a secret camp for a year and a month. It takes that long to be officially declared dead. The State Department has confirmed that Olympic athlete Lieutenant Louis Emparini, missing in action for over a year, has been declared dead.
When our government declared me dead, and they came out, they condemned America for declaring me dead, and they took credit for my rescue. And so that that's the way they are. Then they then they let me make a broadcast to my parents, which is okay. But that was a come on. Then they wanted me to come back a week later and read the propaganda they had, which is also in there.
Yeah. In in the book, you talk about what your food rations were like, sometimes consisting of nothing more than a ball of rice. And in the book, it says the food was infested with rat droppings, maggots, and so much sand and grit that Louis's teeth were soon pitted, chipped, and cracked. The men nicknamed the rations "all dumbo." So this, how did you survive on food like that? And I don't know how anybody survived.
Well, we lost about in one winter we lost eighty men. The worst diet of all was we had to pull the seaweed out of the ocean, and they would boil it, and it would become very like snot. Yeah. And you had to eat that. And they gave you white rice.
We never got that's dessert. We got a kind of a red millet, really tough stuff. And so a handful of red millet every day and a bowlful of seaweed, and that was our diet. And that's why guys died. They got weak and had to go to work, came back and went lay down and said, "Wake me up when when the child's ready and kick him on the foot and they don't wake up." And the bird beat you, didn't he?
Yeah, he was trying to figure out a way to do me. I think because he. He threatened my life over and over again because when he beat me, I was standing with my fist clenched, and he and I was always a defiant kid. Yeah. And he wanted to he when he wanted me to hit him because he said when I draw my sword, I must use it, Jumurai Law.
World War II is coming to an end. The Japanese refuse to surrender. President Truman gives the order to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What had been Hiroshima was a white mountain of smoke, and when we saw it first, it was already up to twenty-five thousand feet. About a thousand feet off the ground, it looked like boiling dust.
Exactly ten seconds after seven thirty-five this morning, August fourteenth, from London, Swiss Radio has announced that Japan has accepted the Allied note. Requesting surrender. The battleship Missouri, fifty-three thousand-ton flagship of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, becomes the scene of an unforgettable ceremony marking the complete and formal surrender of Japan. Japan finally surrenders. You return home again, and eventually.
You marry Cynthia Applewhite. Was your homecoming as wonderful as you hoped it would be? You mentioned post-traumatic stress syndrome. Were you dealing with that after you got home?
Well, yeah. You don't look any different. I had it in prison camp because I was. It started with every day in prison camp. I'm strangling the bird.
I'm always strangling the guy all the way home. And after I got married, I was still strangling him in my dreams. And one night, for some reason, I had my wife by the throat. And boy, that scared me. And and I didn't know what to do about it.
Right. And you wanted to kill the bird, didn't you? That's right. In my dreams, I wanted to go back to Japan, because she ruined my life. And I wanted to go back there and do him in.
You actually were trying to raise the money to return to Japan to literally kill this man that caused you so much misery. I went into one investment after the other, and I guess the Lord didn't want me to make any money. And so, then, then my wife decided that this was too much for. She wanted to get a divorce. Yeah.
So she filed. And that some young person and his girlfriend came into our apartment and and said a young fellow named Billy Graham is coming to town. He started to preach to us, and I got mad, walked out. My wife stayed and listened. She went down to the meeting, came home, and tried to get me to go, and I was refused.
But then she said the magical word. Because of my conversion, I'm not going to get a divorce.
Well, that softened me up a bit, but then she talked me into going down there. But Billy started to read from the scriptures. The Bible describes the heart in various ways. The Bible says that our hearts are sinful, that it's full of evil imaginations. Proverbs six eighteen.
All of the wicked imaginations that Hitler had. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked. I thought I don't need him to tell me I'm a sinner. I know I am.
So I got mad, left, and went home. My wife was all over me again, and then I kept thinking, "No, she's not going to divorce me because she was, she was converted." And finally, I gave in and went back again. I said, "When he says every head bowed and every eye closed, we're out of there." Well, just as he said said that, before he said it, I got up, tried to leave, just as he gave the invitation, but he said something at the end about. People, when they come to the end of their rope, there's nowhere else to turn. It's like when I'm sinking under the ship, they turn to God.
And I thought, yeah, that's what I did. I turned to God, and God saw me through the war. He kept His promise, and I didn't keep mine. Right. And I felt like a fool.
So I went to the prayer room, got on my knees, and came out a different person. Amen.
So you're at the Billy Graham Crusade. It's 1949. It's the tent that's been set up there. This really was the launch of Billy Graham's worldwide ministry that is continued on for many, many years. And after you prayed and gave your life to Jesus Christ, in an interview, Louis, you said, "I got off my knees, and somehow I knew I was through getting drunk." I knew that I forgave all of my guards, including the bird, and I think proof of that is that I had nightmares—nightmares every night about the bird since the war, and I haven't had a nightmare since that night I made my decision for Christ, 1949 till now.
Is that still true? That's true. It's happened in a matter of moments. But therefore, if any man be in Christ, which can happen in a second. Amen.
That's right. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things that passed away, all things that become new, and that happened for you, and it happened in such a dramatic way that you returned to Japan not to kill the bird, but you wanted to meet him, and he wanted to forgive him. Right? Exactly.
I wanted to face him, but when I got to Segamat Prison, I spoke to all the war criminals, but he wasn't there. And they thought he committed Harry Carey, and I accepted that until the until the amnesty was signed eight years later, and he came out of the hills a free man. Yeah. Wow.
So he lived many years.
So you actually probably somewhere around this time wrote a letter. That you wanted to give to him, and this is a copy of that letter. Would you like to read it? Yeah, letter from Luzamperini to Mr. Shirowatanabi.
As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress. And humiliation—they caused me to hate with a vengeance. Under your discipline, my rights, not only as a prisoner but also as a human being, were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end.
The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble. But thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, "Forgive your enemies and pray for them." As you probably know, I returned to Japan in '52. Was graciously allowed to adjust all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison.
I asked them about you, and was told that you probably had committed harem carry, which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you, and now would hope that you would also become a Christian. You know, Louis, the amazing thing about you is, it's almost as though you've lived three or four lives. There's Louis Zamperini. The Olympic athlete who shook Hitler's hand, Louis Zamperini, the World War II vet who fought for his country and set a record at sea on a life raft, Louis Zamperini, who survived a concentration camp, Louis Zamperini, the man who came through alcoholism, committed his life to Christ, and was willing to forgive the man who did this horrible thing to him.
How is it that you could forgive someone? Because there's people here right now that have been wronged in life. I doubt anyone has been as hurt as you have been, but they feel that that person doesn't deserve forgiveness. Yet you extended forgiveness. How were you able to do that?
Well, there's a number of reasons. The first of all, I spoke at a day school, and I told the girls in the Oh, yes! If you want to age quickly and get wrinkles and gray hair, hate somebody. And I said, when you hate somebody, you're not you're not hurting them; you're hurting yourself. I got a letter a week later, and a young lady said, "When you left the school, I went to a girl that I've hated for two years, and asked her to forgive me, and now we're the best of friends." Yeah.
So now hate can destroy. I didn't know that at the time. All I knew was that Christ forgave me for my rotten sins, and and He could forgive the world for His. But He forgave me and asked me to forgive my enemies. It was easy.
Pastor Greg Laurie speaking with World War II hero Louis Zamperini. It's the kickoff of Legends Week here on A New Beginning, celebrating the lives of men of God who've had a remarkable impact on the Kingdom of God. You know, forgiveness is such a key theme in the Christian life. We need to forgive others, and we need to come to the Lord for our own forgiveness. Pastor Greg, what would you say to someone who's listening, who knows they need to do that?
They need to come to God and make things right. What I would say is, He's only a prayer away. Which means, if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, He will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now. After me, just pray, Lord Jesus.
I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that You're the Savior. Who died on the cross for my sin, and rose again from the dead? I turn from my sin now, and I choose to follow you, from this moment forward, as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Amen.
And listen, if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and meant those words sincerely, we want to welcome you into God's family, and we want to help you get started in your new faith. Pastor Greg wants to send you his New Believers Bible free of charge, along with some other helpful resources. Just let us know you prayed with Pastor Greg and you want the New Believers Bible. When you call one eight hundred eight two one thirty three hundred, we can. Take your call any time at one eight hundred eight two one three three zero zero, or write us at a new beginning box four thousand, Riverside California nine two five one four, or go online to harvest dot org, and click the words no God.
You know, Pastor Greg, not long ago, you mentioned that in the fifty years, actually over fifty years, of Harvest Ministries, we know of at least a million, a million professions of faith through this outreach. It's just hard to wrap our minds around that. You know, I learned that if you would stack up a million pennies into the air, it would reach a mile. Above the earth, that's the enormity of that number. Yes.
Now we've reached all those people, one heart at a time, one soul at a time. Yes.
And frankly, it took investments from our friends, one at a time, to help make that possible, didn't it? That's totally true. You know, I think of the statement of Jesus when he says, "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance." He could have said. There is joy in heaven when there is over a thousand on a given day, but it's one. Every soul is precious to God.
I mean, how precious is your soul to you? How precious is the soul of your son or your daughter, or your father or your mother? Or your husband or your wife.
Well, those souls are of the greatest value, and that's how God sees us. He says every soul is mine.
So yes, we've been able to reach a lot of people. And frankly, Dave, that's a very conservative number. I think that number is. Actually, much higher, but that was a number we knew we could stand by without any question, and so that's a number that we put out there. But you know what?
We want to reach a million more. We want to reach five million more. We want to reach as many as we possibly can while we can. You know, the Bible says, "Work while it is the day, for the night is coming when no man can work." So we have a critical moment in our history, a special time right now to. Reach people, and let's not let it slip through our fingers.
So that's why I need you all to help me, because we have a program that we call Harvest Partners. What that means is these are folks that that. Do more than just give sporadically or occasionally. These are folks that commit to give to our ministry on a monthly basis, and because of this, we can depend on those gifts, and it helps us to know what we can do, opportunities to expand, etc.
So, would you preferably consider supporting us in some way, shape, or form? But would you even consider going to that next level, if you will, and becoming a harvest? Partner, you'll help us to reach more people with the life-changing message of the gospel because every soul is precious to God. No, yeah, that's true.
So get in touch with us today. We're here to take your call twenty-four-seven at one eight hundred eight two one three three hundred. That's one eight hundred eight two one three three zero zero, or write a new beginning box four thousand Riverside. California nine two five one four, or just go online to harvest dot org.
Well, next time as Legends Week continues, Pastor Greg speaks with Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, one of the key catalysts of the Jesus Revolution. Be sure to tune in. But as we close today, Pastor Greg poses a final question to Louis Zamperini. Tell me about the saying "Be Hardy." Well, Be Hardy. As I never, I never cared for the term "the Greatest Generation." That doesn't seem to explain anything.
We were the Hardy Generation. We were overcomers. We always had problems. We always overcame our problems. Each time you overcome a problem, you become more and more and more Hardy.
And that's why the greatest generation, or the Hardy generation, won World War II. We were all of the same breed. Yes, they were. Yes, they were. Louis.
Thank you so much for coming here tonight to Harvest. We admire you as a hero, but we're just so impressed by your humility and your love for Jesus Christ. And you're an inspiration to all of us. And we just want to say, God bless you, and thank you for coming, Luis Zambrano.
