{"id":7229,"date":"2023-07-18T12:26:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T16:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=7229"},"modified":"2023-07-19T13:53:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T17:53:07","slug":"85-year-old-man-gets-baptized-at-greg-lauries-historic-mass-baptism-never-give-up-on-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/07\/85-year-old-man-gets-baptized-at-greg-lauries-historic-mass-baptism-never-give-up-on-people.html","title":{"rendered":"85-Year-Old Man Gets Baptized At Greg Laurie&#8217;s Historic Mass Baptism: &#8216;Never Give Up on People&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7274\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7274\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7274\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/07\/elderly-man-baptized0-01_credit-CBN-News-YouTube_Inset-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CBN News \/ YouTube | Inset: Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Thousands of people lined the stony pathways leading to California\u2019s famous Pirates Cove beach. Amongst the crowd was an older man who went down to the water to publicly express his commitment to the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>It was a moment the 85-year-old man\u2019s family thought would never come, but the eternal decision was made during a mass baptism hosted by Pastor Greg Laurie. This event saw 4,500 people submerged in water during a faith-filled day. The event was inspired by \u201cJesus Revolution,\u201d a hit film depicting events surrounding the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, a time of spiritual transformation when young people, tired and desperate from a challenging culture, turned to Christ in droves.<\/p>\n<p>Among other powerful stories, the movie integrates Laurie\u2019s journey from a lost young man experimenting with drugs and trying to find his way to a Christian, husband, and respected preacher. The movie\u2019s global impact continues reverberating, with this mass baptism reportedly drawing people worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Laurie told CBN\u2019s Faithwire, \u201cAt one point, the line really got slowed down because an older couple, the gentleman was 85 years old, was taking longer to get down the stairs. But when we met him, his story was so amazing because he watched the movie at 85 years old and accepted Jesus into his life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laurie said the man wasn\u2019t a believer before seeing the film but accepted Christ afterward and headed to Pirate\u2019s Cove, where Laurie himself was baptized as a young man, to affirm his faith in Jesus publicly. The famed pastor added, \u201cHis family said, \u2018We never, ever thought he would come to Christ.\u2019\u201d The man is one of many to be ministered to through \u201cJesus Revolution,\u201d with superb storytelling helping bring him to understand the gospel better.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AXfAbejIKvA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Laurie noted that the elderly man\u2019s commitment to baptism and faith shows \u201cit\u2019s never too late.\u201d He said, \u201cNever give up on people. Never stop praying for people.\u201d Laurie expected big crowds at the baptism, as 3,800 people had responded. Still, he and his team wondered how many would show up. Ultimately, they saw 20,000 people at Pirate\u2019s Cover, with 4,500 people seeking water baptism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was really overwhelming,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a line of people a half mile long to get into the cove because we have one staircase. So, we have to take people down, baptize them, send them back up and have more people come down, and so it\u2019s logistically really challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet people keep flooding to Pirate\u2019s Cove. Just weeks ago, CBN\u2019s Faithwire\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2023\/06\/02\/worship-leader-describes-incredible-scene-as-4166-people-baptized-at-historic-jesus-revolution-beach-itblew-me-away\/\">reported<\/a>\u00a0on what was, at the time, believed to be the most significant baptism in U.S. history, as 4,166 people were immersed at the location. Now, Laurie\u2019s event seems to have topped that record.<\/p>\n<p>The Harvest Crusades founder understands why people want to be baptized at the \u201cpicturesque\u201d location, noting the \u201cJesus Revolution\u201d film has helped spark further intrigue in taking such action. \u201cI never thought we would have the kind of response to this movie that we\u2019ve had, and it\u2019s going all around the world now,\u201d Laurie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of people lined the stony pathways leading to California\u2019s famous Pirates Cove beach. Amongst the crowd was an older man who went down to the water to publicly express his commitment to the Lord. It was a moment the 85-year-old man\u2019s family thought would never come, but the eternal decision was made during a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8,549,52],"tags":[1284,1655],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baptism","category-bible","category-miracle","category-prayer","tag-greg-laurie","tag-mass-baptism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>85-Year-Old Man Gets Baptized At Greg Laurie&#039;s Historic Mass Baptism: &#039;Never Give Up on People&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An 85-year-old man decided to give his life to Christ and get baptized at Pastor Greg Laurie&#039;s mass baptism, 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