The Salvation of Bo Reahard

The Salvation of Bo Reahard

It was June of 1970, I was almost 24 years old and I was in the middle of a three week class on the Bible in New Knoxville Ohio at the headquarters of The Way International.  My Mom and Dad had suggested that it would be a good idea for me to take this class to learn more about God and the Bible.

After the first evening in the Biblical Research Center, where the class was taught, I thought the three weeks were going to be a big joke. I know Mom and Dad had taken the course but I also knew that they had never attended services at the Biblical Research Center.  I thought for sure they had no idea what went on there and if they did, they would not have sent me there.

As I sat through the teachings night after night, my opinion began to slowly change.  One of my first challenges was to learn the names of the 66 books of the Bible and be able to recite them in order. At almost 75 years of age, I can still do it.

Saturday was a free day with no class and so I went to Dayton, Ohio about 45 minutes away to do some shopping.  While I was walking along a downtown street, I was approached by a tall black man who said to me “Hey what’s happening man?”.  I guess he spoke to me because I looked like a typical 1960’s hippy type.  By that time in the Biblical studies I had really begun to get excited about the possibilities of living a life based on the Bible and my reply to the total stranger was “Everything is happening, do you want to hear about it?”  The man agreed and we left the street and entered a department store and sat down at the coffee shop.

As we began to talk, with me sharing a little about the class I was taking, he shared with me a long story about his spiritual journey in life and his search for truth and the meaning of life.  He told me about his Christian childhood and his later times spent in several different denominations trying to find some answers.  He shared that his questing had left him empty. He moved on to trying to practice Islam. He went to Saudi Arabia and made the holy pilgrimage of the Muslims to Mecca.  He shared that the only way to make the pilgrimage was to walk in to the city.  He said that he also came away from that experience empty and confused.

I started to share with him some things I was learning from the Bible about becoming a Christian.  I shared with him that it was possible to be born again of God’s spirit and to receive eternal life.  His face lit up and he said that sounds just like what he had been thirsting for all these years.  He said “Tell me more!”

Well, I was not prepared for that since I was not yet through with the course and was not really sure of what to say to him. I said, “Wait right here, I need to make a phone call and I’ll be right back”.

In those days making a phone call was not quite as convenient as it is today but I did find a pay phone and had enough change to make a call back to the headquarters where I was able to reach one of the course graduates who later became a close friend, Nancy Duncan.  I said to Nancy, “I’m down here in Dayton witnessing to a guy about becoming born again and I don’t know what to tell him. I’m not even sure if I am born again.  What should I do?”

Nancy was very calm as she answered me and she said, “Do you remember in Romans 10:9,10 that it says

                “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine hear that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto righteousness.”

I replied, “Yes, I think I remember that”.  She said, “Well do you confess that Jesus Christ is your Lord?”  I thought about that for a moment and answered, “Sure, OK, I guess so, yes I do accept that Jesus is Lord of my life”.  Then she followed up with, “Do you believe that God raised him from the dead?”  I took a longer time to reply to that and finally said, “Yes, I do believe that God raised him from the dead”.  Nancy said, “That’s great, now you are born again, just go share that with the man you are witnessing to and he can get born again also.”

I hung up the phone and walked back to the coffee shop.  On the way back I noticed the place in the department store where they sold books and I guessed there would be a Bible for sale there. I asked the man to follow me over to the books section, I  found a Bible, opened it up to Romans 10:9.10 and shared the verses with him just as if I had been preaching the gospel all my life and it was no big deal to get born again. He said, ”Thank you, this is something I have been searching for a long time”

We went back to the coffee shop and sat down.  It was at that point that he shared with me some more about his life. His name was David Hilliard.  He told me that he was the Minister of Defense for the Black Panther Party.  His assignment as Minister of Defense for that Saturday night was to make the 50 mile journey to Cincinnati and carry out an execution for the Black Panther Party.  He told me that the guy in Cincinnati had me to thank for his life. He said the things that I had shared with him had led him to decide to cancel his trip and not carry out the execution.

That was my first experience at sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and it had a very profound impact on me.  I could hardly believe that something I had shared with someone had caused something so dramatic to happen. I told God later that day that if He never did anything else for me, I owed him the rest of my life as a living sacrifice.  Now after 50 years, I am still trying to live up to that promise that I made to God.

Over time, as I reflected on this incident, at first I felt blessed that the guy in Cincinnati was not executed.  Then I became grateful that I had been able to share the  gospel with David Hilliard and that he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He had entered that department store very full of himself and left full of the holy spirit.  He came in like a raging bull and left as peaceful as a lamb.  It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the greatest miracle for me on that day was my personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.