A Distant Thunder (1978)

Russell S. Doughten Jr.: Reverend Matthew Turner

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Quotes 

• Reverend Matthew Turner : My friends, the first seal, the white horse and the pact with Israel has come to pass. The red horse has brought us into world war. The black horse has brought famine. The next is death. Can you afford to wait any longer?

• Patty : You know what bugs me? You have waited until now to scare us out of our wits! Why didn't you tell us all this before it was too late?

  Reverend Matthew Turner : Patty, do you have a Bible?

  Patty : Well, yes.

  Reverend Matthew Turner : What does it say?

  Patty : What?

  Reverend Matthew Turner : Does it say that Christ died for your sins? Does it say that if you ask for forgiveness and receive Him into your heart, that you'll be saved?

  Patty : Yes.

  Reverend Matthew Turner : Then why are you blaming me?

  Patty : Because you could've preached it! You never even talked about prophecy and you even criticized the evangelist for using scare tactics! I would rather have been scared into Heaven than have to go through this.

  Reverend Matthew Turner : You could've received Christ the night the evangelist was here. He gave an invitation.

  Patty : Well, I might've if I'd heard it more than just once.

  Reverend Matthew Turner : Didn't you often say to me that your grandmother spoke to you about Jesus? You're right in a way, Patty, I am partly to blame. I preached my own philosophy, I loved the security here. People didn't want to be threatened with the Word of God so I went along. But let me say that if you had a Bible and it conflicted with what I as your preacher had to say, then you should've challenged me. Since I refused to preach the Word of God, it was your duty to find a church where the Gospel was preached.

• Reverend Matthew Turner : 'And when He opened the third seal I heard the beast say 'lo, a black horse' and he that sat upon him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice say 'a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny'. In other words, a loaf of bread for a day's wages. My dear friends, you are so few because so many had preferred to hear the Godless humanism of the great world church. It is a haunting agony that some who sat under my preaching died and entered eternal torment because they had not heard of the saving power of the blood of the resurrected Christ. Jesus said of one who leads his little ones astray, is better for him to hang a millstone around his neck and drown him in the depths of the sea. I tell you the scripture is truth; all declared that those who have heard and neglected the gospel will be ensnared by a strong delusion. If you continue to deny the word of God as truth, your future holds terror, but if you believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Savior, then your future will be a spiritual inheritance for an eternity with Christ.