It has been nothing but the greatest pleasure
to work with Jack Chick the last 16 years.
This is a real man, a regular guy,
and a deeply devoted Christian.
By the way, I have to say "is," because he's right at this moment
with His Saviour in heaven.
I joked that he might need the Saviour
to come over to where he is, because he's probably being mobbed
by people saved through his Chick tracts!
People like this:
"Just a testimony to let you know
Chick tracts get results.
I came across a girl named Carrie.
She was very depressed and ready to commit suicide.
I had a copy of "Trust Me" which I gave to her
and witnessed to her.
She accepted the Lord and changed her mind
about ending it all.
Praise God!"
Or this one:
"Your pamphlets have been a blessing
to many of us.
They provide an easy way to get the Gospel to a person
who can then consider it in privacy
or in a spare moment.
I practiced law for 20 years.
I kept the tracts on the lobby furniture
and several on my desk.
One day a young, good looking flight instructor came in
for an appointment: financial problems.
Of course I shared with him and he left to go to the airport.
On his way out he "stole" a GI Joe (Holy Joe) tract.
When he got to the airport he had to wait for the mechanic
to get the plane gassed up and ready for flight.
He intended to take it up as high as he could
over Sky Harbor Airport here in Phoenix
and then dive into the runway at a 90 degree angle.
While waiting for the mechanic to finish his tasks,
the flight instructor reached in his pocket
and took out the "GI Joe" tract.
He read it and with a broken spirit
accepted Jesus as his Lord.
Some time later, still under conviction
he came in with a nickel and paid for the tract
and with it led his buddy
(another flight instructor) to the Lord."
As you can tell, these are old testimonies.
These people were spared a Christless, agonizing eternity,
because of a given or well-placed Chick tract.
I spent the last weeks grieving when I knew
we were going to lose Jack.
But now that he's in heaven with my praying Grandma,
it's hard to be unhappy for him.
I'm just being straight with you.
He's receiving his rewards in heaven.
And to him, the greatest rewards
are those people who got saved because Jack cared about them
and followed the Lord to reach them.
A few weeks ago, when we were working on
a dual-autobiography together, he called me over and said,
"I'm convicted by the scripture, Proverbs 27:2
"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;
a stranger, and not thine own lips."
He said to me, "I can't toot my own horn.
So you're gonna have to toot it for me after I'm gone."
I have told Jack for years how I've watched movies
and read articles by all sorts of people
saying they knew him.
And I told him, someday I'm gonna write a biography
of you.
And I'm going to say to them,
"I know Jack Chick.
I've worked with him for years.
Jack is my best friend.
And you don't know Jack."
Would you like to get to know Jack better, like I did?
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
When Jack first hired me, in August of 2000
(I'll tell you more about that in another video
--pretty miraculous stuff), the first thing he did
is sit me down in his office.
And then for the next three days he told me about his life experiences
with Christians, Catholics, upbringing, Hollywood, the works.
He told me "the good, the bad, and the ugly," literally.
And he also told me some basic things about himself.
For instance, he told me about
Paul and Jan Crouch, when they were just starting out TBN,
Trinity Broadcasting Network.
They were such sweet people, very humble.
They'd come out in their little car, I think it was a VW,
and pick Jack up and they'd go over to Santa Ana
where they were filming their TV show.
Jack used to share his tracts on their show
and talk about his desire to win souls for Christ.
It was special.
But, he said, they, Paul and Jan,
were not simple people, at all.
They were very shrewd.
Just a few weeks ago we were talking about it again.
And Jack said he came to TBN to be on a show.
He asked them, "Is there a room where I can pray?"
He wanted some time with the Lord before he went on the air.
So they directed him to a room.
Well, it turns out that the walls were more like paper.
He was praying, when he heard footsteps
in the next room.
Paul and Jan walked in, talking numbers.
He said that Jan was spouting numbers, statistics,
figures, so fast, it amazed him.
He told me, "She looks folksy.
But don't let that fool you.
She's a genius with numbers."
Jack learned never to assume anyone
is simply like their appearance seems to suggest.
It was amazing how he could catch
what a person was like rather quickly.
He had insights that amazed me, and all that went into his characters
in the tracts.
Jack was on Paul and Jan's show a number of times.
And they would always ask him about the new tract
that he had made-- until he published The Gay Blade.
Then the brakes went on.
Paul went to Jack and said, "NO!
We can't put that one on the air!"
Jack had no idea why.
Paul Crouch explained that there was something called
"the fairness doctrine."
It demanded that if anyone objected to something being said
on a controversial topic, the network had to provide
"equal time" to opposing points of view.
They didn't want a Christian network to be forced
to put homosexual propaganda on its station.
So Jack couldn't put that tract on their show.
But the others were fine, and people through the 1970s
bought them and won many to Christ --
including me!
June 7th, 1972.
But the most amazing TV appearance
was one that Jack was actually warned about,
in advance, by none other than famous occultist John Todd.
People can say whatever they want to about him,
but decades later, with all the evidence
that has come out, it is hard to prove things he said
wrong.
And he was proved right on a number of amazing issues
he didn't make public.
I'll tell you another one later.
Jack was offered to go onto a major Christian TV show
on the east coast.
John Todd told him, "Jack, don't go.
It's a set-up."
This one time Jack didn't listen.
The host was a sweet Christian man on TV,
always sounding folksy and sincere.
But Jack had never met him before.
So he went.
Jack told me he was assured he'd
be met at the airport, taken to his hotel,
and well-taken care of.
He wasn't.
Jack got to the airport, and nobody met him.
He had to find his way through a brand-new city,
and eventually found his hotel.
Nobody was there to meet him, either.
Then the next morning, while he was having breakfast,
a Catholic priest walked in!
He said he was sent by the host.
And he asked Jack all sorts of questions.
Then he took Jack to the studio.
In the studio, people were talking and joking,
a nice banter.
Then the host walked in.
Suddenly, everyone became silent.
Jack wondered why the people would act so intimidated
that they couldn't even be themselves around this man.
Jack was told about what questions he would be asked.
That helped calm him a bit.
But he needed to pray.
They showed him to the waiting room,
called the Green Room.
He stayed in the Green Room, praying, until he was called.
Then he had to walk through a curtain that was really
in front of a wall.
"And here he is, Christian comic artist,
Jaaaaaaaack Chiiiiiiiiiiiiick!!!!!!"
Jack was so embarrassed.
And people didn't really look at him, they looked at the camera,
while they talked to him.
Very awkward.
Like everyone was mugging for camera time.
He told me that when they film you, they have this red light that goes on.
That red light tells you which camera is pointing at you.
So this host, though he was supposed to be
talking to his guest, would actually turn his head
toward the camera with the light!
Jack refused to do it.
He made sure that if someone talked to him,
Jack turned and looked right back at the person.
He was talking to a person, not the audience.
This famous, folksy Christian host looked at Jack and said,
"Now Jaaaack, why did you draw a comic of a man
eating human fingers?"
Jack was flummoxed!
That wasn't on the list of questions.
In fact, the host threw away that list
and drilled Jack with all sorts of other questions
he was not prepared for.
That was dirty.
He realized at that point that once again,
John Todd was right.
He should never have come.
Jack explained how the comic book itself says
it was based upon an actual event that happened in the latter stages
of satanic obsession near Big Sur in 1973.
And he did his best to answer the other
brand-new questions fired upon him by the host.
Jack felt like a fool.
This wasn't Christianity.
This was show biz.
Jack realized people weren't going to
be nice to him, if he was going to expose evil
and give the gospel.
Jesus said, in John 15:20, "Remember the word
that I said unto you, The servant is not greater
than his lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;
if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."
Jack didn't do many interviews after that.
Instead, he focused on the one thing that made a difference:
preaching the gospel.
He was a comic artist, so God used him
to make comic tracts that preach the gospel.
That is what he lived his life doing until he could not physically
do it anymore.
The fact that I was able to write tracts with him
the last 16 years was the second greatest gift
Jack gave me.
The first gift Jack gave me was writing the tract,
This Was Your Life, that motivated a middle aged man
to give it to a 9 year old me, and by which I was saved.
Jack's vision got me saved.
I could never repay him for that.
But I can continue his vision for the lost.
I pray you also will pick up that vision.
Chick tracts are controversial, yes.
But they are researched, regardless of what the critics say
(that's for another video.
I'll show you.)
And they are prayed-over, from start to finish.
We write many different kinds.
What works is different for everybody.
I pray you will pick up gospel tracts that do the job for you,
that shake up a person to the point that he or she wakes up.
We want people to understand that there is a heaven to gain,
and a hell to avoid.
And there's an eternity coming, either to be grateful and thank God,
or to gnaw their tongues in pain for refusing Christ's payment
for their sin.
I'll tell you more about Jack in the next installment.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.