Fred at a Tent Revival in Georgia in 1945

Recently I was going through an old box that I had not opened in many years and in it I found a cassette tape labeled  “Rev. Fred Junior, Sermon at a revival in Wayland, Michigan, about 1970”.   I am not sure when I got the tape, perhaps when Mom died ten years ago, but I’m sure I had never listened to it, so I decided to do so.  Well, to listen to a cassette you need a cassette player.  No problem I thought, have a really nice Sony dual cassette deck.

Now I hadn’t used the cassette deck in a while having moved from cassettes to CDs then from CDs to MP3 files on my phone, but I still had the cassette deck.  Not having been used in years, the cassette deck wasn’t connected to any speakers, but it did have an earphone jack. Fortunately, I have several earphones and even better, earbuds, so I get a pair and went to plug them in.  Ok, problem, the tape deck has the older ¼ inch phone jack, not the micro phone plug that is used today. Not a problem, I dig an adaptor out of my electronics parts box and plug it in and power on the tape deck on.  The display lights up, all looks good, I put in the cassette and press forward and hear only a clicking sound.  I press fast forward, nothing, I press rewind, nothing.  I take the tape out and turn it over, nothing.  Ok, I take the tape out and bang it on my knee a couple of times, something I learned in the ‘70s to free a stuck tape.  I put it back in, still no sound.  I look closer, the little wheels inside the tape are not moving, the tape deck wasn’t working.  Let me think, when was the last time I used it, hummm, let me think, it had to be over a dozen years ago, likely longer. 

My Sears cassette player

Ok plan B. I go to another box and dig out my portable cassette player, put some batteries in it, plug in the earbuds, insert the cassette and press play. Nothing.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, it was even older than my cassette deck, I think I bought it from Sears in 1975. 

Ok plan C, Amazon.com.  I find a small cassette player for $35, not much bigger than a cassette tape. It looks much like the Sony Walkman I had back in the ‘80s, and even better it has a USB output so I can plug it into my computer.  I press one-click buy, and with Amazon Prime I get it next day delivery

The following day the tape player arrived, I plug it into the computer, put the tape in, and hit play.  No sound.  I press fast forward, nothing, I hit rewind, nothing, I look at the little wheels inside the tape, one is rotating around, the other is not moving.  I press stop, take the tape out and find the tape had come off one of the reels and was completely on the other side.  Bringing back memories from the ‘70s, I remembered why I hated cassette tapes, they were always having problems.  I get out my tools and carefully open the cassette tape up and found the splice between the tape and the leader tape at the end and broken.  I get some glue and carefully glue it back together and reassemble the tape.

Holding my breath, I put the tape back in the player, press forward, and hear Grandpa Junior’s voice just as I remember him at the first revival I heard him preach.   I flash back to old memories, deeply rooted memories, memories of going to see Grandpa Junior preach in a tent revival as a child.  As I closed my eyes and listed to the tape, I could see him up on the pulpit, slightly overweight, hair slicked back with Brylcreem, pants belted up high on his waist, white shirt and tie and a reddish complexion which got even redder as he preached, pounding the pulpit with his fist and waving the bible in the air, spittle sometimes coming out of his mouth as he preached the gospel and then getting all quiet and moping his brow with a handkerchief that he pulled out of his shirt pocket.  Yes he put on quite a show, I enjoyed it for the most part but that bit about burning in hell got a little scary. Mom would sometimes say to us kids if we were acting up, “You heard Grandpa, you will burn in Hell if you’re not good.”

Grandpa was at his best when preaching at revivals and there is nothing better for a revival to win souls than the book of Revelations. Grandpa begins by reading Chapter 1, verses 17 and 18.

17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right and upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.

18. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

*Note: Words in the bible spoken by Jesus or the Lord are typically shown in red.

Click to hear about Hell

Grandpa continues describing Hell in more detail, “Hell is a place of destruction, Hell is a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth,  Hell is a place where God is going to cast you.”   And he goes on, his voice getting louder, reading from Revelation 20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”   It was just as I remembered that first time as a child I heard Grandpa preach, I sure didn’t want to go to hell.   But there is a way out, a way to be Saved. With some thumping of the bible, and some more shouting, he explains “you accept Jesus Christ as your savior.”

Then he pauses, to let that sink in and then goes on in a softer voice and explains further and gives his own personal story about accepting Jesus Christ as his savior.   He continues on reading more verses from Revelation that describe how wonderful heaven is, Revelation 22:2 “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”  It sounded as wonderful now as it did when I was a child.

He then asks the congregation to bow their heads, and look into their souls, that they know they are sinners as we all are sinners, “for the Bible says that you were conceived in sin in your mother’s womb.”   But there was a way out of Hell and he quotes the first verse from the bible that I had memorized as a child.   John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believeth in him” and he repeats, “believeth in him, believeth in him, should not perish but have eternal life.”  He goes on to say that he can’t save them, he can only tell them what he had to do and what they had to do.  He ends with, “Don’t walk outside and gamble with death and the destiny of eternal and everlasting punishment.  Don’t dance with God for you will lose.  He made the gift, he made the promise, you must accept it….by asking him to come into your heart and he will save you tonight.”

He was persuasive, I don’t how many came forward at the end of the sermon and accepted Jesus as their Savior, but I’m sure there were some that Grandpa put the fear of the Lord into them as he did me when I was a child.  

I do not know if this was Grandpa’s last sermon, but I like to think it was. Grandpa’s health got worse in the following years, and he passed away in 1976 but I will always remember him preaching Hell, fire and brimstone on the pulpit.

Click on the cassette tape below to hear he whole sermon.

Updated: 09-10-2023