How God Radically Saved Stuntman Evel Knievel
By Movieguide® Contributor
God can change the darkest of hearts and save even the most lost people.
Christian author and apologist Lee Strobel shared a personal story about how God saved his friend and stunt performer Evel Knievel in a radical way.
“Evel Knievel was a drunk. He was a womanizer. He was a gambler and crazy,” Strobel told Kirk Cameron.
“Crazy. He jumped over huge things with his motorcycle.” Cameron chimed in.
“He was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most broken bones of any human being,” Strobel added.
Then one day, God spoke to Knievel.
“He’s on the beach in Florida late in his life, and God spoke to him. He said, ‘I felt it on my inside and the voice said, ‘Robert,’ which is his real name, ‘Robert, I’ve saved you more times you’ll ever know, now you need to come to me through my son Jesus.’”
Strobel continued, “So he calls Frank Gifford the sportscaster, Kathie Lee Gifford’s husband, [and] says ‘Frank, I had this experience, who’s Jesus?’ And Frank said, ‘Get that book by Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ. That’ll kind of explain everything.'”
Knievel read the book, and his life was changed even more.
“Evel Knievel ends up having a radical encounter with God…radical, born-again experience. He is turned 180 degrees. When he is baptized, he tells his story with such passion and such clarity that 700 people got up and came up and received Christ, were baptized on the spot. When he died a couple years later, at his request on his tombstone it says, ‘Believe in Jesus Christ,’” Strobel described.
After his miraculous salvation, Knievel called Strobel to thank him for his book.
“I answered the phone I said, ‘This is Lee,’ and he said… ‘This is Evel.’ And I thought ‘Satan has got my phone number. Is that even possible?’” the author joked.
The two became good friends, and as Evel approached the end of his life, he shared his biggest regret with Strobel.
“’If I had only come to faith earlier. If I’d only come to faith as a teenager, I could have lived my life differently. I could have lived my life for God,’” Strobel said, quoting Knievel. “And he lamented that over and over again, [it] was his biggest regret.”
Knievel’s baptism came shortly before his death in 2007. His website revealed that, in the end, his faith was the most important thing in his life.
“Most important to him above all was his new-found faith in Jesus Christ,” it read. “Just as he always took great care in surrounding himself with the best people he could depend upon to help him make his jumps during his motorcycle career, Knievel found his greatest friend of all in preparation for his final leap from life.”
“He was profoundly happy that he gave his life to God, who comforted him and gave him the strength he needed to make it through the end.”
“He was so overwhelmed by God’s grace,” Strobel said of his friend. “Here was this macho daredevil who became this humble, loving, and sincere follower of Jesus. It was an amazing thing to behold.”
Movieguide® previously reported on THE CASE FOR CHRIST which is a book and a Teddy Bear Award® nominated movie:
THE CASE FOR CHRIST is based on the book by the same name written by Strobel, a former journalist, as he sets out to determine if there’s credible evidence to prove Jesus did indeed walk this Earth and if He was the Son of God.
Spoiler alert: Jesus is Who He says He is, and Strobel came to Christ through the investigation.
“It’s just encouraging that God is still in the life transformation business,” Strobel says of THE CASE FOR CHRIST movie’s impact. “The Gospel still works, and the Gospel is in the movie. A lot of the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is in the movie, and there’s enough in that movie for people to come to faith in Christ if they’re ready.”
Actor Mike Vogel plays Strobel, and was in the middle of a pivotal scene when Strobel says God showed up in a cool way.
“They were filming the climactic scene where I come to faith, and they were filming it in a house. [My wife] Leslie and I were outside the house watching on a monitor as the scene was being played out. I’m telling you, God showed up in that scene,” Strobel says. “It was so good, but as we’re watching it, an airplane starts flying over us a real loud, a single engine, private plane. I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s gonna ruin the scene.’
