Dan Armstrong an alcoholic who became an evangelist, has been promoted to glory. He wants you to be on the same path.

Dan Armstrong who died on June 14, spent decades leading many to Christ as an evangelist in the Methodist and Uniting churches, including in revival that began on Elco Island in the lates 1970s. Here is his testimony.

Good day. My name’s Dan Armstrong and I’ve been a minister of the gospel for many, many years. Some years ago I wrote a book called The Fifth Gospel, and that’s who I am and that’s what I’m about. The fifth Gospel is Matthew, mark, Luke, John, and Dan. I’m the fifth Gospel, and if you are a believer, you are the fifth Gospel too. So let me tell you my fifth gospel.

I was born in a non-Christian home. My family had never had anything to do with the kingdom of God, had nothing to do with the church, and that’s how I grew up, was a very poor family. And I had a father who was a very strongly anti-Christian. He was a socialist. He worked in the railways. And so we travelled all over the place, I reckon I went to about 20 schools before I even got to high school and left school as soon as I could, 15 years of age, and went out working first, went to work in a little factory and then I got a job with a large company, a large retail company, learning the trade of display outing. 

And so for a number of years, that was my trade as a try as an artist, dressing windows, doing interiors, all that kind of stuff. As I progressed in my life, because I had no real connections that were Christian, my life kind of went astray. I started drinking, went very heavily into alcohol, became alcoholic. And when I was about the age of 24, I had a good singing voice and I joined with a Gilbert and Sullivan company. And all of this was something of God. I had no idea of this, but the way he led me was this, the man who was the director, the musical director, was a really committed Christian. He loved the Lord for but only a very short time. And his wife, the lead soprano, she also was a committed Christian. And these were the first people I’d ever met who were truly Christian people. 

And they led by God, I’m sure, really took a liking to me and began to encourage me. They worked on me for two years. They’d invite me off into their home, they’d invite me for meals, they’d take me away on the different activities and all the time just living their Christian life in front of me. I knew they were different. I knew that they had something that I certainly didn’t have. And at the end of two years, they invited me to go with them to a Christian Young people’s camp. It was an Easter time. And just to satisfy them, I agreed to go. They came the night before to my home and packed my gear. They waited for me outside of my place of work next day, and they drove me to where this camp was. And there I met Jesus. 

I’d seen their lives and I knew they were different. I knew they had something. Then I saw many other young people at that camper and I saw in their lives something that was so winsome. And I remember on that Easter Sunday night, I just could no longer resist what was the real call of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And I responded that night and opened my life to him. And from that moment, my life was totally changed.

I can still remember the moment. I can remember leaving that camp at the end of that Easter time, knowing that I was moving into a whole new dimension of life when I was counselled by this lovely old man who was one of the camp workers. He was an old man. His name was Mr. Death, but he run the liveliest old fellas I’ve ever met. And he gave me two verses of scripture and he said, Dan, I want you to take these into your heart because they’ll become part of your life. The first one was John3:16, and he said it this way, Dan, this is what it says. “For God so loved Dan Armstrong, that he gave his only begotten son, that if Dan Armstrong believed in him, he’d not perish, but have everlasting life.” 

And I repeated that and something happened deep, deep within me, and I knew that I would belong to him for the rest of my life. Oh, Mr. Death gave me another verse of scripture. He said, I want you to take this one to your heart and your life too, Dan, because when you go out from here, you’re going to find all kinds of things that will seek to drag you away. But I want you to remember this Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Can you get hold of that? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

Well, I came home and I told my parents. They looked askance. They knew that I’d soon get over it. I’d had all kinds of fads before. I began to tell my friends. And I found that all that I wanted to do was to talk about what had happened to me and what Jesus meant. I just one verse of scripture, John 3:16, and I told all my mates God loved Philip Red. God loved Peter Jones. And I was able to say this, and they looked at me because they knew me. They knew what my life was like, but they knew that something had happened to me.

And you know where that one verse of scripture, I won some of my mates to Jesus. I didn’t know. I had no idea of what the gifts of the spirit were about. But I came to realise a little later that this, the Spirit, the gift of the Spirit that had been given deeply to me was the gift of the evangel. 

And I couldn’t help but share it. I told everyone, anyone I could find, I let them know that one verse of scripture too. I can do all things through Christ because the temptations that were thrown before me, I was able to lay hold of this verse of scripture.

It was only a few months after when I felt the call of God to go into full-time ministry. And I knew nothing about it. I knew hardly a thing about the Bible. I knew hardly anything about the church, but I knew that I was to serve Jesus for the rest of my life. I knew it. And so with the guidance of this man who had been so instrumental for two years to help me and to guide me and who never gave up on me, he showed me where to go. And I went into a Bible college in Sydney, the Sydney Missionary and Bible College.

I remember going in there and thinking, how am I ever going to do this? I had hardly any education left school at 15. I had hardly any understanding of the scriptures. How could I do this? Well, I thought the first thing I’ll do is I’ll get myself a good Bible. And I bought the biggest Bible I could find. And with that under my arm, I went to the Bible college. 

I remember it was just so amazing to me. I thought all these holy people, they’re going to find out about me very quickly. But I came to realise that, but for the grace of God, everyone would go where I went and they had the same needs and the same problems that I had, and the grace of God to make a difference in their lives as the grace of God would make the difference of my life. And so I studied there, and at the end of the time, I went out into ministry.

All I wanted to do was preach the gospel. I can remember Saturday night. So I’d go out with this dear old fellow who was the caretaker there. His name was Vic Graham. He had an old single pot motorbike. And we would go out, I’d go in the back of his bike, we’d go out and he had an old squeeze box. 

And we’d go out together and stand in front of a pub, any of the pubs in Sydney. We went all over the place. I did something. I was way up there with my singing voice because I want you to know, I’ve sung before the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Kent and quite lot of other hotels of Sydney as well. And I can remember as I went in front of these pubs, these guys, I’d just yearned to see them and they would come out, they’d flock out of the pubs to hear us Vic with this old squeeze box that he couldn’t play. And me and me singing. I was getting more beer in those days than I ever drank before. It was thrown over me. But we saw some of those guys come to Jesus.

And when it came to the end of that Bible college time, I went and it was the guy who led me to the Lord and had been encouraging me. He worshipped in a little old Methodist church back in the country town I lived in. And I went to that church with him. And so when at the end of the Bible college time, I went and I applied and was accepted as a home missionary with a Methodist church. And I was appointed to a little place called Swansea. 

There I met my future wife. God’s planning was just perfect. And she was the leader of the youth group there. And at the end of the two years of study there, we married and there I applied to become a fully ordained minister of the Methodist Church. I had to study because you had to have your matriculation because this was university level of study. And I can remember feeling again, how can I ever do this? How can I ever get to this stage? And I remember that same verse of scripture. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That helped me sing in front of the pubs that helped me stand and proclaim Jesus wherever I went. And that helped me to study and to absorb until I was able to matriculate and become a minister, a training minister of the Methodist Church. 

From that time on until now, I’ve ministered the gospel. I was set aside by the Methodist Church to become the evangelist for their Methodist church in Australia, and then travelled all through Australia and to many other parts of the world. But always with those two verses of scripture, deep, deep within my heart, knowing that anyone, anyone who believed could receive Jesus Christ to their hearts and their lives and be forgiven of all their sin. And to know too that no matter what had gone on in anyone’s life, and no matter what kind of struggles are there, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I’ve been able to share that with any person, especially I’ve shared that with people who have alcohol problems because the incredible temptations that were made there to me when I first came to Jesus and I was no matter what, no matter what was put in front of me there, and many, many times the temptation was there. 

I was able to say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He’s the one who gave me the strength, not me, nothing within me, but all of him. I can do all things. And if we have a problem with alcohol, whatever our problem might be that has got hold of us, if you would yield your life to Jesus, open your heart to him and know that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

This is what you’ve got. This is what is your promise. You see, it’s not just a matter of believing and then walking along and seeking to follow after him. No. When you do this, he comes and dwells within you. He lives within you, and his strength becomes your strength. And his life becomes your life and his love becomes your love. And you, by the grace of God, are able to say Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Image: Dan Armstrong preaching at Life Church Newcastle. Image Credit: Life Church YouTube