Billy returned to London in 1966 for a four-week Crusade at Earl's Court. The Beatles were now playing to sold-out crowds of 50,000 or more, and feeling pretty smug.
On the eve of Billy's scheduled four-week evangelistic extravaganza, John Lennon prophesied that "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink.... I'm right, and I will be proved right. We are more popular than Jesus Christ right now."
That prediction gave Billy some great ammunition for his sermons. Boy, was he fired up! Billy prophesied that the Lord would buffet the Beatles for what Lennon said.
Bingo! That very night, Jesus whispered in my ear: John Winston Lennon, age 26, exalted ego. Time to buffet.
Aye, aye, Lord! At your service!
Willing to do the Trinity a favour but not wishing to appear over-eager – I was something of a Fab Four fan myself in those days, while usually at loggerheads with the Thrilling Threesome – I took my time. I looked around. I found just the right way to buffet the Beatles: I introduced John Lennon to Yoko Ono. The rest is history.
Jesus took a little longer. He looked both ways. He buffeted John Lennon with David Mark Chapman. Lennon is history.
I swear, Jesus gets more like his Father every year. When he acts on a grudge, he doesn't know when to quit.
– L.
