Staff ReporterLee Stoneking already knew about the miracles Jesus Christ performed when he walked the earth. As a pastor for decades, he has preached the gospel and told anyone who would listen the good news of Jesus Christ and his power to heal, restore and provide eternal salvation for those who believe.
But on April 22, he was behind a different kind of pulpit. He stood at the podium in front of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York City. He had been asked to speak as someone of the faith community, addressing the kind of violence that takes place around the world, some in the name of religious ideology.
And Stoneking did just that, but first he wanted to share his story of resurrection.
He said that on Nov. 12, 2003. he suffered a massive heart attack at the airport in Sydney, Australia. Paramedics tried – 10 times – to get his heart beating again using electric shock treatment, but he was declared dead and put into the ambulance as a “corpse.”
After being clinically dead for 45 minutes, Stoneking’s heart started to beat. The paramedics – and the doctors who treated him afterwards – were amazed at his recovery. One doctor even told him that his DNA had been altered to strip heart disease from his genetic makeup.
“So I am grateful today to be alive,” Stoneking said, adding that even after six minutes without oxygen, irreparable damage can be done to the brain.
“God has totally raised me from the dead,” he said.
“You have defied all the laws of medical science,” a doctor told Stoneking. “I looked at him and said, ‘I didn’t but I know the one who did.’”
“His name is Jesus,” Stoneking said.
“I am an apostolic Christian,” Stoneking said, “and my message here to you today is this: In the New Testament, in the book of Acts, Chapter 2 verse 38 it says, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Then Stoneking told the U.N. General Assembly what he thought could be done to end the violence around the world.
“The answer, your excellencies, to the violence of our day and to the human atrocities of our day is Jesus,” he said.
“He is the prince of peace,” Stoneking said. “I give you Jesus.
“God bless you,” he said.
Five days after Stoneking spoke at the U.N., the video of his speech posted on YouTube by the North American Youth Congress has been viewed almost 3 million times.
