“Beloved, let the fact of what our Lord suffered for you grip you, and you will never again be the same”

Oliver B. Greene’s youthful life was one of wickedness by drinking, stealing, bootlegging, and immorality, but at the age of 20, God saved him when he attended a revival meeting solely for the purpose of dating a pure country girl. He accepted Jesus Christ at that meeting when he heard a message on, “The wages of sin is death.” Five months later God called him to preach. To prepare for this, he attended Greenville Baptist College, but was expelled in his second year due to his reluctance to cooperate with the denominational program. It became quite clear that Oliver was an independent Baptist who carried the honor of being one who “could not be bought.” In 1939, at age 24, he bought a tent, and for 35 years conducted revivals all across America. Records show that over 200,000 souls found Christ through his ministry. At one meeting alone in North Carolina 7,000 professions of faith were recorded. Greene also was the founder of the Gospel Hour radio broadcast which grew from one station in 1939 to 180 stations at the time of his death in 1976. The gospel hour is still heard coast to coast today by his taped messages. He prepared these messages “to continue on the Gospel Hour hopefully until Christ comes back.” Dr. Greene was called home to be with the Lord on July 26, 1976, but he “being dead, yet speaketh,” not only by radio but by his writings. His books, pamphlets, tracts, totaling over 100 titles, are still mailed out by the thousands. “From disgrace to grace” was the Oliver B. Greene’s appraisal of himself looking back over his life.