The Jack Miller Archive

This date is backed into from assimilating two primary sources:
a. A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle Location 741
b. Sermon entitled, “Election: Power Source for Living”

I had more questions a year later when I was hunting north of town. I met a magnificent buck on a craggy ridge above the Rogue River. We were face to face and less than one hundred feet apart. I raised my rifle to shoot him. As he bounded away I had a perfect bead on him. But I did not shoot. I was so awed by his majesty that I could not pull the trigger.

At the time I did not think God had anything to do with my decision not to kill the buck. I only knew that I couldn’t kill such a glorious animal. But if the buck had just evolved by chance, why would I care?

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 733-747). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Jack speaks of being “sort of half-way converted” in the sermon, and “really got saved” in October/November, 1948 while reading Ephesians 1.

This much is clear.

Less clear is what happened before that led him to describe himself as “sort of half-way converted.”

This seems to be a movement away from atheism to a general faith in God in which he saw himself as choosing faith, choosing to believe in Christ and to reject his commitment to atheism.

A couple of references apply.

He speaks of looking up into the heavens while lying in the forest looking up through massive Redwoods and seeing the sky, and the majesty of seeing a buck on the Rogue River, and the majesty of God overwhelming him. This seemed to mark a transition away from atheism to some kind of faith.

While living with his sister Ella Mae. She was converted first, and Jack after her according to Jack. How soon after her?

Elsewhere in AFWS, he speaks of them both being invited to church by children.

Jack did attend church with Ella Mae sporadically while working and going to school.

He also speaks of being troubled by a movie.

And a comment made by someone getting in a bus about atomic bombs destroying the world.

This general sense of faith also continued while working in the mountains after his brother died.

The dating is unclear. But in keeping with the statement in his sermon on election about choosing Christ, Jack seems to have in mind the two years of trying to believe in his own strength and choosing, leading up to his brother Leo’s death in March of 1945, and subsequent return to Oregon to work on the road crew for three years.

Jack had just turned 20 years old he returned to San Francisco.