Athiest Comedian

This is a podcast episode called Testimony of the Goodness of God. The host talks about their YouTube channel and encourages listeners to subscribe and share their content. They also mention a upcoming testimony from comedian Jeff Allen, who was a former atheist and turned to Christ. Jeff shares his story of how he hit rock bottom, almost got a divorce, and found peace and redemption through his faith. The host emphasizes the importance of sharing these testimonies to help others find their way to Christ. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Testimony of the Goodness of God. Let's start the day out with a wonderful music from the Gospel Plowboys, What a Day That Will Be. There is coming a day When no heartache shall come No more clouds in the sky No more tears to dim the eyes All is peace forevermore On that happy golden shore What a day, glorious day That will be What a day that will be When my Jesus I shall see When I look upon His face The one who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand Oh, friends, what a day that's gonna be. I hope you're all prepared and ready to go. I know I am. What a day, glorious day That will be Welcome to another episode of Testimony of the Goodness of God. We're happy to have you with us today. We have two things to tell you about. First, we are on YouTube. Our YouTube channel is called Testimony of the Goodness of God. Just type it in the search bar up there on your YouTube, and you should be able to find us. And we would really appreciate anyone listening to this on YouTube or any of our other podcasts that we have uploaded there. And like and share all of them, and please subscribe. That's the easiest way to do it. You hit subscribe, and every time there's a new episode or a change or something put up on our channel, you will be the first to know about it. And for those that still like audio.com, they will still be on there. Also, for you to listen to on your phone or however it is, your iPod or whatever it is you're listening to it on, those will still be available, and you'll be notified through that program when the new one is uploaded. So we're reaching out and branching out, friends. Just tell your friends and neighbors about us and ask them to like and share the episodes and make sure they subscribe. That way they can keep track of when the new episodes are coming out. And also encourage those people, and I encourage you to share every podcast that comes out. If you're on social media, Facebook, Twitter, any of those, other ones, Instagram. I can't think of them or name them all right now. Just spread the love of the Lord out, the testimonies that we share. Spread it out there, and maybe we can find us some lost souls that it will help them turn to Christ. And that's what we're here for. That's what we enjoy, and that's what we like to hear about. And the other thing is I have a very good friend. He and his wife are just wonderful people. We love them so much. We've known them for a little over 20 years. He has submitted his testimony that he wants to share with everyone. I'm trying to get that. He's already sent it to me, and we're going to decide whether I read it or he is actually hearing me talk about it. I'm hoping we can set a time and a date up to sit down and actually just have a conversation about his testimony. That would be wonderful. So look forward to that. I plan on doing that, if not the next episode, probably the second one coming out after this. So, again, we've got another testimony coming, and this will be a little bit more fresh with the person sitting right here in the room for us. And today's episode, it is kind of unusual. I know growing up in the 70s and 80s, there was a lot of comedians. Just to name a couple, Richard Pryor, Red Fox. Oh, I can't think of the gentleman's name. I can see an outfit he wore in one of his comedy specials. Eddie Murphy. Rodney Dangerfield. I could go on and on and on. One of the one familiar ones I remembered is a young man was, oh, what is his name? Sam Kenison. He's a former preacher. And it just broke my heart when I saw it back in the 80s that he was a former preacher. And then he was out here on the road and doing comedy clubs and just, you know, at that time I thought it was very funny. And after I found the Lord, I realized just how not funny that kind of stuff is when it gets into blue humor and the vulgarness and just stuff that really just isn't necessary. Oh, we all laughed, but it just wasn't necessary to hear that kind of vulgarity. Well, today's testimony comes from comedian Jeff Allen. He has repented. He was a former atheist, a self-admitted atheist. Praise God he found somebody to hang out with, another comedian that was making millions upon millions of dollars, getting this show special and that show. But the one thing different between the two gentlemen was the man that was making all the money believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And Jeff was just a full-blown atheist, didn't believe in the Lord, had a wonderful wife and child and was just horrible. On the road 50 weeks out of 52, et cetera and so on. The typical entertainment person's testimony to begin with. He was an alcoholic. He went to the AA meetings. And it came to a point and God had taken him to the edge. He and his wife actually drove and had the divorce papers in their hands to go down and file them. And they stopped 10 minutes from where they were going. And she told him, his wife told him, it doesn't feel right. I'm going to go home. Let's go home. And praise God they worked it out. They still had a lot of rocky roads and turns and just all kinds of things. And it was mostly self-inflicted by himself because that's what he believed in was himself. But he turned to Christ. I just think it's a wonderful thing when I see these. And it's not your typical, oh, I fell out, did drugs, did drugs, turned around. Those are just as good testimonies. They're not bad testimonies. Those are wonderful too. But coming from a comedian, and he's pretty well-known across the land, and I just picked this video up and I wanted to share it with you folks. It's a little longer than what I normally post, but it is well worth the length to listen to. So take a minute of your time and listen to this wonderful testimony of how he turned from atheism and he turned from that to serving the Lord and praising the Lord and learning about him and desiring. That's why I think what I got out of his testimony is his desires had changed. It wasn't for self any longer. It was for the Lord. So take a moment, enjoy. And this is our testimony today. The wife would walk out on him. What happens to the human after that? I just wanted some answers. And I'd ask her, do you ever wonder? She goes, I wonder about what? I go, why you're here, the whole point to everything. Why does it matter? She goes, no, I don't have time. I'm raising a family by myself. I'm dealing with all this other garbage that has been created by you. I just want a man. I want a husband. I want something. I said, that's the point. I'd look in those rooms and I'd see these AA people and they were happy and content and at peace. And I go, why not me? Why not? I did my work. I read all the books. I did all the 12 steps. I did everything. Where's my peace? It's all he wants. Is that too much to ask? I wanted to have a few beers. I wanted to go out and do my little jokes and raise my kids. I didn't even know why I was so wrecked up. I had friends going, relax, Jeff, relax. Everything was just, I was this scab. I was a big scab. Everything would pick at it and this pus would ooze out. Don't know why. And finally, Tammy asked for a divorce. We're sitting at Toys R Us at a Christmas time about 17 years ago. She says, do you want a divorce? I go, if that's what you want, then. That's how we decided to get to the most life-altering decision a man and woman will ever make. It will affect your life forever, good, bad, or indifferent. It will have an effect on your children. It will have an effect on your friends, your family, everything. And we decided, like, hey, you want to go to McDonald's for lunch? Yeah, let's go to McDonald's. You want to take out the trash? I'll take out the trash. You want to get a divorce? Yeah, if that's what you want, then. If you're in a marriage today that's full of acrimony, wait until you get to apathy. There's no more painful human experience that you can experience than apathy, to not care. And it's an epidemic among our young people. Seen it, done it, been there. Can you imagine Adam and Eve coming out into the garden that first day and going, oh, trees. Or, wow, look at the little kids. Everything's new. It's like, wow. Nothing to divide up. We had filed bankruptcy, lost everything. So we got to paralegal and got some divorce papers. And Tammy gave it to me. She says, I do everything else around here. Why don't you fill out the end of our marriage? And I love this because the Bible says what Satan intends for evil, God will use for good. My biggest character flaw to this day is procrastination. So I've always said if I was a type A, I would have filled those papers out. We would have been divorced in about a week, you know, and that would have been it. As it was a year and a half into after she gave me those papers, I still hadn't filled out anything but the names. And a year and a half, I was sleeping in the guest room. We were cordial people. We were polite, bumping to her in the hall. We ate meals together. We'd sit in the family room and watch television together. And we existed. It wasn't very loving, but it was existence. And by that time, God had time to move people into my life. And one of them was a Christian businessman who was doing comedy for $100 a week on the road. And I couldn't understand why. And by now, I'm reading Ayn Rand. I figured if materialism is it, if it's just about getting stuff, I'll get stuff. I can get my life back on track. I'll focus on the comedy, and I'll work on getting a career going again. And I still had a fairly good reputation in the club world. And anyway, I decided that that's what I'll do. So I'm working now. I'm focused on this. And now we're golfing, him and I. And I asked him, how do you accumulate wealth? Nobody ever taught me how to accumulate wealth. I mean wealth. And he said in order to even enjoy the creation, you have to have a relationship with the creator. And I thought, boy, that sounds neat. You know, it's like New Agey. It sounded New Agey. So I said, where's that at? He goes, it's in the Bible. Oh, okay. A couple holes went by. I said something else. I go, that's great. Where'd you read that? He goes, it's in the Bible. I said, stop it with the Bible. I mean, really, who reads the Bible? He said, I do. I go, really? He goes, what's your problem? I go, I don't believe in God. I mean, God. Really? God's word? It's a little archaic, don't you think? He said, well, let's back up. What's in the Bible that you don't think is true? Maybe I can help you out. I go, I don't know. I never read the Bible. He goes, then you're not an atheist. You're a moron. And any man who suffers from an anger problem knows, the hair on your neck stands up, your stomach gets a little tight. I think I want to punch this guy for saying that, but then I would have lost access to some really nice golf courses. And if it's possible for an atheist to have an ethical quandary, I was in one. So I said, how so? He said, I'll give you the short answer. To discount and throw away an infinite God in an infinite universe, you yourself have to have infinite knowledge of the entire universe. It's a self-defeating argument. You cannot defend an absolute negative. What you're denying exists as an omniscient being. In order to deny that, you yourself have to be omniscient. You can't defend it. And I looked at that man and said, what? He said, trust me, Jeff, I say this out of love. You are not smart enough to be an atheist. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't smart enough to figure out if the man was insulting me or not. Because I said to him, you don't know either. He said, I do. And he said, I believe if you open your mind a crack to the God of the Bible and started studying the Bible, the God could flood through that crack in your mind, into your heart, and into your soul and reveal the true universe, the way the universe is set up and aligned and all that. I said, yeah. He said, I'd like to help you out. I go to a church in Denton, Texas, Tom Nelson's Denton Bible. He said he teaches the Bible. He does not tell you to check your brain at the door. He makes you reach intellectually. And he says, I think you would enjoy that. And I said, would it cost me any money? He goes, nope, I'll sign you up. And then, can I send you a Bible? I go, if it doesn't cost me anything, you send me whatever you want. So the Bible came. I threw that in the junk drawer. The tapes started coming. And for a year and a half, those tapes came. And we had a friendship that was basically revolved around comedy and golf. He never once said to me, I sent you tapes. Did you listen to them? I sent you a Bible. Did you open it up? He'd end every conversation the same way. Hey, how are you and Tammy doing? I go, not too good, Phil. We're going to get that divorce at some point. I've got to fill those papers out. For a year and a half, year and a half, he'd say, we pray for you every night, me and Carol, my wife. We pray for you guys. And it meant nothing to me. I go, that's great, Phil. And he goes, no, I want you to know, we want your marriage to work. And I go, I don't get that, but okay. And he'd say, well, I think God put you two together for a reason. And I go, yeah, whatever, Phil. It's got to work. So anyway, the year and a half goes by, and Tammy says, we've got to fill those papers out. Finally, I filled them out and notarized them. I got them notarized by a notary. We're on our way to the courthouse to drop the papers off to end the marriage. And ten minutes from the courthouse, Tammy says, pull the car over. We're on the interstate in Phoenix, Arizona. She says, pull the car over. I said, for what? She said, as we pull over, she said, this is wrong. And Tommy Nelson always says, every man needs to get downwind from himself to get a good whiff of the kind of man he is. And I had gotten a whiff of the kind of man I was. I knew that I was bad. There was nothing about me that was redeeming. I couldn't change. I didn't seem to change. And I loved her. I did love her. And I said, you're out. She said, what are you talking about? I said, you're out. We drop the papers off and we get the divorce. You're out. You've done your duty. You've eight years with me. You've earned the right to be loved the way you deserve to be loved. I don't know what's wrong with me, babe. I really don't. But I'm trying. I'm trying. I just don't know what I need to read. I don't know what I need to. You deserve better than me. And she said, I'm not going to do this. Let's go home. If you're looking for grace, that's what grace looks like, smells like, and is. There's no earthly reason why she said go home. And we went home and we tried. Summer came that year, and she says, I'm taking the kids to Ohio to be at my parents. And while I'm gone, you've got to get your life together. If you don't want to do comedy, don't do comedy. But you've got to do something. We're losing the house. We were a couple months out of our mortgage at that point, and they were contacting us. And I said, I'll work on it. And she gathered up these Bible tapes. A year and a half's worth. They were everywhere, on the fridge, under the sink. You ladies can imagine. She's been cleaning around them for a year and a half, collecting dust, everything. She gathers them all up, and she brings them into the living room. And she throws them on the floor before she leaves. And she says, you either listen to these things or I'm throwing them out. And that little voice, we all have a little quiet voice inside of us. And by the way, I would like to mention, if I was the devil, and I wanted to wipe God out of the minds of people of his creation, I would create ambient light to eliminate the awesomeness of the stars. When my son was in Iraq, his first email home was, I can't believe all the stars. This is amazing. Dad, I'm telling you, it's amazing. I'd eliminate the stars. So when you looked up into heaven, you saw two or three, and you go, yeah, what's so amazing about that? And then I'd create the iPod. And I'm not saying the iPod is the devil's creation. All I'm saying is I just create noise that fits inside your head so that God's voice, which is quiet and still, can't be heard. Because one day I'm walking by that pile of tapes, and that little voice says, open one up. And I walk back, and another voice says, there's nothing in there for you. And I start to walk away, and this struggle goes on. And I'd like to ask somebody, where does this come from? Where does this struggle come from? I had never had a problem going to a music store, buying a Bruce Priesting tape and pulling it out and putting it in my cassette. Now I've got a bunch of God's words sitting on the floor, and this struggle comes in. It's nothing but biblical trash. At one point my head screamed at me, it's biblical trash. And I start to walk away, and it's like, open one up. So I finally just walk over there like it's on fire, and I rip one open, and I throw them on the floor. And it's Ecclesiastes. I couldn't even pronounce it. Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes. I got to get the Bible out of the junk drawer. The Bible never left the junk drawer, because once you put something in a junk drawer, it never leaves. So you get a shed. That's a suburban version of a junk drawer. So now I put this tape in, Ecclesiastes, from a pastor in Denton, Texas, that a year and a half, I don't even know when that arrived in the mail, but all I know is it's the first tape, and it starts out meaningless, meaningless. And I went, what's meaningless? What's meaningless? And it went on to talk about Solomon's conclusions and the book of Ecclesiastes. And years later, Christians said to me, the first time I shared this at a church, somebody grabbed me, God used Ecclesiastes? God used the book of Ecclesiastes to lead you to Jesus. I go, I don't understand you. He goes, well, it's a fairly cynical book. I go, well, you didn't know me like God knew me. Trust me. I found Ecclesiastes the most exhilarating thing I'd ever heard. Meaningless, meaningless, it's all meaningless. Everything is meaningless. There's no purpose. Everything. And what I got out of that first tape was this. Life without God will have no meaning. Without meaning to your life, there's no purpose to your life. Without purpose to your life, you might as well off yourself. And I'm thinking, wow, that's in the Bible? So I ripped open every envelope looking for more Ecclesiastes tapes. There's got to be another one in there. And I put that in there, and this is it. This is another one of Solomon's conclusions. Again, paraphrasing what was in the book by this pastor, but it was if happiness was an act of human will, we'd all be happy. You ask anybody in this room what you want out of life, I just want to be happy. Well, what is that? How do you define that? If it's the next iPod, the next man, the next woman, the next job, the next car, the next ad infinitum, you're in for a long haul while you're down here on earth. Solomon's conclusions were nothing, nothing of this earth will ever give you lasting joy and happiness outside of God. So I'm sitting there listening to this, and I knew this because I did this. I went to the mirror, and I went to affirm yourself. Oh, what a load of garbage that turned out to be. All I wanted to know was I'm listening to this, and something is happening inside of me. And at one point I wanted to run on the lawn and hold the Bible up. Has anybody read this thing? What a book. I was doing studies in my car, staring with my leg, making notes in my Bible. I almost met Jesus before I met Jesus. People, I'm running them off the road. They're waving at me one finger at a time. I'm like, I love you too. Wow. I have no idea why there was this moment in my life where God said this guy has had enough. For the first time I realized I wanted an explanation for all these years. I wanted somebody to explain to me God so that I got it, so that I understood it. And it made something, a difference in my life. But the truth was I needed a revelation from God. Without the revelation, the explanation means nothing. And all of a sudden everything was starting to change. The way I talked to people, the way I looked at people. I'm talking to my wife on the phone, and I'm going, babe, there's something going on. But she had heard this a thousand times. It was just another one in a long list of things. And I remember when she came back that summer. She says, how was your summer? I said, I'm a born-again Christian. She goes, what does that mean? I go, I don't know. I just heard the term. But I wasn't there yet. I listened to, I don't know, a year and a half's worth of tapes in a couple of months. And I'm down in Texas with my buddy, the guy that gave me the tapes. And we had gone to church. I wanted to meet Tommy Nelson, the pastor, and tell him how amazing I thought he was. And when we got back to Phil's house, he looked at me and he said, when I met you, God put it on my heart you were looking for something. Have you found it? And all I could think to say to him at that time was if Jesus Christ is not who he claimed to be, then Solomon was right, suicide. I have nowhere else to go. I have exhausted everything. And he said, can you admit you're a sinner? I go, let's not go overboard. When God gets a man downwind from himself, admitting you're a sinner is really, really, I fall a little short. I gave my life to Christ, all of it. I said, if comedy is what you want me to do, you take it. You do something with it. I'm done. You want me to be married to this woman, I submit to you everything. My best efforts got us 10 minutes from divorce court. You want me to be a father to these boys, then you're going to have to show me how to be a father to these boys and love them. Because I don't know how. I'm yours. It doesn't mean it's perfect. I didn't give my life to Christ so that I'd have a bigger house or better car. I gave my life to Christ because I believed it to be true. It didn't stop us from experiencing life. Tammy got breast cancer 12 years ago. She's still alive, and I keep forgetting to mention that. People will email me when I get home, You never said it. She's still alive. I owed the IRS $50,000 when we gave our life to Christ. I never thought I could pay that off. It took me seven years. But that's not why I believe what I believe. I could have got that from a Tony Robbins seminar. If Jesus Christ is not who he claims to be, then I'm a dead man. I cling to the cross and the resurrection. I cling to the truth of that. And I don't care what you believe. The last inch is always a leap of faith. And it's not perfect. Tammy started menopause. There are nights, not every night, but there are nights, I lie in bed and dream about the good old days of PMS. I can't get the home cold enough for her on some weeks. It's 48 degrees in my bedroom. I got meat hanging off my curtain rods. She'll walk in at 10 o'clock and turn on a 64-bladed fan she installed. I had to bolt the furniture before to keep it from getting sucked through the roof. And she stands in the middle of the room. Why is it so hot in here? Why is it so hot? I can't see her from the fog coming out of her mouth. Oh, and then she wakes me up to feel her night sweats. Is that even necessary? I'm sound asleep. She zips my parka open while I'm laying there. Jeffrey, wake up. Feel this. It's disgusting. Look at me. I'm just laying here. It's like a furnace in me or something. Boy, you're lucky you don't have to go through this. You know, I wouldn't if you quit waking me up. I told the kids, watch out. Mom's going through some serious stuff. Like what? Remember those nights you didn't do your homework, she'd get mad and yell at you? She goes, yeah. Be a little different now. She might start crying and then stab you. And one more thing before I go. I want to share this last one. I've been sharing this story for a lot of years, a lot of years. And the first time I shared the part about beating Ryan in the crib, Ryan was 12 and we were at a Gather event. And God put it on my heart to share that. And I shared that. I was scared to death. And when I got off stage, Ryan walks over to me and he goes, was I that boy you beat in the crib? And I said, you were. Daddy was a different man then. And he put his arms around me and he says, I forgive you for that. And I didn't realize, even now, it's amazing to me, if more fathers and sons would just, I forgive you. If I went to my father and said, I forgive you, my father would have looked at me and said, for what? It's amazing the power of what happened on that cross. When I read of what Jesus went through to the cross, and as He was up there, He cried out, I forgive them for they know not what they do. Wow. That goes against every part of my being, which is probably why it's so powerful. I thank you for letting me share all that. And one more story before I go because people ask, is your wife aware of the way you talk? No. I'll give you an idea of what she thinks is funny. I have a chair at home. And every man here, you have a chair, don't you, sir? You're darn right you have a chair. You know why? That's your throne. And if you ever went missing, they'd give a cushion to that chair to a bloodhound. Find that scent. And then they'd revive the dog and send him on his way. So I'm in my chair. Tammy comes up behind me, give me a little neck rub like that. She's scratching my head like that. She's got her arms around me like that. She's nibbling on my ears and my neck, kissing me like that. A couple minutes, really nice, you know, and pat me on the head like that. And then she kisses my top, top of my head. She pats me. She says, I love you, Jeffrey. And then she's walking away. I go, I love you too, baby. That was nice. It was nice. 27 years, that's nice. Ten minutes later, my son walks in. He goes, hey, Dad, who drew the smiley face on your bald spot? Yeah. What I thought was fingernails was permanent marker. She's back there scratching artwork on my skull. So don't feel sorry for her. She's sick and she's twisted. So thank you guys very much. God bless you. What a wonderful testimony that was. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I hope you did too. I left the entirety of the testimony in there. He was doing a stand-up routine, a lot cleaner than he used to be, and a lot less vulgarity. And a wonderful testimony how he turned his life around and gave everything to Christ. And so I left the jokes there at the end. I certainly hope it does not offend anyone. They were not dirty. There was nothing wrong with them on that aspect of it. But just a little bit of humor to go along with a wonderful, wonderful testimony. Friends, I hope you take this testimony and share it with everyone you know. Share it with those lost people whether they want it or not. Remember what he said. He had a mountain full in a year and a half of material, sermons, verses. A Bible was sent to him, and he chucked it, always up on the counter or in the junk drawer or wherever he left it. And a lot of things that I know a lot of people do. I know what I used to do. If I didn't want anything to do with it, I threw it away and put it somewhere where I wouldn't have to see it. And that's what he did. And I thought it was funny where he was talking about Ecclesiastes. And I went to the verse, and the King James Version is a little different. It says, Vanities of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. But the earth abideth forever. In the New, which is what he was reading, it's the same, just a little more, just different words that mean the same. Meaningless, meaningless, saith the teacher. Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. And that is Ecclesiastes 1, starting in verse 2. I hope you enjoyed it. Send this, share it with those people that may not want to hear it. They'll know the name of this comedian if you give it to them. And maybe that will encourage them to watch it and get back with you. Share it with everyone. And, again, if you're on the YouTube channel, please subscribe. And the more people can subscribe to our channel on YouTube, somehow the algorithm and the way things are found and searched is better for people with more subscribers. Now, that's not my forte. I'm not a big technical guy. But just share it with as many people as you can and subscribe. And we really, really appreciate that. And I look forward to working together again. Until then, friends, stay blessed.