Originally published in Virtue Online (via Contact Online Weblog)
Neil Armstrong went to be with the Lord on Friday (24th August). He was a great American. He was a devoted Christ follower.
Of course, you wouldn’t know about Armstrong’s Christian faith from the obituaries published by such bastions of liberal journalism as the New York Times and Washington Post. They didn’t consider it worthy of comment.
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Nor would you know that Armstrong loved the Lord from the perfunctory tribute offered by President Obama, who mentions Christianity only when it serves his political purposes (like defending his support for homosexual marriage).
But Armstrong’s life story cannot be told without mentioning his walk with Christ.
Indeed, perhaps the most under-reported story about Armstrong concerned his visit to Israel following his historic trip to the moon, where he made his one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.
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The American astronaut was taken on a tour of the old city of Jerusalem by Israeli archeologist Meir Ben-Dov. When they got to the Hulda Gate, which is at the top of the stairs leading to the TempleMount, Armstrong asked Ben-Dov whether Jesus had stepped anywhere around there.
“These are the steps that lead to the temple,” Ben-Dov told him, “so He must have walked here many times.”
Armstrong then asked Ben-Dov if those were the original stairs and Ben-Dov confirmed that they were indeed.
“So Jesus stepped right here,” Armstrong asked. “That’s right,” answered Ben-Dov.
To which Armstrong, the devout Christian, replied, “I have to tell you, I am more excited stepping on these stones than when I was stepping on the moon.”
The secular world remembers Armstrong as, variously, an aerospace engineer, a university professor, a Navy fighter pilot and, of course, as the first man in history to peer back at Earth from the surface of the moon.
But those who were closest to the famous astronaut – his widow, Carol, his two sons, Eric and Mark (from a previous marriage), his brother and sister, and other survivors – remember Neil Armstrong as a man of faith.
Thanks for this. I was unable to find any reference via Google to Armstrong’s faith, but did find this webpage, which gives info on the faith of a number of astronauts: http://www.oocities.org/fcastrocha/glenn.htm. According to this, it was James Irwin, in his book “More than an Earthling”, who wrote the following (I’ve heard/ seen the first sentence erroneously attributed to Neil Armstrong):
“The entire space achievement is put in proper perspective when one realizes that God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon. I believe that God walked on the earth 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. I have totally yielded my life to the Lord’s service to tell people everywhere about the life-changing message of Christ.”
Thanks for that astronaut info. It’s good to hear that their space travels literally brought them closer to God.
Thanks Observer.
He certainly had an eternal vision and knew which person matters most in life. Wonderful to hear this witness
The biggest step for mankind was not when man stepped onto the moon – although this was amazing – but when God stepped down to earth – in human form. We salute Neil Armstrong and his wonderful achievements in his life on Earth. He was privileged to view creation from a perpective that very few will ever see it, but now his eyes have beheld His Saviour and King – the Creator – in all His Glory! What a privilege!