Former Gangster Turned Dynamic Preacher Inspires Many

Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2009 Posted: 1:02:06PM HKT

Local-born Victor King, a former gangster and addict turned international evangelist and preacher. (Photo: Victor King Ministries)

It's a 21st century story of miraculous transformation.

A young man, slapped with all the addictions one can possibly imagine, being freed from them by the power of the Gospel, as he testifies.

Referring to himself as a street gangster turned preacher, Victor King relates how though he was raised in a Christian family he was rebellious and went on a seemly irreversibly downhill trajectory as he got involved in a gang, picked up smoking, started skipping school, stealing, vandalising, drinking and getting into fights.

Finally he was expelled from school at the age of 17 because of his bad attitude and poor attendance and became a fulltime gangster.

In the ministry website where he posted his life testimony, King relates how everything came to a head when he became a very heavy smoker, got hooked on alcohol, was full of obscenities, got addicted to pornography, started womanising, stayed away from home most of the time, associated with drug addicts and ex-convicts and even got involved in armed robberies.

During his mandatory term as a fulltime national serviceman, he was sent to the army prison for unauthorised absence and had to go the police station a couple of times.

And then King, who is 30 this year, came to know the Lord Jesus Christ a few years ago when he met a Christian who brought him to her church. On that day he described how the Lord touched him and he started to break down. He suddenly felt “so in love and loved, but he didn’t know how or by whom. All he knew was that this love was something beyond human experience” and afterward he received Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.

Since then, he testifies that the Lord turned his life completely around, delivering him from “so many things”, including nine years of heavy smoking and six years of alcoholic addiction. God “supernaturally” took him out of the gang, delivered him from vulgarities, anger, womanising, pornography, lust and many other bad habits.

He was also healed of a ten-year urinary bladder problem. King says that the people who knew him were shocked at the changes in him. His life testimony has since been featured on weblogs, books and websites, according to him.

Today, he introduces himself as an evangelist and preacher of “the Grace through the Cross”, leading an independent, non-denominational ministry that is not affiliated with any church. Along with his team, he has preached the Gospel in Singapore, India, Uganda, Mauritius, Malaysia, South Africa, the Philippines and will go to Vietnam.

In his preaching he does not fail to emphasise that only the Lord had the power to deliver him from his bondage and that He has done so.

“When they told me to stop smoking and drinking alcohol, I DID NOT. When my loved ones told me to stop clubbing and speaking vulgarities, I WOULD NOT. When some told me to stop womanising and pornography, I COULD NOT. When they told me to come out from the gang and stop being a gangster, I DARE NOT,” he said.

“My sins and addictions faded away in the presences of Grace. Today, if you tell me to stop preaching the Gospel of Grace through the Cross, I SHALL NOT!”

His conviction? To “bring the Grace of God through the Finished Work of Jesus Christ to the nations and see people not only having a relationship but a wonderful fellowship and intimacy with Father God”, he says.

He has also completed his first book, Thank God It is Finished, which will be released in bookstores soon.

Nathanael Ng
Christian Post Reporter