World Evangelist Emilio Knechtle – A Soldier of the Cross
MP3 Audio Testimony:
Conversion Story Part 3
milio B. Knechtle, a former General Conference (GC) world evangelist and revivalist, died on March 16 at age 83 in his home in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Knechtle joined the GC in 1982, and preached in many countries throughout the world until he retired from church service in December 1990. He worked for the Greater New York Conference and New York’s Metro Ministries from 1971 until 1982, preaching in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Mexico. Beginning in 1975, he also worked closely with American Cassettes Ministries, a supporting ministry of the Adventist church based in Pennsylvania, which produced and circulated his sermons worldwide.
Knechtle was born in Switzerland in 1922 and was raised as a Catholic, the religion of his father. His mother, however, converted to Adventism as a result of the witness of an Adventist woman who helped restore the 3-year-old Knechtle to health through prayer and natural remedies, when he contracted a rare blood disorder. After graduating from college, Knechtle eventually moved to New York and worked as a banker. It was while on a business trip to the Dominican Republic that Knechtle was converted to Christianity through the influence of his wife and a Methodist missionary. Eventually, at his mother’s urging and through studying with Charles Sohlman, an Adventist minister in the Greater New York Conference, Knechtle joined the Adventist Church.
“Emilio Knechtle was a spiritual giant in pointing thousands of people to Christ and His righteousness,” says General Conference vice president Ted N. C. Wilson, who worked with Knechtle in New York. “His public ministry included writing, preaching, and pastoral activities, but he was most well-known for his strong focus on having a personal relationship with Christ and His Righteousness, resulting in revival and reformation.”
Knechtle is survived by his wife, Ann, and six children. —AR/American Cassette Ministries.
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