Posted on 02/08/2019 9:51:49 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Anthony Hopkins is one of the most well-known actors of our time. For years, he was a well-known atheist, too. But all of that changed when a woman at an AA meeting challenged his disbelief with one, simple question. That was the beginning of the inspiring Anthony Hopkins testimony!
No matter how successful someone may seem from the outside, we all have our own internal struggles. During the earlier years of Anthony Hopkins’ career, he found himself in his own battle with alcoholism.
Anthony’s addiction started “innocently.” He adopted a worldly mindset and drank because “that's what you do in theater, you drink."
But as is the case too often, the social pastime soon took over his life. By 1975, Anthony’s drinking had spiraled out of control.
"I was hell-bent on destruction," the award-winning actor recalled. "It was like being possessed by a demon, an addiction, and I couldn't stop. And there are millions of people around like that.”
But it’s in our weakest moments that God’s strength works best!
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” ~ Psalm 34:18
Anthony Hopkins realized he needed help. So, he turned to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Up until then, Anthony Hopkins had been an atheist. But during an AA meeting, a woman asked him a simple question.
"Why don't you just trust in God?"
It’s not something Anthony had ever tried. But as desperate as he was, he thought, “Well, why not?” Deciding to believe and trust in God was the moment everything changed for the desperate actor.
“I could not stop [drinking], but I just asked for a little bit of help and suddenly, pow. It was just like, bingo," Anthony Hopkins recalled.
Miraculously, Anthony says the craving to drink was taken from him, “never to return again.” And he’s believed in God ever since, working day after day, year after year, to grow in his faith.
When asked in a CNN interview with Piers Morgan if he believed in God, former-atheist Anthony Hopkins replied wholeheartedly, “Yes, I do. I do.”
Years after finding faith, Anthony Hopkins is regarded as one of the greatest actors of our time. In fact, he earned the title of Sir Anthony Hopkins when Queen Elizabeth knighted him in 1993, for his contributions to the performing arts.
As such an esteemed actor, Anthony was invited to speak to a crowd of nearly 500 high school and college students at the annual Leadership, Excellence and Accelerating Your Potential conference (LEAP). And he shared with them the dangers of confirming to the world.
“If you chase the money, it’s not gonna work. And if you chase success, it’s not gonna work,” he said.
In fact, in a separate interview, Anthony opened up about how unfulfilling success alone is.
“You know, I meet young people, and they want to act and they want to be famous,” the acclaimed actor explained. “And I tell them, when you get to the top of the tree, there's nothing up there. Most of this is nonsense, most of this is a lie. Accept life as it is. Just be grateful to be alive."
After sharing how he was saved from the depths of alcoholism, Anthony Hopkins explained the power our words and our beliefs have over our lives. He also touched on how God can use anything, even our biggest messes, for good.
“I believe that we are capable of so much,” Anthony said to the students. “From my own life, I still cannot believe that my life is what it is because I should have died in Wales, drunk or something like that. ... We can talk ourselves into death or we can talk ourselves into the best life we’ve ever lived. None of it was a mistake. It was all a destiny.”
RELATED: Actor Mark Wahlberg On How Faith Turned His Troubled Life Around
While Anthony Hopkins has, at times, played characters who are truly evil, the actor lives out his real life with Christ in his heart. He’s been an atheist before finding God and now he just feels sorry for atheists, comparing a life of disbelief to “living in a closed cell with no windows."
"I'd hate to have to live like that, wouldn't you?” Anthony Hopkins asked.
What a beautiful reminder the Anthony Hopkins testimony was of the hope we have through Jesus!
There was a story I heard once, four of the biggest stars in British Cinema were at a pub together in the early to mid 1970’s, Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, and I believe Anthony Hopkins. All four at the time were notorious drinkers and they closed that pub. I can’t even imagine what the bar bill was.
In any event all of them had a conversion in life and pretty much quit drinking. But in their heydays they were something else.
One of my very favorite actors. I’ll see him in Heaven and that’s a great feeling..........;)
He played Odin the All Father in Thor movies so I am sure he got some insight from the role.
Amazing Grace
Thanks for that.
You are to be commended. God bless you.
God even uses our failings to turn us to Him.
That article is from 8 years ago. I hope this article is up to date and he has truly changed.
Jesus wasn’t mentioned by him anywhere in the article. I pray I’m just being picky, but if you don’t know and love Jesus, and believe that He is God, died for us as the sacrificial lamb that takes away all our sins, and then rose from the dead, you are not Christian, no matter how nice you are.
Amen.
Thank you for sharing.....C
Thanking God he changed before his time came to stand before God. Welcome to your new life sir!
...something that should not be allowed.
I agree.
I was happy to hear this news! He is one of the finer actors of our time. This may have been coming on for a long time, too, because he wasn’t too much of an atheist during the films of The Rite. He believed in demons, and you can’t believe in demons without believing in the One who casts them out. As you said, welcome to the Family!
for many (including a number of FReepers) the name of Jesus easily comes from their lips and yet if you read what they write it easy to see that his name is not in their heart. Many will there be who will call his name at judgement and he will know them not for he has told us this will be so.
In the end the matter is between him and the Lord and I readily admit I can not cast the first stone.
“God as you understand Him”.....AA is based on belief in a higher power, not in the God of the Bible. There are prayers and other things borrowed from the Bible, but AA is not a religious organization.
I went out to Hollywood back in mid-70’s,,for acting, of course.
Ended up back home in the South two years later, gave my life to the Lord. Ever since have had a burden for celebrities. Have prayed years for Streisand, Tyne Daly, Joanne Woodward (when she was alive), Katy Perry, Adele, and others. I know the appeal Hollywood and that life can have on someone (though I never had any success at it). So guess that’s why I tend to have a soft heart towards them and pray for them. I was glad to read your comments. Maybe the Lord is doing a work in that whole Hollywood/Bel Air/Malibu region.
It is purely a theist organization. Jesus ain’t nowhere to be found. That is on you. I know an AA who’s higher power is nature, he rants all the time about AA. A higher power can be anything in AA. I’m not knocking AA or Jesus, but they are apples and oranges.
Proud for you, btw.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.