(CP) Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington was baptized at a church in New York City over the weekend and officially received his ministry license — an event he revealed was prophesied a long time ago.
The 69-year-old “Gladiator II” actor was baptized at The First Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ Eastern New York over the weekend, which livestreamed the service on Facebook.
“In one week, I turn 70. It took some time, but I’m finally here,” he said in an emotional address to the congregation following the baptism.
The actor revealed that when he was 20, he was sitting in his mom’s beauty parlor when he encountered a girl named Ruth Green.
“She said, ‘Boy, you’ll travel the world and preach to hundreds of thousands of individuals,'” he recalled. “She would not even spell the word prophecy. My mother wrote the word prophecy … 50 years later, take a look at God. If He can do that for me, there’s nothing He cannot do for you. The sky literally is the limit and there is not any limit to the sky.”
Washington then expressed his gratitude for his “loving, faithful wife,” Pauletta Washington, who was there supporting him from the congregation.
“To God be the glory. Hallelujah!” he continued. “Anything I can do, I’ll do for this church, the Almighty. I just wish to be in that number when the saints go marching in.”
Washington has been outspoken about his faith throughout his profession; his father, the Rev. Denzel Hayes Washington Sr., was a Pentecostal minister, and his mother, Lennis, was heavily involved in church activities. Growing up, he was surrounded by the teachings of the Bible and the rhythms of church life.
In a November essay for Esquire, the actor revealed he grew up within the church, but after witnessing altar calls and “people being saved,” he “didn’t really know” what was happening when he was young.
The “biggest moment” of his life happened on the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, which he was turned onto by actor and director Robert Townsend, he said.
“Things I said about God once I was somewhat boy, just reciting them in church together with everybody else, I do know now,” he said within the essay. “God is real. God is love. God is the one way. God is the true way. God blesses.”
He added, “It’s my job to lift God up, to provide Him praise, to make sure that that anyone and everybody I speak to the remaining of my life understands that He is chargeable for me.”
Washington added that he was “unafraid” of the general public’s response to his faith, adding, “I do not care what anyone thinks.”
“See, talking in regards to the fear a part of it — you possibly can’t talk like that and win Oscars,” he said on the time. “You cannot talk like that and party. You cannot say that on this town.”
In a 2021 interview with The Christian Post, Washington shared how, in a society rife with division and destructive content, he wants to spotlight stories that exemplify true sacrifice, faith and heroism.
“In at the present time and age, you recognize, it’s tough,” the Academy Award-winner told CP. “There’s so many negative influences on the market; social media, obviously, all the plain ones, however the enemy is the enemy. So we’re affected by what’s outside of us, nevertheless it magnifies or accelerates what’s really within us.”
“We’re such a divided country at once,” he added. “We are the United States, in theory, not a lot in practice. But in theory.”
Last month, the actor opened up in regards to the moment when he saw the face of God.
“I used to be on a yacht listening to music and praying, and there was a song on called ‘The Face of God,'” Washington said. “And I prayed, ‘Lord, everyone’s singing in regards to the face of God, and I would like to see Your face.’ And then I heard, ‘Turn to your left.'”
The actor said he immediately turned and pulled out his phone to take an image of what seemed to be a face within the clouds.
Washington referenced 1 Corinthians 13:12: “The Bible says we are going to see like through a mirror darkly, but then head to head,” he said.
