"I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" — Two Incredible Stories

The Story of the Headhunter

"I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" is an evangelistic song popularized in the Anglosphere in the mid-1900s.  The originator of the lyrics was named Nokseng: He was a headhunting tribesman from northeast India in the 1800s who converted to Christ through the evangelistic ministry of cross-cultural missionaries.  While he and his Christian family were being tortured and murdered by their tribe, Nokseng sang these words.  Following their martyrdom, the tribe was convicted by the Holy Spirit and converted to Christ.

The Story of the Sikh

We don't have a photo of Nokseng, but we do have a photo of the translator who put the lyrics to a tune from northwest India and introduced the song to a Western audience; his name was Sundar Singh.  Sundar was raised in a Sikh family.  He persecuted Christians and once burnt a Bible.  But then at age 14 he had a vision of Jesus with a shining light, and Sundar became an evangelist for Jesus.  At age 20 in 1909 he enrolled in an Anglican seminary near his home, but quickly became disillusioned by the western forms of Christianity which were foreign and difficult for his fellow Indians to embrace.  He committed the rest of his short life to evangelizing India and Tibet in incarnational ways that reflected local culture.  He is believed to have died on a mission to Tibet in 1929.

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

Lyrics: Nokseng, Garo tribesman c.1840, arr. Sundar Singh c.1928;
Tune: Assam trad. Hindustani, arr. William Jensen Reynolds 1959.

(3x) I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, no turning back

(3x) Though none go with me, still I will follow
No turning back, no turning back

(3x) The world behind me, the cross before me
No turning back, no turning back

(3x) My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus
No turning back, no turning back

(3x) Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
No turning back, no turning back