He said that it was his belief that God first intervened to spare his life in 1973, amid rioting in Belfast, when he found himself stranded with two of his men in a Loyalist paramilitary area.
A hail of gunfire cut down the other soldiers, fatally injuring one, while Sir Richard emerged unscathed.
The second incident took place during a mine-clearing operation in South Armagh in 1975, when an explosion killed his company commander, Major Peter Willis. Sir Richard had been walking alongside him moments before but had stopped to study an aerial photograph.
The general's third brush with death came a few months later in Germany when he fell asleep at the wheel of a car but was fortunate to veer off into a field rather than into a steep bank and wood which bordered the route 200 yards further on.
"On three occasions, God had shown me his love and his protection and had challenged me to make a complete commitment to him, but on each occasion I had failed to make the response that he wanted from me," said Sir Richard, who is vice-president of the Officers' Christian Union.
- God saved me from death three times, says Army chief
Goodness. Apparently, god wasn't so fond of the two who were killed in his presence.
The thing about near-death experiences is that the ones who live to tell about it... are... well... the ones who live to tell about it. It's much harder for the dead to lament god's lack of mercy.
