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held to these three pivotal basic
beliefs and practices. They were
humble and sincere and would have
sacrificed their lives for these basic
truths.
But WHY did God bring me into
contact with these people? 1 little
realized the reason at the time.
At this point
1
must backtrack
and relate additional facts that
occurred in my own life.
1 had been for 26 years in the
commercial field of magazines and
newspapers. I did not know it then,
but subsequent events have evi–
denced that God was preparing me
through this experience for the real
calling that was to come later.
1was married at age 25. A week or
two after marriage, my wife experi–
enced a vision, or a most unusually
impressive dream, which at the time
embarrassed me. 1 had not been "re–
ligious." My whole mind and heart
was in my business. I was living at
the time in Chicago, Illinois. In her
dream-vision my wife had seen an
angel come from the sky, at a busy
Chicago intersection, attracting
hundreds of people. The angel had
come directly to my wife and me as
we stood in this busy intersection.
He put his arms around us both, say–
ing the Second Coming of Christ
was not far off, and God had work
for us to do. When my wife told me
the dream-vision 1 was somewhat
shaken, for it had seemed so real to
her-yet 1 was embarrassed and my
only thought was to get it off my
mind.
If
it really was a call from
God, like Jonah 1 wanted to run
away from it.
"Why," 1 said, "don't you tell it
to the minister of the church on the
comer, and if it means anything,
perhaps he can tell you?" l thought
no more about it, but subsequently
God took away my business, and
then a later business established in
the Pacific Northwest, followed by
this challenge that led to the inten–
sive Bible study.
The religious fanaticism (to me)
that engrossed my wife concerned
the seventh-day Sabbath. To me
that was fanaticism. But 1 had to
..eat crow." In the most intensive
study of my life, 1 failed to prove
my wife to be in error. This intense
in-depth study and research preved
to me the infall ible existence of
God, and the absolute AUTHORITY
September 1984
of the Holy Bible as the directly
inspired Word of God. Decades of
continued in-depth study and
research since have opened a vast
labyrinth of biblical knowledge and
understanding that HAO BEEN LOST.
By the shattering agony of having
two successful businesses swept out
from under my feet, and this bibli–
cal challenge, God had softened rne
to the place of utter submission
where 1 was willing to admit being
wrong- willing to submit wholly to
him, and willing to believe what he
plainly said in his Word, regardless
of the unpopularity of such belief.
Restoring the Truth
Thus the living God began
RESTORING through me much true
biblical knowledge and UNDER–
STANOING that had been lost
through the centuries.
Now it has been clearly revealed
to me how a false Christianity arose
during the first three centuries of
the Christian dispensation. Satan
led human religious leaders to pro–
claim a gospel of their own ABOUT
Christ, substituted for the gospel
OF
Christ- Jesus' gospel of the
KINGDOM OF Goo. This false
Christianity is revealed in Revela–
tion 17 and elsewhere in the Bible
as "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE
MOTHER OF HARLOTS ANO ABOMl–
NATlONS OF THE EARTH."
Jesus' whole mission was to
reconcile those called, to Goo THE
FATHER. There is ONE lawgiver–
God the Father. Sin is transgres–
sion against Goo. Repentance is
toward Goo, and faith is toward
Christ. Jesus carne to reconcile us
to the FATHER- not to replace
him.
lt
is significant that, after God
had beaten me down and softened
me, ripe for submissiveness to him,
he caused me to be so crucially
challenged on the cardinal point of
HIS LAw-his government-his
preeminence above all else, his
lordship over our lives. Of all the
points of God's law, the Sabbath is
the one test commandment. Profes–
sing, sincere Christians will freely
admit we should have no other gods
befare the one supreme and true
God. They will acknowledge we
should not bow down to idols, or
take God's name in vain. They
accept the commandment about
honoring our fathers and motbers,
the prohibition against murder,
adultery, stealing, lying or covet–
ing. They will even claim all these
nine commandments are carried
over into the New Testament.
The one commandment they
reject and refuse to obey is honor–
ing God by keeping his Sabbath
day HOLY. God made that particu–
lar day holy, and told us to keep it
holy.
A woman once told me she had
heard that Saturday was my day,
and she hoped this was not true. 1
replied, "No, Saturday is NOT my
day. Sunday is my day."
"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that,"
she exclaimed.
" But you don't quite under–
stand," 1 continued. "Sunday is MY
day, and so is Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
But Saturday is NOT my day- it is
Goo's day."
In my intensive , in-depth ,
exhaustive study and research to
prove Sunday is the Christian Sab–
bath, 1 left no stone unturned. 1
carefully examined every book,
article or writing 1 could obtain
that argued against the Sabbath
and attempted to establish Sunday.
1 examined the religious encyclope–
dias, checked carefully the original
Hebrew and Greek words in the
relevant Bible texts; 1 read the
Bible commentaries and the lexi–
cons. 1 checked history.
The Test Commandment
But all arguments against God's
Sabbath and favoring Sunday
observance proved just that-argu–
ments that couldn' t hold water–
arguments clearly in error and too
often dishonest.
l found in historie records that
there had been heated and violent
controversies over this very ques–
tion directly and indirectly during
the first three centuries of the
Church.
There also had been the historie
Quartodeciman controversy be–
tween students of the apostle John
and their opponents over the Pass–
over-Easter question. The whole
question was finally settled in this
false church, called "Babylon the
great," by the Nicene Council,
called by Roman Emperor Con–
stantine in A.D. 325. He was the
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