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tried to resist the invisible force,
turning the wheel with all my might,
but failed . Suddenly 1 found myself
driving down this side street.
"Oh well," 1 thought, "1'11 drive to
the next cross street and turn back."
But at the end of the block the street
turned right ONLY. I was now forced
to turn right and the street then
turned right again, into the very street
where the paralyzed man lived.
By this time 1 decided it had been
an angel that turned me there and
that God wanted me to see this man
again. I found him now stricken
with blood poisoning- the doctors
giving him less than 24 hours to live.
1 told him how 1 had been mirac–
ulously brought there.
"1 believe God wants to PROVE TO
YOU that He will heal you IF you
will obey Him and keep His com–
mandments," 1 said. "lf you want, I
will pray for the healíng of the
blood poisoning to SAVE YOUR LIFE.
And if then you will repent and
obey Him, I will pray · for your
twisted spine and paralytic condi–
tion and HE WILL HEAL YOU."
"Yes," he answered. "You pray
for the healing of the blood poison–
ing to save my life."
1 did. I called again the next day.
He was COMPLETELY HEALED of the
blood poisoning, to the doctors' as–
tonishment.
But as for keeping God's com–
mandments, he only laughed . in
scorn.
"God has PROVEO to you by this
test that He will heal you of your
paralytic condition IF you will obey
Him. Since you refuse, and ridicule
and make fun of His command–
ments, there is nothing more I can
do for you. I am terribly disap–
pointed and sorry. Good-bye."
1 have never seen or heard of that
man since.
There have been numerous times
when 1 know God has providen–
tially saved my life and protected
me from harm. He has kept me in
vigorous health most of the time,
healed me when ill- which is sel–
dom-watched over me. 1 am grate–
ful beyond words. With David I say,
"Oh how love I thy law.... Thou
through thy commandments hast
made me wiser than mine enemies:
for they are ever with me" (Ps.
ll9:97-98).
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1977
SAINTOR SINNER
(Continued from page 29)
scribes and Pharisees. "For when
John carne to show you the right
way to live, you did not believe
him, but the tax-gatherers and
prostitutes did ; and even when you
had seen that, you did not change
your minds and believe him"
(Matt. 21:31-32,
The New English
Bible).
Today, the individual Christian
can fall into the same trap as Saul
and the Pharisees if he begins to
equate righteousness or the absence
of sin with such things as times, cy–
cles and dates, technical points of
doctrine, dress and dietary codes,
or length and/or frequency of per–
sonal prayer and Bible study.
While these things can certainly
help,
of and by themselves they are
not esoteric keys to the Kingdom
that will somehow guarantee per–
petua! grace and favor with the Al–
mighty.
If
a person's righteousness is
based on outward observance
rather than inner conviction he
could easily be thrown into a state
of spiritual disequilibrium wheri
changes take place in bis most
cherished points of practice. If the
individual then insists on retaining
his outward formulas to the letter,
like sorne kind of spiritual security
blanket, he could end up like the
Pharisees and scribes who found it
difficult to make any kind of mean–
ingful response to the message
Christ brought.
God is looking for the individual
who is willing to admit he has been
wrong, not one who is too self-righ–
teous to ever be willing. The man
who is hung up about bis outward
righteousness may ultimately end
up being the last one to really get
the message. O
RECOMMENDED READING
Severa! of our Worldwide Church of
God publications are germane to the
above subject. To receive your free
copies, simply request them by title:
What
Js
a Real Christian? What Do You
Mean ... Salvation?
and
Just What Do
You Mean . . . Kingdom of God?
{Mail–
ing addresses are on inside lront
cover.)
DINOSAURS
(Continued from page 33)
the time of the original creation;
perhaps it was billions ofyears ago.
Nor does the creation week of
Genesis constitute the only time of
creation. This is evident from verse
2 of Genesis 1, where we find some–
thing unexpected- the earth "was
[became] without form, and void."
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 show the
earth was at one time under the rule
of the archangel Lucifer, and that
bis rule occurred before the Genesis
account of the creation of man.
(Write for the free booklet
Did God
Create a Devil?)
Thus the creation
described in Genesis
l,
beginning
with verse 2, is a
later
creation,
after
the world of the dinosaur. lndeed,
the Bible never mentions dinosaurs,
though it does name many other
creatures.
The creation described in Gen–
esis- that of mammals, bírds, ftow–
ering plants and man-is that of an
era following the dinosaur world.
1t
is actually a re-creation, a refurbish–
ing of an aiready existing earth.
Both the Bible and the strati–
graphic record show that the only
sensible answer
is
that the· dino–
saurs and their world existed before
the creation of man and the cre–
ation week of Genesis l.
With this overview of the age of
reptiles, the facts of science and the
account in Genesis take on new
meaning. There is no real conflict
between science and the Bible. But a
seeming conflict sometimes arises
because men have misunderstood
and misinterpreted not only the fos–
sil record but also the biblical ac–
count.
These truths have been lost to a
world taught to belíeve either in the
Bible-denying theory of evolution
and a totally uniformitarian inter–
pretation of geology or in the unten–
able "religious" concept of a 6,000-
year-old earth and a geology based
entirely on Noah's Flood .
Dinosaurs do not disprove the
Bible; there is no conflict between
the fossil record and Scripture. ln–
stead, science and the Bible mu–
tually amplify and complement
each other.
o
41