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away so we may be at one with
Christ. The Feast of Tabemacles
pictures the millennium- the King–
dom of God ruling- the thousand
years when all then living wiU be
called, and saved if they are willing.
The final day of the fall Feast pic–
tures the Great White Throne Judg–
ment, when the billions sentenced to
be cut off from God will be resur–
rected mortal, and then ca lled,
drawn to Christ and saved if they
are willing.
Back to the Beglnnlng
But I have gotten a little ahead of
myself.
It is necessary that we go back
once again to the beginning. When
Satan got to Eve in the Garden of
Eden, he did not say, "Reject God 's
govemment, and come under my
government." No, he was too subtle
for that! He said, in etfect: "God
lied to you. You won' t surely die if
you take to yourself the production
of the knowledge of wha t is good
and what is evil.
Rule your own lije.
God knows that when you eat this
forbidden fruit, then your eyes shall
be opened, and you shall be as gods
[a correct trans lation would be ,
"You shall be God"], knowing good
and evi l."
Notice, too, that G od did not sen–
tence mankind to 6,000 years of
Satan's rule. God allowed manto be
deceived by Satan. God allowed
man to
THINK
he was forming his
own governments, his own religions,
producing his own knowledge and
education. But God knew how
Satan would deceive all mankind
(Rev. 12:9), blinding man's eyes
from the truth, and swaying him by
broadcasting
ATTITUDES
through the
air. Conditions in the world, wi th
man ruling himself, unknowingly
swayed by Satan, have grown worse
and worse.
The true Church remained pretty
much underground until
it
shrank
to the leve! that the
GREAT CHURCH
(of Revelation 17) didn't bother any
longer to try to stamp it out.
It
was
in such a world that this " Phila–
delphia era" of God's Church was
bom. We had now cometo the very
living generation that shaU witness
the end of this age, and the coming
40
of Christ, and setting up of the
Kingdom of God.
In other words, it is in this living
generation when the great event
that Christ announced over 1900
years ago will actually happen! This
is the living generation that shall
live in two worlds- the end of this
present evil world, and the begin–
ning ofthe world tomorrow ruled by
the Kingdom of God! The time had
come for this tremendous gospel an–
nouncement to go out to the very
world that willlive to see it happen!
Preparatlon for God's Work
In a sense there is a parallel in my
own life.
1
have lived in two differ–
ent centuries.
1
lived in the end (the
last eight years) of the nineteenth
century, and, so far, seventy-eight
years in this twentieth century. God
has, in a number of cases, prepared
in advance those He caUs to a very
special mission. In the Old Testa–
ment, God prepared Moses by hav–
ing hirn brought up in the king's
palace by the king's daughter, as a
prince. In the New Testament He
prepared the apostle Paul by having
him educated by the great teacher
of that time, Gamaliel. Of course
these men were living the way of
this world during the pre-training
period.
The same was true in my case.
1
will cover just very briefty the high
spots of that early training, before
1
was converted and called and
THE
GREAT COMMISSION
conferred on
me.
At age sixteen, on my first sum–
mer vacation job away from home
in another town, my employer
aroused ambition in me. He instilled
great self-confidence. He assured me
1 was destined to be a great success,
but 1 would have to work hard to
achieve it. But 1 had no
GOAL
in
life- the first law ofsuccess.
At eighteen, after thorough self–
analysis and analysis of various pro–
fessions, occupations, etc., I set my
life goal as the advertising profes–
sion. It was the wrong goal, but God
changed that in due time. Never–
theless, it did
PREPARE
me for God's
commission! I was successful. 1 put
myself in contact with successful
men- the presidents and board
chai rmen of the great industrial cor–
porations of the middle west in the
United States, and of the great
banks of Chicago and New York. In
my twenties, I was making the
equivalent of (at today's dollar–
value) $150,000 ayear!
I had spent three years with the
largest trade journal in the U.S.-the
Merchants Trade Journal.
1
worked
one year writing advertising copy,
two years as their " idea man" (trav–
elling the eastern two-thirds of the
United States, looking for ideas and
materia l for articles), and fina lly
writing articles for publica ti on .
Then a short time as assistant secre–
tary of the South Bend, Indiana ,
Chamber of Commerce; then seven
years as advertising representative–
or publishers' representative with an
office in Chicago's loop.
1
built a big-paying business by
making surveys resulting in large–
space advertising from such com–
panies as Goodyear Tire and Rub–
ber, J.
l.
Case Plow Works, Moline
Plow Works, Emerson Branting–
ham, John Deere
&
Co., Dalton
Adding Machine, and others. Every
one of these giant corporations went
into receivership during the flash
depression of 1920. My business
suddenly, by forces beyond my con–
trol, was swept away.
Shocklng Challenges Spur
Search for Truth
My family, with my wife's brother
and sister, migrated to Oregon in
1924.
lt
was an 18-day trip over dirt
and grave! unpaved road s in a
Model-T Ford.
In the autumn of 1926, 1 was hit
by a dual
CHALLENGE.
My wife had
suddenly taken up with " religious
fanaticism," as it then seemed to
me. A sister-in-law challenged me
on the theory of evolution, which
she had been taught in college. She
called me "downright ignorant" be–
cause 1 did not accept or believe the
theory.
This dual
CHALLENGE
plunged me
into the most intensive in-depth
study and research of my life- a vir–
tua l night-and-day study. 1 delved
into th e writings of Darwin ,
LaMarck, Huxley, Haekel, Cham–
berlin, etc. , etc., but primarily the
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1978