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Personal from...
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1)
and lhe need of God's Holy Spiril
for salvalion and eternallife!
Bu1 now 1he delails had 10 be
filled in.
I had
not yet
received God's Holy
Spirit. I was slill searching wilh a
carnal mind- bul, wilh lhis knowl–
edge.
1
had SURRENDERED my will.
my hos1ili1y againsl God. all rebel–
lion againsl H1s law. I had RE–
PENTED, and
1
had come lO BELIEVE
in Jesus Christ as personal Savior.
Bul I was slill puzzled about
water baplism. My parents. andan–
cestors for 200 years before them,
had been Quakers. I had been
brought up in that church, though I
didn't know much about what lhey
believed. I did know they did NOT
believe in water baptism.
So
1
next studied that question
diligently, in the Bible. I went to
four preachers for help. but relied
solely on the Bible for the final deci–
sion. A Seventh-Day Adventist
preacher seemed coldly legalistic,
lacking spirilual warmth. A Church
of God (seventh-day. Stanberry,
Missouri) preacher didn't want to be
bothered and was insulting. A
Quaker minister was friendly, but
had to admit, finally, that he himself
questioned his church's doctrine on
this point and only went along with
it because other "holy men of God"
(as
he
called them) in his church
did. A Baptist minister had lhe best
and clearest explanation, was warm
and friendly and,
r
fe lt, more spiri–
tual in a sane and sensible way. So
1
asked him to baptize me, not into
his church, but into Christ. For this I
had to obtain permission from the
rather august and dignified board of
the church. On being baptized I
knew
God then and there gave me
HIS HOLY SPIRIT!
Now I had added one technical
doctrine to my spiritual knowledge.
Very soon after this my wife was
taken ill with multiple acute condi–
tions under which she could not
have lived another 24 hours. She
had blood poisoning (from a rose–
bush thorn) moving toward her
heart; an infection from a dog bite
that was acute; quinsy with a big
hard lump completely blocking her
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1978
throat so nothing could pass; and
lockjaw. She had not had a bite of
food, a drop of water, nor a wink of
sleep in three days and three nights.
T he doctor could do nothing- said
she could not live another 24 hours
without sleep and with the blood
poison moving rapidly toward her
heart.
A neighbor lady asked if
1
would
allow a man and his wife to come
and pray for her. Reluctantly. and
embarrassed, J consented. They
carne about seven in the evening.
1
questioned and cross-examined
them.
1
didn't want any fanaticism.
They answered all questions with
the Bible. They read scriptures new
to me. My wife and I both began to
believe. They knelt by her bed,
anointed her, and the man jusi
talked earnestly to God. reminding
God He had PROMISED to heal.
Little
by
little,
a doctrine at a time, a
question or subject
a t a time, truth was
emerging. But the Bible is
like a jigsaw puzzle.
saying we EXPECTED Him to keep
His promise, and then thanking
Him for it. I had never heard a
prayer like 1hat.
The couple left quiel ly. My wife
asked me to walk her out to the
sidewalk in front of our house
and back. The lump in her lhroat
had disappeared- her jaw was un–
locked. She lay down in bed again.
went soundly to sleep, did not
awaken until eleven nexl morning–
complelely healed ofEVERYTHING!
After thal
1
pursued an in–
tensified study inlo all the Bible re–
vealed about HEALING of sickness
and disease.
Now carne a sludy about heaven
and hell. Then a more intensified
study of the Kingdom of God and
the coming millennial reign under
Christ for a lhousand years on this
earth.
Meanwhi le, I was pursuing an in-
tensified Sludy of PROPHECY. The
prophecies about a "beasl" or the
"four beasts" of Daniel 7 were a
problem.
1
read many booklets and
pamphlets on lhe subject-all clearly
in error. Finally. I began putting
down in chart form on paper all that
the Bible reveals on it. and lhe
meaning cleared up.
Also, even during the initial six–
months' study before baptism, a
minister in Florida I had contacted
by mai l wrote saying thal unless I
knew of the identity of 1he United
States and the British as the birth–
right people of lsrael-heading the
so-called "Losl Ten Tribes"- I was
IGNORANT! So l obtained all the lil–
erature
1
could find on the subject,
comparing every point with the
Bible.
1
found many errors-errors
in every book or pamphlet I could
find on the subject. Bul what
1
did
find in the Bible PROVEO our iden–
tity. This was the needed KEY to
unlock all the prophecies!
1
s1udied seventh-day Church of
God literalure and Seventh-Day
Adventist literature. I found the Ad–
ventist doctrine about going to
heaven for a thousand years com–
pletely unscriptural. The Church of
God taught correctly a millennium
on earth. but didn't seem to know
much about what will happen dur–
ing that time. So I delved deeper
into those detaiJs.
1
studied the popular "rapture
theory" about the second coming of
Christ. found the Bible proved it
fa lse and dug out the TRUTH from
the Bible. Then carne such subjects
and doctrines as "the mark of the
beast," law and grace. and the Bible
teaching about angels. Other sub–
jects that had come up during the
very first year of my study were the
origin of Satan and the true mean–
ing of Genesis l. The true meaning
of the Old Covenant. and of the
New Covenant, and many similar
doctrinal questions continued to
clear up.
Little by little. a doctrine at a
time. a question or subject at a time.
TRUTH was emerging. But the Bible
is like a jigsaw puzzle. One must get
all the individual pieces put to–
gether in their right relation to other
pieces before the WHOLE PICTURE
comes clear.
You today get the TRUTH all put
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