God has a long-range program. Part of the program includes the perfecting of a testimony to the nations of the earth.

God has created millions of people and He loves them all. But He has no way of communicating to them His love, His Person, His way, and His will. God's answer to His problem is His eternal witness, the Church without spot or wrinkle, the Body of Christ, the Servant of the Lord.

Introduction

Since a couple of people who receive the daily essays have inquired as to my doctrinal beliefs, I am writing the following brief autobiographical sketch.

My response has been that I subscribe unequivocally to the cardinal Evangelical doctrines. I accept wholeheartedly the fundamentals of the Christian faith. My argument is with the current grace-Heaven-rapture error that is not scriptural, has destroyed the testimony of the churches, and kept the believers in a state of eternal babyhood.

In addition to protesting the prevailing unscriptural teaching, I am presenting the work of God that is to follow the Pentecostal experience, that is, the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, and the reason for this work. I thought therefore that I would like to explain how I came to an understanding of the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles and the purpose behind the fulfillment.

I was converted to Christ in 1944, on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain. A year later, while stationed at Sasebo, Japan, the Lord called me to preach the Gospel.

When I was discharged from the Marine Corps, in 1946, I searched about for a seminary to attend. Since many veterans were returning there were only a few openings left. The one I located was in San Diego, an Assembly of God Bible school by the name of Berean Bible Institute.

Having been raised on the East coast I knew nothing of the Pentecostal movement or of speaking in tongues. Being of a somewhat cerebral nature it took me a year before finally breaking forth in tongues. I have been speaking in tongues ever since, with occasional lapses into English.

The Berean Bible Institute was small but mighty in its offering, because it reflected in its faculty and visiting speakers ministers who had known Pentecost in its glory.

My wife, Audrey, and I were acquainted with Stanley Howard Frodsham, the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel for many years.

My Greek teacher, Walter Harris, had been associated with Dr. Yokum (I am not positive of some of these spellings) of the Pisgah Home Movement. The anecdotes Brother Harris (a man of precise integrity and truthfulness) would tell the students, the miracles he had witnessed, were awesome.

Elmer E. Fullerton, Pastor of the First Assembly of God in San Diego during the war, came to speak at some of the chapel services. On Brother Fullerton's suggestion Audrey and I visited Samuel S. Scull, another hero of the Assemblies.

A few years previously Smith-Wigglesworth had been to Sixth and Fir, the First Assembly of God of San Diego. Brother J. O. Dowell, the President of the Bible School and I believe founder of the Assembly of God church of La Jolla, California, told us about the ministry of Smith-Wigglesworth at First Assembly. One of my classmates, Sister Good, had worked for a season with Aimee Semple McPherson.

So you see, Audrey and I had the opportunity to become acquainted with Pentecost in its heyday.

To be continued.