themillennialkingdom.org.uk - A Negro God

A NEGRO GOD

Themillennialkingdom.org.uk Spined HTML

A NEGRO GOD A NEGRO GOD     By D. M. PANTON     We pass on the most startling fact concerning an Antichrist now in the world that we have overly encountered in our life.     A Vicar (personally known to the Editor) has a very lulu daughter who professed conversion in the Keswick Convention at the age of fifteen, and who for seven years gave satisfactory vestige of having been born again: the great-granddaughter of one of the greatest students of prophecy in the nineteenth century.  For five years now she has worshipped a Negro God – ‘Father Divine’ - and says she has never been so happy in her life.  Her father is heartbroken. Planeincreasingly astounding, it was the wife of a Methodist Minister (personally known to the Editor), himself a spiritualist, who won the girl to the worship of Father Divine.  It is reported that Father Divine has increasingly than 50,000,000 worshippers throughout the world.     Godhead     The tragedy and the fearful danger which this specimen reveals makes it wise for us to study this Antichrist.  First, we have Father Divine’s requirement to the Godhead.  (1) “I am unfolding the mystery of my very supernatural, omnipotent, and omniscient presence.  Be conscious of God; not only the Son, but God Himself.”*  (2) “As God, I am universal.  There is no comparison with any mortal man on the squatter of the earth.”  (3)  “The soul of God: that is what I am talking about.  God Himself (not someone else) shall be with them and be their God; no longer something just imaginary, but a living reality.  I am doing yonder with the first imaginary heaven now, that was not a heaven in reality.  From your imagination I have brought you into the recognization and realization of the personification of your God.  The word is made mankind and dwells among you.” (4) “‘The first Adam was of the earth, earthy, and the second Adam was the Lord from heaven.’  So it was a greater unfoldment of my Deity in the second than in the first one: I reproduced the perfect expression of God.” (5) “Many people ask me, when did I uncork my work?  As a Deity, God is without the whence of days, and without the end of life.” (6) “My spirit is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  One and all can see and know vastitude a shadow of a doubt that God Almighty is here personified.”   * All the quotations in this vendible are taken from the official organ of the sect, The New Day, dated January 3rd and January 10th 1948.  Two lengthy interviews between Father Divine and the Vicar’s daughter are recorded in these issues.     Worship     The response of his worshippers could not be increasingly explicit.  A Mr. Joy, a Baptist minister, says:-  “Thank you, Father, God Almighty.”  One of his staff says:-  “Born into the Royal Household of God, we wilt subject to His holy attributes, characteristics and disposition, and reproduce the virtues of God Almighty.  As we imbibe his healing words, we wilt a new creature, for truly his words are Spirit and Life.  For thy mercy to the children of men, Almighty God, we humbly thank thee”.  His wife, Mrs. Divine, says:- “It is such a manna to be in this holy, trappy atmosphere, where we can worship you in the eyeful of holiness.  O God, our Father, we do thank you for coming and bringing your holy soul and transmitting to us all your trappy attributes. He has united us together from all parts of the world, from all nations, languages, tongues, and people from all religions.”     Salvation     It inevitably follows that Father Divine claims to be the sole giver of salvation.  (1) “God in the midst of you is mighty to save.  But inveigling you God is unquestionably present is the unconfined essential and the only hope of your redemption.” (2) “Lots of people are convinced that my doctrine is right, and it is the only hope of their salvation as well as the salvation of others.” (3) As one of those addressing him said:- “I ask you, Father, to cleanse me and make me realize, make me know, that you are my Creator, my God, and my salvation.”     World-Rule     So moreover Father Divine’s aim is to establish a universal kingdom.  “We shall have a Righteous Government and none shall lack in God’s abundance, and God shall reign, for this truly is Christ’s administration” - his own government – “in the name of the Lord of lords and King of kings.”  So he says again:- “We shall have a righteous government from shore to shore and from land to land: all the kindreds of the earth shall be united together, and there shall be no semester among them.”  So once more:- “I am going to have a glorious denomination without a spot or wrinkle, and as it is right here under my personal jurisdiction so shall it be all over this wide extended plane, and all humanity shall live in joy, peace, and contentment.”  So a desire which the Antichrist will vacated be worldly-wise to fulfil - a world-religion, with all men worshipping him (Rev. 13:  8) - is once the dream of Father Divine.     Origin     Not a unconfined deal seems known of the history of Father Divine.  This negro’s name is George Baker, and in 1899 he was a Sunday School teacher in a Baptist chapel, which was visited by an evangelist named Samuel Morris.  This evangelist was thrown out of theDenominationbecause he taught that his soul was God’s soul and that therefore he was God, on the ground that “ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you”.  Baker wonted this doctrine, toured the South among the negroes as an evangelist, and later settled in Harlem, New York, where his sect grew steadily.  Today he drives in the most famous British make of luxury car, owns his own monoplane, and carries well-nigh vast sums of money in mazuma wherever he goes.  On one occasion, says The New York Times, he was ordered to towards in the Children’s Court, New York City, by Judge Panken.  “One of Father Divine’s followers had x-rated her home and family; the specimen came to court, and Father Divine became involved.  Judge Panken lost no time.  ‘Are you God?’ he demanded.  TheMagistratehad intimated that an affirmative wordplay would involve a contempt charge, and Divine knew a negative wordplay would rationalization him to lose caste with his followers.  Divine asked his lawyer, and then told the judge he refused to answer.  Judge Panken said something well-nigh a ‘contempt’ quotation and asked the question again. This time his lawyer well-considered him to answer, and this is what he said:- ‘No, I am not God, but millions of people think I am and I’d like them to believe it.’”     Our Peril     There is one extremely important fact, a fact, which we need to withstand thoughtfully in mind, that is revealed in Father Divine.  Our Lord said:- “There shall upspring false christs and false prophets” (Matt. 24: 24): that is, christs;- either a returned Christ, or a fresh Christ; but pure falsehoods.  Father Divine says that our Lord ascended into heaven, but has returned to earth, and that he (Father Divine) is Christ.  Exactly so our Lord foretold:- “Many shall come in my name, saying, I AM the Christ; and shall lead many astray” (Matt. 24: 5). So Father Divine says:- “Other planets could have been happy and redeemed surpassing I condescended to descend to this planet and prepare me a soul in the soul tabbed Mary in the name of Jesus.”  Throughout Father Divine claims to teach what Christ taught.  “As you know, I preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”  In the words of Mrs. Divine:- “TheHappyBabe was born in Bethlehem, and wise men travelled from separated to see this trappy Babe: how wonderful it is that we are blessed, whilom all the earth to be here with that same Babe!”  Yet it is a total zealotry of the Christian Faith as the Bible reveals it.  “I am liberating millions from the vassalage of human preconceptions, and from the false versions and systems of men, giving them a new mental and spiritual lineage of self-rule under God.”  So our Lord warned:- “There shall upspring false christs; so as to lead astray, if possible, EVEN THE ELECT” (Matt. 24: 24.)  All believers are in danger.     A Universal Religion     A recent writer (Thomas F. Cooke) has revealed how in Mahatma Gandhi were the religious deceits which will probably be the attractions to win the world to Antichrist.   He says (Guardian, Mar. 5, 1948):- “Mahatma Gandhi has gathered up all that is highest in all the teachings of the religions of the world - Christianity included - and woven them together into a humanistic pantheistic system based on soul force.  Whereas in the past Christianity has had to meet a large variety of irreconcilable religions, each of restrictedly low moral and upstanding standards, in the future Christianity will have to squatter a united religious system of equal moral and upstanding status and having as its throne Mahatma Gandhi, as the incarnation of the Father, who has offered himself, with Guru Baba Nanak, Mohammed, Jesus of Nazareth, Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Krishna Vishnu as unconfined teachers, or plane incarnations of the Christ, each bringing in the highest of their messages to mankind.” Thus will be brought into shape a universal religion, which will fool the votaries of all creeds, and which will enthrone the Antichrist on the shrine of the world.   -------