In 1929 I was preaching in
Vancouver, British Columbia. I had gone to the 6th Avenue Church that
seats 1,000 people. The old building is gone now. I sat down on the
platform, and looked down on the congregation for the Sunday morning
service. There were 18 people. I had crossed the continent, from Los
Angeles, to get to that meeting. Eighteen people in my first service.
My first thought was, My
Lord and my God, the nerve, asking me to come across the country to stand
here in front of eighteen people. Now, that was my first thought. Now, I
no sooner thought that, when God spoke to my heart and said, "Son, I want
you to comfort these people."
They needed comfort.
Brother, he gave me the capacity to comfort them. I started preaching
comforting words. If I had given way to the human, I would have skinned
them alive, and tacked their hides up on the wall. People in a condition
like that don't need a skinning, they need comfort. God helped me. He
poured in the oil and the wine. He helped me to comfort those people.
They began to cry all over
the place, as they needed comfort, the tears began to stream down their
cheeks. They had gone through a terrible trial in that city. And the name
of "Pentecost" was in the newspapers of that city, and it wasn't very
good. The things that they had put into the newspapers were enough to keep
most anybody away. I had eighteen people on the inside, and thousands on
the outside. God began to work and the Spirit began to come forth.
By the following Sunday the
place was well filled. The Holy Ghost began to bring them in. By the end
of the third week they had to take down the partition that separated the
coat room from the main auditorium to put more seats in that auditorium
that seated a thousand. It packed out. They packed the place, standing up
and down the winding stairs, and outside of the church building and out
into the street. The Glory of God came down. Souls began to get saved and
the sick were healed. We had a glorious victory of the world of the flesh
and the devil. The ministers were so happy. They said, "Lord, in spite of
that death, you've given us victory."
Right in the middle of that
victory, I stood in 6th Avenue Church one day with the power of God on me.
All of a sudden, the ceiling just disappeared. Now when I say vision, my
friends, I know that some visions are what the Bible calls "night
visions," like in a dream. You will find that in the Bible. Dreams are
also called visions. Generally speaking, a vision is differentiated by
what you see with your eyes open. That which you see when you are not
asleep.
I began to see this vision
and the Lord showed me. I looked up, I saw what answers to the description
of an I.C.B.M. (Inter-continental Ballistic Missile). Just as real as any
picture that you would see, or the real thing, if you've ever seen one of
those missiles. It was just as real as you would look upon one if it were
right in front of you, two or three feet away.
I saw it! It was passing
over a skim of clouds. Not heavy clouds, but a thin skim of clouds. I was
standing on the side of this mountain, a residential district. I was
looking over into a bay area. It would appear like I was in Berkeley, if
you've ever been to Berkeley, and the Berkeley Hills. I was looking into
the bay area toward San Francisco. The San Francisco Bay region, that
direction. I saw the freeway. I don't say that it was the Oakland freeway
that is there today. I don't know where it was, my friends. I do know
this, that I was standing on the side of this mountain, overlooking a huge
metropolis.
When I saw this missile
directed toward the city, and suddenly, being electronically controlled no
doubt, it plummeted right down into the city and then exploded. Then I saw
the fireball, which answers to the description of what I have seen in a
civil defense film release of the first Hydrogen bomb explosion. This
happened in 1929! Yet I saw it as clear as I see you here tonight. There
was a purpose in it. I have been warning people ever since, that this
thing is coming. As the day approaches, my friends, I feel more vibrant
than ever before. I have got to bear testimony to what I saw with my eyes!
I have got to warn God's
people that they must live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit and be
filled with the Spirit, if they want God's protection in these last days!
I saw this thing blossom
out in all of its beautiful colors. Did you ever see a picture of it? It's
a beautiful sight, but a horrible sight. All of the colors of the rainbow
you can see in that big ball as it swells out. Then the pressure that it
creates following the explosion. It demolishes everything before it. It
leaves a crater over 300 feet deep and over 2 miles across. It is capable
of destroying a huge metropolis the size of New York City in one blast.
Even though there were no
freeways in 1929, I saw freeways. I saw them run and jump in their cars to
escape, but there was no escape! I saw the aftermath of this explosion. I
saw all of the detail. The Spirit of the Lord picked me up. Like St. Paul,
whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. All I know is, my
friends, that God took me, and whisked me across that area where the bomb
hit in the midst of that huge metropolis. There was nothing left. The
center where it struck was molten, like molten glass. It wasn't until I
was carried away beyond the residential area that I began to see any sign
of debris.
Finally, I came to what
looked similar to snow or sand drifts piled up against the fences and
buildings. I saw piles of iron, like broom straw, only much finer than
broom straw. It was in piles, and in patterns. Everything completely
destroyed! Finally, way, way out, beyond what I felt was the residential
area, I began to find signs of human beings, only in pieces. Torsos,
heads, hands, arms and legs. They were scattered around everywhere!
The Spirit of the Lord
carried me out further. I began to find signs of life. People were
running. Everybody was blind. I didn't know in 1929 that if you are 35
miles away from the explosion and you happened to be looking in that
direction you would never see again. I didn't know that at that time.
Everybody was blind, my friends; they were running and screaming and
bumping up against this and that and the other, bouncing back, children
blind and screaming, and crying out for their parents, and parents for
their children.
The farther I went the more
the confusion, and the cries increased! My friends, even tonight, while I
am speaking to you, I can hear those cries! I can hear those cries,
children and parents screaming out for one another! It was a terrible
sight to behold! If I were to live ten-thousand years I know I could just
close my eyes, and hear those screams, and see the terror that was written
all over the faces of parents and children! A terrible sight indeed!
Then, my friends, the
Spirit of the Lord took me, oh, I wonder how fast I was going. I could see
the mountains and the hills just passing before me. I came sweeping down
over a large valley. In the distance, I could see as I began to approach,
a body of people that looked like tens of thousands. I don't know how many
were there. It was a sea of people. Long before I got there I could see,
as I came down closer, I could discern them. They had their handkerchiefs,
they were wiping their tears from their eyes.
Then for the first the first time, I began to hear heavenly anthems.
Heavenly anthems, I could hear the Hallelujahs in bass, in tenor, in
soprano and in alto voices blending together. That mass of humanity were
lifted together by the heavenly music. I came right down in the midst of
them. There they were, God's people. This is what I saw, friends. They
were all dressed up like they were ready for the Sunday service. Their
hair was parted, nothing was disturbed. There was no soil on their shirts,
they were cared for so perfectly that everything was in order. Their faces
were clean, their clothing was clean. Everything was in order. The only
word that you could use to describe them would be meticulous! Glory to
God! It is going to be a marvelous thing to be in the hands of God in
these last days! Glory to God! What a wonderful thing to be in the hands
of God! I say that God is going to protect His people in these last days
IF! …they live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit and keep filled
with the Spirit!