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Re: A Revelation and a Testimony
I became a Christian on March 28, 1955. After attending a service in a local Baptist Church in our small village of Union Grove, Wisconsin I went home and asked Jesus Christ to come into my life. He did that night and made me a new creature in Christ. He changed my life completely and my language and attitude changed so drastically that over 50 years later at a high school reunion folks talked about the “old Jim” and the “new Jim” that they had known in high school.
Shortly after that I joined a local Baptist Church in our small town. I think it was part of an organization called GARB (General Association of Regular Baptists). I also participated in a couple of correspondence courses from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. One of them was on Romans and one of them, called The Bible Says, was on doctrine. God was described as being three persons but one God. I was told that just as there is no way you could contain the whole ocean in a teacup, there is no way our small human brain could understand God. I often wondered if there were three separate spirits in God, if one of them (the Son) took on humanity to die on the cross, and if so, what happened to that body in heaven --was it stuck off in the corner somewhere while the spirit who was the Son was kneeling at the right hand of the Father's throne praying to the Father. Also, was the Holy Spirit who indwelt me a separate spirit?
From reading the Bible and some other literature and from listening to some preachers on the radio, I realized that there was “more” for me than what I had received so far. I began to pray that God would give me the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I sought this experience alone at home, in the woods, on our rooftop and a couple times at an Apostolic church which met in a home. Later, on October 27, 1955 I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ at Elim Tabernacle (UPC) in Milwaukee, WI. I continued going to the Baptist Church.
On December 6, 1955 (my 18th birthday) I prayed before going to bed as usual. As I got off my knees and was getting into bed I received what I believe to be a "revelation." Some how I "saw" (but not a literal picture) that God is one invisible Spirit who fills the whole universe but who visited planet earth in a human body to pay the penalty for my sin and is now living in us as the Holy Spirit. I “saw” that the tiny, helpless baby born to the virgin Mary was the Lord God Jehovah of the universe manifest or revealed or made known to us as the Son of God. I saw that Jesus was God manifested in flesh and whatever we find Jesus doing or saying could be as God or could be as man. Now, this did not answer all my questions but it helped me see that God acts and moves in various ways but is not three separate spirit beings in heaven. It just “clicked” in my mind. By the time I got into bed and pulled the covers up over me I had an “understanding” of God and Jesus. I could hardly lie still. I was so excited and full of joy.
Around that time I left the Baptist Church and started attending Bethel Tabernacle (UPC) in Racine, Wisconsin. On May 20, 1956 (which happened to be Pentecost Sunday) I received the Holy Ghost Baptism at Bethel Tabernacle.
I've since come to the conclusion that our word "person" comes from a word meaning "persona" or "mask" or "role" and that one God can be three "persons" if we take that as meaning that one God plays all three roles, or wears all three masks, or is all three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-- in the drama of redemption.
I still go along with the teacup and the ocean thing. We humans cannot reduce an infinite God into a package small enough to fit into our puny brain and into our human understanding or explanation or theological package. I don't really like the labels “oneness” and “trinity” and don't like to categorize people that way. I think we all believe in one God who came to us in the person of His Son and who lives in us as the Holy Spirit.
I could not explain all the various passages of Scripture relating to the subject of "the Godhead" but some how I knew that the one true God, the one revealed as Jehovah in the Old Testament:
came to earth in the person of Jesus,
lived among humans,
died, was buried, rose again, ascended to Heaven, and was exalted,
and lived in me as the Holy Spirit.
I considered it a "revelation" at the time and still do.
I also considered it a special birthday gift from the Lord on my 18th birthday
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Sam also known as Jim Ellis
Apostolic in doctrine
Pentecostal in experience
Charismatic in practice
Non-denominational in affiliation
Inter-denominational in fellowship
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