Here is some information on my late Father...
My father John A Eckstadt was born Nov 10th, 1934 and passed away on March 13th, 1978. He was raised in a home where his mother had him reading everything she could find from the time he was 2 years old. She was a devout Catholic and dreamed one day he might become a priest. My grandfather was a WW1 Navy hero and a Brooklyn Poilce officer between WW1 and WW2. He enlisted again in the Navy at the age of 47 upon the sudden death of my grandmother at the age of 33 from breat cancer. My fathers only sibling his sister Florence passed away in 1945 at the age of 13 from Leukemia. My grandfather did not make it back in time to see her before she died. After WW2 my grandfather returned and worked for the military division of the NY police Department where he investigated crimes committed by and upon Ex-GI's.
My father at the age of 16 in 1950 started lifthing weights and became a body builder. By the age of 17 he was running with the wrong crowd and began drinking. My grandfather married a dancer and they were drunk on the weekends and fighting during the week.
At the young age of 17 my father ran with a friend who was jewish. As they walked passed a synagouge. The sign read, "Here ole Israel, the Lord our God is One". His friend made this statement, "John do you believe in God?"
My father made this comment, I don't think that I believe in God! This young man made this statement to my father. "John one day you will believe there is a God and only one God".
Shortly thereafter my dad became close friends to a new kid on the block. His dad was newly planted AOG pastor. They soon became very close friends. My father was invited to church and he found it exciting to hear the preaching and then try and refute what the minister had to say. He began to ask his Jewish friend if he could help translate from the Hebrew what some old testament words meant to them. He received the HQ in Brooklyn at an AOG church at the age of 18.
This was the start of my fathers love for the original Hebrew and then it came full circle to the original Greek. It was not uncommon for my father when in cities around the country to visit synagogues and sit for hours with the Rabbi's.
My father was not one to follow the crowd he searched scriptures for meaning and original truths. He was on a quest for revelation that he believed was found in the original meanings of the written word.
My father was scouted by major league scouts at the age of 17. He once hit a ball over 450 feet in front of scouts. That later drafted his friend and classmate, Frank Torre the older brother of Yankee's and now Dodgers manager Joe Torre. Their fathers worked out of the same police station in Brooklyn. My father's path was not baseball, but it bacame the ministry.
The AOG pastor that taught my father and helped encourage him to attend Bible College is still alive and lives in Springfield, MO at the AOG assisted living center for retired AOG ministers, he is 95 years old.
That should be a message to all pastors, how many exceptional young men have been looked over? Thank God for that gifted pastor.
My father was caught praying in tounges in his home by his father who kicked him out of the house. He then went to live his senior year in HS with AOG pastor. My dad attended AOG Zion Bible College in Rhode Island.
They graduated him with a full degree after 1 year and half. He met my mother they married just after graduating in 1959. She attended four years and upon graduation they traveled as Evangelist in the AOG not together but by themselves. They met up every couple of weeks to be together.
My father while preaching in what he thought was an AOG church in New Brunswick, Canada. A church in the home town of my Mother's, father and mother. They came to the USA in 1921 and moved to the city of Boston, where my mother was born and raised.
In the middle of his sermon he quoted
Isaiah 9:6, when he did the church went nuts. He then ate dinner and then found out he was in a wacky Jesus only church. He had to preach that night and that afternoon all he could hear was, "The Lord our God is one". He began to run scriptures through his mind. He preached at 2 other churches on that trip in NB. A few months later he was back at the same church. These 3 pastors all began to fast and pray that he would come to a revelation. One sunday afternoon they all came to the pastors house to talk with him. When they walked into the house he told them, no need. I want to be baptized in the name of Jesus.
He did this without talking to my mother. Her older brother was married to the daughter of an AOG headquarters offical. My uncle Ron Prince later switched to Southern Baptist and pastored for 30 plus years in Minden, LA with over 3000 members. Where he became close friends of T.W. Barnes. My uncle told me near the end of his life that he was baptised in the name of Jesus. My uncle Ron was a real friend of the late Martin Luther King JR.. That is a whole other great story.
My mother at first faught my dad on his being rebaptized. She then follewed as did many of our family members throughout the 1960's.
The article that Michael the Disciple quotes is from the Dec 1964 UPC Pentecostal Herald. If anyone wants that in PDF send me your email addess.
In 1963 my father was offered a church in Pittsburgh that ran 1500 saints but it was AOG. He had just moved over to the UPC. Then GS A.T. Morgan told my fathar to visit all the state Superintendent's. Of which my father completed the visit to almost all the states by the time I was born in July 1964.
My father proceeded to travel as an evangelist for the years to come. He was a full-time teacher of theology at PBI, JCM and Mark Hanby's Wide World of Truth. He was a man of revelation and started teaching on Soul Sleep years ahead of his time. He also pastored chuches in the AOG and UPC.
He lived life with passion, love and a God fearing honesty that I have rarely witnessed. He was born a few months after Elvis Pressly and died a few months after Elvis. They both passed away at the age of 43.
If you really want to see what he believed you need to hear Eckstadt-vs- Eckstadt. Where he preaches a Trinity message and then preaches a oneness message and then explains the difference.
He once converted many in a church in Bristol, Conn from the UPC to the AOG. Then when he became Oneness he converted them back to the Oneness. He lived a life of revelation, I wish he lived in these times where everyone has to get themselves known by writing books.
In my fathers life, his mother planted the seed, his father planted the motivation, his jewish friend planted the question, his AOG friend planted the example and the AOG pastor planted the passion.
My grandfather his dad was a WW1 hero and served on the USS Nathianel Fanning, where each man received a citation for valor from then President Wilson. 2 men received the Navy Cross, for the sinking of a German U-boat. On that day in Nov, 17th, 1917. When they dropped the depth charge, that hit the Uboat the blast also knocked out the engines of the Fanning. They did not have full power to escape if needed. They waited seconds and the blast brought the U-boat to the surface. The men aboard the Fanning came within seconds of being defeated in battle. Which would have made it impossible for my father and then the next generation to have existed.
Remember God had us in his mind before our time...
God Bless
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