The Present State of the Lord’s Testimony (Part 4)

Oh, did I tell you about the letter, and how the word ‘brother’ was missing, and how they hit the roof? It was everywhere in America. He didn’t put the word “BRO” in front of the envelope. I mean, it was like the Holocaust. We’re not going to be like this. Well, anyway, Caleb asked me to come to Dallas…I’m still being a fool. So, I got on a plane, and Caleb asked me to meet with the two groups and see if they couldn’t do something peaceful, because these people had gotten so outraged because someone said they didn’t want to meet on the grounds of oneness and unity, and they just went berserk. Then Caleb asked me to go meet the two groups in the room.

I walked in, and they were meeting, and they started their ritual, and the other brothers and sisters were there. I sat down with someone I do not know, but that woman later said, “When I sat down with Gene Edwards, I felt so filthy.” I listened, and about five minutes later, somebody got on the phone; you could see them dialing. A few minutes later, the Dallas leader walked in, and his name was Bill Freeman. The meeting ended, and I was about to go out to say something to Caleb, when Bill Freeman started in on me almost in a cadence. I want to get this record straight.  There was this blackboard. I did not say one word in that room at any time. You know, I mean, there are some things God has to forgive me for. I went over to that blackboard, and I wrote one word. When I wrote it, I knew that it would be back in Los Angeles within 30 minutes. The word was “Ichabod.” I put it down there, September 1, 1971. I turned around, walked out, and we got outside, and they began screaming. Their screaming was just unreal, and I kept hearing, “Yes, it’s Ichabod.” And they were talking about me. That was not exactly the message I wished to convey. I turned to Caleb and said, “Caleb, y’all have to stop me.”

Everybody stood there on the sidewalk, and they were hearing all of this stuff, and they all had their heads down, and there was a defeated bunch of people. I had not said that yet, by the way, to Caleb, and I looked at them, and I thought how sad it was that this had bruised them. I said, “The natives are rather restless tonight, aren’t they?” And everybody looked up and smiled, the group I was with. We got in the car, and I said, “Caleb, you have to stop meeting.” They did, and I’ve never been back to Dallas, Texas.

So, if you’ve ever read Animal Farm by George Orwell, there’s Napoleon, who’s the leader of the farm. He took it over and ran Snowball off, but whenever anything went wrong, it was Snowball who was to blame, according to Napoleon. Well, for about five, six, or seven years, I was Snowball. I had nothing to do with them, but it was coming back to me all the time. When they had a problem over there, that was Snowball: that was Gene Edwards. Now you answer this question for me. Was that an act of cowardice on my part? Was it a neutral thing, or did it take courage? The answer is, I am the only man in this world, and he knew when I left, and I knew it, and he knew it. I’m the first and only human being who ever survived that man.

Now I’m going to jump ahead to 1975. The Far East again. I was there in 1965 and in 1975. I went there to rescue some Christians who were out in the jungles, and I got a phone call saying somebody’s got to come get these people. They’re going to be destroyed by the Vietcong, the Viet Thai, and the Viet Lao. I took the challenge, and that’s another story. But when I got off the plane, I landed in Hong Kong first. Do you remember what I just told you about what I saw in 1965? When I arrived there in 1975, Brother James Chen, who was, more or less, not only the pastor of that whole church but also of the whole of Hong Kong, belonged to him.

James Chen and Brother … went to court and were tied up for years over who owned that building. It was big, and it was beautiful, and it was ugly, and it was vicious. There was a day when one group was meeting, the other group ran over time, and the other group came into the building to use the church, and the two groups met, and a fist fight broke out. In fact, it was a riot, and that’s the present status of the testimony of God on this earth. As far as I know, there are two churches in every city, whereas there was one little flock church in every place in Asia. The carnage has been absolutely unbelievable, and then the same thing came over to the United States. Brother Michael, I believe you are aware of some of that.

Now, I heard something really interesting. Now, you’ve just been over in Raleigh-Durham, and there are four groups, and all of them are meeting on the grounds of oneness and locality, four churches in Raleigh, Durham. Tell them that Gene sends his love.

A few years ago, I was in California and met with Doug… You know, I love him. He was 19 years old the day that I met these people, and he’s now gray-headed sort of. He said, “Gene, you were so wise to get out of there when you did.” Well, I’m not sure whether I got to the door first or they got me out of the door first. It was a foot race.” But he said, “Gene, you cannot imagine how many nervous breakdowns there have been, how many divorces there have been, and how many destroyed Christians there have been since this movement was started.” I am telling you that some of the things, if I told you that those people have done, you would say to me that cannot be true. Christians would not do that. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I can tell you what happened. What somebody said in that meeting in Dallas that night, one of them said, “If Gene Edwards walks into this room, I’m going to break open his legs.” I never met him. That’s the present status of God’s testimony this year. Now, I’m ending that story, permanently.

It seems strange today, and you’re just going to have to be very understanding that I made a statement. I made a vow that I would never criticize that man as long as I live. I think that finally came clear to them because I did not, and I would not. Then I heard he died, and now I’m about to die, according to this verse of scripture I read. I am about to die anyway, and this is the record that I’m leaving you, the status of the present testimony of God’s people on this earth. I would say it’s not God’s testimony. We don’t have one, and quite frankly, I’m not sure we’ve had one since the Plymouth Brethren stepped on the stage, with all the things they have done. But the carnage that these people have wreaked even overshadows what has gone on between the Plymouth Brothers.

That leaves two other groups of Christians who made it into the 20th century: brother Bakht Singh and brother Prem Pradhan. One from India and one from Nepal. What shall we say of brother Bakht Singh? I never met him, but I made sure his people visited us in Santa Barbara. I’m wondering, Paul, do you and the four of you remember their visit with us? You don’t remember a group of Christians every time someone said pray, they dropped to their knees. Misha, do you remember their visit with us?  Alicia? We went there, and they came here. They were with us one weekend. Well, this brother, you ought to remember this meeting. This brother got up. He just got there, and he rebuked us for not witnessing. I mean, he really ripped us to shreds. This is what his message was; he sat down, and that room went “tomb” silent. I walked up to the front, and I said to him, “Sir, this afternoon you will lead this church out on the beaches, and you will show us how to witness on the beaches.” He didn’t know that we were loaded for bear. We went out that afternoon, and he led us. And by the way, he later apologized to me in private for having done that.

We got out there, and we went up one side of those beaches, back down the same side of those beaches, witnessing to people. I think we brought a few folks that night that we had led to the Lord. They’re very evangelistic. Bakht Singh is, hands down, the most successful Christian worker outside institutional Christianity since the Apostle Paul. Recently, when he died, the funeral was attended by 600,000 people, according to Christianity Today, and the picture that was taken from an airplane is unbelievable. It was the eyes as far as the eyes can see. 60,000 churches in one man’s lifetime. Most of them were in the provinces around Hyderabad. That’s a pretty good status, Gene. The only problem is that we never saw those people. He had five co-workers. You’re going to meet one of them. He’s been a friend of mine for many, many years, and if we can ever rake up five or $600 around here, I’m going to invite him here. His name is Koshy, and he’s going to tell you the whole story. I have nothing to say to you about these people. They were and still are awesome, but I will tell you this. To my knowledge, and I think I’m correct, and I think maybe I’m one book off, in his entire lifetime, Bach Singh wrote two pamphlets. One is entitled “David Recovered All”, about 60 pages long, and there’s another one, but I’m not sure what its name is. There may just be one, but that’s it. Nothing.

I want to take a little credit for the fact that his biography has just appeared because I asked brother Koshy to come to my home in Maine, sit down with me, and, on the phone, exhorted him to get this biography written. We had a nice long meeting for about a week, and the best I could do was tell him how to write, and he just published, a few days ago, the biography of Bakht Singh. It’s 450 pages long, and that’s it, and that’s a great work, but I will have to say that it was purely evangelism, but I also have to say he was a churchman, 60,000 churches.