Faith – Old Magazine Articles

Witness on Azusa Street
(LA Times, 1906)

Between 1906 and 1909, the Holy Spirit had come to dwell among the people in Los Angeles. One April day, in a run-down livery stable that was converted to a church, Pastor William Seymore (1870 – 1922) broke out into tongues and so did everyone within earshot. In fact, people blocks away began to speak in tongues and witnessing to all passersby. Within no time, the walls of that “tumble-down shack on Azusa Street” were decorated with the crutches, canes and hearing horns of the recently healed.

”The Separation of God and State”
(Christian Herald, 1963)

The attached article by Joseph Martin Hopkins, was most likely written in response to the 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale. This decision stated that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in government schools. Hopkins had this to say:

“Is this what the Founding Fathers intended? It has been well stated that to the contrary, their concern was that the American people enjoy freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”

Searching for God
(Pageant Magazine, 1948)

Like the Penitent Thief who was crucified next to Jesus, Ernest Gaither (1924 – 1947), also found salvation during the closing moments of his life. While biding his time on death row, Gaither was taught a neat little trick that all doubters should try, God showed up and Gaither learned of his worth.

Sabbath Challenges
(Christian Herald, 1963)

In the early Sixties, American church attendance was dropping as a new spirit of secularism was sweeping across the fruited plains. More and more merchants and restaurateurs were opening their businesses on Sundays and challenging the age-old Blue Laws as a result. This article examines what the Bible said about “keeping the sabbath holy”, and why Blue Laws were enacted in so many states.

‘God and Alcoholics”
(Liberty Magazine, 1939)

Somebody said The Lord’s Prayer as the meeting broke up. I walked three blocks to the subway station. Just as I was about to go down the stairs – bang! – It happened! I don’t like the word miracle, but that’s all I can call it. The lights in the street seemed to flared up. My feet seemed to leave the pavement. A kind of shiver went over me and I burst into tears…I haven’t touched a drop in four years and I’ve sent four other fellows on the same road.

When the Word Became Flesh
(Jesus People Magazine, 1973)

The Christian concept of death is contained in this article by the ancient Greek author Athanasius (296 – 373).

All those who believe in Christ tread death underfoot as nothing and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die, they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the the resurrection. Death has become like a tyrant who has become completely conquered by the legitimate monarch and bound hand and foot so that the passers-by jeer at him.

William Jennings Byan on Evolution
(Reader’s Digest, 1923)

William Jennings Bryan (1860 – 1925) is best remembered today as the rube who advocated for creationism in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. In this 1923 essay he picks away at Darwin’s evolution theory using many of the arguments that he would (victoriously) deploy two years later.

The Dying Soldier
(Pageant Magazine, 1950)

In this article, Reverend Daniel A. Poling (1884 – 1968), editor of the Christian Herald (Protestant) recalled his visit to the bedside of a dying American soldier in the war-ravaged France of 1944. The young man, a believer in Christ, expressed his undigested views of what lay before him in the afterlife. The author shared his understanding on the topic and found that they weren’t at all dissimilar.

The Rise of Oral Roberts
(Coronet Magazine, 1955)

The editors at Coronet recognized that Oral Roberts was not your average minister, who was simply contented to preside over thirty full pews every week; they labeled him a businessman-preacher and subtly pointed out that the man’s detractors were many and his flashy attire unseemly for a member of clergy:

God doesn’t run a breadline…I make no apology for buying the best we can afford. The old idea that religious people should be poor is nonsense.

Spiritual Warfare
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

For the believers in this world, it is very easy to see World War II as a spiritual conflict waged against the righteous by the evil forces of darkness. The atheist Nazis were truly having their way with the lukewarm Christians who filled the ranks of the European Armies – up until the arrival of a particular North American army whose motto is In God We Trust. Even to this day, the U.S. Military holds the record as having built more churches than any other institution (every base, fort and naval installation had one). This article reports that the U.S.Army did not simply deliver weaponry to our Chinese allies, they delivered millions of Bibles, too.