Saturday,
November 8/ CROYDON, ENGLAND- Assembled with the saints at 7
a.m. at Fairfield’s
Hall, and encountered numerous witches of Artimus, gathered for
their annual Witchfest, against which the open air preachers cried
with all their might, “Hell and Destruction are never full!
There is still room in hell for all you witches!” Though they
hoped in vain to draw 5,000 witches, barely 1,000 appeared, and
all were frustrated and openly defeated in countenance as the SPF
preachers from America demonstrated a fearless Christianity that
openly proved that “witchcraft” is only a “work
of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19, 20). At one point near the
entrance, their assembled numerous falsely so called “pagans”,
with their black English dress, and black painted faces, who were
so exasperated at the preaching, that they began to dance in a circle,
pounding a drum, and beating their wooden clubs together, as they
danced for nothing, and leaped after the fashion of their forefathers
(1 Kings 18:26-28).
“But there was no voice, nor any that answered.”
-1 Kings 18:26
The Pagans??
While
the SPF ministers preached, one black clad witch, claiming to be
some falsely so called ‘high priestess’, made the rounds,
signaling with her bony fingers some stupid signs, to hex and vex
the ministers of the gospel, as if they would immediately vanish,
or fall silent from their effective rebukes and reproofs of instruction.
Howbeit, the preaching continued and so did the preachers. After
one hour of their nonsense, Director McRae mounted the stone wall
approximately 20 feet from this foolishness, and began to openly
reprove them for their powerless revelry, which so exasperated the
pagans and the witches they ceased their dancing and leaping, and
stopped in frustration. Then their leader went into a rage and charged
the wall upon which the Director stood. Jumping upon the wall, the
black clad pagan, with his braided swine’s tail frock of hair,
struck the Director McRae in the chest once with his club with a
force equal to a three year old child’s rattle. When the preacher
continued unabated, their red clad security man joined his fellow
pagan, and grabbed at the Director’s coat and arm. Finally,
the pagan grabbed the preacher’s mouth to attempt to silence
the preaching, but Brother McRae knocked away his hand and continued.
The two visiting preachers from California, knowing little of open
air evangelism though they had begun to manifest their belief that
they knew everything, stood below on the sidewalk, and did nothing,
forcing the Director to attempt to continue preaching and deal with
his tormentors. Finally, the frustrated pagan grabbed the Director’s
beard roughly, only to be shoved backwards by him, breaking his
hold. Said Director McRae, “I lost a few of my grey hairs
over that one!”
“It is very difficult to preach
when you’re laughing so hard!”
-SPF Director McRae concerning the above “white boy”.
Turning to the visiting preachers, the Director admonished them
that they must maintain vigilance to keep the tormentors at bay,
so that the preaching is not stopped. To this, the two ‘experts’
gathered their megaphone and walked away, leaving the Director again
to face his contradictors. However, when he turned to face them
again, the vainly so-called ‘high priestess’ among the
powerless witches charged forward upon the wall, to do with her
arms what her fingers could not do, and shoved the Director backwards
off the wall. Landing roughly, but upon his feet, the Director called
over his radio to the SPF members, and re-took the wall, reproving
the “witch” from Endor (1 Samuel 28:7/ Endora if you
watched Television’s Bewitched) for her powerless performance
before all her followers, in that she had no power but of the flesh
to stop the preaching. Many of her followers took open note of her
powerless performance, nodding their heads at the preacher’s
rebukes. Said he, “These are not witches! They are wretches,
who have no power of any spirit, so they resort to physical assault
to accomplish what their hexes cannot do, and fail even at that!”
Within a minute, SPF members Ruben Israel, Daniel Gowen and Bruce
Perrault came wading through the throng with their banners from
across Fairfield Hall, and so reinforced Director McRae, that the
witches and their pagans yielded the field in front of the Hall,
and gathered what numbers they had left, and entered the Hall to
be seen no more all day!
Having
no more congregation to preach to, the street preachers gathered
their banners and tracts, and walked the mile to Croydon Heights,
and entered upon High Street where John Wesley was oft want to preach
when in London. There they discovered over 600,000 souls walking
to and fro the length of High Street. Upon entering, they discovered
one elderly saint of a lady, standing to the side way, against a
stone wall, quoting aloud from the scriptures for all to hear, while
her sister distributed gospel tracts to any that would have them.
Said she, “There are no Christian men that will come here
daily and preach, so we do what we can.”
SPF Director McRae with Christian Lady in Croydon
When
Iowa State Director Dennis Meador asked if she would be offended
if he took her spot, she joyfully surrendered her place, saying,
“O it would be wonderful to have someone preach the gospel
here!” And so Dr. Meador preached, “For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). Here, God did
much good, and opened several doors and effectuals, but there were
many adversaries (1 Corinthians 16:9). It was here that the SPF
had their first view of what was to meet them all week, as over
600,000 sinners passed in review to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After an hour of preaching, as the SPF ministers spread themselves
down the length of High Street for nearly a mile, the English Bobbies
came again, this time with much fervor. Accosting Brother Ruben
Israel and Dean Moore at the entrance to High Street, they demanded
that the banners be done away with, for said they, “We have
gotten a complaint, and your banners are offensive. By our law (see
John 19:7), you must take down the banners or be arrested for violation
of Article 4 of the Act of Parliament.” When Brother Israel
kindly refused the demand, the Corporal called for his “paddy”
to take away the preachers. Discussing the matter with him became
a lesson itself in British crown rule, as Director McRae and Ruben
performed their standard delaying tactics, to allow the preaching
to continue as long as possible. This also allowed God to draw much
attention to the Bobbies, who shortly found themselves surrounded
by their own countrymen, who without exception began to forcefully
argue for the Americans’ right to preach. Said one black Englishman,
“This is a tyrannical act against British law and order. These
men have the right to preach here! If you take these men away, then
you must take me also as a witness for them!” British men
and women alike rallied against the three Bobbies, and weakened
their desire to blatantly solve the issue by arresting the SPF street
preachers. The Bobbies would violently swat at the SPF camera, and
attempt to break it to stop their being filmed, and grew more nervous
the longer the conversation continued. Finally, the corporal succumbed
to a better mood, and agreed that if the street preachers would
remove the offensive banner (“The Wages of Sin is Death”),
and not utilize the truth horn at the entrance they would leave
the ministers to continue. Hence, Director McRae instructed with
the exception of Ruben Israel and Dean Moore, all should move as
deep into High Street as they could and continue preaching until
taken out. Assistant Director Israel then crossed the street at
the entrance and stood fast with his banner, which kept the Bobbies
attention at the entrance, so the other preachers could penetrate
the mass of people bustling along the entire length of High Street.
And thus, for almost 5 hours, the SPF ministers preached the word
of God to 600,000 British subjects.
Deep into the heart of High Street, Dr. Meador and Stephen McRae
came upon a group of Muslims, freely distributing their heresies
to those passing by, for which the elder and the younger felt led
to counter with the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In short
order, they had so angered the muslim youth, that four of them attacked
kindly Dr. Meador, who quickly downed the leader, leaving the follower
of Islam lying prostrate on the sidewalk as Dagon of old (1 Samuel
5:3). Inviting the other three to step into the alley of allah for
further instruction in righteousness, the other three surrendered
their will to defend the name of ‘allah’ sine dine.
Finding their physical offense for the Crescent no match for the
Cross, they accosted Dr. Meador with a New International Version
of the Devil’s Bible, and sought to show him support of allah
within. However, when the scholarly Meador showed them several contradictions,
the Moslem youth decried the NIV as “rubbish”. Said
Doc Meador, “If it’s rubbish, then it should go into
the rubbish can!” Thinking it would be funny to call the good
doctor’s bluff, the Moslem youth cried aloud, “Yes!”
Immediately, Brother Meador then ripped the NIV into four pieces
and threw it where all good English “rubbish” belongs.
Further into High Street, stood the meek Jim Grove from York, Pennsylvania,
preaching “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10, 11), all
the while several hundred thousand sinners passed before him. Preached
Robert Ephrata, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”
(Matthew 6:33). Standing upon a walkway bench, Director McRae preached
these words, “Why will ye die in your sins, O England?”
Deep into High Street laboured Bruce Perrault and his companion
Daniel Gowen, with Brother Gowen proclaiming to hundreds of thousands
these words, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). By days end, the SPF ministers
had easily preached to 600,000 souls in five hours. And the work
was just begun.
Upon quitting High Street, the preachers made their way into the
heart of London, preaching at the Fountain in the midst of the infamous
Piccadilly Circus junction of Westminster, where numerous streets
come together as the Times Square of London. Here almost two million
souls pass each day.
‘Doc’ Meador Preaching at Piccadilly Circus, London
Positioning
themselves upon the upper steps of the fountain, Dr. Meador, Dean
Moore, Stephen McRae and Bruce Perrault held forth the word of life,
as others scouted out the area of Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace,
and the War Office for the next days preaching. In one short hour,
four street preachers literally preached to over 300,000 sinners
that never go to church. Holding forth the word of Life from the
Piccadilly Fountain, the SPF ministers preached with all their heart
as one drunken prostitute, orphaned from her youth poured beer upon
them as they preached. The following night, she would return in
the middle of Dr. Meador’s sermon, and standing next to him
upon the fountain, would lend a very fitting illustration to, “The
way of the transgressor is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). At days
end Saturday, the 11 preachers had literally preached to over 1
million souls. Said “the beloved physician” Dr. Meador,
“That isn’t some Baptistic estimate either. That is
a very conservative number.”
Dr. Meador Preaching on “The way of the transgressor is hard”,
With his illustration close at hand.
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