Thursday, September 25, 2025
Monday, September 22, 2025
The Promises
“nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more.”
of
The
Kingdom
By Franklin Haas
The
Bible tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. The mentioning of
a plural heavens reveals an important fact that there exists
at least three heavens.
The first heaven is our sky and the space above
our sky. The second
heaven consists of, at
least, one or more different dimensions or realms than where
mortal humans now live.
Mortal humans, with their carbon bodies, cannot live in
other different
dimensions or realms than where they now live. Once the mortals
shed their carbon bodies at death, they have
the ability to pass into these other
dimension locations, as
the divine creatures such as angels.
The
third heaven, which the Bible also calls “Paradise,” exists as the
heaven where Jesus Christ and the
penitent thief on the cross passed to with
Christ following their death on the
cross. The Apostle also mentions Paradice
and the “Creation of heavens and
earth” meaning the total Universe or Cosmos.
Man’s
resurrection has existed as a major tenant taught, since
Christianity’s beginning.
Based and modeled on Jesus Christ’s resurrection and
numerous Bible verses, as
1 Cor. 15, : the immortal human soul passes
from the
mortal body through the death
event--into a glorified resurrected body. The New
Teatament speaks of man in a
glorified resurrected body such as the
resurrected state such as Jesus received.
The Apostle Paul references Jesus‘s
resurrection.
“For
whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the
image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 1Cor.
15.
“Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he
called, those he
also
justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30.
To my knowledge--before the expected Biblical time of
the resurrection
--the vast number of believers--all the
believer’s souls and their spiritual
bodies since the Adam and Eve beginning
went to Sheol-Hades which had a
great gulf between the blessed
believers and tormented non-believers.
Both
Jesus and Josheos mention this.
Jesus Christ’s death on
the cross--as His promise to the penitent sinner
beside Him states--totally paid the
sin penalty, This opened the life gate for all
believers to the third heaven or
paradise,” place called -, being has been , must
be a before
the resurrection,
SEE AFTERWORD FOR
MORE
Chapter
One
IN JERUSALEM
2798AD
THE JERUSALEM
COMMISSION ON
RESTORATION OF THE
WESTERN NORTH AMERICA
Head Commissioner Raymond Grover nodded slowly to himself as his e
studied Chris Kirk’s report. Chris Kirk was the action guy.The two had known each
other as long time as long ago as the 1960s. In the 1960-90s, they both served as
missionary church Pastors in nation-wide mission, the (SCCM), Small Country
Church Mission.
The churches they had served
usually existed as small church. Chris had served in six churches that had varying
backgrounds of size and denomination. Church meant a collected body of
Christian people. Invariably, if SCCM was called, the church needed help The Mission’s rule determined they must first
leave their denominational ties, but they must also exist on a foundation of
both remaining both Evangelical and Biblical. Both Chris and Ray had served at
least 30 years as pastors.
But
that was many centuries ago.
Commissioner Grover stepped up to the
microphone and called the meeting
to
order.
“As you know, we had received the long known
report of that first primary
response
team.” The whole of the North American Continent had received such high doses of
radiation from the Great Tribulation’s nuclear war that it would be unsafe for
centuries—likely as much as 700 years for mortal human habitation. The deliberate use of certain elements in the
warheads and the deep earth penetration impact of the thousands of small and
large ICBMs brought this 7 century, continent-wide lethal radiation. It also
brought the response of the Lord to stop the madness.
“As
we know, at that time, marked the beginning of our present age: The age which
is
known as ‘The Millenium Age’, and the corresponding governing Messianic
Reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ.’
“On the 1st May of 2798,
Chris led a repeat research and restoration team--the second--going to the
upper waters of the Middle Fork of The Salmon River in Western North
America.
The Kirk Party response team, consisted
of Chris Kirk, the head, and the
assistants: Rand Moad, Sev Singletree, Hollis
Kirk, Cul York, with a fifth, Hans
Erickson. This was the second time since the 2098s for many. The same four
medical specialists, Drs. Carry Moore, Roger Cook, and Kathy Van Meter,
accompanied the party, with a fourth Norma Kirk.”
Grover stopped reading for a
moment, and looked at Kirk--then in the audience.
“Right,” replied Chris Kirk. “Following
the Great Tribulation, our King deemed a trip to the Americas to establish the
levels of radiation and destruction following the nuclear war that took place
in the Great Tribulation. Soon in 2098—this
first trip occurred seven centuries ago— the King’s Government formed groups
for different sections of America. Our group, taking part in this effort, conducted
this trip to the Northwest United States.
As you know, we made a thorough report on our findings.”
Kirk, glancing at Grover, nodded
and sat down. Grover continued speaking and reading the report. “Now, this year, seven centuries later, in 2798,
as you know, we repeated the 2098 effort. Again to determine the radiation
levels, but this time to establish if they have decayed enough for mortal
habitation. The same sitings were used for camping and for samples for the new
finding.”
Grover pausing a moment, commented: “So you used
the same site for
your
camp and for data collection?”
“Sure,” Kirk replied. “Seven centuries,
obviously radically changes forest
environment,
but it worked for our purposes, and determine if the levels of
radiation
had decayed enough for mortal habitation.”
The meeting which Commissioner Grover presided over, consisted
of people the America, and select leaders of the resurrected and
non-resurrected community responsible for the Kingdom’s Western America. and
they were all focused on the restoration of Western America. The King had
personally selected these individuals and groups from across the entire
spectrum of what had been the super-powers.
Before Grover continued, he shook
his head, “Hard-to-believe each of these super-powers had engaged in what they
themselves called ‘The MAD Doctrine’—MAD being the acronym of ‘Mutually Assured
Destruction.’
So
they went ahead anyway, took chances with the bomb, resulting in this of this
engagement, beside the killing of millions, had wiped out
vast
land areas of America, from radiation contamination, The initial radiation
reading taken in for close to seven centuries.”
Grover
paused for a few more minutes for the audience to assimilate his statements,
the war had been so long ago. He then continued reading:
‘“In
the 19th of September, 2098, which is
less than a century after the beginning of the Millenium, the Kirk Party--all
of whom served the Lord in resurrected super bodies--brought this report of the
initial radiation reading.
Their party had reached the upper
waters of the Middle Fork of The
Salmon
River in Western North America. We then set about measuring, testing to find
how livable Western America was. Their party,
the Kirk Party, consisted of the primary response team headed by minister and
research writer Christian Kirk and three senior nuclear engineers and
administration assistants Sev Singletree, Rand Moad, Hollis Kirk, Cul
York, and three medical specialists,
Roger Cook, Norma Hollis, and Kathy Van Metre.
ETERNAL
LIFE
Chris, do you recall anything
major in changes--any event of that visit?”
“You
want me to remember 2098 visit!” responded Kirk, chuckling.
“Yes—700 years-- that was some time ago all
right,”replied Grover. “Oh come on Chris. We’re in the Millennial Age, and have
to be considerate of the non-super non-resurrected folka, but we’re just the
super-human resurrected body folks here now--with your 100 % brain power 700
years can’t be a problem.
I can remember you had to go
without your better half.”
“Yes,” said Kirk with a smile.
“Yes, but it’s not that I’ve been sitting around loving my wife and doing
nothing else since that 2098 date.”
“That’s
right, the Lord commissioned your team to explore something about some distant
galaxy--right.”
“The
Andromeda Galaxy—yes,” replied Kirk. “We checked out the possible effects of
the collision of the Milky Way with Andromeda.”
“How
did that turnout?”
“That
will happen, but it’ll not affect anything the Lord plans.”
“No,
we didn’t expect it to,” Grover replied. “I know you flied a lengthy report,
but what did you find out personally?”
“Yeah,”
responded Kirk. “Some beautiful land areas, that Kristi fell in love with. The
Lord has already given us a beautiful mansion, but maybe it’d work as a
get-away place, like in Andromeda. It week away—even at light speed—so we’ll
see,
You
ask about my feelings personally. I’m still amazed at this new life we have. In
the time dimension, 200 years isn’t even a trifle. Another thing like going to Andromeda. Beside the
time, we have the ability--that amazes me. Who knows what future benefits will await
us in a life without death promised us from the greatness and loving care of
our Great Creator.
We’ve
observed places that are more enormous than enormously big and beautiful place!
Along with that, our God must be thinking of humans being as individuals with adventurous
spirit. We have the option of exploring distant planets as living in a settled
community.”
“You’re
saying it’s a big beautiful place?”
“Yes—that’s right.” Kirk paused for moment. “You
know we spent some time—2450 to 2650—about 200 years earthly time--exploring
the more livable paradise planets?”
“There
was a number of couples that went--right.”
“Yeah—we
took the large carrier ship. Kristi and I, and others could used the sauser
ships to check out different planets.”
“Good
to get back on ‘terra firma’?” asked Grover in a jovial tone of voice.”
“Yeah,”
retorted Kirk. “You mean coming back to assess the ravages of Satan in the
Great Tribulation’?” A cynical tone sounded in his voice. “Plus checking the
aftereffects from centuries of land areas left dormant.”
“Well
that couldn’t be helped from the radiation,” responded Grover.
“Sure,”
replied Kirk. “I know that,” he said, “but why?”“ and he continued in a slightly sarcastic voice. “We found ‘The mountain road
system was still existent in 2098, but largely disappeared in this last
survey.”
“The mountain road system—you found a road?”
Grover said attempting to add humor.
“Sorry,”
responded Kirk, “for my bad spirit,” Kirk said in a quiet voice. “It’s such a
waste.” He paused a moment. “In the early part,” Kirk answered. “In that part
of the high country survey, in the 19th of September, the passes are closed by
snow, but the roads still existed in the mountains at that time in 2098. My
last visit the roads had long gone. Pine and fir trees--some with a 30 inch
DBH—had long closed the system,”
“DBH means diameter breast height?”
“Right—sorry.”
Kirk responded. “We were checking radiation reading s obviously. I believe
something about animals. Sorry, maybe later, I could bring something will come
to me later, but you’ll have to let me reflect on that for a few minutes—I like
to share a little.”
He
paused again as his thoughts went back. His mind clicked on one incident. There
was something that happened—“This lamphrey had grown extra large?”
“Yes, genetically altered—I wonder
how much that happens?”
Grover paused and moved his papers, to
arrive at his next point.
“Yes,” responded Chris. “Being
exposed radiation for a century.”
“Sounds like that
Chernobyl place back in the 20th Century.”
“The wildlife just
exploded, and parts of that place are still radioactive.
They tell me nuclear bombs
are not as radioactive and the power plants, but
this place is still radioactive in places, but
like I reported, after 700 years, maybe
some people can live there.”
“It works well for some of our
team. We found most of the radiation fallout
must have been blown pass the deep
canyon. All the wooden structure had long ago
disappeared, but the clean spring water
still flowed, making the site quite
habitable
for the time spent there.”
Chapter Two
Grover looked at Kirk. “Chris I’d like you to
hear more about camping on the Salmon River’s South Fork and the Middle Fork.
What’s important in this study?”
“Sure,” answered Kirk,
rising to his feet. “The U.S. Government designated the Middle Fork to be a ‘wild
river’, which means no development—like building or roads, and this offered a
good comparison to the seven centuries
of where land of man’s
absence—obviously, we were also checking radiation levels everywhere we
went.”He paused a moment and dropped his head, but quickly raised his head and
smiled. “Sorry—this gets a little emotional--I still remember it—anyway, other
places, the only trace of roads left are
deep cuts and fills of roadbeds of long-ago asphalt roads. Concrete road beds
of the super highways fared little better than the other than providing good
trails for the animals especially the buffalo herds….”
“The great buffalo herds
back!” interjected Carry Moore.
“The great buffalo herds
are coming back! Yes—that’s what we found,” said Kirk. “As you already
mentioned from our report, we also found traces of other large predators that
must have come from wild animal parks.”
Grover, nodded, glancing at Kirk.
“The former large
cities showed the most if not total loss. Beside the tragedy and
colossal loss of life and material—this nuclear radiation resulted in huge
losses of land area. Centuries--in some cases, seven centuries of man’s absence. In most cases, this
is what’s left of the super-powers. They no longer exist. Deep ground
penetration warheads have made
missile silos and missile
storage areas into huge circular lakes—beside contaminating enormous areas with
radioactive rubble-- partial-exposed concrete and stone are jutting out of
hillsides--America has changed to a wilderness like the early 19th
century or earlier.”
Grover turned to Kirk, “Anything more?”
“No.” answered Kirk, and then added, “So
good water at the site, the radiation level
is acceptable--this
campsite I think, would be a good place to work from in the
future. One thing that
might be for the distant future--like an issue 200 to 300
years in the future is the integrity of the
boundaries.”
Kirk paused a
moment. “Back in the early 1960s, I lived at this place ith my family, and we worked
as a fireguard for the Forest Service. At the time, this was a very ideal
get-away place--a large two bedroom log cabin with indoor plumbing and a wood
range functioning water heater. The water came from an active spring close to
the log cabin. Also a large log barn
existed on the site, a handy large cold storage room had also been built in the
ground outside for storing large game meat.”
“At one time,” commented Grover,
“the records say, there was a log cabin
on
the South Fork that functioned as the main office for the Payette National
Forest.”
“So, the great buffalo herds are
coming back!” repeated Grover. He
turned
to Kirk, “Anything more?”
“No.”
answered Kirk. “One thing we also checked areas listed by the Messianic
Commission’s Demographic Oversight.”
Grover stopped and turned to Kirk. “Right,
archivists have found and made known to the Commission about reported
historical Christian tribes’ possible presence in this area. Finding these past
tribes will take much more time. But, the Messiah. Himself involved Himself in
this. He personally named the six people to this preliminary effort. These
individuals had in the previous past, personally involved themselves with the
populace in the land and the land itself.
“The levels of radiation are
decaying, and doing this at a rapid annual rate. So we know it will move the
radiation to survivable level for normal human habitation--maybe in one or two
years.”
“Right, but that’s not in every place?”
Grover questioned. “Right?”
“Right,” Kirk responded. “Due to the
prevailing winds of these high areas. These areas should have less
contamination.”
“Yeah,” Grover nodded slowly—still pondering
the thought. “But these areas of lower radiation levels, the effect of the
radiation on internal organs would very likely shorten their life span.”
Kirk shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure.
These non-resurrected people could be
affected by the radiation.”
Grover paused a moment. “Yes, we must
not forget—the thousands of the non-resurrected, the Lord saved out out of the
Tribulation, have millions of children this late in the Millenium --effects on
health. They are also living there as non-citizens of the Kingdom. They will die
the second death. Obviously, they do not have resurrected bodies ”
“The Lord has certainly blessed us
there, hasn’t He?” said Hans. “Given us wonderous resurrected bodies--restored
just like Jesus—like supermen.”
“Exactly,
my brother” responded Kirk, “Jesus Christ is everything.”
“Exactly,” repeated Rand Moad. He
had just joined the group with two other
Brother Rob Lee and Dr. Kathy Van
Meter, and Kash Adina..
“Yes, of course. don’t I know my
calling is to serve only my Lord Jesus.:
“Yeah—that’s the Spirit of God,”
Grover responded. “Think of the great
opportunities
you have now. You know of course we have an eternity of time,”
“We need to pray about the eternity of life
ahead of us—yes!” exclaimed
Hans.“In the
endless ages to come—yes. PRAISE THE LORD!
WITHOUT WAR!”
“Well,” replied Kathy Van Metre,
“living in this Millenium Age, we live with people capable of war.”
“living in this Millenium!”
“You mean rebellion?” asked Grover, surprise
evident in his voice.
“Yes,” responded Kathy. “That’s
it!”
“Well, we know it can’t be Satan,” said Hans
Erickson.
“Yeah,” said Rand. “That’s right.
He’s in chains.”
Chris
Kirk listening to the others. He nodded in agreement. Then he responded, “ PRAISE THE
LORD! CENTURIES NOW WITHOUT WAR!”
“AMEN1” Hans Erickson joined in. “We
need to thank the Lord more and pray about this—that the Lord would remind us. You
speak about the Holy Spirit—walking in the Spirit.” He paused again. Well I’m
not going to argue with that, but actually the Word says to make walking in the
Spirit a lifestyle. We’re living in the Millenium with mortal people capable of
not only not “walking in the Spirit , but capable of walking with the spirit of
the Anti=christ, What John the Apostle writes about the Spirit of the Anti-Christ
is still a serious business. some of us went
through the World Wars you know. Even with the Anti-Christ, wth his spirir operating.”
“Yes,” replied Hans. “Maybe we need to
ask the Lord to show us put some of us b
back through those days.of years—to show us Satan’s Kingdom again and
world at w war.”
“How would God do that?
“I don’t know—I know He shows us
life viedws, and time hss dimensions g going in more than a left to right
lineal past to present to future alignment.”
God must have known I was very much
admired our carrier admiral cabin, because this certainly resembled my captain’s
cabin just like that.”Isn't it just like God, with his personal touch, to craft
an entrance to heaven that a big carrier captain would appreciate.?
I
floated through the doors and the next thing I knew, I'm in this huge glass
hall, like a glass dome with a glass floor, And under the floor I can see
stars. I'm thinking, this is amazing?! I see two people in front of me. One is
Jesus and the other is my guardian Angel. Always thought it was BS. That you
have a guardian Angel, but I did. He was 12 feet or so--huge. big. And I just
knew the other person was Jesus.
Jesus
stood in front of what looked like 4 foot circle, like a round window, but it
was like an inner inner. Dimensional interdimensional time. For time portal. I
realized we were somehow outside of time and space.
A
three foot book opened under the portal, and I started to see my book of life
displayed in the portal. We were reviewing things written down in my life'll
book. He showed me good things, and bad things. I realized I had been striving
for the wrong things--earthly perfection. Wow! the nicest living area, the coolest offices, or the most beautiful
wife. None of it holds any weight or has any meaning once you're in heaven.
I
felt welcoming., caring, loving feelings from him. I was in the absolute
understanding of my life and experienced how important little things truly are.
When really what really matters0 I’m being judged in. That movement by being
allowed to see the importance of what we do. And how we live, And how our
choices matter. Our decisions matter. It's very humbling to see life so
clearly.
Jesus took me to heaven, where I
witnessed 2 dimensional time in action.I'm in heaven. I'm looking at my new
body, at my arms and legs. My body is translucent but glowing with golden
light. In vibrating with the joy coming out of every anything or everything
around me, which was worship of God! Everything was brilliant. it was like a
river of golden perfection flowing. Everything was golden., but amazing,
Gorgeous, I used to do custom homes for super important people like a super-carrier captain.
There's
nothing like the captain’s living areas—he has a half dozen screens showing
different parts of the carrier as well as other views of screens showing
important readings.
In
this setting in heaven, I was showing something I thought I knew something
about. I was being shown a timeline, but a timeline of two-dimensional time. I saw. A beginning
and end, but was outside of it. In heaven. You're allowed to see through these
portals, and I watched some kind of battle. It appeared to me some navel battle,
and two fleets of navy fighter planes were going against each other with carriers
in the background like the “Battle at Midway.”
I
saw watching in reality, I was. I was actually experiencing what was happening
in their time. What significance that moment had, I don't know, but experienced
it. I experienced it like watching a movie. But so much more real, even feeling
what the people were feeling or thinking. As I was watching that timeline at a
point in time, I somehow knew that you were allowed to go through that portal
back into time, but I was allowed to see it. I somehow knew that you were not
allowed to go through that portal back into time, but I was allowed to see it.
But when in heaven, you're experiencing it. It was actually happening”
“We
need to see the 20th Century again to see reality of that old life.”
Chapter Three
The
Last Wars
WORLD WAR ONE
“The great war to end all
wars,” they said.
Tthe First World War had intruded
into the world of Hollis Kirk and Hans
Erickson
on 28 July 1914 – and lasted until 11 November 1918. The war became
known
as the Great War, soon grew to a global conflict between
two coalitions:
the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers.The
British and French opened
overseas
fronts with Gallipoli (1915) Mesopotamian Campaigns (1914) In
Gallipoli,
the Ottoman Empire successfully repelled the British, French, and New
Zealand
and Australia.
Hollis
Kirk knew horses. From his youth he had lived
around horses and, in
the wide open spaces in
the West, depended on the horse. He came from a land that
had names like “Horse
Heaven. Steam powered locomotive (small
trains) had
been connecting the few towns, but the
distance not covered by railroad meant
orse travel great land
areas of Eastern Oregon. So great distances still required
having a horse.
THE
GREAT WAR REQIRED HORSES. Hollis Kirk
fit right into the US
Army’s mold as a horse
handler or hostler. According to the army, as a hostler, he
wasn’t a blacksmith, although things like
keeping all the horses shod didn’t fall
in his job description—he
could have shoed any horse. He held the
position of the
driver of horses. Horses still
occupied a part of Hollis’s everyday life and their
presence—smells and all,
possessed his affection he would later find hard to leave.
But at present, Hollis’s
job specialization required exactly into his life.
pulling and, positioning
the heavy guns required
teams of horses and good
drivers. Maybe more
than one or two teams.
Hollis had felt from
boyhood that he liked
working with horses and he
experienced handling as
many as 10 teams in
pulling combine rigs,
moving over the very hilly
but vast wheat fields of
Eastern Oregon. So his present place on the War Front
required the driving and
controllin of not over two teams of horses to pull the guns
around to their firing positions. Obviously ,
this meant doing this in the noises of
combat, but the horses
usually adapted to that.
Carl English, a sheep herder--also from Eastern
Oregon, had become
occupant of the bunk next
to Hollis, simply for convenience sake—empty bunks
and vacancies existed
because of causalities on Carl’s gun crew.
Hollis smiled to himself as he
listened to Carl. Carl had
a problem with the truth—this also included expressing genuine feelings. To add
to his being a crashing boor, he like to
play practical jokes’
They were sitting around a table in the bunk
room of the Artillery rest camp,
safely positioned in the
rear--it was thought. As they were talking, new arrivals
walked in. Two of them
came over to occupy the empty bunks near English and
Hollis.
One new comer introduced himself by the name of Hans Erickson. The other
one simply nodded, giving
a little wave, mentioning his name was
Rand Moad.
Their artillery unit finally stopped
practicing of maneuvers of the big guns, and
Hollis’s commanding
officer had orders to position the big guns as close to the front
lines as possible aand
leave them but without endangering the fire team.
Following orders, Hollis had just
positioned the second gun, when he noticed
the enemy soldiers had
their heads up watching. Did he get too
close? They seemed
too close.
Supposedly the Americans had machine
guns covering the moving and the
firing team as they fired
the big guns,.llis checked out his covering machine guns—
if they were there he
couldn’t find them. And it looked like the enemy had also
noticed the absence and
had left their trench to move up into the shell craters in no
mans land of the killing
fields.
After positioning the third and last
big gun, Hollis positioned himself high up
on the middle big gums
steel wheels. He would have to pull those big guns out if the
enemy got any closer.
The gun crews had shown
up and waited for their firing orders.
Orders got
mixed up as to who and
what they fired. Getting a little anxious, and waiting for
orders, Carl had
positioned himself next to Hollis.
“You got your rifle got your rifle handy, Hollis,” Carl
whispered. “Why don’t
you lay down some
covering fire?”
“Shucks, why don’t I just pick them
off?” responded Hollis. “I believe my
marksmanship is good
enough I could hit the farthest enemy out there is close
enough for me pick off—sure I know at home my marksmanship is good enough
to hit smaller targets
than that.
The big guns on line next to their own
guns had started their scheduled
bombardment so the noise became very bothersome until Hollis
started using their
own fires to cover the
sound of his rifle shots. Starting with
the farthest, Hollis
picked them off--one
after the other The Germans seemed unaware of their being
targeted. He picked off--shooting 18 enemy soldiers.
Later, Hollis’s commander commented, “It’s
strange isn’t it, the enemy doesn’t
take
advantage to move forward?”
Carl overhearing this, spoke up.
“Hollis scared them off by shooting them.
”“Is that so. Good,” commented the
commander and walked off.Carl, watching
him
walk off, said to himself. ‘“Good’--that’s all!” Then he shrugged, “so much for
18 lives’
Hollis
gave a little laugh, “Yah—no not much value in18 souls.”
SIZING
UP THE NEW
REPLACEMENTS
Normally, snipers would not kill a few
victims, but no wheren nearthe numb as
many as Hollis, but they did pick off or wound one or two in a month. In Hollis
and Carl’s gun crew required two replacement.
The
two replacements came from duty stations other than artillery. Hans Erickson, one replacement, appeared as an
outstanding addition—a tall stout man, that spoke with a very noticeable
foreign accent. He soounded much like the German prisoners they captured. The
other person, Rand Moad looked to be
about average size and build, but dark as a native American.
The
gun crews finished their normal fire and sitting, waiting for the next order of
fire. Hollis and Carl were taking the time to get better acquainted with the
new comers, Hans and Rand.
“Did
you hear that? That’s ‘Big Bertha.”said Carl suddenly.
Hollis
shrugged his shoulders. “Carl--you been around the big guns too long—that sound
you hear guys is miles away—Carl likes to get people worked up over it..”
Both Carl and Hollis enjoyed talking to new
comers because they usually had news from the States, so they both signaled for the two to join
them.
As they were getting acquianted, Rand Moad mentioned that
he came from
Oregon.
Hollis immediately spoke up. “You’re
Grandville Moad, from 15 Mile Creek, The
Dalles, Oregon.”
Moad gave a laugh. “Yeah
you got most of it right.” But they call me Rand.”
Hollis shrugged, “okay. What have you been doin’, Rand? Last I heard you
had moved.”“You mean to Salem—the nuthouse!” Rand studied Hollis, a moment.
“Yeah, that’s right—that happened. Nobody understood me, It’s kind of a
long
answer Holly--I was different.” He
shrugged and then made an observation about
his condition. “Funny thing, being different they sent me to the insane
asylum
because they thought I was nuts. While I was there—they tested me with a
new
psychological test, before warehousing me for twenty years. The Tayler-Johnson-
Alum Analysis found I had an extremely high IQ instead of
feeble-mindedness. So,
my arguments convinced them enough to let me out, and I got clear of the
place.”
He paused and chuckled a minute. “The Lord was with me. I
had a
room at the YMCA in Portland and ran
into an outfit touring the US that was
recruiting young men, having a high IQ.
This turned out for the ‘Flying Program
of The New French Air Force’. I
tested well enough for them to send me to France
and I learned to fly.”
“The Lord gave you the chance huh--so here you are with
the 11th Artillery,”
retorted Carl, his voice sounding sourcastic.
“Yeah, that makes good sense doesn’t it,” responded Hollis,
laughing.
“Well, I’m here to spot targets,” interjected Rand. hey’re
trying different kind of bombing--strategic bombing and need better spotters
and assigned me here.”
“You need to get higher in the air to see,” replied Carl.
“Yeah,” responded Moad. “Like a barrage balloon. They
were
talking about one.”
“Okay, Carl replied, “No news—tell us Hans what you did
before
you got here?”
MORE PERSPECTIVE
ON HANS ERICKSON
“Okay, yah, I’d like to do that.” retorted Hans Erickson,
adding, “now that
you’re asking. “I’s waiting in Fort Lewis near Seattle with other draftees for a train
to the east coast—waiting two weeks.”
“Whoa—you waited two weeks!” exclaimed Hollis.
“You waited two weeks in Fort Lewis?” echoed Carl. “Yeah,” he chuckled, “hurry up and wait is
pretty common,”
Hollis, nodded in agreement. “Two weeks is too long
though.”
“It couldn’t have turned out better.’” Hans paused a
moment, glancing from Carl to Hollis. “God gave you a chance to hear ‘Billy Sunday.”
Both Carl and Hollis jerked their
heads back. Both showed their startled
reaction at Han’s
words. This was shocking—he could talk about some woman he
had seduced without
anyone raising an eyebrow, but to say what he said was like
inappropriately—it
was out of their normal talk to be almost indecent.
“God gave you a
chance…?” Repeated Carl, and giggled.
“I
committed my life to Jesus Christ too,” Hans added. “When did you
accept Christ?”
Hollis and Carl looked at each other. Hollis didn’t know if he should frown
or smile. Hans had exposed himself personally by saying.
“I committed my life to
Jesus Christ.” You never mention Jesus Christ or God
unless you were swearing.
To ask about accepting Christ just took your breath
away.”
So they didn’t say anything for a number of minutes. But Carl, the talker
couldn’t stay quite and had to find out about this.
“Tell me, Hans how’d all this happen?’ he asked, “and who
is Billy
Sunday?”
Hans
chuckled. “Glad you asked. I was waiting to tell you. We were waiting
at Fort Lewis, when someone—someone with money--called in
and invited
everybody to Billy Sunday Meetings in a nearby city. He’d
pay for the train tickets
and the eats, both on the train and at the meetings.
Would you turn that down?”
This turned everybody in the room on—including Hollis.
“Why would anyone spend all this money?” responded Carl. “Paying for
others to hear
anyone to speak?”
“Who is this Billy Sunday?”
“Yeah,” Rand Moad’s voice spoke up. “Is this Billy
Sunday, the baseball
player?”
“Yah, that’s the guy,” replied Hans, nodding. “I read where
he played as a
professional baseball player. I must say he’s certainly athletic. He jumped on top
of the pulpit a couple times—ran across the stage
skidding into the pulpit—broke
up a chair.”
“You wouldn’t go to sleep-- you paid attention to him,”He
made me jumpy. alright,” Hans gave a little laugh. “True--you certainly couldn’t
go to sleep during his message.’
“Was this in a church?” Hollis asked.
“If you mean a church building—no,” replied Hans. “It was
in a huge
building they called a tabernacle—just for Billy Sunday’s meetings.”
“Big vacant buildings left standing empty?” comented Carl.
Erickson studied English a moment and then shrugged.
“There wasn’t any
waste,” he added. “I’m sure, many are torn down and the lumber used again.”
.”Sure—maybe for a church building,” said Rand Moad. “You
were telling
me earlier, about the Holy Spirit working. Why don’t you share that Hans?”
Chapte Foure HANS ERICKSON’S MESSAGE
Rand Moad glanced around at the others.”Go ahead and tell
‘em Hans!”
“So, you say, you committed your life to Christ,” exclaimed
Carl.
“Tell ‘em why!” exclaimed Rand Moad, “WHY?”
“Yah—I did.” Hans responded. “Why? Because God touched my
heart to get involved with Him.”
Erickson stopped and
glancing at the others listening, he realized he had been called and needed to
tell all his story’
“To begin--In truth--I’m not a very religious man. My being raised
in Norway meant I was a Lutheran. My church existed as the town’s
church--a large stone a normal
Luthern Church building with a steeple
and stained glass windows.”
He shrugged, “Was I a Christian?”
“Okay—were you a Christian?” Carl said in a moking tone.
“Ging to church means you’re a good Christian.”
“I’d say ‘sure’. I went to church--I went to catechism
class and agreed to everything. Today I could commit adultery and claim I was
Christian because I didn’t fight with my wife.”
He paused and glanced around the room. That’s a long ways
from Romans 12 ‘I beg you my brothers, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service-your
reasonable service—be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’”
“Hog wash!”
responded Carl. “Nobody really asks that.”
“Did you ever met Jesus Christ?”
“Oh yeah! Sure I guess I have.” He paused a moment,
studying Han’s face.
Well what’s your story?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you my story!” Hans exclaimed. “I ran
away from my home
in Norway—I worked my way on a steamer to France then and other
countries--to
worked years in Germany—working a few years in Egypt, I went to America.
In America, I landed in Seatle, visiting a Luthern family
friend. They took
me to hear Billy Sunday.
He had been holding revival meetings and that’s where I
definitely accepted Jesus’s
salvation. I went the whole week to the meetings with a
friend of the family. The
whole church went.
“So you became a follower of Jesus from then on?”
responded Carl with a
little smirk on his face.
“No
not realy,” replied Hans. “A Lutheran
pastor of the church later, got me
a job in a logging outfit
on the Washington Coast. I didn’t work long at logging
before someone was
killed. The logging work used high lead and I saw a choker-
setter get sliced in two
with a cable, so, I started looking for something else. I soon
got in with someone by
the name of Peter Johnson. And he had been infected with
gold fever that wouldn’t
quit.
“Alaska
still had strong showings of Gold,” Johns claimed. “I”ve heard they
found color in the Brooks,
and that Range the gold-rush missed-- didn’t
touch.”
“So
you headed to Alaska,” replied Carl. “So it’s in Seatle is where you met
Jesus?”
“Wait a minute Carl,” responded Hollis. “Let him tell his
story.”
“Yeah,”
agreed Rand. “I’m interested in Alaska—what did you do?”
“Okay,”
Hans replied. “We did find color in a lot of plces—
gold mining--in
placer-gold mining---in the many goldfields in Alaska?“
“Where
were you in Alaska?”
Hans hesitated for a moment and finally said, “Somewhere
south of the
Brooks Range.” He shrugged, and half-irritated
at Carls wanting all these details.
“Near the Fortymile River. That’s a 60-mile long tributary of the Yukon
River in Alaska and the Canadian territory
of the Yukon. We located and
built our operation at Forty-Mile’s north and south forks, but we panned
stretches of the Forty Mile as it flows
northeast into Canada.”
Hans paused and looked at Carl. “That’s where I drowned.”
“You drowned!” Rand repeated the phrase.
“Drowned?” Carl’s tone of voice showed his disbelief —"you mean you
died? How?”
“Yeah that’s right—I was under water over thirty minutes.”
“What happened?”
“Peter Johnson and I panned for Gold all along the Forty-Mile
River, and we
found color, but not enough. Then in one well-watered section of the river--having
a number of small creeks running into it.
After working some of the black sand