Chapter X
Through this outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these Chinese children much light was thrown upon the writing of the Word of God.
Prophecy Fulfilled
Such an outpouring of the Spirit, attended with such supernatural manifestations, is in itself a testimony that the Bible was written by God. He alone knows the future. Fulfilled prophecy was, in the mind of Christ and the apostles, sufficient proof of the hand of God in the writing of the Scriptures.
In what we have recorded about this outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these children, ten prophecies of the Scriptures were fulfilled: (1) such a baptism was prophesied for believers of the present age; (2) it was to be accompanied by speaking in unknown languages, and by (3) prophesying as the Spirit gave utterance. (4) In fulfilment of prophecy these children were shown “the things of Christ.” (5) The reality of “things to come” was also shown them. (6) True to prophecy, they were “born again” of the Holy Spirit, receiving the witness in their hearts crying, “Abba Father.” (7) The visions seen by these children fulfilled the written Word that in the last days “young men shall see visions.” (8) Demons were cast out, and (9) the sick were miraculously healed, just as the Bible said they might be, by the power of the Holy Spirit. (10) A miraculous change took place so that things once loved were hated and things once hated were loved.
The Ignorant Confound the Wise
It is to be recalled that, according to the Bible, the revelations of God and the writings of the Scriptures are independent of natural ability or of acquired education. An uneducated Amos, or Peter, or John, inspired by God, wrote more profoundly than the wisest of this world.
In what the Lord has done and revealed to these despised and outcast beggar boys and girls can we not see a proof of the Word of God? While “not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty” follow the old-fashioned, narrow way of simple faith in God, He still can and does choose these “that are despised,” even these simple Chinese children of the streets and gutters, to “bring to naught the things that are” supposed to be so learned and wise, in this age of godless reason and worldly knowledge.
While the wise of this learned (?), proud, and stiff-necked generation that resists the simple Word go on groping around in the darkness of their own self-sufficient delusions, it must be true in this day, as in the past, that in the midst of so much confusing of man’s wisdom, Jesus can still say, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes” (Matt. 11 :25).
As a whole, the educated and the rulers of the days of Christ did not understand His miraculous works and life, or “they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory” (I Cor. 2:8). The rulers and the educated of the days of the apostles did not understand the miraculous working of Almighty God through simple men endued with the power of the Holy Spirit, or they would not have killed the Spirit-filled saints of the early Church. The profound revelations to these Chinese children “not having learned” in the schools of worldly letters is a corroboration of the written word of God that it came, as it claims to have come, through open-hearted men independent of natural ability or acquired education.
Eye Witnesses of Past Bible Events
Some clear light was thrown on the way Bible writers might have had an eyewitness knowledge of events already past. One of our naturally most ignorant and untalented boys was, on more than one occasion when “in the Spirit,” an eye witness of the principal historical events of the Old and New Testaments. He saw the plagues of Egypt: the frogs in the King’s palace, the flies in Pharaoh’s food, the locusts, the eldest son dead with the whole family in consternation. He also saw Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan, the chariots of fire, and Elijah’s ascension. Daniel was seen in the lion’s den with his angel guard, and other Old Testament events were likewise seen.
This boy was also given visions of the miracles of Christ. He saw the temptations of the Lord. The devil in the form of a handsome young man led the Lord to a high mountain and in vision showed Him the Kingdoms of the world. Angels followed Jesus where ever He went. There were visions of Christ walking on the water, healing the sick, and opening the eyes of the blind. This boy and others saw the passion of the Lord Jesus, His resurrection, and His ascension.
At first I wondered at these visions of past events. I then remembered that with God there is no “past,” “present,” and “future.” He is the Great I AM. All things are alike present with Him. Since the Holy Spirit is His Spirit, by visions and His revelations of the Spirit, “past,” “present,” and “future” may, in God’s economy, be made “present” to any individual to whom the Lord chooses to make such revelations.
These revelations of the past to Adullam corroborate the inspiration of the Bible. It was easy for God to take Moses and others by visions through events already past or through future events as an eye witness sees present events and for them to be able to record the past, the present, and the future in the one and only Book that records the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end.
Recording Revelations from God
The Holy Spirit showed us by illustration how some parts of the Bible became divine records of supernatural revelations. When the children were “in the Spirit,” describing scenes they were seeing in vision, the Spirit caused one boy, who was also in a trance lost “in the Spirit,” to sit down and go through the motions of writing item by item what the others were seeing and describing. Thus anyone should be able to see how easy it was for God to write a Bible. One could record what another saw and described.
If God can now take an ignorant, illiterate beggar boy from a dirty Chinese street, or a half-wild little tribes boy from a remote mountain solitude, can fill him with the Holy Spirit and have him “in the Spirit” escorted by angels, see as an eye witness the things beyond the veil —- things of the present, things of the past, things to come –– has it not always been just as easy for God by visions to reveal everything that is written in the Bible to any vessel of His choosing and have a Barak sit by his side to write just what was seen and revealed, recording word for word any and every prophecy just as it came from the Lord God?
If our boys can be caught into the presence of the Lord and come back saying, “The Lord said,” could not prophets of old even record their own prophecy or visions and say with absolute truth, “Thus saith the Lord?”
How God, with whom past, present, and future is all the same, can reveal past, present, and future events as present events, I do not know. The Bible says He can. The Bible says He did. Adullam knows He still does.
If men ever spoke in prophecy as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, if men were ever “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” and caught up to heaven, if men were ever given visions “in the year King Uzziah died,” they can still be moved upon by the Holy Spirit and prophesy. They can still be caught away “in the Spirit” and see the unseen worlds beyond the veil. They can still see visions any number of years after King Uzziah died.
The same God is still on the same throne, reigning over the same world, dealing with the same kind of evil hearts, through the same sort of men, with the same kind of dispositions and passions Elijah had.
Since God does now in this day reveal Himself through prophecy, vision, and revelations—as He is revealing Himself all around the world—he has, therefore, revealed Himself just as the Bible says He did in days of old to the prophets and saints.
In this wicked age, in the midst of this present unbelieving, perverse generation, the Lord can and will prove that what He has written in the Bible is the word of the living God. He can and does move in the midst of a believing people in supernatural ways through gifts of the Holy Spirit, confirming the word with signs following (Mark 16 :15-20).