THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF KEITH MALCOLM HUNT
It was a sunny evening that summer of 1963. I was listening to the radio and the religious programs the local station aired. I had one particular program on. I needed to ask my Landlord about something. I was upstair standing in his kitchen, my door downstairs was open, his kitchen door was open. He says to me, “What do you think of that guy on the radio?”
“I like listening to him” I replied.
“Well he’s a seventh day observer.”
“So are we not also?”
“No Sunday is the first day of the week.”
YOU COULD HAVE KNOCKED ME OVER WITH A FEATHER!
I was dum-founded; I could hardly believe what he had said.
Immediately my mind went all the way back to that Sunday school kid, when I was about 10 years old, who said his father had told him Sunday was the first day of the week, and Saturday was the 7th day of the week.
NOW MY LANDLORD WAS TELLING ME THE SAME THING!
I WAS TRULY STUNNED AND SPEACHLESS!
I went back to my room and thought and said to myself, “I was raised on the Ten Commandments; I was taught we should obey the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath was instituted in the first week of Genesis 1 and 2. Jesus said in the Gospels He was Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus said to the rich young man who asked Him the way to inherit eternal life; Jesus replied “keep the commandments” and went on to quote from the Ten Commandments [Matt. 19].” I was in UTTER SHOCK!
My mind could not believe that Sunday was not the 7th day of the week; but I had just heard it was not from an older adult man; I technically had to admit he must be correct……BUT HOW COULD ALL OF CHRISTIANITY I KNEW, ALL MY LIFE, BE SO WRONG IN OBSERVING SUNDAY?
IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO ENVISION ALL THAT I KNEW ABOUT CHRISTIANITY WAS VERY WRONG, VERY WRONG, ON OBSERVING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, AND NOT THE SEVENTH DAY.
The next day I was down at the Public Library, heading towards their “theology” section. I saw a book called “Christian Feasts and Customs” by a Roman Catholic bishop. I opened to his chapter on the Sabbath day. To my further AMAZEMENT AND SHOCK I read his first paragraph. He openly said, “You can read from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find where the first day was ever made holy, sanctified, or became the New Testament Sabbath. We the Roman Catholic church, as the true church, with apostolic succession, have the authority to change the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day of the week.”
I LEFT THAT LIBRARY IN NUMBNESS OF MIND. IT WAS INDEED TRUE SUNDAY WAS NOT THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK.
I WENT HOME AND SAID TO MYSELF, THERE MUST BE OTHERS WHO KNOW ALL THIS, AND ARE OBSERVING THE SEVENTH DAY. Well of course the guy on the radio program I liked listening to each evening, my Landlord had said to me he was a 7th day observer.
This radio religious program was sponsored by “The Radio Church of God.”
I wrote to them and asked if they had a church in Saskatoon; they said they did not at that moment. They taught a number of things that I had over my lifetime come to see was the truth. Then they were challenging me to study other things in the Bible that was new to me.
I went back to the Public Library and took out that book “Christian Feasts and Customs”—— reading it all blew me away!
I discovered where Christmas came from; where Easter came from; where all kinds of traditions of the Western world came from—— it was mind-bending!
It was extremely hard for me to accept so much of Christianity was FALSE—— built on pagan traditions and customs that were gradually over time introduced into the Church of God….well into a Roman Catholic church, that obviously CAME OUT OF the apostolic first century A.D. Church of God.
I was truly STUNNED but also very ANGRY!
I now had the simple truth of which was the 7th day to be observed. I did not want to accept it——I stayed away from Buckhorn Stable for a few weeks. I finally went back on a Saturday, still bewildered in my mind. I was not there that long, and a still small voice said to me, “GET YOUR FOOT OFF MY SABBATH.” I put away what I WAS DOING AND LEFT FOR HOME TO START OBSERVING THE 7TH DAY SABBATH AS THE 4TH COMMANDMENT PLAINLY SAYS TO DO.
YES AND I WAS ANGRY AT A FALSE CHRISTIANITY.
NOW EVERYTHING CHANGED; MY MIND AND LIFE WAS TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN AND INSIDE-OUT.
I NOW KNEW WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO WITH MY LIFE. YES GOD ALLOWED ME TO BELIEVE FROM AGE 7 I WOULD BE THE NEXT ROY ROGERS; ALLOWED ALL TO GO ACCORDING TO MY PLAN; ALL SO NEAT AND ON TIME IT SEEMED. ALL GOING MY WAY—— BUT GOD BROUGHT ME OUT TO CANADA NOT TO BE THE NEXT ROY ROGERS, BUT TO FIND HIS MANY MORE TRUTHS OF HIS WORD HE HAD FOR ME—— I WAS TO SERVE HIM WITH ALL MY HEART, LIFE AND MIND—— I WAS TO BE A PART OF HIS WORK AS IT WOULD GO OUT INTO ALL THE WORLD.
PUTTING AWAY MY BIG DESIRE AND MY DREAMS, BEING THE NEXT SINGING COWBOY RIDING A GOLDEN PALOMINO ACROSS THE MOVIE SCRENE, WAS NOW EASY TO DO—— ALL OF THAT DID NOT MATTER ANY MORE. GOD HAD BROUGHT ME UP ON HIS WORD, AND HIS WORD AND TRUTHS I WAS TO PROCLAIM IN WHATEVER WAY GOD WOULD LEAD ME TO DO FOR HIM.
MY LIFE WOULD NOW MAKE A HUGE TURN IN DIRECTION.
HORSES WOULD BE A SMALL PART OF MY LIFE, A SMALL HOBBY ONLY.
FOR THE NEXT YEAR I STUDIED THE BIBLE AS NEVER BEFORE, NIGHT AND DAY, AS MUCH AS I COULD BESIDES HOLDING DOWN A FULL TIME JOB. BUT I HAD NO IDEA WHERE THERE WAS A FULL TIME JOB I COULD BE HAPPY IN.
THEN IT WAS THAT GOD ONCE MORE WORKED WITH ME, TO GIVE ME A JOB I COULD BE HAPPILY SKILL AT DOING, WHILE I STUDIED HIS WORD EVERY SPARE MOMENT I HAD.
That’s for next time.
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