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* PENTECOST*

20/20

A New Light Dawns!

WITH ANGELS!
100

SAMUEL the  CHILD PROPHET

and the VOICE that he couldn't ignore!     1 Samuel 1:20 "Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name SAMUEL, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

    21 "And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice, and his vow."

    22 "But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may be before the Lord, and there abide for ever."

   28 "Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.  And he worshipped the Lord there.  (At the house of the Lord in Shiloh -- verse 24).

     1 Samuel 2:18 "But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. 19 Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice."

     1 Samuel 3:1 "And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.  And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision."

      2 "And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

     4 "That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.  5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou callest me.  And he said, I called not; lie down again.  And he went and lay down."

     6 "And the Lord called yet again, Samuel.  And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again."

     7 "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him."  

     8 "And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.  And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me.  And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child."

      9 "Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down; and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.  So Samuel went and lay down in his place."

     10 "And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.  Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth."

And then began a back and forth audible conversation between God and Samuel that continued until Samuel's death.  And indeed even after his death, when King Saul forced the so-called "witch" of Endor to coax one more message out of the "sleeping" Prophet Samuel!

   Why I, Dr. Bob Holt, MD, believe this to be a true story, and that God, or his Holy Spirit, can and does speak audibly to people, even now, over 3000 years later!

It was, if I remember correctly, in 1984, on my first trip to Jamaica with Pentecostal Missionary Eulis Jack Cates, that I was first awakened from sleep (as was Samuel) by a completely invisible to me person calling my name, Bob Holt.  Like Samuel, I awoke, looked around, and even walked through the house in which I was staying in Jamaica, looking for someone awake and calling me.
   Now I found the experience of someone talking out loud to me I couldn't see a bit disconcerting and embarrassing at first, because in the late 1950s I had worked at Worcester State Hospital, a mental hospital, and I had lots of Schizophrenic patients there whose problem was similar to mine after 1984. By 1984 I had been a Medical Doctor for 10 years. Also I was not Pentecostal, only accompanying one.

I don't remember if I told my Pentecostal friend Evangelist Cates about this particular calling out of my name, -- there were more-- but he said it was not that unusual for this to happen to Holy-Ghost-believing Christians. And indeed his father had been called by God to become a minister in this very manner, when he had heard his name called out with no visible person present at the time this first occurred!

     While I was in Jamaica with Eulis Jack Cates in 1984 and afterwards I got used to quite noisy church services in which people often prayed all together, and sometimes some of them were not speaking any known human language at all but some type of gibberish that no one present, including themselves, could understand.  I had been taught in Adventist Church Schools that indeed such worship services were occurring in other churches outside Adventism, but that we Bible students, who knew the "Truth" and had the "Truth" should not participate in such  activities.   --- if we did -----

     Devils would get into our minds and steal our souls, and it would become difficult, if not impossible for the Jesus and angels who we were certain daily visited our quiet, neat, and orderly schools and churches to save us.  This was proved to us by teachers who were teaching us to memorize certain Bible texts that proved that WE, and no other religions in the world, had all the "Truth" that any of us needed to know.  Sad to say, there are lots of other Bible texts that Pentecostal school kids are reading and memorizing that seem to prove to them that THEY, not Adventists, are much better off than we, because they, not we, have the Holy Ghost to teach them everything they need to know. 

Had not Jesus said to His Disciples just before He died on the Cross --

    John 16:7 "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world -- 13 --he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come ---14 --he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

    Well, as I think back now on the events of the mid-1980s it may be that what these Pentecostal school children were learning from their Bibles was just as valid as what we Adventist kids were learning!  And just as valid as what young Samuel of Bible times was about to learn as he started to pay attention to what was happening to a youthful farm lad who lived in that corner of the land of Judah that once belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin.  A tall awkward farm lad named Saul who met, and was conquered by

the Holy Ghost!

    1 Samuel 9:1 "Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power."

    2 And he had a son, whose  name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people."

    3 And the asses of Kish Saul's father were lost.  And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses."

     The story-line that keeps us as Bible readers interested and occupied for 1 Samuel 9:3 through 1 Samuel 10:27 is the search for, and finding of the asses of a Benjamite named Kish, a map of this search being displayed above, but as a part of this story Saul and Kish's servant find the house in which Samuel the Prophet is living.  Samuel demonstrates for them that the Holy Ghost is aware of everything that is going on connected with their search for the lost asses, and also knows what will happen to Saul for the next few days in the future as the people will accept him as their new king.

    1 Samuel 9:5 "And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was come with him, Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us.  6 And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass; now let us go thither; paradventure he can shew us our way that we should go."

    7 "Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man?  for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God; what have we? 8 And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God to tell us our way."

     9 "(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer:)

    This is an interesting little bit of advice that an ancient Biblical author has inserted here in his or her story that shows a lot more practical wisdom than our various religions and religious leaders don't seem to be able to comprehend any more.  If God honors this person's predictions by fulfilling them, then call them what you will, they're working for God or His Holy Spirit, not "the Devil".

     Nowadays, a "Psychic", whose predictions at least part of the time come to pass, is presumed by Christians to be working for some evil spirit while a Christian trying to make prophesies based on Biblical Numerology is honored for his or her failed attempts.  Ellen G. White is called "The Spirit of Prophecy" while Nostradamus and Jeanne Dixon are willing tools of Satan.

Samuel the "Seer"

   not only knew they were coming, but also told Saul and his friend what would happen in great detail after they left his mansion on the hill."

   1 Samuel 10:2 "When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachal's sepulcre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they shall say unto thee, The asses which thou  wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?"

   3 "Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet three men going up to God in Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:  4 They will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hands."

    5 "After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of PROPHETS coming down from the HIGH PLACE with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them, and they shall prophesy:

   6 "And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man."

    9 "And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all these signs came to pass that day.  10 "And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company  of prophets met them; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them."

As I reported earlier, I can also believe that a series of prophesied events such as are recorded here in the Bible story of Saul's search for his father's "lost" asses can indeed occur because a similar prophecy and fulfillment occurred to me in December 1997 when Jesus as a Cartoonist pictured as cartoons in a portrait he drew of me a whole year of events for the year 1998!

   1 Samuel 10:11 to 27 Continues on with the story of the public choosing of Saul the Benjamite, the son of Kish, the searcher for lost asses, to be the first king of Israel.  When it came to be time for him to appear and accept this honor, he could not be found according to verse 21.

   22 "Therefore, they enquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither.  And the Lord answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.  23 And they ran and fetched him thence; and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward."

NEW TESTAMENT PARALLELS    

BECAUSE LUKE IN ACTS 2 HAS CHOSEN TO USE "TONGUES OF FIRE" (AN "ELIJAH" PARALLEL) AND "SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES" AS ANOTHER EXAMPLE (NOT PROPHESYING) WE HAVE MISSED OTHER VERY IMPORTANT PARALLELS THAT HE, LUKE, AND THE OTHER GOSPEL WRITERS HAVE USED BASED MOSTLY ON KING SAUL'S

HOLY GHOST EXPERIENCE!

Samuel said to Saul

1 Samuel 10:3 "--there shall meet thee three men, --carrying three loaves of bread, and --a bottle of wine."

1000 years later, the "Lord's Supper"

  Luke 22:10 "And he (Jesus) said unto them, Behold, when ye have entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in."

Samuel said to Saul

  1 Samuel 10:6 "And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man."

1000 years later, Jesus said to Nicodemus

   John 3:3 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

    (Turned into another man means the same thing as being born again!)

    John 3:5 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

    (Here Jesus makes it clear to Nicodemus that being baptized by water only is not enough to cause the desired change, and that if the Spirit of God is not involved, nothing much has really happened!)

Those who met Saul afterwards said

   1 Samuel 10:11 "What is this that has come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1000 years later, those in Nazareth said of Jesus after he was baptized by John

  Mark 6:2 "From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?"

Those who met Saul afterwards also said

   1 Samuel 10:12 "And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1000 years later, those in Nazareth also said of Jesus after he was baptized by John

  Matthew 13:55 "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"

     Having discovered, here in one place, 1 Samuel chapter 10, a regular "gold-mine" of parallel texts that all of the Gospel Writers other than Luke have apparently used as models to construct stories about Jesus, I looked once more at Luke, and found another!  An even more impressive example!

Those who met Saul afterwards had said

   1 Samuel 10:12 "And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1000 years later, even before Jesus was baptized by John, Jesus answered his father Joseph at Jerusalem, before returning to Nazareth,

  Luke 2:49 "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

   Following here the Old Testament Example of Saul the son of Kish, who after receiving the Holy Spirit was a "new and different man" whose father was not now a Benjamite named Kish but instead the Holy Spirit, Jesus, after his debate with Israel's teachers, perhaps reading to him 1 Samuel 10, turns on his biological father Joseph and tells him that now he's ready to take on a new "business", that of being Israel's next "King-Messiah".   As Saul had become ready to take on the business of no longer chasing lost asses for his father Kish but instead become the first king of Israel.

    But wait, we're not through here yet, because there's one bit of parallelism with 1 Samuel that all of the Gospel writers have adopted and used, that of God, clearly through his Holy Spirit not invisible this time, but appearing as a dove, Who spoke out loud and clearly, as this same divine entity spoke out loud and clearly to Samuel as a child in 1 Samuel 3.

   1 Samuel 3:4 "--the Lord called Samuel; and he answered, Here am I."

1000 years later, at the Jordan River -

   Matthew 3:16 "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

    Mark 1:10 "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him; 11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

    Luke 3:21 "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased."

     John 1:32 "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him."

     John 1:34 "And I saw, and bare record that this is the son of God."

TO BE RECOGNIZED HERE IS THE STARTLING FACT THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED NOT JUST UNIQUELY TO JESUS CHRIST, BUT THAT HAD ALSO HAPPENED TO ABRAHAM, AND TO SAMUEL THE PROPHET AS A CHILD, AND TO MANY OTHERS!

FILLING IN THE BLANKS OF THE ACTS 2 PENTECOST

USING 1 SAMUEL 10

   Pentecostal Holiness Christians from the very first have been subject to a great deal of verbal abuse from other Christians because of the noisiness of their church services, praying and prophesying all at once when the "Spirit" inspires them to do so, and their tendency to use instruments of all types, not relying on organs, pianos, and the grand old hymns inherited from our Medieval Christian forefathers.   Now none of these quite characteristic Pentecostal Holiness differences from their more quiet and dignified Christian sister churches can be proved to have occurred at the Feast of Pentecost described in Acts 2, although it's possible to infer some noise and disorder from the statement by Peter that no-one was drunk because it was too early in the day for this to be true.

However, all of these characteristic differences seem to be present in the group of Holy Ghost filled prophets Saul met coming down from a "high place" near Samuel the Prophet's home --

  1)They were playing 4 different types of musical instruments, all named.

   2) They were all prophesying at once, no leader is named, and there is no account of them stopping, choosing a hall, and setting up an order of service of any type.

   3) When Saul joined in and started "prophesying" with them, they did not ask for his credentials or Church affiliation -- the experience of being "Spirit-filled" was all the proof the others needed that he was one of them!

 

And SO shall it BE, with PENTECOST 20/20!

 

 

The 1 Samuel 19

HOLY GHOST PROPHETS CLUB!

As we read on past 1 Samuel 3, in which Samuel first hears the Holy Ghost calling him by name, and learns that he must show his willingness to listen to hear any more --

And past 1 Samuel 9 and 10, in which Saul, the son of Kish the Benjamite, is called by the Holy Ghost through Samuel to lead Israel as that country's very first king --

We come to 1 Samuel 11, in which Saul demonstrates his ability to rescue the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead from the threat of Nahash the Ammonite, and afterwards was truly accepted as king.

By 1 Samuel chapter 14, Saul's son Jonathan, who has become an expert archer, able to shoot arrows more effectively than any Isrealite of his generation, becomes the hero.

And by chapter 15, Samuel commands Saul to destroy Agag the king of the Amelekites along with his soldiers in the city of Amelek, which Saul was able to do with the Lord's help.

    But Saul disobeys the Lord's instructions, as relayed by Samuel --

1 Samuel15:9 "And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly."   Samuel, after crying all night before the Lord, personally hacked the captive King Agag to death as Saul and his army watched.  Then Samuel left Saul never again to meet with him in public. (1 Samuel 15:35)  But Saul did later meet with a group of prophets, the companions and followers of Samuel, under very unusual circumstances, as we will discover in chapter 19.

    1 Samuel 16 -- Samuel secretly annoints David to replace Saul as king of Israel.  David introduced as an expert songwriter and harp-player.  In an odd, out of sync story, he is chosen to be Saul's harpist, because Saul is afflicted by an evil spirit from God.

    1 Samuel 17 -- The wonderful (an possibly dishonest) story of David slaying Goliath of Gath with a few small stones and a slingshot. 

    1 Samuel 18 -- The friendship of David and Jonathan begins, and David marries Saul's daughter Michal, paying Saul with 200 Philistine foreskins as dowry (Saul had only asked for 100).

    As chapter 19 begins, Saul has decided to kill David outright, many attempts to kill him with a javalin having failed.  Michal, David's new wife, warns David and persuades David to flee for his life, while fooling her father by putting an image in David's bed, and saying her husband was sick, and unable to move.  She let David down by a rope out of her bedroom window.   David fled then to be with Samuel in Ramah, and both Samuel and David move on to a place called Najoth.

Naioth, the "Paradise"

for Holy-Ghost-Filled Prophets!

(And Inspiration for David's almost-naked dance before

the Ark of the Covenant!)

   1 Samuel 19:19 "And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah."

    20 And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied."

   1 Samuel 19:21 "And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise.  And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also."

HERE'S THE PROPHETIC PATTERN FOR PENTECOST 20/20, FIRST PENTECOST IN ACTS 2,  SECOND PENTECOST 1900 THROUGH 1988,  THIRD PENTECOST 2013-2020.

   But it's also the pattern for the account of another Saul, Saul of Tarsus, waiting 3 days for another Holy-Ghost-Filled "Samuel" named Ananias to give him back his eyesight after a vision of Jesus blinds him on the road to Damascus.

   1 Samuel 19:22 "Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah."

    23 "And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah."

    24 "And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night."

Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?"

    

the Holy Ghost makes

or re-makes yet another man!

Naked, as in the beginning!

 
As with all these Bible stories, you, the reader, have the option to believe they are literal or symbolic, or indeed, not to believe them at all!  Those readers who have never been overpowered by the Holy Ghost and been told later what they actually did or said while in this temporary condition may disbelieve that Saul was totally naked and saying and doing things he couldn't remember afterwards.  Those who have had such experiences will have no problem believing this story.  Literally!     Dr. Bob Holt, MD
   For almost 2000 years, the Holy Ghost, angels, and other Divine Beings have left our Western World pretty much alone, and turned it over to Constantine the Great, and his chosen proxies, the Roman Catholic Church and her Protestant "daughters" to administer and control.   Anyone showing signs of contact with Divine Beings or even worse, being controlled by Divine Beings, was either quarantined and made a "Saint" or tried by the Inquisition and possibly burned at the stake.  By the 1800s most Christians had forgotten, if they ever knew, what such experiences and people were like!

Such stories as King Saul's nakedness at Naioth

and King David dancing almost naked before the Ark of the Covenant, and thousands of his countrymen (and women and young girls) are in the Bible to remind those used to 2000 years of religious censorship and intolerance what used to be in Bible times, and can be once again!

 

 

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On November 8, 2014 Pastor Erin Miller of the Foster Seventh-day Adventist Church recognized some similarities of her fellow church members with the 400 persons who gathered to meet the fleeing David at the Cave of Adullam.

For Dr. Bob Holt's account--

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David's Dance before God's Holy Ark!

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