SEVEN THOUSAND WHO HAVE NEVER KNELT TO BAAL!
By Norman H. Crowhurst
 (Part 3)

That text in Romans 11 was in our minds for many years. It was a thing we believed, but did not understand. It happened to Elijah. Paul related it, in truth, to his day in his letter to the Romans. And, somehow, it must apply with equal force today, it seemed to us.

We could visualize Elijah wondering where he would ever find that seven thousand. Paul realized the remnant were and are there, and that was enough for him. Our problem was, “Where are the seven thousand to be found today?”

Jehovah’s Witnesses apply that scripture to the gathering numbers that join their organization. They relate this to Matthew 25, about the sheep and the goats, teaching that the sheep are being gathered today, as a result of their work.

Somehow, the notion that there must be a gathering work at this end of the age seemed to fit Bible prophecy. This one piece of Witness teaching that we could not reject, although we did have our doubts about whether the Watchtower Society was or is the gathering agency God is using. Matthew 25 says the Son of Man does the gathering. Does He need any organized society in that work? This seemed doubtful. But somehow we felt such a gathering work must be in evidence, somewhere, somehow.

So it was, when we started associating with the local Church of Christ group, that we felt optimistic that we had found the gathering place for some of the seven thousand. I had come home one day to find my wife talking to two men about the Bible. They assured us that they had no creed, believed the Bible only. After having tried so many places since we ceased associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses, only to be disappointed, this seemed. too good to be true. But we were still hoping.

We started associating with the Church of Christ, very cautiously. The young minister welcomed us warmly. He really did believe the Bible only, so he accepted our belief and we studied together often. But he had difficulty with some of the church elders, who insisted that we had not been baptized into the Church of Christ. The minister was satisfied that we were truly baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27). We needed no more.

After a few weeks we received a call from Jehovah’s Witnesses. It seems we had been seen coming or going from the Church of Christ building. We were called in for a disfellowshipment hearing. We asked to bring a guest and took the young minister with us. When the Witnesses asserted that, as a pagan church, they taught pagan doctrines, we said that the people who went to that building believed the Bible only. We referred to the young minister to confirm this.

For our own belief, they asked if we believed various JW doctrines, in response to which we kept saying that we had nothing to add to what the scriptures say, quoting scriptures relevant to each point questioned. We would acknowledge believing nothing that was not written in the Bible. The young minister enjoyed listening to us.

The main bone of contention was that we insist that the Holy Spirit has been active in our lives, in proof of scriptures which state that Christ in us is proof of our being begotten as sons. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that today the Holy Spirit operates exclusively through the Watchtower Society and not at all with individuals.

A few days later two of Jehovah’s Witnesses visited us, very nervously, to tell us we had been disfellowshipped. No reason was given. The only one we can ascribe is our steadfastness in adhering to exactly what the Bible says.

A little over a week later, the Church of Christ held a week-long gospel meeting conducted by a visiting evangelist. The Bible study on that first Sunday, which he conducted, was not at all like a Bible study: he merely had volunteers read texts of his choice, while he did all the expounding. This was more like the kind of Watchtower version “Bible study” that had led us to leave that group.

After the formal study, he turned to Galatians 1, proceeding to talk about people whose teaching must be accursed, starting with Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy, then including Charles Russell and Judge Rutherford. As he spoke vehemently about these we wondered whether someone had tipped him off about our former association with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Then he went on to rant about Carl Ketcherside. Our young minister friend had introduced me to Carl’s Mission Messenger and I had been corresponding with Carl. Carl accepted me as a brother in Christ at first writing, we had written about various issues, from which I felt I knew him as a brother.

The evangelist later questioned me about my own beliefs, very like the Jehovah’s Witnesses had done only a week or so before. Did I believe in the five steps to salvation? I told him that we believe John 14:6 and we had not counted the steps. But we did not feel that baptism could be the last step, because I had been baptized nearly 40 years ago (then) and had found myself walking with the Lord quite a long way since that time!

I gently suggested that it was better to believe the whole scripture than to select five isolated scriptures and put them together as a set of steps. To all his questions about our belief I answered in the same way we had answered Jehovah’s Witnesses’ questions: “It is written . . .”

Curiously, here too we were questioned about the Holy Spirit. The evangelist asserted that the Holy Spirit’s work finished with the completion of the New Testament. I quoted him Matthew 12:31, 32. What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Contradicting or misquoting scripture, was his answer. What about those occasions when my speech faculties had brought people to believe, without my knowing what to say, or what I had said? “Would you by denying the Holy Spirit, professing this to be my own cleverness, be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?” I asked. He made no attempt to answer this. I reminded him of Hebrews 13:8.

That discussion continued for over two hours. At the end, he said, “I perceive, brother Crowhurst, that the Lord will mightily use you.” However that concession did not change the outcome of the week-long meeting. After he had moved on, the local elders reiterated their demands that we be rebaptized into the Church of Christ. The young minister, rather than join them in denying our former baptism and work, left the congregation, as we also had to.

Several times during that brief association, we had quoted Romans 11 about the 7000 who had not knelt to Baal and added that we felt we had at last found some of them. These Church of Christers seemed singularly unresponsive to this comment. When we were so definitely shown the door, we realized that here too we had been mistaken: we had not found the 7000!

After that, wonderful things began to happen. We realized that we had obeyed Paul’s admonition to the Galatians (at 5:1) and been blessed for it. Hardly a week passed by without our brushing shoulders with another pair of unbent knees, and our giving praise for the privilege.

At a Lutheran church, we met a whole group of them, not Lutherans, but people who came from many denominations, who met together with one accord. This continued until officials of the Lutheran church said the place could be used only for Lutheran worship.

At the hearing about this, someone complained that a person had been heard to say, “Hallelujah,” at a place that did not call for that response in the formal liturgy. I had missed this happening, but I asked, “What was wrong about that?” To which an official responded, “It may be Christian, but it is not Lutheran!” Not long after that, the Lutheran minister was unfrocked. He too rejoiced in his newfound freedom in Christ.

As never before, we now came to realize the meaning of 2 Tim. 2:19, “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” We had always believed this, but now we understood it. We had also believed 2 Peter 1:20, 21, but it was only along about this time that we began to understand how that really works.

It is just as John wrote, at 1 John 2:27: “Ye need not that any man teach you “ Why not? We knew that, from our own experience! Exactly the reason that John himself gave. — Rt. 3, Box 324-R, Dallas, Or. 97338