August - September 1978
"For The Honor Of His Name"
(Ezekiel 38:23, 39:7)
Even in the face of the onrushing $650,000 deadline on September 1st, our spirits were considerably strengthened by an important event: the end of Summit's lease on the campus. Starting the last week in July, we watched truck after truck load up, then pull away from the other side of the street. It took nearly two months for the cult to move out completely, and the buildings they left behind had to be thoroughly cleaned, both physically and spiritually.
As so many times before in the previous two years, we claimed Christ's victory through His shed blood on Calvary, and commanded the evil spirits to depart. If we hadn't personally experienced so much spiritual warfare, we would have scoffed at ourselves for doing what could seem like a superstitious ritual. But we knew only too well it was not. Even to come near certain rooms gave one a very eerie feeling, and it wasn't until some time later that we learned those were the rooms which Mrs. Prophet had occupied when she stayed overnight in the dorm.
When September 1st arrived, it seemed to be an ordinary day
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filled with the rush of work and prayer. Though we had done our very best, time had run out. If God truly wanted us to have this campus, He would simply have to provide.
With so much at stake, it was hard not to be distracted, but except for those in our day-to-day tasks, pausing every now and then to get the new tally which Ralph and our accountant kept current as the gifts came in.
For the past five days, a farmer in Canada had been calling each day to see whether we would come close. He said his wife had read the Jericho book and had insisted that he do the same. He had just finished it when he first called and wanted to know how we were doing.
"How much money do you lack?" he asked.
The first day he called, the answer was $190,000. The next day it was $150,000, etc.
Looking back, I don't really know how God put it all together. I remember that on the final morning we still lacked just over $50,000, and were driven to earnest prayer. "In a pinch we can run around and borrow that much," Ralph told our Canadian friend when he called. "I think we'll be okay!"
But the man insisted, "How much should I wire you?"
How do you answer a question like that when you don't know the resources available? Anyway, it was up to God to tell him.
"Let's just say," Ralph answered, "that a small gift is better right now than a loan. And don't pay the cost of wiring. We'll cover somehow until it gets here!"
"All right. I'll be sending you . . . " But the words were muffled, and Ralph was reluctant to ask him to repeat it.
"What did he say?" Ralph asked himself when he got off the phone. "Was it $1600 or $16,000?" We didn't find out for several days, then praised the Lord when it turned out to be the larger of the two. God knew how how much we needed it!
It was wonderful to watch God work that day . . . people walking in asking if they were too late, but would we please
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take their money anyway? Phone calls, telegrams of money.
Once again we had a frustrating delay with a bank in San Francisco that wouldn't release to us the money that had been deposited there to be transferred to Pasadena for our use. The branch bank had held it for a number of days, and nothing we did seemed sufficient to get it released. It was a large sum, and we desperately needed it.
About that time a Nazarene realtor who had come weekly to our prayer council, learned of our problem and talked to the bank in San Francisco. She identified herself and warned the lady responsible that it was illegal to hold money so long in a branch bank. "If you do not release that money immediately, I am going to report your conduct to ______," and she named the president of the home office — which happened to be in Los Angeles. Within two hours, just in time, those funds were in our hands. Again, just before the bank closed at 3 P.M., we had the money we needed, the $650,000 to complete our down payment!
Strangely, I didn't feel like jumping up and down. I was glad, deeply glad, inside. Yet I felt that it was God's honor that was at stake, not ours. We had come onto the campus in response to His call, to do His work in obedience to His last great command. Unexpectedly, there we had run into conflict with a religious group which was diametrically opposed to everything we believed and thought. In the names of their own personal "godhood" within, they had determined to make this place a missionary center to spread their philosophy of self-realization.
We, in turn, had claimed the property in the name of the historical Jesus of Calvary in order to make it a missionary center from which His ambassadors would go to the ends of the earth, proclaiming, "There is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved except the name of Jesus!" (Acts 4:12)
Now, more than ever, we realized that God intended to receive honor in his place. He was not interested in our
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merely acquiring a piece of property. The campus was of value only as we would bring honor and glory to Him through how we lived and what we did.
The road ahead, however, was long and rough. Instead of sprinting to a close goal, we still had the wilderness to face with its temptations, trials, misunderstandings and hurts. It could not be crossed in a day, nor in a month, nor in a year.
