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The information
below is a compilation of facts and tidbits that have been gathered
from interviews with family members, personal acquaintances and the
personal writings of several of the earliest 7th seal
advocates. The writer has tried to take an unbiased approach in
putting together this information and has included mostly
information that was collaborated by more than one source; however,
he does not claim to have been infallible in his conclusions. Some
of the individuals in this writing have been dead for over 50 years
and it is very difficult to recreate the environment in which they
may have lived.
It is not the
intent of the writer to cast off on any of the 7th seal
leaders. It is doubtless that every one of them was fully committed
to their individual cause and convictions and felt as if they were
doing the will of God. With that, the following is provided for your
consideration.
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Emerson A. Wilson was
just days old when he entered into the prophetic arena. Shortly
after his birth that cold day in Feb 1920, Andrew L. Byers, Church
of God historian, prominent song writer, musician,
bibliographer, and early pioneer of the Church of God (Anderson)
movement, prophesied in Springfield, Ohio regarding Emerson Wilson that
“God shall raise this child up to be a prophet right in this
country.”
Indeed, by the time of
his untimely death in April 1987, many were calling Emerson a “present day
prophet”.
Emerson was saved in
1948 under the pastoral ministry of his father, W. A. Wilson. He was
ordained to the ministry in August 1954 and became the pastor of the
“God's Acres” Church of God in Newark, Ohio in October, 1954, just
days after his father’s passing. He was the pastor of this
congregation for 33 years.
Just prior to his
passing, W A Wilson and his son, Emerson, stood on grounds that had just been
purchased by the congregation and "W. A." shared a vision that he
had received. “Men and women of different color, races, and
nationalities would come together to hear the Gospel preached.” In
June of 1955, "God's Acres" was set apart and dedicated to the
Lord's service. A three day weekend “campmeeting” was held there in
an old barn that same year. By 1968, a 2,200 seat tabernacle was
used for annual campmeetings. Three campmeetings a year are still
conducted at this same location.
Under Emerson’s
pastorate, the congregation grew substantially, at one point
numbering well over 1,000 members. The annual campmeetings were well
attended with several thousand people present. A print shop was
established and “The Gospel Trumpeter” magazine was first published
in 1971 and continues yet to this day. Its motto is “Sounding Forth
the Seventh and Last Trumpet.”
A series of messages
preached by Emerson during a heavily attended campmeeting in
Newark, Ohio in 1960 became a rallying point in the renewal of the
7th seal message. This place, God’s Acres, came to represent the new
rallying point for the entire movement. This man, Emerson A. Wilson,
came to be the spokesperson for the entire movement.
By this time, only two
of the original 7th seal leaders were still living, namely, “P. D.”
Turnbow and “G. W.” Pendleton. Pendleton had fallen out of favor
with the brethren and had started his own movement with his own
following. Turnbow and the earlier 7th seal writings were nearly all
that was left.
Turnbow became
acquainted with Emerson and the two developed a close friendship.
Interestingly enough, because Turnbow was converted in the late
1940s and was exposed to the 7th seal message early in his Christian
experience, it seems as though he was not closely aligned with the
Church of God (Anderson) movement, unlike all of his predecessors.
Therefore, he was not officially listed in
the Church of God yearbook. Contrarily, Emerson, who was an up and coming preacher
within the Church of God (Anderson) movement, had come to realize
that many of the more recent changes that were made within the movement had caused a general drifting away.
He was
concerned. The 7th seal message seemed to offer an explanation for
what had happened and more importantly, it offered hope and a soon
coming redemption. After much consideration, he embraced it, in a
big way!
Lawson, Turnbow and
Rogers’ book, The Revelation With Gospel and Prophecy, soon
became standard reading material among the new 7th seal advocates.
The campmeeting bookstore in Newark carried this prophetic book and it was
in much demand. As previously stated, The Revelation With Gospel and
Prophecy was a 1955 revision of the book originally written by W S
Goodnight in 1933 and although it had undergone several revisions,
it still contained many of the original prophesies, including the
prophesy that the 7th seal would end in 1980 and Jesus' 2nd coming
would soon follow. A foldout chart in the 1955 revision clearly has the year 1980
annotated, followed by “The Camp of the Saints”.
A spiral bound
transcript was printed of Emerson’s 1960 message series. The title
of the book was Parallel Lectures on the Parables of the Kingdom and
the Seven Churches of Asia. This 184 page book presented a new line
of thought that paralleled Christ’ seven parables in the 13th
Chapter of Matthew to the 7 church ages in the 2nd and 3rd Chapters
of Revelation. This book has been reprinted by God’s Acres several
times. The first printing was in 1962, followed by printings in 1970
and 2004.
The second major
publishing of another one of Emerson’s message series was The Sounding of
the Seven Trumpets. This book was also a transcription of messages
preached at a campmeeting held at God's Acres in
the very early 1960s. This series of messages took a deeper look at
the trumpet soundings in Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 of Revelation.
It was these two works
that would ultimately define a more matured interpretation of the
7th seal message.
Emerson was a humble,
gifted and influential man and many people began to rally
behind the 7th seal message as a result of his ministry.
He completely separated himself from the Anderson body and the last
time his name appeared in the yearbook was in 1961.
As noted, Emerson made a few adjustments to the previous
interpretations of the earlier brethren regarding certain
Revelation symbols and he carried the message to many congregations
and campmeetings, mostly in the US , but also to a few foreign
countries. This time, the advocates and followers of this 7th seal
teaching, though few in number as compared to the parent body,
followed Emerson and made a decisive separation from the Church of God
(Anderson) body. The denunciations made by the new 7th seal
advocates were strong and direct against the Anderson body!
In the early 1970s,
Emerson found himself at the forefront of a major division over the
doctrinal issue of sanctification. This schism divided the 7th seal
movement into two warring factions, and there have been
several divisions and
on both sides since that time. As an example of the importance of
the Revelation message to the new 7th seal body, in 1985, one of the main Church of
God bodies split in half over the interpretation of one single Revelation
symbol, namely, the woman in the wilderness in Revelation Chapter
12. Various individuals within each of the Church of God sects have
tried to keep the 7th seal message alive, but with limited and
varying success. It is likely that if the overall trend of division
continues as it has in the past 50 years, the entire 7th movement
will self destruct and cease to exist within the next 50 years.
Emerson A. Wilson died
an untimely death in 1987 as a result of cancer. He had preached the
7th seal message for about 27 years.
He would roll over in
his grave if he saw the present condition of the movement in which
he was instrumental in creating.
The next area of our
study will be the examination of the calculation methods of the
overall timeline that is used in determining key dates on the 7th
seal Revelation charts. We will start with the date 270 AD and then
take a look at a few others.
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