No Matter What Frame of Mind a Visitor Approaches Father Divine In,
When He Departs He Is Well Aware That Here Is Something That Cannot Be Defined

The King of Peace

 

The only prosaic statement that can be made about Father Divine is that
He is the Founder, Bishop and Pastor of the Peace Mission Movement.

 

The Church Discipline, Constitution and By-Laws say of HIM

'We recognize and declare Father Divine to be the Person of the Perfect One; the Father Who moved out upon the face of the deep before the world was; the Son Who said, I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life; and the Holy Ghost, the Comforter Who was to come, all three in One, the same with or without a Body but dwelling with us, a Body in this last dispensation known as Father Divine.'

 

Actually He is beyond the borders of classification or comparison. Only an inner revelation of some of His Nature and Characteristics could give the least knowledge of Who Father Divine really is.

No matter what frame of mind a visitor approaches Father Divine in, when he departs he is well aware that here is Something that cannot be defined, that cannot be categorized. Not only the spiritually inclined but the atheist and agnostic feel, that Something that is out of bounds, that Something to be fathomed, Something very deep, the limitlessness, the atmosphere of infinitude that surrounds Him.

When asked, for the Radio Station WOR "Answer Man Program" in New York City, how old He was and where He was born, Father Divine answered:

'Before Abraham was I Am.'


No other answer could be given. Refusing to be confined, Father Divine says He came through forty-two generations before the advent of Jesus and never lost a battle.

Though Father Divine speaks from and of the ages, the thoughts of others about Him are inclined toward the limits of this
dispensation with which they are most familiar. Those who were with Him Personally long before most of the followers were born, have deep seated convictions about Father Divine and relate instance after instance of His miraculous Work. One of these is a forceful and
dynamic speaker who often punctuates his remarks with phrases like, "This is God you know."

After the first Mother Divine had been married to Father for over half a century She said She had never seen anything but God about Him. Reflecting back to times when those about Him thought they fully knew the Path He was traveling in a certain direction, She recalled how Father would suddenly broaden the Pathway beyond the limits of their understanding. It is in moments like this His Infinitude can be fully realized. Father Divine is the same today.

Because of the proximity and length of time with Father, followers such as these are in a better position to know Him that any who have attempted to write about Him after one audience or perhaps none at all.

His Words, given freely to various publications featuring His Works over the years, clearly portray a Spirit flowing through the universe into infinitude without any prohibitation's. Phrases conveying this nature which is Father Divine are:

"By nature God is impersonal, infinite. His blessings go into infinitude, the end you cannot see";

"To claim, the world is my country,' is an advanced degree of spiritual understanding";

I came to save the bodies of men, their spirits are already saved";

'There is a science transcending all physical sciences ... man's finite mind cannot measure nor fathom out God's Omniscience";

When you have advanced in consciousness to where you can see Me completely you will be on the Mount of Transfiguration".

 

Personal Ministry

During His ministry in the years when He walked among men trying to hide His identity, Father Divine preached the doctrine of love through the Life of Christ and the brotherhood of man without thought of purse or script. Traveling from city to city, He often attended the various denominational churches offering His Service to those who would accept it. Those who accompanied Him quietly voiced their belief in Father Divine's Deity, but never publicly, for it was not yet His Will to be exposed to the public as an Individual. His searching doctrine of love agitated and convicted may to such a pitch that He was Personally cast into the hands of mad lynch mobs thirty-two times. In the face of the intense hatred, the Presence of His Omnipotent Spirit, activated by those with Him filling the air with hallelujahs, brought Him out each time unharmed. The Word of God was their only weapon.

In the years following, when Father and Mother Divine resided in New York City, many were attracted to follow; some only for the "loaves and fishes." And so, in the early nineteen hundreds, on the shores of Long Island in the town of Sayville, Father and Mother and Their household chose to take up residence on a quiet little street in an unpretentious manner. It was here that Father, surrounded only by those who expressed His Own Mind and Spirit and shared His opinions, apart from the things of the world, quietly brought the awareness of a world of peace and brotherhood with abundance for all under the Fatherhood of God into practical realization. Here He set about to establish the Kingdom of God under His Own jurisdiction .

His close associates communed together with Him, concentrating on things of the Spirit and a unity of purpose developed that was to make unimaginable things possible. Little by little the knowledge of His Presence and His unique Teachings spread throughout the country and then to other countries until, after a quarter century, people of every avenue of life came seeking His Spiritual advice. The intellectual came from as far away a Europe and Australia to sit at His feet and learn of His ways. He could no longer remain secluded; public demand was too great. People were beginning to find the One Who was to come. Suddenly the little fishing village was too small and He moved back to New York where the people could reach Him, later establishing churches to accommodate them.

'When I used to live in Sayville years ago,


Father recalled, speaking to an interviewer in 1941,

'Mother and I had a home there and received people, and plenty of them came out there and lived absolutely gratis and did not have to pay for food or shelter or anything of that sort; and lots of them saved up money. And then when the time did come for them to launch out even as I have done, they have launched out and purchased nice homes and all such as that, and now in all of their homes they have given Me homes for Myself and Staff...we were feeding everybody and would not accept a penny from anybody. That was My home then, But then when the followers began to try to walk in My footsteps and purchase homes and save up their money - because some of them used to earn from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a week and they had nothing to spend it for...and now they have homes, and this home belongs to them.'


Father referred to the Madison Avenue parsonage where He was working at the time.

It was Father Divine Who Personally laid every stone in the building of His Churches this same year. Each tenet, every law and precept was given His Personal attention and sanction; He was consulted on every point in question.

There remained not a subject He had not touched upon in His sermons and letters of correspondence. The foundation was laid. Today, as Founder, Bishop and Pastor of the Peace Mission Movement, Father Divine is the Supreme Authority, with Mother,(as amended in the Church By-Laws), over all Church affairs and the Movement in general.

 

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