FATHER DIVINE made the Supreme Sacrifice on September 10, 1965, after which time MOTHER DIVINE and officials of the combined Churches of the Peace Mission Movement collaborated with William Hyle Thompson, Architect, Richard Murphy, Associate Architect and Artist, and Donald Delue, Sculptor, to design and construct a work befitting the life and Ministry of FATHER DIVINE. The Shrine to life at Woodmont was dedicated September 10, 11 and 12, 1968 A.D.F.D.
The purpose of the Shrine is twofold: providing a sanctuary in which the Body of GOD is enshrined, and acting as a reminder of HIS Covenant fulfilled from the beginning of biblical history.
Reminiscent of the Tabernacle containing the Ark of the Covenant, the Shrine brings the ancient and modern together. Its powerful simplicity denotes the Personal life of FATHER DIVINE, its atmosphere of Peace conveys HIS serenity and humility, its strength and purity of line, HIS staunch stand for the high moral and spiritual values of life made clear by HIS own Example, which are the foundation stones of the Peace Mission Movement as it stands today, a bulwark of faith in a troubled world.
FATHER DIVINE'S Words on January 16, 1934 incised on the interior walls, speak of the Covenant:
Condescendingly I came as an existing Spirit unembodied, until condescendingly imputing MYSELF in a Bodily Form in the likeness of men I came, that I might speak to them in their own language, coming to a country that is supposed to be the Country of the Free, where mankind has been privileged to serve GOD according to the dictates of his own conscience
coming sponsoring this Peace Mission and this spiritual revelation in the hearts of the children of men, and establishing the Kingdom of GOD in the midst of them; that they might become to be living epistles as individuals, seen and read of men, and verifying that which has long since been said:
'The tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and God Himself shall be with them, and shall be their God, and they shall be his people.
THE NEW DAY, February 7, 1953, p.3
It has been stated earlier that a true follower, who brings his body into complete subjection to the law of the Spirit of life that JESUS CHRIST taught and lived by, will not die. There is a question in the minds of many, therefore, as to the apparent contradiction of this statement by FATHER DIVINE laying His Body down on September 10, 1965, that It could not be seen by the world.
MOTHER DIVINE reveals the beauty and profundity of FATHER'S Supreme Sacrifice on September 10, 1965, in Chapter 8.
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