"And it came to pass, when Jehovah would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal."

2 Kings 2:1

 

The journey Elijah and Elisha from Gilgal to river Jordan depicts (2 Kgs 2:1-14) depicts the same as the second going forth of all the virgins to meet the Bridegroom (from Lord Jesus’s parable; Mt 25:1-13). Both episodes, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New, illustrate the final phase of the completing of the Church class, started with a clear message from God about the time of her glorification. Elijah knew that he was going on his last journey, and the virgins in the parable, both wise and foolish, have been awakened by the cry at a midnight that ultimately the Bridegroom had come to take them to Himself.

 

 

 

In 1916, in the preface to the second volume of Studies in the Scriptures, its author wrote:

"This Volume [being published in 1889] sets forth, what its author has been preaching for over forty years, that the "Times of the Gentiles" chronologically ended in the fall of A.D. 1914…

We could not, of course, to know in 1889, whether the date 1914, so clearly marked in the Bible as the end of the Gentile lease of power, or permission to rule the world, would mean that they would be fully out of power at that time, or whether, their lease expiring, their eviction would begin. The latter we perceive to be the Lord's program…

The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought that the Lord's saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the ending of the Gentile Times. This was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the blessing of His people. The thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October, 1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord – even for the mistake…

Our mistake was evidently not in respect to the ending of the Times of the Gentiles; we drew a false conclusion, however, not authorized by the Word of the Lord."

 

* * *

 

A proper understanding of the Church's exaltation time was not possible before 1914. This became possible after half a century, when appropriate events occurred and when the Lamb of God opened the seventh seal.

The vision of the tenth chapter of Revelation (10:5-7) promised that shortly before the time of the outbreak of the Armageddon battle and the end of the Church's pilgrimage, the John class would be given exact information on the topic, both as to time and circumstance as well. But in what area of the world would the Scriptural conditions of the end of the Gospel Age occur, and which representation of the John class would receive this information and would be "prophesy again" – it was a mystery.

Where and to whom did the Angel say: "You must prophesy again"

The mighty Angel in the aforementioned vision, with an open book in his hand, was standing on the sea and on the earth. In biblical symbolism, the earth represents conservative, religious societies, while the sea represents turbulent, revolutionary, non-denominational masses. So we have an orientation in time. The mission of this Angel could only take place after both world wars had clearly divided the inhabitants of our globe into two hostile camps. The angel "stood" in such a divided world, that is, he took it under special control so that the enemies of both sides would not clash with each other before the time; lest the raging winds of anarchy hinder the sealing of the Little Flock class.

What, though, does it mean that the Angel's right foot rested on the sea (Rev. 10:2)? This tells us that just before the manifestation (Greek. epiphaneia) of the second presence of Jesus Christ, the understanding and fulfillment of Bible prophecy was redirected by Divine providence from the American stage to the political scene of Europe. For, here there were two powers active in propaganda, striving to maintain peace in the world, that is, the religious system of the Roman Catholic Church and the formidable atheistic power of communism.

It was Divine purpose to allow that it should be in Catholic Europe, the central zone of Papal power, that these two powers, secular and religious, should unite their efforts in the futile propaganda of "peace and security," that both would disgraced themselves in the eyes of public opinion and eventually be destroyed in world-wide anarchy. At the same time, our Lord purposed to awaken a prophetic movement here to bear proper witness about these events. Understandably, therefore, the importance of these prophetic events required that God's witnesses see them closely. So in which region of the old continent would the last prophetic movement be created?
 

 

Geographical guidance

 

The preparation for this last mission of the Church and the mission itself are shown in the journey of Elijah and Elisha from Gilgal to the Jordan River. Let us pay attention to the cities visited by both prophets and the route of their journey. Can the names of cities, their geographical location and elevation above sea level have any meaning? Certainly, some assumptions can be made in this respect. Let's look at the map:

 

 

 

The cities of Gilgal and Bethel were in the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, while Jericho belonged in the territory of Benjamin near the border with Ephraim. In 999 B.C. take place the division of the Jewish nation into two parts, namely tribes Judah and Benjamin on the one hand and ten tribes with Ephraim on the other. A parallel to this significant event was fraught with consequeces Martin Luther's speech in 1521 (2,520 years later), which initiated the division of Christianity into a Protestant minority, standing spiritual higher, and a Catholic majority immersed in idolatry. So we have a further clue here clearly suggesting that the last journey of Elijah's (the Little Flock) and Elisha (Great Company) could not have taken place in a Protestant country, but in one of the countries in idolatrous Catholic Europe. Poland certainly belongs to such countries. With this assumption, the cities of Gilgal and Bethel would indicate an organization of Free Bible Students in Poland acting in a hostile environment dominated by the Catholic Church and Marxist, atheistic power.

 

Geographical location of Gilgal and the meaning of its name

 

There were several places in Israel called Gilgal, including one Gilgal in the Jordan Valley and two north of Bethel. In determining the city from which Elijah and Elisha could have departed, the authors of the Encyclopedia Biblica selected the ancient city of Gilgal, about 11 km north of Bethel. The argument in favor of this choice is the Bible record that both prophets "descended to Bethel." If it were Gilgal near the Jordan, more than 200 meters below sea level, then the hike to Bethel would be climbing a hill more than 1,000 meters higher. It follows that when the prophets left Gilgal, they descended from a hill of 774 meters above sea level and then entered Bethel, which was located a little higher, at an altitude of 881 meters above sea level. On their way from Bethel to Jericho, they went down and down toward the Jordan River, near the Dead Sea.
 

 

The prophets left Gilgal

 

To determine the time and place from which the two antitypical prophets, Elijah and Elisha, departed, we must consider the special event of 1967. The Six-Day War and Israel's astounding victory greatly accelerated the course of world events. This was mainly due to the explosion of Arab terrorism, which since then has begun to harass the international communities, especially the European ones, with increasing force and frequency. Middle Eastern events electrified Bible Students around the world because they looked to Israel as rebirth of biblical "fig tree," a herald of God's kingdom on earth.

It was no different with Polish Bible Students, especially those for whom the topic of "times and seasons" was of great importance. One of them was a member of the Warsaw congregation of Free Bible Students, brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski. Shortly before the Six-Day War, he was intrigued by the accuracy of the biblical account in dating all the events in Abram's family. In the days of brother Russell (1907; R-3957), a chronological key was discovered hidden in the total age of 11 years of animals that God had instructed Abram to sacrifice when he made a covenant with him (2045 B.C.). After 3,960 years from the covenant, the Times of the Gentiles ended (1914), and from then on events began to answer Abram's question: "How shall I know?" Brother Wiśniewski reached for this forgotten key. Its use indicated nine additional dates of the scenario of events up to the year 2015. Two dates in particular were of great importance: 1977 – the end of the High Calling and 1981 – the time of glorification of the Church.

 

 

 

 

A remarkable support for these parallels, allowing us to better understand the meaning of these dates, turned out to be the method of biblical numerology encouraged by Revelation 13:18. This method not only confirmed the chronological parallels, but also made it possible to reach the meaning of the vision of the whole of Revelation and thus to identify the events, systems and leading figures on the stage of the end of the present Gospel Age.

Verse Revelation 8:1 contained a special mystery:

 

 

 

"Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?" Amos 3:7,8

Our Lord's miraculous intervention in defense of the Chosen People was like the roar of a lion, which has indicated the entry of God's people onto the last stage of the prophetic path, now illuminated to the very end (Rev 10:3). All of this suggested the fact that two prophets, "Elijah" and "Elisha," had set out from Gilgal (1967) on their final journey. The name Gilgal means "speeding wheel" and seems to refer to something that had moved and gains momentum. From 1967 onwards, world events in the secular and religious spheres began to accelerate rapidly, and at the same time, the mysteries of the seventh seal made it possible to quickly and easily associate these events with images, prophecies and visions of Revelation.

Understanding end-time prophecies has forced us to revise some of our previous beliefs. It turned out that the history of the Church shown in the visions of Revelation from chapter four to the end of the Book refers only to the events taking place within the framework of the second presence of our Lord. All earlier interpretations of these visions, going back to past events, and even to the very beginning of the Gospel age, must therefore have been accepted as preliminary conjectures which time has verified. It was especially remarkable to realize that the vision of the three “woes” referred to in the book of Revelation is a detailed description of the three phases of the fall of Gentile power since 1914, which brother Russell had previously understood to be the three phases of Elijah's vision, viz., the "wind" of war, the "earthquake" of the social revolution and the "fire" of anarchy.

It became more and more evident that there was nothing accidental in these spiritual inquiries, that they were evidently directed by the hand of the Lord. To the great surprise and skepticism of the majority of Bible Students, Divine Providence has chosen Poland, the country of Eastern Europe, as the center of the prophetic events closing the Gospel age.

God's choice becomes fully understandable when we take into account the position of Polish between two great political systems, which took on the burden of responsibility for the fate of the world, wanting to prevent anarchy. The first of these, the secular system in the East with its capital in Moscow, is depicted in the Bible as a fiery dragon (Rev 12:3,4) with seven heads (members of the Warsaw Pact) and ten horns (members of Comecon).

 

 

 

On the other hand the main religious system of the Western world is the Roman Catholic Church with its capital in Rome. Only these two powers, the Kremlin and the Vatican, dominated the old continent. Their political intrigues aimed at concluding the last alliance of the throne and the altar, referred to in the Holy Scripture as the rule of the red papal beast, could be most clearly observed in Catholic Poland, that is, a country serving the papacy, and at the same time forced to submit to the dictates of the Kremlin. All this explains why it was in Poland that God raised up a prophetic movement that would understand the development of events in the light of prophecies and bear witness about it to the world.

 

 

 

With all this in mind, one can now look at the map of ancient Israel to trace on it the route of the prophets' journey, the cities they passed by, and to consider what significance these cities and their names might have.

 

Bethel

 

The name of the city Bethel means the House of God. After Jerusalem, Bethel is the city most often mentioned in the Bible. Its importance was emphasized by its strategic location at the intersection of roads with a dense population, the extensive view of the surrounding area, and the abundant water supply provided by four springs.

 

Bethel – its glorious past. A place of Divine revelations

 

Abram, wandering from Harran to Canaan, eventually pitched his tents at Bethel, built an altar, and "called on the name of the Lord." There he also returned from Egypt, in which he had taken refuge from hunger. On an observation point between Bethel and Hai, the patriarch gave his nephew the privilege of choosing where to stay. When Lot had departed, God confirmed to Abram his promise to inherit the land, called him to look at it in all directions, and then to walk the length and breadth of it in steps. Later, in this place hitherto called Luz Jacob, Abram's grandson, had a dream vision of a ladder connecting heaven and earth. Impressed by a wonderful dream, Jacob named the place Bethel.

 

Later Bethel as the center of idolatry

 

The separation of the ten tribes from Judah and Benjamin put the majority of the Jewish people at a great spiritual disadvantage. This was due to Jeroboam, who took over the kingdom over this majority. In order to consolidate the division, and thus his reign, he undertook the following actions:

"And Jeroboam said in his heart, now will the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, o Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even unto Dan. And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar; so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. And he went up unto the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up unto the altar, to burn incense.” (1 Kgs 12:26-33.)
The antitypical city of Bethel

The dedicated zeal of the American Bible Students in the dissemination of religious literature throughout the world contributed toto a decisive extent to the instillation of the truth among Polish economic migrants in Western European countries, as well as among Poles who remained in their homeland. Evidently the Lord's Providence so supervised the course of events that the intense "sending of swift messengers [from the United States] by the sea, in vessels of papyrus [across the ocean to Europe] ... to a nation ... who was treadeted down, whose land the rivers divided..." (Is 18:2-7), kindled the fires of faith in the true God in Poland, that is, among the people especially troubled by the partitions of the country and by both world wars. For, as it turned out, in Catholic Europe devoted to idolatry, the last events were to take place, determining the end of the Gospel Age and the fall of the devil's world. That is why God planned for a prophetic movement to arise on this continent and to give a faithful testimony about all these events.

As we already know, the last chronological disappointment occurred in 1954. Is it a coincidence that the below words of the parable about the ten virgins falling asleep have the similar numerical value?

 

 

 

Those who consider such a number hidden in this sentence as a hint from the Lord and not a coincidence puzzle the following circumstance: Why did only a class of Polish brethren make such a categorical decision to stop talking about future dates (see the resolution of the General Convention in Chicago in 1955)?

Today we can be sure that there were far-reaching plans of Providence behind it. Since God intended to call a representation of the John class from among the Poles to "once again you must utter prophecies" (Rev 10:11), it was necessary to establish a Household of Faith in their native land, and to partially transfer the Lord's work from the United States to this new center. For this special work the Lord called from among the Polish brethren in the United States liberty-loving individuals who did not submit to the authority of the various committees, and who rejected as erroneous the claim that the door of the High Calling was closed immediately after the end of the Times of the Gentiles. However, the Poles' prejudice against chronology went to the extreme in that that a ban on talking about future dates was passed (especially since these later dates were not then sufficiently based on the Holy Scripture).

Such faith-filled brothers as Hipolit Oleszyński and others like him helped the polish brethren to break out of the doctrinal confusion prevailing in the USA after 1914 and with their zealous activity embraced their compatriots in Poland, spreading among them the truth about salvation and faith in the still ongoing the High Calling. They jokingly told them again and again that the only reliable date was the promise of Rev 2:10: "Be faithful till death..." Paradoxically, however, it was to turn out that it was for individuals from the Polish Household of Faith that the subject of "times and seasons" would take on great significance and that in this country "Elijah" and "Elisha" would set off from Gilgal to Bethel and Jericho, and finally to the Jordan River. It was from this Household of Faith in Poland that the representation of both "prophets" was to be selected for this last journey.

The city of Bethel, the highest point on the path of the prophets, makes us refer to the revelations that the men of faith, Abram and Jacob, experienced in this city. These revelations contain the very essence of God's Plan of Salvation. The understanding of this Plan freed the Polish followers of Christ from the slavery of Catholicism and in this darkest region of mystical Babylon led them to the heights of Truth.

Abram heard God's promise that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. The spiritual seed (stars) is the Christ, Head and Body, selected in the High Calling, while the earthly seed (the sand of the sea) is Israel according to the flesh, being restored to favor and used to mediate in the distribution of the restitution blessings to all mankind. During his lifetime, this patriarch did not receive even "one yard" of the Promised Land (Acts 7:5), however on the hill between Bethel and Haj, the Lord God showed him the beauty of his future earthly inheritance.

Jacob, in turn, was shown a ladder between earth and heaven in a dream. This ladder represents the Ransom of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind, who will soon restore man to his broken connection with God and eternal life in happiness.

 

 

 

The promise made by God to Abram contained another very important mystery respecting the end of the Gospel age, revealed after the opening of the seventh seal (1967), hidden in the combined number of years of the animals sacrificed during making the covenant. As already noted, the dates of the close of the High Calling and the time of the Church's glorification were then revealed and sworn. Thus informing the little flock class (“Elijah”) the "day" in which they would be taken to heavenly glory, caused "Elijah to go out with Elisha from Gilgal."

It should be noted therefore that in the closing decades of the Gospel Age the brethren in Poland received a tremendous spiritual blessing. Not only had they been acquainted with the contents of the Six Volumes of Studies in the Scriptures in advance, but now, toward the end, they were also the recipients of the true Seventh Volume, with the explanation of the book of Revelation and the proofs of the accuracy of the previously known chronology of the Divine Plan of the Ages. This completion of the Truth in due time and its abundance may be shown by the high places of the city of Bethel. This name means: house of God.

But as all we know well, greater knowledge imposes greater responsibility. According to this principle, it pleased God to subject the Household of Faith in Poland to the conditions of trial, a special harvest with a sharp sickle of chronological truths, in order to show to what extent individual members value the Truth. It was to be made manifest who desired to obey the voice of God, and who would be willing to listen to the voice of the flesh, the world, and the devil.

After World War II, Poles were among the third of the world's population dominated by the ideology of the "four angels" (Rev 9:15-19; see chart below). The conditions imposed by socialism did not allow for material enrichment, but thus they were obviously conducive to spiritual development. Two-thirds of humanity outside this zone was permited continue to "bow down to demons, idols of gold and silver..." (Rev 9:20, 21.)

 

 

 

However, this period, so favorable for spiritual development, began to close in Poland in the 1970s. Growing social discontent due to shortages in supplies and the threat of economic collapse forced the socialist authorities to abandon further pushing the idea of social equality in favor of free competition and a race to acquire wealth.

Abram and Lot looked at the landscape of Canaan from the same heights of Bethel and Hai, but each saw something different. Abram saw what God showed him, but his nephew looked at what his heart desired, the glorious greenery of the Jordan River valley.

 

 

 

People like Lot, despite their faith in God's promises, did not have much trouble joining the aforementioned race of getting rich and striving for a life of luxury. It certainly did not go hand in hand with the claiming the heavenly crown.

 

 

 

Another danger for the prophetic movement in Poland came from the influential spiritual brothers from across the ocean (some of them of course); in the conditions of more and more cordial mutual relations and inviting pilgrims from both sides to serve. The Polish spiritual classes in the United States had good reason to rejoice when they saw the congregations in their home country flourishing spiritually. After all, they spared no effort and material means to sow this religious Catholic wasteland with the seed of the Truth.

But something in this sight began to bother them. A chronological movement began to spread among their “spiritual sons” in Poland, which enthusiastically propagated the future dates of the end of the High Calling and the time of exalt the Church to glory. After all, in the USA, after 1916, for forty years they "struggled" with their brothers, who did not stop looking for new dates concerning the future. It was not until the General Convention in Chicago in 1955 that the announcement of such dates from behind the pulpit was stopped.

Apparently, the American Brethren, without a deeper understanding of the matter, qualified the chronological movement in Poland to the category of cases they had to deal with at home, so they advised the Polish Brethren to approach the matter as radically as they did at home. Apparently, following this advice, in the early 1970s, the leading brothers of the Association of Free Bible Students in Poland began a campaign of criticism and discrediting of this movement. It must be admitted, however, that on various occasions its leader, Brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski, was allowed to defend his chronological arguments from behind the lectern.

One of the meetings, convened especially for this purpose in Krakow, was particularly numerous, with brothers from all over Polish gathering. Brother Wisniewski presented a series of charts by which he proved that the future dates of which God had given him the privilege to announce among the brethren were a natural continuation of the Bible Chronology accepted by C. T. Russell and developed by English brothers John and Morton Edgar.

However, the echo of the ban of the Polish congregations in the USA on talking about future dates was reflected in Poland with such reluctance and even disgust that most of the participants did not really understand what Brother Wiśniewski was talking about at all. They knew one thing which they were dogmatically told that it date of exalting of the Church relates of future therefore it was wrong to speak of it, and it had to be stopped. Understandably, the household of faith in general was nevertheless interested in the final events of the prophetic movement, and expected to learn more on the subject at such meetings. However, each time they heard only a categorical call to "be silent”. So it was in the typical story:

"And sons of the prophets who [are] in Beth-El come out unto Elisha, and say unto him, 'Hast thou known that to-day Jehovah is taking thy lord from thy head?' and he saith, 'I also have known – keep silent.'" 2 Kgs 2:3,5

However, the greatest danger to the chronological movement that came to being within the Free Bible Students Association (FBSA) in Poland was approaching from secular authorities. In the congregations, this authority had its informants, called "secret collaborators", who reported to it everything who and what is telling in there. The brethren often knew which member of their congregation was cooperating with the government in this way, but they were lenient because they had nothing to hide. It was obvious that the authorities would rather have "socialist paradise" to be praised, so they must have found it very irritating to lecture on God's paradise with its capital in Jerusalem. Its main concern was to distract young people from spiritual topics and to direct them rather to worldly matters. Various circumstances did not allow the brothers to forget that they were under the watchful eye of the authorities. Here is the some episode, which was a small prelude to what will happen in the future.

As we know, the humiliating defeat of the Arabs in 1967 provoked the anger of their Moscow protectors and the anti-Semitic fury of the authorities in Poland. Meanwhile, one of the elders of the congregation in Krakow dared to express his joy at the fact that "Michael, the great prince, stood up for the children of his people." —Daniel 12:1. Immediately afterwards, a board meeting of the local congregation was called, at which the leading elder appealed: "I ask you not to give such lectures on Israel again." Such a position, temporarily outrageous, ceased to be surprising when it turned out that brother who admonished was a particularly valued "secret collaborator" of the ruling party.

In such conditions, one can imagine the consternation of the authorities when, at the end of 1976, the FBSA's legal publication entitled "The Glory of God" was submitted to the censorship office. The booklet included commentaries on such topics as "False Christs and False Prophets," "The Image on the Plain of Dura," "The Anniversary of Herod's Birth and the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias," and "The Striking and Crossing of the Jordan River." All these subjects based on the Scriptures as prophetic types and depictions were accompanied by the announcement that they would all begin to be fulfilled from the autumn of 1977. The leader of the prophetic movement and his associates had no knowledge at this point of time as to how or where these prophetic events would take place, and it was not until six months later that reports of intense preparations by their eastern neighbor for some special holiday caught their attention.

The Polish governing authorities certainly knew very well that it was about the upcoming special celebration of peace on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the October Revolution. They must have suspected, therefore, that the brochure "The Glory of God" connected some ominous prophecies with this event. After long hesitation, they finally allowed the brochure to be printed (March 1977), but the publishers of the "Lublin’s Reprints” (Przedruki Lubelskie) magazine had their permission to publish further issues withdrawn. The leading brothers, among them a number of secret informants of the Security Office, stood at the head of propaganda campain against three chronological centres in Poland, in order to suppress their activity. The chronological congregation in Lublin went first, followed by the congregation in Oświęcim.

Of course, the most troublesome problem for the authorities was the situation in the Warsaw congregation. Could they long tolerate the fact that in the very center of Poland, from behind the pulpit of the Free Bible Students, their socialist governments are presented by one of the lecturers as the biblical locusts, the scarlet-colored beast, Gog, while their lofty slogans of "peace and security" are branded as empty propaganda only accelerating world anarchy?

The "secret collaborators" and confused members of the Association being under their influence did everything to finally take away the voice of Brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski in the Warsaw congregation. But constant attempts in this direction ended in failure. Before the Warsaw congregation succumbed to violence and was able to follow by Bible principles, its members did not allow Brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski to be silenced; They respected him for his moral attitude, knowledge, chose him as their elder and listened to his prophetic lectures with great attention.

 

Fall 1977 – End of High Calling – smiting of the waters Jordan River

 

Finally, the forces of darkness began to clearly prevail and finally they extinguished the spiritual light that God deigned to lit among the Household of Faith in Poland. After leaving the Bethel highlands, the two prophets, "Elijah" and "Elisha," began to descend further and furher toward the river Jordan, which was situated in a great topographic low.

"And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off: and they two stood by the Jordan." 2 Kgs 2:7

The first congregations of Free Bible Students in Poland were established in the 1920s. Those who founded and attended these churches certainly had a "first love" for the Truth. But the passage of time cooled the zeal of the first love, and successive generations of the offspring of the early Bible students increased the number of believers, but the love of the Truth among them was becoming less and less rare, or non-existent. Thus the Elijah and Elisha classes were decreasing, and the class of the "sons of the prophets" grew in number.

Thus, the lukewarm spirit of Laodicea inevitably prevailed also in the congregations of the Free Bible Students in Poland. Nevertheless, they differed from the brethren in general in that they still held to the belief that the door of the High Calling was still open. So when brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski proved that in the autumn of 1977 the Lord had closed the doors of the High Calling, the Bible Students community, greatly weakened spiritually, boiled with indignation. A campaign to stigmatize those who dared to preach such teachings became widespread. It was said: what kind of "harm, scandal and barrier" it is for those who want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and offer themselves to death.

These moods of indignation were expressed in resolutions adopted by the next General Convention in July 1978. The chairmen of the Convention (two secret informants of power, as it turned out) made the astonishing claim that "the High Calling is still in force" and called on the Convention participants to support this thesis in a vote. The forest of raised hands of the numerous brethren clearly testified to the universal approval. It became clear that from that moment on, the followers of the teachings of brother Tadeusz Wiśniewski would no longer be welcome in this community. Discussions in the wider forum were cut off, so that the "sons of the prophets" lost interest in the whole matter; they stopped before "Jordan River" and went no further with the "prophets."

End of Part I