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FGB History

A Prophecy Fulfilled

THIS STORY begins in Old Russia, more than a hundred years ago, when the Czars still reigned in Saint Petersburg. There was a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in much the same pattern as on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. The nation rejected this visitation of God even as the Jewish nation rejected the similar visitation many centuries before. We believe these rejections of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are reasons that Jerusalem has been trodden down by the Gentiles for nineteen centuries and that Russia is the only nation on earth that officially denies the existence of God.

In 1855, an eleven-year-old Russian boy who lived in Armenia received a wonderful, supernatural visitation. For seven days and seven nights he was under the power of God writing prophecy of things to come. He neither ate, drank nor slept during the seven days and seven nights.

Although he was an illiterate boy, he wrote in beautiful handwriting and drew pictures and maps and charts. He foretold that peace would be taken from the earth and that Armenia would be overrun by the Turks and that the Armenian Christians would be massacred unless they went to a land across the ocean, which the pictures and charts and maps showed to be America. God promised to bless and prosper everyone who would heed His warning and go to the country where they would be free from persecution.

As is the case with most prophecy, the warning had no meaning at the time for it was not until twenty-five years after the Pentecostal outpouring in Russia that the same experience came to Armenia. Nevertheless, the Russian boy’s prophecy was carefully preserved, awaiting such a time as its full meaning would be revealed by God.

Among the first to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Armenia was the family of Demos Shakarian, Senior, Presbyterians. The father of Demos, however, refused to accept this manifestation as being from God, although he joined with the other Pentecostal members in their worship services.

The Demos Shakarian family consisted of father, mother and five daughters. In Armenia, in those days, it was as much a reproach for a wife to be without a son as it was in ancient Israel.

On May 25, 1891, the mother was sitting in the large one-room home sewing, weeping as she worked, because God had not blessed her with a son.

A great-uncle was visiting with the family and was sitting across the room from her, reading his Bible. Suddenly, he arose, walked across the room, and stood before the weeping mother. Looking down at her, he said, “Sister, God heard your prayer. One year from this day you will be the mother of a son.” Exactly one year from that day, on May 25, 1892, a son was born. The parents named him Isaac, for, as with Abraham’s son, he was a son of promise.

Revealed by God

WHEN ISAAC was about seven years old, a group of faithful Russian Pentecostal Christians began coming to the Armenian village of Kara Kala for fellowship with the Armenian Pentecostals. They would come every few months in a caravan of several covered wagons, with about twenty persons to the wagon, each wagon being pulled by four horses. These Russians dearly loved the Armenian Presbyterians who had more recently received the marvelous Gift of God as promised by Jesus Christ before He ascended to the Father.

Because Demos Shakarian could speak Russian fluently, he would place the visitors among the Armenian homes in the village, and each evening for an entire week, his home was used as a place of worship. He raised cattle, and upon notification that the Russians were coming, he would butcher a fatted steer to provide beef for the feast service upon the arrival of the visitors.

One day, word came that the Russian caravan was near at hand. Demos went among his heard to select the finest steer he could find, for this was to be given as unto the Lord. The fattest steer he could find had only one eye, the other having been destroyed by an injury. He knew it to be according to Scripture that he should not offer a blemished animal to the Lord, yet he decided to compromise with his better judgment, since the blemished steer was the fattest of the herd.

Acting on this compromise, he killed the steer and quickly severed the head. Not having time to bury this tell-tale portion, he placed it in a sack and hid it underneath a large pile of threshed wheat in a corner of the barn, then proceeded with the butchering so that the beef was ready for the feast by the time the Russians arrived.

That evening, as was the regular custom, Demos and the entire Shakarian Family went forward and knelt for the blessing of one of the Russian elders as their prophet stood nearby. After this blessing of the host, the beef offering was to be blessed, then would come the feast and the evening of worship. Suddenly, without saying a word, the prophet walked across the room and went outside. The elder did not want to continue with the prophet absent, so he asked that a hymn be sung until the prophet returned.

When the prophet came back into the room, he brought the hidden sack and opened it directly in front of the kneeling Shakarians, revealing the head of the steer with the blemished eye. He said the Lord had revealed the whole matter to him as they had prepared to ask God to bless the Shakarians and their feast offering.

Demos confessed that he had compromised with his better judgment and asked forgiveness. This was granted him by the congregation in the name of the Lord. His father, for the first time, declared that now he knew that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit was of God and there and thereafter accepted it and the accompanying manifestations without reservation.

So impressive was this incident that not only the Shakarians, but also the other Armenian families as well as the Russian families determined that from that day forward they would offer to God only that service and that substance exactly as He requested it of them even though it might seem at the time that a substitute, as in the case of the blemished steer which was the fattest, would serve the purpose better.

Exodus to America

FORTY-FIVE YEARS had passed since the eleven-year-old Russian boy had written the prophecy from God. He was now fifty-six years of age and still lived in the community. Four and a half decades had passed without his prophecy coming true and he apparently was to be considered as a false prophet. Then, without any advance indication, the Lord instructed the prophet to warn the Armenians that the time had come for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Consequently, he began telling the people: “The time has come! Now is the time to leave this country!”

The word quickly spread among the Armenian Pentecostal Christians, and some of them and some of the Russian Pentecostals began their exodus to America.

The year was 1900. They took the written prophecy with them and preserved it in a church they built in Los Angeles, California. Demos Shakarian did not leave Armenia for America until five years later. Then he took his wife and five daughters and thirteen-year-old son, Isaac, first going to New York and then to Los Angeles. As each Pentecostal family departed from Armenia, unbelievers mocked them just as Noah and his family were mocked before the Flood, yet the Armenians knew that Noah’s Ark finally rested upon the mountains of Ararat which were in Armenia. The Armenian Pentecostal exodus to America continued until 1912, when the last Pentecostal family left Kara Kala where the prophecy was delivered.

Two years later, the great World War I broke out, and in the terrible onslaught, when Turkey overran Armenia, every soul in Kara Kala was wiped out. The mockers and scoffers and unbelieving Christians were destroyed. The prophecy given in 1855 and reaffirmed in 1900 was fulfilled in 1914 and the years that have followed. The Pentecostal Christians who believed God and obeyed Him were safe in America, among them Demos Shakarian, Senior, and his family.

In Los Angeles, the same as in Kara Kala, the Demos Shakarian home became the place of worship for the Armenians and Russians.

Almost immediately upon the arrival of the Shakarians in Los Angeles, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Azusa Street Mission began. Demos and his brother-in-law, M. Mushagian, and another Armenian man were strolling down San Pedro Street. As they neared Azusa Street, they heard familiar sounds shouting and singing and praying in the same manner they were accustomed to in their own services.

On reaching the horse barn that had been converted into a Mission, they discovered several speaking in tongues. They returned to their people with the thrilling news that God had begun to move in America as He had in Armenia, in Russia, in the Early Churches, and in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. In America, the newest of countries, the pattern of the Pentecostal outpouring was the same as it had been in Armenia, the oldest of countries, the very cradle of civilization and believed by many Bible students and scientists to have been the site of the Garden of Eden, the home of Adam and Eve.

The Pentecostal experience came to the Jews in Jerusalem, it came to the Catholics in Russia, to the Presbyterians in Armenia, and now it had fallen upon a motley mixture of the cross-section of humanity at Los Angeles, many races and many faiths all responding in like manner.

Promised Prosperity

ISAAC SHAKARIAN was sixteen years of age when his father died, and he went to work in a harness factory and labored there three years to support his widowed mother, his sisters, now six in number, and himself. At the age of nineteen, he went into the wholesale fruit business. Soon, he married, moved to Downey, near Los Angeles, purchased twenty acres of land and three milk cows and started his first dairy herd. Faith in God, good judgment and hard work eventually multiplied that first little herd one-thousand fold, until in 1943 the Shakarian herd had reached three thousand, the world’s largest dairy!

Not only did the Shakarians prosper, but every one of the Armenians and Russians who left and went to America as a result of the prophecy prospered according to the promise the Lord had written many years before by the hand of the eleven-year-old Russian boy. The promise is holding true, according to the Bible promise, even to the third and fourth generation.

On July 21, 1913, at Downey, Demos Shakarian, Junior, was born. He was born into a Pentecostal home and grew up in a Pentecostal church. Concerning this, he says: “I cannot remember a time when I did not love God. I cannot remember a time when I did not believe that I was a child of God and on my way to Heaven.

“If this sounds strange to you, it may help to point out that our Armenian families are a little different from the average American family. In the average American home, there is a lot of individuality, each member of the home deciding the course he wants to follow. Sometimes, religiously, this carries the members of the home far apart. But in the average Armenian home, we go together. Like the old Hebrews and the early Christians, our religion is a family religion. We stand by one another religiously, socially and in business.

“The effectiveness of this policy is illustrated in the fact that in our Armenian church in Los Angeles, although all our weekly services except one are still conducted in the Armenian language and after the old Armenian form of worshipping God, we still have the young people with us. Our American friends who visit the church are always impressed with the fact that there are just about as many boys and girls in the service as there are older men and women.”

Learning to Trust

AT THE AGE of ten, Demos was practically deaf from a childhood injury. There were periods of time when his hearing would partially return and other times when he was totally deaf. The injury and resulting affliction caused him to pray as he never prayed before in his young life. His mother, a great prayer warrior, held on to God earnestly seeking deliverance for her son.

Three years passed. Demos was thirteen. He was sitting in church worshipping God. Suddenly the power of God fell upon him and filled him. He was Baptized with the Holy Spirit. For four hours, from eight until midnight, he was unable to speak a word of either Armenian, English or ish, the three languages with which he was familiar. The Spirit of God took complete charge of his vocal organs, and during those four hours he spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.

When he arrived home, he had another wonderful experience, which he describes as follows: “The power of God smote me down to the floor and there I lay absolutely helpless, unable to rise or get in bed. As I lay there in that helpless state, God spoke to me and said, “Demos, will you ever doubt My power?” Then I tried to get up, but found myself still helpless. Two more times the Lord asked me that question and two more times I assured Him that I would never doubt His power. From that hour, I have proved over and over the reality of the power of God in my life. Jesus will never fail those who dare to believe.

“I needed that experience and that assurance in the days and years to come, for the pathway has not always been rosy, and in the trials and testings I have been able to remember that when I was completely helpless, flat on my back on the floor in my bedroom, God called upon me to trust Him completely, and I assured Him that I would!”

During his high school years, Demos decided to venture into business for himself. Isaac, who had always been successful and prosperous, gave his son a capital nest egg of $2,000. With this, Demos and a friend, Dan, started into the dairy business. Dan and Demos built their dairy herd up to sixty milk cows. With this herd, they were able to make more money than their high school teacher drew as a salary.

But this business triumph was short-lived. Soon the depression came upon them and they lost everything except the $2,000 nest egg provided by Isaac. Demos decided when he got down to that next egg that he should get out of business, and he did. God would not allow the $2,000 which had been earned and provided by Isaac to be lost even by his son!

Demos then ventured into the beef-cattle business and made some profit but soon lost it when he entered the baby-beef field and again was forced out of business. Demos now declares that God was trying to teach him a valuable lesson, that money and work alone would not achieve success.

A Miracle Ministry

ROSE GABRIEL then came into Demos’s life and they were married. Demos was twenty years of age and knew that now he must make money in order to support himself and his new wife. Here is Demos’s own account:

“Once again I started out to make money, but in spite of all my efforts I found myself a failure. After six years of this, I finally woke up one day to the fact that the reason I was a failure was that I was trying without God. I was in business, but God was not in there with me. When I came to this realization, I got under deep conviction.

I realized that I had been drifting away from God, and it was time for me to begin to seek Him. My wife and I reconsecrated our lives. We decided to go in business with Him. Regardless of financial circumstances, I meant to serve God wholeheartedly.

“I looked around for something to do for Him. I thought about sponsoring a meeting for some minister. My father had done that kind of work for the Lord several years before. Since I was not a preacher myself, perhaps I could set up a tent and put some preacher to work in the Lord’s service.

I found a young man who was interested in the work of God and a faithful minister of the Gospel. So I sponsored him in a tent meeting in 1940. That was my first meeting, which was conducted in a tent which seated 300 people. God honored that revival and sixty-seven people were saved and received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

“Next year, I formed an acquaintance which meant much to my spiritual life. I met Dr. Charles S. Price, noted healing evangelist. Although healing was nothing new to me, having been brought up in a church that believed and practiced it, I found Dr. Price’s ministry different. His faith and devotion to God set an example for me that I have never forgotten.

“I remember a wonderful healing that occurred in answer to Dr. Price’s prayers. Since it concerned my own family, it made a lasting impression on me.

My sister, Florence, was on her way to Whittier College one morning driving her own car. She had a collision with a truck carrying a heavy load of hot asphalt. The car was wrecked and hot asphalt was spilled all over my sister. When they finally got her out of the wreck, she had third degree burns covering large portions of her body. Her pelvis had suffered seven fractures, and her leg was torn loose.

When the left leg was reset, in the hospital, it was three and a half inches shorter than the other one, due to the injured pelvis. She was compelled to lie in a bed of salve because her burns were so severe that she could not stand the touch of bed clothing. X-rays showed that the sharp points of broken bones were headed into vital organs of her body. Subsequent X-rays were taken for seven days. These showed her condition growing worse. The doctors said that if she lived, she would always be a cripple.

“In desperation, I called Dr. Price and asked him if he would come and pray for my sister, and he agreed to come. It was the seventh day after her accident that Dr. Price reached her. As he prayed for her, God laid His mighty hand upon her body and completely healed her, to the amazement of the doctors and nurses and to the great joy of our family.

New X-rays were taken, and every bone had gone back in place and the left leg that was three and a half inches shorter than the other was restored to its normal length. My sister was able to come home from the hospital a completely well woman. That miracle meant so much to me that I have, ever since, given of time, effort, influence and money to help promote the ministry of those God has chosen to deliver the people. I know Divine healing is real!

“Naturally, Dr. Charles S. Price became endeared to the Shakarian family. About two months before his death, he kept telling me that a Time of Deliverance was coming. He said: In these days, we are finding it very hard for people to come to the Lord.

Evangelists are preaching and preaching, yet only handfuls are coming to the altar. We are not seeing scores and hundreds coming to the altars as we should. The Lord is showing me that in the very near future, He is going to raise up men with tremendous power from the Lord and they will preach to thousands at a time. People will pour to the altars because they will see the mighty, miracle power of the Lord in operation. They are going to see signs and wonders performed, and the healings and other miracles of deliverance by God’s power will cause the people to rush to the altars and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Deliverer.

When you see these things happening, another thing will come to pass. Men will enter the hospitals, where all manner of human sickness has caused people to be bedfast, many doomed to die from cancer, tuberculosis, heart trouble and other disease. People who have been given up to die by the doctors will be raised up by the power of God, and they will walk out of the hospitals. They are going to leap and shout with joy. This is going to be a demonstration of the power of God the world has never seen. The whole world will be stirred!

“We already have seen the first part of this prophecy coming to pass since Dr. Price’s death. Hundreds rush to the altars in the great healing campaigns, not because they are whipped and beaten and scared to the altars, but because they have been shown the love and compassion of Jesus Christ and the power of God in action.

“Since we have seen the first come true, then we are convinced the other will shortly follow just as Dr. Price, being filled with the Holy Spirit, said would happen. Faith is rising. People are expectant. The time seems near at hand!”

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