The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1914-04-04
Zion City Leader Heard Yesterday
Wilbur Glenn Voliva Addresses Large Audience at
Illinois Theater
ACCOMPANIED BY SINGERS


God, and as a man who being the ambassador
of God spoke with authority. Those were the
good old days of real religion"
He lamented the fact that many of the Pro-
testant churches had gotten away from this idea
and today he declared the ministers are in a
large measure called by the congregation and
when they fail to preach to please their hearers
they are dismissed from the congregation to
seek another pastorate
"The man who is called of God to preach
never needs to look for congregation" he
shouted "He can stand on nail keg or soap
box street corner and get an audience. A
man who is really called of God and who will
preach as an ambassador of Jesus Christ will get
an audience in this swift age that no church in
Rock Island can hold"
Speaking of the Roman Catholic church, he
would not discuss their dogmas or their creeds,
but declared the reason the church is prospering
and the reason the people still attend the Catho-
lie churches in large numbers, while many of the
Protestant preachers see their congregations
dwindle is that the Catholics have from their
youth been taught two essential things, that the
ministry is divnely called and that the church is
divine in its origin.
He told his audience he did not come to tell
them what he thought "What I think on mat
ters of truth matters little" he said, "and do
not care the snap of my fingers for what you
think You may tell me that you don't believe
in hereafter, but that does not alter the fact of
judgment day. You may tell that you do not
believe in hell, but that will not keep you out
of it. Out there in the street a live wire
charged heavily with electricity falls to the
ground and you see man rushing to pick it
up YoI shout warning and tell him to let it
alone or it will kill him. Inreply he says: 'Oh
7 don't think it will hurt me- He picks it UP
and is electrocuted. His thinking that the cleo
trio wire will not hurt him does not save him
from the shock and he quits thinking forever"
He contended that the trouble with the churches
of today that they did not speak with au-
thority and that the ministry had lost its di-
vine calling. He illustrated this by declaring
that Ambassador Page was the accredited am
bassador of the United States at the court of
St. James. He had the credentials and the power
back of him was the whole administration. the
whole army and navy and all the people of the
United States when the occasion demanded
If any man conceived the idea to go to the
English court and present himself as the am
DdSSduOr OF tnlS country, ana had no credentials
but the statement that he had named himself to that
post, he would be jeered at and given no con-
sideration. That he declared, was the difference
between the man called of God to the ministry,
| who had back of him the power of God and
His legion of angels and the ministry that just
came and had no authority
"The man who attempts to minister to the peo-
pie in spiritual things without being called of
God is a fool" he shouted
In speaking Of faith healing as practiced in
Zion City,he declared that God had never caused
any mans illness and quoted from Scripture to
prove that all disease and suffering were inven-
tions Of the devil to torment the people. Jesus
Christ he declared, went about healing the sick
| and he would not thrust sickness upon anyone
| God will heal all manner of diseases without the
aid Of drugs or the knife if men will have faith
| in Him, and he cited number of examples Of
healing in Zion City to prove it.
LIQUOR AND TOBACCO
He raped liquor and tobacco as twin evils of