The anniversary of Pearl Harbor having recently passed, I wish to give this post from four years ago another airing. It features the transcript of a radio broadcast of that event’s contemporary and the subject of my forthcoming book, Christian Individualism: The Maverick Biblical Workmanship of Otis Q. Sellers. The post’s original title was “God Has Spoken: Otis Q. Sellers’s Wartime Radio Messages.” I corrected a few errors in diacritical markings. A.G.F.
From March 1-5, 1943, as war raged in Europe and the Pacific, Otis Q. Sellers (whose life and work I’m researching) broadcast five messages on Chicago station WAIT.
The subject was the foundation of his life’s work: the fact that God has spoken to humankind in the Bible, “the greatest fact in the universe.” For Sellers, Scripture was life’s Global Positioning System (a term that was still 30 years in his future): it located him, and his family, his country, in history. “I do not study the Bible in order to get material for messages. I study it because of the needs of my own life.”
As his daughter assured me, Sellers avidly followed the news, which that week probably included reports of the carnage wrought in the Bismarck Sea, Kharkov, and Essen. That we live in the Dispensation of Grace, however, the last divine administration before God assumes sovereignty, dominated his consciousness.
A 42-year old resident of Grand Rapids, MI, having moved there in 1936 from Winnetka, IL, Sellers was married for 23 years and with a daughter in high school. The world was at war. He was not immune to the hardships of the home front: rationing; uncertainty of the return of enlisted family members; dread of what the next few years might hold. (We now see that the die for Hitler’s defeat had been cast at least two years before, but it was not at all clear to Mr. and Mrs. America, who scraped to buy War Bonds as well as food and gasoline.)
In a rare reference to contemporary events (which he generally regarded as distractions), Sellers wrote:
. . . I know that the problems that the post-war world must face will be as great as those imposed by the war. Victory will bring its day or week of celebration, and after that comes such things as untold millions of defeated soldiers fleeing back to their countries in disorder, imported foreign workers and prisoners of war abandoning the countries of their captivity and returning to what was once their homes, the people who were forced to migrate returning to their war ravaged lands. In Russia alone fifty million Soviet citizens will return to the wasted territory of western Russia. Starvation, disease, disorder and chaos is almost sure to have its reign. Our own country may remain untouched by the ravages of war, yet we will not be isolated from the problems of the post-war world. These problems in our own country may be so great that all the combined wisdom of men may not be equal to them. These years are just ahead for us, nevertheless, we can face them with assurance and confidence if we know the personal and the written Word of God. (“Divine Importance of the Word,” March 3, 1943)
Readers should notice in the March 1st message, reproduced below, Sellers’s self-effacing representation as a Christian Individualist. He walked in fellowship with other Christians, but not as members of an organization. In the Dispensation of Grace, Sellers held, God has been dealing with people as individuals, all shut up to The Book. To have the authority to herald the Word before the time marked by Acts 28:28, one had to be divinely commissioned (ἀπόστολος, apostolos) traditionally transliterated “apostle”); on our side of that dispensational boundary line, however, the salvation-bringing message of God is no longer restricted to Israelites within and without the Land of Israel: it is freely authorized (ἀπεστάλη, apestalē) to all nations. (Acts 28:28)
During the 33 years of which the book of Acts is the history, God inaugurated His governmental purposes: the Kingdom was in the “blade stage.” God’s Kingdom-proclaimers constituted a body of gifted “out-positioned” ones (ekklēsin) or ekklēsia (traditionally mistranslated “church”) whose message was confirmed “with signs following” (Mark 16:20). Kingdom purposes, however, were suspended at Acts 28:28. That suspension was never prophesied (see Chapter 16 of Romans, the last book Paul wrote before the end of the charismatic dispensation recorded in Acts; cf. also Ephesians 3:5).
For millennia the dispensation of grace and consequent suspension of the Kingdom had been a divinely held “secret” (musterion, traditionally mistranslated “mystery”; in the early ’40s, Sellers referred to the Dispensation of Grace as the “Dispensation of the Mystery”). God will resume those purposes when we who, not having seen, yet have believed, whose sharing of the Gospel is not followed by confirmatory signs, will be called (κλητό, klēto) to proclaim God’s grace in the Kingdom, whose denizens will know righteous judgment.
And now, the text of the first message of the radio series “God Has Spoken,” Monday, March 1, 1943, taken from the pamphlet of the same title, dated November 1, 1943. I have broken up and emboldened some paragraphs for greater ease of reading and emphasis.
God Has Spoken
I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity of bringing you studies in the Word of God by means of radio. I shall ever regard this ministry as being, under God, a sacred trust, and shall strive to be faithful in this work which, I believe, He has given me to do.
It is my conviction that in all our witness for God, faithfulness is the one thing He requires. It is not demanded of God’s stewards that they be successful, neither does He demand certain results. But He does demand that we be faithful.
It is my hope that I will have the joy of visiting you many, many times by means of your loudspeaker. I trust that the time will come when you feel that you know me personally, that you will come to regard these radio visits as the coming of one who speaks about the Word of God, and that you will come to have confidence in my honesty and sincerity as a student and teacher of the sacred Scriptures.
You may not agree with all that I will have to say, or you may take exception to some things that I may teach, nevertheless, I trust that even though we may not see eye-to-eye on all matters, you will come to regard me as one who loves the Bible and who is honest and sincere in his labors to try to uncover and recover the truth that God has placed in His Word.
Therefore in hope of a good understanding between us, it seems only fitting that in this initial broadcast I should declare the purposes of this radio ministry, and also set forth some of the principles which will guide and control this effort. In order to do this I will be forced to speak some of myself and will have to make frequent use of the personal pronoun “I.” However, I am sure my listeners will be charitable and overlook this in this initial broadcast.
It is my conviction that the greatest fact in the universe is the fact that God has spoken. No other fact approaches this in magnitude or importance. God has spoken to us through the medium of a written message, and this message is the book we call the Bible. This is a fact that none can deny, and one which all men must face.
We hear much about “facing the facts.” Men often boast that they are willing to face the facts. If they really mean this then they must face the greatest fact in the universe, the fact that God has spoken. Those who face this fact will act upon it, and none have faced it who have failed to give heed to all that God has said.
If God has spoken it becomes the duty of every man to know what He has said. Of what value is the confession that “God has spoken” if we are forced to follow this with the confession that we do not know what He has said.
In my own life and experience, I have faced this great fact, and as best as I can, I have acted upon it. The past twenty-three years of my life [1920-1943—A.G.F.] have been devoted to the task of becoming genuinely familiar with every word that God has spoken. I have always considered this task to be supreme in importance. It is my first duty toward God. I refuse to admit that any task can be more important than this, or take precedence over it as being the will of God for me. Every other service must be subordinate to the task of knowing what God has said.
My studies in the Word of God have always been primarily for my own personal benefit. I have studied because I needed to be familiar with all that God has said, because I wanted to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not study the Bible in order to get material for messages. I study it because of the needs of my own life.
This is in complete harmony with Paul’s statement in 2 Timothy 2:6, which literally translated says: “The farmer who is toiling must be first to partake of the fruits.” No farmer could do anything toward producing food for others if he did not first of all produce food for himself.
However, in studying to know the Word for my own benefit, to get truth for myself, to find answers to my own questions and to clear away my own difficulties, I have been enabled to offer help to others who may desire to know the truth. I believe that I can help you, and I would like to help you. Therefore, I trust that you will determine to “make it a habit” to be tuned in to this program each time it is on the air.
I fully realize that when a man is heard for the first time, his hearers will naturally ask such questions as, “Just who are you?” “To what denomination or sect do you belong?” “Whom do you represent?” and “What are your purposes or aims in securing this radio time and giving your messages over the air?” It seems only right that these questions should be answered.
The first question as to who I really am puts me on the spot. It would not be so embarrassing if I were somebody, but being nobody makes it difficult to answer. However, in answer, all I can say is that I am Otis Q. Sellers, an individual who believes in God the Father, in His Son Jesus Christ whom I acknowledge as my Lord, and in the verbal inspiration of the Word that He has given.
I am an independent student and teacher of the Word of God, and a writer upon Biblical subjects. I conduct regular Bible classes in four different cities and write and publish the Bible study magazine The Word of Truth. Sample copies of this magazine are available without cost to any who may desire them.
In regard to my denominational or church affiliations, I desire to state emphatically that I am a member of no denomination, church, sect or movement. It may be that some will be inclined to doubt this, feeling that I may be hesitant to declare my affiliations. But I assure them that this is the exact truth. The time will not come in the future when you will discover that I do represent some denomination which I hesitated to acknowledge in the beginning. I state this because it has been the practice of some men to keep their connections hidden up to a certain point, then reveal that their true purpose was not to lead the people into truth, but into identification with some sect or denomination.
Many people will think it strange that I am not affiliated with some denomination, church or undenominational [sic] movement. It will be difficult for them to believe that a man can love God, serve Him and minister His Word without belonging to some organization. However, I am able to testify that thousands of people all over the world are doing this very thing.
Many people have never learned that a man can do this as an individual. They believe that the only way one can be affiliated with God and Christ is to be affiliated with some church. They cannot conceive of any relationship to God apart from relationship to the church. This is an error, and a denial of the one mediator between God and man—the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of my chief purposes in these radio broadcasts will be to inspire you, as an individual, to believe in God and walk in the fear of Him, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have confidence in Him as your Savior, to do right by His Word and to study it as an individual.
I shall never be guilty of even suggesting that you abandon your present affiliations or sever any of your connections. Neither shall I ever suggest that you take on any new ones.
In this ministry, I do not represent anyone. I have hundreds of friends who are living for God as individuals, and these friends are standing behind me in this ministry. But I do not represent them, and they exercise no control over me. I believe and proclaim these messages as an individual, and not as the representative or spokesman of some group.
A number of years ago I became convinced that all of God’s dealings in this dispensation are with the individual. He does not deal with him as a part of some church, neither does He deal with him through a church.
Furthermore, it became my conviction that in spite of the apostasy, ruin, confusion and unfaithfulness that prevails in Christendom, that an individual could walk in separation from all of this and live a life of devotedness and faithfulness to God, the Son of God, and the Word of God.
I determined that in spite of the hopeless failure of the professing church as a responsible witness for Christ, it could be my privilege to be faithful in a day of unfaithfulness and to be loyal in a day of disloyalty. I now seek to get others as individuals to do the same.
Therefore, one of my purposes in this radio ministry will be to stress the great truth of Christian individualism. When I speak of worship it will not have any connection with your attendance at something called “the morning worship.” It will have to do with that real heartfelt adoration for God which you as an individual should have toward Him twenty-four hours each day.
When I speak of prayer it will have no relationship to your attendance at something called a “prayer meeting.” It will mean that true spirit of prayer which causes one to be ever looking to God and to be continually drawing upon Him for every need.
When I speak of Bible study, it will have no connection with some Bible class even though such attendance is good; neither will it mean going to hear a sermon on some Biblical text. The only real Bible study is that which you do as an individual, when you open the book in order to become familiar with every word that God has spoken.
I would encourage you to live for God as an individual, to have individual and personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that individualism is the exact opposite of denominationalism; therefore, I do not seek to build any church or any denomination. I seek to build up men in the most holy faith, and this work begins and ends with the individual. My one great purpose will always be to turn the individual to the God of the Word, and to the Word of God.
In these radio messages I will emphasize the testimony that the Bible gives to the transcendent grace of God, which He is manifesting to the undeserving in this dispensation.
I will emphasize its testimony in regard to the nature of man, and also to the destiny of man. I will also exalt its testimony in regard to dispensational truth, that is, the importance of rightly dividing the word of truth.
I will be happy to have any listeners to correspond with me at any time, and I will be glad to help you in your personal problems related to the study of the Word of God.
We often hear men say, “I do not know very much about the Bible.” This is a common confession which men often make, and they make it in such a way that it appears to be their idea that no ordinary man can know. or should know very much about the sacred Scriptures.
If men are ignorant of God’s Word, then there must be some cause for this ignorance. Therefore, when anyone says that he does not know very much about the Bible, we have the right to ask, “Why?” And if a truthful answer is given it will be, “Just because I have never studied it.”
Too many people live in the false hope that some day a miracle is going to take place which will give them a complete and accurate knowledge of the Bible. But this will never happen. The only way we can ever know the Scriptures is to follow the example of “the blessed man” in the first Psalm, whose “delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”
No man can be classed as a God-fearing man if he remains in total ignorance of the words that God has spoken. No man can be truly wise until he has entered into that wisdom which God has enshrined in His Word. Therefore, to the task of helping men to become familiar with every word that God has spoken, this radio ministry is dedicated.
