ADULLAM – FROM VISIONS BEYOND THE VEIL

Permission has been granted to print excerpts from Visions Beyond the Veil, authored by H.A. Baker, published by Whitaker House.

Page 6: The ministry in China was exciting. In the southwest corner of Yunnan, the most southwest province of China, was a little town of 5,000 called Kotchiu. The Bakers were warned that Kotchiu was in the hands of brigand robbers. In fact, it was said to be the worst town in all China. But the Bakers settled there in the midst of vile and sinful surroundings, and began to let the Light of God shine out.

Almost immediately, they were conscious of the many teenage beggar boys who were starving and dying in the streets. That was when they decided to open the Adullam Home. In addition to dysentery and other internal diseases, the boys had terrible sores all over their bodies. Josephine found real joy and satisfaction in removing their filthy rags and giving them baths. Disheveled hair was cut and clean clothes were given them. Their sores healed rapidly as they responded to the love of Jesus.

There were forty boys in the home when the great miracle took place. There was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the like of which is recorded in few pieces of Christian literature. They fell prostrate on the floor under the power of God. While in the Spirit, they saw into the next world. They saw angels and talked with them; they played in the wonderful parks of Paradise; they saw the saints of old.

This outpouring went on for days and days. Little children preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The lowest, most outcast beggar boys saw revelations of invisible worlds and the glories of the redeemed.

Page 12: I am convinced that the experiences of these Adullam children were not manufactured. These wonders could not possibly have been the product of the natural minds of these children. Such uneducated, mentally untrained, unimaginative boys as these could not themselves have conceived of such things. Nor could these spiritual experiences, visions, and revelations have been the working of their subconscious minds. Many of these children were too young, too ignorant, or too recently rescued from paganism to know the Bible teaching on these subjects. Neither can these things be explained by the psychology of mental suggestion from others….. Neither can these experiences be explained as any sort of mental excitement, religious frenzy, natural emotion, nervous state, nor any sort of self-produced condition. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit came to ordinary children as they went about the not-too-exciting business of going to school.

Page 23: As the children in visions saw the awfulness of hell, the anguish of lost souls, and the indescribably hellish power of the devil and his angels, their agonizing crying was beyond anything I had ever heard or imagined. It was all so real to them. Many saw themselves bound and dragged to the very brink of hell. Condemnation for sins and the power of the devil over them was terrifying in its reality. But freedom from this evil power through the grace of the Lord Jesus was just as real. When they experienced this liberating power from the clutches of the evil one, their salvation was as real as had been their condemnation. Their joy, laughter, and peace of soul in the knowledge of what they had been saved from gave them an experience which I am sure they will never be able to forget.

Page 49: The Bible tells us the heaven of the redeemed is the “third heaven.” The future home of the people of the Lord is a place in the third heaven. This place is a city. The name of this city is “The New Jerusalem.” This New Jerusalem is not a figure of speech. It is not a combination of ideas skillfully clothed in earthly words to give man a false conception of something it is not. The Bible says this New Jerusalem is a real city with a real foundation which God himself laid.

Page 50: The Adullam children were caught up in vision to this city of God. How they could see the city I do not know. How Abraham [the father of the Israelites] saw it I do not know. How Paul [the apostle] could be caught up to Paradise….. I do not know. These things are beyond natural order. We need not, at present, know the how. We know the fact. John [the apostle] was shown the city. He was told by the Lord to write the things he had seen and send them to the churches.

In the Spirit Adullam children were caught up to this city time after time, not as in a dream but as a living reality. Their visits were so real, in fact, that the children thought their souls actually left their bodies to go to heaven and return, or that in some unaccountable way they had gone to heaven soul and body just as they might in daily life visit some distant place. Frequently when they were in Paradise plucking and partaking of the heavenly fruit, they gathered some extra to tuck in their garments to bring back to earth for “Muh Si and Si Mu” (Pastor and Mrs. Baker).

They knew they were on a visit to heaven and soon to return. Upon returning, when the Spirit lifted from them in our Adullam rooms, they proceeded at once to search in their pockets for the delicious fruit they had brought back to please us. Not finding this fruit, a look of great surprise, confusion and disappointment came over their faces. They could not, for the time, believe they had not bodily gone to heaven and come back with the fruit tucked in their garments.

Walking on the streets of the New Jerusalem was to them as real as walking on the streets of a Chinese city. One day, when walking down the street in bright sunshine, I asked the boys if the visions were as real and as clear as what we then saw. “Just as real,” they said, “but much clearer due to the light in heaven, the white garments, and the cleanliness everywhere, all adding to the brightness.”

Page 52: The Adullam children said they went to the third heaven. As they passed through the first heaven [the earth’s atmosphere] they felt air on their faces. Having passed the second heaven [the stars and planets], they looked back upon the stars in their wondrous beauty, much as from a mountain height a person might gaze down upon a beautiful, light-studded city below.

Finally they reached the third heaven and came within sight of the New Jerusalem. As they approached this heavenly city they saw its lights in the distance. Coming nearer, they saw the beautiful wall radiating its wonderful jasper light. The foundations were of indescribable beauty, sparkling with red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, violet, and all the other colors of the twelve most beautiful jewels.

Page 53: The children of Adullam entered by its pearly gates into the city of golden streets. Angels in white guarded the gates and welcomed those entering in. No beggarly reception this. Here the one-time rejected off-scourings of the earth were welcomed as kings by these angelic hosts. Had not the Savior promised the weakest and humblest of his children a kingdom where they shall reign with the King of Kings for ages and ages?

Through the gates into the city! Out of earth into heaven! Out of the mortal into the immortal! Out of death into life! All the old life behind and below! All the new life ahead and above! Inside the gates! Angels, angels everywhere. Angels talking, angels singing, angels rejoicing, angels playing harps and blowing trumpets, angels dancing and praising the King. Such a scene no mortal ever saw; such a flood of inner joy as no one ever knew flooded the whole being.

The children clapped their hands in rapture. They shouted for joy. They sometimes rolled on the floor in unrestrained laughter and jumped and danced in great delight, while their faces were so transformed by this heavenly joy that the glory of the celestial city seemed to shine upon us. There was no sorrow in this city; no mournful, long-faced religion there; no funeral dirges in the hymns. This was a city of joy, “joy in the Holy Spirit,” “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Page 55: Not only about the gates of the city were these happy angels, but also throughout the city everywhere were these heavenly hosts. Angels were always ready to escort the children from place to place throughout the city; angels walked with them and talked with them; angels explained to them the meaning of things they did not understand, even as they talked with John and revealed to him the things of God.

Often in these experiences with the angels our children were given harps and taught to play them and sing as the angels did. They were also taught to blow the trumpets and were taught the music and language of heaven.

Page 56: The climax of all heavenly joy and wonder was “seeing Jesus” and worshipping Him who had saved them by His blood. Soon after entering the gates of the city the children were escorted by the angels to “go and see Jesus.” We could hear these children talking about “going to see Jesus.” When they came into His wonderful presence they stood reverently gazing with love and devotion upon the Lord of all creation, who was also their Savior. First of all they thanked Him, adoringly worshipped Him and bowed in true obeisance. Then they knelt and bowed their faces to the floor in true worship “in Spirit and truth.”

Page 57: No matter how amazed were the children at the wonders of the golden city, no matter how happy in the pleasures of Paradise, no matter how joyful in the presence of the angels, Jesus was never forgotten. His name was mentioned in all the conversation; His praise was mingled in all the enjoyments; he was always magnified everywhere, in everything, and in everybody there.

On either side of the beautiful golden streets were buildings side by side, a room for each person, every room opening unto the street. On the door and above the front were precious jewels so resplendently brilliant that the building shone with light and glory. The name of each occupant was above the door. Angels led the children into the rooms. Within all the rooms were the same kinds of furnishings: a beautiful golden table upon which was a Bible, a flower vase, a pen, and a book; by the table was a golden chair; there was also a wonderful golden chest and a golden bed. In each room was a jewelled crown, a golden harp, and a trumpet. The walls were gold. From the Bible, made of such paper as had never been seen on earth and bound with gold, light and such brilliant glory shone forth that the whole room needed no other light. The visitors were told that when they came to stay after death they could go out into Paradise and pick any flowers of their choice to place in the beautiful vase on the golden table.

Page 58: In these excursions through heaven, the children, though lost to their real surroundings on earth, were always conscious that their visits to heaven were temporary. They knew they were there only to see what was prepared for them after death, so they might go back to earth again to tell others. The angels and the Lord told their visitors that, if they believed and obeyed, all these things would be theirs.

Page 59: Can we suppose the Lord saved these boys, baptized them in the Holy Spirit, and then deceived them by showing them a figurative and mythical heaven? Impossible! An earthly father may deceive his children with false hopes and false promises, but our heavenly Father shows his children what he has for them (1Cor. 2:10), promises he will give these things (Rev. 3:21), and then gives the very things which he has promised (Luke 11:9,13).

Page 59: The first day when the Holy Spirit fell upon the children, one of the boys was caught up to heaven and he was welcomed by the angels and two Adullam boys who had died the year before. These two, “Hsi Dieu Fu” and “Djang Hsing,” had with them in heaven a little girl who died in Kotchiu four years previously, and whom our children had forgotten.

These who had died and gone on before led those who were caught up in the joys and wonders of heaven. They led them to see Jesus first of all, and to worship and thank Him. After this they were shown their dwellings and escorted around the city or led out into Paradise to play.

All who went to heaven were given white garments. The angels, also dressed in seamless garments of spotless white, had wings, but the redeemed did not have wings. There was a clear distinction between the two.

Page 60: Heaven was so real, so near, so wonderful, so certain, that if one of our children had died in those days the others would have envied him his privilege.

The step to heaven after death or at the coming of the Lord seemed so small and the coming of the Lord so near that it removed from our minds all mystery as to why the first disciples could sell their possessions and face persecution and death without wavering.

Our kingdom is not of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our life, our work, our service, our hardships here are only brief and passing incidents on the way to the true life, the true city, in the true kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Page 69: I am sure you will be interested, as we were, in what our Adullam children saw in the Paradise, the Eden, in the city beyond the sky. One of the young men was in Paradise almost as soon as he entered the heavenly city. There he was met by the two Adullam boys who had died in Hokow. These boys, taking him through Paradise and the other parts of the Holy City, soon came to a great, lawn-like, grassy, open plot surrounded by magnificent trees.

The whole scene was so entrancing that the young man said to his two glorified friends, “This is good enough for me. There can’t be anything more beautiful. I’ll stay right here.”

The boys who had preceded him to heaven said, “No, don’t wait here, for there are much greater marvels.”

Going on a little farther they came to still more wonderful trees, some of them bearing fruit. The whole park-like surroundings and the grassy lawn beneath the trees were enticing beyond any earthly understanding.

The young man said, “I must stay here, I cannot go on and leave this great beauty. I am so happy.”

“Come on,” said the others, “there are many things in heaven exceeding this.”

“You go,” he replied, “but I shall remain right here for awhile.”

The others left him on the grass under the trees with the great, open, velvet-like grassy space before him. Floods of joy and happiness he had never known on earth flooded his whole being. He was in the land of joy, “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” “the land that is fairer than day.”

Page 70: The angels were dressed in seamless garments of white; their faces were perfect; one was not more beautiful than another. “When they smiled – Oh, I can’t describe that,” the boy said later, “there is no way on earth to describe an angel’s smile.”

Similar and surpassingly beautiful scenes in Paradise were seen repeatedly by a large number of Adullam children. In Paradise they saw trees bearing the most delicious fruit, and vistas of the most beautiful flowers of every color, sending forth an aroma of heavenly fragrance. There were birds of glorious plumage singing their carols of joy and praise. In this park were also animals of every size and description: large deer, small deer, large lions, great elephants, lovely rabbits, and all sorts of little friendly pets such as they had never seen before.

The children held the little pets in their arms and passed them from one to another. They found the lion peacefully lying beneath a tree and climbed on his back, ran their fingers through his shaggy mane, brushed his face, and put their hands in his mouth. If they desired, they curled down beside him to enjoy together the love of their common Maker.

Page 71: The little children rode the small deer, while the other children rode the larger deer or the friendly elephant. All was perfect love. All was great harmony. Such shouts of joy! Such happy childish laughter! Who but our Father in heaven ever thought of or planned such a Paradise?

When hungry, the children ate of the wonderful fruit or gathered freely the sweet tasting, refreshing manna that was scattered all about. Were they thirsty? Here and there trickled little brooks of the stimulating and refreshing water of life.

In the open, lawn-like vistas amidst the trees and flowers and birds of Paradise, the children of Adullam saw companies of the redeemed [Christians] dancing and playing trumpets with the angels. Sometimes they joined this happy, festivel group, in which were small children, larger children, and adults, but where no one was old. What heavenly scenes! What heavenly singers! What joy among the angels and the redeemed!

Page 72: I well remember how one of our boys was given a vision of what happens at the death of a Christian. As relatives and friends gathered about the dying one, an angel stood by the bed awaiting the liberating of the Christian’s soul. When the man was set free from his bodily encumbrance, the angel took him by the arm and ascended with him into heaven. The principalities and powers of evil hosts [demons of various ranks] in mid-heaven in their attempts to hinder the passage of the angel and his charge were overcome by the angel’s faith and praise as the ascent continued toward the heavenly city.

Having been welcomed at the gate, this new arrival was received by hosts of angels, singing, dancing, rejoicing, all uniting in giving him a royal welcome into the eternal city of the redeemed.
Such visions as these have but confirmed our faith in the Word of God and its promise of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

Editor’s note: I have read Visions Beyond the Veil by H.A. Baker six or eight times. I read it to my children when they were young and I encouraged many others to read it, so moved was I by its content. Excerpts have been printed by permission of Whitaker Publishers who hold full copyrights. Anything added to the writing by myself for the purpose of explanation is inserted in brackets [like this].