Baraba Baha

A long time ago, John, the Apostle, said that many antichrists had entered into the world. In these late days the names of a number of men have been put forward as candidates for the title of THE anti-Christ. The stock of most of these is now running low.

There at last appears a name known to few Americans and a name that points to a personality differing widely from those that have been pressed upon our attention. First, however, we should be introduced to the man who is bold enough to suggest the possibility. He differs so radically from many who have sponsored sensational interpretations of the Scriptures that he is entitled to a place entirely his own.

He is none other than Dr. James Hollenbeck, Presbyterian Missionary to India, archaeologist, paleontologist, decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphics—a conservative of conservatives. It was while he was in Egypt, as a language expert in connection with the opening of the tomb of Tut Ankamen that he met King Feisal of Irak (Dr. Hollenbeck was one of the three scholars that lifted the mummy of King Tut from its ornate resting place.)

It should be recalled that King Feisal was sponsored by tlie British and reigned beneficently over Syria at Damascus, He had been with the army of the famous Colonel Lawrence, who led 4.000 Be-douins against the Turks during World War I. When later the French took over Syria, the British made Feisal King of Irak, with Capital at Bagdad, he was an Arab by descent, but a humane ruler by choice, and it was while he was in Switzerland in an effort to bring about, through the League of Nations, better conditions for the Assyrian Christians that his career was cut short by death, September 8. 1933.

King Feisal was a mystic. Dr. Hollenbeck had come to know much about the mystics of India. Through their knowledge of the science of mind and of the things we call occult, these men are liable to do things little short of miraculous. Dr. Hollenbeck was called to Bagdad to be the guest of King Feisal. In their conversation, the subject of mysticism arose. The King asked Dr. Hollenbeck if he had heard of the strange mystic in Assyria, adding: "I can assure you that this is not just another mystic. I believe that he is none other than God Himself."

[18] This man was Abdul (Prince) Baraba Baha. He claims descent from Abraham through Ishmael, of the 33rd generation from Mohammed himself. He was born in Mecca. Rosita Horn, of England, wrote that he was the greatest soul that she had ever met.

King Feisal gave Dr. Hollenbeck a letter of introduction to this Prince, and arranged with the Prince that Dr. H. be accepted as a guest of his own government of Irak. Dr. Hollenbeck in March, 1929, left Luxor and took train for Jerusalem and Aleppo (in the region of the Antioch in Syria from which the missionary journeys of Paul started) and was met at the train by an automobile from the Prince's palace, and became his guest for some days.

He had been told of the personality of the Prince, but when he met him, so overwhelming was that personality that Dr. Hollenbeck, had he not previously experienced the contacts that he had had with God Himself in regeneration and in the reception of the Holy Spirit's fulness, would have bowed before him with the cry, "My Lord and my God."

One day the Prince said: "To-morrow I will talk to you in the drawing room." They met, and for two hours the Prince unfolded the panorama of the ages. He told Dr. Hollenbeck to take pencil and paper and write while he foretold all the events that have since shaken Europe since World War I, even to the rape of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Norway, and all the rest. Dates were given, and one by one have been fulfilled. The latest one, now of interest to Americans, is December 7, 1941, when he said Japan would attack America.

On the 12th of March, 1925, a steamer sailed from New York for Palestine. It was the only vessel that had ever flown the flag of David, with its six-pointed star of empire. On board were 400 Jews bound for Jerusalem. After visiting there, they went to Syria and to the palace of Prince Abdul. When he appeared, they fell before him with the cry, "My Lord and my God." The statement is made that thousands of Orthodox Jews of Europe and the Near East have accepted him as Messiah. Many Mohammedans have also accepted him.

All of this sounds strange to our American ears. "Why have we not heard more of this Prince? As early as 1925 Dr. Hollenbeck went to Syria. He heard continually of a mysterious mystic who lived in the mountains of Syria, near the Euphrates River. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, whose guest Dr. Hollenbeck once was, asked him if he had ever heard of the strange man of Syria. And then he told Dr. H. that if he ever saw him he would say that he was God Himself.

[19] Three years later, when King Feisal insisted that Dr. Hollenbeck should visit the prince, Dr. Hollenbeck found himself wondering, if he was willing to do so. But the visit was made in 1929, as stated elsewhere.

—"Prophecy Monthly."

(To be continued in next issue.)