William W. Paulson

It is through that Name that my life has been transformed. I was a prosperous North Dakota farmer who started out with a large farm when only seventeen years of age. While still a lad, I went to the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and took up mechanical engineering, and later graduated from the North Dakota State College as a civil engineer.

After I spent seven years in college and studied Darwinism and the theory of evolution, I was an infidel and a scoffer against God. I did not believe in God or the hereafter, and tried to prove there was no God, yet I’m thankful that underneath it all I feared Him in my heart.

I was entirely wrapped up in the world and in piling up wealth: a slave to the almighty dollar.

Everything I put my hand to prospered.  I had everything I could wish for in this world—a beautiful country home, an eight hundred acre farm, and considerable city property. Those were the idols of my heart. I was entirely wrapped up in the world and in piling up wealth: a slave to the almighty dollar. I was also a slave to my fellow man’s opinions, and prided myself in my business. Yet, there was an aching void in my heart, and I used to say, “What good will all this stuff do me when I am dead?” At thirty-eight I began to think my life was a miserable failure.

One day, while in my garage, God spoke to my soul, and tears commenced to flow from my eyes. From that moment, I didn’t care whether I made another dollar. I had bought my first Cadillac—about the first car that came out with an electric starter, and a beautiful motor with copper-jacketed cylinders. I started out over the country, touring. In those days traveling wasn’t as easy as it is today. We didn’t have road maps, and I got lost; but God had His hand in that. I stopped at a little railway station to inquire about the road. The young depot agent told me which way to go, and he said, “Here, take this paper along, it will do you good. I just came from Portland, Oregon, from a wonderful camp meeting!”

I knew it would be wonderful if God could make a man live that way.

I didn’t think much more of it, but when I stopped that night I began to read that Apostolic Faith paper. As I read those testimonies, my heart began to melt, and I longed to see the people who could get such results out of the Bible. I had been looking for a people who had the truth, lived it, and held the standard where it belonged. For years I had tried to overthrow the faith of my fellow man and was one of those infidels who would argue and argue, but you can’t tamper with the Bible without getting under conviction if you have any honesty at all.

Finally I said, “I’m going to Portland and find out if these people have what they are talking about!” I drove 1800 miles to investigate this work. As I sat in their meeting hall, I looked on the faces of several hundred of the happiest people I had ever seen, and I coveted what they had. I heard the ex-drunkard get up and shout the victory, and tell what God had done for him. I had never heard such testimonies before. I saw the very shine of Heaven on the faces of those people, and they said there was power in the Blood of Jesus to take sin out of one’s life. When I heard there was power in the Blood of Jesus to keep a man living above sin, I could hardly believe it. I knew it would be wonderful if God could make a man live that way.

As I listened to those testimonies I saw my own fallen condition. I saw I had never met God’s conditions: I had never really repented with godly sorrow for my sin. The Lord showed me how proud and black my heart was, even with all my sincerity and so-called morality, and that I was still a sinner on my way to Hell. My sins came before me. There were restitutions I had never made. The Lord showed me my past life like a great panorama. There I was, supposed to be a moral, upright, honorable man! My word was as good as gold. I could go into any one of a half-a-dozen banks in North Dakota, and get the limit of the law on a plain note any time, or without a note. No one ever dreamed that I would turn some of the underhanded deals I did. But God keeps books. He showed me the cunning, underhanded, shrewd business deals I had turned for years. He showed me the men I had in my employ that I had underpaid just because I had the advantage of them and could. God showed me the padded invoices, and all the rest of it. He let me see I was lost and undone and needed His power to take sin out of my life. All my “morality” was as filthy rags in His sight.

I saw all through the Word of God that we must live a life above sin.

I thought it would be hard for me to write back letters of confession to the state where I was well known, but God talked to me and said, “There is a way out—pay the price!” I backed off for a night or two, took down the old Bible to see whether man could really live above sin as they testified, and I found that their message agreed with the Word of God exactly. I saw all through the Word of God that we must live a life above sin. It meant to live a holy life every day.

I would stand out in front of the Apostolic Faith Mission in the evening when they loaded the Gospel cars for street meetings, and I would say, “What a wonderful thing!” These people all looked like hard-working people, yet they were out there with their earnestness and zeal to tell others what God had done. They had something real to bring them out after a hard day’s work.

Finally, I came back to the Mission, and meant business. I opened up to God, saying, “Lord, if you will give me victory over the powers of Hell that have ruled my heart for years and years, make salvation real to me, deliver me from my sins, and give me peace, faith, and power to live right, I will give You my life and straighten it out. I will begin tomorrow to make the confessions and restitutions.”

When I was willing to pay the price of the Gospel God saved me.

As I walked down the aisle to the altar, after the service was over, I got on my knees beside the drunkard and other sinners, and I cried to God for mercy. These Christian people gathered about me and prayed for me also, and when I was willing to pay the price of the Gospel God saved me. I felt the powers of darkness leave; I felt the chains snap, and I was set free. Why the price was nothing but to forsake my old sins and make my back life straight! When God saved me, this infidel became a believer. The purity and peace of Heaven came down in my soul. My heart was filled with faith and the joy of the Lord, and I walked up and down those aisles praising the living God. I knew old things had passed away and all things had become new. I was a new creature in Christ Jesus. The power of God was in my soul to live a Bible life that I never thought could be lived.

I didn’t sleep much that night. I was up early, and began to write letters. The Lord was right there to remind me of every deal. They came before me as though I had committed them the day before. I told the people just how it happened, and I didn’t make excuses or have any alibis. One letter was to a college I had attended for five years. It was mighty hard for me to confess that, among other things, I stole items out of the laboratories. I spent nearly the whole day writing letters of restitution and enclosing the checks to cover the wrongs. My restitutions cost me hundreds of dollars, but I was so happy to get that life cleaned up that I couldn’t contain myself. It brought faith to my heart. Thank God I straightened out that old life, and today I have a conscience void of offence toward God and man.

I told the leaders of this organization I wanted to put some money into the work. They said, “The Lord doesn’t need money. He needs lives.” I then re-consecrated my life to Him, and I go about my work with the wonderful change wrought out in my heart and life. What the world could not give me—money, property, etc.—I found at the foot of the Cross. I have been happy since, because God changed my life.

I praise God He ever gave me an honest heart. He brought me to His own people and revealed this mighty Gospel to me. He flooded my soul with joy from Heaven, and today I am a child of the King, saved through the Blood of Jesus Christ.  I wouldn’t exchange this wonderful Gospel for the wealth of the whole world!