1
Heavenly
Lecture
by B S
2
Letter by L De Winter
3
Letter by Pastor Evans
B S
(Investigator 7, 1989 July)
In April huge audiences in Australia heard American evangelist Dr. Percy Collett (pronounced Collay) describe a Jesus-guided tour of Heaven that he took in 1981.
Collett and 250 Indians and missionaries at Boavista Mission in N.W. Brazil allegedly prayed for eight days to God to show them Heaven. On the 9th day everyone saw angels in the sky and on the 10th they were all "struck down by the glory of God". Then: "My soul came out of my body. Your soul is God's intelligence in you."
An eight-foot-tall angel with a flaming sword took Percy's soul on a six-hour journey through space: "to a great planet called Heaven.
"It's so big, so round, so beautiful. There was fire all around it. It didn't need a sun because God supplied everything.
"It's over two trillion miles away. We passed two light years in one hour."
Percy's body, unconscious six days, stayed in Brazil.
Percy's public appearance in Adelaide was at the Assemblies of God Beulah Centre in Grote Street on April 26. Present were over 200 people including two skeptics.
The lecture was spiced with stories of miraculous healings, conversions, and previous encounters with angels.
Most interesting were Percy's personal comments:
For seven years in the 1970s Percy fasted and prayed: "Let me see your glory.
"Then I began to get visions in bed every night at 2 A.M. But that wasn't enough. I wanted to go to Heaven."
And to Heaven Percy went:
"We came to an outer gate. We saw thousands and thousands of souls waiting for a body – there's going to be a resurrection.
"We saw the throne of God. It's 2,000 miles high. It's on wheels.
"There was Abraham and Sarah. Then came my mother and Jesus and Jesus' mother.
"I got into a chariot with Jesus. For five and a half days Jesus showed me around Heaven. We would walk on pure gold. There were beautiful mountains and millions of mansions.
"Heaven is 80 times larger than Earth. At the central square is a building 1,500 miles high and with an elevator powered by the Holy Ghost. We got in the elevator and went up 700 miles.
"We came to a huge banquet house. There were thousands eating manna and I sat opposite Jesus.
"And I saw a 2,000-mile-long river with a road of gold alongside. Flowers grew out of the gold.
Dr Collet, who stayed in Adelaide's heavenly Hilton Hotel, planned to visit Central China for five weeks in order to deliver 150,000 copies of his book on Heaven. He then intended to speak in Adelaide again. His grandmother, be explained, was Chinese and his Chinese name – Percy Wong Li Chung – has made it easy for him to gain entry to China.
At the start of Dr Collett's lecture a collection for him was taken in four buckets to which the two skeptics present did not donate. Lots of tens and twenties – allegedly to give to the poor.
After the lecture I asked Dr Collett if God had ever cured him personally of anything: "Yes, during the war when my leg was taken right off."
One of the
skeptics
commented, "This does
nothing for the credibility of the Assemblies of God. The guy's a nut."
NO HEAVENLY VISIT
(Investigator 33, 1993 November)
Percy Collet, allegedly aged 86, claimed he visited heaven. He spiced his story with boasts of many other alleged exploits. Audiences donated buckets of money – supposedly to be given to the poor.
A recent inquiry
suggests
that our skepticism
in Investigator 7 was justified:
| Lana De Winter Tynte St. North Adelaide 5006 1993 September 10 Pastor A L Evans Dear Pastor Evans; I am the associate editor of INVESTIGATOR which is a small-circulation, often pro-Christian, magazine produced locally to investigate matters in a nonsectarian way. In April 1989 Dr Percy Collet gave a public presentation at the Assemblies of God in Grote St, Adelaide. The lecture was about Dr Collet's alleged visit to heaven. (A report on the lecture was published in INVESTIGATOR in July 1989.) I observed that an enormous amount of cash was donated by approximately 200 in attendance. Money for Dr Collet was also collected at other places where he lectured and sponsored by the Assemblies of God. Dr Collet intended to return to Adelaide after a 6-week trip to China. As far as I know he did not, however, return. Nor have I seen or heard of the book he claimed to have written and which would be sold in Australia. These matters involve the credibility of the Assemblies of God religion. Could you please inform me what the situation regarding Dr. Collet is. Has any Church member actually investigated and confirmed any of the claims made by Dr Collet about himself? Lana De Winter
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| 14th September 1993
ASSEMBLY OF GOD
PARADISE INCORPORATED Miss Lana De Winter Dear Lana Thank you for your letter concerning Dr Percy Collet. His coming to Adelaide and sharing at the Grote Street Assembly was as much of a surprise to me as anyone else. Neither the church nor the Pastor informed me of his coming, nor of his future. As you are now well aware, neither the Pastor nor the church are part of the Assemblies of God and therefore, I am unable to give you any more information. The other aspect, for your understanding, concerning the Assemblies of God is that each church is autonomous. We do not have a centralised Hierarchy structure that has a say over the churches, therefore, the decision by the local pastor to invite Dr Percy Collet, and also concerning the finances which were given to him, were totally of that former Assemblies of God church. Having said that, however, if a church loses its integrity or acts in a way against the principles of the Assemblies of God, we would then have the authority to either dismiss the minister, or ask the church to leave our movement. I trust this helps you understand where we are coming from. Yours sincerely, PASTOR ANDREW EVANS
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