God’s Celestial Ambassador: The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges - Part II
By Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on Amazon.com, while supplies last.
Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure
Lady Columba Venus Revelations
From Keller Venus Files: Dr. Frank E. Stranges took up the fight for UFO disclosure as early as 1958, following his move to Southern California.
Ministerial Work
Dr. Frank E. Stranges’ years of service to the Lord Jesus Christ began at the age of 13 when he and his father Natale were called upon to preach in a number of Spanish churches in Brooklyn. Young Frank continued to work in missionary endeavors with his father up to his graduation from Bushwick High School, at which time he enrolled in the Eastern Bible Institute in Irvington, New Jersey. There he met Bernice C. Raab and they were married at the Pentecostal Church in Newark, New Jersey, in May of 1948. In 1949, Frank E. Stranges graduated from the Eastern Bible Institute with a Bachelor of Theology degree and a license to serve as a minister of the gospel. And following his graduation, Frank and Bernice embarked upon Christian pioneering work and helped to establish the Spring Lake Assembly of God Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Initially, church services were held in members’ homes, then in a high school gym, and finally in a tent erected on a vacant lot.
From Keller Venus Files: Bernice C. Raab, also a student at the Eastern Bible Institute of Irvington, New Jersey, married Dr. Frank Stranges in May 1948 at the Pentecostal Church in Newark, New Jersey, and from there helped him establish his ministerial career.
All the while preaching in Minnesota, Frank enrolled in night classes at North Central Bible College, for the purpose of continuing his theological studies. The college is now known as North Central University, a private Christian institution in Minneapolis, Minnesota, associated with the Assemblies of God. It is owned and operated by eleven Assemblies of God districts in the upper Midwest. It was founded in 1930 and is fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Frank E. Stranges graduated from North Central Bible College in 1951 with a Master’s degree in Theology.
Having received the Master’s degree, he resigned his pastorship in the Spring Lake Church and affiliated himself with the Independent Assemblies of God, laboring for the next two years at the recently constructed Revival Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He also enrolled in his denomination’s School of Theology in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he received his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1956. Of course, working for a church organization is not always the most lucrative occupation, so Dr. Frank Stranges had to supplement his income with employment as a special agent for a number of detective agencies. The knowledge he gained and proficiency he developed as an investigator, would later help Dr. Stranges substantially as went on to become one of the world’s preeminent researchers of UFO phenomena.
By 1956, Dr. Stranges had moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he served as the first editor of the Independent Assemblies of God Church’s monthly periodical, Vision Magazine, as well as vice-president and professor at the Baltimore Bible College. He served in these positions for the next two years, before moving with Bernice to Los Angeles, California, where he established and became president of the International Evangelism Crusades and a minister of the New Age Cathedral in Los Angeles. He also became a well-known voice on the radio with his Sunday morning Truth on the March broadcasts aired on numerous stations throughout California and the surrounding states.
Newspaper cartoon from the early 1950s mocks the official position of the United States Air Force that “Flying saucers don’t exist.”
Involvement in Ufology
Towards the end of the decade of the 1950s, the reality of UFOs or “flying saucers,” as they were more popularly known back then, had been thoroughly questioned by the public at large, especially out in Southern California, which was recognized as the epicenter of the flying saucer phenomenon. There was also a plentitude of Southern California residents actually claiming contact with the flying saucer occupants, usually out in some isolated desert location in Riverside County.
The all-important question concerning the origin of the mysterious flying saucers had been hurled at the government leaders in numerous countries around the free world; but no one in any position of authority was forthcoming with any satisfactory answers. In the United States, it was the responsibility of the Air Force to investigate reports of flying saucers. In 1953, the Air Force’s UFO investigative body, Project Blue Book, was established at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and headed up by Major Edward J. Ruppelt.
Following the appearance of a fleet of flying saucers over the Washington, D.C., national airport in the summer of 1952, Ruppelt opined that the Air Force had “fouled up in not fully investigating the sightings.” Of course, in December of 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency-commissioned special panel headed up by Howard P. Robertson, that had been looking into this matter of UFOs for the past year, and was known as the Robertson Panel, recommended that, “A public education campaign should be undertaken in order to reduce public interest in the subject, thereby minimizing the risk of swamping air defense systems with reports at critical times, and that civilian UFO groups should be closely monitored.” Sadly, the more objective Ruppelt did not last the year, and was replaced as the Blue Book director in favor of the more compliant Captain Charles Hardin, whose philosophy from the very beginning of his tenure was that, “Anyone who is even interested in UFOs is crazy.”
Of course, this kind of subterfuge on the part of the Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency was unsatisfactory to Dr. Frank E. Stranges, the Assemblies of God minister who always demanded to know the truth with regard to any matter, not just UFOs. Dr. Stranges wasn’t alone in his outrage against the Air Force brass and Central Intelligence Agency operatives who were hiding the facts from the public about the appearance of flying saucers in our skies and the occasional reports about the landing of these objects and the disembarkation of their occupants who were communicating with persons from all walks of life throughout the world. Private airlines were investigating UFO reports in addition to several newly organized civilian flying saucer research groups and organizations.
Said Dr. Frank E. Stranges of those critical times, “But unbeknownst to many, the church world is also asking questions that are, for the most part, being avoided by the ministry. As President of the International Evangelism Crusades, my position has taken me across the United States several times fulfilling invitations from churches of various denominations. We have also been busily engaged of late in UFO lecture work in theaters and auditoriums. This has brought me to the attention of many religious-minded people.”
Dr. Stranges continued, “My files are full of letters from these people who have asked the question concerning UFOs and who have given the same answer throughout the United States. Some ministers have even caused fear to take the place of common sense and truth. People have also been threatened into forgetting all about the UFO subject, otherwise they would find themselves dabbling in mysteries that would result in the ‘loss of their soul.’ This, indeed, is typical of the narrowness and lack of insight of many members of the clergy. Many church people today, in reality, are still walking in the shoes of fear and superstition.
Clergy Criticized
The doctor of divinity noted that some of his fellow clergy members, in their own strange way, were contributing to the ignorance of many, with respect to the matters of the existence of the flying saucers and life beyond the Earth. According to Dr. Stranges, “It would be of incalculable value if these men would permit themselves to be open for truth. Jesus Christ himself stated, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”
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