The Signs of the Times, Nr 1

Relaunching a Magazine

In addition to the bi-monthly issues, we also brought out special issues. This one was on Health. A view of the Cape Peninsula

A copy of one of our early Signs, printed in 1993

This copy of the Signs was printed in the first full year, 1992

This is a copy of the fourth issue of the Signs we printed - 1992

The Signs of the Times had been published by the church in South Africa from the 1890s. For the first years it appeared under a different name. Then in 1923 it adopted its American name, Signs of the Times. It was always printed by the Sentinel Publishing Company.

Then, suddenly in 1989 the magazine came to a grinding halt! It was probably due to financial reasons. At the time, I was in Claremont, Cape Town, working as the Director of the Voice of Prophecy Bible School.

By 1991, I began to have the conviction that something should be done to revive the magazine. Could I step up to the plate and tackle the job? Perhaps I could retire at the end of that year after serving for 43 years and edit the new magazine while on my retirement pension. Not to have to pay a salary to the Editor would help to make the project financially viable!

I found an opportunity to speak to the South African Union President, James Bradfield. We had a good chat and I told him of my conviction that we should try and start the magazine again. He felt that the best would be to just rely on the American Signs and order it for all those who wanted it. I left our meeting unconvinced!

I was a member of the Union Committee and a meeting was due to take place, I think it was in May of that year, 1991. I thought that would be a good opportunity for me to request that an item be placed on the agenda regarding the Signs. This was duly done and I remember going into high gear in preparation for the occasion!

The day of the Committee arrived and I found the item on the agenda! When that point did finally come up, I arose and gave my presentation. I had prepared a dummy issue of my proposed magazine and spoke passionately about the advantages of having our own South African Signs once again. I pointed to the benefits that I felt would come to our members in South Africa.

After a period of vigorous discussion, the Committee was finally ready to vote on the issue. I was indeed pleased with the outcome - I was given permission to try and restart the Signs! I then raised the question as to what extent the Union could help me financially. The answer was, “unfortunately we do not have the finance to help at this time”. However, when I asked if I could have permission to proceed and see if I could raise the money, they said “Go ahead”!

I left Bloemfontein and headed back to Claremont, Cape Town. I felt that we needed about R50,000 to launch the magazine. I thought we should print 50,000 copies and see if we could sell them, and if so, we could move ahead and print them regularly. I had an idea that I should try and get 10 people who would each give me R5,000. I launched out and soon found that it was not easy to find those who were able or willing to give those amounts.

Then one day it seemed that the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Eric, why don’t you give that money?” I replied, “Lord, you know that I do not have the money.” But as the days went by the conviction grew that I should do something about it. Suddenly, an idea flowed into my mind, “Eric, you can ask the Bank for a loan.” I spoke to Ruth about my conviction and she agreed with me. We would approach the Bank.

We faced retirement that year and we owed R19,000 on our home loan. I made an appointment with ABSA Bank, where we had our bond and I eventually negotiated for a further loan of R45,000 on our house. We now owed the Bank R64,000 instead of the R19,000. But we decided to move ahead in faith.

I remember calling James Bradfield, the Union President and letting him know that I had found someone who was willing to give me the money and we were going to move ahead on the Signs! I did not tell him it was the Bank, lest he try and discourage me from taking the step! I told him the truth; it was really “someone” who would help and not a robot! It was only several months later that Pastor Bradfield discovered that the “someone” was the Bank!

I visited the Sentinel Publishing Company in Kenilworth and spoke with the works manager, Wally Burn, about my desire to print the magazine. As we chatted together he advised me that I should try and print the magazine in some secular printing house. I think Wally was aware of difficulties that were facing the Sentinel and he was hesitant to tackle the long-term project.

They also did not have a graphic artist at the Sentinel whom he felt could help and suggested a name to me. He was not an Adventist. I went ahead and contacted the gentleman in question and he was willing to help me. I met him and supplied him with the material for this first issue. Then I proceeded to find a Printing Company that would print my magazine. We now went into full action to print this issue.

In the meantime I had to open a Bank account for the Signs and I also had to get a list of our churches in South Africa so that I could advertise the soon to be printed magazine. I did not have a secretary to help me. My wife and I were the only ones involved in the project. Ruth was a teacher and not a secretary, and so her assistance was restricted to the important work of filling and packing and closing envelopes and boxes with the magazine. But here she gave invaluable help!

We printed the 50,000 copies of our first issue in August, 1991, and by November we had sold sufficient copies to lead me to decide that we could carry on with our project. I wanted to print the Signs in both English and Afrikaans and so now I had to also find someone who could translate the magazine into Afrikaans. Pastor F C Pelser was willing to help me and we moved ahead.

We printed 15,000 copies; 8,000 in English and 7,000 in Afrikaans and these were ready to send out to our churches and members n January of 1992. From that time onward we printed the 15,000 copies every two months, until the end of 2012, a total of 22 years from 1991. Our members gave great support and we thank God for the strength and grace that He gave us to do the work.

After about nine months in the program we were able to pay ourselves back R40,000 of the Bank loan that we had taken out! I always tell people that the extra R5,000 is hanging between heaven and earth! The Lord knows where it is and He will take care of it! We will continue the story of the Signs in our next blog.