A Testimony of the
Love, Grace and Faithfulness of God
by Tony MacCormack

"...The LORD is the strength of my life;..."   Psalms 27:1

On Sunday 13th May 1990 Tony MacCormack was admitted to a London hospital and underwent open heart surgery. Due to some terrible errors in the aftercare nursing (although never admitted) he had to undergo further surgery first of all to stop bleeding (he was given 14 units of blood) and then to remove part of his stomach and oesophagus; he also had his spleen removed and a tracheotomoy His lungs collapsed, kidneys and liver both gave cause for concern and he showed signs of some brain damage. Tony was unconscious for just over four weeks during which time he was on a life support machine and lost just over 4 stones in weight. Finally the doctors said that there was little chance of him pulling though. The sister informed his daughter that if she did not see him within the next three days, in all probability she would not see him alive again. But God intervened. On Wednesday 27 June 1990 Tony walked out of hospital on the arm of his wife Barbara. This was the beginning of a new walk with the Lord, with a promise to him that he will not see the grave, but will be raptured at the end of the Church age. This paper is a very brief synopsis of Tony's life since then. It is hoped that you will be greatly blessed and encouraged by it.

Note: Tony was given a new anointing out of God's mercy and grace, exactly 7 years before the rapture which we believe will take place on May 14th 1997. Tony can be contacted at e-mail : ahwm@globalnet.co.uk


I was born in 1937 with a congenital heart defect which did not trouble me until I was in my early teens. I have suffered for around 40 years with this syndrome without being diagnosed until 1989. Every doctor and consultant I visited put the trouble down to stress and anxiety which in their opinion was bringing on the palpitations (often lasting for over 12 hours). In May 1990 I went into the National Heart Hospital London for open heart surgery. I had been diagnosed as having Wolf Parkinson White syndrome - an extra pathway in the heart which returned electrical impulses back to the aorta so causing repeated unexpected tachycardia often as high as 240 per minute. I had previously been admitted in November 1989 when an unsuccessful attempt at catheter ablation was made.

Four hours after open heart surgery I had to undergo the same invasive surgery due to loss of blood (14 units). Because I had lost so much blood I could not be moved and the second operation had to be carried out in the intensive care unit. For some reason I became traumatised and remained unconscious. During the next two weeks my lungs collapsed and septicemia set in. A scan showed that I had slight brain damage. I was being fed through a naso-gastric tube. One of the regular X-ray's showed that the feeding tube had been incorrectly inserted. Further investigation revealed that the liquid food had set solid in the oesophagus (like concrete was the term they used). A surgeon tried to remove it by chiselling it out, but he split the oesophagus. This necessitated urgent remedial surgery. My spleen was removed, along with part of my stomach and around six inches of the oesophagus. Days after that my kidneys failed to function properly. I was on a life-support machine and after four and a half weeks unconsciousness the hospital staff said that there was little hope of my recovery. I was given a tracheotomy. Some days later I started to regain consciousness. Although the doctors insisted on me staying in hospital for at least a further four weeks (two to be in intensive care) I insisted on being discharged two weeks after I regained consciousness. The speed of my recovery was a miracle in itself. it then took me over two years to regain my strength and learn to live with the consequent problems and disabilities.

When I awoke in hospital I had no idea what I had gone through or the seriousness of the situation, with very little recollection of anything other than total blackness and a horror of distant screaming for what appeared to be short periods of immeasurable time. During that time I felt absolutely powerless to do anything to change my lot and just felt resigned to it. it was not what I would consider as "nightmarish" and although I did not like it at all I cannot say that I was frightened or fearful ~ I just felt very, very uncomfortable. I remember the nurses coming in to see me, fussing around and saying "how's our miracle patient today? and I could not understand what all the fuss was about.

Within hours of waking up, in my mind I was acutely aware that God was telling me that "he had not allowed Satan to have me", I could not at that time even begin to appreciate the meaning of it. but during the course of the next week as my wife told me little by little what had happened I began to realise that God has indeed allowed me to live. When I was able to talk, this was one of the first things I communicated to my wife.

I remember as I lay in that hospital bed realising that because the Lord had allowed me to live, then from that moment on my life belonged to Him and I did not really have any right to it. I reflected on my past and the fact that for the last twelve years I had just gone my own way, always believing that I was making a great success of my life and that my own strength was all that I needed. My hospitalisation made me realise that my strength counted for nothing, that my time is in God's hands, and that MY ways had been utter foolishness. I just committed myself to the Lord's keeping, knowing that because He had brought me thus far he must have some purpose which He would reveal in His time.

After being discharged from hospital my stomach and oesophagus continued to give me a lot of trouble. I remember that no one gave either my wife or myself any advice or guidance as to the severity of the condition, how to cope with it or what to expect either physically or mentally. For the next two years I was in and out of hospitals for short stays receiving a number of dilatations; blood transfusions because of internal bleeding and the inability to make up the loss quickly enough through the loss of my spleen; through dehydration caused by the severing of the vagus nerve which often caused my system to just 'dump' everything within an hour of eating and drinking. I was also in sever pain around the whole of the chest and stomach areas, and was a frequent visitor to pain clinics for various forms of treatment, but because of the damage to the nerves in the whole of that area the seat of the pain could not be located. My condition just seemed to get steadily worse.

Somehow I was able to keep my mind fixed firmly on the Lord; the knowledge that He had given me back my life gave me tremendous hope for the future as well as a deep sense of peace which I had never known before. But at that time I had no idea what the Lord was going to show me, how He was to teach me, or the work He wanted me to do. About six months after coming out of hospital I felt a desire to make a study of numerics in the Bible.

I then felt a real urgency to gain an understanding of the years and time of man in relation to the Bible, the Church and religion in general. I had no idea where this would lead me; there appeared to be no aim or objective to the study I just had a strong desire to understand mans'years in relationship to his walk with God. For 18 months I researched and searched, and amassed a lot of information. At the end of the day none of it made any sense whatever! This was not surprising because anything to do with maths I had always steered well clear of - it was my worst subject at school, and, my lack of knowledge in this area has always been an embarrassment to me.

Eventually the specialist at Papworth Hospital decided that my case was beyond him and in August 1992 referred me to a colleague of his, professor Hugo Matthews in Birmingham. He offered, as the only possible solution, two major operations ~ take out a length of the colon, and use it to replace what remained of the oesophagus. It was made clear that there were many complications involved in such a procedure ~ trying to separate my heart/stomach and oesophagus after having previously undergone surgery on those organs would be like trying to get a six inch nail out of a piece of wood; whether or not both ends of the colon would knit completely would be a major factor. He informed me that "I would only get one bite of the cherry" and that the chance of success was only around 50/50. I asked him if he had performed that particular surgery in the past ~ he informed me that he had not. I asked him if he would be prepared to operate and he said that if I went to him in desperation he would consider it. If the operation failed I would either die or if I lived I would have to be fed through a tube inserted in the stomach and would have a permanent drain tube from the side of the neck. I was given a new drug ~ Losec ~ which I was told was merely a short term remedy, and would just give me some relief. But that my condition would definitely get worse. Mr Matthews estimated a maximum of two years before the condition became accute.

With this news I was very disheartened. For about a month I went continually before the Lord because I could not understand why He would give me back my life just for me to lose it a few years later, not having achieved any purpose. I knew that if I did not go into hospital the scar tissue would become so inflamed that it would then rupture causing internal bleeding which would probably prove fatal. So going into hospital for the operation seemed to be the only option, but that had very gloomy prospects. Being a guinea pig for the third time was quite a depressing thought.

I kept on asking the Lord why. One morning in- late September 1992 the Lord spoke to me so clearly that I could not mistake His voice - it was a voice within my mind - coming from within, yet it was not my thoughts, because it was a definite and distinct interruption of my own train of thought and from out of the blue ~ He quite simply said "You will not see the grave". I laughed at such an idea ~ but at the same time thought how nice it would be.

Over the next three months as I meditated upon my condition and prospects it was as though the Lord just kept on reminding me of what He had said - that I would not see the grave. After about two months I accepted that this was indeed a promise from the Lord. But embracing and proclaiming such a promise was not an easy task. I knew that people would consider me some sort of nut case and would never believe me. I knew that commitment meant that I had to be prepared to "nail my flag to the mast" come what may. One day in late December what the Lord had said suddenly became a "living word" and I submitted fully to Him prepared to shout it from the roof~tops if necessary! Within three months all the information on numerics and times seemed to just come together and fitted like a jigsaw. Everywhere I went I picked up books, articles, magazines which showed more and gave me confirmation that the return of the Lord would be in my lifetime - I would not see the grave! For about a month, almost every day I was discovering new things in the word of God in confirmation. Life also took on a new dimension - In February 1993 I realised that I no longer required the surgery - although I still had a number of health problems, the condition had improved quite dramatically without me realising it. To this day I have not had to undergo any further surgery.

It was then that I started to discover a new depth of peace in the Lord and a new way to walk with Him. He was now impressing upon me the imminence of His return. From that time both my wife and I have constantly been the targets of attack on virtually every front. But there have been so many miracles of protection and provision; and so many evidences of confirmation each step of the way. The Lord truly poured out his blessings upon us and surrounded us with His protection every step of the way. What I expected the Lord would have me do, He has not asked me to do; the things that I never thought for one minute I would or could do - those are the ones the Lord has guided me into and which I have done in His strength and with His provision.

I well remember during a period of time during 1993, struggling with what I had been taught in the past concerning the end times. What the Lord was showing me now did not equate with what I had been taught in the past. It was at this time that the Lord impressed upon me that need to have an entirely new approach to His word and time and time again the words "I have written what I mean and I mean what I have written" echoed through my mind. Embracing this concept was quite a challenge ~ throwing off the traditions of man is not always an easy thing to do. But it has certainly cast an entirely new light and depth of understanding upon the Word of God. There is nothing new; there is no new prophecy; for those who seek, the answers are hidden, to be revealed at the appointed time.

I cannot hide what I believe to be the truth; what I firmly believe the Lord has shown me these past six years; what I now look forward to each day with great anticipation and expectation. I promised the Lord that I would "nail my flag to His mast", and would proclaim whatever He wanted me to say from the rooftops. in such a miraculous way the Lord has opened many doors; When, in 1994 I thought I was possibly the only person in the world with this understanding, and therefore extremely fearful of telling others, within a matter of 18 months He has linked together at least 12 other people from around the world who had been led down similar avenues - all unknown to each other - all their approaches are different, but the most wonderful and amazing fact is that all are at one accord and are agreed to within months concerning the timing of the rapture, the tribulation, the end of the age and the return (or second coming) of the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory. So many cycles and patterns of history have been revealed and they show quite definitely that the end of the "age of man" is within the time span of 2004/5, and that the rapture will probably take place sometime in 1997.

it is only when I look back that I realise the implications of some of the things the Lord has shown me. just one example: in June 1994 I was bursting with information and wondering why the Lord had given it to me. I kept asking Him what He wanted me to do ~ reminding Him that there was not much time!! He directed me to Samson. When I read the account of his iife it was clear to me that he had been anointed just three times, and that for the rest of his life he went around in his own strength, quite a law unto himself. In all probability in his final day Samson achieved more than he had done all his life. The Lord then reminded me again that His times are appointed, and that there will be a "day" when I will, if I keep walking with Him, do what He wants me to do. This made me realise that I need all the more to be talking with the Lord, than merely talking about Him.

Then, during October this year I again turned to Samson, and was reminded that he did not actually see the results of his final achievement - not just because he was blind, but because he left this scene of time and went into eternity. I then understood how important the books I have published will be to those seeking the Lord during the time of the tribulation. if I start looking for results I'm going to be very disappointed, because the major thrust will be after I (along with countless others) have left this earth for our eternal home.

I then put a question to the Lord - is it correct - is the rapture that imminent? At that time I was involved in publishing Randy Bullock's book "The Appointed Times" and felt that I should channel all correspondence through a box number and applied for one. The box number I received was 29! That of course is the number of departure ~ and more particularly as it is applied ... ... to the rapture!

I have had the joy of seeing the Lord bring my wife to the appointed place, at the appointed time for her to be wonderfully saved, and have witnessed her spiritual growth and great love for His word - what a pillar of strength to me and all those around her. The Lord is certainly the centre of her life. Both my wife, Barbara and I have discovered that we serve a God who is real ~ who's love is unfathomable - who's protection is absolute - who knows us by name and in gentleness directs our paths and who understands our every weakness.

Due to the many problems associated with the removal of spleen, stomach and oesophagus, as well as the severing of the vagus nerve, I have not been able to hold down a job since hospitalisation, so I was forced to accept early retirement on medical grounds. Many things have happened as conclusive evidence to convince me that it was not my doing nor mans' planning - but that I am alive and where I am today through nothing other than the hand of the Lord our God - by His grace, His love and His faithfulness. The trials of this life and the bodily suffering some of us have to endure are nothing compared to the treasure we have stored up in heaven if we will just put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ

My friend, the appointed time has arrived. When Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven nearly 2,000 years ago he promised to return. The signs of His return are all around us; we are certain it will be very very soon this time. He will come as the King of kings and judge of all the earth. The scriptures tell us that prior to judging the earth the Lord will remove His people from it. Born again Christians all over the world are now eagerly awaiting the sound of the "trump of God"



My earnest desire is that you will join me around God's throne as one of the redeemed to give glory, honour, praise and blessing to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Are you Born Again - Is the Lord Jesus Christ Your Redeemer?

In John 14:6 Jesus said "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." Then in Acts 4:12 Luke states "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Religion or being religious cannot give new birth; works are of no consequence - when Jesus cried out on the cross "It is finished" he was referring to the work of salvation. It is there at Calvary that the work finished, and now, by God's grace we can lay hold of salvation through faith. Ephesians 2:8~9 tells us "For by grace are ye save through faith ... Not of works, less any man should boast."

if you are not a born-again Christian will you urgently consider the eternal consequences of rejecting God's gift of Salvation? Today is all we have tomorrow does not belong to us ~ it may never arrive. If it does, it will be only by God's grace.

if you want to make Jesus your Lord and Master, turn to Him now in repentance; ask for his forgiveness; trust Him to honour His word. You can pray this prayer:

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