Haile Selassie during his visit to Jamaica in April 1966. - File 'I am basing my hope for eternal life upon what Jesus Christ has done for me'.
EMPEROR HAILE Selassie I is revered by both Rastafarians and Christians alike. Rastafarians view him as an ever living deity. Christians, on the other hand, regard him as a believer in Jesus Christ and a defender of the faith.
William T. Harding III, a retired missionary to Ethiopia, who had two five year tour of duties beginning in 1954, met the Emperor.
Rev. Harding, is in Jamaica, at this time to participate in Swallowfield Chapel annual missions conference which began on Sunday May 25 and which concludes this weekend. He and his son William T. Harding IV are among the main speakers.
Rev. Harding explained, "During the occupation of Ethiopia by the Italians, Selassie was evacuated to England. While there he became friends with a strong evangelical man, Reese Howells. Mr. Howells, in his time with the Emperor, led him into a more personal faith in Jesus Christ - though the Emperor was an orthodox Christian. He became a very warm-hearted man with a personal faith in Christ. He returned to Ethiopia as Emperor in 1941. One of the first things he did was to invite all the missionaries who had left because of the war to return. That really positioned him as a man who was very favourable to the gospel and the influence of missionaries in his country.
THREE STEPS
"I remember in 1964, we were invited to the Palace of His Majesty as a missionary community. We all gathered and sang Christmas carols for the royal family who wre on a bannister in the Royal House. After we sang, he invited us all to come into the Palace. We walked into the Throne Room. We took three steps forward and bowed, and then three steps more and bowed and this continued. The Emperor was sitting on his throne at the end of the room. We went to the side and had finger-food and other things to eat. Then we were told we had to leave. So we took three steps backward and bowed, and then three steps backward and bowed until we left the room. You never turn your back on the Emperor.
"At the reception, a pastor from America had audience with Emperor Haile Selassie. And he asked him, "Sir, may I ask you a personal question?" He gave permission.
The pastor asked: "Upon what are you basing your hope for eternal life?
Selassie responded by saying: 'I am basing my hope for eternal life upon what Jesus Christ has done for me'."
"That answer is hard to believe. He was not depending on who he was or what he had accomplished but upon what Jesus had done for him. I think we will see him in heaven."
Rev. Harding noted that during the 17 years of Ethiopia communist rule which began in the mid-1970s, the regime sought to obliterate the memory of the Emperor. His name was removed from textbooks and his picture and paraphanlia were taken out of the local museums.
He continued: "During the communist regime, it was a mystery in Ethiopia as to the proper burial place of the Emperor who died in 1975. After the communists were removed, a man who claimed to have helped to bury the Emperor came forward and said that he was lying 12 feet under the office of the then communist leader. The authorities dug at the spot and found the remains of the Emperor and he was interred again with in public funeral which befitted the honour and dignity of his office, Rev. Harding said.
