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Themes: "A Way that Seems Right, Way Seems Right, Religion's Inability to Save JED Phil Brick kissed his wife goodbye and walked across the street to work. He unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and flipped the sign around so it read, "OPEN". He then proceeded behind the counter to the cash register. He opened the side and moved the date to March 9, 1953. Five years before, Phil Brick had rented the building on the north side of Chicago, stocked it with books, and opened The Chicago Book Mart for business. Phil glanced up at the clock. It read 8:02. He hummed to himself as He started towards the back room. He stopped when he heard the doorknob turn and the front door swing open. A tall, well-dressed gentleman with a briefcase stepped in. "Good morning, Sir. Are you open yet?" the tall man asked. "Yes, I am. Just unlocked the door and changed the sign." Phil replied nodding towards the "OPEN" sign on the door. The man asked if Phil Brick had a particular book in stock. Brick led the man to the back corner of the store. As Brick pointed out the hardcover book and chatted with the man, the customer gazed intently, surveying Brick's face. Soon, the man handed the book back and started towards the door. "I think I'll wait until it comes out as a paperback. Thanks for your help!" "Your welcome!" Brick shouted after the man. A few hours later, the man returned. Behind him were seven other men. Brick stepped back thinking it was a hold up. Finally the man stepped toward him and flashed a shiny badge in a wallet. It was the FBI! "Are you Reinhold Pabel?" he asked cynically. Phil Brick had been found out. He was not the U.S. citizen he pretended to be. Reinhold Pabel, alias Phil Brick was born in Germany. While he was serving in World War II, he was taken as a prisoner of war after being wounded in Italy. The US military moved him through a series of hospitals and work camps, he ended up just outside Peoria, Illinois. One morning in September 1945, Reinhold Pabel escaped! He immediately fled to Chicago. He thought he could lay low for awhile. He soon took the fake name or alias of Phil Brick. He had all his papers identify him as Phil Brick. Then he took a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant at night. Pabel read feverishly when he was hiding to pass the time. Finally, he decided to open a book store. He even married a women in Chicago and had a child. The FBI agents arrested him immediately. He was charged with illegal entry to the United States. Reinhold Pabel was a fake. He fooled many people as to who he really was, even his wife. People who are trying to work to get to heaven are acting like Reinhold Pabel. They look and act like christians, but they have never been born again as a true child of God. Becoming a christian is an act of faith, not a series of religious cerimonies or confessions. The Bible warns that no one can fool God. "The Lord knoweth them that are His" (2 Timothy 2:9). Be sure you are really saved and know it! You can't afford to be wrong.
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Simon Wallace
