GENERAL EPISTLE TO LEADERS!      DO 24    12/70
--Letter to Leaders on Miscellaneous Business.

         1. YOUR LEADER IS STILL A FUGITIVE IN EXILE, A RELIGIOUS REFUGEE in hiding from the wrath of both the Beast & the Whore--something almost every leader of every revolutionary movement has had to do at some time in his career throughout all time!
         2. WE WOULD JUST AS SOON GO UNKNOWN & UNNOTICED, & PARTICULARLY UNRECOGNISED, IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH OUR MISSION of exploring possible locations, surveying situations & scouting out these various lands while, at the same time, highly prizing the privacy & time for recording many valuable epistles & lessons of instructions for you there--the writing that we have been longing to do & have had a burden & urgent inspiration for, for years, for the benefit of posterity.

THE WRITINGS OF THE GREATEST MEN WERE DONE IN SOLITUDE

         3. EVERY GREAT MAN OF GOD, FROM MOSES TO JESUS, HAD TO GET AWAY ALONE INTO HIS MOUNTAIN FOR AWHILE, AWAY FROM THE MULTITUDE & its incessant demands & needs in order to have time to meditate, pray & produce, from communion with God, the laws of God, for the needs of man.
         4. SOME OF THE GREATEST WORKS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD WERE WRITTEN BY THEIR AUTHORS ALONE & IN EXILE, or even imprisonment--totally away from the crowd, which they later influenced by the millions! The laws which Moses received from God, alone on the lonely remote mountaintop of Sinai, now rule the civilised World. The private little lesson by Jesus, to a tiny handful of His intimate disciples on a little mountain in Galilee, has become known as "The Sermon on the Mount," probably the most famous piece of all Christian literature, which has influenced His followers around the World for nearly two thousand years. "Pilgrim's Progress" was written alone & in prison by the revolutionary nonconformist, John Bunyan; not to speak of such famous works of the Devil, which have also helped to transform the World, such as Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Hitler's Mein Kampf, & most of Lenin's revolutionary writings were all done in exile & seclusion.
         5. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HEAR & GET IT STRAIGHT FROM GOD in any quality & quantity, you almost have to get alone & concentrate on communicating with Him, as well as set it down on paper for the sake of future generations.

ALL OF DAD'S LETTERS ARE PERSONAL & WRITTEN PERSONALLY FROM HIM PERSONALLY FOR YOU!

         6. I HAVE SENT YOU TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORDS FROM ME PERSONALLY--revelations, lessons, Letters & whatnot--every word of it spoken personally to you--personally from me & the Lord--but just because it wasn't on a tape or in my own handwriting, who'd you think it was from? You certainly didn't expect me to write it all out in longhand, did you?
         7. HOW PERSONAL IS PERSONAL? And how personal can I get? I love you! Is that personal enough? What do you want me to do?-Climb in the envelope with it & come home & read it to you personally, before you'll believe it is personal?

THE WASTE OF TIME, PERSONNEL, MONEY & EFFORT FOR MASS EVANGELICAL MEETINGS AS COMPARED TO THE GREATER RESULTS OF PERSONAL WITNESSING!

         8. I HAVE NEVER HAD TOO MUCH CONFIDENCE IN THE PROPORTIONATE RESULT OF MASS MEETINGS. With the same number of personnel, time, money & effort, you could probably have reached more through personal witnessing in the field, which is our calling & ministry. Your tiny team in Santa Barbara, for example, got more results there in a few days of their unpretentious & unlavish endeavours, percentage wise, than the whole bunch of you in one gigantic one day's mass meeting, with all of its massive preparations & colossal expense.
         9. I DARE SAY, IF YOU'D FIGURE OUT A WITNESS PER DISCIPLE BASIS, you're getting more results in daily witnessing than in one huge meeting. I wonder, if you had it to do over again, honestly now, would you really consider it worth all that trouble?
         10. I KNOW WE CAN SAY THAT IF EVEN ONE SOUL WAS SAVED, IT WAS WORTH IT ALL! I know, because that's what we used to say about our big evangelistic meetings with their lavish advertising, enormous expense & unlimited effort; but if we could have accomplished just as much, if not more, by getting the church out witnessing on a steady, thorough, day-by-day basis, instead of going to all that expense & trouble, couldn't we have been enjoying it more & spending less?

WITNESSING TO MINORS--LEGAL PROBLEMS

         11. HOUSING OR FEEDING A MINOR, EVEN ONE MEAL, CAN BE COUNTED AS "HARBOURING," & letting them visit at your place during school hours can be construed as "contributing to the delinquency of a minor."

SELECTING BIBLE NAMES FOR BABES

         12. GREATER PRAYER NEEDS TO BE TAKEN IN THE SELECTION OF BIBLE NAMES FOR NEW DISCIPLES! Some of these poor guys are stupidly picking the monikers of some of the worst villains in the Book. Just because it's in the Bible doesn't make it a good name! And I hope some of them never live up to their Biblical namesake! And incidentally, what's the matter with names in the New Testament! We're supposed to be Christians--not Old Testament Jews! Maybe somebody ought to make a roster of the names of the "good" guys in the Bible, so the poor new disciples will be encouraged to live up to their names, rather than to try to live'm down! Some of you leaders ought to have better sense than that!

MISUSING THE DISCIPLES' OBEDIENCE FOR SELFISH ENDS

         13. WATCH OUT ABOUT USING THAT OLD GAG THAT "DAD WANTS THIS OR THAT DONE," unless Dad really said so!--Using my name to accomplish your own ends, unless you really know it's my desire--& God's Will! As you've noticed in some others, this can be a great temptation, & wields a wicked punch!
         14. WATCH OUT ABOUT USING OUR KIDS' IMPLICIT OBEDIENCE AS A TOOL FOR YOUR OWN ACCOMPLISHMENTS, lest you "make merchandise of their souls."--As does the Whore in Revelation 18. Be sure you're Spirit-led, then go ahead! GBY! Love, Dad.


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family