I RECANT THAT YOU CAN'T!--BECAUSE YOU CAN!                DO 2031                  8/85
Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water!

(A Taped Message to Apollos:)
         1. I GOT QUITE A FUNNY LITTLE REPLY TO THIS QUESTION THAT HAS BEEN BOTHERING US LATELY ABOUT THE MARK! As you may have known, I was a little disappointed that we didn't come up with something a little more convincing to substantiate this new idea (See "Can You Be Delivered From the Mark?", No.2030), because I was quite revved up about it or I wouldn't have made you that last tape! But I did ask you to look things up, hoping you would help me prove it, instead of that you left it kind of 50/50, giving me quotes on both sides of the issue, & sort of left me hanging so that the ball was still in my court.
         2. SO I WAS DISCUSSING IT WITH MARIA LAST NIGHT & SHE WAS ASKING WHAT I HAD DECIDED ON THAT ISSUE & when was I going to come out with it, because I'd been so enthused & inspired about it before! It wasn't your fault, but your bringing up to me the things I had previously said about it in previous Letters sort of dampened my enthusiasm with my own wet blanket! So I was about to give up, I was pretty discouraged about it & decided I was just going to let it go & leave it up to you to solve the problem & find out what you came up with. In all of those previous Letters I had taken it for granted that the Mark was absolutely irreversible & impossible to get rid of!
         3. HOWEVER, I DON'T THINK YOU WILL FIND ANYTHING DIRECTLY IN QUOTES FROM THE LORD IN ANY OF THOSE LETTERS WHERE I GOT SUCH A DIRECT MESSAGE FROM HIM THAT SUCH WAS SO! All of those conclusions were my own personal interpretations & opinions. Particularly after "The Computer Chip Dream" I was absolutely convinced, & of course that's what you quoted the most. I was absolutely convinced that it was impossible to break away from the Mark. That's what we'd always been taught & what we'd always thought & that's what we'd always believed! That was our firm tradition & doctrine & I never had any other idea, ever, until recently I suddenly got this new idea!
         4. SO I WAS ALL EXCITED ABOUT IT BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY A GENUINE MESSAGE FROM THE LORD, & the more I thought about it, the more excited I got, & the more enthusiastic & thrilled about it! You brought it up & you got me thinking about it & talking about it, because it seemed like there wouldn't be too much for us to do amongst those people if it was impossible to do anything!
         5. BUT AFTER I'D WASHED MY HANDS OF THE MATTER, I GOT UP & WENT IN THE BATHROOM & I STARTED LITERALLY WASHING MY HANDS IN THE WASH BOWL. I'd been reading the paper--you know how newspapers get your hands so black--& I noticed the water was getting kind of black from washing my hands. And it was the funniest thing!--Ha! I'm telling you, God has a sense of humour! He said, "You threw the baby out with the bath water!" I said, "What?" And just as clear as anything He said, "You threw the baby out with the bath water!"--Now you interpret that!--To me it was clear immediately!
         6. THE BABY WAS THE NEW IDEA, THE NEWBORN IDEA, A NEWBORN REVELATION REALLY! Isn't that what a baby is? Isn't a baby an exciting new event, a new creature, something very new & very wonderful?--Like a revelation! And that was my newest baby! And here, just because some of my own water of some of my own Words was a little dirty because I was wrong, I was willing to throw the baby out with the bath water! In other words, in my stupid pride I was unwilling to admit that I was wrong in all those places where I said it was impossible to get saved with the Mark & I was convinced that it couldn't be done!
         7. I STILL CAN'T FIND ANYTHING IN THE SCRIPTURE TO REALLY ABSOLUTELY REFUTE IT! It depends on how you interpret it & how you view the Scripture & who it's talking about etc., & there are plenty of ways you can see where it's still possible even in view of those Scriptures. The Scriptures are not airtight or watertight regarding that situation, only that that's what's going to happen in the end to those that keep the Mark & willingly & knowingly take it.
         8. BUT THE ONLY THING THAT WAS KEEPING ME FROM KEEPING THE BABY WAS THE DIRTY BATH WATER THAT THE BABY WAS IN! Do you get the point? Isn't that a funny answer? It was my own water, water being a type of the Words, & dirty water meaning I was wrong about it. But rather than admit that & have to recant myself, I was willing to throw out the baby along with the bath water!--In fact even worse, I was willing to throw out the baby & keep the bath water! (Maria: You said the water was still the Lord's good water, but you'd gotten it a little dirty with your interpretation.)--Yes! The water is still the Word, there's nothing wrong with the water, I'd just gotten it dirty from my own misinterpretation.
         9. WELL, IT WON'T BE THE FIRST TIME THAT I'VE CONFESSED I WAS WRONG & NOBODY'S GOING TO BE SHOCKED ABOUT IT! I couldn't have had a greater about-turn than I had about the Jews, & I had to confess that! I was really all tied up in that doctrine & tradition. And actually, let's face it, this business of the Mark being impossible to lose & irreversible has been more from our past tradition & previous ideas which we were taught & had drilled into us by preachers of the past who we have since discovered to be wrong.
         10. SO ALL THAT TO SAY THIS: THE LORD REALLY PUT ME ON THE SPOT & I WAS REALLY ASHAMED as I was washing my hands & saw that dirty water, that I was willing to keep that & throw out something so precious & so wonderful & so hopeful, so faithful that He had given me, just because I was unwilling to back down on what I had said! So there you are, there's my confession! Throw out that dirty bath water & just tell'm that I was wrong! This is my recantation! I recant! I recant that you can't!--Because you can! TTL!
         11. YOU KNOW, SOME PEOPLE EVEN CUT OUT THEIR TATTOOS! That's a common thing now. It's a little dangerous because of the risk of infection etc., but people that are sorry afterward that they got tattooed, it's a common thing now for them to want to get them removed. It's a very difficult thing, but it is possible. Some even have the skin removed & new skin grafted in. There's another good illustration, & that reminds me of a Scripture: If the Lord could remove some of those branches before & have us grafted in, then anything's possible! (Rom.11:21-23)
         12. WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE THE MARK REMOVED IN SOME WAY WHEN THEY'RE FINALLY CONVINCED?--Maybe some time when the power is off from the computer & they can think their own thoughts or something like that! They can't have it going all the time, they'd never get any rest or sleep! And maybe they'll be so convinced that they're willing to have that little operation to have that thing cut out! That's a possibility, that thought struck me--by an FFer!
         13. AFTER ALL, IF THEY COULD BE FORCED TO TAKE IT & FORCIBLY HAVE THAT THING STUCK IN THEIR FOREHEADS, just like an injection, then at some time when they have self-control or are under His control, the Lord's control, why couldn't they get it removed?--In fact, if you can get through to them, into their own consciousness & their own conscience, the Lord could really screw up that communication system, really garble it & mess it up so that it couldn't have any effect & they'd have a chance to rip it out!
         14. I THINK THERE WILL BE PEOPLE WILLING TO HAVE IT CUT OUT!--They'll be so convinced & so absolutely furious about it & scared half to death to be under that control again! It's kind of like drug addiction! There comes a time when there's a monkey on their back, there's a degree of withdrawal, they really do want to get rid of it, & they'd be willing to do almost anything to get rid of it! So what's the difference? It's like a drug, like they're not under their own control, but they do have periods of consciousness & conscientiousness when they would like to get rid of it if they could! Of course, when they're under its influence there's not much you can do to get through to them, but during periods when they're off it or withdrawing, sometimes they'd do almost anything, either to get it or to get relief!
         15. MY LORD, TO THINK HOW CLOSE I CAME TO THROWING OUT THAT PRECIOUS NEW BABY JUST BECAUSE I GOT THE WATER DIRTY! It wasn't really the baby that got the water dirty, it was my dirty hands, the dirt I got in the water from some of my traditional dogmatic opinions! I'm telling you, I gave some pretty convincing arguments! But arguments are not enough, you've gotta get the Word!
         16. WHEN I GET A DIRECT ANSWER, QUOTE-UNQUOTE, I CANNOT DENY IT & I WILL NOT BACK DOWN ON IT! But if it's just my opinion, my interpretation & my own built-up legal case according to past tradition & doctrine & our private interpretation of prophecies & whatnot, that can be wrong & I can back down on those & recant if I have to. No matter how convincing it is, no matter how good it is & no matter what good arguments I give to support it, that doesn't make it right!
         17. SO THERE YOU ARE, IT'S OPEN SESAME! THE DOOR IS WIDE OPEN FOR MARVELLOUS OPPORTUNITIES & EXPERIENCES & MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCES! We talk about healing & deliverance from demon-possession, the Mark is akin to demon-possession, only in a sense it's mechanical!--Or even if it's demon-possession which is even worse, we have power over all these things! He said, "All power is given unto Me in Heaven & in Earth!" (Mat.28:18)
         18. THERE'S NO POWER GREATER THAN HIS POWER, & THERE'S NO REASON IN THE WORLD THAT WE CAN SAY THAT THERE'S SOMETHING HE CAN'T DO!--Especially if they haven't really had proper opportunity & the Mark was foisted on them & forced on them in their ignorance! Certainly those people deserve a chance when they've never really heard our Message before! In spite of the Angel preaching the Gospel & all that, some people aren't necessarily going to understand. (Rev.14:6-7)
         19. THERE'S ONLY ONE UNPARDONABLE SIN & THAT'S TO RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT! (Mt.12:31-32) But if they've never had a chance through any witness to hear & thereby be influenced by the Holy Spirit, then they haven't resisted.--Even if they've received the computer chip! And boy, we can cut those out in a hurry! I bet they'll wanna rip'm out themselves!--Or maybe we can give it a shot of something that will short-circuit it! You can hot-shot those things sometimes in some way. You can ruin a whole computer by giving it the wrong current & burn the thing up!
         20. THAT OUGHT TO ENCOURAGE YOU, IT SURE ENCOURAGED ME! It kind of made me a little ashamed, of course, because it was a real rebuke, but very gentle & loving. It was sort of a remonstrance or admonition & I was really ashamed of myself because I saw that was exactly what I was doing, I was throwing the baby out with the bath water!--In fact even worse, I was throwing the baby out & keeping the dirty water because I was ashamed to admit it was wrong, ashamed to admit it was dirty. Isn't that a terrible thing to have to confess?
         21. WELL, WHEN YOU FIND OUT YOU'RE WRONG, YOU JUST HAVE TO CONFESS YOU'RE WRONG!--And I'd rather confess I'm wrong & be right, than claim I'm right & be wrong! So there you are! I love you all! God bless & keep you & give you wisdom & lots more wonderful ideas, Son! Just believe what you see, believe what you hear & take it away!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family