ZACK ATTACK ULTIMATUM!   DO 2719 8/91


         1. Zack is extremely self-righteous! He thinks he's somebody when he's nothing; in fact, he's worse than nothing! He's being a terrible bad example. It reminds me of the card I sent my brother one time.--It said, "You're not entirely worthless, you're a dandy bad example!"

         2. He needs to wake up to the fact that he's nothing. (Maria: He's been too exalted.) Oh yes! And he needs to wake up to the fact that he's worse than nothing by being a problem & taking so many people's time!--Even reaching clear to the top & having to take up your time & mine. When problems get that far, I've always said that's as far as they're going to go. That's it! They've had it! So I hope I made that clear to him in that "Grumblers Get Out" Letter. (Maria: Yes, Sir!)

         3. I DON'T KNOW THAT HE'LL EVER REALLY BREAK OR CRACK WITHOUT HAVING TO GET HIS SAMPLE OF THE SYSTEM. I think he's just about gone too far on our mercy unless he shows a TREMENDOUS repentance & a TREMENDOUS confession! Otherwise, I'm still for throwing him out. I don't know that he can learn his lesson any other way. We put up with some of these problem cases too long! We need to have the faith that GIDEON had & just get RID of them, & then the Lord could give us real victory! (The story of the purge of Gideon's army is found in Judges Chapter 7.)

         4. FRANKLY, I'D ALMOST LIKE HIM TO GET A GOOD TASTE OF THE SYSTEM & then he'd never want it again! That's what it took with ME, & I almost died out there in the army hospital! So I'll tell you, God deals pretty tough with backsliders! "The way of the transgressor is HARD," & maybe that's what he needs.--Pro.13:15.

         5. HAS HE EVER HAD ANY KIND OF A HUMBLING--any kind of experience that made him KNOW that he's not worth anything & that he can be thankful he's got anything at all? (Maria: No, I don't believe he has. I think that's been part of the problem.) It sounds like he's never realised what a sinner he really is. (Maria: No, it doesn't sound like it.)

         6. (Maria: If you're saved when you're a little tiny tot, you're told you're a sinner, but you don't really understand or comprehend it fully.) But you usually become aware of it later, & you get down to where you know you're not anything! You know you're nothing & you're just thankful that the Lord loved you at all & you can't even understand why He did, nor why He saved you! I'll tell you, that's something I'm constantly aware of--that I'm nothing--& I'm just thankful that the Lord will even put up with me at all! Has he ever felt like that? (Maria: I hope that through this "spanking" he's finally realised that.) He sure doesn't sound like he believes that. Instead he sounds more like, "I'm a good guy & everybody ought to look up to me!--And the Lord ought to be thankful to have me!" (Maria: Yes, that's the way he's acted. It's true.)

         7. I wonder if he ever felt like a sinner & was thankful to be saved? Unless you know you're bad & need Jesus' goodness, you won't be able to appreciate your Salvation because you don't see that you need any help. Maybe he won't get that way until he gets out into the World & realises what a sinner he really is, then cries for help, like the Prodigal Son. I'm sorry, but I don't have much patience with backsliders!--Especially self-righteous backsliders who think they're better than everybody else, & therefore they're better than the Family, & therefore they backslide! It's a common ailment of backsliders.

         8. SO MAYBE THAT'S THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO HIM, TO BACKSLIDE & get back in the awful, God-damned, hell-of-a-pit & then cry for MERCY! I'm sick & fed-up with him myself! We've strung things out too long with him already. Goodnight!--Two whole GNs of Letters about him & now one more coming! It's just too much, except for the LESSON it will be to OTHERS. (Maria: I think that's the main reason the Lord has allowed it.)

         9. EITHER HE STRAIGHTENS OUT & DOES SO QUICKLY, OR HE'S OUT AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED! In fact, he's done enough already to merit being kicked out, & he'll have to show one supernatural, miraculous change for me to tolerate him any longer! He's wasted too many people's time, & wasted too much of the Family's time & gone on for YEARS this way. For God's sake, let's get RID of him! I just HATE to put up with a character like that! He's just a TROUBLEMAKER, almost like the Devil himself!

         10. I GOT TO THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT HIM & the thing that came to me was that he's just like JUDAS, one of Jesus' disciples.--And people like that will eventually BETRAY you if they don't REPENT & get straightened out & get really KNOCKED DOWN & BROKEN & HUMBLED & BEG to come back to the Father's house, like the Prodigal Son!

         11. No more Letters about Zack Attack! We're going to attack Zack!--And he can get the Hell out of here as far as I'm concerned if he doesn't repent!
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(Comments given a few days later during a Bible Study with the Family:)

         12. WHEN YOU'RE NOT KEEPING CLOSE TO THE LORD & ARE OUT OF THE SPIRIT, IT'S ALMOST ALWAYS EASIER TO CRITICISE, & TO MURMUR & COMPLAIN than it is to be thanking & praising God for all your blessings! And if you do that, you'll always get a lot of sympathy from all the REST of the murmurers & complainers & critics & people who don't like the way things are run or the way things are done. We're having a very shining dandy bad example of that right now in this affair over Zack Attack. He's been on the attack AGAINST the Family & AGAINST its leadership.

         13. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT OUR PEOPLE WOULD HAVE PUT UP WITH IT FOR SO LONG! It's never been MY policy to allow people like that to go on attacking. But it seems by his attacking that he has actually climbed the ladder of leadership into responsible positions!--Maybe because our leaders were so unsure of themselves, so humble & so yielded, that they thought maybe he was right & that maybe they OUGHT to LET him go ahead & voice his complaints & grumblings.

         14. ZACK ATTACK HAS BEEN ATTACKING THE FAMILY & ITS LEADERSHIP. He sure picked the right name! I don't know where he got that idea. But because of his musical talent, leadership talent, intelligence & everything, he seems to have climbed the ladder of fame in the Family.

         15. PEOPLE KEPT IGNORING HIS DISPUTATIONS & HIS MURMURINGS & his complainings & bellyachings & criticism of leadership. "Oh, but he's such a good boy, he has tremendous potential" etc. etc. So they let him climb up carrying this load of negative thinking with him.--Until finally his leaders began having so much trouble with him voicing his discontent, even saying he'd rather go back to the System because at least a System boss would only be able to boss him around 8 hours a day & he'd have the other 16 hours to himself! He said, "In the Family they boss you around 24 hours a day," blah blah! Let me tell you, it's a PRIVILEGE to be in this Family, & people need to learn that!


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