WHAT NEXT?       DO 2819  7/92
--Know Your Enemy!--The New Persecution!

         1. Praise the Lord! Thank You, Lord, that You have never failed us! You've always given us the victory in the long run. Although You have allowed us to suffer a little persecution, and sometimes a lot of persecution, You have used it to accomplish Your purpose, whatever it was, to either scatter us abroad or to be a witness and a testimony against our enemies, to publicize Thy message, Lord, and Thy children, so that Thy message will be heard and spread abroad through all the Earth! You have done it, Lord, and they are doing it, and they're holding up well under all kinds of hardship and persecution. You have continued to supply all of our needs, whatever they were, and been even bountiful with us, Lord! TYJ! You have not made it too hard on us anywhere to the point that we could not survive.
         2. You have promised You'd not suffer us to be tested above what we're able to bear (1Cor.10:13). And now as the end gets nearer, and the battle gets hotter, we know the Enemy is going to be bringing out all of his big guns and making it as hot for us as he can. For he is raging and furious against us, Lord, because he knows his time is short, and we are exposing him! He doesn't like his dirty work exposed. He's trying to pretend to be "an angel of light" (2Cor.11:14), when he's just a self-righteous hypocrite!--Trying to pretend to be doing good when he's actually doing evil!
         3. On all of these counts, he's tried to bring man's System laws against us to try to defeat us, but You've helped us to be able to overcome every attack and refute every false accusation, Lord, and to come out as victors instead of defeated! You've brought victory out of seeming defeat many times, Lord, throughout all these 20-some years, and we have grown stronger all the time and more widespread, and now we're being even more publicized through these controversial issues and the lies and false accusations of our enemies.
         4. So we know that You have some way of escape with this new persecution that's coming, this new kind of attack on a new front, and You're going to nevertheless get the glory somehow in spite of it all. You're going to be with us to the end. There has never been a time that we haven't had enemies; we've had persecution from the very beginning, but now that we're coming out more in the open, we know it's going to be even more severe, with new attacks and new charges, and they're not going to give up, much less give up easily. PYL! Hallelujah! TYL!
         5. So we look to Thee for the answers, Lord, You know what's best. We ask Thee to give us the wisdom and the strength and the skill, the faith to follow Thee, because You know what's best. Have Thy way, Lord, Thy will be done. Give Thy children great strength and power and grace and faith and skill and wisdom in how to handle these attacks, in Jesus' name.

Child Abuse Laws

         6. I don't know just exactly what to title this talk, but maybe we could call it "The New Persecution" or "The New Method of Attack!" Well, it's not altogether new, we've had it before, and of course over the years it's the same Enemy, the Devil in some of his people, and it always seems to wind up that somewhere behind the scenes the ACs are involved. There's nothing the Devil hates like having his tactics and his methods and his dirty tricks exposed, showing how evil he really is, because he pretends to be an "angel of light" when he is really a self-righteous hypocrite! He pretends to be good and do good, and has his laws passed in the name of doing good and being beneficial, but the way he uses them is merely as a new means of attack on the Lord's people.
         7. There's nothing unusual about that; it even happened in the Bible! The enemies of Daniel, for example, managed to persuade the king to pass a certain law by which they knew they could trap him (Daniel 6). And the enemies of the three Hebrew children who were cast in the fiery furnace did the same thing. These so-called "good" laws were then used to attack the Hebrew children (Daniel 3).
         8. And certainly the most recent methods of attack and laws which I told you about some years ago, when this subject first began to be emphasized, has been their supposed great concern for innocent children. (See "Guard Your Children," ML #1698, GN Book 18.) Let's face it, the Devil is not the least bit concerned about innocent children except that they're his enemies, and he has attacked them since the beginning of time, beginning with Adam and Eve's children.
         9. When I first heard about this new term "child abuse," I remembered how when I was young and just a boy, the most popular term at that time was "child neglect." My mother used to tell the story about the little boy looking like a little dirty urchin who was sitting out on the curb, and the society woman came along and said, "Little boy, are you all right?" And he said, "I'm hungry." She said, "Well, where do you live?" And he pointed to this big mansion behind him. "You live there? Where's your mother?" He said, "She's gone to a meeting of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children." And this is so often true of the self-righteous hypocrites and emissaries of the Devil who try to dress themselves up in sheep's clothing, when inwardly, as Jesus said, they are ravenous wolves! (Mat.7:15).--Not friends of the sheep, but seeking to devour the sheep.
         10. So the popular term in those days was "child neglect," because, of course, particularly with many poor families, their children couldn't be well taken care of. They lived in squalid, poverty-stricken conditions, and the children were underfed, had insufficient care, etc., so it was very easy to accuse those poor parents of child neglect. The Devil's people never seem to tire of taking children away from their parents to corrupt them in their own way, and this has been the case for generations, in the most civilized countries.
         11. In the poor countries, the so-called "developing" countries, you don't hear much about this at all. It's totally impossible for them to take care of their children as they would like to, because nearly all the children are neglected, underfed, poorly housed, and living in poverty, filth and unsanitary conditions, etc. So if the rich countries are so concerned about child neglect, they ought to go and help some of the poor in Latin America, India and God knows how many other places, besides the rich, industrialized countries who have largely been responsible for their poverty!

Know Your Enemy!

         12. When the Devil offered Jesus the world and all these kingdoms, He refused. He said, "I'm not to worship any other god but My Father!" (Mat.4:8-10). Satan said to Jesus, "If you fall down and worship me, I'll give you the world."--And that's what Satan finally got the ACs to do, to fall down and worship him, and he has given them the world! He's the god of this world! (2Cor.4:4).
         13. And he will give it to them even more so under their "Supreme Lord," whom they're even now preparing to introduce to the world when they get in such a mess that they can't get out of it on their own and he offers them a solution--providing, of course, they fall down and worship him, as he tried to get Jesus to do.
         14. But in all of their conniving and their conspiracy worldwide for centuries, they have not liked it to be made known that it is they who were doing the manipulating and that it is they who were acting as the power behind the thrones and the ones to blame for much of what was happening. They have always liked to rule secretly, from behind the scenes, which is exactly what they're doing now.

[The Jewish Anti-Cult Movement]

         15. [I]n a recent article in the Jewish Chronicle, a Jewish newspaper published in England, [it says] that "the biggest threat to the future survival of the Jewish communities lies with the missionaries and the cults," and that the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York is operating a full-time office, "The Task Force on Missionaries and Cults," to "help individuals and families fight back." This drive against Christians started off being aimed at the cults, the most vulnerable groups who are already hated by the major denominations--the jealous Scribes and Pharisees of [today].
        
         17. [T]his recent article in the Jewish Chronicle showed who the battle was against, as they said, "the cults and the missionaries!" And they didn't qualify "missionaries" as being missionaries of "cults," but just missionaries in general, as being some of their major enemies!
        

Our History--Using the Laws Against Us!

         19. I have dwelt on this subject of persecution for years, so you should know enough about it. We could go back over Bible history and that certainly bears it out, and world history bears it out, but how about our own history? What kinds of persecution have we suffered?
         20. From the very beginning at the Light Club in Huntington Beach we suffered persecution. And what did they use?--They tried to pull laws on us. I'll never forget the time the fire chief walked into the Light Club while we were having an afternoon Bible session, teaching Bible prophecy to a handful of leading hippies that had become disciples and were turning that town upside down! He walked right into the middle of Bible class where I was teaching and preaching and said, "You notice that sign?" I stopped and I said, "Yes, we've seen that they've put up a sign saying, 'This Room Cannot Be Occupied by More than 75 People.'" He said, "I just want to warn you that you can't have such big crowds in here at night, it's against the law!" I said, "Thank you, we've heard it and we've seen it." I tried to be courteous. I said, "We appreciate your concern"--ho ho--"but now do you mind if I carry on with this religious service that we're having here? You know, it's also contrary to California law to interrupt a religious service!" And he looked shocked, he hadn't expected any kind of opposition!--And he stumbled out.
         21. So what did they use against us there in Huntington Beach? (Peter: The laws.) The laws about the number of people allowed in a room, the fire laws. Then on our church sit-ins the police began following and harassing us, and if any vehicle had a broken tail light or a windshield wiper that wasn't working, they'd stop'm over the tiniest little things and give'm a ticket.--Anything just to harass us and delay us and stop the caravan.
         22. They often harassed us there at the Club. One young fellow of ours was witnessing to two young teenage girls out in front of the Club and the cops came along and said, "If you don't stop that, we're going to arrest you for molesting a minor." The police even came and visited me at the house.
         23. They were plainclothesmen, very polite. They asked if they could come in, and they sat down in our living room and said, "We'd like to just warn you that some of your people have been playing hooky from school to attend your classes, and some of them are underage and you could be charged as contributing to the delinquency of minors. We knew, of course, you'd want to be sure that you are not breaking any laws and that none of these kids are playing hooky from school. From now on, the truant officers are going to be checking the people coming to your classes to make sure they're not minors and not truant." So again, they were quoting the law to us.
         24. Some of the worst harassment we got was because of California laws against any type of distribution of any literature whatsoever on campuses or school grounds. All of this, of course, sounded good to the people who passed those laws to begin with, because at the time the law was made, it was mostly subversives passing out communist literature and dealing in drugs even on the school grounds. But you see, once the ACs get'm to pass such laws, they know they can turn around and use them against the Gospel and against Christians who are trying to witness, and so they did. And we had more people arrested for that than anything else.
         25. Jeremiah Singer, who was only 14 then, had been one of their worst cases of delinquents. He'd been kicked out of every school, to where they wouldn't even let him in any school. But then he got saved and he started coming back to school, insisted on signing up again, saying that he was all right, he would behave himself now, he was sorry, and they allowed him to come back. But then he began passing out Warning tracts and preaching on the school grounds at lunchtime. Anybody who'd listen, he'd stand there and fire away! So they took him into the principal's office and lectured him and told him that if he did any more of that they were going to throw him out again.
         26. He said, "That's funny. Some of you very teachers were the ones who used to see me peddling drugs on the school grounds and never even interfered with me at all. But the minute I started peddling the Gospel, why is it all of a sudden you're against me? You weren't against drugs, but you're against me preaching Jesus!"--Which shows you, of course, that the Devil knows that the Gospel, to his crowd, is much more dangerous than drugs. That's why they're so worried about us, because our Gospel, our effect, our exposs and all the rest are more threatening to them than drugs or crime or anything!
         27. Why aren't they going on the attack more against drugs and crime and delinquency in the schools? Well, the schools are a Satan-made hotbed festering with all the Devil's doctrines and the very things that are causing crime and drugs and all the rest! American schools are now full of evolution and all sorts of anti-God teaching. The laws have kicked the Bible out of the public schools, and with it God and prayer.
         28. We could go into all kinds of different subjects which show how the Devil has gotten laws passed against things that were supposedly evil, and then defined them as also applying to certain things that the legislators never intended. So we were thrown in jail for preaching the Gospel, or even just passing out Gospel literature on school grounds.
         29. So there have been laws that have originally been made for one purpose or another that have been used against the Gospel! The main trouble the Christian Scientists had was being accused of practicing medicine without a license because they pray for the sick. Many healing evangelists have had that law used against them too. Thank God the Christian Scientists--who were rich, wealthy, intelligent people--had lawyers who fought it clear to the Supreme Court and got it thrown out, because they were not practicing medicine. They use no medicine, and therefore they need no license; they were merely praying for the sick. All of those laws were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, thank God, but they still continue to be used.
         30. I'm giving you a lot of background material to show you that there's nothing new about it. They've been using laws against us and against Christians and against God's people for generations, and usually somewhere behind it are the ACs fighting Christianity!

Our Stand on the Jews!

        
         32. (Maria: Would you like to clarify what our stand really is? ) One of the things this article in the Jewish Chronicle brought out is that they're getting worried because such a large percentage of the membership of the cults is Jewish, 42 times the percentage of the Jewish population in the country! In other words, smart Jewish children are choosing Jesus!
         33. I'm about as Jewish as you can get! My father and my grandfather were Jewish; and on my mother's side, which is the side that counts with the Jews, her father was as Jewish as he could be.
         34. We're not anti-Jewish.
         35. If you look around the Family, most of our leaders are just about as Jewish as they can be! It looks like we've got oodles of Jews in our membership, including top leaders who are formerly Jewish or of Jewish parentage.

Child Abuse Laws Cooked Up to Get at the Christians!

         36. So what is it they have used against us the most? (Peter: The laws.) Already existing laws, or laws that they managed to get passed--sometimes deliberately just to get us. I think this whole child abuse thing has been cooked up, fomented and aggravated by the Devil just to get at us and other Christians! They have done their best and their damnedest to use laws against us, laws that were originally intended for good purposes, to protect children. They know they get the sympathy of the people for children, and of course lots of children are abused, and lots of children do have abusive parents who've treated them cruelly, and there are horrible examples of it turning up every day. So they figured this would be one of the easiest ways to try to get us, by saying that we were abusing our children, neglecting them, rearing them under adverse circumstances, depriving them, giving them improper nourishment, housing and all that sort of thing.
         37. (Maria: They've changed their emphasis, and in addition to physical abuse such as spankings, cruel treatment, lack of medical attention, etc., they've added sexual, educational and psychological abuse. They haven't been able to find us guilty of anything, so they're cooking up some new "psychological" charges.) And of course there are all kinds of psychologists they hire. (Maria: And the public just accepts it and thinks that they know what they're talking about.) The Scientologists believe that the psychologists and psychiatrists are a generation of demons in themselves, and they're not far off!
         38. You say, "So what about all this, Dad? We know all these things, we've known about them for years!" The System attacked us in Huntington Beach on witnessing, contributing to the delinquency of minors, "molesting" minors, illegal distribution of literature. They even found a couple of our Warning tracts on the sidewalk where the people who we'd given them to had discarded them and they tried to charge us with littering! The cops told our people, "If we see any more of these on the sidewalk, we're going to take you to court and put you in jail for littering!" So the boys were very sure from then on that they didn't find any on the sidewalks. If people threw them down, they'd rush over and pick'm up!
         39. You know this and I'm just reviewing history to remind you. What is it they have used? (Peter: Laws.) Laws on all these various things, everything from witnessing to violating traffic laws or trespassing, everything they could think of from the very beginning. And finally they've come around to using child abuse laws against us, but it's not working. We're proving that they're lying and we're winning cases, thank the Lord!

What Next?

         40. So, what next? If they can first of all attack locally where they can find the Family, and defeat them there with smear publicity, prohibitions, all kinds of things, to try to close'm up and drive'm out, they do it. But now we're entering into the national scene in several countries, and it's actually becoming an international case, because we have found that our enemies of various nations and various cases are cooperating together to fight us. It's being publicized internationally, worldwide, and they cannot afford to have us keep on winning cases aimed at whatever the supposed offense is. The trumped-up child abuse charges are failing. Previously we avoided many cases just by disappearing. In this case we're not disappearing, we're coming out in court publicly with lawyers, defending ourselves and winning in some cases.--But it's not all over yet!
         41. They're trying to destroy God's work! So the Devil will use every means at his disposal--primarily the laws, the courts and the System. As I said, many of these laws were originally passed for good purposes by people not intending to do damage to religions or Christians, but the Devil takes them and twists the laws and uses them against the very people and causes they were designed to protect!
         42. But they're not going to stop with child abuse and all the custody cases in which they're being defeated and being disproved. They're going to go on to more and bigger things! They're going to put a big push on trying to get us on brainwashing and mind control charges; on psychological and emotional damage to our children; on charges of not giving our children proper schooling or allowing them to reach their potential; on overcrowding; trying to charge us with fraud regarding our provisioning; and of course they're always interested in going after and following the finances and finding out "who's getting the money?"
         43. Thank God we have decentralized, dispersed, scattered abroad and literally put the money back in good use where it was needed amongst the little people and the little leaders and even the local Homes, so that nearly all the money has gone back where it came from. We only use the small percentage that is necessary to support ourselves and our publishing ministry, which is vital to our whole work!
         44. They're the ones who've got the money, brother! The ACs are running the world; they own it, and they'd be happy to pay millions to get us! Thank God we're safe and secure and protected in His hands!
         45. As far as I'm concerned, we're only guilty of the publication of the truth, the saving of souls and doing the Lord's work! But of course that is why the Devil is after us, that's what he wants to stop, and he'll go to any lengths to stop it!
         46. I wouldn't be a bit surprised that this will be one phase of our martyrdoms, people who are commanded by law to reveal certain things, but they know that that will hurt the work, our people and us, so they will refuse to do so, and have to be ready and willing to go to jail for it!--Martyrdom! That's what I'd call a martyr--someone who suffers in order to protect others! That's what Jesus did. He suffered to save us, and He's indicated that we will have to suffer to save others. "He who lays down his life for his friends, no greater love hath any man than this," and the time will come when we will have to begin laying down our lives for our friends and the work! (John 15:13).

Closing Prayer

         47. Lord, we realize that the way the world's going it's not far from the end and we don't have much longer to work. But bless and keep us, and help us not to be frightened or afraid or scared, but to have the faith that You're going to give us the answers and the solutions and solve the problems, and help us to avoid problems as much as possible. The righteous, having heeded Thy warning and seen the trouble, are going to try to avoid it (Pro.22:3).
         48. So do bless and keep us now, in Jesus' name, and do protect us. Continue to protect as You have so wonderfully, miraculously and marvelously done already. Thank You for situating us so conveniently. When I awoke this morning I could see Thy beautiful creation and Thy creatures, the birds soaring and circling, and Thy sun shining, Lord. TYJ! You've given us such wonderful peace and rest and comfort and confidence, Lord, and marvelous protection! TYL!--So we can continue to do Thy work and lead Thy flock. TYJ!
         49. God bless and keep you all!--In Jesus' name, amen.--We can't lose!--Because, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" (Rom.8:31). Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus! God bless you! We love you!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family