GO TO THE CHURCHES!
DO 2867 11/92
We're Not Anti-Church!
1. Although we have blasted the church system for its sins, failures and hypocrisy, the fact of the matter is that we do not categorically hate the churches and the church people! While we are critical of their failures, I think some churches are necessary and do a lot of good. And where would the Christians be without'm? I don't think it's wise to attack the churches to the point that we show a total opposition to them. To show a very anti-church spirit is going to offend good, law-abiding people, a lot of them good church-goers, like judges and lawyers.
2. Besides, I don't think it's right! I don't think our people should be quite so antagonistic towards churches and church people. They should have a little more sympathy and understanding. They may have to depend on their help one of these days, including right now! We're already getting positive acknowledgment from several church men, and how are they going to feel when they hear us say, "We don't like the churches." I know I'm the guy that more or less taught the Family that way, but then they always go to the extreme!
3. There are all kinds of ways to show people that they don't have to join the church system to be a Christian, and to agree with them that, "Yes, there are a lot of hypocrites in the churches, and yes, the church is not doing the job that it should do." (Mama: Or we could say something like, "We agree that the church system has failed, but there are still a lot of good people within it." Or, "Even though we're not connected with the churches, there are lots of people there who love Jesus and are doing their best.") Amen! I don't think we should be openly antagonistic and hateful towards the churches. Most church people will interpret that as meaning that you hate Christians, since that is what the church system is composed of. There are many wonderful people within the church system who are very sincere and doing the best they know how to serve the Lord.
4. We may not be enthusiastic about the church system, but of all the people in the world, the Christians at least are trying to follow God and the Bible, however far afield they may be. And as things get darker and times get tougher, they are going to be tribulated and purged, so those who are true Christians will come closer to doing things the way they should. As the end gets nearer, we're going to be forced more and more to fight the Enemy together alongside the churches. True Christians are going to be driven closer and closer together, church or no church.
5. People in non-Christian countries may be appealed to by churches and Christianity, which they consider one and the same. If you start blasting the churches and appear to be very anti-church and anti-Christian, they will figure, "Then what are you, anyway?" If you say, "Well, we're missionaries, we just travel around and tell people about Jesus, but we hate the churches, we blast churches, we don't like churches," I don't think it sounds very compatible!
6. I know I've blasted the churches pretty severely myself because I'm angry about some of their failures, and I'm still very strongly critical of some churches. But not all churches are so bad; there are lots of good Christians and good Christian churches, and you've got to differentiate.
7. I don't hate the churches! I love the church people who are sincere Christians. When you have to come out of something, you usually go to the opposite extreme and take a strong stand against it, both the System and the churches, but they do have their place and their good points. I'm thankful for the work the churches do--much good work, even missionary work. And a lot of them do witness. So thank God for the churches! Where would we be without any Christians, and without churches?
8. God's Word says, "Speak evil of no man" (Tit.3:2). I think we need to learn to be a little more sympathetic with Christians who are trapped in the church system--not blasting the whole works, including those in it.--Just like we have a little sympathy, at least, for Systemites who are trapped in the System and know nothing else. We're trying to save them out of it, not destroy them with it. The same is true of the churches. We're not trying to destroy their churches, and along with it their faith and fellowship and united action. We're simply trying to enlighten them, to give them more knowledge of God's Word and liberty, to know the whole truth--the whole truth and nothing but the truth--and not criticize them for what little faith they have. We should be thankful they have some faith and they do love the Lord and are saved and are trying to serve the Lord.
9. We've got to get out of this spirit of bad, bitter, total condemnation of Christians and churches. It's better to work with them than against them, even though many of them work against us. Let's not show the same attitude toward them. It's time to show a little more understanding and sympathy and thankfulness that they are Christians, even good, saved, born again, Spirit-filled Christians--millions of them! Just because they're deceived by the lies of our enemies and led astray to believe falsehoods against us, it's not necessarily their fault. We need to enlighten them, show them the truth and the real sample, and try to work together with them as much as we can, and show them what they ought to be doing.
10. If you're witnessing in a prison or detention center, you might make it a little more specific and say, "We're not connected with the churches." That's fine, but let's not blast'm! And in our witnessing, let's not say, "We're against the churches. We don't care for churches, we don't like churches." (Maria: Even with someone who expresses bitterness against the churches?) You need to be led by the Spirit according to the situation. You can sympathize with them and agree that nothing's perfect. You can point out their faults, but you don't have to totally condemn the churches. You don't have to tear down all the churches and every Christian in them in order to explain that to be a Christian you don't have to be part of the church system--churchianity.
11. Give us wisdom, Lord, and give our people lots of love, Thy children around the world. We can't do it, we're not there, so You'll have to do it, Lord. They must have faith for themselves. We pray for them, that they will have faith and be shining witnesses for Thee, in Jesus' name, amen. Praise the Lord! Thank You, Jesus!--Amen.
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(Two days later:)
Ministering to the Modernists!
12. Our greatest enemies are the ones who should be our friends!--Like the Pharisees in Jesus' day and the Early Church days, who supposedly believed in the Bible and the afterlife, but were virtually the worst enemies of the Early Christians. Whereas the Sadducees, the rich religious leaders, the modernists of their day, sort of held neutral for awhile. Many of them didn't even understand the Early Christians or what they were up to, because they themselves knew so little about the Bible. They were sort of in a state of limbo, wondering what in the world was going on, and even wondering if maybe there was something to this new religion of Christianity.
13. The Sadducees did not believe in the Bible very much, or the afterlife, etc. They were definitely the modernists of their day, but they were not as bitterly against the Early Christians as were the Pharisees, who were the fundamental evangelicals of their day, so to speak, who supposedly believed every jot and tittle of the Word, but of course didn't practice it. So it wouldn't be that strange if it would turn out that the liberal, leftist, broad-minded modernists should accept us!
14. The Pharisees are generally much more of a closed mind and closed heart. "Our minds are made up, don't confuse us with the facts," and that's it! One of these days God is going to break them down on that when things begin to fall, but right now, that's the way these modern-day fundamentalist Pharisees are--very strong, very powerful, like the Pharisees were in the days of the Early Church. The Sadducees were richer and more powerful economically, etc., but they were not as powerful and as respected leaders of the common people as were the Pharisees. It's such a similar picture of what happened in Jesus' day and the days of the Early Church.
15. There are probably a lot of pastors and preachers in the old mainline denominations, particularly the largest and most powerful ones, the most modernist, the most unbelieving, the most skeptical, who would love us and appreciate us! Those poor people have been so disillusioned with Christianity and religion and some of the self-righteous hypocrisy of the evangelical fundamentalists, that they're just about fed up, and their members are actually quitting their own churches in droves! They've had to close hundreds of Anglican and Catholic churches for lack of priests and members, because the people have just been deserting the churches, and they're desperate and are looking frantically for a solution.
16. We'd be a boon to those dead modernistic churches! They haven't got much. Their pastors would probably feel that we couldn't hurt them--they're already so dead--and that we might even help them!
17. Do you know who it would really crush, who it would hurt the worst and be a serious blow to?--Our church enemies who have said we're anti-church, etc. Now they'll have to accuse us of being modernists and compromising, etc., and I'm sure they will. The common people came and heard Jesus gladly (Mark 12:37). And why do you think those religious leaders tolerated Him so long? Because for one thing, He was bringing them a crowd! They were trying to figure out, "What has He got that draws the crowds?"
18. Some people would love to have us in their churches! We're just another oddball religion to them, but one that there's tremendous publicity about right now. We're really popular right now and they know that anywhere they advertise us as putting on a show or a meeting or program or whatever they want to call it, they are going to get a crowd! People are going to want to come and see us personally. Where else can they see us? Where else can they meet us in a big group like they did Jesus, except in those churches, like they did Jesus in the synagogues and the Temple!
19. That's the first place that the Apostle Paul went after he got converted. The first place he went to in every town was the local church, the synagogue! Of course, this might not set very well with some of the churches, but we'd have to be careful and try to be cautious and "wise as serpents, harmless as doves" (Mat.10:16).
20. I've thought of this for years! For our own self-protection, what group could we join? I've discussed it with you, and I've said, "Maybe we could join some group that would appreciate us. Who could we join in these Last Days when things are going to get so tough for Christians that you need all of the friends you can get, and the Christians are going to have to get together, to fight this battle together against the Antichrist!" (Maria: We concluded that for the very narrow-minded, conservative groups, we would have to compromise too much. Because they have such strong doctrines and convictions, we would have to water down ours.) Yes, you would have to agree with their doctrines, convictions and everything.
21. But these modernist churches have got little except the social gospel, and what gospel could we fit better into than that? We go out and socialize with everybody, even the bums, and preach to them, and even feed them! We're more what their idea of social gospel people ought to be like.
22. This just clicks! (Tongues and prophecy:) "Listen thou to the Words of thy father that I have given him for this hour! And they shall listen to the Words of thy father David and they shall hear his children, because they speak of Me!" Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus!
23. This is it! This is the time! This is our last chance! And those are the last kind of churches the anti-religious forces will get around to. It'll be the first kind of churches that our church enemies will criticize, and have been for years, and it's rolled off like water on a duck's back.
24. Look what an opportunity that would give us to reach the people who haven't already been totally bigoted and who pride themselves on being nondiscriminatory. The rulers of these big modernistic denominational mainstream churches pride themselves on their broadmindedness and their acceptance of everybody.
25. Look at the examples! The Early Church did it, and we did it in Huntington Beach! We got popular with the formal churches, everyone from Episcopalians to Presbyterians, who begged us to come and reserved a whole section for us, and we were welcomed from the pulpit! We sat there and said, "Amen! Thank You Jesus!" to everything the preacher said that we liked, and they loved it! The people began to clap and get excited! This was the first sign of life, the first spark of fire they'd seen in their church in years!
26. That's what really got the officials and some of the other church leaders concerned about us, when we started going to the churches. That's when our bitter enemies really got concerned and wanted to do something to us to drive us out of the town, because we were winning the hearts of the church people!
27. (Maria: Over ten years ago when we had that one attempt at church invasion [MLs #834 and 848], I think the reason that in the long run it didn't bear such lasting fruit was because we went to the wrong kind of church, and therefore we had to compromise our convictions too much. We couldn't say what we really felt and still be accepted.) Right! But the modernistic churches will receive almost anything, they'll listen to anything. They pride themselves on being open-minded about anything and everything!
28. One church leader said that he believes that the Family could fill the absence of witnessing in the churches, if we'd go and fellowship with them. He also said if a group of our kids were to join a Sunday school, we'd take it over! We could even volunteer as teachers! But you probably won't get the dyed-in-the-wool, ironclad, Pentecostal, fanatical, fundamentalist evangelicals to accept us, as they're usually some of our main enemies!
29. Here's our chance to fellowship with churches who can't drag us down, but whom we could lift up. Those big, modernistic, formal church sepulchers, big, empty, fabulously costly buildings with little or no people in them know they're losing their crowds. They're losing their priesthood, they're losing the people, they're losing everything and they're closing churches--so how could we hurt them? We're the answer to their prayers.
30. This present publicity is serving to strengthen us in terms of forcing us aboveboard and out in the open where people can see us and know about us, which in many ways is a very positive thing and something which in itself is a powerful defense against our enemies. And where could they see us better and more personally than in their own churches! What's more accepted than that?
Follow-Up Solution!--Folds for Our Converts!
31. This same church leader wrote and asked, "What are you going to do with new people you win? You can't follow them all up! You're not doing a good job of follow-up and getting these people into the folds! What fold are you sending them to? What are the people going to do when they get saved? You can't take care of them all!" And he's right!
32. We cannot take care of all our converts ourselves! We are a special cadre of officers designed to lead the army, and that only of chosen soldiers. So what are all these souls we're saving going to do? Wouldn't it be better if we recommended that some of them go to church? We've got no place to invite them! We can't have them all coming into our Homes, we don't have the room, and it's not the kind of atmosphere that they're prepared for. Of course, the most potential ones we can follow up on and eventually have them come over, but with the over 75,000 souls we win around the world each month we could never personally follow up on each one, and we certainly can't have them all visiting our Homes!
33. We win thousands each month, and there are many who would not be prepared to come in that close to us or be that committed or dedicated and who, instead, would be good candidates to send to the churches! This is the ready-made solution to our follow-up: All the folds of the old mainline religion, of which there are plenty, are almost empty with lots of room! So there you are!
34. This pastor commented that in his opinion, it is damaging to lead someone to the Lord and not offer them a proper program and church to go to afterwards. I wrote back and said, "You can tell him he sold me and persuaded me!" This is something I've thought about and been concerned about for years, and that is, where to put our sheep, where to put new converts who are saved but can't join the Family, can't move into a Home. And here are all these huge folds standing empty, where they'll at least be better off than nothing!
35. What if we could tell our new converts, "Now go join some good Christian church. We recommend this one or that one." "Go to the Council of Churches and find out," or "Go to the Christian church nearest you," whatever, and that would be better than nothing! We should bring those that are hungriest and most potential in as close as we can, but the others still need some Christian fellowship, and if we're not giving it to them, then at least the churches could.
36. I think that every convert, every person we lead to the Lord should fill out a card, or we should fill it out for them, with their name and address and some other pertinent information, so that we have a record of them and know how to get in touch with them. In addition, we should have a question on it asking what their church preference is, if any. If we find that they are someone the Family can minister to, someone who is serious about following the Lord and studying the Word with us, we can continue to follow up on them and feed them. However, if these people are not interested in the Word, or witnessing or helping the Family, then we could give their card to one of the churches for that church to follow up on. This would at least give this convert some Christian fellowship and influence.
37. I think this dear church leader sees that we haven't got any place to invite the multitudes to, so we're no threat to the churches. But they've got what we need! They've got the empty folds who need us, and we need somewhere to put our converts.
38. This should work even in places where we haven't had lots of publicity, where people don't know who we are and where they haven't heard all the lies about us. We could visit some of these mainline denominations and talk to the pastor and tell him who we are, and that "we spend a lot of time witnessing and winning souls but we don't have a place or the means to offer them regular fellowship, so we'd like to send them to your church." Let me tell you, these preachers would be thrilled! New church members are their bread and butter! There's nothing more inspiring for them than larger crowds and more church members!
39. In fact, it would probably be good to visit all the churches in your area even if you don't intend to send your new converts to all of them. You could just attend one of their services, letting them know that you're there and that you wanted to fellowship with them and get to know them and to let them know that you are Christians. Of course, you must remember that you're guests and therefore you should avoid discussing any controversial issues, you shouldn't interrupt the service, and you and your children who attend must be very good samples while in church. Such visitations would at least give these church people a little contact with you, so the next time they hear the lies about us in the media they will remember you and your sweet children and their smiling faces, which will cause them to doubt what the media is saying about us. Who knows, maybe some of them would even speak out on our behalf--especially those who have received new members through our witnessing.
40. That's it, and God confirmed it, and I believe it! Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus for the answer! This has been a concern with me for years, and I believe this is the solution! It may not be the best solution in the world, but it is definitely a possible solution, and it's better than nothing! We need to get these converts into some kind of Christian fellowship, in churches, but they'll always remember us and know that we're the epitome, the ideal, and whatever we do, we're going to bring that church up to our level if we can.
41. Help us, Lord, in Jesus' name! Hallelujah! Praise You Lord! Thank You Jesus! (Tongues) "Listen now to the Words of thy father!" Thank You Jesus! That's it! I'm convinced.
42. Like the war plant poster during WWII: "Come on, Okies and Arkies, let's take Japan!--We took California without the loss of a man!" C'mon, Family, let's love the churches!--We've rounded the world but left them in the lurches! Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus! Let's do it!--Let's go!--In Jesus' name, amen! We love you!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family