TIME'S UP FOR THE PHILIPPINES! DO 2310 4/87
1. IT'S THE USUAL PROCESS, THE SAME OLD THING. The Scribes & the Pharisees & the Chief Priests for the full 3-1/2 years of Jesus' ministry were complaining & griping among themselves & wondering what to do about Him. They tried this & that & spying on Him & publicly challenging Him with questions trying to discredit Him, & they found out that didn't do any good, the public still followed Him. So then they began going to the authorities, but that didn't do any good either because they had no actual legal crime to challenge Him with, such as disloyalty to the government or failing to pay taxes or sedition against Rome or anything like that.
2. THE REAL REASON THEY HATED HIM WAS, OF COURSE, JEALOUSY! They pretended, first of all, that it was because He was violating their Mosaic Law. Pilate said, "Ha! Judge ye! This is something about your own Law, I have nothing to do with this!"--Jn.18:31. He hadn't violated the laws of Rome. But then they finally decided they'd have to come with an actual challenge that He had violated Roman law, something against the state, against state laws.--Which they did, of course.
3. AND EVEN WHEN TRIED ON THAT SCORE, PILATE SAW NO JUST CAUSE FOR WHICH TO ACCUSE HIM! He said, "This Man is innocent, He has done nothing wrong!" But then right at the trial, just think, they threatened Pilate & said, "If you let Him go, you're no friend of Caesar's!" In other words, they were going to appeal over his head with all their lies, saying that he was letting a seditionist, a breaker of Roman law go! So Pilate got scared & tried to wash his hands of the affair. In other words, the governor, the head of the government at first said, "Well, I don't want anything to do with this at all. As far as I'm concerned He's guiltless." But he got scared & said, "Well, see ye to it. I'm not going to have anything to do with it, I'll just turn Him over to you."--Which was as good as condemning Him, because he knew what they would do.
4. SO IT FOLLOWS THE USUAL PATTERN WITH SOME SLIGHT VARIATIONS. These vicious religious enemies of ours in the Philippines tried one thing after the other to stir up trouble, first of all amongst the churches & church leaders ..., etc., & finally got [EDITED: "one"] to put out an encyclical against us. But that didn't apparently do much. It must be the Catholics don't pay too much attention to those Papal sermons! Then they tried different things, different attacks, one after the other, & nothing has done any good! They've gone to the police, to the Military authorities, & still when nobody did anything about it, they did exactly what the religionists of Jesus' day did! When they couldn't get the legal authorities to do something, then they went to the people, the media, to get publicity to stir up enough trouble & enough scandal to make it a public smear campaign in the press, on TV, etc., to arouse the general public against us!
5. THEN & THEN ONLY IS WHEN THEY CAN GET ANY ACTION OUT OF THE AUTHORITIES, because if there's a public outcry, the authorities are then afraid not to do something, because the authorities are usually elected. They're having a big election campaign there right now, & this could be part of it, to discredit & disgrace anybody that's had anything to do with us, probably a lot of whom are people they don't want elected or they would like to down & get rid of.
6. WITH AUTHORITIES WHO OTHERWISE IGNORED IT & HAVE IGNORED IT FOR YEARS & DIDN'T CARE, the only thing they're worried about are the opinions of men, they're worried about the opinions of the people. So that when it becomes publicly known, a public outcry, then they begin to draw themselves apart & disown us & don't want to be classed with us or known to have had anything to do with us or friends of ours.
7. AS LONG AS IT'S QUIET & THE PUBLIC ARE NOT AROUSED GENERALLY, THEY CAN STILL BE OUR FRIENDS PRIVATELY. But if it ever becomes known publicly, even for their own sake you wouldn't want them to wreck their careers & their reputation by letting it be known that they have anything to do with us.--Unless they're awfully revolutionary & they really want to get kicked out & smeared & want to join the Family, because that's the only place for them to go! (Maria: Because at that point there's nothing they can do to change things anyway!)--Right! They'd be scandalised, smeared & publicly disgraced! There's nothing they can do to help us, they'd only make martyrs of themselves! So the best thing they can do, to save themselves, is to distance themselves from us.
8. SO WE CAN'T EXPECT ANY HELP FROM ANYBODY BUT THE LORD! All the [EDITED: "important"] friends we've got there couldn't put us back together again! "All the king's horses & all the king's men, couldn't put us back together again" once we've fallen off the wall & been disgraced by the public!
9. THE FAMILY THERE KNEW IT WAS COMING & THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE PREPARING FOR IT! Just how bad it would be in the long run we were not sure of, but we finally hit the news suddenly, & with a bang! It's been gradually growing & it's just finally become noteworthy & newsy because of the content.
10. THE NEWSPAPERS LOVE THAT KIND OF NEWS! ANYTHING THAT'S SEXY & SCANDALOUS, THEY LOVE IT!--Especially if it's on some small unknown cult or sect, which they're against already, all cults & sects supposedly, & especially if it's some weak outfit that can't take'm to task or take'm to law or file suits against'm & whom they know they can attack without injury & without any hit-backs. Because most of the religious accusations they have in their articles they can prove & we won't even deny, except the incest. They use as basis for that accusation that one little tract on circumcision. (Maria: And Deborah's book.)
11. I'VE SAID THE COMMON ANSWER TO THAT BUSINESS OF DEBORAH'S BOOK IS TO SAY, "WELL, SHE DIDN'T WRITE IT!" Her insane drug-addicted husband who hated us & was jealous of us, was the one who really wrote it! I told you guys when I read that book, the main thing I discovered was that she didn't write it!
12. ANYHOW, THEY CAN'T PROVE THAT IT'S EVEN SO, NOT BY MY LETTER ON CIRCUMCISION. [DELETED] If they read the text, there's [EDITED: "nothing"] to it! And there's nothing we have written that has advocated incest. Therefore, I don't think there's any way in the World that they could fix the charge of incest on any of our people that I know of. [DELETED]
13. THE OTHER THINGS THEY ACCUSE US OF, WE WOULDN'T EVEN DENY THEM! We've confessed them in our literature, in our rebuttals & everything else, that we believe in what they call "free love" & sexual attraction to attract converts, etc. But of course this horrifies them, & as they keep saying in their articles, it's against their beliefs & their ethics & their church teachings & traditions! Well, of course it is!
14. EVEN IN A COUNTRY LIKE THE PHILIPPINES WHERE THEY'RE STEEPED IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF CHURCH TRADITION, THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF VERY BROADMINDED PEOPLE FREED FROM THE CHURCH who don't even like it & don't like churchianity & church doctrines & church authority & all that, who probably read those articles about us & are just enjoying it & chuckling & laughing at the way we have really bucked the church! There are a lot of people who probably will say, "That's just great! Somebody's finally socked it to the churches!"
15. BUT A LOT OF THOSE PEOPLE WOULDN'T NECESSARILY BE WILLING TO ADMIT THAT TO ANYBODY ELSE, because it's those customs & traditions that are violated, & unless they're a real out-&-out rebel who doesn't care what people think, they probably wouldn't admit that they like what we're preaching. But there are plenty of good old sinners & worldly people who probably like our doctrines & wish they had met our girls, & that they could have done it privately & secretly!--Or if they could keep it under their hats, that they do like it! They're kind of like secret believers, but secret believers can't come out & be open friends!
16. WHEN IT GETS TO THE POINT THAT CONDITIONS ARE SUCH THAT WE CANNOT ANY LONGER OPENLY WITNESS, through which most of the Family make their living, & where they're actually in danger on the streets, then it's time to [EDITED: "be low-key or move"]! We've had times where persecution & bad publicity were so bad that people attacked our litnessers on the streets & they got beat up, [DELETED] just from being identified on the street!
17. SO I'VE ALWAYS SAID THAT WHEN IT GETS TO THAT POINT WHERE YOU CAN NO LONGER OPENLY WITNESS, YOU'VE EITHER GOT TO LEAVE OR [DELETED] try to survive by [DELETED] personal witnessing among people that you can trust or hope will be friendly, which is just about as bad as living under the Antichrist Government! Why suffer like that & try to keep witnessing secretly where you're in danger all the time of being betrayed, when they have already absolutely saturated that country with our Gospel & our literature & our Posters & our tapes! They have absolutely saturated them with our messages, all of our messages!
18. I BELIEVE THEY HAVE STARTED THE BALL ROLLING ENOUGH [DELETED], that even if our folks are disgraced & discredited & booted out, what good seed has been sown on good ground will keep on going & continue to bear fruit! Because once it's started, they don't have to give us or association with us the credit for it any more, they can just keep on giving the Lord & the Bible the credit & hopefully keep on witnessing & winning souls!
19. NOTHING HAS HAPPENED THAT'S UNEXPECTED OR UNUSUAL! I told you this was going to happen. My message has gotten stronger along that line every time, till finally I just told you, "Well, the Philippines has had it!" (See ML #2307.) I was just expecting it at any time! So now it's happened, that's all! Nothing's changed, it just happened! The climax & the crisis have arrived. And of course it will hurt mostly the poor little people who have been witnessing out on the streets, etc.
20. I WOULD HATE TO BE IN ANY ONE OF THOSE HOMES WHERE THE ADDRESSES HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO THE NEWSPAPER, because I wouldn't be surprised that they would be [EDITED: "investigated or attacked"] almost immediately! So if I were they, I think I'd clear out. [DELETED]
21. [DELETED] I would say particularly all of the men should be gone, because [DELETED] they seldom ever take all the women & children in. They don't have accommodations for them, they don't blame them, etc. It's only rarely they have taken the women & children. [EDITED: "There have been"] some of the rare exceptions. The Philippines I think is Christian enough, at least, they wouldn't be harming the women & children. They wouldn't hold them responsible or to blame. I wouldn't say that in the U.S.A. & Canada though! They've been known to take away the families & the women, & the children from the parents & everything else!
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23. THE GENERAL PUBLIC MAY HAVE HEARD OF US, SEEN OUR LITERATURE, LIKED OUR POSTERS, our music & everything else, but then when their church & legal authorities say we're bad & we do all these things they didn't know about, they're not necessarily going to be friendly or stay friendly.
24. EVEN OUR WORST ENEMIES JUST WANT TO STOP OUR ACTIVITIES. I don't think the government itself wants to be bothered with trials, convictions & imprisonments of foreigners, etc., on what amounts to religious charges mostly. None of the governments have taken it that far [DELETED], [EDITED: "usually"] only taking the leaders down to jail, some for only a few hours or overnight or maybe for a few days while the interrogation was going on. Then all they did with them finally was just tell them to get out of the country.--Give them a 48-hour deportation order or whatever it was.
25. [DELETED] When they hear [DELETED] that everybody has left, they've stopped the activities, they've kicked out the people, then they stop it, because they figure they've accomplished their purpose. We're no longer there to proselytise their members. When they figure you've stopped your work there & you're no longer "stealing sheep" as they call it, they've gotten rid of the fold-robbers, etc., they figure that's it. So they're satisfied, & you don't hear much more about us at all.
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30. [DELETED] I think if it came to the showdown [EDITED: "when leaving"], that they would let them go. They could say, "Well, we're leaving, we're on our way out!" That government's got enough problems, I don't think they'd want to give themselves any more problems by any kind of court cases & incriminations & imprisonments. I hope they're not that dumb. [DELETED] In most countries, even the most severe cases, [DELETED] when it came to the showdown, all they did was boot'm out, gave'm their walkin' papers!
31. OF COURSE THE REAL BITTER ENEMIES WOULD LOVE TO SEE THEM IN JAIL OR WORSE, BUT I DOUBT IF THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO GO THAT FAR. Most people, the general public particularly, would be satisfied just to know they'd [DELETED] left the country voluntarily. [DELETED]
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34. A LOT OF PEOPLE TURNED AGAINST JESUS WHEN HE BECAME UNPOPULAR. Palm Sunday they were hailing Him, "Hail to the King, the Son of David! Hallelujah!"--Waving palm branches & laying down their coats. The Scribes & the Pharisees were scared to death He was going to take over right then & the people were all applauding! But by the next Sabbath the same mob was crying, "Crucify Him!"
35. THAT'S HOW FICKLE THE PUBLIC ARE!--ONCE YOU'VE GOT A BAD NAME, AN ONEROUS NAME, IT'S UNPOPULAR TO BE YOUR FRIEND! There are a lot of people who may still love the tapes & the Posters, but now they'll be hiding them, they won't be in the public rooms of their homes, & they may even be afraid to have them on their bedroom walls for fear somebody may see them & recognise them! They may still play the tapes, but even those who love us may be afraid to have anything to do with us. So I don't see how they can go out in public on the streets any more, since the publicity has spotlighted the tapes or at least the Posters. [DELETED]
36. I TOLD YOU WHEN THE SHOWDOWN CAME THERE, [EDITED: "OUR IMPORTANT FRIENDS"], AS MUCH AS THEY MIGHT LIKE TO, & NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY LOVE US & ARE OUR FRIENDS, THEY CANNOT STICK UP FOR US! Their very jobs & reputations, if not their lives, would be on the line if they tried to stick up for us! And in the face of this tremendous wave of undoubtedly orchestrated smear campaign against the Family there right now, I don't think anyone dares to stick up for us publicly! They might stick up for us privately & to some investigators & that sort of thing, try to put in a good word for us, but if the showdown came to where they were called upon to try to testify for us publicly, I don't think anyone wants to risk his neck & his job, which means also his family & his income & everything else! I wouldn't expect them to.
37. SO WHO'S GOING TO STICK UP FOR US & WHO'S GOING TO ALLOW US TO OPERATE THERE ANY LONGER? It was bound to come sooner or later, it always comes, & I believe the Lord is allowing it because He probably knows we have done enough there! They've had [DELETED] a tremendous public ministry, a tremendous street ministry, & I think it's gone on for 11 or 12 years! They say it has been particularly fruitful in the last year or two, even on the streets it's been more fruitful with Posters, tapes & all that sort of thing. And it just reached a crescendo, especially with their [EDITED: "specialized"] Ministry, riding high!
38. SOMETIMES I'M ALMOST LIKE THE OLD LADY WHO WHEN THEY ASKED HER HOW SHE FELT, she said, "Well, I feel good today, except whenever I feel good I feel bad because I know it's not going to be very long before I feel bad again!" The more popular & prosperous & fruitful we become in a country, I begin to realise, "Well, I guess our days are numbered!" Because the Devil's not going to put up with it very long & they'd better make hay while the sun shines, because it's not going to last, & never does! It always makes the Devil too mad & he raises the opposition. And the Lord allows him to, because when we've gotten to the point that the whole country knows about us & knows the Message & has heard it & had their chance to make their own decisions--virtually the whole country, at least all the people that count--then God has given them their chance, they don't deserve any more! They don't deserve to have us keep harping on it & keep giving them the Message!
39. SO I REALLY BELIEVE THAT THE PHILIPPINES HAS REALLY HAD ITS CHANCE! I preached this a few months ago, I said the Philippines has had it! I told you then that I was convinced that the public ministry there couldn't last very much longer.--Particularly now that they have been so successful & so popular & so fruitful, the Devil was just not going to allow it, & even God was not going to allow them to go any further there, because after all, the Lord could have stopped the persecution! He knows all about it! "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord." He's just saying, "You've gone far enough, you've done enough in that country, it's time to go someplace else." They've got a lot of manpower there!
40. GOD KNOWS THE TIME IS SHORT & THE DAYS ARE EVIL, & GOD KNOWS HOW SOON THE COMMUNISTS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THAT COUNTRY! Even if everybody hasn't heard & had their chance, God knows whether there will be any chance in the very near future. God knows it may be dangerous for our people to stay there, even if it wasn't for the government & our other enemies. He knows, I'm sure, that whatever dangers there may be & for whatever reasons He has, He wouldn't have allowed it to happen unless He figured our time was up & we'd gone as far as we could go!--Right? Aren't you convinced that "all things work together for good" & that God knows what's best & that He would not allow such a thing to happen unless it was His will? So He must know it's time for them to leave, as many of them as can. [DELETED] We've got a whole World to scatter'm out to somewhere!
41. A LOT OF THEM CAN EVEN GO BACK TO THEIR HOME COUNTRIES & STILL BE A VERY EFFECTIVE WITNESS where there's still quite a bit of liberty. [DELETED] They're just going to have to pray & ask the Lord where He wants them to go, & the Lord can give them the burden where is the best place for them to go. Maybe some who didn't do too well on the mission field need to go back to the States & go to work & support missionaries. We're just going to have to throw the ball to them, & they need to ask the Lord where He wants them to go!
42. THE LORD'S DOING IT! DON'T BLAME IT ALL ON THE DEVIL & OUR ENEMIES! The Devil can't do a thing unless the Lord lets him! Why is the Lord allowing them to be shoved out of the Philippines? Well, they've got to pray & find out!--And besides that, if the Lord doesn't want them there any longer, then where does He want them? They won't be able to do anything else there, so they'd better take all their funds & go someplace else now, & not let it peter out trying to survive there! And if anybody has to have help, we'll be able to help them.
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44. [DELETED] I THINK MOST OF THEM SHOULD CONSIDER LEAVING & make plans to leave if they want to have any kind of ministry at all somewhere else! Because that virtually ends their ministry to the general public, now that it's been that widely publicised & the charges sound so horrible. The public believe whatever they read in the newspaper & see on television & whatever the government says! Especially if government departments & officials say that's so, they just take it & believe it!--Like dumb sheep who are just led around! Their friends won't believe it, but they won't be able to have that much to do with them any more, & [DELETED] it would be legally almost dangerous to have them around, so I think it's better they leave peaceably. When they don't want you any more it's time to go!
45. EVEN THEIR [EDITED: "IMPORTANT"] FRIENDS WOULDN'T DARE STICK UP FOR THEM! There wouldn't be any way they could defend them anyhow since they've got all those charges & plenty of proof for most of them.--At least as far as they're concerned, sufficient proof to prove to them. All they needed on Jesus was that He broke the Sabbath, that was enough right there. They were ready to kill Him then!
46. ALL DEAR PILATE HAD TO DO WAS GET SCARED THAT THEY WERE GOING TO FILE CHARGES WITH CAESAR! In fact, they finally did get him out anyhow. Only five years later he was exiled to Switzerland where he died, a very cold place in those days for a guy that enjoyed Palestine! The very thing he was trying to save was his job & he lost that anyhow. So obviously he never pacified nor pleased the Scribes or the Pharisees or the Chief Priests by even letting them kill Jesus. Apparently from then on, because he had virtually defied them, they were out to get him! They were out to get him anyhow because he was a Roman. Any Roman they could cause trouble with, they did! And apparently they finally got him transferred to Switzerland.
47. SO SHALL WE PRAY? THANK YOU JESUS! THANK YOU LORD THAT YOU GIVE US PEACE IN OUR HEARTS! We ask Thee to give these loved ones who have these big responsibilities, peace of mind & heart & not to worry, but to pass on wise caution & advice to our Family in the Philippines. You've helped them, Lord, in every way. We've given them money & most of them have at least some to get started on. We ask Thee to give them wisdom in using it & lead & guide them when & where to go & where they can have a new field & new opportunities.
48. IT SEEMS ALL THE FIELDS ARE CLOSING FAST, LORD! You know how to use Your labourers, Lord, they're Your employees, they belong to Your Company, Lord, & we believe You're going to use them as long as possible somewhere where there are some openings & freedom to witness & to win souls as long as we can.
49. ENCOURAGE THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE THERE WHEN THEY HEAR THE SAD NEWS THAT THEIR TIME IS UP & THAT THEY NEED TO PREPARE TO GO! Help them not to be discouraged or frightened, Lord, but just to take it as from Thee, Lord, that You just said the time is up, it's time to move on, as Thy children have known & experienced through generations!--Always a people without a country, always pilgrims & strangers & always knowing that sooner or later they'd have to move on to other fields, fields possibly even riper & more fruitful or neglected where they need to go!
50. SO WE DO ASK THEE, LORD, TO BLESS & KEEP & STRENGTHEN THEM & GIVE THEM WISDOM & LEADING & GUIDANCE & DIRECT REVELATIONS, if necessary, about where to go & how, etc. Supply all of their needs, Lord, & make it possible for them to leave that country without too much trouble or problem or investigation or raids or frightening circumstances of any kind, Lord! Help them to be able to leave soon & quietly & peacefully if possible.
51. HELP THE GOVERNMENT & OUR ENEMIES THERE TO BE SATISFIED THAT WE HAVE ACTUALLY [EDITED: "LEFT"] THE COUNTRY, LORD! If they no longer see them [EDITED: "out witnessing"], they'll know that they stopped there & the [DELETED] authorities will be able to say that they are no longer working there. Even if they have to send out an order to ban them & no longer permit them to come in, Lord, the [EDITED: "institution we witnessed at"] will have protected itself & complied with the government that they're no longer allowed there. And as soon as they see they're no longer on the streets, no more Posters, no more tapes, no more literature, we're sure the general public will know that they must have left.
52. HELP THEM, LORD, TO HAVE TIME TO EVACUATE COMFORTABLY, & NOT TOO CRUELLY OR SUDDENLY OR UNCOMFORTABLY IN SOME WAY! Help them to be able to evacuate in peace & with destinations prepared for them to go to, Lord, by Thee, & received by friendly hands in those countries of other members of the Family. Help them to get started anew in other places, wherever it may be, Lord. Even if some have to return to their home countries in order to be some place where they cannot be kicked out & yet can still minister, Thy Will be done!
53. WE'VE SEEN THIS COMING FOR YEARS, LORD! We said that eventually many will even be forced to leave the foreign countries they're in & be forced back to their home countries where in many of those, Lord, there is still freedom of speech & press & literature & freedom & they can continue to minister in some way.
54. SO THY WILL BE DONE! YOU LEAD & GUIDE THEM & SHOW THEM & GIVE THEM WISDOM! Reveal to them, Lord, where it's best to go & how to go & when, because we feel that the sooner the better, Lord, in order to continue their ministry somewhere else, since they are now being literally prohibited from witnessing there. We've always said, Lord, whenever it gets to the point where it is no longer possible to witness, it is time to move on, whether it is because of persecution or otherwise, & it's usually because of bad publicity which raises persecution against us. But it's always because You are allowing it because You know it's time to move on & we have done the best we can where we are & You have some place else for us to go where we can continue till the time comes, Lord, that we can't do any more & can't move on any more. Then You'll move us Yourself to be with You Up There! So thank You Lord!
55. DO BLESS & KEEP ALL OF THEM SAFELY & CONTINUE TO MAKE THEM A BLESSING SOMEWHERE ELSE, & HELP THEM TO GET OUT OF THERE SAFELY, LORD, WITHOUT TOO MUCH OF A TRIAL! Help them to have the funds or be able to obtain the funds for leaving & be able to get out without any problems. Help them to realise that they have to often leave much behind, but You're always able to replace it wherever they're going, Lord, You've got plenty! So help them not to try to drag everything with them, Lord, & just weigh themselves down. Help them to lay aside every weight & the things which so easily beset them, Lord, so they can run this race unencumbered & unloaded so they can get swiftly to someplace else!--Hebrews 12:1.
56. COMFORT THEIR HEARTS, LORD! We know many of them are sad to leave that beautiful field & its wonderful receptive people who had received them & received Thee & received the Message. But help their friends & those who have been won & those who have received Thee, Lord, to understand that this is persecution by the Enemy & that it's not their fault, but they are simply being driven out of the country by the Enemy because it's Thy Will, Lord, for them to go! They've been there long enough & done all they can, & You know what the Future holds. It may be even dangerous for them to stay! So Thy Will be done! Have Thy way! Lead & guide, Lord, You know best, & protect Thy children for Thy use, in Jesus' name. Amen! Praise the Lord!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family