PERSECUTION JEWELS!--No.12! DO 2910 Comp.1/94
Thank You Lord for the Victory!
1. PRAISE YOU LORD for the good work that You've done in us & that You'll complete to the end!--Phil.1:6. Thank You for the victory! Thank You for answering prayer & resolving the Argentine situation. Thank You for the victory in Argentina! And now that they've done their job, we pray that You'll get our people out of Argentina as soon as possible! Thank You for the Appeals Court decision to release them all & declare Marquevich incompetent. Give him what he deserves, Lord!
2. Judge the Israelis, Lord, for what they're doing to the poor Palestinians, & the Serbs for what they're doing to the poor Bosnians, & all the other people throughout the World who are oppressing & persecuting others. Have mercy on the innocent, the sufferers, the poor people who can't sleep, the sick & the war-torn. Bless & keep all our Family & make them a blessing, in Jesus' name.
Prayer for the New Year!
3. (From Maria:) HAPPY 1994! May the Lord richly bless you this year as you go from "strength to strength" & win victories for His Cause! My prayer for you is that you will not be weary in well doing, & that you will not faint in your minds, nor fear what Man can do unto you. The Devil's total power is in what he can make you think, contrary to what the facts of God's Word are. His plan is to make you give up out of weariness or discouragement or fear. So I often pray that you won't give up in your minds, & that you'll keep hanging on no matter what kind of battles the Devil hits you with. You can overcome him with the power of the Word--the power of Jesus--with the armour which He has provided, which He knows is sufficient for any battle. God bless you all! We love you & are praying for you!
Let My People Go!
4. (Dad prays:) Lord, let Your people go as soon as their mission has been accomplished! You can visit plagues on Argentina like You did on Pharaoh & the Egyptians until they were glad to get rid of the Hebrews.
Prayer for the Children!
5. Bless all the children who have gone through these horrible experiences, the raids & the institutions. Cheer them up, take away their fears & help them to be firm in their faith for Thee, Lord, & realise that they were suffering persecution for You. You said You'd bless those that suffered for Your sake. Bless all our lawyers & those who stick up for us. Give them skill & great wisdom!
Wonder Working Word Workers!
6. Bless all Thy children around the World tonight. Thank You for releasing the prisoners. Now give them greater joy than ever before as they continue to build Thy Kingdom, in spite of the filthy Satanic enemies who cannot stop it! Thank You Jesus! Reward every one of those enemies according to their works & their evil deeds & what they've done to us.--Which in the end has only helped to glorify Thy Kingdom. Thank You Jesus! Hallelujah!
7. Sometimes I've been tempted to think, "Look at all the trouble I've gotten these people into!"--But look at what a reward they're going to get in the End! They just need to keep their eyes on Heaven.--Like Moses, who looked beyond "the pleasures of sin for a season" to the reward of the future.--Heb.11:24-27. And like Abraham, who "looked not at his own body as good as dead," but gave glory to God, knowing that what He had promised He was able also to perform.--Rom.4:19-21.
8. We don't just look on the present, we look beyond it to the future! We're definitely futurists, & some say we're doomists, but we are the greatest optimists in the World! We look over & past all this garbage, & we're just trying to save a few jewels out of it before we go on to the Millennium & the New Heaven & the New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness for ever & ever!
9. If we have suffered with Him we shall also reign with Him forever! (2Tim.2:12.) For our present suffering is but for a little while, & worketh for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory. (2Cor.4:17.) With age, I'm beginning to forget my Scriptures. I'm sure glad I taught all of our Family to memorise them. God bless them! I know they're in my memory somewhere, but they're buried so deep I have a hard time getting them out sometimes. But they do come, & if I can't quote them, then you do, or at least the concordance does.
10. It's like speaking in tongues, at least it nourishes me spiritually, even if I don't know what I'm saying! But thank the Lord, He's given me the gift of interpretation so that I can get a little of what I'm saying. That's kind of the way I remember Scriptures now. Isn't that funny? I get the impression of a Scripture even when I can't quote it & don't even yet know exactly what it is.
11. I was trying to quote you something about the Word--the eternal Word, everlasting, forever. Now there's a mystery for you, guess what Scripture I'm talking about? I'll bet there are a lot of Scriptures in the concordance under "the Word." You could make a Letter like "The All Things Tree," but make it "The Word Tree"--a growing Word tree! Goodness, I'll bet there are thousands of verses about the power of the Word, or about the Living Word--Jesus!
12. We have such a Wonder Working Work because of the wonderful work of the Word, which is Jesus! Thank You Lord! The Word is so wonderful & our people are so wonderful & they do such miracles with the Word--Jesus! He is the Word. Thank You Jesus! Amen. Praise You Lord!
13. (To Maria:) You're a faithful worder, Honey, always faithful. You never miss a word, that's why the Lord has made you great, because you're faithful with His Word. Just think, if you hadn't been faithful, this whole Family would never have gotten the Word & gone all over the World preaching the Gospel to millions & saving millions! It's all because you were faithful with the Word, Honey. Your crown is going to be so big you'll hardly be able to wear it, & mine is going to be very small by comparison. (Maria: Honey, the Lord said of you "by one man's obedience many were made righteous!"--Rom.5:19.)
14. All I did was catch the Words from the Lord & pass them on to you! (Maria: Well, all I did was catch them from you & pass them on to everybody else!) And all they're doing is catching them & passing them on to the whole World, & that's a pretty big job! (Maria: So we're just one big team all working together & doing our different jobs.)--Wonder Working Word Workers! And the Lord does it all, with a little help from His friends.
Our Influence on the World!
15. It looks like we've done a small work for the Lord. We've just been little people for a long time. Compared to others we're still very small, but we try harder. Thank You Lord! For our size we're accomplishing quite a bit.
16. My, the vastness of this World, it makes you feel like one little speck amongst millions of people. Those enormous religions make us look like nothing, but we're pretty important to the Lord because we're the only us! There have been great men who have begun very great religions. John Knox was such a great reformer that he established the Presbyterian religion, overcame the Catholic Church & spread his denomination all over the World--at least his people did. Martin Luther first conquered Germany & the Scandinavian countries with his religious Reformation, & then the Lutherans swept over the World! Of course, they've had hundreds of years to do it. John Wesley founded the Methodists, & they've swept around the World too. And when they began to cool off a little, along came dear William Booth to split off & start the red-hot, soul-saving Salvation Army!
17. I believe if we had more time & it hadn't been the End of Time, going right into the Tribulation & the Coming of the Lord, etc., that we would spread out all over the World! (Maria: We are, we have!) Well, we are spread out thinly, but I believe we would have gained members or followers in the millions! (Maria: The Lord said that everybody will see our light & that lonely, lost people who are looking for the Truth will come & put their little lights with ours & it'll be a big light.) Amen! Millions already have!
18. How wonderful, Lord, that all those great religions have spread all over the World from such small beginnings! And, Lord, we too have spread all over the World from a very small beginning, & many souls have been saved. If there had been time there would have been many more. But like You say, we may become even more numerous & prominent in these Last Days, because who else knows survival like we do, & who else witnesses like we do? Who else knows the future like we do? And who else is such a great threat to the Antichrist that our rabid detractors even brand us as "the most dangerous cult in the World"! We are dangerous to our anti-Christ enemies because we're exposing them, & they hate us for it.--And they've responded by attacking us & persecuting us & jailing us & causing us suffering!
19. But people are beginning to look more & more to us for the Truth & people are beginning to be drawn to us more. "They that understand shall instruct many."--Dan.11:33. I believe we're leading a lot of people right now. They wouldn't necessarily confess it or acknowledge it, but obviously we are. So praise the Lord! The Lord is making us an influence in the World. We're making our mark on history, thanks to the Lord & all of our hard-working Family! God bless & keep them all, Lord. May they continue to be faithful witnesses to the rest of the World, even to the churches.
New Year's Prayer for the Family!
20. (31/12/93:) Thank You so much, Lord, for our Family & their loyalty to their own personal convictions. Thank You for the many that have stayed loyal & faithful & true to Thee & Thy Word & Thy Family, in spite of some defections. There are those who drop out merely because they don't feel like they can meet the standard, & we can sympathise with & pray for them. But those who have bitterly turned against us & viciously attacked us, those are the real enemies, full of the Devil & trying to hurt Thy Work! Defeat them, Lord, even if You have to take away their bodies to save their spirits, as Thy Word says. (1Cor.5:5.)
21. Thank You that we have survived & flourished & have increased & have gained many victories now, & are becoming better known for what we believe, Thy Word & the Truth, as we believe it. And in spite of & even because of our persecutions, You are blessing & increasing & getting out the Message more than ever! We believe it's the Truth, Thy Word, Lord. We've preached it in our Letters & classes & we've been very insistent on what we believe in spite of what people do or do not receive. It's Thy Word, Lord, & it's the Truth & it's right there in the Bible!
22. Thank You for even that little nugget we received the other evening as we had our little Christmas celebration & the story of Thy birth, that You brought to mind even such a small truth, that at least some animals go to Heaven. And yet these are the sort of beliefs & convictions that some people protest against.
23. In spite of these beliefs that some people think are strange, we thank You that we believe even if they can't or don't want to. Thank You for those here whose ministry is to feed us & keep us going & care for our bodies, that we might energise our spirits for Thee & inspire them & those around the World, in spite of the many who will not believe & do not receive. There have been millions, Lord, who have, & we thank Thee that we will see those millions in Thy Kingdom one of these days & be thankful that we were able to reach them. Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Bless & keep us now & give us a good night's rest, safekeeping, & a good day tomorrow.--In Jesus' name, amen.
Greater Victories!
(After watching a movie about Napoleon:)
24. Thank You for the victories that You've given us recently against our enemies, Lord. In spite of all the power of our persecutors & even some officials who were out to get us, You have defeated them! Praise the Lord! Finish the work, Lord, finish the deliverance & help us go on to greater victories. We realise that we've had to suffer to win some of these victories. Napoleon's forces, as shown in this movie, also suffered in order to win victories & to prevent his enemies from getting the victory. Thank You Jesus! Help us to have wisdom in our deployments & attacks & our resistance, as Napoleon did--only with greater power than Napoleon had--Thy power, Lord, in Jesus' name!
Communists to Child Abusers!
25. Back in the '30s, anyone who bucked the System was called a Communist. Now they're called child abusers.
Our Enemies' Strong Delusion
26. God damn Priebe! May he roast! May he have a terrible Christmas because of all the evil on his conscience. He is demon-possessed! Lord, I don't remit his sins. I want You to punish him! Give him one Hell of a time on Earth for all he's done to us, even if he's saved, before You let him go anywhere else.
27. Well, the Lord is reminding me that it's been a good deal of what Priebe & others have done to us that has helped us to do what we should do--to come out in the open & deny & disprove a lot of these allegations & lies. Our enemies have only helped to promote the Truth by forcing us to come out & show the World what we're really like. (Maria: Yes, the Lord said that's what He created them for. He let them be our enemies so He could use them as His tools to help us. But as you said, Priebe is still vicious!) He's a vicious, demon-possessed enemy that needs the Lord's wrath & judgements!
28. The Scripture that comes to me is, "Because they refused to believe the Truth, the Lord sent them strong delusion that they might believe a lie & be damned."--2Th.2:10-12. It's almost unbelievable how deluded they are, totally deluded after having known the Truth. Paul says in Hebrews the 6th & 10th Chapters that once they've known all this & fallen away, it shall be impossible to renew them to repentance, & that the only thing that can be done is for the Lord to kill the body in order to save the spirit! (See Heb.6:4-6; 10:26-30,38; 1Cor.5:5.)
29. They are going to be in terrible shame & contempt for the rest of eternity for what they've done! That's going to be a large part of their punishment--not going to Hell, but having to live in Heaven with everybody knowing what they did. That'll be like Hell for sure! (Maria: Well, I'd like to see them get a little Hell on Earth before they go.)
Punishment in the Afterlife!
30. Our enemies are the ones who have abused our kids! What a lie to use false allegations of abuse as an excuse for their real abuse. They're the ones who wanted to abuse our kids, & did so by their raids & tossing them into institutions. What liars! I hope that Priebe & Dupuy & Miriam & some of those guys have to face that somewhere & suffer for it & see what damage they caused. Maybe that's a part of Hell & punishment in the Afterlife, to have to see the trouble & the suffering you caused in this life. That would be real pain & suffering. (Maria: Yes, imagine having to enter into the experience of those who were suffering, to actually feel the suffering of what you put people through!) Or to be there right with them & watch it & see what you caused, to have to re-live it, or re-die it!
31. The Lord's gotten a lot of victories out of these seeming defeats, even if He had to use some lousy scoundrels to engineer it & carry it out. The Lord turned cursing to blessing & gained glorious victory from seeming defeat! In a way, those guys have done us more good than harm, but they're going to suffer for the harm eventually, even though it did us good. It sure has caused us plenty of trouble & a lot of money, but like you said, we've gotten millions of Dollars of free advertising out of it & won probably hundreds, if not thousands of friends & souls, & nothing's more valuable than souls!
God Damn CAN!
32. Give these devils [DELETED] what they deserve, Lord! [DELETED]
33. God damn that whole CAN outfit, Lord! You can throw them in the garbage can & make fools out of them & embarrass them. Humiliate them, Lord! Expose them & punish them for what they've done to us & to a lot of other innocent people. Now they're trying to prove that the Davidians are dangerous in order to prove that they were right about what they did in Waco. Lord bless those who are fighting for the right & rebuke their enemies, in Jesus' name! (A jury recently acquitted 11 Davidians of murder, rejecting claims they ambushed federal agents. Several were convicted of lesser charges, & some were immediately released. Defense attorneys said, "I think this says loud & clear to law enforcement that you don't negotiate with tanks, you don't assault a house with people inside & you don't bring a case that you can't prove.")
Secret Believers!
34. (Maria: Some of our most dedicated lawyers are not even Christians. Some claim they're atheists or Buddhists or Jews. One of our lawyers says he doesn't believe in God, but his wife says, "Don't you believe it! He told me to go to church & pray the other day. Don't believe he doesn't believe in God!") There were many secret believers in New Testament times. (See Jn.3:1-2; 12:42; 19:38.)
35. Many of our lawyers are rebels & revolutionaries & hate the System themselves, but feel compelled to work in it. Thank God they do, or we wouldn't have any lawyers! And the Lord does say, "He that receiveth you, receiveth Me."--Mat.10:40. Secret believers! They don't dare tell the World or even us, but they must be. (Maria: At least they believe in what we're doing & they believe we have love, so they must believe in God somehow.) They undoubtedly believe we're being unjustly persecuted, & a lot of them are great defenders of freedom & don't like to see minorities persecuted. Especially the Jews feel that way, who have been in that position themselves so many times.
36. So thank God for them! Bless them, Lord, in Jesus' name. Give them courage & guts & wisdom & skill & power!--Thy power to defy our evil enemies & to turn the tide on their evil heads! Thank You Lord! Get Thy glory out of it, Lord, & cause it to purify our own hearts, purge us & make us white, more dedicated & willing to suffer & even give our lives for You & our Family.
37. This persecution certainly has made us many friends & made us a real witness & testimony to thousands, if not millions, counting all the publicity! So praise the Lord! The Lord has gotten great glory out of it & great victories & a lot of good publicity to overcome the negative publicity we used to get. The Lord's making us a real witness, good witnesses, a great testimony to the Truth! Thank You Jesus!
38. Finish the work You've begun, Lord! You've promised. That was the verse I got two or three days ago, "He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the End!"--Phil.1:6. What good He's begun in me, He's going to finish it. Praise the Lord!
We're Religious Activists!
39. I guess the Lord had to give us a musical start to capture the hearts of the young. Music is the message, & it really started us off. My teaching was just a supplement. The music captured their hearts first, & then the Bible won them. (Maria: The music was the bait.) The Word was what captured their hearts, & I just presented the Message in a way that appealed to them. It had to be radical, it had to be anti-System, it had to be revolutionary & give them a cause to fight for, to take action!
40. We were religious activists from the beginning, & our young people liked to march & picket & demonstrate & put their whole selves into the Cause. I think they even enjoyed going to jail! They were our first martyrs. When you hear preachers today talking about martyrs, you wonder how they even have the nerve! Most of them don't know anything about martyrdom, persecution or suffering. When we first got started, arrests & jail were almost the norm.
Bithia's Miraculous Conversion!
41. That was a wonderful story I read of Bithia's (Paula's) conversion & confession of all the mistakes she made, all the terrible things she did. She was one of our enemies' prime informers & the one who sicced the authorities on us both in France & elsewhere! I think when she heard what the authorities did to the children in those raids, that's what really did it. She'd been feeling so self-righteous that she was "liberating the children from the Family," but instead they were all being thrown in institutions & treated terribly! So I think the Lord used that to help her to repent & to see that she was doing more harm than good. [DELETED] She was almost engineering the whole thing & was the biggest informer for CAN & pretty much behind it all.
42. So that was quite a conversion, & that's why Mama suggested the name "Paula" for her! Her conversion was just about as miraculous as Paul's. Now she's sorry & trying to undo all the damage she did. Of course, like the "Pastor's Pillow," she can't undo it all now. But the Lord has used it, praise the Lord!
Appeal to the Oldline Denominations!
43. The main churches that defended us in Argentina were the Methodist & Lutheran churches. It's a fulfilment of what I told the Family: Appeal to the old-line denominational churches, they'll be far more broadminded, lenient & open than the Fundamentalists. The main Protestant that was very antagonistic towards the Family in Argentina & said they should have been kept in jail was a Baptist minister, a leader of the Baptists.--Typical of most Fundamentalists & Evangelicals.
Victories Out of Seeming Defeats!
44. It's amazing how our enemies are just so vicious & vile, willing to attack us all over the World. It's costing them millions of Dollars! They think we're that important to get rid of--"the most dangerous cult on Earth!" Yes, we are the most dangerous to the Devil because we have the Lord & preach His Truth!
45. We're winning our court cases everywhere so far. We're all done now in Sydney. Boy, the Lord really judged Sydney with those brush fires! And now in Melbourne they're trying to bring out all their big guns, CAN's so-called "expert witnesses" & dirty backsliders. Our enemies have lost so many other cases, they don't want to lose this one.
46. The Lord's accomplished His purpose through it all. We've won a lot of friends in high places & gotten out the Message all around the World. It's been publicised! Now the Lord's helping us wind up the last vestiges of these court cases in which our enemies are trying their best to defeat us. Having failed in all the other cases, they're trying their best to win now in England and Melbourne. Boy, I'll tell you, they really drag these court cases out! No wonder they use so much of the taxpayers' money, no wonder it costs so much. It's terrible!
47. In the meantime we're getting a lot of publicity, winning a lot of friends & getting out the Message! We've never ever had so much publicity in the media!--And now it's turning into mostly good, favourable publicity & exonerating us. So it's wonderful what the Lord has done & how He's answered prayer! He's turned seeming defeat into glorious victory! Thank You Lord!
48. Although it seemed the Argentina affair was the worst yet, it has won us the most friends in high places--judges & lawyers & academics & all kinds of people. The situation there was particularly bad because Argentina has not had much liberty for a long time. They were under a military dictatorship for years, in which tens of thousands of people disappeared.
49. So the fact that we're doing so well there is pretty miraculous, because that country has only been free now for nine or ten years, & it appears that the same generals are still pretty much running everything behind the scenes through the Argentine president, Menem. The rich & powerful don't fade away very easily. Those generals are usually rich & powerful, so Argentina still isn't very free & democratic.
50. This whole episode has even won us friends in the United States who have come to our defence. So in spite of all the seeming defeats, the Lord's giving us some great victories! Praise the Lord!
The Salvation Army!
(Dad's comments while listening to the new Fight Songs Tape, "Onward & Upward":)
51. I can just see our Family marching down the street like the Salvation Army used to! I wonder if they ever do that any more? Well, we're a new army! (Family: Yes, we've picked up their torch!)
52. It's pitiful what the church doesn't do! They'd rather just sit around & enjoy each other's fellowship, being "secluded in their blessings," as our Family song goes ("You Say You Love My Jesus"), while the World goes to Hell! They even sing some of these fighting & marching songs--although not nearly as much as they used to--but then they never get out to do what they're singing. I used to tell my congregation, "This is not service! You say this is a church service? We're not performing any service here. Your service begins when you walk out that door!"
53. The Salvation Army used to come out of their little hall, stand on the front steps & get their instruments ready, then the leader would start them off & they'd march down the street playing away, right through the middle of town. Then they'd stop there & play & sing. Some of them were always passing tracts & then they'd take an offering. After all, they'd given a concert! And of course then they preached, & that's when the crowd grew smaller.
54. I told you the story about the girl who went to the altar at Mother's meeting. This girl, a prostitute, said, "Do you mean that's all I have to do--just let Him in?" And she let Him in, praise the Lord! Just then she heard the Salvation Army marching by, so she marched out the door & marched down the street with them. She wanted to go to work right away, & she knew that in those days she could do it with the Salvation Army. She lived for about two years after that, distributing food & clothing to the poor & preaching the Gospel, & was called "The Angel of Such-&-such Street." (See ML #47:49.)
55. William Booth, their founder, got a lot of persecution. He got thrown out of the Methodist Church for heresy, just like we've been thrown out of the church for our beliefs. You've heard that story about Mrs. Booth getting up on the balcony & saying, "William, don't you shilly-shally!"--Ha! He was on trial by the church, in a big church in London, & if he would compromise his beliefs he could remain a Methodist. But he wouldn't, & the Salvation Army was born!
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God!"
(Listening to "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God":)
56. Dear Martin Luther covered it all in that song! I used to sing that in church & it really inspired me. When I was singing it I was always thinking about Martin Luther in his day of the Reformation. The Devil was really fighting the early Protestants & they were getting killed & martyred. But the Truth lived on & much of the World became Christian. Just think of it, in just my lifetime the World has changed from a Christian World to an anti-Christ World!--Especially the U.S.
The Churches Have Lost Their Fight!
57. I was thinking about how our folks can get out there on the street & with all their hearts sing these fight songs to people eyeball to eyeball!--The power of the eyes, the eyes have it! The churches hardly ever even sing them any more. They're not having any fight. They seem to feel they've won the fight.
58. Imagine sitting in church singing songs like that! It just sounds ridiculous now! They're not fighting, they're not doing anything. Boy oh boy, when I was back in the churches we could've at least done like the Salvation Army & assembled outside on the front steps & started singing, even if we didn't have an instrument.--Although we usually had some guys who played instruments. Lamont played the trumpet & I played the saxophone, & we even had a church orchestra at the Tabernacle & the Church of the Open Door.
59. But what's the use of having all that in church when you could take it out to the public? You just wonder what in the World was going through our heads in those days! We thought our service was all in going to church & that was it. Most people never even thought about going out witnessing. Well, our church did have a strictly volunteer group, usually a handful or a half-a-dozen, who went downtown on Saturday nights & stood on the main corners & passed out tracts. At least we did that much, & we also went to the hospitals & prisons. (Family: Did you go personal witnessing there?) We went in church groups. You were not allowed to witness in these institutions unless it was sponsored by a church. (Family: What did you do?) We'd stand there & sing & testify & somebody would preach a sermon, a regular service, & then we'd pass out tracts before we left.
60. I remember at that big federal prison in Jacksonville, the prisoners couldn't see us too well, so they stuck little hand mirrors out through their bars so they could see us. (Family: Didn't they gather in an auditorium or a cafeteria or something?) They do in some prisons, but this was death row where Horace Alderman was. He had a regular revival in the prison! Everybody got saved, including the wardens! So he's the one that got us in there, because normally they didn't let anybody into death row.
French Social Services Counter-Propaganda!
61. I watched a video last night about how the French Child Protective Services treat the children they take into their custody. It was terrifically complimentary about how wonderful they are to children, & how much they do for children & how good they are to children. I have a feeling that they released that movie about now to try to let people know that the Social Services are not as horrible as we've said they are.
62. It was totally complimentary to the Child Protective Services, how they were so good to even this very bad little boy. How they did so much for him & they were so patient & merciful with him, how they tried to do everything for him, give him everything he wanted, everything he needed, his own room & toys.--And how good his foster parents were, & how he loved them, & everything was rosy. The French foster care system couldn't have been portrayed as being more beautiful, angelic, patient & merciful & taking better care of their kids.
63. I had a real feeling that that film is being released right now to try to counteract the reputation we've been giving them worldwide with our demonstrations & picketing & publicity! I think it's embarrassed them, & now they're trying to get out this counter-propaganda.
64. They showed how this especially bad boy had turned into a real criminal & what patience they had with him. And I thought to myself, "Are these the same people who treated our kids so brutally? Is that you, John?" Goodnight! It made them look like angels! I just have the feeling that it's propaganda that they're putting out to try to polish up their image after our exposure & say, "We're not that bad. We couldn't have done such a thing!" Well, they are that bad & they know they've done it & we're still suffering from it! They may have released all our kids now, but they're still considering five-year prison terms for fifteen of our adults!--Who are guiltless, & there's no evidence or proof they've done anything wrong! Some of those French authorities are just the Devil's own monsters, demons, fiends!
65. I was watching it through to the end, thinking, "What's going to be the message? What's going to be the end of this? How will they treat this terribly bad little boy that caused his mother so much trouble?" She turned him over to them because she couldn't handle him any more. So it was like they were saying, "You see, we were much kinder to him than his own parents." Get it? "We saved him."
66. At first it showed how bad he was & how bad he got under his parents' care, how they couldn't handle him & he was committing crimes. They even said they were afraid he was going to kill somebody, so the mother & father just finally said, "We can't handle him any more. You'll have to take care of him." So the Social Services took good care of him, put him in a good foster home, & every time there was any kind of complaint or problem, they'd come to them & they would handle it & help them & be patient with the boy. Even the foster parents finally decided they couldn't handle him & thought maybe they ought to give him back to Social Services & put him in detention. And Social Services begged them not to turn him in, they didn't want to put him in detention--they were just such kind people.--Ha!
67. Isn't that something? What a lie of the Devil for that kind of a film to get out right now from France!--And spreading it all over the World! It's getting worldwide distribution, so apparently they're concerned about what the World thinks about French child welfare agencies.
68. What horrible, lying, deceitful propaganda--portraying just the opposite of what they've done to us! So that's what they're telling the World: "We don't abuse children, we take them away from parents who abuse them. We're being good to them & raising them as good citizens & blah blah!"
69. The parents, of course, were vilified because they couldn't handle the boy & they turned him over to the Social Services. Of course they made it voluntary on the part of the parents, they didn't come & raid their home & take him away. In this case the parents complained themselves & asked for the officers to come & take him away.--Just the opposite of what they've done to us.
70. Such lies, such deceit, making angels out of the Child Protective Services!--God damn them! God bless them for any good they do--which people seem to think they do--but we certainly have not seen it.
71. Anyhow, that's something new to pray about. They're coming back now with a flood of propaganda in which they don't attack us directly, but they just show themselves to be so beautiful & wonderful.--In other words, inferring that we're liars, that they have never done such a thing as brutalise our kids & couldn't do such a thing! I just wanted to tell you what our enemies are doing now to try to whitewash their image.
Held Hostage in Argentina!
(Maria's counsel to the Argentine Family:)
72. (From Maria, 12/93:) In Argentina we have won a wonderful victory, but the battle isn't over yet! It seems to me like the "powers that be" decided they could silence our protests worldwide by giving us what we were demanding in releasing us from prison & giving us back the children, but still continue their evil plans to try to legally put us out of action by continuing this "investigation."
73. We are in a bit of a dilemma: On the one hand we proclaim a great victory worldwide--which of course it is--but this implies to the World that the whole thing is over & done with. So then if we come back later & continue our picketing because Argentina continues their persecution of us, it sends confusing signals. Nobody will get that stirred up about a case that is just being continued, or even a complaint that Argentina is holding our missionaries hostage in their country--unless you are real hostages in the way they think of them, bound & gagged in some small hole in the ground, tortured & beaten, blindfolded & deprived of sleep & food & water!
74. You have to have something a little more sensational than just saying, "The authorities want to continue their legal investigation, so we can't leave the country." To the public, I don't think this appeal would be enough to stir them up. And the Argentine authorities probably realised that & thought they could get us off their backs worldwide if they would at least free our folks for the time being, until they're able to get us on some charge that will stick, where they can throw us all back in jail & do it properly next time.
75. It's too bad Argentina didn't quit when they were ahead, when they & we could blame it all on Marquevich, that he was incompetent, & that even the members of the Bar Association want him impeached, & everybody could have passed the buck to him as this one renegade judge who is dirtying their nice "democratic" reputation. They could have saved face & excused themselves & their country. After all, everybody has somebody in their system who is corrupt, no matter how democratic the country may be. They would have done much better to have blamed the whole thing on Marquevich, dismissed the case completely & let us go with no strings attached. But like Pharaoh, who after he had told the children of Israel they could go, changed his mind, they probably hope that they can still find something to nail us on to effectively silence us.
76. Now we & whoever else may be watching know that this was not just a freak action done in an isolated independent manner by Judge Marquevich & the police chief acting under his orders. There were definitely much higher powers involved--the Argentine government, the U.S., ACs, & the Catholic Church. There are a lot of politics behind the scenes & a lot of reasons why they will say they had to continue the case, "since it was in the judicial system & it was in the wrong jurisdiction & the charges have been brought & the case has to be followed through," blah, blah.
77. The fact of the matter is that the "powers that be" could have easily dismissed the whole thing & gotten rid of us, but they apparently are not going to give up so easily. They are fighting against the religious group that they consider the most dangerous to their System. We've slipped through their fingers so many times before, they're determined not to let it happen again.
78. They've got their backup cases like England & Australia, of course, but they're not even so sure of them that they don't want to do all they can to win in Argentina. Anyway, the forces that are really behind all of this don't care that much about Argentina's reputation with the rest of the World. They've got a larger, much more important agenda, & they're not worried about a little country's standing in the World community. They're much more interested in destroying us than they are in upholding Argentina's so-called "democratic" reputation.
79. Well, what now? We've concluded that the "Romans 8:28" in this is that the Lord probably did not want us all to split the Argentine scene immediately. That's why He is allowing this "hostage" situation, so that we will stay long enough to warn the country of God's judgements that are going to fall on them, & are even now beginning, not only for their treatment of us, but for those who they have so mercilessly treated in the past.
80. The Lord has indicated this several times in prophecies, that the spirits of those killed & imprisoned in Argentina in previous years are crying out for vindication, & we are going to help to bring on the judgements against their (& our) persecutors.
81. But all of this doesn't mean that we should just accept being held hostage in Argentina with a smile & act like they're doing us a favour to let us remain in their country. I think we're going to have to yell & scream & raise our voices against their continued injustice & the ridiculous fallacy of all of this!
82. It's bad enough to have one innocent victim charged & harassed & persecuted, but to have over 200 people at one time being caused so much trouble, time, effort, money & heartache, & to have it just accepted that "this is the democratic process that has to run its course" is ridiculous!
83. And to make our poor children go through more tests when they've already been through so many for three months is absolute cruelty! If they haven't figured out yet that our kids are okay, & they won't accept the valid finding of independent experts, what good are further testings going to do? Here they've abused our children for three months, starting with the extremely traumatic experience of being raided, torn from their parents, taken at gunpoint, yelled at, lied to, thrown into horrible conditions with delinquents, where they shivered in the cold, had horrible meals, got all kinds of illnesses, had nightmares, became fearful & aggressive & selfish, weren't allowed any schooling, etc., & now they want to psychologically test our children to see how happy, well adjusted, emotionally secure, creative & independent they are!
84. Do you honestly think any child, after having been abused in the horrible way that the Argentine government has abused our children, would pass a psychological test with flying colours? It would take an absolute miracle! I think we should fight these tests for all we're worth! What a horrible, lousy, ridiculous, evil excuse to keep us in that country!
85. It's my opinion that the adults should get on all the talk shows they can, all the radio shows they can, & in all of the newspapers they can & continue to shout & yell & cry "religious persecution." They need to publicise their false imprisonment & the institutionalization of the children, telling their stories left & right. What they need to do this time, though, in addition to the accounts of the horrible conditions & circumstances they were subjected to & the people who mistreated them & their children, is to highlight the reasons behind this religious persecution.
86. The public is still not going to get the point that it's religious persecution until they understand the reasons why this is happening to us. If you don't give them strong enough reasons that they can believe for why this is happening to us, then they will opt to believe the lies of our enemies. [DELETED]
87. You've got to convince people of the real reasons for your persecution. They've got to be presented effectively & clearly & powerfully enough for people to believe them over the lies of our enemies, otherwise they don't have any other alternative but to believe the other side. After all, they've got to have some reason why all this is happening to you. So are you willing to come out head-on against our enemies?--Not just CAN & SPES (Argentine anti-cult group), but the whole range of enemies!--From the backsliders who wanted fame & glory in our group & couldn't get it, & therefore decided "if they couldn't be a great man, they'd kill a great man"; to CAN & SPES, who have several hidden agendas, including money; to disgruntled parents who have been embarrassed & humiliated because their child has joined a non-conventional group; to schools who don't like the competition that our Home Schooling gives them & how it exposes their own system; to the churches we expose because we're living the Bible while they are not, & who can't believe we could be Christians because of some of our controversial Scriptural interpretations; to the pro-abortion baby killers & Sodomites who hate us because we tell them that God is angry with them for what they're doing; to the AC New World Order, which has representatives working in all of these areas & which hates us the most & wishes to destroy us because we are exposing their plans for taking over the World & setting up their One World dictator, the Antichrist, who will abolish all faiths & demand that the whole World worship him!
88. You need to highlight in your talks the fact that over 600 of our children worldwide have been forcibly taken & tested by government officials, & have all been cleared; & in fact, have shown remarkably high test scores, showing that they were exceptionally well-adjusted, happy, delightful, creative children.--Many, amazingly enough, showed high test scores even after enduring traumatic treatment at the hands of our persecutors.
89. Highlight the Peruvian investigation, which continued intensively for three months into every aspect of our lives, with the District Attorney aggressively visiting the Homes with teams of doctors, lawyers, psychologists, accountants, etc., determined to find some wrongdoing. The authorities also ran exhaustive checks through various law enforcement & other government agencies such as the anti-narcotics bureau, the anti-kidnapping bureau, the missing persons office, the Immigrations department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Revenue Service & even the electoral registrar. But after three months they had to agree that they could not find anything except wonderful, beautiful children with loving concerned parents who were sacrificing their lives for their children, & also to reach people with the Truth of God's Message.
90. You can also point out the fact that 50 of our children were just tested in Mexico, & every one of them has received very favourable results. So this Mexican testing along with the Peruvian testing brings to about 700 the number of our children who have been medically tested, although this last hundred was at our request.
91. Another thing you should do is bring out the many ways in which we are similar to the Catholic Church, & that community life for the Catholics is one of the highest forms of service & sacrifice to the Lord, where their monks & nuns forsake all & leave their former lives & go into seclusion to pray & serve God. You could also talk about how the Bible says that true Christians will be persecuted, & how Christians through the ages have received persecution from the systems of their day.
92. So number one, expose the reasons behind this persecution. And of course the Catholic Church in Argentina is one of our attackers; it's not only us that they're targeting, but many others as well. We just make an easier target because they can more easily cover up their true motives when they attack us.
93. Number two, explain salvation by grace & how folks can come to have a personal relationship with God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
94. Number three, warn the people of God's judgements that are already falling on their country at this very moment, & will only intensify as time goes on unless they repent of their sins & stop what they are doing to us, God's prophets, & what they & their government have done to thousands upon thousands of other poor innocent victims for their own selfish, lustful, greedy purposes.
95. Be specific about God's judgements & how in spite of the fact that this government thought they were rich & increased in goods & a success with the World, God sees beneath the surface. He sees the corruption, violence, trampling of the poor & silencing of the dissidents (perhaps nowadays a little more subtly than before). The facade of democracy & economic success is fast crumbling, as evidenced by the way they have treated us & their poor. Journalists who try to speak out freely are attacked or intimidated. Corruption exists everywhere.
96. We also read in the news recently that the Argentinean airline industry has had a huge financial loss this past year.--And it's no coincidence that Air France has also suffered the same fate, both countries having conducted major raids against the Family this year! And this isn't all! Both countries are being plagued by all kinds of troubles now, and this is only the beginning unless they repent & change their ways.
97. While you wait for your freedom to leave the country, you can continue to show how this whole case against you is a farce & there is no evidence, & how the charges are ridiculous. You can hit them one by one & prove that there is no evidence to substantiate such ridiculous things. You can decry the horrible conditions you were placed under & relate your traumatic stories. At the same time you can campaign for better conditions in the jails & for the poor folks who are left there for years unwanted, forgotten, & uncared for. You can tell them how you prayed with the folks in the prison & were able to bring them hope.
98. Tell of the human rights abuses & the horrible child abuse of the government. Bring your young people on & let the public see them. Let them give their testimonies & be interviewed & sing & dance & show the people what wonderful fruits they are & what a wonderful place the Family is to grow up in. Try to get on as many talk shows as you can where you don't have to face the opposition, where you can have free rein to give your side of the story without the Devil trying to interject his.
99. It's a dangerous commission, & of course the powers that be aren't going to want to hear any of this from you. They may not mind hearing how awful Judge Marquevich is & all of the horrible things he did to you. They didn't mind sacrificing him in order to have him take the blame, but if you start hitting on the government & the powers that be & the rich & the Catholic Church, & SPES, & its henchmen, they're not going to be so happy with that!
100. I hate to ask you to do this, & in fact, we were expecting & hoping that as soon as the Appeals Court gave their ruling, you could immediately leave that evil country & go to where you could be free & happy & accepted enthusiastically by those who want to hear our Message. This was what we were hoping for & planning. We wanted to see you get out of there just as fast as you possibly could, to leave that place behind & hope you'd never even have to go back there again, but apparently the Lord has something else in mind.
101. We've heard that some of you came out of jail & almost immediately jumped enthusiastically back into the fray, giving interviews & getting on TV & speaking the Truth boldly! We're proud of you & admire you greatly. It reminds me of the incident in the New Testament where Peter & John were released from jail with the stern warning that they must not preach any more, & straightway went right back to their preaching!--Acts 4:1-20. You're the Early Church all over again!
102. This continued "preaching" will take a great deal of faith for yourselves & your children, but apparently the Lord is already leading you this way & we believe He will protect you & keep you until you are able to get this unfinished job done for Him, so that then you can all leave & He can judge the country accordingly.
103. What about it? Do you want to pray & ask the Lord for His confirmation, & specifically what He would like you to do? You're just wonderful & you've gone through so much & we'd love to see you have a rest from the battle & be able to relax from pressure, & we pray that it won't be long before you can! God bless you, & thank you for all your love, prayers, faithfulness & fighting spirit. We love & appreciate you very much!--Love, Maria.
Judgement Is Coming!
(Maria's counsel to the Argentine Family:)
104. (Maria:) Just a few more thoughts on the situation in Argentina: I think you should spread the word around to as many people as you can get it to, & especially the top government officials, that "we are going to fight here in Argentina until you let us go.--We are going to make noise & we are going to stir things up & we are going to do everything possible to get ourselves out from under your cruel, evil treatment of us!" And you might throw in a few words about how God's judgement is going to fall on them, & has already started for the way they are treating us.
105. And don't let them pass the buck to someone else & say, "We can't do anything about it, it's the judicial system!" Let them know that we know that they can do whatever they want to, & they have the power & they can say the word & we will all be free to go.--That we are surprised they're not smart enough to realise that they'd do a lot better in just getting rid of us all right now, & not trying to hang on to us, like Pharaoh. In fact, you could give them the story of Pharaoh. The Egyptians just kept getting further & further into trouble with the Lord as they continued to persecute the poor Israelite people. And that's what's happening with Argentina--their cup of iniquity is being filled.
106. We know that the Catholic Church is very powerful & probably has them by the throat, but they should fear God more than the Catholic Church. God is going to sock it to them much more severely for keeping us than the Catholic Church is going to sock it to them for letting us go. They may think that the Catholic Church is calling the shots, but they are going to see that our God, Who is a consuming fire, is able to with one raise of an eyebrow cause them all to collapse & tumble headlong to their destruction, whether it be political, personal, economic or health-related!
107. You'd better start putting out the word that judgement is coming & has already begun, & they may not believe now but they will believe. Tell them that we are going to raise our voices against these injustices, & this persecution of innocent Christians, & that it is God's plan that we use this time in Argentina during which we are being forcibly detained & held hostage, to expose the evil & proclaim the Truth. So we know what His plan is & we have our commission, but "woe to him through whom these offences come."--Mat.18:7.
108. You ought to try to see the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice, & President Menem. Even your friends should be told the message you are giving to the government officials, the media, legal world, etc., although you will have to make it clear to your friends that God will be merciful to them personally since they have helped us & blessed us & done what they could for us. So God will care for them. And though they may have problems along with the others in this life, He has a great reward for them in the Hereafter.
109. Furthermore, I would show as many folks there as you can our latest Media Advisory. This is the "Interview with John Francis" which sets forth all of our activities worldwide to help spotlight your situation there. Maybe they need to know & realise that we are not going to give up the fight if they choose to continue their persecution. You can tell them that we have distributed this Media Advisory to many embassies in Washington, D.C., & also in many capitals worldwide.
110. Furthermore, people only know what they read in the papers or hear in the media, since they rarely come to visit & see & talk to you in person. So you need to give them the facts--on TV, on radio, in the paper, in meetings, & tracts & flyers wherever you can. You need to dispel [DELETED] [EDITED: "a"]ll the wild tales which have circulated!
111. You need to not just take it for granted that because of your release these things have been cleared up, but you need to point by point explain, explain, explain, validate, confirm, declare, expose the lies & give the Truth! Also tell how Social Services is treating you, & the things they are demanding & their callousness & cruelty.
Government Child Abuse!
112. (Maria:) We need to show how these governments are the ones guilty of child abuse! We should make a list of everything our children suffered while they were in the government institutions & what they are suffering now as a result--how their lives have been negatively affected. Someone should do a detailed listing of what they went through & what the results have been, all the conditions they have undergone, & as a result the fear, the nightmares, the rejection, the refusal to submit to parental authority, the bedwetting, the aggressiveness & violence, the shortened concentration span, the insecurity, the loss of schooling, deficient diet resulting in lowered resistance to disease, lice, fleas, worms, & whatever physical difficulties this has resulted in.
113. The Argentina folks need to document this very thoroughly, every single thing that the kids went through that was traumatic for them or painful or difficult or fearful or negative in any way.--Then all the symptoms in their behaviour that have been manifested as a result. Don't forget about their exposing our children to a writhing, demon-possessed woman having a fit, & scaring them out of their wits with these creatures grabbing them, & all of the horrible gynecological tests, trying to brainwash & deprogram them, lying to them, trying to tear down their faith, etc. Let's hit hard at this governmental child abuse! We ought to sue them for it!
Why We Are Persecuted!
114. (Maria:) We need to bring out the specific reasons why we are being persecuted. Actually, the whole reason is quite complicated, or at least too spiritual for the World to understand. We Christians know that it's the Devil who is persecuting us, & he is using anything & everything he can to do so. For the World at large, it's difficult for us to point to only one reason, since there are so many reasons & so many avenues the Devil is working through to attempt to accomplish his goal.
115. Of course, the main reason is that we are playing an increasingly important part in God's Endtime battle against evil, & the Devil is very afraid of us.--Therefore he is working through every agent he has, religious or secular, anyone he can get to criticise us, or anyone who we have spoken out against that he can get to fight us. Anyone who isn't a real sold-out Christian or one of God's sheep is probably not going to agree with us, & many of them are going to be outspoken against us.
116. We are so different from their System & so opposed to it in almost every respect that they can't understand us. Not only are we opposed to it, but we let them know about it, which exposes, humiliates, embarrasses & convicts them!--And when people are embarrassed, humiliated, convicted & exposed, they usually strike back.
117. Not only do we have one Enemy, but we have many enemies coming from all directions, all inspired by one source--the Devil! However, trying to explain all of this to anyone, even Christians, is almost an impossibility, as it is so far beyond their comprehension. So we have to try to put it in terms that they will be able to relate to, & which will at least start them on the road to understanding.
118. There will have to be enough examples within our explanation that will open their eyes to see what is really happening, & break them out of the mindset they have that we must be getting what we deserve because of our sexual beliefs. Or if they don't have quite that vindictive a stance, they probably feel, "Of course, this is happening to them because of their past. What can you expect? People don't realise that they're not still doing these things, so you can forgive these governments for going in & attacking them."
119. This is what we have to refute in order to make the point that we are trying to make: That we are being persecuted for our religious beliefs. I don't know that our sexual beliefs can be included in your explanation, as it is almost too difficult for people to comprehend our sexual beliefs, even though we can explain it to them from the Bible. This is so out of their realm of understanding that it pretty much passes over their head.
120. So what would be our best plan of attack? How do we prove to people that we are enduring religious persecution, & not just "suffering for our sins"? We've got to disprove their claims that the authorities are just doing this out of concern for our children--"these poor children, who, if not sexually abused, are at least psychologically damaged" by our lifestyle & beliefs, they say. It's important for the whole Family to know how to clearly & powerfully help people understand the religious persecution issue.
121. It might help people to understand better if we explain that through our years of religious persecution we've been accused of whatever was a convenient charge or new phobia of the public at the time, varying from country to country, of course. This is another thing that helps to show that they attack us not because of this great "concern" for our poor little children, but that it is just the most effective charge that can be brought against people nowadays, & the one that arouses the public's ire to the greatest heights.
More on Why We Are Persecuted!
122. (Maria:) As evidenced even by some of our lawyers' reactions, both Christian & even some non-Christian people are still wondering why we are having all these troubles & being targeted by governments worldwide. They are not sure whether it's religious persecution or things that we are bringing upon ourselves. It's very important to show not only that we are being persecuted, but stress that we are being persecuted because we are Christians.
123. We have to first prove to most people that we are Christians before they will view what is happening to us as religious persecution. We can't just dive right in & say, "Look at us, we're suffering religious persecution, so you'd better watch out or you're going to get it soon, too!" Their reply may be, "Well, maybe you're not suffering persecution!--According to all the things we've heard about you, maybe you're being punished for your sins!" So we have a two-fold job: Not only to show that Christians are being persecuted today, but even before we can do that, we have to show them that we are indeed Christians.
124. This is something we need to keep in mind with any testimonies that we share, that they include not only the gory things that our folks went through, but also how they handled the suffering.--How they looked to the Lord; the miracles the Lord did for them; how they witnessed to their captors & fellow prisoners, the concern & love they showed toward them, & the sample they were to them. The latter is equally as important as the former, as it is proof that we are Christians, & that that is the real reason why we are getting persecuted.
125. A lot of stubborn diehards who would even concede that we are Christians will still say, "Well, we're Christians, too, but we don't suffer, so it must be because of all of these off-the-track doctrines that you espouse." Folks holding that kind of opinion probably are going to take a lot longer to be convinced, if ever, & it will take a lot more work than reading one little magazine like the PEN. I suppose in the PEN we will have to also keep harping on the details of why we're being persecuted--not just because we're Christians, since a lot of them are Christians too & they don't suffer.--But the things that we are saying & doing that are causing us trouble are according to the Word & part of the Message that the Lord has commissioned us to give to the World, & this is why we are getting it.--Because we are exposing the evil.
Prayer for Pearl!
126. (Maria:) Jesus, please bless & help & strengthen Pearl. It must be a very difficult time for her.--We know that she may sometimes feel as though the victories of the entire Family are up to her. Show her that it is up to You, Lord, & the responsibility of each member of our Family & we're all in this together. Help her to cast her burdens upon You so that You can sustain her. Please comfort her heart & help her, Lord. Help us to show that we're concerned about her & her well-being & peace of mind, & that we are behind her & are praying for her.
127. Give her the confidence & conviction to speak up boldly. Help her to have the faith & courage to withstand them. Make her bold & unafraid as she faces antagonism, & the demons of Hell themselves! Bless & help her, Jesus. Give her a sign that You're with her. Give her Thy peace & Thy rest in the midst of this storm, in Jesus' name.
"Five Minutes Longer!"--By Grandmother
(From "Meditation Moments":)
128. The Duke of Wellington, who conquered Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, said it wasn't that British soldiers were braver than the French soldiers, but that they could be brave five minutes longer. The victory was determined by holding on a little longer.
129. Anything wonderful can happen in that little margin of time when you don't give up but keep on believing and keep on praying. Robert Browning said as he faced death, "One fight more, the best and the last!"
130. If we would sometimes just put up one fight more against the Enemy who's trying to defeat us & discourage us, & just hold on five minutes longer! Dr. Frederick Harris described this spirit in these words: "Often the deciding issue in any contest is not when one is outnumbered, but where and when one stops fighting."
131. The final score is determined by a struggle that is pushed for just five minutes longer. So be sure in that five minutes you give God a chance rather than accept defeat. It's a decision, just a venture to hold on in spite of appearances and consequences.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family