DO 1467Tenerife 8/2/76

—Talk to Arthur & Becky after Gen had returned to the U.S. & the Creations Team to Tenerife.

1. I HOPE SHE NEVER GOES NEAR ONE OF OUR COLONIES, SHE'S A WITCH! She will cause nothing but trouble, so I certainly wouldn't want somebody to go & officially introduce her! (Art: We were told that you cleared her to go back to a Colony.) Well, that may be the impression they got, but knowing that she probably wouldn't, I said yes, suggest to her that if she wants to serve the Lord she could always go to a Colony there. But of course my hope & prayer is that she doesn't & that she won't & I'm certainly not going to help her to get to a Colony!

2. WHEN IT COMES TO SOME THINGS & SOME PEOPLE, SON, I CAN BE HARD, ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M DEALING WITH THE DEVIL HIMSELF, & THAT'S WHAT SHE REPRESENTS! She is as clever as the Devil, diabolically wise. Her letters can seem so sweet & so wonderful & so pitiful, but she's as clever & diabolically Satanic as the Devil himself! If you had been here when we went through Hell with her, you would know what we're dealing with!

3. PERSONALLY I DON'T WANT HER IN THIS OUTFIT, PERIOD! She got herself into that relationship with Eman without permission. She plotted the whole thing herself, cleverly‚ knowing she was getting close to the top, believe it or not. She can also sound very dumb & innocent, but you just talk to Emanuele & Rachel a little bit about how dumb & innocent she is. She can act dumb & innocent just like that Detective Colombo on TV, but the fact of the matter is‚ she is as sly & as clever & diabolical as the Old Boy himself!

4. MY GOD, THE TIME WE HAVE HAD TO WASTE ON THAT DEVIL WOMAN!—Hours, days, weeks & months! For God's sake, I don't want to waste another God-damned minute on her! And I hope she never goes near one of our Colonies because she'll never cause anything but trouble, nothing but trouble! But we had to say that, Son. Sometimes you have to say things—& it's true, she can return if she wants to—but you hope & pray she won't! But I certainly would not by any means have anybody go to any trouble whatsoever to specially introduce her or bring her in, & I want you to get on the phone & cancel that as fast as you can, if you have to call Tokyo!

5. (ART: WE'RE REALLY SORRY, BECAUSE WE WERE UNDER THE IMPRESSION YOU'D WASHED YOUR HANDS OF IT & didn't want to hear any more about it.) Well, that's what I mean, I'm through with her, yes, but I don't intend to make her somebody else's problem either, certainly not in one of our poor Colonies…! (Maria: And another one coming along pretty quick. And her health is terrible!) And all the little remarks she could make & things she could say to cause trouble in a Colony for us.

6. I DON'T THINK SHE HAS ANY IDEA OF GOING TO ANY COLONY IN THE STATES.—I DON'T THINK SHE WANTS TO. She just wants to come back here to be with him. And mostly to make trouble, believe it or not. No matter what she said in her letter, Son, we have been through it with her! … She is sometimes as clever as the Devil himself, she's diabolically insane!

7. SHE IS A WITCH, SHE'S POSSESSED! It was Satan's own cleverness to get her this close to us & she caused us nothing but trouble! She caused us all to have to leave the Island, Son, to make it look like we were gone forever‚ that's how much trouble she caused us!—And we sure don't want that to happen again!

8. YOU NEEDED THE INTERPRETATION OF WHAT I SAID FOR THEM TO TELL HER. That's why I've got you here, Son, I want a little better communication between us. I want to see you a little more often & discuss these things face-to-face that I don't care to say on the telephone or put on paper. We have a lot of misunderstandings if there's not sufficient communication. I could have told you that what I meant by telling her to join a Colony over there if she wants to‚ was just a stall to keep her from coming back to Italy, savvy?

9. IT'S THIS SERIOUS, THAT IF SHE CAUSES US TOO MUCH TROUBLE BECAUSE OF HER CONNECTION WITH EMAN, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SEND HIM BACK‚ we'll have to get rid of him‚ sad to say. He'd better know his job is at stake, & I made that very clear before he ever left Italy. I said he's going to have to make a choice between her or us. I told Justus that he is going to have to make his choice before he joins us or leaves Italy & cut it off now! And they delayed, Son, they didn't do it, & so here we have the problem still with us & here he is in this high-security sensitive situation again!

10. IT JUST MAKES ME FURIOUS AT THE WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM THAT THEY DIDN'T OBEY ME & CUT IT OFF THEN! Then we could have seen the reaction then so as to know whether he was going to get to come or not, & I think that's exactly why they didn't do it, because he knew it was going to jeopardise his coming. If she blew up & exploded & landed in Italy, he wouldn't be able to come. And yes, he wouldn't have been able to come, & he didn't want that to happen. So he has strung it out & Jus let him string it out!

11. I'LL GET RID OF THE WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM & DUMP THEM & SHIP THEM BACK TO ITALY OR GOD KNOWS WHERE ELSE AGAIN IF THEY CAUSE US ANY MORE TROUBLE! Those three really cause us a Hell of a lot of trouble! I was very very lenient, merciful & forgiving to ever bring them back on this Island again, but I will ship them back someplace where she can join him if she wants to—if he'll have her—but he's no longer working for me! I can't have a woman like that around.

12. TO THINK THAT WE THOUGHT WE PRETTY WELL HAD THAT THING SETTLED & of course they'd obeyed & we'd heard of no serious repercussions. The fact that she was still corresponding was, of course, understandable‚ of course she'd keep trying. But when I got down here & found out that they had come & still had not obeyed what I told them to do, to cut it off before leaving Italy‚ I was furious!—That amongst a few other things that Justus shouldn't have done.

13. WHICH MEANS THEY'RE A PROBLEM & THEY JUST ABOUT ALL DESERVE TO BE SENT BACK FOR IT! That's the way I feel. And if that happens, I don't need to be near any Creations team. I hate that time lag on the Letters, I love the situation where we can keep shooting things back & forth in a hurry & keep the stuff pouring out fast, but in the long run, unless the Letter is dated, the time lag turns out not to be all that important. Because as long as I'm constantly keeping them fed & they're constantly producing, the Letters are constantly coming out & nobody cares how much they're being delayed or not. They're just continually rolling off the assembly line & nobody knows how long the assembly line is, savvy?

14. I AM JUST FURIOUS THAT WE'RE ALL BACK HERE AGAIN & THEY'RE PLUNKING THAT PROBLEM IN OUR LAPS AGAIN! It just makes me furious to think that they're even asking us about it when I told them what to do about it‚ & it just makes me feel like shipping the whole caboodle of them off again! That's what they deserve. Poor little dumb Sally hasn't got much sense or much to do with it‚ but they all got us into it in the first place, including dear Becky here! But she's so dumb & innocent & unwary & apparently lacking in discernment regarding that woman, that she never saw through her.

15. EVERY CHILD GEN EVER TOOK CARE OF STARTED HAVING FITS OR SOME HORRIBLE PROBLEMS OF SOME KIND, INCLUDING HER OWN! You tell me that's a coincidence? This is just accidental? Don't tell me that! What do you think? (Art: I know it's not.) Well, if you'd had the trouble with her we had, you'd know, & what God gave me on her. I got my answer direct from the Lord as clear as could be. God gave me a Scripture verse out of the clear blue sky that I didn't even know, & her baby's name was in it!—Jonathan! (1Sam.20:30).

16. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE SCRIPTURE WAS & I LOOKED IT UP & THERE WAS THE BABY'S NAME IN IT, & THAT SAUL TRIED TO KILL HIM! And it mentions the name "the mother of Jonathan"! How could you be more specific than that? Thank God for His Holy Spirit & the miracle of His revelations! I got my answer straight from the Lord. I was as weak as anybody, thinking, "Poor girl, maybe we're wrong, maybe she's all right‚ maybe so-&-so‚ so pitiful‚ blah blah!"—& I was standing in the bathroom & boom!—That Scripture hit me like a bomb!

17. I WAS SAYING, "LORD‚ COULD WE BE WRONG? Maybe she's innocent, maybe she's just stupid, maybe she just doesn't know all these things." … If she did drop the baby accidentally, for God's sake, she would have known it & told Eman, wouldn't she? And if she didn't tell him, then why didn't she tell him? If she dropped that baby or hit that baby's head …, Son, she certainly would have known when it happened.

18. NOBODY AT THE HOSPITAL BELIEVED THAT THEY DIDN'T KNOW! They say it happened accidentally, well fine, but they couldn't believe the parents didn't know when it happened. …

19. … Do you want her in one of our Colonies? I want her in one of our Colonies like I want the Devil in one of our Colonies! I am just being shrewd, Son. I just told them what to say to get themselves off the hook. She's not a God-damned bit interested in going to one of our Colonies in the States, that's not the point.

20. SHE DOESN'T WANT TO SERVE THE LORD, THAT'S A LIE!—SHE IS IN FULL-TIME SERVICE OF THE DEVIL HIMSELF & she just wants to get someplace where she can cause some kind of trouble. Now we're right back at the same problem again because they didn't take care of it before they left Italy. Well, I'll blame myself. I just can't believe that people, when you tell them a certain thing‚ have absolutely ignored what you told them to do! Of course‚ I should have known that about Justus, he went ahead & did it his way & did what he felt was best in spite of what I told him, about the finances & a few other things.

21. NOW I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM THAT IF WE HAVE ANY MORE TROUBLE WITH THAT WOMAN, if she becomes any kind of a threat whatsoever, that that team is going to leave this island, & I probably will too! And if they leave & cause me to have to leave, I don't know that there will be much excuse for you being here any longer, would there? Maybe the simplest solution is just for me to leave instead of having to upset everybody else. If she causes a lot of trouble, I'll just leave you guys here holding the bag & you can figure it out the best way you know how, since they didn't take care of it like I told them to! At least it won't endanger my security.

22. SHE'S NOT NEAR AS ANXIOUS TO CAUSE THEM TROUBLE AS THE DEVIL IS ANXIOUS TO CAUSE ME TROUBLE THROUGH HER, like he's causing me right this minute!—My time, my strength, my thought! From five, six or seven thousand miles away she is causing me trouble again! Can you imagine such a thing? Taking my time & my thought & my energy again on what to do about her‚ that devil woman! She is a devil! My God, Honey, after what she did to the children you ought to know that by this time.

23. DON'T LET HER FOOL YOU AGAIN WITH ALL THAT SWEET TALK! She is diabolically clever, she just pours on the milk & the honey in those letters of hers‚ she is so clever. But you just wait until you cross her & see what happens—that's what I wanted to see & what I wanted to happen before they ever left Italy, not after they got down here & we got all settled again.

24. I WANTED THE EXPLOSION TO HAPPEN THEN! If she came barrelling back on her roundtrip ticket to come there & explode, I wanted it to happen there, while I'm down here, not while we're all here. This is just unbelievable after all I told Jus when he sent letters to me asking what to do, & I told him exactly what to do! Eman doesn't know beans from beans! He got sucked in by her witchcraft to begin with, & I think he's still a sucker! I think every time he gets a letter from her it touches his soft spot & he feels sorry for her & he doesn't want to make the break. (Art: That's what's been happening.)

25. WELL, IF THAT'S HIS ATTITUDE, SON, & IF THAT'S HIS CONDITION, THEN EITHER HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO GO OR I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO! I think under the circumstances, since everybody's here & operating well & good & you're here & we've got these houses all rented & it's a nice climate, the smartest thing for us to do is get rid of the two people that can go without causing too much of a problem, & just let you guys stay here. I feared a fear & it came upon me! This is the very thing I didn't want to happen & I did everything to prevent.

26. IT'S LIKE THAT STORY ABOUT THE MECHANIC WHOSE BOSS SAID, "IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG OR THERE'S ANYTHING YOU'RE NOT SURE ABOUT, CALL FOR ME!" Well, of course you know what happened. The machine stopped or broke down or something & the mechanic thought he would show the boss how smart he really was. The boss didn't think he could understand that machine, but he was going to show him he could figure it out. So he dove into it & tried to repair it & wrecked it & finally had to call the boss.

27. THE MACHINE WAS NOW A HOPELESS CASE & A TOTAL LOSS & the boss said, "Joe, do you remember what I told you?" He said, "Yes, boss, but I thought I could fix it & I did my best. You can't blame me for doing my best!" The boss said, "Yes I do‚ Joe, I blame you for not doing your best, because your best was not to fix the machine but to call for me‚ that's what I told you to do. Your best was to obey & call for me, but you didn't."—And that's Justus Ashtree all the way around, several times over! (Thank God he's now left the Family!)

28. HERE WE ARE ALL BACK DOWN HERE AGAIN & THE PROBLEM STILL ISN'T SETTLED! He has brought it back with him instead of settling it before he ever left Italy. I told them! I know I was in Zoagli when I wrote that. I was beginning to just write notations on the letters & I didn't have time to copy them all. I know what I told him.

29. BUT HE SAYS IN HIS LETTER, "WELL, DAD, WE THOUGHT MAYBE IT WAS BETTER"—in other words‚ better than what you said—"to do so-&–so." Just like he did about the money! "Well Dad, the reason I didn't do what you told me to do was I figured it was better to do so-&-so!" That is Justus Ashtree through & through, Son, & I want to tell you, I don't ever want that to happen with you if I can help it or you can help it!—Even if you're right! At least if I'm wrong you can always blame it on me, but brother, if I'm right & it turns out you're wrong, you're in one hell of a fix!—Or we all are! Jesus help us, Lord, in Jesus' name!

30. IMAGINE, THE WHOLE TEAM HAD TO TAKE A BOAT & LEAVE THE ISLAND, EVERYBODY HAD TO GO EXCEPT ALF & SARA! I was deliberately trying to give everybody, especially Gen & Corny & a lot of other people, the impression that we had left the island for good, all of us. …

31. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST FOR US ALL TO MAKE THIS ROUNDTRIP? …

32. I WOULDN'T PUT IT PAST GEN FOR A MINUTE TO COME BACK TO ITALY & RAISE HELL WITH THE OFFICIALS & AUTHORITIES & the American embassy & everything else. … Do you get the picture?—Especially when they want to hear things like that. The authorities & officials want to cause us trouble, they just need the excuse & the cases. They wouldn't have caused us all that stir … in France if that guy hadn't had it in for us & wanted to give us a lot of trouble. He just needed somebody to give him the excuse to do it, that's all.

33. I DON'T KNOW IF ANYTHING WILL EVER HURT JUS' FEELINGS ENOUGH TO TEACH HIM ANYTHING! You'd think he would have been crushed by what happened last time! I felt sorry for them & I need them so bad & thought, "Oh‚ we can try it again, surely they've learned their lesson!" Well‚ this just proves they didn't. Maybe it would crush Jus enough more if he found out he was making me have to leave here while they stay to meet whatever comes, or whoever comes.

34. NOW HERE WE ARE ALL BACK AGAIN, SETTLED AGAIN, & THE PROBLEM STILL IS NOT FINISHED & we don't yet know her reaction or what she's going to do when the explosion comes. I have a pretty good idea [God would do whatever necessary to stop her] before He'd allow her to actually give us that much trouble. Or maybe we need it—like Jesus needed the Devil as His disciple—to teach us a few lessons.

35. WELL, QUITE OBVIOUSLY EMAN HAS NOT PUT HER OUT OF HIS HEART & MIND & CALLED IT FINITO, & I told him that if he didn't, it was the price of his job! I told him specifically that he had to cut that thing off & make his decision then & there between the job & her, but apparently he didn't, because he didn't cut it off.

36. JUST THINK OF ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS YOU & I NEED TO DISCUSS, & here we are again having to waste time on that God-damned witch & Eman's problems!—And his problem obviously now is that he did not give her up. (Art: Which added to Jus' problem.) Well, it's Jus' fault. He didn't do what I told him to do, to lay it on the line with Eman: "It's either/or, Eman, cut it off now or you're not going down there!"

37. I WANT YOU TO GO DOWN THERE & SOCK IT TO THOSE PEOPLE, SON‚ & show them what a hell of a mess they are & how badly they goofed!—That I am ready‚ for that reason, to send them back again, it has come to that! We don't dare take a chance on what she's going to do. We have to be prepared for it, & either they have got to go back to Italy & take it‚ whatever she's going to do, or I have got to leave, one or the other. It's them or me. They didn't do what I told them to do, they disobeyed again & didn't do it, & now they've forced us to have to take some kind of drastic action.

38. I HOPE THE NEXT TEAM WE HAVE DOWN HERE WILL BE MORE OBEDIENT THAN THEY HAVE BEEN & have a more obedient supervisor than Justus! Because when it comes to the showdown of what he thinks is best & what I think is best & there's a difference of opinion about it, so far Justus Ashtree has always done what he thought was best, regardless, & this is another sample of it. Whew! God help us!

39. I FEEL LIKE CATCHING THAT BOAT THAT LEAVES TOMORROW! Just about the time I think, "Well, thank You Lord, maybe we've got things all settled now & things will work out," I find out that the thing hasn't begun to be settled! It's hard to believe people are so easily deceived by the Devil & by a witch like that! I had to spend hours & hours & hours of tapes to show them how diabolically devilish & fiendish she was & to prove to them, like a lawyer, what was the matter with her! And then to have direct revelations from God on top of it to confirm it! Look at the time I have had to waste on that God–damned woman!

40. WELL, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF HER! I've had Gen up to here & I don't care to have any more of her! I'd rather take the next boat someplace & just disappear & drop out to where none of you know where I am, because that's what I would have to do. If she'd wind up down here looking for us, she's bound to find some of you sooner or later. She knows where the Cliffhouse is, she used to live there‚ & she's got a pretty good idea where the other place was. If I'm around here it's going to be almost impossible for you to tell her I'm not here‚ unless I'm not here, & that's how far she'd go if she can, I believe it!

41. I DON'T THINK SHE'D LEAVE A STONE UNTURNED! She had too good a thing in Eman. She knows she's got a real powerful hold on him, & obviously she still has it. (Maria: Did you ever hear about how she influenced his art?) He drew one piece of art here that had a picture of a Chinese demon mask on it & claimed he didn't even know it was there! It was as big as life, almost hit you right square in the face in this one drawing he made!

42. THE AMAZING THING TO ME WAS HOW FEW OF US SAW IT, how undiscerning & how unobservant most people are, including Justus & his team down there. I think Sally said she saw it & she thought it was kind of funny, but just figured it was an accident or something. That's right when he was having all that trouble with Gen. That demon she had, wanted his picture in the paper, think of it! There he was, leering at us right out of our own art!

43. AND WHEN WE CALLED IT TO HIS ATTENTION HE JUST COULDN'T EXPLAIN IT! He said, "I don't know how it happened! I know that she was just annoying me no end & I was in a bad mood when I drew that picture." It was just as clear as could be, exactly like one of those Chinese demon masks, eyes‚ mouth, the whole works, as plain as day! The first time I looked at it I thought‚ "My God, what is this? Do you see anything funny about that?" And Maria said, "Yes!"

44. SO WE GOT THEM ON THE PHONE RIGHT AWAY & SAID, "JUS, DID YOU SEE ANYTHING FUNNY ABOUT THAT LAST PICTURE?" "No, no." We finally got Sally on the phone & she said, "Well yes, I did, I thought it was kind of funny but I thought it was just my imagination or an accident or something." I said, "It wasn't your imagination, it was as clear as could be!"

45. THESE THINGS ARE REAL, SON‚ IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW IT! We are fighting in a war!—Not with carnal weapons & carnal man‚ but with spiritual forces, & they use people! They can't usually exert direct force or influence, they are restricted to using people by controlling their minds. Jesus give us wisdom, Lord! You know what's best, help us Lord!

46. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE I IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES? I'm open for suggestions. I have had this problem before‚ I know what I did before, but that is a hell of a lot of trouble & involves an awful lot of people because of a few stupid mistakes! Well‚ the first thing you need to do is get down there & tell them what one God-damned hell of a mess they are now in because they didn't obey & do what I told them & settle that whole thing before they ever left Italy.

47. WHAT THE HELL CAN I DO TO JUSTUS TO PUNISH HIM, to show him how awful his sins of disobedience are? Maybe I ought to send him & Eman both back. We always need a secretary, we need Sally here, dumb little girl, she apparently didn't know any better. (She does now! She was finally smart enough to leave him!) (GBY, Sweetheart!—ILY!—And I know you love me now! ILY!) It's totally Jus' fault because he's in charge of that Team & he's the one I wrote & he's the one I told what to do when he asked what to do about it!

48. I THINK HIS EXCUSE WAS THAT THEY TALKED IT OVER & DECIDED IT WAS BETTER NOT TO PRECIPITATE A CRISIS AT THAT TIME, & I have an idea why they decided not to, they were afraid it might jeopardise their trip down here. Well‚ it's not only jeopardising them now, but it's jeopardising us too because they didn't obey! And what are we going to do to them to teach them a lesson? What do you think we ought to do?

49. (ART: IN MY OBSERVATIONS OF THEM, THEY'RE NOT AT ALL UNIFIED EVEN AS A MARRIED COUPLE, NEVER MIND AS A TEAM OF THREE. They lack a spiritual unity as a couple‚ & as a threesome, a respect for brother & sister on Eman & Sally's part.) (Maria: That was another disobedience on the part of Eman & Sally.) (Art: I believe a couple of weeks ago Eman & Sally got it together eventually, & it helped for a couple of days.) Who did it help? (Art: Well, Jus said it helped Eman's peace of mind & approach & he was sweeter & happier.) But what did it do for Justus? He's the main problem!

50. EMAN & SALLY ARE JUST LITTLE KIDS, JUS IS THE ONE THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE SMART KNOW-IT-ALL who knows even better than I, & when it comes to a choice between doing what I tell him to do & what he thinks is best, he does what he thinks! He's the problem! (Art: He obviously aggravates the situation between the two of them‚ because if he wasn't the nature he is‚ they wouldn't rub each other the wrong way.)

51. DID YOU KNOW EMAN & SALLY FELL IN LOVE & GOT TOGETHER IN NEW YORK ON THEIR WAY TO EUROPE? That was probably God's design! Look what a perfect combination that would have been, how nicely we could have gotten along without Justus, period! (Art: Justus told me the whole story about his courting a girl named Love. I don't think he ever got over that.) You talk about another witch, there's another one! Not quite as bad off as Gen, but really oppressed with horrible spiritual problems. (Maria: As a result, her child is all messed up too.)

52. WELL, THE THREE OF THEM APPARENTLY TALKED IT OVER & DECIDED TO DISOBEY ME, so Eman's just as much to blame as anybody. Although I hold the leader of a team the most to blame. But when he managed to persuade his whole team not to do what I tell them to do, then they're all to blame & they all have to suffer the consequences.

53. SO WHO DO YOU THINK DESERVES TO HAVE TO MOVE—THEM OR ME? Who needs the punishment to learn the lesson of their disobedience? They didn't do what I told them to do & I think the only thing we can do is ship them back! Thank God we still have Zoagli & we can ship them back there & let them settle it from there‚ & then we'll see what happens. (Maria: Because Gen's apt to show up any day! In her letters she said, "I want to get back to you before I have this baby," & she's due in six weeks!)

54. OKAY, LET'S FOLLOW THROUGH, LET'S SAY THEY GO BACK—which is what they deserve for disobeying—what do they now know that they didn't know when we were in Italy? (Art: Where you are.) So if the whole thing blows up & maybe Eman gets under her power like he was before‚ or Justus gets fired & disgruntled, there is no end of what problems can arise when people want to turn on you & just get nasty & mean & bitter & try to get a little revenge! The vengeance of a disgruntled fired employee is pretty well-known down through history, they always try to get back somehow.

55. FRANKLY, IF SHE SHOWS UP IN ITALY, I DOUBT IF EMAN WILL BE ABLE TO RESIST THE SITUATION!—Especially if he hasn't got any more guts than he's had. And as clever as she is, I don't doubt a bit that she could worm out of him somehow where he's been. That is why we all went back to Italy, in order to resolve the problem & settle it, break it off … & see whatever the explosions & repercussions would be from it, find out what was going to happen as a result before we ever came back here.

56. SO WHEN I READ JUSTUS' LETTER ASKING US WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT—"we never did cut it off in Italy before we left, we all decided it was better to wait & not precipitate a crisis before we left"—just the opposite of what I told him, I just could hardly believe my eyes! Because that is what we went back to Italy to do, was to get rid of Gen, whatever it took! To think that they would have let us come back here again & come here themselves in direct disobedience to what I told them to do, & all the trouble is back here again without having solved the problem!

57. WELL FRANKLY‚ AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, JUSTUS DESERVES TO BE FIRED! Any employee who causes his boss this much trouble really ought to be fired! I mean, a one–time loser was bad enough, but a two–time loser is just too much! It reminds me of the old Indian saying‚ "Indian no make same mistake twice!" White men are always making the same mistakes! Justus has made exactly the same mistake & he's brought the problem back with him without settling it before they left.

58. WELL, SAY WE SEND HIM BACK—HE'S YOUR BABY, I'LL TURN HIM OVER TO YOU! What kind of an employee is he going to make? How can you ever be sure he's going to do what you tell him to do when he's always so God-damned smart & thinks he knows better? Maybe he can talk himself out of it somehow. Do you want him? Maybe you can do for him what I haven't been able to do, teach him how to obey! It's a shame to lose such a good team. At least he can take care of the baby & cook for them.

59. FRANKLY, I THINK IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR JUSTUS, SALLY & EMAN WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOGETHER LONG AGO & GOTTEN ALONG FINE! Eman loves children, loves the baby, he'd even be willing to take her baby. But it's Justus who rules the roost! A number of times when we told Justus what to do & Sally knew it, he went ahead & did it his way instead‚ & she confessed, "We knew you said so–&-so, but Jus said we ought to do so-&-so" & she's too weak to fight him.

60. I LOVE EMAN'S ART, HE'S REALLY INSPIRED! He's been doing even better since he's been here without anybody, especially without Gen! He may not be perfectly happy that way, but he may be a Hell of a lot happier than if he had to go back to Italy again & know that he & they are again in hot water because they didn't obey & do what I told them to do! It's the only answer I know of. They didn't do what I told them to do, so they've got to go back & do it. It's pitiful.

61. THEY'VE GOT TO GO BACK WHERE THEY LEFT GOD & TRY TO FIND HIM AGAIN, where they left His will & my will & the place of obedience. I know I have had to do it on occasion time & time again in my life when I didn't want to do something God told me to do & I tried to run out on it like Jonah did to Ninevah, & I had nothing but trouble & trouble & trouble! Sometimes it took me years to get back to where I left God's will, & almost every time I had to go back to the very place & the very situation where I left it!

62. LORD HELP US! HERE WE ARE IN WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A BUSINESS SESSION & THAT GOD-DAMNED EVIL GEN IS STILL PESTERING US & delaying the whole World & God's business! And now because they didn't obey! I just could hardly believe my eyes when I got his letter after he got back here asking me what to do about Gen‚ when I'd already told him not to leave Italy until they resolved that problem. Of course‚ he never told me he didn't. That's my mistake, not making sure he did.

63. I WAS IN SUCH A HURRY WANTING THEM, NEEDING THEM! I thought of course they'd do what I told them to do, having learned such a bitter lesson already for former disobediences. Surely they wouldn't even consider coming down here unless they did what I told them to do! Instead of that, they refused to do it for fear it might jeopardise their coming here & kept it a secret until they got here, never told anybody they didn't finish it up, because I couldn't have made it any clearer! I wish I had those notes.

64. THEY DIDN'T OBEY. … They didn't resolve the problem & they came back with it, & I'm not going to stand for it, that's all there is to it! I can't take a chance on it. We can find other secretaries who can do as well as Sally typing, or almost. Huldah's beginning to come back‚ but what do we want with another problem case, another problem child & a problem husband? Too bad I didn't marry them all & just bring them with me & forget about these guys, dump'm! But they couldn't wait. If they'd had a little more faith they might have‚ & they wouldn't be in such a mess!

65. WELL, AFTER HO LEFT, JUS WAS ALL I HAD IN THE WAY OF AN EDITOR TO TRY TO MANAGE PUBLICATIONS & I had to do what I could with him, that's all. Considering his "know-it–all, always right" temperament, what is he going to tell people when they go back in disgrace because they failed to obey & have to go back & do the job that they failed to do? What's his attitude going to be?

66. WELL, ONE THING HE'S CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO TELL THEM IS THAT HE EVER DID ANYTHING WRONG, that he was wrong or he made a mistake. He's just not the kind of person that ever makes a mistake, & even if you try to convince him he did, he'll still believe he was right. That's the way Jethro is, both of them such similar Cancers. The Lord once told me, "Jethro's like a king, quit trying to change him!" Even if I prove to him he's wrong, he still feels like he did the right thing. The only thing that ever makes Jethro toe the mark is when I wield the whip & really shake him up & scare him, & then he salutes! That's the only way I ever keep him in line.

67. WELL, I'M TIRED OF THE SUBJECT, I'M SURE YOU ARE TOO! Two hours of it, the same thing! I'm fed up with it! I'll take part of the blame, I didn't make sure that they had obeyed, I just wouldn't have believed that they wouldn't. It's almost unbelievable to think that they wouldn't, after having been through so much already. Well‚ praise the Lord!

68. (MARIA: THE LORD EVEN GAVE US A PROPHECY THAT THEY DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE HERE.) That was the time before, & again the Lord was right. I'm an old softie & I guess I'm too lenient. It has a rosy glow, until it turns out to be what God said. So maybe I'm the guy who's to blame & I have to pay. It'll be our loss too.

69. AS LONG AS THEY KNOW WHERE I AM, IT'S A HAZARDOUS RISKY SITUATION, especially with Gen about to blow up & knowing how weak Eman is whenever she's around. She just holds a grip of iron on him, a vice! She knows every trick of the trade. If it hadn't been for Rachel, we wouldn't have even gotten her out of Italy. Rachel did what I told her to do, persuaded her to go voluntarily, & she did. Then they were supposed to cool it & cut it off while she was gone & drop out & disappear. …

70. SO I DON'T SEE ANY OTHER WAY OUT, DO YOU? We can't stand the chance of having them down here & me here too while the Gen problem is still pending. That's the only thing we can do is make them go back where they left off obeying & get it taken care of there. They'll just have to leave all that equipment this time instead of dragging it back with them.

71. ONE THING I DON'T THINK GEN THOUGHT I WOULD DO IS WHAT I DID—I up & left the Island & told everybody to leave—& we left first so she'd know that we were gone. Maybe that will teach Justus a lesson even more than to have to send him back, to know that he made me have to leave again & for the same reason!

72. DON'T CUT OFF ALL HOPES! Don't make it sound like we're in the process of dehiring & firing them & that's why we're making them leave all their stuff here, just tell them we're hoping they'll be able to come back to it, but we don't want them to be here when Gen explodes. Tell them, "We told you to solve that & settle it before you left Italy, & you didn't, so now you have to go back & do it!"

73. IT'S AMAZING THEY HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN‚ EXACTLY THE SAME AS WE HAD TO DO LAST TIME! It's unbelievable! See‚ they don't seem to think it's very serious. They seem to think, "Oh well, we can taper it off, blah blah blah"—& Eman just rocked along, has not even written her! … You've just really got the pressure for a time bomb to explode! …

74. ALL THE TIME JUSTUS HAS BEEN JUST ALIBIING & POSTPONING THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT, trying to keep from any kind of a crisis ever coming. Well, it's bound to come, & for God's sake, we don't want it to happen while they're here! If you can think of some better place to send them besides Zoagli, it's up to you‚ but that's the logical place to me‚ because that's your Colony there, handling our publications, etc.

75. SEND THEM BACK UNTIL THE SITUATION IS RESOLVED & impress on them how much their mistake is going to cost us & how much trouble! They can be thankful if it doesn't cost them all their jobs, or we'd never trust them again when they disobeyed so many times. I made a crack on one of Justus' letters, I said, "While you're at it, maybe you could explain why you didn't give Rachel & Arthur more cooperation when you were in Italy!" He writes me back a letter that sounded like Malachi's last chapter: "Wherein have we done this? I thought we were cooperating marvellously, getting along great!" He doesn't even see it or he refuses to see his faults.

76. WELL, I'M TRYING TO THINK OF HOW TO PAY FOR THAT MISTAKE, & I guess we're all going to have to pay for it. I told them to do it but I didn't make sure it was done. I didn't make sure that you knew they were supposed to & see that it was done. I just assumed that of course they'd obeyed me & it was done, & I was dumbfounded when I got a letter a couple of months after they got here—he didn't write me right away by any means—asking, "By the way‚ we didn't settle about Gen, what should we do now?" Most employers would have fired him on the spot!

77. WELL‚ IT'S JUS' PROBLEM & I HOLD HIM PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE! He rules the roost with an iron hand & they're pretty much pawns in his hand, he really controls it. Eman hasn't got enough gumption to do anything on his own & neither has Sally. (Maria: That's the trouble with a lot of these wives‚ like Leila & a lot of these people. They know when they see their husbands committing some crime or disobeying, that they have recourse, they know that they can get some action on it. They're not that weak that they can't fight back, they can tell you about it!) They deliberately protect them, & I'm sure in this case they were all protecting themselves for fear it would jeopardise their coming.

78. MY LORD, HELP & FORGIVE ME IF I SAID ANYTHING ELSE THAT HE COULD POSSIBLY—LIKE JETHRO—TWIST AROUND TO TRY TO VINDICATE HIMSELF! "Well‚ Dad, but you said so-&-so later! But once upon a time you said so-&-so & I took it for granted that maybe in this case that covered this & that meant so-&-so!"—& he interpreted what I said & twisted it around to excuse himself & give himself a tiny loophole to get out. And I wouldn't be surprised Justus may have some little thing like that!

79. I DON'T USUALLY LIKE TO GIVE REAL HARD ORDERS & GET TOUGH WITH PEOPLE. Usually they're pretty far gone when I get that way & I lay it on the line & lay it out & say, "You do thus & so or else!" I usually give my orders in the form of suggestions & my wish should be their command! I shouldn't have to order them.

80. I THINK THAT'S HOW HE GOT OUT OF THE MONEY DEAL. He said, "Well Dad, I understood that was your suggestion that I do that, but when I got there & saw the situation, I decided it would be better for us to keep a little Creations fund in our own account." In other words, he felt he had some option to make a choice because I didn't make it a firm straight order.

81. I SAID, "GIVE ALL YOUR MONEY THAT YOU HAVE LEFT TO RACHEL WHEN YOU GET THERE & any further cheques you get from WS, send over to her." But he tried to vindicate himself by calling those "suggestions" in his next letter to me when I found out. Of course, he never told me that they didn't do it, I had to find it out indirectly from Rachel. I had to ask her outright, "Did Jus give you what he had left? We gave him quite a bit of landing money so he wouldn't have trouble getting into the country, all his surplus funds‚ is he turning over to you his cheques?"

82. SO THEN I HAD TO WRITE A RED-HOT LETTER TO JUSTUS & ASK HIM HOW COME, WHY NOT? And he gives me all these alibis & excuses‚ "We needed new equipment, I needed this for so-&-so, blah blah blah blah!" And I think even after that he still failed to turn over his cheques to Rachel & I had to send him a red-hot tough demand for his cheques before he would let those claws loose! So until this is settled, watch out how much money you give him in the way of reserves. It might be a good idea to stop his monthly cheque too & just let him use up that reserve until he straightens things out.

83. CAN YOU THINK OF ANY OTHER WAY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OUTSIDE OF MY LEAVING? As long as Eman & they are here & Gen wants to see him, she's going to turn Heaven & Earth upside-down to try to get to him!—With one baby & she claims another one on the way! (Editor's note: She had twins!) Well, I certainly don't ever want her anywhere around us again.

84. I TOLD EMAN AS CLEAR AS I COULD IN A NOTE TO JUSTUS THAT HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN GEN & HIS JOB, & that was the same letter. I can remember writing it down the margin on Justus' letter asking me about what they should do, that they'd have to cut it off. Well, this was already a disobedience because I'd already told them that that's what they were to do before they even left here! I said, "You have to go back to Italy now & thresh this thing out & get rid of Gen & cut that thing off completely‚ period!" But they never did it.

85. AND JUST BEFORE THEIR LEAVING THERE THEY WRITE ME A LETTER SAYING‚ "OH, EMAN HAS CHOSEN HIS JOB!" Well, he didn't choose his job if he didn't get rid of Gen! And if he wants Gen, then his job will have to be someplace else, but not around here! Nobody else wants her, Rachel & Emanuele just can't stand her! She's a snoop, always snooping around & seeing what's going on‚ who's doing what & who's where, with an uncanny nose for news‚ watching Rachel & Emanuele's every move, comings & goings‚ snooping around in their house. She is a real devil! A real devil! So I don't know any other solution, unless I leave & leave you with the problem.

86. I'LL TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, I'D HATE TO SEE YOU WIND UP WITH HER RIDING DOWN HERE WITH THAT … CHILD & about to have another one on her hands, even if I weren't here! (Maria: She'd stir up a lot of trouble for you.) And her mother … hates us so much! She collects material against us & everything! So her mother would just love this now‚ to say we'd thrown her out with a … child & pregnant with another one—that's just the kind of news she'd love to hear & spread around. (Art: It really makes you prayerful about the people that get so close to the top, like Corny & Gen.) And Lucy. We don't know what's going to happen when they leave, if they'll stay loyal or not.

87. IF THEY WANT TO KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT GEN, well, go back & have it out & don't come back here until it's finished! That's the only answer I can think of. Either that or I've got to leave. Tell them that we want Eman to go ahead & write her & cut it off & tell her he's through, & watch to see what she does when she explodes, & if she grabs the next plane to Italy—thinking he's there, of course, because the letter comes from there.

88. SO IT'S A PROBLEM & I FEEL SORRY FOR ALL OF US! We feel tempted to feel sorry for Gen sometimes, such an instrument of the Devil, but she's caused us so much time & trouble, I can't feel that sorry. I cannot jeopardise the Lord's work for one weak soldier. If Eman's so feeble that he falls right in & feels obligated to her & that he needs to take care of her, then he'll just have to go, & the best thing to do would be to ship him off to the States too. (Maria: He's really been murmuring, too, because nobody tried hard enough to help her get into a Colony.)

89. WHO WANTS TO HELP HER GET INTO A COLONY? I wouldn't want her in my Colony, would you? (Maria: That's true, but that shows his attitude, he doesn't realise either.) Well, Son‚ who is going to tell him? Now that's what you're here for‚ you're my hatchet man! You're going to have to go down & lay the axe to the root of the tree & tell them it's their fault. Eman didn't forsake Gen in his heart, obviously, he didn't cut it off & he didn't tell her off before he came, which he was ordered to do by me!

90. OF COURSE, MAYBE JUSTUS NEVER TOLD HIM! Who knows? We don't know if Justus told him about what I said to him. (Becky: Justus was saying how he tried to get Eman to write for a long time.) Let me tell you, he could have gotten Eman to write! Don't give me that kind of Jethro excuses! (Maria: He's so much like Jethro!) He could have laid it on the line & said, "Here's the paper & the pen, now you write her a letter or else!—You're fired!" He could have gotten it done. He's probably just covering his own tracks to have some excuse & blame it on somebody else. Jeth could do anything, artful dodging, always telling me it was somebody else's fault, never his. Lord help South America! (Where Jeth was!)

91. WELL, I CAN'T REALLY MAKE ANY DECISION MYSELF RIGHT NOW because I don't know just what their attitude is & what the situation is, how they are going to react. As long as Eman is wavering between two opinions, as far as I'm concerned he has to make a choice. He has not forsaken her in his heart.

92. (MARIA: EMAN'S ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY, EVEN WHEN THEY'D GO DOWN & CONFRONT HIM.) Right here when it was all going on. (Maria: He'd sort of accept it & the next day change his mind.) I know he really stuck to his guns on that [injury] story, that's something he's held back. The baby was fussing & crying so she gave it to him so she could cook supper. He claims that she handed him the baby & he kept crying, & 15 minutes after he had the baby he discovered this big lump on the baby's skull. She said she didn't know how it happened, didn't know what was wrong. And they didn't report it to Jus for about two hours.

93. THE TWO COUPLES WERE LIVING IN DIFFERENT HOUSES THEN. …

94. HE CLAIMED HE DIDN'T KNOW & SHE CLAIMED SHE DIDN'T KNOW! It was just almost unbelievable to the hospital personnel that the parents didn't know how it happened, but neither one of them would ever squeal on the other one! It's a miracle the baby recovered! … [H]e had to spend two weeks in the hospital. We had to keep one or two people up there all the time & pay their hotel bills. But even while up there, every time they'd get together she was so smart she wrapped him right around her finger & he'd side with her every time.

95. NOW THIS IS ANOTHER THING, WE NEVER REALLY HEARD STRAIGHT FROM EMAN ABOUT HIS ATTITUDE ABOUT GEN, ALL I HEARD WAS SECONDHAND FROM JUS THAT HE HAD FORSAKEN HER & he wants to serve God & his job. That was Jus' report, but I don't think I heard it straight from Eman. (Maria: We hardly ever hear anything from Eman, it's always Jus' reports about how Eman's been doing this week or how he took this change, it's always his interpretation.) Once in awhile I get a little note from Eman, something about the art or the Letters or something, but over that situation he has not written me one word that I know of. I can't think of anything that Eman's written! Maybe this will shake him up!

96. MAYBE THIS WILL SHAKE THEM UP & HELP THEM TO SEE HOW SERIOUS IT IS & how serious we consider it.—That since he has not forsaken her & has not cut it off & did not obey‚ did not do it ... of course‚ he may not even know it was my suggestion or order. Jus may have concealed that from him. Although Jus said that "we agreed together" or something like that, maybe he was talking about himself & Sally, so Eman may not have realised how serious it was & what we wanted him to do.

97. IS HE IN ANY SHAPE TO WRITE SUCH A LETTER? Is he that convinced of his lack of responsibility to her & his responsibility to God to write such a letter, cutting it off? Has he got the guts to do it? Right now? (Maria: She's so led of the Devil, I wouldn't put it past her if she came straight to the Canaries first!)

98. LET ME TELL YOU, YOU THINK YOU'VE HAD PROBLEMS?—YOU JUST OUGHT TO HAVE TO LIVE WITH THAT WOMAN FOR AWHILE & SEE, & a baby that's … having fits! She claims Jonathan doesn't have fits any more, but has a horrible temper. I'll bet! (Maria: The thing with that is that she could make it have fits when she wanted to, & when she didn't want it to it didn't have fits.) Absolute control at will! She could make that baby have a fit whenever it suited her purpose, go into a spasm, a convulsion!

99. JUSTUS & SALLY CERTAINLY MUST BELIEVE THAT, BUT APPARENTLY EMAN IS STILL WAVERING IN HIS OWN MIND. God's Word says, "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord‚ for he that wavereth is like the waves of the sea when it's tossed about, doubleminded‚ unstable in all his ways" (Jam.1:6-8). I just can't trust a man who's not convinced of who she really is‚ she's playing on his sympathies. (Maria: Jus says every time Eman gets a letter from her he gets terribly depressed & it really affects him.)

100. WELL, SON‚ THAT'S MY ANSWER AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. They didn't solve the problem, the problem's still hanging fire just as bad as ever, if not worse, & they have to settle it somehow, that's all. See, the person who really is the problem is Eman. If you straighten out your own heart & get your own heart right before the Lord & yield everything to God, forsake all, then the Lord will straighten out the other things. But as long as Eman is double-minded & wavering, then it's never going to get straightened out. (Maria: You can't make him do it, lots of people have had talks with him & really laid it on the line, but his attitude remains the same.) It's pitiful, such talent!

101. I BELIEVE WE'VE LOST IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE—TALENT LOST, HIS LIFE LOST. But that's what he's got to face. He's got to go all the way, either way. He cannot halt between the two, he cannot keep wavering between the two. The Scripture says, "How long will ye halt between two opinions? If God be God, then serve Him. If Baal be God‚ then serve him!" (1Kg.18:21). You just cannot do it! He's got to make up his mind.

102. WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT WE WOULD BE BACK HERE AGAIN SPENDING A WHOLE DAY DISCUSSING THE GEN PROBLEM? My Lord, what a woman! I'm sure she knows by this time that she is a problem & we don't want her. She caused us all to have to leave this island & she knew that. But she's only a troublemaker‚ she's only trying to cause trouble, that's all, just inspired of the Devil! (Maria: If she really is wanting to serve God all that much, how could she ever have stayed with her mother who hates God & hates us? How could she have stayed there that long & gotten along relatively easy? She seems to be reasonably happy from her letters, living there with her mother.) Amen. TYJ! Help us‚ Lord!

103. THANK YOU FOR THY PROTECTION, LORD‚ PROTECTING US IN SPITE OF ALL THESE THINGS, & we know You'll continue to do so if we do what's right & we obey. We know something is not right somewhere in the camp, & we believe that the unyielded thing is in Eman's heart regarding this woman & her children. This is where the unyieldedness is, Lord, it keeps coming back to it all the time. He has not given it up, he does not have the victory.

104. SO AS LONG AS HE IS WAVERING‚ LORD‚ WE CANNOT TAKE A CHANCE ON HAVING HIM HERE EITHER‚ & CERTAINLY NOT HER! If he's not willing to give her up, Lord, we certainly can't have him here. So they're all going to have to learn that lesson we thought they had learned, which they apparently didn't, & have to learn their bitter lesson over again & have to go back again. In Jesus' name, have Thy way. TYL! Give us the strength now, Lord‚ for the task.

105. GIVE THESE THE WISDOM & THE LOVE & THE PATIENCE FOR THE TASK, LORD, TO SHOW THE FOLKS DOWN THERE THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS in not having solved this problem, & now after coming back here after all this time, dumping this problem back in our laps again & asking us what to do about it when we told them a long time ago what to do about it‚ things they should have done but didn't. We just don't see any other way out, Lord, but to send them back because they disobeyed. We cannot have them here when the crisis comes or whatever happens.

106. LORD JESUS, YOU HAVE YOUR WAY! YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST, THY WILL BE DONE IN JESUS' NAME! Give these two wisdom, great wisdom & firmness, Lord‚ conviction, great love, Lord, but to be willing to be firm in love with what's right, in Jesus' name. That's enough for now, praise the Lord, I don't know whether you want to go down there tonight or not, but the sooner we start the ball rolling the better.

107. THE GALL OF THOSE PEOPLE TO GET BACK HERE & HAVE THE NERVE TO WRITE US LETTERS ASKING WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT IT NOW, WHEN WE TOLD THEM WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT! They don't remember we went back to Italy? And now they come & say, "What shall we do about it now?" Just tell them, "You know what you were supposed to do about it & you didn't do it, so now get back there & do it, period!" I'll tell you, if they just persist & persist & persist, I finally get fed-up!

108. THEY REMIND ME OF SAUL! Isn't it funny that Scripture should come to me right now when I was thinking, "How could they be that way?" But he so many times came back from a mission‚ time & again it's the same old story, "Behold‚ I have performed the Word of the Lord!" I thought, "What's their attitude? What have I been getting off of them? What have I been sensing from them? What was the attitude of their letters, etc., both before they came & after?"

109. "BEHOLD, I HAVE PERFORMED THE WORD OF THE LORD!" And you know what Samuel's answer was, don't you? Well, he told Saul, God said slaughter every single one of them, including the cattle—apparently they were infected too, probably diseased from these evil people—but Saul decided to keep the cattle. And he comes back to Samuel & says, "Behold, I have performed the Word of the Lord!" Well‚ he did all the rest, he fought the battle, got the victory‚ killed the people, but he brought the king back with him as a nice trophy, along with the cattle.

110. AND SAMUEL SAID, "THEN WHAT MEANETH THE BLEATING OF THE SHEEP & THE LOWING OF THE OXEN IN MY EARS?" And Saul said‚ "Well, the people persuaded me to spare the cattle!" He didn't have much excuse for Agag. So Samuel had him bring Agag before him & he hewed him down with his own sword on the spot to show him that God meant business! See‚ Saul wasn't really totally yielded, claiming to be surrendered & yielded, claiming to have forsaken-all & obeyed, but it was a farce! He didn't obey, he was lying!—Like Justus!

111. AND THAT'S THE SCRIPTURE I GET FOR THEM! If you want to read it to them, it's 1Samuel 15, the whole chapter about the background of the story. Saul went out & he won the battle, he defeated the enemy, he did all the things he was told to do except... Isn't that funny? I was just sitting here thinking, "What is wrong with those people after all this? What is their attitude?" And this Scripture came as clear as anything! (Reads passage beginning with 1Samuel 15:12:)

112. "AND WHEN SAMUEL ROSE EARLY TO MEET SAUL IN THE MORNING"—Saul on his way back from the battle—"it was told Samuel, saying‚ Saul came to Carmel‚ & behold, he set him up a place & is gone about, & passed on, & gone down to Gilgal." Obviously he wasn't coming back to face Samuel, he was beating around the bush. I don't think he wanted to run into Samuel if he could help it! So Samuel had to go out looking for him.

113. "AND SAMUEL CAME TO SAUL & SAUL SAID UNTO HIM, BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD: I HAVE PERFORMED THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD." That's the Scripture the Lord gave me when I was sitting here. They have claimed to have performed the commandment of the Lord, but they have not. They did not! What a liar! What a hypocrite! And yet he did it so smoothly he surely must have lied to himself, so that he finally had himself convinced!—And that's the way people do, they lie until they believe their own lies.

114. "AND SAMUEL SAID, WHAT MEANETH THEN THIS BLEATING OF THE SHEEP IN MINE EARS, & THE LOWING OF THE OXEN WHICH I HEAR? And Saul said, They have brought"—they, not him! This is Justus' typical excuse! "Well, Eman won't do it!" I guess in that you folks are right‚ they're all guilty. "They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep & of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God‚ & the rest we have utterly destroyed."

115. "WE ONLY SAVED THEM FOR THE LORD, THOUGH WE DIDN'T QUITE DO WHAT YOU SAID, BUT WE THOUGHT THIS WAS BETTER! We did everything else & we served you faithfully & won the battle & defeated the enemies & look how much we've accomplished! Look at all these Letters & all this art & all this typing & all this! Behold, we have performed the commandment of the Lord!"

116. THERE'S NO HALFWAY WITH GOD! There's no 90% of the way with God! "What meaneth then the bleating of the sheep in mine ears & the lowing of the oxen which I hear? You are a liar!" Samuel was saying right to Saul's face, "You didn't do what I told you to do, you didn't slay utterly!" That was his commandment, to slay them utterly.

117. THEY HAVE NOT SLAIN UTTERLY! They didn't get rid of [the evil in] this woman. He didn't slay utterly that thing in his heart, it's still alive, he's still saving it. He's come, he's won the victory, he's done this, he's done that, but that thing's still alive‚ that evil is still alive!

118. "THEN SAMUEL SAID UNTO SAUL‚ STAY, & I WILL TELL THEE WHAT THE LORD HAS SAID TO ME THIS NIGHT. And Saul said, say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight‚ wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, & the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, & said, Go & utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, & fight against them until they be consumed." That's what I told them to do when I sent them back to Italy: "Don't come back until this [spiritual] problem is utterly slain & gotten rid of totally!" "Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord?"

119. I WANT YOU TO READ IT TO THEM, SON, TELL THEM THIS IS THE SCRIPTURE I GOT FOR THEM TONIGHT STRAIGHT FROM THE LORD! I was about to dismiss this meeting right now, I was getting up out of my chair when I suddenly got this Scripture. I never have a heartcry, a real heartcry without an answer! I was thinking, "Lord, what's the matter with those people?" And instantly, just like seeing them all, "Behold‚ we have obeyed the commandments of the Lord!" And they lied, they didn't do what I told them to do. I said to slay them utterly, get rid of that [spiritual] problem before you come back!

120. "WHEREFORE THEN DIDST THOU NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, & didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, & have gone the way which the Lord sent me, & have brought Agag king of Amalek, & have utterly destroyed the Amalekites." Now he's trying to even throw the king in to try to bribe Samuel a little bit: "Listen, you didn't hear about this, but I even brought the king back with me!"

121. IT SHOWS YOU HOW STUPID & HOW DUMB PEOPLE CAN BE WHEN THEY'RE DISOBEYING GOD & HOW DECEIVED THEY ARE! Well, as far as God was concerned, that was the worst thing he could have done‚ because He told him to kill them all, & yet he brought the guy back with him & he's trying to sway Samuel now in his judgement by saying, "Well maybe that was a mistake, but hey‚ I've got the king with me, you didn't hear about that! I've got a really famous captive, this will bring glory to us! I captured the king!"

122. "BUT THE PEOPLE TOOK OF THE SPOIL, SHEEP & OXEN, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal." Now see if this isn't what Justus will say: "Well, Eman just wouldn't do it, he just wouldn't slay utterly [the evil problem], but in our service to the Lord we just came anyway."

123. "AND SAMUEL SAID, HATH THE LORD AS GREAT DELIGHT IN BURNT OFFERINGS & SACRIFICES, AS IN OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE LORD?" All these little burnt offerings & sacrifices they send up the hill every day mean nothing compared to obedience. Look what it's going to do to them now—nothing—because they can't do it as long as they haven't obeyed. It'll ruin their whole work & ministry! And here comes the classic, of course, which is so famous:

124. "BEHOLD, TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE, & TO HEARKEN THAN THE FAT OF RAMS. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, & stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry." That was the first Scripture I ever got for Genesis, by the way, she was rebellious & stubborn, very rebellious & stubborn, almost always, but they didn't think that was too bad.

125. "BECAUSE THOU HAST REJECTED THE WORD OF THE LORD, HE HATH ALSO REJECTED THEE FROM BEING KING." If they cannot obey, they can't have their job. We can't have people who don't obey. Justus just acts like a little king down there in his little domain‚ but he's going to lose his kingdom if he can't obey.

126. THE LORD WAS MERCIFUL TO SAUL FOR SOME YEARS AFTERWARDS UNTIL HE COULD TRAIN SOMEBODY ELSE TO TAKE HIS PLACE. He had to put up with him for quite awhile, & we just about have! And if they don't straighten this thing out now, then we are going to have to get somebody else to take their place, period‚ & that's that.

127. NOW SAUL PUTS ON THIS BIG ACT: "I HAVE SINNED: FOR I HAVE TRANSGRESSED THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD, & THY WORDS: because I feared the people, & obeyed their voice." Let's see who he fears the most. "Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, & turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord." In other words, before the people so they won't know about it. Please come into the tabernacle with me & show that I am still in good favour with God. Cover for me, will you Samuel? Please cover up for me!" Well‚ I can't cover for them any more, they've got us this far where we can't cover for them, we just can't (Isa.29:13; Pro.29:25).

128. "AND SAMUEL SAID UNTO SAUL‚ I WILL NOT RETURN WITH THEE: FOR THOU HAST REJECTED THE WORD OF THE LORD, & THE LORD HATH REJECTED THEE FROM BEING KING OVER ISRAEL. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle"—Saul did, grabbed hold of Samuel's robe—"& rent it‚" it tore. "And Samuel said unto him‚ The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, & hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent." God's not going to change His mind.

129. YOU KNOW, THE LORD SAID LAST TIME THAT THOSE FOLKS JUST WERE NOT WORTHY, & I TRIED TO FORGET ABOUT IT. They disobeyed then & now they've proven it again, they disobeyed again. Then Saul said, "I have sinned, yet honour me now, I pray thee‚ before the elders of my people, & before Israel, & turn again with me"—cover up for me, he was saying—"that I may worship the Lord thy God." But what do you think God did in that case? Finally Samuel turned again after Saul & Saul worshipped the Lord.

130. WE NEED THIS TEAM & WE'LL HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THEM FOR AWHILE UNTIL WE CAN FIND A REPLACEMENT, & that's what we did, & that's why we've sent for them again, because they were supposed to have slain utterly, but they didn't. But to show you how forceful & violent & harsh God can be if He wants to be‚ when He thinks it's necessary—I think the Lord allowed this to happen lest there be any doubt left in their mind that God didn't mean what He said—

131. "THEN SAID SAMUEL, BRING YE HITHER TO ME AGAG THE KING OF THE AMALEKITES. And Agag came unto him delicately." Agag kind of felt what was in the air. "And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past."—Now maybe we'll be friends, an idol-worshipper & king of a perverted people! "Let's try to forget the whole thing! Why don't we just forget it?"—Probably that's what Gen was hoping we would do, that maybe she could still wiggle her way back in & forget the whole thing.

132. "AND SAMUEL SAID, AS THY SWORD HATH MADE WOMEN CHILDLESS‚ SO SHALL THY MOTHER BE CHILDLESS AMONG WOMEN! And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." The Lord wanted to show him that He meant what He said! When He told him to slay them utterly‚ He meant utterly, & not save anything or anybody. Utterly! And not claim that they had done it & find out that they hadn't done it. So there it is.

133. (1983: LOOK HOW THE DEVIL FOUGHT THE FOUNDING OF THE FFing REVOLUTION & FAMILY OF LOVE EXPLOSION IN TENERIFE BEFORE IT EVER GOT STARTED!—He drove us off the Island once & nearly twice before it ever began! He was really furious because of what God was about to do! But once we got rid of the troublemakers, God began to really work & we exploded & God steamrollered all before Him! Hallelujah! TYJ!

134. JUST AS THE LORD USED ONE TINY LOVE-POSSESSED GIRL TO START IT ALL—MARIA!—So the Devil tried to use one tiny demon-possessed woman to try to stop it!—And other disobedient Family members! But because we obeyed, God continued to use us to bulldoze it through in spite of all! TYJ! Jesus never fails!—If you'll obey!—What are you doing?—Hindering or helping the Work of the Lord? God help you either to obey—or get out of the way!—In Jesus' name, amen!)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family