Dad
May 16, 2003
DFO 154520/6/83
1. NOW THAT YOU'VE SEEN THE WORLD MAP, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A MAP OF HEAVEN? I just had to come down & show you these pictures tonight! Actually, I'd already told Maria I wanted to come eat with the Family, then she brought me these beautiful pictures & I said, "That's why!"—You're supposed to see the pictures of Heaven!
2. HOW'S THAT FOR A TITLE?—"A POSSIBLE HEAVENLY MANSION!" We're not saying that's it, but it's possible! That's a safe statement! "With God nothing shall be impossible" & with man "all things are possible to him that believeth"! (Lk.1:37; Mk.9:23) So if any of our critics want to say, "Ho, ho, ho!" Well, I didn't say that was it, but it's possible! After all, it's the first house I ever planned!
3. (FAMILY: ONE OF THE "DAVID PROPHECIES" SAYS YOU'RE PREPARING A NEST FOR ALL YOUR BIRDIES!) I built it big enough, so some that are now separated from us can be with us again‚ and the others can be right next door and all around us! Isn't that wonderful? I believe it! Don't you think the Lord would give me the desire of my heart if I delight myself in Him? (Ps.37:4) I wouldn't be surprised if I show up there & it looks just like that! Then He'd say, "Well, that's the way you planned it, so here it is!" I'd be like the old lady & her shack! "That's what you drew, so here it is!"
4. WE'RE THINKING OF PUTTING OUT A NICE SMALL BLACK-&-WHITE POSTER FIRST, OP2D!—One to every couple & the singles. I presume that we could only afford to get out one giant colour poster per Home, but once they've got all the colourwork done, just running off a few more sheets really doesn't make that much difference! So we might run off a few hundred thousand for the whole World! We've got to get that poster up in Russia yet! It could happen! We've got lots of people on the Russian mailing list, the Russian Lit-Pic is really getting good response! (Maria: And our lit's getting into Russia too, people are receiving it through the mail.) Thank God for the mails! Pray for the mails, it's our way to get in!
5. I WAS ON THE LAST STRETCH, SO I STUDIED & STUDIED THE PICTURE & PRAYED ABOUT IT TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANYTHING MISSING! I thought, "If Heaven is as I dream of it‚ simply an extension of this life, only much more so & better, with all the joys & pleasures & privileges & beauties that we have here, then what are all the various joys & pleasures that we enjoy here that we would like to have there?" And it suddenly dawned on me: I forgot the swimming pool! And of course, that gave us a marvellous opportunity for some lovely bathing beauties to really spice it up! Right away I thought, "Could that be possible?" But why not? We enjoy swimming here, why couldn't we enjoy it over there? You could probably swim underwater all you want to & never have to come up for a breath!
6. AND IT CAME BACK TO ME HOW WHEN FAITHY WAS ABOUT EIGHT YEARS OLD WE WERE ON THE ROAD FOR THE SUMMER, & weekends especially we'd park at some park or campground where they had a swimming pool or a lake or something. And we were parked at this beautiful lakeside campground, & after her day's swim was over she came in—I think we were sitting at the table eating dinner—& she said wistfully‚ "Daddy, are we going to have any swimming in Heaven?"—One of the questions these kids can pop! So I had to think real fast, "Now let's see?" You've always got to get a Scripture to prove it, & suddenly it came to me, "Yes, Ezekiel said the river got so big, there were waters to swim in!" (Ez.47:5) So when I was thinking about whether we should have a swimming pool or not, I thought, "Well, if we can have a big river with waters to swim in, why couldn't we have swimming pools?" Well anyhow, I put in my order! Even if you didn't need to take a bath, it's fun to swim & see all those pretty girls!
7. DID YOU SEE THE AMAZING INVENTION IN THE LIVING ROOM?—3-D TV! You can sit on all sides & watch the action! Why not? If we want to see different scenes in history, why couldn't the Lord make it so that we could just tune in & watch what really happened!—Actually see it! Kind of a time-machine where we could flash back into scenes in history & see it actually happening. I don't think I want to see the wars, but I'd like to see some of the love affairs & some of the great historical moments of Bible History & miracles!—Watch Jesus minister‚ watch Moses lead the children of Israel! Wouldn't you want to see those things? Well, the Lord's going to give you the desires of your heart, so why not? (Ps.37:4) We can even see the Family & what they used to be doing! I believe it‚ I really do! If we can have dreams & visions here, why couldn't we have something like that to enjoy? (Maria: All the TV-addicts that we have today would be pretty sad if they didn't still have TV!) Then they'd have all the time in the World to watch TV & you couldn't scold'm for wasting time, because there isn't any time!—Ha!
8. I SUPPOSE THE LORD IS CHUCKLING & LAUGHING AT OUR PICTURES like we do sometimes at our children's' pictures, but we're pleased & we're proud of them, they try! Of course, they can't do as well as the real thing, but we don't discourage them, we try to encourage them to go ahead & do better. So I think that's about how the Lord feels about our Artists' & my pictures! He's probably getting a good laugh out of them! But He figures, "Not bad!"—About as good as we can do‚ anyhow!
9. I'M ESPECIALLY THINKING OF OUR CHILDREN & LITTLE KIDS! I still conceive of Bible stories & Bible characters & even pictures of Jesus from the pictures I saw in Sunday School. Now how are they going to visualise it? How are they going to have any conception of it at all unless we try to visualise it for them? That's where pictures are really necessary for children, to get some concept of the reality. They know that those pictures of Jesus aren't actual photos, but they know that they look like Him. And that's the amazing thing that the little boy said about pictures of Jesus, you can almost always recognise a picture of Jesus!—If it isn't one of those ugly mediaeval things! Most pictures of Jesus seem to have a pretty good conception of what He looked like, & you almost always recognise Him even if they're a little bit different!
10. SO WE WANT TO GIVE OUR KIDS A REAL SOLID CONCEPTION OF WHAT HEAVEN MAY LOOK LIKE! We don't know exactly‚ except for the dreams & visions we've had, & we're going to try to put as much of that in here as we can. The only thing we didn't ever see was the mansions, so that's purely my vision & artist's conception. Though I'm not the artist, at least I gave our Artist some rough sketches to go by & he beautified them.
11. WHAT GOT ME STARTED ON THIS WAS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WOULD BE THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM HOUSING TO EXPECT FOR A FAMILY LIKE OURS IN HEAVEN!—And I figured I might as well put in some more & we'll have two or three dozen people! I'd like everybody to move in‚ for that matter! We could all live in one big mansion! But we're used to living together & naturally I would be more at home with you than anybody else.
12. I THOUGHT, "WHAT SIZE MANSION WOULD BE COMFORTABLE FOR US AND SOME OTHERS?—So I just started dabbling around. Maria can remember, I kept laughing as I played around with my pencil, taking measurements & trying to figure out how big it would have to be. And even though you don't have to sleep, who knows? Everything you enjoy here, you might want to enjoy a little bit there! You might want a little sleep sometime! And if you can't use the beds for anything else, you can use'm for sex! So PTL! Of course, I suppose you could float around in the air & have sex. I was wondering in the Space Shuttle with that woman along this time if they were going to experiment any with a little sex up there! I'll bet they did! What an ideal opportunity! They really would have missed the boat if they didn't see what it was like having sex floating around in the air!
13. SO I STARTED PLAYING AROUND, TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT MATHEMATICALLY‚ BECAUSE WE'VE GOT SO MANY ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS OF THE HEAVENLY CITY! I knew we couldn't draw it exactly like Heaven, but we could do the best we could & give the kids some little idea of what Heaven looks like. And I was also trying to figure out from the measurements, "Now how much room would it take to house so many people?" Even the scientists who are Christians figure that the Earth, starting with Noah & his family, could have possibly had a total altogether now of 70 billion people, somewhere around there. Frankly, that sounds kind of big to me! I don't see how we could have had that many. I'm going to figure that out myself one of these days. I started but my calculator wasn't big enough!
14. AND IF YOU'D FIGURE OUT WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE 70 BILLION PEOPLE WERE ACTUALLY CHRISTIANS IN ALL THESE GENERATIONS FOR THE PAST 6,000 YEARS‚ WHAT KIND OF A FIGURE WOULD YOU USE FOR THAT? Well, at the very outside, what's the total so-called Christian population of the World today? Of the three billion today‚ about one billion are supposed to be Christians. About a third of the World's population today is nominally Christian, & some of those stats come from countries that simply report their whole population as Christian.—Like maybe the Catholic countries of Spain & Italy etc., just consider that the whole population is Christian!
15. DO YOU WANT A SAMPLE OF WHAT HEAVEN IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE AROUND THE HOUSE?—Look at Sara! We won't have to wear those robes around the house, will we? You notice some of the folks didn't have any on! We don't want to get our robes of light wet while we're swimming or dirty while we're working. You wouldn't want to sleep in a nightgown in bed, would you?—Or even make love with clothes on! To me, this is a sample of Heaven that we're living in right now!—And she's a sample of a Heavenly angel right there! Wow! How could you have anything better than that or more gorgeous than Sara? That's Heaven on Earth right now! Heaven's just going to be even better, that's all, with an eternal body! Whew! What a body! It can't even be hurt or get sick or ever get tired or even ever get worn-out with sex no matter how much you have! Hallelujah! Amen? PTL!
16. SO THAT'S MY IDEA OF HEAVEN! Maybe it's a bit Muslim, but anyhow, I think they're closer to it than the churches! At least they've got some conception of Heaven, right? The churches never gave you any idea of Heaven! Now what's the most specific idea that any church that you were ever in ever gave you of Heaven? What did they tell you about Heaven? They always quote that one Scripture, "No sorrow‚ pain or death‚ no more tears." (Rev.21:4) Well‚ that doesn't tell you what it looks like! That tells you how you're going to feel, that's great, but that's only part of it!
17. BUT DID THEY EVER TELL YOU? DID YOU EVER SEE A PICTURE? The typical stereotyped concept that they always have in the cartoons & comics is here you are with wings & a white robe sitting on a cloud playing a harp, of all the boring things! I mean, you can enjoy that once in awhile. If you want to get off by yourself & sit there & play yourself a harp for awhile, that's okay if that's your bag, but I'd get pretty tired of that pretty soon!
18. SO I JUST FIGURE OUR LIFE IN HEAVEN WILL BE LIKE IT IS NOW, ONLY BETTER! Isn't that the idea we got from the "Green Door" about Hell? (No.262) And did you know that that Letter caused a lot of people to come to the Lord & the Family? It scared them half to death to think that Hell was going to be like this life, the life they were living now, only more! It's amazing the good reaction we've had from that Letter! It scared people more than these outlandish ideas of flames & fire & all that! It made them feel even worse to think that in Hell they were going to have to keep on doing the same thing they were doing forever! That was their idea of Hell!
19. BUT WE LIVE LIKE HEAVEN ALREADY, A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN RIGHT HERE & NOW! I started to say I don't see how Heaven could be any better, but I can! When we're rid of all our enemies & we're in control‚ that's all better! No more visas or passports, no more baggage, that's all better! No more difficult travel or trips, we can just float or fly! No more disease or sickness or hurt or death or pain! I can think of a lot of ways it could be better‚ but this is about as close to Heaven as we can get right now, living in a tropical country in a lovely home with a pool & all these beautiful gorgeous Heavenly angels around us here—beautiful & loving & willing & helpful! What could you ask more than that? We've got the closest thing to Heaven that you can get in this World right now! Really! So what could we have more?—Only more of the same thing & better!—Without all the problems & the sin & the Curse & the disease & the hurts & the sickness & enemies & all the rest!
20. ISAIAH SAID, "NONE SHALL SAY, I AM SICK!" (Isa.33: 24) Think of that! Even we are a little sick once in awhile, not much, thank the Lord. Nobody's been really seriously ill around here. The Lord lets us have a few afflictions‚ even "many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all"! (Ps.34:19) So as far as I'm concerned, this is a little bit of Heaven right here on my right‚ & down yonder, & over there & all around!—Even you boys, God bless you! What would I do without you & all your help & brains & handiwork? Alf & the others are getting to be better handymen all the time, really learning!
21. I SUPPOSE WE'LL HAVE A FEW NICE HEAVENLY BREEZES UP THERE, but we won't have to worry about fans or aircons or ballistics or missiles or shooting‚ & I don't suppose it will affect our flying too much either! Did you notice the people flying around in the picture & how the walls & floors & everything are transparent? Those little kids weren't up there on a flying carpet, it was just a mattress on the floor!
22. HEAVEN IS SIMPLY GOING TO BE AN INTENSIFICATION, AMPLIFICATION, MAGNIFICATION & EXTENSION OF ALL THE THINGS WE ENJOY IN THIS LIFE! So I already put sex in there & beautiful girls & handsome boys & beautiful Homes & everything else, & it finally dawned on me we needed a swimming pool! I'll bet I'm still going to enjoy swimming, if for nothing else but the beauty of it! PTL? Well anyhow, I put a swimming pool in my mansion! Whether you like it or not, it's there! (Family: It'll be fun to be able to hold our breath so long!) You won't even have to have any breath, for that matter! But anyway, that's my idea of Heaven! If that doesn't jive with yours, I'm sorry.
23. MY IDEA OF HEAVEN, IN OTHER WORDS, IS WHAT WE'VE GOT RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE!—All this beauty & pleasure & fun & inspiration & spirit & fellowship & joy, all of this & more so & more of it! Why not? Doesn't that sound good to you? Hallelujah! (Family: Even a kitchen!) Well, after all‚ you don't have to eat‚ but isn't it a pleasure? I wouldn't be surprised if there're some people that would miss eating if they didn't have a chance to eat once in awhile! (Maria: Oh, I would!) Now to look at Maria you wouldn't think she loved to eat, but she does like her little odds & ends & peculiar snacks! I think she eats more by texture than by taste! The girls really have to dream up some zany dishes to make Maria happy!
24. JUST THINK WHAT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO THINK OF & IMAGINE IN HEAVEN! You can have anything you want & any kind of ingredients you need! Just wave your magic wand & there it is! But if you're going to eat it, you've got to have some place to prepare it! So if we're going to have a delicious banquet for Family Fellowship in the big dining room, why not have a kitchen for food prep? Did you see the big dining room? It's big enough for a couple dozen people or more! That living room alone is bigger than the church I built, which was 30 x 40 feet & seated 200 people!
25. WELL‚ I THINK IT'S UNLIKELY THAT 70 BILLION PEOPLE EVER LIVED, & EVEN LESS LIKELY THAT 24 BILLION WERE CHRISTIANS! But I figured at the very outside, 24 billion, how much housing space would it take? So I began to figure out first how big a house would we want for us and some of the others we're used to working with?—And I figured out this palatial mansion that we've drawn pictures of. The original dimensions were 80 by 80, but we decided we'd better make it a little bit bigger, 100 by 100 feet. And if each one of those housed maybe two or three dozen people, how many would it take? So I figured it out!
26. ON MY ORIGINAL DIMENSIONS & FIGURES‚ TO HOUSE EVEN 24 BILLION PEOPLE IN MANSIONS OF THAT SIZE, IT WOULD ONLY TAKE THE FIRST 100 MILES UP, IF THE MANSIONS WERE JUST IN THE WALLS ALONE!—If every mansion had a front view & a rear view! None inside the City, that's for the big park & the fairgrounds & the exhibit buildings & all of those things! We want to see God's Science Exhibits, His Historical Exhibits, maybe have some beauty contests! Not contests, no! Everybody's going to be beautiful! (Family: Shows!) Beauty shows—& how!—And Fellowship Meetings & things like that. So the housing only needs to be in the walls alone!—Not the outside protective wall, but the wall of the City. And you'd want to start those high enough that you could look over the outside wall.
27. THAT'S ONE VIEW I DID HAVE, I WAS LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE CITY WALL! Maybe I was in one of the apartments, I don't know, but I didn't see what was around me. I was fascinated by that view of the outside Earth, it was so beautiful! It looked like the most beautiful places on Earth that you've seen today! We look at some of those movies of England‚ & to me, that English countryside is one of the most beautiful in the World, & also the French. I'd say the European countryside & some parts of America too are the most beautiful places, with those rolling hills & some forests & some fields & farmhouses & farms & little villages etc. That's what the New Earth looked like when I saw that in vision looking out through the wall. It was beautiful! No more sea, but rivers & lakes & rolling hills & forests & fields & farms & cottages & little villages. No big cities, the only big City there is the Big One, the Mountain of the Lord!
28. I RAN ACROSS THAT SCRIPTURE THE OTHER DAY WHEN I WAS STUDYING THOSE THINGS: "THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOUSE"! (Is.2:2; Mi.4:1) Now what would look more like a mountain than that pyramid-shaped City? Some people don't agree with me‚ & I think one reason that most of the preachers never attempted to portray it as literal is that so many of them just spiritualise it & say, "Oh well, that's just symbolic of the Church & His Bride!" He called the Holy City His Bride, that was symbolic, yes, but I was reading that Scripture over again yesterday, & it does not say that the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven was His Bride! (Rev.21:2) That knocks in the head all those preachers that claim that was just a symbol of His Bride. It says, "As a bride adorned for her husband." He was simply saying that it's so beautiful, it looks like a bride adorned for her wedding!
29. USUALLY BRIDES TRY TO GET DRESSED UP THE PRETTIEST THEY EVER HAVE IN THEIR WHOLE LIVES! I used to call a wedding, "Queen for a Day"! "As a bride adorned for her husband." In other words, what simile could He use any more beautiful than a beautiful woman adorned for her husband? Well, I could think of one a little bit better, like Sara here tonight unadorned!—Ha! But after all, He was trying to use some kind of symbolism or simile to try to help you realise how beautiful that City was!—It was as beautiful as a woman being prepared for her marriage! And isn't that what Jesus has gone to do? He's gone to prepare a place for us, that where He is, there we may be also! (Jn.14:2,3)
30. HE SAID A PLACE! He didn't say that Holy City was a Bride, He said it looked like a bride, "as a bride adorned for her husband," so beautiful! Isn't that one of the most beautiful times a woman is ever dressed, when she's dressed like a bride?—Although it looks to me like they always have too much on! I was proud of that stripper down in Corpus Christi, Texas who got married topless! They called the law on them & arrested them & fined them just because she was a stripper & she thought she ought to get married that way! Of course, it was probably good publicity for her act too! But anyway, she had guts—you could almost see'm!—Ha!—Like Sara here, isn't she gorgeous? Mmm Mmm Mmm! Ah! I'll tell you, Heaven wouldn't be Heaven, as far as I'm concerned, if there wasn't any sex & if there weren't still beautiful naked women like you girls & all your loving affection!
31. I RAN ACROSS SOMETHING ABOUT CARESSES TODAY IN THOSE BEAUTIFUL QUOTES ABOUT MARIA! Oh, we've got some gorgeous quotes about Maria, I'm just falling in love with her all over again just reading about her! She's always saying‚ "Well, it's too wonderful, I can't understand how it could be!" But the marvellous thing about those quotes is that most of the prophecies are already fulfilled! She's already been that & done that & is doing it today!—So why should it be so hard to believe? I had to rebuke her today for doubting & belittling herself. She says‚ "Well, you do the same thing!" Well, I'm guilty of it sometimes & it's wrong to run myself down. I'm the Lord's creation & He did it, so why should I belittle God's creation?
32. BUT I RAN ACROSS SOME THINGS IN THERE WHERE IT TALKS ABOUT CARESSING & THAT THE WORDS ARE LIKE THE CARESSES OF THE SPIRIT ETC.! We often think about the Words being like food, etc., but they're also like caresses! Now isn't caressing one of the sweetest most beautiful parts of love & love-making?—Even the babies enjoy it! I hear they've got a new article out on massaging your baby. Even babies enjoy handling & fondling & caressing & hugging & kissing & affection! Now what would Heaven be without that? And what would it be if you didn't feel it? So don't tell me we can't feel it!
33. WHEN JESUS CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD, HE LOOKED & FELT & ATE & DRANK, & I BELIEVE HE COULD HAVE MADE LOVE IF HE WANTED TO, just like He did when He was in His natural fleshly human body, only better!—Supernatural, miraculous & eternal! It's Scriptural! It's in there! He said, "Touch Me! Feel Me! See that it is I! A spirit hath not flesh & bones as ye see Me have!" (Lk.24:39) Then He sat down & ate with them! Well, if you ask me, that's pretty human, that's pretty natural. He said to Thomas‚ "Thrust thy hand into My side & see, & touch the nail prints in my hands‚ & be not faithless but believing!" (Jn.20:27) He still had the scars!
34. NOW SOME OF YOU MAY NOT LIKE THAT IDEA, THAT YOU MIGHT STILL HAVE THE SCARS! Well good night‚ I've got dozens of scars all over my body that I used to tell Maria & the kids about & all the stories connected with each one! A veteran soldier boasts & brags of his scars, they're his medals of honour of his campaigns & exploits in battle! So I'm not ashamed of my scars. I don't think they've disfigured me enough to worry you, have they? They don't bother me! So what if Jesus still had scars?—They'll constantly remind you of what He paid for your salvation! I don't think anybody's going to be so mutilated & disfigured you couldn't recognise them, I don't think the Lord's going to allow that. He's going to have your body restored to beauty & health to look normal & natural & even better. I don't think anybody's going to have any such horribly disfiguring marks of any kind that would make you look ugly or crippled or deformed!
35. BUT AS YOU RECALL THE STORY ABOUT CRYSTAL (No.818), it was characteristic of her family that they had such short necks it almost looked like they had no necks, like their heads were sitting right on their shoulders—& that's the way she looked in Heaven when my Mother saw her in the dream. Well, it didn't make her ugly, it just made her look natural! It was Crystal! That's the way Crystal looked, that's the way her family looked, so why not? If we're not going to look anything at all like we look now, we wouldn't even recognise each other! I expect Peter to look like he looks now, only better! I don't know how he could look any better, but somehow! And you gals are going to be as gorgeous as you are now, only better! Mmmmm! I can hardly keep from reaching out & grabbing one! And if we enjoy that now, why shouldn't we enjoy it there even more?—And better!
36. I AM CONVINCED IF HEAVEN IS HEAVEN AT ALL, IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE THIS LIFE, ONLY BETTER!—Like this life with all its joys & beauties & pleasures, but without the drawbacks!—With all the assets without the liabilities! PTL! Even that's a sexy word—"asset"! You girls certainly have some beautiful ones‚ & I like the way you set'm too! Praise God! So that's my idea of Heaven! That might be a good title for this! It's the kind of life we now live as a Family in the Lord on this Earth. We live in Heavenly Homes, we live a Heavenly life full of Heavenly creatures, & a Heavenly work & Heavenly pleasures. This is about as near Heaven as you can get, right now, & I believe Heaven's going to be like this! To be Heaven‚ it's going to have to be like this, only better! PTL? Hallelujah!
37. SO THAT'S MY IDEA OF HEAVEN, & THOSE PICTURES ARE MY IDEA OF A HEAVENLY MANSION! And to house even 24 billion people in mansions like that would only take the first 100 miles just in the walls alone, with each mansion having an outside wall on the outside wall of the City with an outside view of that beautiful Heavenly New Earth, & a rear view of the City Park below! Nobody behind you, nobody in front of you! You'll have neighbours on both sides, of course, but nobody in front except the New Earth outside the Heavenly City. Remember, the wall is like clear golden crystal glass!
38. AMBER WAS ALWAYS MY FAVOURITE TINTING FOR SUNGLASSES BECAUSE IT MAKES EVERYTHING LOOK KIND OF GOLDEN! I didn't like the green or grey. They usually offer you three different tints, green, grey or amber, & when you put on those amber glasses, the whole World turns to gold! Everything's golden! It makes even the various colours more colourful! So much of the World is already green‚ that when you put on green glasses, it all turns green; or with the grey, it's just darker. But the amber is like the colour of the Holy City! When you're looking at the World through not rose-coloured glasses but golden-coloured glasses, that's what it's going to be like in Heaven!
39. SO THAT'S YOUR FRONT VIEW OUT THROUGH THE WALL OF THE CITY, IT WILL MAKE IT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL! And it shades you from the sun a little bit too! You say, "Ah, there's not going to be any sun there, it says no sun!" It does not say there's not going to be any sun there, it says they have no need of the sun day or night because the light of God's Son is the light thereof etc. (Rev.21:23) The City's going to be lighted supernaturally‚ day & night, all the time! But outside the City on the surface of the Earth‚ things are still going to be pretty natural—the Earth ball, Sun, Moon & stars are still going to be there.
40. THE SUN'S STILL GOING TO RISE IN THE MORNING & SET IN THE EVENING, SO IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIVING IN THE CITY WALL, YOU'RE GOING TO GET A LITTLE SUNSHINE! After all, you're going to have a garden & flowers & grass & trees, you've gotta have a little chlorophyll & photosynthesis! You say, "It doesn't need all that!" Well, why not? If it's going to be like it is now only better, we'll have a garden like this with no bugs! No snakes! No frogs! No serpents!—Garden of Eden perfection without all the drawbacks & all the Curse & sin & all the rest.
41. SO THAT'S MY IDEA OF HEAVEN!—Front view, a gorgeous view through the amber City wall of the beautiful New Earth!—Rear view off the rear terrace, you have a gorgeous view of the City Park below & all those beautiful beautiful buildings you heard described in "Space City" & "Ultimate Trip"! (Nos.75A & 80) "Spaceship" was another one‚ but I think that more or less just described the outside. (No.624) I think "Space City" was the one that described the inside the most, so I informed our Artist to be sure & read those Letters & draw his buildings accordingly, using as many as he could that Eman drew too, because he drew some very good ones! We like to use all the existing art we can to save time!
42. I FORGOT TO TELL YOU, THAT OTHER PICTURE OF THE POSTER IS GOING TO BE THE CITY ITSELF! We debated about having a picture of the whole City, but that way it's just too big to show anything of the inside at all. So I really prayed about it & decided, "Well, they've seen lots of pictures of the whole City, the big Triangle, the big Pyramid, & even compared to various maps etc.‚ so they've got a pretty good idea of what the whole thing looks like." But to see the whole thing, you'd have to be so far away that you couldn't see what anything looked like‚ really, except the City! It's so big that you could even see the curvature of the Earth to see that far away!—Big enough to cover Europe or America or the Orient etc. It just is too big to put in one picture to show anything about what it's really like inside. And I wanted it close-up enough that we could see the City Park & the buildings & what it would look like up close.
43. WE HAD ONE PICTURE OF THE CORNER OF THE WALL which showed how beautiful the wall is & all the strata of various jewels & pearly gate & the couple going out to minister, & you had a little glimpse of the City inside the wall‚ but not enough to really see anything. So I decided what we really needed was a close-up, & we've got to get it somehow so they can relate it to what they've already seen; for example, the corner of the wall. So I sent word to lift us up above the corner & help us to look down into just a corner of the City!—Because that's all we can really see close up.
44. SO YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO SEE A CLOSE-UP OF A CORNER OF THE CITY, with at least one layer of mansions up over your head there where they begin, above the height of the City wall, then you can see all the garden & trees & beautiful buildings inside the City! Because it's transparent, you know, you can see right through! That's going to be the big picture on one, these others are just little pictures on the other. So that's what you see from your back porch, & the New Earth is what you see from your front garden where the couple are sitting embracing! That's a good idea, Honey, we could have somebody sitting right next to them there reading their Bible! What a contrast, huh? It shows you that both are possible in the Heavenly City!
45. I'LL TELL YOU, THESE PICTURES ARE GOING TO SHOCK THE CHURCHES & THE CHURCH PEOPLE! Whew! They never saw such a Heaven as this! Well, nobody else ever tried it! Why doesn't somebody else try pictures of Heaven? You get pictures of angels & little cherubs & people floating on clouds playing harps, but never really a picture of the City the way it's described in the Bible, never! You see a few golden domes & a little light of glory & gates that don't even look like pearls! Think of it!—And Peter standing there with a ring of keys‚ isn't that ridiculous?—As though he had to unlock the door! The doors are already unlocked for us, all we've got to do is walk in through the front gate! We might have to stand in line at the Reception Desk in order to get our key for our mansion, or at least to find out what number it is or what street it's on! Why not?
46. I INFORMED'M TO DRAW A RECEPTION DESK THERE WITH A BOOK WHERE THEY CAN LOOK UP YOUR RESERVATION, & A LINE OF PEOPLE STANDING WAITING FOR THEIR ASSIGNMENTS! Now maybe that's a little too realistic for you, but why not? The people are pouring in there & they've got to be directed someplace! Somebody's got to show them where they're going to live, because it's a big place!—1500 miles long & 1500 miles wide with tiers of Heavenly Mansions 100 miles high! That's all the City would take to house even 24 billion people in mansions of that size! It would only take enough tiers to stretch 100 miles up the wall of the City, & completely around the City, of course. And I doubt in all the World's history if there's actually been more than a billion saved, so there's going to be a lot of room in that City! As I said before, people could have a whole ranch bigger than King Ranch in South Texas‚ there's going to be so much room!
47. BUT FROM WHAT I SAW, THE FLOOR OF THE CITY IS THE SURFACE OF THE BEAUTIFUL NEW EARTH!—Park, buildings & amazing Heavenly kind of machinery that's running things, like that big crystal turning around! I was only guessing that it had something to do with the operation of the City or something. I don't know whether it helps keep things on an even keel or helps the atmosphere or helps to fly or what, but there it was! That giant crystal that was so tall! I informed the Artist I wanted a picture of that building too, if possible. That's the one where I was looking down & I saw those little specks & finally realised they weren't ants, but people down there! The building was so tall!
48. I DIDN'T SEE MUCH, I DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TIME!—Because this bunch of people I was with during the "Space City" vision, ugh!—Even Jethro was there! He kind of chuckled & sneered afterwards like‚ "That's Dad, he just has a big imagination!" Okay, call it my imagination! What else are dreams but your imagination, in a way, guided by the Lord?—Or if you have nightmares, the Devil! I don't know what you call it! Dreams & visions! Old men are supposed to have dreams & young men see visions! So I sent the Artist word, "I've got a Scripture for you: I'm the old man, I have the dreams, now you get the vision for this City!" (Joel 2:28) And I got another Scripture for you: "Heavenly vision!" Paul said‚ "I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision." (Ac.26:19) What was he talking about? He had a Heavenly vision! Why can't we have a Heavenly vision? We sent word to him again: "We've gotta have a Heavenly vision! I want visions of Heaven to show our kids! I've drawn the rough sketches, you make'm Heavenly!"
49. SO THAT'S MY IDEA OF HEAVEN! I think we live in Heaven on Earth right now, & this is as close as we can get on this Earth, but I expect Heaven to be like this, only better!—More & more of it! Not only all this & Heaven too, but all this & Heaven much more so! PTL? That's my idea of Heaven! Amen? So if you have any ideas or suggestions to add to these pictures, you're welcome to do so! In fact, I urge you to do so, please! After all, you get your choice too! Look for something! Look for some improvement! Tell us if you see anything there you don't like. Tell us what you would like to see that you don't see & any suggestions you have at all! And of course if you want to encourage us that you like it, you can tell us that too! We're putting on the finishing touches now, & this is your last chance to really add something!
50. THAT'S MY IDEA OF HEAVEN!—IF THAT'S NOT YOUR IDEA OF HEAVEN, I'M SORRY! I hope that these little pictures are at least going to be as close to it as our children's' scribbles are close to the real thing, & if they are, well praise God! If they're better than that, all the better, that suits me fine! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! As we pray together that Heavenly prayer You have taught us to pray so much about Heaven, Lord! (Prays the "Lord's Prayer", Ps.19:14 & "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.")
51. THANK YOU FOR THAT HEAVENLY PLACE YOU'VE GONE TO PREPARE‚ LORD, THAT WHERE YOU ARE, THERE WE MAY BE ALSO!—In Jesus name! GBY all! Good night! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord for Heaven! Amen? TYJ! (Sings: )
"Heaven is here, is here right now!
Heaven is here & I'll tell you how!
Jesus to know is Heaven below,
Heaven is here, is here & now!"
52. SO IF THIS IS LIKE HEAVEN, THEN HEAVEN'S GOING TO BE LIKE THIS!—My idea of Heaven! (Sings:)
"Oh‚ this is like Heaven to me!
Oh, this is like Heaven to me!
I've crossed over Jordan to Canaan's fair land,
And this is like Heaven to me!
Oh this is like Heaven to me!
Oh, this is like Heaven to me!
I've crossed over Jordan to Canaan's fair land,
And this is like Heaven to me!"
PTL! (To Techi:) You're a little bit of Heaven‚ one of my little angels! (Sings to the girls:) "You are like Heaven to me, you feel like Heaven to me!" If you're like Heaven‚ then Heaven will be like you! God bless you all!—ILY! TYJ! This is like Heaven to me!—Like it?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family