DO 1878 12/84

1. "THE HEAVENLY CITY" HAS ALREADY GONE TO SPRINT & I HOPE NOBODY'S DISAPPOINTED IF THEY GET THERE & FIND OUT IT'S NOT EXACTLY LIKE WE PICTURED IT! After all, we've got to use a little imagination to fill in the gaps between revelations. That's what every artist has to do, & even sometimes the writers. So we just do the best we can & I'm sure the reality is going to be a lot better. But I'll tell you, our best & even our imagination is a heck of a lot better than anything I've ever seen before! I have never seen anything like these before, nothing in religious art or classical art of any kind that even begins to try to depict some of these scenes, & they're not accurate or according to the Bible even when they do!

2. IN THE ARTHUR MAXWELL BIBLE STORY BOOKS THERE ARE SEVERAL OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PICTURES I'VE EVER SEEN OF THAT CITY & ITS SURROUNDING GARDEN ETC., BUT STILL THEY HAVEN'T GOT THE CITY RIGHT! Isn't that funny? I don't know whether they just couldn't believe it or they just couldn't believe the actual stats & dimensions given or what. It's just amazing that they wouldn't believe that it really meant what it said! Maybe the Lord just blinded their eyes, because He says He reserved this for us‚ so hallelujah! Anyway‚ we're the first! We may be the worst, but we're the first! I really think our art is as good as anything they've got to offer, the classics or any of them. It looks better than some of those old masterpieces. And they're certainly a lot more cheerful & colourful & happier & beautiful & more accurate as well!

3. SO SPRINT HAS EVERYTHING THEY NEED FOR THE FIRST FOUR & THE BALL'S IN THEIR COURT, ALL FOUR BALLS, & IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO SERVE! So pray for them! And we're now working on the very next one that's most ready & all you need to do is finish this Mill Lake picture & we'll have one ready to go for the next four. And if we use that Trib poster, after you add the halos it'll be ready too. I don't think anybody would choke over that if you didn't add halos, but it would be better to have'm! They've seen Jesus with the crown on lots of times so it wouldn't necessarily hurt, but I think it's worth the changes to give Him white hair. Otherwise it just won't be consistent & we won't be living up to the consistency of our textual material, much less the original text it came from. (Rev. 1:14) Because it's plain as day there in that chapter, there's an accurate description of Him, & why nobody ever did that before I don't know either! We're the first! We're just taking what the Bible says!

4. I DON'T KNOW WHY PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE THE BIBLE & JUST TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT SAYS & DRAW IT THE WAY IT IS, LIKE IT IS‚ NEITHER HIM NOR THE CITY NOR HARDLY ANYTHING! My Lord‚ they've made so many pictures of the Madonna & child & all that, it seems like they could have spared a little time to draw a few other things that are just as important & more pertinent to the hour today at least. Well, they were living five or six hundred years ago, & some of them two or three hundred years ago back in the Renaissance, so I guess we can't blame'm too much, they were too far away. I guess there wasn't that much interest in Heaven at that time, but we're getting awful close now! The Heavenly City Poster has a very strong religious flavour. With some of them we just can't hide it, it's gonna hit'm right straight between the eyes!—And so what? That's our job!

5. I LIKEN IT TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAR FISHING & FISHING WITH HOOK, LINE & BAIT. When you're fishing with bait you hide the hook inside the bait & they don't see it at first until they've already swallowed it, in this case taken it home & read the back. They probably buy it according to the front & they're not going to stop there on the corner to read the back. So there are two kinds of people we're trying to hit, the ones who just like pretty pictures & would like it on their wall even if they don't understand it & if it's not got so much of that religious flavour that it ID's it. Then there's the other kind that understand what we're talking about & we hit'm right straight between the eyes with it! We spear'm right in the water‚ no bait, just a straight shot‚ direct hit, & hope that that gets'm! And I think there'll be some people that will go for that too! Even though they know what it's about & they can see it & it says plainly on the headline & it's obvious, I think some people are going to like it anyway, especially the young folks that are really curious & seeking, the hungry. Those that are full, it says He sent them empty away, but He filleth the hungry heart. (Luk.1:53) So we're going to give them something to eat & they can go home & devour it & just fill up on it, tank up! So pray for the folks that are gonna get'm out!

6. BY THE WAY, WE'RE GETTING A TERRIFIC REACTION ABOUT THE TAPES, THEY'RE REALLY GOING OVER! If you could put it in that expression: Business is booming out their way! Wherever they're workin', wherever they're pushing'm‚ they're really going over! Sometimes they sell four or five or six of them to the same person‚ so it's going to be good for their support. Thank God! And when they finally get the posters, of course, to go with the tapes, that's going to be even better! But wait'll they get these next four, WOW! Hallelujah! So go to work, Folks, God bless ya! I'd better not take any more of your time with my ravin' & rantin'! Some people think I'm a ravin' rantin' lunatic! Well, if I'm moonstruck, I don't know! I think more likely I'm Son-struck by Jesus!

7. I CHANGED THE TITLE ON THE MANSION PICTURE BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS SUCH A PRETTY PICTURE THEY WOULDN'T NECESSARILY KNOW WHERE IT WAS, & that's one of those that we can sort of use as bait, & the hook is on the back. So I think on one like that, the type that we're trying to hide the hook with the bait, we shouldn't even have that message on the bottom that makes it so obvious. We've got to have the copyright & about "We'll send you more", but I don't think we ought to put that prayer on the bottom, on one of these that's not so obvious & is more like bait to hide the hook.

8. SO INSTEAD OF HITTING THEM BETWEEN THE EYES WITH A SPEAR & LETTING THEM KNOW WHAT THAT PICTURE IS SUPPOSED TO BE, THEY MAY THINK IT'S JUST SOME MOVIE STAR'S MANSION IN BEVERLY HILLS! After all, that's what they consider Heaven on Earth with all their starlets playing in the pool, so why not?—Only they may get a little mystified by that one actor in the middle‚ but you know, there are a lot of actors & weirdos in that town & it just looks like a pretty picture. I can't remember exactly what title I suggested now. Inspiration comes & goes, like the wind, it blows! Oh, here it is: "Our Heavenly Home!" See‚ it's got a double entendre, a double meaning, because that word "heavenly" is quite common! How do you like my French?—Double entendre! The French sure leave out & don't pronounce a lot of letters, almost as bad as English!

9. IF I HAD TIME, & MAYBE I'M GOING TO USE THE MILLENNIUM FOR IT SINCE THE PEOPLE ARE STILL GOING TO HAVE THEIR OWN LANGUAGES, I THINK I'M GOING TO WORK ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, reducing it to strictly phonics spellings, kind of like my abbreviations! Well, we don't have to have'm that bad, but at least where we don't have all these extra letters that are ridiculous & are not even pronounced, old hangovers from old English & old dictionaries. Look how we could abbreviate & whittle down the English language!—Not to speak of French! They don't even pronounce half of the letters!

10. SO ANYWAY, IN THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE OF THAT TITLE‚ THERE'S KIND OF A DOUBLE MEANING: "OUR HEAVENLY HOME" MAY BE TALKING ABOUT THE DIRECTOR'S BEVERLY HILLS MANSION! Of course, your director doesn't have a mansion in Beverly Hills, mine's a lot further away right now! But anyhow‚ it could mean either one! You guys have been out there on the front lines, which title do you think would hit'm best? What do you think would sell in that split-second glance that they have time to give in this quick drop-you-a-coin moment? That title "Life in Heaven" is too obviously religious, & even "Heavenly Mansion" is a little bit of a dead giveaway. So I thought I'd make it sound a little more homey: "Our Heavenly Home!" They've got all these mottos they hang on the walls of homes, like "Home Sweet Home", so this'll be their "Home Sweet Home" motto! Only they'll wonder‚ "My Lord, what kind of a home have they got‚ anyhow?" Well, then they can read the back & find out! So let's put that new title on there centered above the three domes! And I don't think we ought to put any message at the bottom of that bait picture except the copyright & address & invitation to send for more. I think it's on the back in the text anyhow so we don't need it there.

11. WE CAN CATEGORISE THESE POSTERS FROM NOW ON‚ BAIT OR SPEAR! The ones that have a strong religious flavour that's very ID'd & very obvious, that's the spear between the eyes! The others where we're kind of hiding the hook, that's the bait type. So on the baits, I don't think we oughtta put a hook on the front, & I think the titles oughtta not smack of a hook either, or they're showing the slight little point of a hook sticking out or something.

12. WHEN I WAS FISHIN'‚ I REALLY KNEW HOW TO PUT THOSE WORMS ON SO I COULD STRING'M ON THAT HOOK! I could push one end of the worm on the point & keep shovin' it on & shovin' it on right there so that finally the worm travelled the whole length of the hook clear up & almost covered the eyelet in the other end that the line's tied to, so that all the fish could see was that worm! Every bit of the hook was hidden, believe it or not, & I think that's what we've got to do with some of these. They accuse the TMs of doing the same thing. Well, I don't blame'm for trying to bait the hook. The hook's still there, but they're trying to bait that hook with a bunch of scientific jibber–jabber‚ & it did make it a lot more palatable to the fish & a lot more of them swallowed it when it was in scientific language. Well, we want to make some of these posters more palatable in just their language of beauty & just pretty pictures so they'll swallow this beautiful picture, & then they can read the hook on the back when they get home.—Ha!

13. SO THOSE ARE TWO VERY IMPORTANT POINTS: THE POINT OF THE HOOK OR THE POINT OF THE SPEAR! Some of'm are going to hit'm right between the eyes with the spear, no holds barred & nothing hidden! But others we're going to try to hook with a lot of luscious bait on the front but the hook on the back, unseen.

14. THE OLD HEAVEN POSTER IS OBVIOUSLY A SPEAR! The New Heaven Poster is very obvious too because of not only the headline, but all the various pictures & their captions, so there's another spear. And certainly the Endtime Poster is a spear! And the City with Jesus standing there inviting you, it could hardly be anything but a spear! That's a good ID!—They're either spears or they're bait, one or the other. So every one of those first four we're sending out are going to be spears! But I want to include in this next batch a few real bait pictures! The New Heaven Poster is pretty much of a spear because of all the obvious pictures, so it could have the bottom line on it. The Tribulation Poster of course is a spear, but they won't even understand what that's about unless they know what that word means!

15. MILL LAKE IS A DEFINITE BAIT, & THE MANSION IS BAIT! They're the new big blow-up pictures that we want to really try to do a little baiting with. It looks like most of ours are spears so far, we're just beginning to get into the bait‚ a little more quiet type of fishing. Spear fishing is a pretty rough sport if you know anything about it. Some places it's so rough that it's even forbidden by law. That's like the System‚ they don't mind you hiding the hook & baiting, just as long as you don't hit'm between the eyes! Ha! So anyway, we're just getting into the pretty pictures now of the things that are not quite so obvious, more of the bait type, & we've got a little bit of both‚ about half-&–half in this next four. From there on I may go into strictly bait pictures of these beautiful ones, God willing, so we'll see!

16. MARIA WAS JUST SAYING THIS MORNING HOW ONE OF THE PRETTIEST PICTURES THAT SHE LIKES & WOULD ALMOST LIKE TO SEE NEXT IS THE MAGIC RIVER! That is really just a pretty picture to look at‚ period, even if you don't understand what it is. It might just look like a sci–fi picture, so I consider that strictly a bait picture. So we're going to get into more of those, God willing, if you'll keep praying real hard & keep sending in what we need to pay to print'm & mail'm to you!

17. WE'VE JUST HEARD THAT ALL OF THE THREE CENTERS HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED THEIR TAPE POSTER SEPARATIONS & ARE PREPARING TO GET'M PRINTED IN COLOUR, including South American editions in Spanish & Portuguese. It's amazing how it all worked out! In each of these places, though so far separated, the cost was almost exactly the same for the same amount of posters, like those tape posters. And I was glad to find out that they all do good colourwork, so PTL!

18. WHY DON'T YOU SEND ME MORE SAMPLES! I WANT TO SEE'M! I'M LIKE A LITTLE KID BEFORE CHRISTMAS! I never could see what was the idea of delaying Christmas when the gifts were already there around the tree. I think that was the stupidest thing! Somebody wrote me the other day & said they got some beautiful Bible Story books & they're saving them for the kids for Christmas! I wrote'm back, "For God's sake, give'm to'm now! Time is short! We can't wait for Christmas!" I don't believe in that business of waiting till Christmas, we get our gifts every day! Amen? If you want to have a little Christmas & a tree, that's up to you, & the kids enjoy it & they have fun. But this business of wrapping up a whole bunch of mountains of gifts under the tree & saving them for weeks & weeks for Christmas is ridiculous! They might as well be enjoying them! So I said, "You get out those books, don't go saving'm till Christmas! They need to get'm in use, not have'm all wrapped up just under the tree!" That gives'm more time they can read'm that way! They'd have some of them done by that time!

19. I HOPE YOU'RE LETTING YOUR KIDS DIG INTO THEM, & YOU OLDER FOLKS WOULD GET QUITE A KICK OUT OF SOME OF THOSE BOOKS! I've got some Letters coming up about the Seventh Day Adventists & about those books & their prophecy & all that stuff, & they're closer to the truth than most people, & their art is more accurate than most‚ so I think you'll find them very interesting. Even on the interpretation of Daniel & Revelation, Matthew 24 etc., they hit it a lot closer than most of the others. So it's good stuff.

20. HE'S DEFINITELY DEEPLY SPIRITUAL (THE AUTHOR) BECAUSE HE TRIES TO BRING OUT A REAL SPIRITUAL LESSON IN EACH STORY. You'll notice there's a moral at the end of each one with a hook inside the bait, at least at the end of the bait, that really makes your kids think, & you too, about what's the real meaning & application of this story to my life? What's it mean to me? So I think you'll really find they're good for your kids. You may run across a little something here or there where they over-emphasise the Seventh Day or the Law, but just take it with a grain of salt!—And you've already got the salt, you've got lots of grains of it! God bless & keep you & keep you rollin'!—In Jesus' name, amen!—You wanna spear'm or bait'm?—Whatever you do, catch'm!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family