DO 25499/89

—A Current Commentary on Jim Bakker's Trial!

1. Poor Jimmy Bakker, the Devil's really got him & is torturing him! His case is a good example for Christians of what the Devil is going to do to them if they fall into his hands! I'd say they're deliberately trying to make him a poor testimony to make his followers lose confidence in him. God knows what kind of drugs they're giving him! I'm glad his wife Tammy finally went to his trial when she saw how he was suffering.

2. The AC media always show the worst scenes! There's no telling what good pictures they might have had, but the main picture they showed of Tammy was of her eating! She was apparently being besieged by the press, so she told them, "Leave me alone, I'm hungry!"—And they played that up to try to show that eating was all she was thinking about!

3. The AC media always try to bring out the worst! Like with President Bush, they're always harping on his faults & failures & "He failed to do this & blah blah blah!" The media is still just as much against him as they were during the presidential campaign. Considering the way the media portrayed him during the campaign, it's a miracle that he even got elected!

4. If they hadn't picked such a weak opponent as Dukakis, an almost totally unheard-of guy, I think Bush might have been defeated. But when the people saw the alternative, they decided Bush was better than nothing! I saw a recent picture of Dukakis & he still looks like nothing to me.

5. It's just pitiful what they're doing to Bakker! I wonder why he wanted to go on with the trial & thought he was able? They suspended the trial when it looked like he had a breakdown, & they sent him to a Federal prison correctional institute psychiatric hospital. When they asked him how come he came back to the trial he said, "I'd do anything to get out of that place!" Those places are full of devils…!

6. Poor guy, he's gone from Heaven to Hell! He was building a little Heaven on Earth there & apparently somebody coveted it. Imagine, one of his worst rivals, that non-Pentecostal "Moral Majority" Falwell took over his work!—A guy who's even against Pentecostals & the gifts of the Spirit & healing & all that sort of thing! A hard, tough Fundamentalist—who are some of the bitterest enemies of the Pentecostals—took over his work!

7. They've given Bakker every kind of torture! (Maria: Just think how much he'd suffered with the takeover of his "PTL" show & all the exposure & condemnation of his private life.)—And as though that wasn't enough, they still want to absolutely put him completely out of business for good, & actually imprison him! It's almost hard to believe that they could have done that. Falwell himself was the one who exposed his finances & won over his finance manager & finally persuaded him to rat on Bakker & turn him in to the Feds for supposed fraud & everything else.

8. They can pull those fraud charges out against almost any TV evangelist if they just don't like the way he spends his money! They can accuse them of tax evasion & all kinds of things. The government can accuse them of anything‚ it doesn't have to be true! But then it splotches them & smears them & holds them up to public ridicule. The main thing the ACs are trying to do is to destroy people's confidence in the TV evangelists.

DEVIL'S ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN LEADERS!

9. It's the beginning of the Antichrist rule & those poor guys are getting a taste of it! They weren't quite as hard on Falwell because he had some powerful political friends, but they were trying to ruin him at the same time by putting him in charge of Bakker's work, so that he neglected his own ministry.

10. (Maria: What kind of damage did they do to Jimmy Swaggart?) His scandal was mostly sex & embarrassment. He humiliated himself before the whole World by confessing & asking God to forgive him right in public on TV! They figured that they had smeared & humiliated him enough to destroy his work & his following, which it did. It made his own denomination throw him out, & the last thing I heard‚ the government is threatening to take away his tax exemption so he is no longer officially a minister of a recognised denomination.

11. The IRS have their own definitions of what is religious & what isn't! They even recognise the Satanists as a religion & a church—tax-exempt! (See WND 289.) And these TV evangelists that are doing so much good, saving people & healing them & everything else, they're the ones the Devil is really after, & he's knocking them off one by one through some little mistake they made somewhere.—Or smearing them & accusing them of mistakes, even if it's not true! The Devil is a liar!—Jn.8:44.

12. They tried to get Jesus that way, you know, by smearing Him & scandalising Him & accusing Him of all kinds of different things‚ literally trying to discredit Him before His followers! But they didn't succeed‚ so finally they figured they just had to kill Him!—And it looks like that's what they're doing with Bakker, almost killing him!

13. Falwell apparently has kept himself pretty clean, both his sex life & his finances, etc. They evidently couldn't really get him on anything so they just tried to make a fool of him.—Besides, he had powerful friends‚ including the President & a lot of other people.

14. (Maria: What happened to Pat Robertson of the "700 Club"?) Well, he lost his bid for the Presidency, & that sort of made a fool of him because he didn't have much of a following. Even the people who would have liked to vote for him knew he couldn't possibly win, & they would have just been taking their votes away from the lesser of two evils. The ACs attacked him on the grounds that his TV show was becoming purely political, that he was using it to campaign for the Presidency. So he apparently so divorced himself from the show & his work & his program to make sure they didn't get discredited & their tax exemptions taken away, etc., that the show ran down, & last I heard about him he was only getting about half the income he used to get‚ which greatly affected his ministry.

15. These guys get in trouble one way or the other, even by just neglecting their ministry. "PTL" was not Falwell's ministry. That kind of thing is not his kind of operation. But I think the Enemy deliberately turned Bakker's work over to Falwell to try to discredit Bakker. And then because it just ran down & he wasn't a success at it, that made Falwell look like a fool too, & you haven't heard much of him since. Then, of course, after they gave it to him, they took it away from him & some AC bought the thing! Can you imagine?

16. Boy, what the Devil will do to get rid of Christian leaders! That's what they're doing, one by one, & they hit the top biggest ones first! They wiped out Bakker & Swaggart, & they belittled & humiliated Falwell & Robertson. Apparently Falwell & Robertson had played it so clean with the government, & they both had very powerful political friends, that they couldn't get either one of them, so they just sort of make fools out of them.

17. They're always making fun of both Falwell & Robertson, like, "Who are these stupid idiots? This one guy Robertson thinks he can run for President!—And this other guy Falwell is some kind of a TV nut! Even when he had a chance to take over Bakker's work he muffed it & blah blah!" They're always belittling them & making fools out of them.

18. I was afraid of that when dear Pat Robertson decided to run for President! I said, "Uh-oh, that's not the Lord's way!" (See ML #2227: "Pat Robertson & Politics!") The Bible says explicitly not to get involved in the affairs of this World.—"Be not entangled!"—2Tim.2:4. But he sure did get it. He apparently was so self-confident & had so much ego because his show was so popular, that he thought he could make it. But I think it really humbled him, & of course it lost him a lot of stations.

19. There were lots of stations that played him free because he was sort of neutral when it came to religion & he hadn't stepped into politics much. But when he sided up in politics, a lot of people decided they didn't like him because he was running against their candidate, & I think that lost him a lot of viewers.—Maybe not true loyal followers who really are Christians & believe him & know he's right about most things‚ but a lot of the undecided‚ a lot of whom previously even gave to his work.

20. The same thing happened to Falwell & of course Bakker & Swaggart, all of them! The report is that all of their ministries were hit very hard financially & they are all down from one-fourth to one-half of what the giving used to be. The Devil really just about destroyed their ministries & they lost a lot of listeners & a lot of stations.

TIME OF PURIFICATION!

21. Well, the Lord let it happen, probably to let some of them suffer for their own sins so they can't get away with it, & to humble them, & also to test their listeners, to divide the sheep from the goats & whittle them down to more like Gideon's Bands of really true‚ loyal followers! I think only the ones who really love Jesus are going to continue to follow them, because they can forgive & forget.—They know that the Lord forgives & forgets.

22. I think one reason I have lasted with my followers, God bless them‚ is because I never really pretended to be anybody, except what they know I really am, including a sinner! I've confessed all my sins & made them public, so they already knew I was a sinner & already knew I knew it! So any "revelations" by the press didn't shock'm, especially when they knew most of it was lies. Praise the Lord!

23. So the Tribulation has already begun for some people, that's for sure, & the Devil is knocking down the leaders first. He doesn't seem to realise, though, that just like with the crucifixion of Jesus, it will only make the real disciples stronger! It's just purifying them. As the Lord said, "To purge them & to make them white," in other words, pure.—Dan.11:35. That seems to be His whole purpose in persecution, it's a final purifying to see who'll really take it!—Who can take it & still remain true to the Lord.

24. Like in the Parable of the Seeds (Mat.13), this loss of a lot of unsaved listeners on the part of these TV evangelists is like the Seed that fell on the stony ground, & before it had time to take root the Devil came & snatched it away! Then there are going to be a lot of Christians who are pretty shallow & can't take persecution‚ embarrassment or the knocking down of their idols‚ & they'll fall away. "There shall come a falling away first!"—2Th.2:3.

25. The Lord is purifying His Church & many are falling away, & He's finding out who is really true & faithful & willing to take it & still be loyal! And those who still keep on & "win many to righteousness shall shine as the stars!" The others who fall away are going to be "raised to everlasting shame & contempt."—Dan.12:2‚3. I'm sure they'll be thankful enough that they're raised at all. Instead of persecution, they're going to have to stand the shame & contempt of the Saints.

26. So it's a time of tribulation! And like I said, who knows but maybe the Tribulation's already begun? We've sure had a lot of tribulation, we've really gotten ours! We were early! We've been having it for about 20 years!—That's more than 3-1/2! Now the large audiences & leaders of these TV ministries are getting theirs!

INCARCERATION & TORTURE!

27. I wouldn't be surprised if they put Bakker through actual torture at that correctional center they took him to! They could have given him drugs or put him in solitary confinement, all kinds of torture! When they've got you, you're a criminal in their hands & in their incarceration‚ & let me tell you, they can do almost anything to you! (Maria: They can even hypnotise or drug you just to say what they want you to say & do what they want you to do!) Yes, I wouldn't be surprised that's what they did & how they got him to consent to go on with the trial.

28. That was probably all a setup bringing him back so soon after that kind of a breakdown! They never would have done that with anybody else! (Maria: They couldn't even have had their tests so quickly! They said they were going to have to have him there for two months of tests.) Yes, 60 days!—They hardly had him for more than a few days when the psychiatrist testified that he was able to go on with the trial. It's just the enemies, absolutely the enemies that are doing it! He's fallen into the hands of his enemies. They could have mentally conditioned him to say whatever they wanted him to say, with drugs & things like that.

29. The Devil is laughing & telling Christians, all Bakker's followers, etc., "Aha! See? God doesn't deliver you! He doesn't keep you! Look at Jim Bakker, he fell flat on his face & grovelled & had hallucinations!" I wouldn't be surprised if those "hallucinations" were the demons of Hell personally attacking him!

30. They sure made him look like a fool, like a blithering idiot! He didn't even look like he was sane or in his right mind, he looked like somebody that was really out of his head!

A TEST FOR BAKKER & HIS FOLLOWERS!

31. I'll tell you, we've had our tribulation for 20 years—now they're getting theirs! And pretty soon it's going to come from the top leaders of the Christian World on down through the ranks.

32. But I was thinking, how pitiful for that sweet leader to have to go through all of that! I wouldn't say he was any great guy, but he was really sweet & sympathetic, etc., with those people. (Maria: Why is the Lord letting him go through all that & not delivering him?) Well, I think he got led astray by that theme park, like some kind of a Disneyland, with a big hotel & all that stuff, building for the future. (Maria: Yes, I know‚ but he's suffered so much already!) Oh‚ they haven't got their vengeance yet!

33. (Maria: But why is the Lord allowing him to suffer so much?—Like you said, all the people are going to say, "Well, the Lord can't deliver His Own!") Well, that's a part of the test—his test & their test—to see if they're going to doubt, fear & desert the ranks. The Lord is really giving Bakker's followers a test! They found out who was there just for the fun & games, & who was really there & willing to suffer!—Because they're now suffering!

34. I'm glad Tammy was there sticking up for him, God bless her! It must have been a real bout! Of course, they never gave her the benefit of any kind of good publicity at all. She probably said things in his defence, but of course they cut that all out. They just showed that one little pic of her eating, like she was more interested in eating than anything else.

35. They're out to get him, I'll tell you! You can see who they hate the most! It wasn't Robertson or Falwell or even Swaggart, but it was Jimmy Bakker! I think they're deliberately trying to drive him out of his mind! (Maria: He was one of the weakest too, the weakest personality.) He didn't have the powerful followings politically & church-wise that Swaggart, Falwell & Robertson have. (Maria: Both Bakker & his wife had already had nervous breakdowns & they were weak anyway.)

36. I think they're hoping it will completely bring him down—otherwise they certainly wouldn't have sent him back to court in that condition! I think even the public is going to be shocked at that! It might even wake up some of the public to how cruel his enemies are! They wouldn't have sent anybody else right back to trial only a few days after a breakdown like that! They're out to get him! They were out to get him from the beginning.

37. The mistake he made was he borrowed too much money, & then he had to virtually sell his assets to pay some of his debts. But they weren't through with him even then when they stole his ministry & drove him bankrupt & took everything—his property & even his TV show.—He's now down to one little tiny station in Florida, of all things!

38. I'm sure the Devil would like to kill him, & almost has already! They've killed his show, killed his big development‚ they killed him financially, & now I think they're really out to try to kill him physically if they can! And the Devil is laughing, "See, you Christians! The Lord is not going to take care of you, He's not going to protect you! He's going to let you really suffer, even let'm kill you!"

39. Well, that ought to knock out a lot of that teaching which many of the Latter Rain got into, that you ought to be the healthiest, wealthiest, most secure person in the World as one of God's children, you should have everything! Even Oral Roberts was getting into that. They tried to ruin his ministry too by publicising that vision he had of the 900-foot Christ & his saying that if he didn't get so much money he was going to keep fasting & die of starvation! Well, apparently he got it, & he paid his debts & hung on!—Although he is having to give up his hospital & medical institute because he can't afford to keep them.

TIME OF TRIBULATION!

40. But they're after'm, you can bet your boots on that! They wanted to hit the top, the biggest & the highest first, & hit'm hard so they could get rid of their followings & their ministries. It's a time of great tribulation! And if it's greater than any there ever was before, & ever shall be, as Jesus Himself said (Mat.24:21), then it's got to get even worse than the Roman persecutions & the Jewish persecutions & the Catholic persecutions & all of those previous persecutions! Just think, it's going to be worse than even those!

41. Well, let's not dwell on that. I'm sorry to dwell on it because it says, "Whatsoever things are good‚ think on these things."—Phi.4:8. But we also have to recognise the Devil's machinations & his dirty work & not be ignorant or unaware of his evil devices, & explain to our children what the Devil is up to in all of this.—2Cor.2:11.

42. It's the beginning of sorrows & tribulation, showing the End is near! It won't take very much of a jump from that to the Antichrist. He's already trying to get rid of the opposition & trim down the ranks of real Christian fighters, destroy their power. It says he'll destroy the power of the Church & churches & Christians.—Dan.7:21,25; 12:7b. (Maria: Look how he's persecuting the anti-abortion demonstrators & how he's really socking it to them!) Yes, they're already getting thrown in jail again & again.

43. The Devil is doing his damnedest to try to do his dirtywork, because he knows his time is short!—Rev.12:12. So he's venting his fury on God's children. Like I said before, he started out with the little ones, the little groups, the ones the church people & the Systemites were already persecuting themselves, like us, the cults, etc. I said, "Just wait‚ they'll start getting theirs pretty soon, reaping what they've sowed!"

44. They've persecuted us & thrown us in prison & beaten us & done everything they can!—Taken away our children, even taken our people into incarceration of the deprogrammers! That type of thing apparently has run its course, TTL! I think it's even turned the World & the courts & the judges against the deprogrammers, because they're defying every law in doing it! It's totally illegal & criminal. They put Black Lightning in jail several times, he even served about a year–&-a-half stretch in prison. Look what light sentences the Devil gives his own!—But when it comes to God's people, he really socks it to'm!

POST-TRIB RAPTURISTS!

45. Well, PTL! TYL! As the newsboy said‚ "It won't be long now!" The Coming of the Lord has got to be near to save His people! Even the churches are waking up to the fact that it looks like we're getting into the Tribulation & we're going to have the Antichrist & we're not going to be raptured before it! A whole big group of ministers representing a lot of Pentecostals & Fundamentalists & whatnot are now turning to the post-Trib Rapture!

46. They must have gotten thousands of followers converted to the doctrine of the post–Trib Rapture, whereas there wasn't hardly anybody before!—Except, of course, the Seventh-day Adventists. The Jehovah's Witnesses are so stuck on the old doctrine of the Catholic Church being the Antichrist Kingdom & the Pope being the Antichrist that I don't think they've gotten out of that rut. Even the Seventh-day Adventists seem to be pretty stuck on that. But although they believe that the Pope is the Antichrist & that Babylon is the Catholic Church, they do believe that the Church is going to go through the Tribulation before the Rapture.

47. So for thousands of Gospel & grace-preaching Fundamentalists & Evangelicals to be starting to preach a post-Trib Rapture, that is big news!—Because up until a few years ago, before we came along, they were all preaching Scofield Bible pre-Trib Rapture. Maybe some of our lit has gotten out & convinced them! Well, certainly the Bible should have convinced them, & I think present-day events are helping to convince them that they're not going to get away & out of it before it begins!

48. I think the Lord has used us to have some impact on the World & the church, & it looks like some of the church finally got the point, they got the Message! That's thrilling, that's really satisfying to think that some people have finally woken up! They finally got the Word that they're not going to float away on flowery beds of ease to get out of it all, but that the Church is going to be tried & tested & proven & purged & made white as Daniel said.—Dan.11:35. It sure needs it!

49. I think we've had some impact after all & woken up a few people!—We got some of the church people thinking instead of parroting Scofield's Bible! I'm just amazed that some Christians are waking up! I used to stand right up in their meetings & challenge them with 2Thes.2:3! So I guess my stand was not in vain! I was a very unpopular guy, but eventually some people did search the Scriptures to see if these things be so!—Acts 17:11. They're even preaching sermons now on how to keep from taking the Mark of the Beast & having Prophecy conferences to talk about how Christians are going to go through Great Tribulation! So that's an encouraging sign!

50. There used to be some people who believed in a mid-Trib Rapture, but there were virtually no people who believed in a post-Trib Rapture. The mid-Trib Rapturists believed that all the people who were ready for the Lord's Coming—those who were saintly & obedient & more righteous than the others—would get pre-Trib Raptured, & the rest of them would go through some of the Tribulation to make them pure & white & get them fixed up for Heaven too‚ & then they'd get Raptured in the middle of the Tribulation.

51. Well‚ these guys who now are preaching a post-Trib Rapture are not even nitpicking about some of the people who think it's a mid-Trib Rapture, they accept them all, they just don't accept the pre-Trib Rapturists.—Anybody who thinks we're going to have to go through any of the Tribulation at all seem to be their cohorts, & they accept them in their fellowship.

52. You can almost see the makings of a new denomination, because most of the denominations have come out strong on pre-Trib Rapture. When I was with the Alliance, my District Superintendent came along & said‚ "We don't care what you boys personally want to believe on that‚ that's your private business, your personal opinion, but we don't want you preaching it in our churches or to each other!"—Because I'd been really preaching it to these young preachers & getting them real shaky on their pre-Trib Rapture! So he made a special point to get all of us preachers in his district together & warn us not to preach the post-Trib Rapture! So obviously our denomination forbade it & didn't believe in it & cautioned us against it.

53. Most denominations have taken a stand against post-Trib Rapture, so a lot of these guys who are now following the Biblical post-Trib Rapture doctrine could get thrown out of their churches & their denominations if they keep preaching it! And when that happens, it almost always results in a new denomination. They organise & have a fellowship that turns out to be a new church. So‚ praise the Lord!—The more that get kicked out the better!

54. It almost always happens when Christians disagree. But thank God, usually the disagreers are the come-outers, & usually with something that's right & true! So the more the big formal denominations kick'm out, the more that gets'm together!

55. That's how the Alliance got formed‚ by Presbyterian preachers who got kicked out of their denomination for supporting an independent missionary movement, & that became the Christian Missionary Alliance. Then they formed the denomination.—Even after A.B. Simpson had said, "God forbid that we should ever become a denomination!" A.B. Simpson himself said that‚ who was the leader of the Christian Missionary Alliance, but of course they did, they had to. One thing that encourages them to do that is governmental tax exemption. They have to form some kind of an organisation in order to get tax exemption, & it has got to be something similar to the other organised churches or the IRS won't grant them recognition.

56. So‚ PTL! Maybe those post-Tribulation Rapturist groups that are beginning to form will become a come-outer group & form a fellowship of their own!—Which they ought to, they almost have to, in order to fight the government & their enemies & rivals & especially the big denominations, etc. They have to get organised to get recognised, so that they can get all the benefits that the churches do.—Recognition & tax exemption, etc.

CLAMPING DOWN ON HOME SCHOOLERS!

57. And what do you bet that the U.S. is going to try & discredit all the little independent schools that are not sponsored by some kind of recognised organisation or denomination. Of course‚ they always accuse them of being sub-standard. Their standard means they've got to belong to some denomination or church or organisation, & they've got to have school buildings & look like money & look like something beautiful & recognised!

58. The public schools‚ of course, are pushing it, because the more students they get, the more money they get, & they'll get more buildings or housing. The schools are always complaining they don't have enough money, they don't have enough classrooms, & it's no doubt true. So by closing down the home schooling they hope to boost their numbers, & therefore insist they get more money for housing & classrooms.

59. The schools get a grant of so much per student, even per day! That's why they're so tough on insisting that every student absence is legitimately excused. Because without an excused legitimate absence‚ they lose the money they're supposed to get for that student that day. So that makes the schools really bug for signed excuses from the parents, etc.

60. So it's coming, little by little: Registration, discreditation by testing, etc., & closing them down.—That's their main goal, of course. It's all part of the "beginning of sorrows" & Tribulation.—Mat.24:8. I'm sorry to harp on such a gloomy outlook, but our people have to be warned not to be ignorant of the Enemy's devices & see what they're really up to!—2Cor.2:11.

61. So what should our home schoolers & our schools do?—Which of course are not registered or accredited or anything. (Maria: A wise thing to do in a country very strict about public school attendance is to keep the school-age kids in all day & just let them go out after school hours.)

62. These restrictions are not really a new thing. Guess who it is that's usually behind all that registration business‚ insisting that all the little Christian schools be tested, examined & investigated, & wanting them to have to have accreditation by the State? Guess who it is that usually leads that drive that all Christian schools should be accredited by the State School Boards, etc., & should be examined—their curriculum, their grade levels, even their accommodations?

63. Who do you suppose would be their worst enemies?—Even more than the public schools! (Maria: The big Christian schools?)—Exactly! The Catholics for one thing, & the big denominational schools who had their own schools all accredited & they were all hunky-dory with recognition of the State. Because these other little schools are costing them students, they want to drive them out of business, & they often do!

64. They're just the kind, because they've already got it! They're already recognised & accredited. That's exactly the way they've done it before, & that's driven out a lot of little Christian schools & even Christian colleges—Christian Bible schools called Bible Institutes, etc., who had not measured up to the accreditation standards of the Boards of Accreditation. Did you know they have agencies of accreditation?—College & school associations, "accrediting" associations they call them, who test the schools—it's like the Inquisition—& they will only accredit them if they live up to certain standards & requirements.

65. They were even starting to clamp down on the school where I was teaching in Los Angeles many years ago. Although it was quite a big school & had a pretty good rating amongst Christians, it had no actual legal or educational accreditation‚ therefore the other schools would not accept our students' credits. That's one way they get'm out! The big schools that don't like all the competition refuse to accept the students' credits, therefore they won't put them in the proper grade that they should be in, etc. That's how they get you!

66. Although we had all 12 grades‚ the supervisors of the school recommended that anybody who wanted to go on to college should take their last year in a public high school or in an accredited high school‚ so that they could graduate with a diploma which would be accepted by the higher colleges. We could graduate them‚ but we warned them that they wouldn't be accepted into accredited colleges.

67. So that's the way the System works! Whether it's so-called Christian or it's System & Worldly, they all work it the same way: They do their best to eliminate the competition, which means the little guys & the independents. They did that a long time ago in the U.S., they flushed out a lot of fleas from under the carpet & got rid of a lot of little schools & home schools & Bible Institutes, etc., so that the Alliance had to finally go for accreditation. They added a lot of courses & curriculum to their Nyack, New York Bible Institute that helped them to qualify for accreditation as a Bible College.

68. (Maria: And that's the Devil's way of getting in all the liberal teachers & ungodly teachers who are qualified but not Christian!) Oh yes! It had already happened when I went to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. They shot for accreditation so that their credits would be recognised by State Colleges & Universities of higher learning & whatnot, & it already meant that they had to have teachers who had the credentials & degrees that the accreditation agency insisted on. Therefore they were already getting unbelieving teachers into their Christian college who were teaching Evolution & everything like that.

69. They compromise with the World in order to advertise to students that their school is recognised & accredited & that credits gained there will be recognised in institutions of higher learning. (Maria: But didn't they have to compromise to just even be a Bible College at all?) Yes, even to be allowed by the State to exist at all, they have to fulfil a minimum amount of requirements.

70. I was thankful that in California at that time the only thing they required was that you had adequate facilities, that you kept your students in the same hours as the public schools, that they studied the same subjects & used the same textbooks. We qualified because those were rather liberal requirements. We had good facilities, rooms for each grade, although some of them were double grades like mine. If they'd have been too particular they probably would have made us separate that 50-student room, which certainly would have been better for all of us. But we were a little short on Sunday School rooms so that's the way we sneaked through.

71. They came & inspected & they gave us credit for having adequate facilities, the same schedule as the public schools & the same textbooks.—Although they still wouldn't give our transferring students credit in their other schools. They wouldn't recognise the credits they'd earned in our school. They just were not adequate & not recognisable, because the students had not earned them in one of their schools!

72. The reason why the System hates the small independent private schools & home schools is because they condemn their system. They prove there is an alternative & the System doesn't like that. They want to feel their system is right & should therefore be the only one. But they're anti-Christ. They have been since the beginning! The whole idea of public schooling was concocted by … Horace Mann … who is now worshipped as a hero by the educational system. So it's dangerous‚ you're bucking the System. Let's face it‚ you're revolutionary, you're the competition! You're proving there is something else.—And you're even saying it's better!

WATCH OUT FOR THE SYSTEM & ITS LAWS!

73. So the System will get you if you don't watch out! Remember that poem by James Whitcomb Riley, the famous children's poet that Mother knew & who lived next to them on some lake? I'll never forget how my nurse scared me half to death by reading me his poem: "The Boogie-man will get you if you don't watch out!" Parents used to use that on their children if they were naughty! The poem went on & on telling all the naughty things that you knew you did, or that you might do, & saying that if you do those things, "The Boogie-man will get you if you don't watch out!"

74. So the System is using the same tactics today, the same Boogie-man, to scare you that if you don't comply with all their rules & regulations & requirements & accreditations & schedules & blah blah blah, "The Boogie-man will get you if you don't watch out!" That would be a good title for this, because they're still trying to scare us into it!

75. When Jeth applied for tax exemption as a religious educational organisation, they'd already heard about us, especially the ACs! They sent an IRS investigator down to the school that Jeth had in Texas where they'd even bought a school building & had a big rich sponsor, but none of them could convince that IRS investigator that they were really a genuine religious educational organisation. He disqualified'm & presented them with a tax bill!

76. … [T]he Lord said, "When they persecute you in one city, flee to another!"—Mat.10:23. Nowadays that amounts to, "When they persecute you in one country, flee to another!" Because the countries are so organised now & their law enforcement systems & immigrations & everything else are so tight, & they all work together. … [S]ome of the countries are working together & get up a common attitude toward us, so that we are discredited by all of their churches & their governments & their tax agencies & their International Police & everything else! We've been smeared with a bad name with all of'm, so about the only way we can operate now is [as low-key] as possible!

77. There's still a little freedom in some countries where we can openly peddle our wares on the streets. But most of the Family now, according to the stats, have gone … door-to-door or office–to-office & operate like that so that they can get around it & continue to peddle.

78. The Jehovah's Witnesses were some of the first ones to find out about these problems, that even if the government hadn't enacted any National laws, there were still plenty of little local laws of the little local towns & townlets & villages that were even completely in defiance of the National Constitution, saying that you could not preach or peddle literature publicly or house-to–house or in any way without first coming to the County or City Courthouse & registering & paying a fee, if they accepted you! Therefore they could easily turn you down & forbid you & wouldn't even register you or take your fee if they didn't like you. That's what they frequently did to the Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

79. So a lot of cities don't even pay any attention to the National laws, they have their own laws, & we were told that in quite a few of them: "We don't care what the Constitution says, we have our own laws here!"—Literally! The Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists & Christian Scientists were the main ones that fought their cases clear to the Supreme Court & got some of those local laws knocked out! They won every case before the Supreme Court when the local laws were obviously absolutely defiant of the rights & freedoms & liberties of the Constitution & the Bill of Rights!

80. God bless the Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses & even Christian Scientists! The Christian Scientists' cases were mostly about prayer for healing of the sick. They were accused by their enemies, of course—especially doctors & the American Medical Association—of practicing medicine, because they were practicing healing! So they were outlawed in a good many cities, & suffered a lot of persecution. But they had money & they had lawyers & they had pull & they finally got it to the top & had those laws thrown out!—That to eliminate prayer for the sick was to restrict freedom of religion!

81. Well, eventually, "The Boogie-man will get you if you don't watch out!" So you'd better watch out & don't let him get you! Try to keep the rules if you can, but burrow underground out of sight or flee if you can't! PTL!

WATCH & PRAY!

82. Lord bless & keep us all, all Thy children everywhere! Help them to continue to minister & be able to continue to win souls & preach Thy Gospel as a witness as long as possible, & in as many places as possible until You come‚ Lord!—And not let the Boogie-man get'm either through fear or actual persecution! Help them to try to … make sure they have the freedom to do whatever they're doing‚ wherever they're doing it or getting away with it!—Or doing it in such a way that they can get away with it, so that the Boogie-man can't get'm if they don't watch out!

83. So help'm, Lord, to really watch out for the Boogie-man that's trying to get'm, & try to stay out of his sight & out of his reach! And if they are not allowed to publicly proclaim Your Love‚ for them to … do it privately … as much as possible. And if they're still hounded there, then they may have to [leave], Lord, to another city or even another country where they can.

84. Help them, by all means, to watch out!—To read their local papers & see what's going on, what's happening, what the attitude of the System is to what they're doing. Help them to be cautious & wary‚ because the Boogie-man will get us if we don't watch out! So watch out!—And pray! "Watch & Pray!"—Mat.26:41. We used to sing a little song:

"Happy day, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away!

Please help me Lord to watch & pray,

And read my Bible every day!

Happy day, happy day‚

When Jesus washed my sins away!"

85. Yes‚ those were happy days then, but I'll tell you, they're not so happy now! But we can still be happy in the Lord! TTL! Even living … persecuted & all the rest, we can still be happy in Jesus! (Sings:)

"I'm happy today, yes, happy today,

In Jesus' Love I'm happy today!

He's taken all my sins away,

Praise God, I'm happy today!"

86. —In spite of the Boogie-man! Hallelujah! TYL! Amen! We're much better off than when we were under his control & doing his will! Now we've been freed from him by the Lord—but not from the law, so we still have to watch out! So beware, be good & be very wise, or the Boogie-man will get you if you don't watch out! So, watch out! Amen? PTL! TYL!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family