Dad
May 28, 2003
—MO13-11-77GP No.633
[Note: Paragraph numbers‚ not in the original Letter‚ were added to this file.]
Copyrighted November 1977 by the Children of God
Dear Mr. Chaves of the Daily News, Tenerife and the Canary Islands:
1. WE ARE HAPPY TO HEAR ALL THE GOOD NEWS from there about everybody.—Thank the Lord! It sounds like things are going well and everybody is happy and busy and some still love us, and it looks like the Lord is blessing us there and still accomplishing His purpose of getting out the Word and winning people to Jesus' Love and feeding the sheep.
2. WE ARE HAPPY TO HEAR THAT WE ARE STILL BEING WELL RECEIVED BY THE PAPERS THERE and that you are still interested in hearing news about us and willing to take our Letters occasionally as information and news regarding us and our plans and what we have to say.
3. WE WERE JUST DISCUSSING YOUR LIST OF QUESTIONS you gave for us to answer, and we agreed it was best for me to answer them myself personally. Thank you for your courtesy and interest and the opportunity to reply.
4. NUMBER ONE, "WHY ARE YOU, FATHER DAVID, RETURNING TO TENERIFE?" Well, that's an easy one to answer!: Because my home is there and I love Tenerife and the climate and the people and I like to live there! It's usually quiet, tranquil and normally peaceful.
5. I RETIRED THERE FOR PEACE AND QUIET to live out my days in peace, until somebody there tried to stir up trouble for us because of our religious ideas. The only reason we left was because we were feeling ill and needed a rest from the annoyance of interviews and repeated investigations.
6. THESE PROBLEMS WERE STIRRED UP BY SOMEONE WHO APPARENTLY DOESN'T LIKE US. Possibly the religious leaders of the Island consider us a competitive religion which threatens their own ideas—we don't know.—Also we were beginning to be hounded by some unscrupulous and false reporters of various foreign periodicals wanting to get some sensational news and exaggerating and misinterpreting all this in their publications. So we are very thankful for a paper like yours who is now interested in knowing the truth and wants it straight from us.
7. WE DON'T KNOW WHY A LITTLE LOVE SHOULD BE SUCH SENSATIONAL NEWS, a religion of love‚ God's Love, but apparently real Love is rare! Since we left Tenerife the stories written about us and pictures taken of us there have been on television, radio and in newspapers and magazines all over the world.
8. SO APPARENTLY "LOVE IS NEWS!"—PRAISE GOD!—And God is news again too! But I would like very much to return there just as soon as things are quieted down and no one bothers us any more, so we can live out our days in peace with our family, thanks to the Lord and Tenerife—I hope!
9. QUESTION NUMBER TWO: "DO YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE AUTHORITIES ON THE ISLAND?" Well, we certainly hope not, and we haven't heard of any. In fact, some of the authorities there have informed us that they have nothing against us, and they have all said the same: No.
10. THEY HAVE INDICATED THAT I AM WELCOME TO RETURN as long as we don't break any laws. So I don't think it's the governmental authorities there who have anything against us. I think our enemies there are those who consider us a competitive religion.
11. SO I DON'T SEE WHY WE SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN IN PEACE, because we have broken no laws that we nor the government know of, and as far as we and they are concerned we have committed no crimes.
12. AS LONG AS LOVE IS STILL NOT A CRIME, I PRESUME WE CAN LIVE THERE LEGALLY. Praise the Lord! We have never committed any crimes anywhere in the world that we know of, contrary to some of our enemies' statements‚ and we have never been charged with any crimes anywhere in the world‚ and we are not wanted by the authorities anywhere in the world that we know of.
13. IT'S USUALLY ONLY OUR RELIGIOUS ENEMIES WHO CONSIDER US COMPETITION AND WHO THEREFORE TRY TO GIVE US TROUBLE AND MAKE THINGS DIFFICULT FOR US. We're certainly not at war with anyone except the Devil and evil, as every Christian should be. So it should be fair for us to believe and practice whatever religion we want to, as long as it does not break any laws and is not illegal.
14. MERELY BECAUSE WE GIVE A LITTLE STIFF COMPETITION TO THE ESTABLISHED RELIGIONS‚ WE DON'T CONSIDER THAT A CRIME. But apparently our religious enemies seem to have the idea that they must do anything they can to us to try to stop us.
15. IS IT BECAUSE WE ARE PREACHING AND PRACTICING LOVE‚ SOMETHING WHICH APPARENTLY THEY MUST NOT CARE FOR, SINCE THEY DON'T SEEM TO LIKE IT?—And they certainly haven't shown us much love! In fact, they have tried again and again to stir up the authorities against us and to stir up the police and the legal system against us.
16. BUT NEITHER THE POLICE NOR THE AUTHORITIES HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND ANYTHING CRIMINALLY WRONG WITH US or that we're doing anything illegal whatsoever. So it's only as it was with the Pharisees against Jesus‚ a matter of religious jealousy, envy and fear of the popularity of our religion of Love.
17. OUR RELIGION OF LOVE ALSO EXPOSES THE FACT THAT OUR ENEMIES DON'T SEEM TO HAVE VERY MUCH LOVE THEMSELVES! This is what got Jesus in trouble‚ because His life of Love exposed the self–righteous religious hypocrites and that they did not have much of God's true Love. But as far as we know, we have no problems with the legal authorities of the Island, and should not have any.
18. QUESTION NUMBER 3: "WHAT WILL BE YOUR ACTIVITIES WHEN YOU RETURN?" Well, as far as we now know, no different than they were when I was there before: Behaving myself, sitting quietly in my little corner of the Clubs or the Restaurants and enjoying life and love and a few friendly drinks with my Family and friends and having a happy little life living and loving and talking about God's Love!
19. I EXPECT MY ACTIVITIES THERE TO BE NO DIFFERENT FROM WHAT MY ACTIVITIES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN NEARLY ALL MY LIFE. I've nearly always all my life tried to live love and talk about Love, God's Love and the Love of Jesus, and I hope to be able to do so until the day I die!
20. AS FAR AS MY PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES ARE CONCERNED, I'M NOT TOO ACTIVE AT MY AGE, so I really wasn't doing very much there, except taking a little walk each day along the sea front, and sitting in the cafe for a bite in the afternoon, and sitting and dancing in the club for a little fun and fellowship at night, and finally retiring to the peace and quiet of my residence there for a peaceful night's sleep.
21. I HOPE TO AWAKE IN THE MORNING TO ENJOY ALL THE BEAUTIES OF GOD'S CREATION which are at their greatest splendour upon that magical, mysterious, paradisical Island of Tenerife, my chosen and adopted home! I can't help where I was born, but when I chose a land for my home, I chose Tenerife!—Or God did!
22. GOD CHOSE TENERIFE FOR ME, REALLY! I didn't know anything about it until God gave me the vision of the word "TENERIFE" in bright red letters in the dark of the night. At four o'clock in the morning I saw it right in front of me! I don't know whether I was dreaming or awake, but I saw it, and I had never seen nor heard the word before!
23. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT WAS OR IF IT WAS EVEN A PLACE! But I had the feeling that it must be some place, because we had been praying that God would tell us where to spend our vacation, when I got this word in the middle of the night!—I'd never even heard of it before, wasn't even sure if it was a place, except that I felt it was the answer to our prayers!
24. SO WE LOOKED IT UP IN OUR MAP BOOK‚ AND SURE ENOUGH THERE IT WAS—AN ACTUAL ISLAND IN THE CANARIES! Before that vision I didn't even know there was such an Island, and I couldn't even have told you really just where the Canaries were! But God chose it, so we went there only to spend our month's vacation.
25. GOD, OF COURSE, KNEW WE WERE GOING TO STAY THERE, BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE HE WANTED US, because He loves those people and He loves me and He loves my family, and He couldn't have possibly picked a more beautiful wonderful place for us to live with a more ideal climate and lovelier people than Tenerife! So when you leave the choice with God and know He loves you, He gives you the best in the world!
26. WE CONSIDER TENERIFE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, HAPPIEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD WITH THE MOST WONDERFUL PEOPLE! So we are very thankful for God's choice. All I intend to do there is just to retire and relax and recreate and enjoy life and continue to love and talk about love and life and living and loving, especially the Love of God. That's all we were doing, and we really don't know why it should have made such big news!
27. QUESTION NUMBER 4: "WHY DO YOU CHARGE FOR THE PAMPHLETS YOU DISTRIBUTE ON THE STREETS?" Well, in the first place, I don't charge for any pamphlets and I don't distribute them on the streets, personally. But I understand that my Children do, and that they like to because they like to talk about love and they like to spread God's loving Words and Truth and Love.
28. I'M SURE THEY WOULD BE HAPPY TO GIVE THEM ALL AWAY FREE IF THEY COULD AFFORD TO, but we're really not as rich as some people seem to think we are. We have enough‚ thanks to the Lord and my Family, for our own support and our immediate family‚ but I surely could not afford to support all of my worldwide Family of over 8‚000 Children who spend their full time or most of their time out preaching Love, the Love of God, the Love of Jesus.
29. NEITHER COULD I AFFORD TO PRINT THE MILLIONS OF COPIES OF MY LETTERS that they pass out in 72 countries of the world in 50 different languages—over 70 million copies a year! It would be impossible for me to pay for all these and ship them to them or even give them to my own Children free!
30. ALL I DO IS GIVE THEM THE ORIGINAL COPIES FREE AND WITHOUT CHARGE‚ and then they themselves print them in different places all over the world for distribution to as many millions of the world's population as they can‚ to tell them about God's Love and to let them know somebody loves them and we love them and Jesus loves them.
31. BUT I PRESUME THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO DO THIS FREE, for they have to have them printed‚ and most of the printers in the world have to pay for the paper and the ink and the labour etc. to print anything. So naturally they need to pay for the printing and distribution etc.
32. SO I PRESUME THIS IS WHY THEY ASK FOR A DONATION, if they do—or charge, if they do.—I don't know. It is entirely up to them and each individual what he does. We make no regulations nor rules along this line whatsoever. All I do is write the Letters and pass them on to them, and they can do whatever they want to with them, and what they do with them is up to them.
33. BUT I HAVE NOTICED THAT MOST NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS ASK FOR A PRICE or a charge of some kind to pay for their expenses in printing, and some look like pretty high prices to me!—Except the newspapers are fairly reasonable.
34. I THINK YOU PROBABLY GET MORE FOR YOUR MONEY IN A NEWSPAPER than in any other periodical‚ for the latest news of the day and various features. So when it comes to a bargain I think a newspaper is one of the biggest bargains there is!—And that's what our little Letters are on the streets!—I think they are quite a bargain, don't you?
35. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THEM, YOU DON'T HAVE TO. If you don't want to donate anything for their costs and the Children's expenses, you don't have to.—And if you don't have any money, they will probably give it to you free! But they couldn't possibly afford to give them all away free, I'm sure.
36. SOMEBODY HAS GOT TO PAY FOR THE PRINTING AND THE DISTRIBUTION, so I think it's only fair that if they ask for anything in return, surely they deserve it, and most people seem to be quite willing to give something, from what I've heard. Thank the Lord and God bless them! Of course they receive nothing like the phenomenal amounts that some of our enemies have exaggerated, but at least I hope they get enough to take care of their expenses and costs of printing and distribution etc.
37. MOST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD DON'T GIVE AWAY THEIR PRODUCTS FREE. You don't give away your newspapers free‚ do you?—Neither are magazines free nor labour free of charge. Everybody's got to live and everybody's got to eat, and printing literature costs money. So if they ask for a little something in return to help cover the costs, I think that's perfectly fair.
38. BUT I DON'T CHARGE ANYTHING OR DISTRIBUTE ON THE STREETS, PERSONALLY. But I'm very proud of those who do, who have the Love of God and the courage to do so, because it's the Gospel. We're commanded by Jesus Himself to "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mk.16:15), and that's exactly what they are doing with our little Letters.
39. THEY ARE PREACHING THE GOSPEL and the good news of God's Love in all the world to as many creatures as they possibly can. Praise God!
40. QUESTION NUMBER 5: "DO YOU ALL BELIEVE YOU HAVE A FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD?" Well, we certainly do believe that! We are having a tremendous role in the salvation of millions throughout the world! In fact, our total number of actual recorded converts has already reached over two million and maybe even far more, as obviously we have quite a following of readers, since our 8,000 Children are distributing over 70 million copies of our Letters throughout the world in 72 countries in 50 languages each year!
41. SO THERE MUST BE A LOT OF PEOPLE INTERESTED IN WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY as a lot of people are reading it beside those whom we have led to the Lord and who have received Jesus Christ as their Saviour, over two million alone!
42. BUT I WOULD SAY THAT WE OBVIOUSLY HAVE MANY MANY MORE MILLIONS OF READERS AND FOLLOWERS who like our Letters and agree with us, and who make sure that they obtain them on the streets every week, some almost every day, according to our statistics. We've had many people write to us and thank us for our little Letters and tell us how they couldn't live without them, that they make them happy and satisfy their hungry hearts, filling them with joy and satisfaction of the truth and the Love of God and giving them something to live for and to help others with.
43. SO WE SURELY ARE HAVING A FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD, having already won millions of people to the Lord and His Love, and reaching over 600 million every year with the message of His Gospel! If they don't all accept Jesus' free gift of salvation, that's not our fault. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!" But a lot of them are drinking and being saved.
44. SO WE SURELY HAVE A VERY LARGE ROLE IN THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD! Of course, there are many other Christians who believe basically as we do, in the Bible and the Love of God and the Salvation of Jesus Christ, who are also spreading the Gospel around the world. We do not claim to be the only Christians in the world, but we are doing our best to spread God's Good News of Love.
45. QUESTION NUMBER 6 SAYS‚ "WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TENERIFE?"—Well, I already answered that under one of the first questions, so I guess we don't need to repeat that again. It was not I who chose Tenerife—it was God who chose it and sent us there! If our handful of enemies there have any complaints about the choice of Tenerife, they ought to take them to God and ask Him why He chose Tenerife for us!
46. GOD HIMSELF SURELY CHOSE TENERIFE as specifically and as miraculously and as supernaturally and as definitely as I ever had any revelation in my whole life! Dear little Maria can attest that it was a miracle in the middle of the night!
47. I SAW THAT WORD "TENERIFE" IN CAPITAL RED LETTERS GLOWING LIKE FIRE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It woke me up, if I was asleep—I don't know. But I saw it, whether I was dreaming or it was a vision on whatever‚ I saw it! I'd never heard the word before, but when we looked it up we found it was an Island in the Canaries off the coast of Africa!
48. I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO GO TO TENERIFE THEN because it looked too far and expensive and I knew nothing about it. But God and Maria finally persuaded me to go.—But once having gotten there, we never wanted to leave!
49. WE ONLY LEFT AFTER THREE YEARS BECAUSE I BECAME ILL and weary of all the publicity and harrassment—much of it very untrue and unfair. So I needed to get away from it all for awhile‚ and I have, and I have become much better and more rested and am feeling fine now, thank God!
50. WE'RE NOW JUST WAITING UNTIL WE FEEL THE TIME IS RIPE FOR OUR RETURN.—Perhaps when the liberalisation process of Spain has seeped down into the Canaries in a fuller way, everyone will be able to practice his own religion unmolested, and everyone will know that it is everyone's right to believe as he pleases without being interfered with, as long as he doesn't interfere with the freedom of others.
51. QUESTION NUMBER 7: "IS IT TRUE WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY?" Well now, that is a broad question, because it depends on what they have said! Some of the press‚ such as your paper in recent times‚ have told the truth about us because they have gotten it straight from us.
52. I MUST SAY THAT SOME OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLES WERE SOMEWHAT EXAGGERATED, and quite a bit of them were full of misinformation, and I don't know where that came from. Some of the ridiculous things that were said about us were not true at all‚ of course. Maybe I could give you almost as broad an answer to that question as you have broadened the question:
53. WHATEVER THEY HAVE SAID THAT WAS GOOD ABOUT US IS TRUE, BUT WHATEVER THEY HAVE SAID THAT WAS BAD ABOUT US IS NOT TRUE!—Ha! How is that for an answer? Isn't that a fair answer?: All the good things are true, and all the bad things were false!
54. NUMBER EIGHT: "DO YOU FEEL OPPRESSED OR SURROUNDED, OR DO YOU FEEL MORE FREE IN THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN SPAIN RIGHT NOW?" Well, that's a big question! As guests of Spain and foreigners enjoying your very good Spanish hospitality‚ we would rather not voice any political opinions regarding our host country. We could not criticise Spain any more than you would criticise your host for how he runs his house if you were a guest in his home.
55. FRANKLY WE HAVE FELT FREER IN SPAIN THAN ANY PLACE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!—Specifically in Tenerife and particularly in Puerto de la Cruz! We have always felt a spirit of great freedom there in the people themselves, and they live a life fairly free of molestation by the authorities, more than in many other countries in which we have lived.
56. I CONSIDER THAT NOW THEY ARE OBTAINING EVEN MORE POLITICAL FREEDOM AND GREATER LIBERTY AND DEMOCRACY in their governmental system, and I presume that they will continue to be even more free. As a guest, we have never felt oppressed nor surrounded there. We have always felt fairly free until we began to be a little annoyed by some of our jealous enemies and their constantly wanting us to be investigated.
57. YOU GET A LITTLE ANNOYED WHEN YOU ARE BEING INVESTIGATED for this and that when you have done nothing wrong. Then for awhile we were becoming a little annoyed by some reporters from Northern European periodicals who were not writing fairly about us nor the truth.
58. SOME TO WHOM WE GAVE VERY GENEROUS INTERVIEWS WENT BACK AND WROTE BAD THINGS ABOUT US just for the sake of more sensational "news". Since they couldn't find anything wrong with us, they made up stories that were wrong so they could sell more magazines. I hope our local papers never do that. If you want the truth, come to us personally and ask us, as you are doing now, and we will tell you the truth.
59. WE THINK THE SPANISH ARE A WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND SPAIN IS A WONDERFUL PLACE WITH MORE FREEDOM THAN MANY OTHER NATIONS. Thank God for a fair and liberal country that is becoming more fair and more liberal and freer all the time!
60. GOD BLESS THE GOVERNMENT AND GOD SAVE THE KING! God's Word in the Bible tells us we should pray for the kings and the rulers and the magistrates and the judges and the police and those that have the rule over us and who are in authority. (I Tim.2:1-2.) He says that they are there to keep the peace and to protect us so that we might live in peace. (Rom.13.)
61. SO WE THANK GOD FOR THEM and we know that that is their purpose in life and they are doing the best they can to give us good government, peace and prosperity. They have very great problems and they have a very difficult job, but I'm sure that they are doing their best to make Spain a great, prosperous and free country, where its people and its guests can be happy‚ safe and free. Praise God!
62. THANK GOD FOR SPAIN! Long live Spain and the Spanish and their freedom!—And especially our chosen Island of Tenerife—thank God for that paradise!
63. OF COURSE, THERE ARE A VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO STILL HAVE NOT YET GOTTEN USED TO THE IDEA THAT SPAIN IS NOW BECOMING FREE, not only politically, but socially and even religiously. Apparently there are still a few bigoted religious Pharisees who, as in Jesus' day, don't want the people to know the truth or be free to believe as they choose or live freely.
64. THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO INSIST THAT EVERYONE BELIEVE EXACTLY THE SAME AND ACT THE SAME, the way they think we ought to act and believe. So we hope Spain in general and Tenerife in particular will become more free in both its thinking, religion, life, love and politics.
65. WE HOPE THAT SPAIN WILL BECOME MORE FREE FROM THOSE WHO WANT TO DICTATE WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD BELIEVE. We have never tried to dictate our religion to anyone else nor force anybody to believe as we believe or live as we do or love as we do, and we don't think that they should try to force us to believe their way or insist that we live their way, without love!
66. QUESTION NUMBER 9: "HAVE YOUR PERSECUTORS LEFT YOU ALONE?" Well, thank God they have left me alone because they don't even know where I am! One way to cause your enemies to leave you alone is to leave and live alone where they can't bother you!
67. I WOULD NOT SAY THAT THEY HAVE LEFT US ALONE IN SOME OF THE PRESS, however. There have been many articles about us in the press of late, most of them fair and factual and many even complimentary and favourable. Our Family of Love and its story in Tenerife appeared in over 100 different periodicals, magazines and newspapers that we know of throughout the world.
68. WHEN THE NEWS OF OUR FAMILY OF LOVE WAS PUBLISHED FROM TENERIFE‚ most of it was good, fair, factual and favourable.
69. ONLY A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE PUBLICATIONS WERE UNFAIR AND UNTRUTHFUL AND EVEN LIED ABOUT US, most of which are controlled by people who do not like Christianity and are actually anti-Christian and Anti-Christ, particularly because of certain of our views‚ and because we have been winning some of their children to Jesus and His Love.
70. SO WE DO HAVE OUR ENEMIES WHO DON'T LIKE JESUS AND WHO DON'T LIKE CHRISTIANS AND WHO ARE ANTI-CHRIST. Therefore I presume they will never leave us completely alone and will continue to try to stir up trouble against us as long as they can‚ because they did the same against Jesus and His disciples and have done it for thousands of years and are still doing it today.
71. HOWEVER, WE DO HOPE THAT WHEN WE RETURN TO TENERIFE WE CAN LIVE IN PEACE. Our little handful of enemies there may not like us, much less love us, but we hope that they will at least leave us alone to live in peace.
72. WE LEAVE THEM ALONE, we don't try to stir up trouble against them‚ we have not spoken against them, but they have driven us to speak out and answer why they are attacking us. We have had to say why we believe they are attacking us and why they criticise us and why they try to stir up trouble for us.
73. THE SAME KIND OF PEOPLE TRIED TO CAUSE JESUS TROUBLE because they don't understand Love or our Gospel of Love, they don't like a religion of such Love and freedom. Apparently they consider us competition and a threat, because our love and freedom exposes their own lack of love and freedom. But we do hope that now they've expressed their differences of opinion they will leave us alone.
74. SINCE I HAVE LEFT THE ISLAND THEY HAVE NOT CAUSED MY FAMILY ANY FURTHER TROUBLE, and my Children are still there living and loving and preaching the Gospel just the same as they have always done, and no one has bothered them any further. Thank the Lord! No one ever really bothered me personally there at all‚ except for questionings and investigations, all of which cleared us of any wrong-doing.
75. MOST OF THE PEOPLE THERE STILL SEEM TO BE OUR FRIENDS and like us and accept us and are friendly and hospitable and treat us royally. But of course the enemies of Love are never satisfied until they have tried to stop the preaching and practice of Love‚ as they did with Jesus.
76. BUT EVEN WHEN THEY DID AWAY WITH JESUS THEY COULDN'T STOP THE TRUTH NOR THE LOVE OF GOD, and His disciples carried on. The more they oppress and persecute‚ the more love and faith and loyalty grows and the more the Gospel is spread! So He even "causes the wrath of man to praise Him"! (Ps.76:10.)
77. QUESTION NUMBER 10: "DO PEOPLE UNDERSTAND OU?" I think most people there understood us and what we believe and the way we live. We lived there for three years before we got all of that publicity and people started getting so excited about this so called "new religion of Love".
78. IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME LOVE THAT JESUS PREACHED AND PRACTICED, so there is really nothing new about it. We are Christians, and I think most Christians understand Christians if they are truly Christian.
79. BUT THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE CHRISTIANS BUT ARE NOT VERY CHRIST-LIKE, NOT VERY LOVING in heart nor practice, and known to persecute other Christians for many years.
80. BUT I THINK MOST OF THE PEOPLE THERE UNDERSTAND US fairly well and even like us and love us and believe in us.
81. QUESTION NO. 11: "WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?" Our goal is the salvation of the world, and we are doing our best to save it!
82. WE ARE TRYING TO SAVE AS MANY PEOPLE AS WE CAN AND THE EARTH ITSELF FROM DESTRUCTION by the enemies of God and His Love, who are about to precipitate us into another great war, who always get the Christians to fight their battles for them. As a result they may very possibly destroy a great part of the Earth, so we're doing our best to save it and the people before this happens.
83. OUR GOAL IS TO LOVE GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOUR AS OURSELVES, AND AS A RESULT BRING LOVE TO THE WHOLE WORLD AND PEACE AND FREEDOM AND PLENTY TO ALL!—Especially there on that glorious Island God has chosen for His own and our home! If you would like to read more specifically what our goals are, you may obtain them there on the streets from some of our Children.
84. OUR LITTLE LETTERS GIVE ALL OF THESE GOALS VERY SPECIFICALLY and clearly in terms I think everyone can understand. I might suggest particularly the Letters entitled, "The Holy War!" and "Change the World!". Both of these Letters give a very good description of what our goals are.
85. SIMPLY, OUR GOAL IS TO TRY TO PERSUADE EVERYONE TO LOVE GOD AND HIS NEIGHBOUR AS HIMSELF‚ AND THIS WOULD SOLVE ALL THE PROBLEMS OF THE WHOLE WORLD! The whole world's problems—political, economic, social, religious and physical—could be solved through the Love of God and each other! That's what we teach and preach and that's our message, our life, our goal, our love, our everything: To love God and our neighbours as ourselves!
86. QUESTION NUMBER 12 IS A VERY INTERESTING QUESTION, AND ALSO THAT'S A GOOD FINAL NUMBER—the number of Jesus' disciples, the number of the tribes of Israel, and the number of the gates to the Holy City, New Jerusalem, Heaven, or "Space City" as we call it, that John saw coming down out of Heaven from God to the Earth.
87. LOTS OF PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THAT THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GO TO HEAVEN, BUT HEAVEN'S GOING TO COME TO THEM! Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14.)—And He's going to bring that Heavenly City down here to us on Earth one of these days soon!
88. IF YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE ABOUT HEAVEN, YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT IN THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS OF THE BIBLE in the Book of Revelation. Chapters 21 and 22 give you a description of that great Heavenly City that has those twelve pearly gates!
89. OR IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I HAVE SEEN ABOUT HEAVEN, YOU CAN READ SOME OF MY LATEST LETTERS CALLED "SPACE CITY" AND "SPACESHIP"! I have visited the City already personally in the spirit, and also have seen it on its way from outer space, "coming down out of Heaven from God" just as John saw it (Rev.21).
90. THIS LAST QUESTION IS: "ARE YOU IN AGREEMENT WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF ANY SPECIFIC RELIGION?" Absolutely! We are totally in agreement with all of the principles of the specific religion of the Love of Jesus Christ, Bible Christianity, true Christianity, true Christian Catholicism!
91. WE BELIEVE GOD'S WORD, THE BIBLE, and also in His more recent revelations through His prophets since then, all the truths of God! We believe Jesus is the Son of God, a sort of picture of God Himself, and in His salvation through His death on the cross, and in His Law of Love!
92. WHEN JESUS CAME HE ABOLISHED ALL OTHER LAWS BUT LOVE! He gave only one law which fulfills all the laws of the Bible, both old and new‚ and that is Love!—For God and fellow man!
93. THIS IS OUR SPECIFIC RELIGION AND THE RELIGION OF EVERY CHRISTIAN WHO TRULY BELIEVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD IN JESUS AND THE BIBLE! We are Christians and we believe in the religion of Jesus Christ, His Law of Love! We believe in the Bible, God, Jesus and Love—because God is Love! Jesus preached Love, and when asked what the greatest law was, He said God's only law now was Love:
94. "LOVE GOD...AND LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF!...IN THESE ARE ALL THE LAW AND ALL THE PROPHETS!" (Mt.22:37-40.) That's all the laws put together‚ the whole Bible—Love! If you have Love you've everything!—You are fulfilling all the laws of God!
95. TRUE LOVE, REAL LOVE, GOD'S LOVE‚ IS ALL THE RELIGION YOU NEED! This unselfish sacrificial love includes the love of one human being for another, love in all forms, as long as it is true Love, real Love‚ God's Love. So we are totally in agreement with all the principles of the specific religion of Jesus Christ, true Christianity.
96. WE TRY TO BE TRUE CHRISTIANS, and we believe there are many other people in the world who are also Christians, although they may not believe exactly as we do nor in our particular kind of Christianity nor how we practice it. These Christians we count as brothers and sisters in the Lord if they also have love for God and for each other.
97. THIS IS OUR SPECIFIC RELIGION AND THESE ARE THE PRINCIPLES THAT WE PRACTICE—LOVE, the religion which Jesus Himself taught, the good news that God is Love.
98. GOD IS LOVE, NOT A CRUEL TYRANT, not a monster who is trying to frighten everyone into Hell, but a God who is trying to love everyone into Heaven! You must simply love Him, receive Jesus in your own heart personally (Jn.1:12 and Rev.3:20) and love others—that's all!
99. WE CAN AGREE WITH EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WHO HAS HIS LOVE, because if you have true Love you have God‚ because God is Love! So you cannot have Love without God, because God is Love, Love is God! Without Him there is no love, for without Love there is no God!
100. DO YOU HAVE HIS LOVE? WE HOPE THAT YOU DO! If you have Love you have God!—Jesus is Love!
101. JESUS EVEN BELIEVED THAT YOU SHOULD LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, so we also try to do that. We are very sorry for them and it makes us very sad that they don't love us and our preaching and practicing of Love.
102. WE ARE VERY SORRY FOR OUR ENEMIES BECAUSE THEY MUST BE VERY UNHAPPY PEOPLE WITHOUT LOVE! Maybe this is why they get so angry with us because they are jealous of our love and envious of our happiness which they themselves do not have.
103. SO MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEM AND BRING THEM INTO HIS LOVING FAMILY OF LOVE, and give them the peace and the happiness and the joy and the contentment and the fulfillment of finding love in His Son Jesus Christ and His life of Love forever!—In Jesus' name‚ Amen.
104. WE HOPE THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS.—Thanks for asking us! God bless you with His Love!—In His Love,
—Father Moses David.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family