Dad
June 2, 2003
—By Father David.DFO9559 January 1979
—A Movie Review about a man whose curses came true!—Are Curses & Disasters Always Wrong?
1. I WANTED TO GET THE REACTION OF THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE WITH US TONIGHT while you're still in the spirit of it & it's fresh in my mind. I've found it's always easier to do these things while it's still fresh! Like with my dreams, if I wait too long, then they're gone & I've forgotten the details! I'm just curious to know what your reactions were & what impressed you the most tonight. (Alfred: It was such a heavy thing the way everybody started laughing as they were walking out‚ just kind of laughing it off!)
2. I THINK THE MOST SHOCKING THING ABOUT THAT WHOLE MOVIE WAS THE AUDIENCE REACTION, that they were so flippant & foolish—virtually sneering & making fun of it & thought it was a big joke! One of these days God will have the last laugh! I think that audience tonight almost proved why God has to send disasters. When I looked at that bunch & heard them laugh & snicker & ridicule‚ I thought, "What these people need is a good disaster!"
3. IF ANY BUNCH NEEDED A DISASTER, THAT BUNCH NEEDED ONE! They made me furious!—And Abrahim was just absolutely disgusted! I didn't get any message or anything, I didn't hardly dare! Well, I'm glad to hear you say that, because I believe it shows you're in the Spirit & your spirit was grieved at their behaviour, that they were taking the whole thing so flippantly & lightly‚ sneering‚ ridiculing, laughing & making fun of it!
4. NOW OF COURSE THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE A HABIT OF LAUGHING OFF FEAR. They're afraid to face things & they don't dare take it seriously. They're afraid to take it soberly so they laugh it off. So it could be some of those people were laughing instead of crying. I think Americans particularly have a tendency to do that rather than face the facts—to act just silly & flippant & brush it aside because they don't want to think seriously about it.
5. WELL THE MAIN QUESTION I WANTED TO ASK YOU WAS WHAT WAS THE THING THAT IMPRESSED YOU MOST or shocked you most, & I'm pleased to see that you got the same thing—the attitude & behaviour of the audience was the most shocking thing about the whole film! Many of those things moved too fast; they must think that a lot of people wouldn't be interested in the soberness or the dialogue or the documentation. Some of those quotes & things that he wrote in his journal were extremely important & meaningful.
6. WHAT WAS YOUR NEXT GREATEST IMPRESSION? Don't worry about agreeing with mine, that's not important, just what impressed you most about the movie? (Path: I was surprised at the doctor's reaction to the whole thing, how she didn't really try to hit his problem head–on.)
7. ISN'T THIS TYPICAL OF HOW MODERN SCIENCE TREATS THE SUBJECT OF THE SUPERNATURAL with unbelief & scepticism? But the fact that she admitted to belief at the end, that was quite an admission, & it was quite an admission even in the movie. (Alfred: All he could really do was evil‚ he couldn't do any good, he got his power from the Devil instead of seeking the Lord. It showed that if you're into the Enemy, then all you can do is just destructive things.)
8. WELL, HERE LIES A VERY GREAT QUESTION OF WHAT IS GOOD & WHAT IS EVIL? The World is constantly judging God, & you'll find in most accounts of disasters & catastrophes they say, "Why did God allow this thing? Why did God allow all these innocent lives to be destroyed!"—especially the Jews are great at this. But the question that came to me, & the question I want to ask you: Why did they call it "The Medusa Touch" & who was Medusa?
9. PROBABLY THE MOST COMMON PHRASE YOU HEAR IN NEWS ARTICLES IS "SO MANY INNOCENT LIVES WERE LOST." Let me ask you, as far as adults are concerned, who is innocent? Maria & I have noticed in reading the accounts of various disasters, particularly plane disasters, that often the only survivors are children! Time & time again you see this happening, in disaster after disaster‚ only some child or some children live through it, sometimes without a scratch. See on the surface, Alfred, that is what a lot of people probably thought, & what in some ways it seemed like, & what she & the inspector were trying to stop.
10. THE BIG QUESTION THAT COMES UP IS, WHAT IS EVIL? What type of things did he attack? What kind of people did he attack? What kind of things or institutions did he want to destroy? What was your impression of his nurse? She was a witch! Was her destruction therefore necessarily evil? What was your impression of his parents? Sickening! No love! No real concern or understanding or anything, totally selfish, right?
11. THERE'S AN UNDERLYING PREACHMENT & MORAL TO CERTAIN MOVIES, they have some kind of a message, & you really have to think deeply about them. If you're just judging on the surface‚ I don't think you are going to get the point. Did you catch some of the things that he said when he was about to destroy the space mission on which they had spent 3 billion dollars & the whole World was enthralled & absorbed & thrilled & totally occupied with it.—What did he say? See, unless you're listening & you're really trying to grasp the meaning you'll miss the point. What did he say?:
12. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE DYING & STARVING & NOBODY CARED! They're all busy watching a 3 billion dollar ridiculous futile, wasteful, scientific toy experiment—useless! Spending 3 billion dollars on a thing like that when people were dying of starvation! I felt like that about the space shot.
13. DIDN'T I HAVE A DREAM ABOUT THE SPACE SHOT, that some were going to die or something? Remember? A long time ago when that was all going on. I have a vague vague memory of that. I said it's all gone too smoothly, too easily, then right after that, three men were incinerated in the nose cone in just a practice test on the ground! The whole thing went up in smoke & never even took off the ground—it wasn't supposed to.
14. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF HIS LEGAL DEFENSE OF THE BOY WHO CRITICISED THE WAR MUSEUM? I think that was one of the most powerful scenes in the whole movie! (Path: He said at the very end that he took the judgments of God into his own hands.) (Sara: He said he was doing God's dirty work for Him.) Well, doesn't God have instruments of judgment? Wasn't Hitler an instrument of God's judgment?—& the Devil?
15. A LOT OF THESE SO-CALLED EVIL MEN HAVE BEEN JUST EXACTLY WHAT THE PEOPLE DESERVED & NEEDED. ... (Maria: He called himself & the others who helped to bring on these things "children of the Devil.") Wasn't that the whole question, really, that he was being plagued by this terrible guilt complex & afraid that he was doing evil? Isn't this the problem that troubled him all the way through? That although he had these strong convictions on these subjects‚ it seemed like he almost felt that his judgments were too severe, & in a way he was right.
16. BUT ISN'T THAT THE WAY A LOT OF PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT GOD? "God, You may be right, but Your punishment was too severe! That nation had been a wicked nation, but why did You have to kill millions of them, or hundreds of thousands in an earthquake?" The basic question that comes up & is going to come up in a lot of people's minds from a picture like that, or should if they're sober & serious thinkers at all‚ it's an age-old question that has plagued philosophers & theologians & mankind for ages, those who are not very convinced or firm believers.
17. IT'S THE OLD QUESTION OF WHAT IS RIGHT & WHAT IS WRONG! The whole World is judging God everyday, & he said something about that. The whole World in every disaster that happens are judging God, & most of them are saying God shouldn't have done it, it was too much, too severe‚ why did God allow such a thing to happen?
18. ONE THING WE CANNOT DENY IS THAT'S AN APPARENT FACT‚ THERE ARE SUCH DISASTERS & CATASTROPHIES, & those things do happen! Could God prevent them? Do you believe that an almighty all-powerful omniscient omnipresent God could prevent them? Let's not even blame Him for causing them, just for the matter of the question at the moment, let's say, "Well, I couldn't believe, that God could cause things like that!" Well‚ if you believe in God at all, that there is a God & He is all-powerful, if He didn't cause it‚ couldn't He have prevented it? Then comes up the age-old question again, why did He allow it?
19. THE WHOLE THING COMES DOWN TO THE BASIC QUESTION OF WHAT IS EVIL? And the old theological question that the World always asks the preachers, why does God allow evil in the World? I think we're probably going to be a little surprised one of these days when we get on the other side, at the difference between our standards & God's standards:—What God considers evil & what the Devil has taught the World to call evil‚ which is almost always a reflection on God. Almost always it's something that he wants to reflect on God & as a condemnation of the justice of God.—He's pointing an accusing finger at the Love of God to try to prove that God is neither just nor loving nor merciful—that's the Devil's whole idea!
20. THAT PICTURE HAS A LOT DEEPER MEANING THAN JUST MEETS THE EYE OR IS ON THE SURFACE! Another question, what about that Headmaster of the school? Didn't you feel like he got what he deserved? Of course four of the boys died with him, but who knows what they may have deserved? Well, you certainly had the feeling that the Headmaster deserved it, as cruel & unmerciful & horrible as he was! I mean he was an actual torturer, sending that little boy out in the rain & the cold to pick up exactly so many leaves.
21. AND WHAT ABOUT THE CHURCH PEOPLE? I think you'll find someplace in my writings—especially in my older writings a long ways back—that I have said that I thought the whole World would be much better off if there wasn't one single church building on Earth‚ & I felt like destroying them myself sometimes!
22. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE GO TO CHURCHES LIKE THAT? I think the guy who produced that movie did an amazing job of trying to bring out certain things.—The rich & powerful, the hypocritical, all these big shots were going to this big church service, the Queen & all the rest! What do you think God thinks about that? Are they there to worship God? Many people go to church to show off their nice clothes & see what somebody else is wearing & put on a front or hear the latest gossip!
23. MANY OF THEM ARE SUCH A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES, not all, but I'd say many of them, especially a church like that! Look at the Pastor, he wouldn't even believe it when he was warned! It showed he did not even believe his own faith or his own sermons, the way be acted. He sneered at the simple believing policeman who believed that there was the supernatural.
24. THE POLICEMAN WAS ALMOST PREACHING HIS SERMONS AT HIM, "What's the matter, don't you believe in the Devil? Don't you believe in the supernatural?" and the Pastor practically sneered & laughed in his face! In other words, he was as good as telling him that he didn't believe in what he preached as much as this simple policeman was believing!
25. THE WAY THE WORLD USUALLY IS ABOUT DISASTER: IF YOU PREDICT IT THEY WON'T BELIEVE IT UNTIL IT HAPPENS, & then it's too late! Jesus said, "For in the days that were before the flood, they were eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the Ark, & knew not until the flood came & took them all away!" (Mt.24:37-39.) What did He mean they "knew not"? Noah had been telling them for 120 years! What it really means is they wouldn't believe him! He told them there was going to be a judgment of God & rain & a flood; he was building a boat, that was a sermon enough! Did they believe it? They laughed him to scorn! "Knew not until the flood came!"
26. THEY WON'T BELIEVE IT UNTIL IT HAPPENS, & THEN IT'S TOO LATE! Haven't I said something about that? No matter how many times you warn some people, they want to wait & see if it happens before they believe you. Of course, then they will believe when it happens‚ but that's too late because it will sweep them away!
27. WHAT ABOUT THE PLANE CRASH?—What he said about the planes & the noise of the planes roaring overhead. He said they were nearly driving him crazy & he couldn't think! And of course they cause pollution & all kinds of things. Who is the author of today's speed? I think I've made that very clear‚ the Devil himself is the author of speed, although sometimes we get the benefit of it, we rode home in a car tonight.—If you live in this era in which everybody's travelling that way, you almost have to. We ride on trains, we ride on airplanes, I mean we couldn't have very well walked to the movie. Nevertheless that ride is very dangerous.
28. WE RISKED OUR LIVES TO RIDE IN THAT CAR TO GO TO THAT MOVIE, it could have killed us! People risk their lives to be in a hurry to ride airplanes, depending on little mechanical contraptions to get them there in a hurry. I don't find anywhere in experience or in God's Word, or very few times where God is ever in a hurry or is ever for speed. You just read it & see! Even in His judgments He waits very patiently & you wonder how He could wait so long before He judges countries like America. When you think of the havoc that America has wrought & the millions she has slaughtered, including innocent children & babies‚ & the suffering she has caused, you wonder how God could even wait as long as He does! You'd think God would be in a bigger hurry in that case, whereas He's not even in that big a hurry.
29. I'VE SAID THERE'S ONLY ONE TIME WHEN GOD MOVES FAST & THAT'S USUALLY WHEN HE'S ANGRY! He's very patient‚ He waits a long time, but then He usually moves fast when He decides to lower the boom, He lowers it real fast & drastically! When the star said something about, "Aren't we all children of the Devil?", there was something else he said in there which gave me the impression that he was trying to convey the idea that none of these people who were suffering from these catastrophes were innocent. In other words he was saying we're all guilty, we all deserve it.
30. NOW, THINK BACK & IN NEARLY ALL OF THE CASES OF THE DISASTERS THAT HE SUPPOSEDLY BROUGHT ABOUT, would you say in at least most of them you could understand why? Would you say that in most of them you could almost say that it was perhaps justifiable or that the people deserved it? You could almost go to the point of saying that in most of the cases he was, what would you say‚ right? Now we're not to take laws normally in our own hands nor judgments in our own hands, God does it; but it was quite obvious that this was no power of man, right? It was a power beyond him. Then what power was it? I think I've said this before:
31. WHO IS GOD'S EXECUTIONER? (Family: The Devil.) Who is His Death Angel? (The Devil.) In a sense, yes. Who is His Prosecuting Attorney? Who is His Prosecutor? (The Devil.) If you've read the Letters you ought to know these answers. I've talked about how God's the Judge & the Devil's the Prosecutor & Jesus is the Defender & we are the sinner or the criminal. So are you getting the point?
32. WE HAVE HEARD GOOD SINCERE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE, EVEN EVANGELICALS & PENTECOSTALS‚ TEACH THAT GOD DIDN'T MAKE THE DEVIL. Beloved, that is Taoism! That's teaching the eternal coexistence of two independent gods, one good & one evil, & therefore God is not the Master of Creation nor the Master of the Universe, there is another master who is independent of Him & with whom He is struggling & fighting. He may be struggling & fighting, but it's not because that god is totally independent & not under His control! To prove it the disciples said that even the demons were subject unto them. (Luke 10:17.)
33. JESUS SAID, "ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN & EARTH!" (Mt.28:18.) If God is God & He's all-powerful & the Eternal & the Creator & "all things were made by Him‚ & without Him was not any thing made that was made," what about the Devil? (John 1:3.) You mean God made the Devil? How many times have I told you, the Devil is working for the Lord! He does His dirty work for Him! Didn't the star say something about, "I'm doing God's dirty work"?
34. ARE THE JUDGEMENTS OF GOD RIGHTEOUS OR NOT? Let's say if the disasters in the film tonight actually happened, were they right or wrong? Should they have happened or not? This is the subtle thing that the film is really driving at which I think is going to escape most people. (Sara: I thought that it sort of hinted at that when the school burned & the woman doctor said, "What about the four little boys?" and he said, "That's why I'm here today!") That bothered him, the death of the teacher didn't bother him, but the children dying bothered him.
35. (SARA: HE KNEW THE TEACHER DESERVED IT because he willed it on him‚ but he didn't understand if it was God's will or the Devil's will that the little boys would die. Then he said, "I don't believe in the Devil anymore than I believe in God," but then he sort of left it open like he didn't know what he believed anymore.) Well, that's not saying you don't believe, I could say that too: I don't believe in the Devil anymore than I believe in God! (Sara: That's exactly what he said!) Well, neither do I! I believe in the Devil just as much as I believe in God, because I believe they both exist!
36. SO HE WASN'T DENYING FAITH, in fact his whole approach was that he was convinced that there was something that was causing all this through him. I began to wonder if the film was trying to even insinuate that he was like the Devil in person—he had scrapbooks full of the disasters—that he was like Satan on Earth, or at least a man certainly possessed by Satan. But honestly now, thinking it all over & thinking about him, do you feel any sympathy for him? Do you feel that he was usually right & the judgments were usually just or justifiable, as horrible as they may seem?
37. WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE ON THE PLANE? You & I know what most Worldly people are like, I've heard of a lot of planes going down, there are lots of crashes & disasters. I figure that if there were any saints on board, well, they went to be with the Lord, & probably the vast majority of them got just what they deserved!—They were not God's children & they were not believers & they were scorners & unbelievers who have probably rejected Christ many times & finally went to meet their judgment!—Whatever judgment that may be, I believe that it is also going to be just & justifiable.
38. THAT AUDIENCE WAS SO INSIPID & SO SICKENING, THEY MADE ME WANT TO PUKE!—The things they laughed at! They laughed at the people who were getting slaughtered by the collapse of that chapel where the priest got hit by the masonry & were being slaughtered, they clapped & laughed & thought it was great. They really rejoiced—if it was evil they were rejoicing in evil! (Dora: Another thing which also struck me was about his child, he loved his child so much!) (Maria: It showed his good side that he wanted a child.) Well‚ that's another thing‚ what about her? Did you gather that she got what was coming to her?
39. HE SPOKE LIKE A PROPHET, with the justice & the reasoning & the justification of a prophet! In a lot of those cases he sounded like a preacher, he was preaching! That's why they didn't like him, because he always told the truth. Alfred & Sara have children, do you ever have to punish them? How does it make you feel when you have to punish them? Do you enjoy it? I had to punish my children, & sometimes I had to run off & cry afterward I felt so bad! But was it necessary?
40. IS IT NECESSARY TO SOMETIMES CHASTISE, to chasten, to child train & maybe even give a little corporal whack occasionally if nothing else works? Isn't this what the Bible exhorts, that you need sometimes even to use the rod to teach a child, to drive the foolishness out of his heart? (Prov.22:15.) There were sure a lot of hearts there tonight that had a lot of foolishness that sure need the rod, & I have an idea they're going to get it before long!
41. IS THE ROD WRONG? Do you enjoy using it? Can't a parent really say that sometimes, that it hurts me as much?—Sometimes it hurts you more! I'd say it usually hurts you more than it does the child, to punish. I wanted to ask you some of these things while they're still on your mind, while you're still in the spirit of the thing, & see if you really got the point of the picture. To me that picture was a preachment! He in that picture, whether he was portraying a devil or a demon or whatever, he was like a prophet of God!
42. THAT FILM IS LIKE A WARNING TO THE WORLD WITH ILLUSTRATIONS & EXAMPLES OF THE JUDGMENTS THAT IT DESERVES, & the judgments that people deserve! He just happened to be an instrument able to hand them out. What prophet enjoys predicting doom? Jeremiah the weeping prophet probably predicted more doom than any other prophet‚ but then he sat down & wept about it! He didn't like it, he didn't want to, he said he wished he'd never been born! "Cursed be the day wherein I was born!" (Jer.20:14.)
43. IS THE JOB OF THE PROPHET AN EASY JOB?—To tell the people the truth, to warn them of the judgments of God‚ to even predict the judgments of God!—And in this case to be the actual instrument to bring about the judgments of God! That's a little bit different slant than a lot of people are going to have about that movie! It's like Abrahim said at the end when I saw it the first time,
44. "WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE who think they can fight these things with mortal means!" He was furious at the people in the movie who were approaching these things from the material standpoint. Even if he was the Devil in person, he was wreaking the judgments of God! So who are we, in other words, with mortal means, to try to fight the judgments of God?
45. WHO ARE WE, EVEN AS WEAK MORTALS, TO QUESTION THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD? (Path: His scrapbook full of all the disasters made you think that maybe he caused all these things that had been happening.) Of course that was the idea I think they meant to convey. It was almost as though he didn't know for sure, but he was afraid maybe he was responsible. But the fact is, if they happened—& according to the movie they did—then they happened & God allowed them. Therefore they were with the permission of God & therefore, if you don't want to say that God caused them to happen, God let them happen. Was He right or wrong? Hmm?
46. WHO WAS THE MEDUSA AND WHAT DID SHE HAVE TO DO WITH THIS WHOLE THING AT ALL? It was pretty difficult to grasp that. It came out in the early part when they were commenting on this piece of art. (Path: He said that she was a Greek Goddess & whoever looked into her eyes was turned to stone.) It also mentioned the fact that she was created to fight against certain other gods. I don't know Greek mythology that well & the whole story.
47. I THINK THEY WERE TRYING TO CONVEY THAT SHE WAS CREATED BY THE POWERS OF EVIL, she certainly didn't look very good, did she? And all you read about Medusa & that I've heard was that she seemed to be about as evil as anything, or as evil as she was good! She was created, it seems, like an evil force to try to combat the will of the gods. And as I looked I began to realise who she was in the movie! Who was she? (Dora: The doctor woman!)
48. THE WOMAN OF WISDOM, THE GODDESS OF WISDOM! Wasn't that what Medusa was? Medusa was the goddess of wisdom, remember? (Maria: I think it said that in the movie.) She, the goddess of wisdom‚ with all man's wisdom, was trying to fight what really amounted to the will of God!—And trying to destroy the instrument of God, in a sense the prophet of God!
49. AREN'T THERE PEOPLE WHO THINK WE'RE EVIL? Aren't there people who think that if they would kill us they'd be doing God service? Aren't there people who think that if they could destroy us the World would be better off? Are they right or are they wrong? (Family: Wrong!) To the World they may look very right & they may have some very good reason. It looked like she had every right to try to destroy & kill him! But I think the last scene brought out the fact that this power was beyond any human control!—And that's what we got of course from Abrahim that night!
50. ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO LAUGH AT OUR PROPHECIES? Are there people who scorn & sneer & make fun of our predictions & rejoice when they think they don't happen? Were there people there tonight making fun?—Sneering, scorning, ridiculing, laughing? I think that picture is a message‚ & I think that it was intended to be a message & a warning, & he was intended to be like a prophet!—Whether of God or the Devil, nevertheless a prophet!
51. IN ALL THESE CASES IT WAS ALMOST LIKE GOD WAS STARING THEM IN THE FACE & they had finally come face to face with their Creator & their Judge! Who was the judge in all those cases? Who was the real judge? (God!)—Through this man. We are the prophets of God‚ & maybe this will stretch your faith a little further:
52. THE PROPHETS OF GOD NOT ONLY WARNED THE PEOPLE & PREDICTED THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD, sometimes they even brought about the judgments of God! Can you think of any instances in the Bible where the prophets called down fire out of Heaven & themselves pronounced & brought about the judgments of God? There are quite a few times in the Bible where the prophets not only predicted & warned, but then by their faith & at their command, God sent the judgment! Has that ever happened with us?
53. CAN YOU THINK OF ANY OF OUR PRAYERS GOD HAS ANSWERED? I can think of several in which I got inspired to prophesy against people or nations & prayed fervently & God stepped in & judged, & did it! Doesn't God answer our prayers? Does He promise that you can pray & if you have the faith you can even move mountains? Certainly in special instances you can call down the judgments of God. You can not only predict the doom, warn of the doom by the Word of God, but literally by your own faith in God bring about the doom. Is that possible or not, hmm?
54. SO IF HE FELT THOSE CHURCH PEOPLE WERE DESERVING OF IT, were worthy of it, which he certainly did obviously—he predicted the destruction of their temple & he as good as said they were worthy of it—then apparently his power or faith or whatever it was brought it about! After it's happened‚ does it ever trouble the prophet? Read your Bible. Lots of times in the Bible the prophet grieved over it after it happened. Moses grieved over the judgments of God. Even Elijah & Elisha grieved & Jeremiah grieved over what God was going to do to the people; although he'd said it all the time, he wept over it.
55. BELOVED, THIS GENERATION IS WITHOUT EXCUSE, God is trying to warn them every way He can! That film is a powerful—what the movie trade calls—preachment! And I mean it had quite a few sermons in it, right? An anti-war blast, an anti-church blast & even a blast against this atomic age!—The next target was going to be the atomic nuclear plant. I mean man is playing with fire! (Dora: Like the part where he said‚ "Aren't we all children of the Devil? We have the sun, but we use the powers of the sun to do evil!")
56. HE WAS IDENTIFYING HIMSELF WITH MANKIND IN GENERAL & saying he too was guilty. We're all guilty‚ aren't we? Aren't we all sinners? If it weren't for the Lord, wouldn't we all be children of the Devil?—If we hadn't found the Lord, or the Lord hadn't found us‚ right? He did in this case like prophets often do‚ they often identified themselves with the people. Moses even said, "If You're going to destroy them, destroy me too!" Jeremiah pled with the Lord because he was one of the people & he considered them his people. If God was going to judge his people, & he was going to have to suffer with them, which he did.
57. THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT IT, THE MORE YOU THINK WHAT AN AMAZING MESSAGE IT IS!—How powerful, & yet in a way so deep that only, I think you might say, the wise will understand! Only those who know the Lord & know God's ways & His judgments & how the Lord works‚ & who have faith in His righteousness & His Justice & in His love & His mercy are going to understand what that picture's all about! That picture was a blast at the very people who were guffawing & laughing & ridiculing & scorning. It was like they were laughing at the Prophet of God!
58. IS THE PROPHET'S TASK USUALLY A LONELY ONE? Most prophets were pretty lonely men! When it comes to the crunch‚ you often have to stand alone. Maybe that's why I value your fellowship so much, I love to come down here & be with you & fellowship with you & visit with you, because in many ways we are very much alone. There is a place where even Maria can't go with me, & she knows when I'm in that place. In a way she's there, but in a way she's only hearing what's happening & getting it second hand. But I'm the one who's really in it & experiencing it without her. In most of my dreams & visions she's almost never there‚ I'm almost always alone.
59. THE JOB OF THE PROPHET OF GOD IS A VERY LONELY JOB, between him & the Lord. He acts like the high priest of God for the people, he bears the message of God, but he gets it alone from God & then he passes it on to the people. Was this man a lonely man?—A pitifully lonely man! (Dora: Who was the man who he talked to in the park?) I had a very strange feeling about that when it happened. It seemed to have nothing to do with the story whatsoever, & it shows only the man's back.
60. I HAD A STRANGE FEELING THAT HE WAS TALKING WITH A GUIDING SPIRIT! I would like to see it over again because there are several things that go by so fast! It was a long picture at that, & they run it through so fast you don't catch it! But I had a definite feeling like that person was his helper!
61. IN MANY OF THESE DISASTER STORIES, CERTAIN OF THE SURVIVORS FOUND THEMSELVES OUT OF THE CRASH—out of the car, out of the plane or somewhere clear out to one side & had no idea how they got there‚ & they were spared. There was one story in this "Life After Life" where the car doors were even locked & yet his body was found outside the crash! (Path: At first he was saying, "Did I cause it?"—But at the end when he was with her he just came out & said, "I did do it!"—Almost like he was trying to blast through to her. Was that what he was doing?)
62. I THINK HE WAS CONVINCED & HE WAS TRYING TO CONVINCE HER, but it seemed he was still not quite able to understand it or reason it out or why, why‚ why! "Why do I do this & what is wrong with me?" It was sort of like not knowing whether he was right or wrong.—Why does it always have to be destructive? Are not some of the angels of God angels of judgment? God spoke of an angel in the days of Egypt as the Death Angel. Man has his executioners whose job is destruction‚ so God must have some agents or angels—we certainly know the Devil is—whose job is to bring about judgment, destruction, disaster‚ catastrophe, like executioners.—Something causes disasters!
63. I DON'T BELIEVE IN THESE THEORIES OF "NATURAL" DISASTERS, that they're just caused by normal means, blah blah! They happen too often in just the right places at the right times to the right people! You take just before the San Francisco earthquake, my mother said that was one of the wickedest places in the World, & the part worst hit was what was called the Barbary Coast which was a cesspool of iniquity! So every time I hear of a disaster or a catastrophe of any kid I think, "Well Lord, You know why You let it happen!" If thousands of people die, they must have been ripe for judgment somehow.
64. THEY ASKED JESUS THIS QUESTION ONCE, they asked Him if those people on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were all wicked. Do you remember what Jesus said? He really didn't even answer them! He said something about that their time had come. (Lk.13:4,5.) He looked at His accusers who were the Scribes & the Pharisees who were trying to trip Him up with this question & said, "Your time is always ready!" In other words‚ "You're due to go any time!" because of their wickedness. So thank God, our time has not yet come. He let us make a safe trip to the movie & back!
65. I FELT LIKE IT WAS NECESSARY TO SEE IT & UNDERSTAND IT, & I BELIEVE IT IS REALLY A MESSAGE FROM GOD FOR US! I would like to know more about it, if it was a book & who the author was & maybe we can find out more about it! After I saw "Solaris" I got the book & read it, because there was so much in it, & I wanted to see if I got what the author was trying to say. Well, let's keep our eyes open for it! Bless your hearts, I didn't mean to keep you so long, but I wanted to ask you a few of those questions‚ because in a way it troubled me. (Path: I thought that was really heavy when he went to the palmist!) I had an experience almost like that!
66. MARIA CAN REMEMBER WHEN MADAME M TOOK MY HAND SHE JERKED BACK LIKE SHE HAD AN ELECTRIC SHOCK! She said, "You've got more power than Merlin the Magician!" And then she went on & on & on & on about all those things about the books, "Oh the volumes I see, volumes & volumes!" Oh me! There were a lot of things in that I still don't understand. Well, it hasn't all happened yet, so I don't even understand some of it! But apparently that really scared that guy‚ who said, "There's been a great tragedy in your life!"
67. I THINK THE MESSAGE OF THE WHOLE PICTURE WAS THAT HE WAS LIKE THE DEATH ANGEL OR A PROPHET OF GOD! He was definitely a prophet against the evils of this World, right? In all of his judgments he was judging & prophesying against the evils of Humanity, wasn't he?—Time & again! And even though he didn't say much in his boyhood, it was obviously evil that he was condemning.
68. HE WAS OFTEN TROUBLED, AS PROPHETS ARE! Sometimes some things I've gotten have actually scared me & worried me & I wondered if I was getting it from the right source, believe it or not, & I've told you about some of these experiences. Well, does that help you understand it a little better? What do you think the superficial shallow unbelieving unthinking unwise World is going to think about it? What judgments do you think they're going to pass on that film?—That he was some kind of a monster, demon-possessed, evil! (Alfred: That he was some cultist!) (Path: An ism!) Yes, an awful Guru!
69. HE HAD AT LEAST TWO OR THREE FOLLOWERS anyhow who believed in him! Ha! Some of them thought he was such a monster they tried to kill him before he did any more damage, but it was obvious they couldn't stop the relentless power behind him. They may kill us‚ but they'll never stop the Power that's in us & behind us—it's going to get them one of these days! So, praise the Lord!
70. I THINK IT WAS A REAL PREACHMENT TO THE THINKING PERSON & the person who understands at all & has any faith in justice & the righteousness of God!—They're going to sympathise with the fellow. I think that court scene was one place where the audience really got the point & almost cheered. That showed there was a lot of anti-war sentiment there, that's one thing the youth of America are strong on, & the youth of Britain too, anti-war sentiment, so they cheered him for that!—They liked that message! But I doubt if they'll even understand some of those other messages.
71. I THINK HE WAS EVEN BLASTING AIRPLANES AS BEING EVIL, & in a way they are! They do a lot of evil, kill a lot of people, poison the atmosphere & they're bringing the World too close together. If it were not for the airplane & aerodynamics, there could be no missile war, there could be no atomic war‚ because they'd have no means of delivery! It's the airplane & missiles that are going to make the atomic war possible.
72. IN A SENSE, ALL OF THE THINGS THAT HE JUDGED & DESTROYED REALLY WERE BASICALLY EVIL. It's obvious that airplanes are not of God! And even automobiles are not of God. God in His mercy lets us use them sometimes, & in His permissive will, but in all the things that I've had about the future, there aren't going to be any airplanes or automobiles around! We're going to go back to the same kind of transportation God created to begin with‚ nothing but animals & foot & cart & buggy & carriage & that sort of thing. Think of that! That's kind of hard to believe, isn't it, but it's true!
73. HE SAID "NOTHING SHALL HURT NOR DESTROY IN ALL MY HOLY KINGDOM!" (Isa.11:9.) Well, that certainly rules out all the automobiles & the airplanes & the missiles & war & everything else man has made that have turned Earth into Hell! Man has turned a paradise into Hell on Earth with his inventions which are polluting, destroying & annihilating mankind himself!
74. SO AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, THE PICTURE'S A BLAST AT THE EVILS OF THE WORLD‚ & he was like a prophet of God, used as God's instrument to try to destroy them! He had this power, but that even troubled him because he didn't understand it.—And that's often true about prophets & the things that happen. Ask Maria—we've had a lot of funny little things happen—sometimes not so funny—that in a sense we willed to happen, & some of them happened real quick! We ought to have kept a record of all those little things that happened.
75. I TOLD GOD TO RAIN FIRE DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN ON THOSE PEOPLE IN SICILY for what they did to Timothy there in Catania & judge that town, & we hadn't been gone two weeks when Mt. Etna exploded in a serious eruption that was really shaking them up! And Mexico City that imprisoned our kids had a huge earthquake!
76. SO THE PROPHETS OF GOD CAN BE INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION, & have been all through history! God doesn't always do it right away, & He does as much as He thinks they need or deserve. It may not always be as much as we'd like to sock it to them‚ but He does answer prayer! It's amazing the things He's done!
77. AMEN, LORD, HELP THIS TO HELP US TO UNDERSTAND OUR OWN MINISTRY BETTER‚ that it's not always easy. Even for all of us as a Family it's a lonely job. Even as a Family we're alone & greatly separated from the rest of the World; they don't even understand us & even hate us & want to kill us.
78. SOMETIMES, LORD, WE DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND OURSELVES & OUR MINISTRY & ITS SERIOUSNESS & ITS GREATNESS!—Not only to receive Thy Word & pass it on to others, to warn & to predict & to give them Thy warnings & predictions, but sometimes, Lord, to even pray to bring about some of these things on those we know deserve them & to beg for Thy righteous judgments, & that sometimes You answer our prayers & You do it! We thank You for it!
79. SOMETIMES IT HAS EVEN TROUBLED US, LORD, afterward, & we have wondered if we prayed too much or too little or whatever. Some of the answers have sometimes even bothered us & troubled our own spirits, as even some of Thy prophets of old. Sometimes it worried them about what happened as a result of their own prayers‚ the destruction of the peoples & their enemies.
80. THANK YOU LORD FOR HELPING US SEE THE MESSAGE IN THIS FILM FOR US & to sober us & make us realise how important our mission is & our message & our office as Thy Prophets of warning the people & blasting the evils of the System, & even helping to bring about its destruction. Give us a good night's rest, safekeeping & rest these tired bodies‚ Lord, who've sacrificed this extra time to think on these things, in Jesus' name, amen. TYL. PTL! Let's go to bed, shall we?
81. I TELL YOU‚ I COULD HAVE REALLY GOTTEN IN THE SPIRIT SEVERAL TIMES on that thing tonight, & I knew the spirit of the prophet had to be subject to the prophet & I had to keep, as they say, at a low profile! I have a bad enough profile as it is! So you see, Alfred‚ the quick surface judgment is not always the right one, because it wasn't necessarily all evil, & he wasn't necessarily all evil.
82. AND YET THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO MISJUDGE IT & think that it was nothing but evil & he was evil & some evil power that they should have destroyed—just as they think of the prophets of God usually as being evil powers which should be destroyed. They kill them, they always kill them. Why else would they kill them unless they think they're evil & should be destroyed? They plotted to kill Jeremiah lots of times. Plotted to kill Paul. Plotted to kill Jesus!
83. THEY TRIED TO KILL EVERY PROPHET OF GOD because they thought they were evil! They didn't realise how evil they themselves were! They thought they were right & even doing God service. So, PTL, that helps us remember the Scripture to never answer a matter before you really think & pray on it & understand it, or you might misjudge it. (Pr.18:13.)
84. THEY REALLY LAUGHED THAT ONE OFF & REALLY RIDICULED IT & MADE FUN OF IT, just like they do the prophets of God, & just like they do the warnings, predictions, messages & even the judgments of God! So that's a pretty shocking interpretation & I doubt if very many people can get that interpretation!—Do you?
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