HomeARC ML 1364
NOW IS THE HOUR! 12/82 DFO 1364
--We Have Come to the Kingdom for Such an Hour as this! (Est.4:14)
1. CAN YOU SEE THE PLANNING OF GOD?--WE HAVE HIT THE WORLD AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME, JUST WHEN MOST OF THESE INVENTIONS HAVE REACHED VIRTUALLY THEIR PEAK OF PERFECTION & UTILITY & USEFULNESS & WITHIN OUR CAPABILITY TO USE THEM! Can you see in the publication field what this has meant? Not only tape recordings. How could we have ever had MWMI if we hadn't had tape recorders?--And especially now micros with these new slow speeds & all. But what if we hadn't had the normal cassettes which travel at 1.78 ips? And you take even the micros, their fast speed is 2.4 cps, that's one inch per second, & the slow is a half-inch per second!--1.2 cps.
2. THE FIRST RECORDING EQUIPMENT WAS CONSIDERED PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT. No private individuals or anyone like that could afford that sort of thing. That was the first kind of recording equipment that was, you might say, on the market, but it was only for professional use, used by radio studios & recording studios to make records.
3. I CAN REMEMBER AS A CHILD THE FIRST RECORD PLAYERS. Did you ever see those big 78's, records that were about a quarter-of-an-inch thick? I mean, they were a platter! If you konked somebody on the head with one, they'd know it! Huge big heavy things, a quarter-of-an-inch thick! (Hope: Didn't they only play on one side?) Some of the early ones, yes, then they finally woke up to the fact they could do it on both sides!
4. BUT PERSONAL OR PRIVATE RECORDING EQUIPMENT WAS UNKNOWN! I can remember when they had first opened a little booth on the main street of Miami where you could walk in--like these photo booths--& they had a guy there who did it for you. You paid 25 cents, which was a lot of money in those days, & they'd make one little thin record that lasted something like 3 minutes. Like a floppy disc today, real thin celluloid!
5. THEY'D SAY, "WRITE A LETTER WITH YOUR OWN VOICE & SEND IT TO YOUR RELATIVES!" It was a big thing at Christmastime, people would be standing in line to talk to a relative! That's because the first record players had come in & the people back home could play it & enjoy hearing your voice! It sounded kind of funny, kind of nasal, but it played, & those were the first personal recordings! But they had to be handled by a professional who had the equipment, you didn't have one yourself.
6. THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS PERSONAL RECORDERS UNTIL THE WIRE RECORDER FIRST CAME OUT, & that was overtaken almost immediately by the tape recorder because they found out they could put the emulsion on plastic tape instead of on a wire. The first wire recorders came out in that last year I was in high school, 1938, & tape recorders did not become even rare possessions of individuals until at least in the '40s. I know we never had a tape recorder until the '50s, those great big cumbersome 7-inch reel-to-reels.
7. THE FIRST LITTLE PORTABLES THAT CAME OUT WERE CALLED GRUNDIGS & I picked one up in New York with the little 3-inch tapes, still reel-to-reel, & they were about the size of the larger portables today. A 3-inch reel that played about 3 minutes & that was it! The first ran at several inches per second, IPS, so you couldn't get very much on, even on a reel that was supposed to be 50 feet of tape.
8. THEY WERE KIND OF MODELLED AFTER THE MOVIE MACHINES & THE MOVIE REELS, BECAUSE THOSE REELS WERE AVAILABLE. That's how they got started, really, with tape that was similar to 8mm film, because the equipment was interchangeable. You used the same kind of reels, & probably the same kind of mechanisms inside as some of the cameras had, only with a sound head & 15 inches per second. Then the later models got down to half of that, 7-1/2 inches per second. Then these first little portables that came out--like this little Grundig I bought in New York on one of my trips--they cut that down to only 3-3/4 inches per second, think of that!
9. DO YOU KNOW WHAT OUR MICROS DO NOW?--1.2 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND!--Not inches! That's the equivalent of a half-an-inch per second! Instead of 15 inches, instead of 7-1/2 inches, instead of 3-3/4 inches, it's gotten down to where they run so slow, yet at such an even speed, that you can even record music at half-an-inch per second! That's quite a bit of progress in one lifetime in recording, huh?
10. WE HAD OUR FIRST PERSONAL TAPE RECORDER IN 1960 BEFORE WE LEFT MIAMI, WHEN WE MADE THE "WHISPERING VISION!" (No.334) And that was quite an innovation, very few people had'm or could afford'm. I bought it second-hand at that. I think it was still running the same 15 ips speed when everybody was buying 7-1/2 ips, so I bought it second-hand for the terrible high price of $30! That was alot of money in those days, even in the '60s! So things have kind of progressed a little bit along certain lines so that we can do a lot of things now we couldn't do then!
11. HOW COULD WE HAVE DONE WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR RADIO & ALL IF WE HADN'T HIT AT A TIME WHEN THOSE THINGS WERE AVAILABLE TO ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, & CHEAP & SMALL FOR MAILING! It's just like God was preparing the inventions in the World for our coming so we could get out the Word! That's just speaking of recording alone. And video machines! When did we ever have a video machine before? When did we get our first video machine, Peter? I think when you first came to work with us in 1979 in France. Of course, there were lots of other people back in the States who were buying video machines like mad, & they had'm before we did. We were always getting them later because by that time they were cheaper!
12. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE FIRST TV SETS, YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT YOU WERE IN A RADIO STATION! They were gigantic!--Even some of the first radios which I can remember as a child. Only the rich could afford some of the first radios, since they had to build'm in these huge "consoles" they called'm, entertainment centers as big as a great big bookcase & twice as deep with huge speakers & places for your records & also a built-in radio! "This is your entertainment center!" And they cost three, four, five thousand dollars in the Depression days! Multiply that by ten & you've got what it would be worth today! Then I can remember when they first started coming down to about $1,000.
13. WHEN WE WERE FIRST IN MIAMI, BROTHER HAAS GOT ONE OF THE FIRST "PORTABLE" RADIOS where you didn't have to pick up one of these huge things & move it like a piece of furniture! I'll never forget, a new Crosley portable! They were advertised everywhere! It came in a beautiful silver case--really polished aluminum--& was about this long, this high & this deep, portable, all one man could carry, & full of things that felt like lead! It had on top of it this great big horn that flared out toward you like this, you've probably seen'm in the movies, & all these funny sounds & static came out of this horn! It had 3 great big dials on the front, each four inches wide, & you had to feel around & tune this one & then this one & this one & that one & you had all this horrible static, & finally you heard a station!
14. AND THERE WERE ONLY A FEW STATIONS ON AT THAT TIME! KDKA Pittsburgh had to go on the air before people would even buy radios! Then WLW went on as an experimental 200,000-watt station. KDKA went on with 50,000 which was the highest allowed, & still the highest allowed by the International Radio Commission except for what's known as experimental stations like WLW. Leave it to those Jews to wangle out some kind of a license where they could say it was experimental & use 200,000 watts! That's why I could hear it every night in Miami on my crystal set!
15. SO IMAGINE THOSE HUGE BIG THINGS LIKE THAT, SO-CALLED PORTABLE RADIOS! Compare that to a little wristwatch radio of today or the kind I bought David. I mean, my crystal set was the closest to a real micro in those days! And in those days when Mr. Haas was bragging about his new portable radio, I think he paid something like $300 for it. Not everybody could afford a radio, & when he would set up his radio at night & get ready to tune in, the whole neighbourhood would gather! He was the only guy on the block who had a radio, if not the whole neighbourhood! Mind you now, that was about 1926-'27 & he was the only guy in the whole area that had a radio, & the neighbours would come knocking at the door, wanting to come in & hear the radio. Can you imagine? Look at what we have today!
16. EVEN MY LITTLE CRYSTAL SETS WERE MORE PORTABLE! The only trouble with the crystal set, it would have been real portable, but you were tied to an antenna! You had to have a 50-foot antenna outside from treetop-to-treetop or you hardly got anything. You couldn't have gotten even the local radio station without a big antenna, that's where you gathered in the radio waves & got your power. The little crystal barely gave it a push, that's about all, just the vibration of the crystal.
17. IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, THOSE LITTLE CRYSTALS OF THAT DAY ARE RELATED TO THE MODERN QUARTZ, ARE THEY NOT? I think they have something to do relative to modern quartz, which has made miniaturisation possible. Well, it made my little miniature crystal set possible & I usually made'm in girls' little cedar boxes for jewelry or cosmetics. They were about 3 inches wide, 6 inches long & about 2 or 3 inches deep, & I'd make'm real nice & they smelled nice. I had to bore holes for the plugs for the earphones. The earphones were great big things, not as big as your giant stereo earphones, but almost as big as your fist. You may have seen some of them. They were heavy! That's why I usually listened to the radio in bed, because the pillow would sort of help support the earphones! Besides, that's the only time I had to do it!
18. LOOK HOW RADIO HAS ADVANCED! LOOK AT THE PROGRESS, THE CHEAP MINIATURISATION WHERE EVERYBODY CAN AFFORD A LITTLE TRANSISTOR RADIO! I can remember when the first transistors came out, that was the first genuine miniaturisation of radios. I can remember standing looking in a store window in Pittsburgh where they were explaining about transistor radios & had these first little tiny radios. I thought, "Man, that's even smaller than my crystal set!" And that was not until about the time of World War 2 that those first transistors came out, just a little before that.
19. IN FACT, I THINK WE WERE HOLDING MEETINGS UP IN PITTSBURGH FOR THE LEHMANS WHEN I SAW THOSE FIRST SMALL TRANSISTOR RADIOS IN THE WINDOW. And they weren't this small then, either--they were about 8 x 4 x 2 inches & that was pretty small! In fact, I think they still had a few tubes in them, they were not all transistor. That was really a war development, another thing that the wars pushed, miniaturisation of radio.
20. BUT LOOK WHAT WE HAVE TODAY! What good would MWMI do unless all these teenagers & all these young people had their own radios? We not only have to have audio tapes developed to this point, but also radios that they could listen to the programs on & that every little teenager could afford to have one.
21. IT'S LIKE WE HAVE COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH AN HOUR AS THIS! We have at our disposal every outstanding invention! Just take the methods of the outreaches that we have to publicise the Gospel--tapes, radios--& of course our biggest method is printing. Radio is our new outreach, one of the biggest ways to witness to millions & to witness to a lot of people we'd never get to with a piece of paper, otherwise our mainstay has been paper publication, right?
22. WELL, WHEN I WAS A KID, I CAN REMEMBER BEING SHOWN SOME OF THE BEST PRINTING PRESSES OF THE DAY, USED BY NEWSPAPERS, ETC., & there was this huge monstrous monster machine that was as big as that doorway there, called a linotype machine, which was the latest most modern invention. The guy could sit there at the thing like a typewriter--this is where your computers came from--& that machine would "compose" the type, as they say, in lead type, & hot-weld it together in lines of type. That's why they called it linotype. It was the most modern invention of the day when I was young, David's age, & I can remember seeing them in printing offices, newspaper offices.
23. A LINOTYPE MACHINE WAS THE MOST MODERN THING, MIND YOU, A GIGANTIC THING THAT WEIGHED TONS!--Just to form the type that they would then later put into a form. And everything read backwards, of course, with the type sticking up. Then they'd put this whole form on a big huge rotary press, & these giant rolls of paper about 4 ft. long & 3 ft. thick would roll across the form. The whole building would shake when those gigantic presses were going!
24. THEY TOOK UP A WHOLE ROOM IN THE AVERAGE NEWSPAPER OFFICE! The floor where the presses were was a room about 100 feet long, & the presses extended from one end of the room on one side to the other, & from one end of the room to the other side on the other side--to print newspapers! Can you imagine? So that the lowly mimeograph was even an amazing thing when that came out.
25. THE HECTOGRAPH WAS THE FIRST PERSONAL TYPE OF DUPLICATOR, a little wax frame that you could write something on & then spread it out on there with a special ink. Really a spirit duplicator is what it was, & once you made the imprint with this spirit ink, then you could peel that off & put a letter on there & press it down & smooth it out, & then peel it off & you had a duplicate letter! You could get about 50 copies out of that thing before it was completely faded out. Then came the mimeograph, where you could type your own stencils, & I used to have one of the early ones, a little old Speed-o-print! Mimeograph was actually a trade name of the first earliest one, & A. B. Dick was one of the first great names in mimeographing, etc.
26. BUT LOOK HOW WE'VE PROGRESSED NOW TO THE LITHO, AS IT WAS CALLED, LITHOGRAPHY--OFFSET PRINTING! It was first called a lithograph. Litho is the Latin word for stone. "Stone-writing" is really what it meant. Litho-graph, you can write on stone. Why in the World they call it that, I don't know, but I guess the point was it used these metal plates from which you could print--without type, no more typesetting! The little local printer who used to do our handbills had a little press about so big & he had to set every piece of type by hand, every letter by hand in a frame, every bit! Then we would put on it a picture called a "cut"--which was quite an innovation. They called it electrograving, engraving pictures.
27. THOSE ENGRAVINGS WERE REALLY THE BEGINNING OF THE OFFSET because they'd take the picture & they'd use acid or something that caused it to leave its imprint on the metal, but it was a thick piece of metal & it was nailed to a block of wood. They'd stick that in & put your print around it, all the stuff you said you wanted. No linotype, only newspapers could afford those gigantic tons of machinery that lined the type up just as fast as the guy could type the typewriter.
28. THE LOCAL PRINTER HAD TO SET IT ALL BY HAND, EVERY INDIVIDUAL LETTER!--Like that big Chinese typewriter we saw, & it wasn't even that smart! That thing can pick out its own pieces & set'm in place. I remember watching the local printer many times as a teenager, setting every little letter by hand. A little piece of type was about 1 cm long--you've seen them on the China LIM video, the same kind of type exactly, a little tiny square piece about like that, & every letter was on the end of one of these little pieces of type, little pieces of metal. Now that's within my memory when they had to print like that!
29. ONE OF THE MARVELS & THE MIRACLES OF THE CENTURY WAS HOW NEWSPAPERS WERE PRINTED! They used a linotype to set the type & then put it on these huge presses that would revolve so fast you could hardly even see it! It just looked like it almost vanished it was moving so fast! But the local printer, he had a thing like we had in the early days of the Family out on the Ranch, the kind of stuff they gave away to poor preachers & poor missionaries!
30. THE PRINTER WOULD LAY THIS SHEET OF PAPER DOWN & SMOOTH IT OUT, PRESS THE FOOT TREADLE, & THE THING WOULD ROLL ACROSS & PRINT IT, then he'd peel off the piece of paper. Then he'd do the same with the next piece of paper, lay it down, push the foot pedal, roll across, roller ink it, & then the big press would come down & press the type onto the piece of paper & lift back off again & he'd peel off that piece of paper, everything by hand. I can remember watching them as a kid. Even when I was still in my 20's working with my Mother, that's the way the local printer was still printing handbills & things like that with hand-set type & "cuts" as they were called, pictures.
31. LITHOGRAPHING WAS AN ENTIRELY BRAND-NEW THING JUST COMING OUT. I began to hear about it in common use when I was about in my 20's. Think of that, that's only 40 years ago to where you could actually just take a picture of a page of printing, & from that photo or positive, instead of negative, you could lay that out on a metal plate & by a chemical process the acid would eat in just the right places leaving just enough of the surface rough, just raised some thousandth-of-an-inch or something. And by the chemistry of it all you could put that thin sheet of metal on a roller rotary press, tabletop size, operated first by hand, then by motor, automatic, & print thousands of copies! Think of that!
32. WE COULDN'T EVEN BEGIN TO DO THE PRINTING WE'RE DOING NOW BY THE OLD METHOD! It would be far too slow & too expensive. The computers we're now using are the equivalent of the old linotype machines. They are literally type-setting machines, setting the type for our presses, pages of printing. And the press, the form & the type is just on a tiny little thin sheet of metal, think of that, & can be put on a rotary press, that is with a big drum, that can be no bigger than tabletop size & yet run off several thousand copies an hour! Think of that! I think Mordy used to do our whole mailing list, enough for everybody, in at least an hour-and-a-half or two hours of printing!
33. WE COULDN'T POSSIBLY DO WHAT WE'RE DOING TODAY UNLESS WE HAD THOSE SIMPLE LITTLE MINIATURISED SIMPLIFIED HIGH-SPEED LITHOGRAPH PRINTING PRESSES--& dirt cheap compared to what things used to cost! We couldn't possibly set the type as fast as we're now doing by computer. We could have never done it before! We're getting out more now than we ever did before, & faster, & it's being printed more easily & faster & even cheaper than we could have ever done it before.
34. WE HAVE COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH AN HOUR AS THIS! You don't think God has anything to do with this? Everything is developed to just the right point where it's simple, fast, cheap & easy to record & send out tapes & broadcast on the radio to tiny little transistor receivers that everybody can afford! Think what a fast way to get out the Gospel!--And to places you could never go in person! And also publish publications in cheap, fast, simple, easy form, faster than man ever dreamed of before!
35. DID YOU EVER SEE A PICTURE OF GUTENBERG'S FIRST PRINTING PRESS, HOW IT OPERATED? They had to carve the type out of blocks of wood, every letter, great big letters at that, & then he'd set the letters in line--it was a linotype for sure--inside of a form. Then they had these special screw things that squeezed the forms together & kept it all in one place, otherwise you had type all over the place! They used to have some funny joke about that: "It's as bad as upsetting the printer's form!"--Symbolic of the worst calamity you could have! The little girl at the Chinese LIM spilled hers once & it took her two days to pick it all up & put it all back in their right places!
36. BUT THEN GUTENBERG WOULD HAVE THIS BIG CORKSCREW THING--everything made out of wood--that he turned around & turned around. He'd put the form down first with the blocks of wood, wooden typeface up, reading backwards, paint the face of the wood with ink with a paintbrush, lay the paper down on it & screw this thing down on top of it until it pressed down tight on the paper, then screw it back up again, pull it off, & you had one whole duplicated sheet of printed paper that was done in only a few minutes, think of that!--Ha!--One copy of one page took several minutes to print!
37. NOW THESE FAST PRESSES CAN DO THOUSANDS OF PAGES A MINUTE! I've forgotten what the speed is of some of those high-speed newspaper presses, it's almost unbelievable what they can do! The newspapers feed the paper in from huge rolls this big around & this long that are shipped clear from the paper mills. The rolls are at one end of these big lines of presses, & the paper's just being fed in there off of the roll like a roll of toilet paper. And at the other end, guess what you get?--The completely printed, collated, folded newspaper!
38. THAT'S ONE OF THE MIRACLES OF THIS MODERN AGE! I mean, it's almost unbelievable! Even our little printers can do something similar. All we have to do is furnish the copy, 16 pages on a side, 32 pages at a run, & they can print on both sides at the same time, top & bottom of the sheet, big sheets like this. That's why we do them in 32-page signatures. It can run those, I don't know how fast, but then it will also cut, collate, fold & staple! They feed the paper in at one end & those nice little folded magazines come out on the other end, all done & stapled! No wonder they can do it faster than we could do it by hand!
39. WE WERE REALLY PRIMITIVE WHEN WE STARTED DOING THEM OURSELVES, but even at that it was a marvellous simplified invention to be able to print with a little tabletop portable litho! Even at that I think they weigh several hundred pounds, you don't put it in your back pocket! But who knows? Maybe they'll have'm that way some day! Maybe during the Tribulation when it's going to be hard to hide'm, they may have some so small you can hide'm in your pocket! Who knows? The Lord will prepare!
40. HE'S PREPARING THE EQUIPMENT RIGHT NOW THAT WE WILL HAVE TO USE DURING THE DAYS OF TRIAL & TROUBLE & GREAT TRIBULATION! Whatever it is that we are going to need, He's getting them to invent it right now! Remember what we prayed last year or the year before? "Lord, have them invent the things we need, a smaller tape & tape recorders & players & some smaller typewriters! We can't carry all these huge monstrous things around!"
41. WE USED TO CARRY AROUND GREAT BIG GIGANTIC COMPOSERS & IBM SELECTRICS & SUCH EQUIPMENT LIKE THAT! We almost never got our IBM out of the customs down in Tenerife! They wanted to know, "What in the World is this thing?" It was just what the IBM people called a portable, but it was about as big & heavy as a big box of books, you know. And the customs guy said, "Well, what do you need this kind of thing for?" And Jus said, "Well, I like to write letters!"--Ha! The mistake he made was bringing it in the original box. It was brand new, they just bought it, & you know customs, they don't like new stuff. Well, they like new stuff, they charge you customs on it!
42. WE MADE THAT MISTAKE WITH ONE OF MY SHORTWAVE RADIO CASSETTE PLAYERS. It was already two years old when we left Tenerife, but I always kept it in such good shape & I packed it in the original box, so the guy wouldn't believe it wasn't brand new just because the box was open! Because it looked new & I even had the styrofoam on there & the instruction book, everything there just like it was to begin with. So he charged dear Sara $30 duty on it when the thing only cost about $100 or so to begin with!
43. WELL ANYHOW, LOOK HOW MUCH EASIER IT IS TO CARRY OUR LATEST LITTLE MICRO RADIOS & TAPE RECORDERS & MICRO CASSETTES! Mordy used to even keep his whole printing press & printing shop in his closet! Well, now we've got the advantage of a commercial printer & the System, & I think we should use it, but we can still go back to the closet if we have to, for security or whatever!
44. WE NOW HAVE TAPES, BROADCASTING & SMALL RADIO RECEIVERS THAT EVERY TEENAGER CAN AFFORD! God has prepared this day with all these marvellous inventions so that we are now here & they are now here & available & we can use them for preaching the Gospel in all the World to every creature! Isn't that wonderful?
45. IT WAS NEVER IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF HISTORY EASIER TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN ALL THE WORLD TO EVERY CREATURE THAN IT IS TODAY!--By radio, by television, by audio cassette, by video cassette, by printing, by every means you can possibly imagine! It was never easier to preach the Gospel to so many & so fast as it is right now!
46. GOD IS MAKING IT AS EASY & AS CHEAP & AS FAST AS HE CAN POSSIBLY MAKE IT IN ORDER FOR US TO GET OUT THE GOSPEL AS FAST AS WE CAN--which is one reason we're rushing like mad to dish out so much, because we know this may be our last chance! Who knows what we can do when the war hits or after the war? Let's hope we can do something more! I'm sure God has some way, some thing that we're going to be able to do even then, because the Family will still be here, at least most of them, & we'll still be here to preach the Gospel! They may have to go back to the horse & buggy or writing letters in scrolls by hand & sneaking them from country to country the way Paul did, but we'll still be able to do something, amen?
47. BUT I DON'T BELIEVE WE'LL EVER AGAIN BE ABLE TO DO IT AS EASILY & AS FAST & AS CHEAP & IN SUCH NUMBERS & SUCH QUANTITY AS WE'RE DOING TODAY & THIS YEAR, GOD WILLING! You say, "Well Dad, you gave a talk something like that back in 1980 & you thought that was going to be our greatest year, & 1981 was even bigger! Now 1982 has been even greater than that, & now you're saying 1983 may be our last & greatest year & we've got to work hard & fast to get it done!" Well, one of these years it is going to be, & I'm just about personally convinced that it's got to be either '83 or '84, which I think will probably be the last chance we have to get it out so freely in such quantity so fast to so many & even so cheap & so well!
48. I WASN'T GOING TO GIVE A TALK, & I TRIED NOT TO, BUT I GUESS THAT'S WHAT THE LORD WANTED! Every time something happens & He just turns my key & pushes my button, & I'm like the machinery, I just roll! It must be the Lord! So I can see the wisdom of God in giving us that message tonight, another reason why we are responsible!
49. GOD HAS PUT SO MUCH IN OUR HANDS IN THE WAY OF THE INSTRUMENTS, THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOB & EVEN THE MONEY TO PAY FOR IT, THANK GOD, & THE FAMILY TO BACK US UP & PRAY FOR IT! We have got to do it & got to get it out or we're going to be sorry! This is our last chance! As Maria said about this History Book, "Well, we'd better get it out now or we probably never will!" You say, "Well, why get it out now? If this is our last year, why don't we get out something more important?" Well, history's pretty important, & you may be reading this all the way through the Tribulation & it might encourage you!--Maybe even in the Millennium!
50. I WAS GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT READING THAT DIARY DID FOR ME, OF JUST THAT ONE YEAR OF 1935, WHEN I WAS A 16-YEAR-OLD TEENAGER. Do you know what was the biggest thrill I got out of it? The biggest impression I got out of it?--You've mentioned some other points: That the teenager that reads it will feel the same comradery & kindred spirit because I was going through all the same things, they'll see how faithful I was to the Lord & to the Lord's Work & to what my folks had taught me, & how I managed to survive & still come out a Christian & remain dedicated in the face of difficulties, & concerned for & always teaching others.
51. NOTICE I DECRIED EVOLUTION & I POOH-POOHED THEIR MODERN EDUCATION & I was really sticking my nose up at all the stinkin' education of the day--although I apparently learned the things the Lord wanted me to learn. I could already sense the creeping paralysis of unbelief entering into the public schools etc. through all those modern theories of evolution etc. You read it, right? It's all there: "Teenage Secrets!" (No. 1365 )
52. IT'S SORT OF LIKE A HISTORY TO SHOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THAT DAY, & THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING, IN A SENSE. Now you see the horrible effects of it, totally atheistic America! Christian country! Baloney! It's atheistic, totally secular! Not merely secular, not neutral, but atheistic, against-God education, anti-Christ education! They're reaping the whirlwind today of sowing the wind when I was young! They're reaping the horrible harvest of unbelief--anti-God, anti-Christ so-called civilisation of today, totally corrupt, criminal, barbaric, savage--including its music & all the rest--what I saw was coming even then, & what I even wrote in my diary. I saw it coming, how horrible the World was getting, all of that.
53. BUT THE THING THAT IMPRESSED ME & THRILLED ME FROM READING THAT DIARY WAS HOW THE LORD WAS PREPARING ME FOR MY JOB & WAS NEVER DEFEATED!--How God went to that much trouble to prepare one man for the job God knew he was going to do 40-some years later, almost 50 years later! All the care & the trouble He was going to to prepare me & prepare everything, every subject I took, every study, every book I read. I was always reading stories & books!
54. I NEVER DREAMED OF WRITING ANYTHING, BUT GOD WAS PUTTING INPUT INTO MY COMPUTER CONSTANTLY, CONSTANTLY, CONSTANTLY! Vocabulary, ways to express, everything, so that when it came time to write, His Spirit just turned the key & pressed the button & out it rolled! You ought to know, you've been here many a night! I don't even have to think about it, really, I just have to open my mouth, like the mouth of a computer, & it pours out, that's all! Look at the marvellous preparation the Lord gave me, designing me & preparing His instrument, preparing His machine, preparing His man for the job I was to do nearly 50 years later, & am doing today! I've been doing it for quite a few years & I'm still doing it!
55. AND I HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL THRILLING EXPERIENCE! I can remember right where I was standing, I was opening the door there ready to toss down another batch of material to you guys after I'd just finished reading some more of that diary. Now maybe you don't get this same feeling, but I thought, "My Lord, if You went to that much trouble to prepare me & waited that long & were that patient till I was ripe & ready for the job, perfectly designed for the job with everything You had input into my computer, every talent, every experience, every job, every word, everything to do this job, what am I worrying about?"
56. I FEEL LIKE WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN DID WHEN HE LOOKED THROUGH ONE OF THE FIRST TELESCOPES! Remember the statement I gave you a long time ago? He was a great politician, as well as a Christian statesman, & he was running for office. And he looked through the telescope at the stars of God's great Universe--& they couldn't even see very far away in those days, of course we don't really know how far they are--but he looked at the marvels of God's great infinitely planned & synchronised perfect order of God's Universe & he was just stunned to silence!--Which was kind of unusual for him. I'm convinced he was Jewish too, he was a big talker, big mouth like mine!
57. HE STOPPED TALKING & LOOKED FOR QUITE SOME TIME, then he turned away & walked away silently for several minutes. And this sort of comes back to me, the way I felt after I read that diary. He shook his head & he said those famous words: "Well, I guess it really doesn't matter who wins the election after all!" Don't you get the point?
58. IN OTHER WORDS, GOD'S WHEELS ARE GOING TO KEEP RIGHT ON TURNING, HIS PLAN IS GOING TO KEEP RIGHT ON UNFOLDING, HIS PURPOSES WILL NOT BE DEFEATED! History is in His hands & the future's in His hands & what He has designed & foreordained & predestined to happen is going to happen, & nothing in this World is going to stop it! We used to say God's Earth, but it looks more like the Devil's Earth today! Nothing can stop it! Nothing can stop Him! Nothing can stop God!
59. AND THE THING THAT CAME TO ME WAS, "MY GOD, IF HE COULD DO THAT WITH ME, NOTHING CAN STOP HIM, & NOTHING CAN STOP ME!" Because God was preparing me for the job all those years! What am I worrying about? They can't stop our rain! Why worry about a few little Jews or a few million Jews or a few million enemies or the whole System or the whole World or the war or the Tribulation or anything? God's going to get the job done no matter what, & He's going to use you to do it no matter what the Hell they do & what Hell they let loose to do it!
60. I JUST LOOKED AT THAT DIARY & I THOUGHT, "MY LORD, HOW PATIENT, HOW SLOWLY YOUR WHEELS TURN, INEXORABLY, IRRESISTIBLY, THEY GRIND ON & ON!" As someone has said, "The wheels of God grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceeding fine!" They'll never stop & nobody can stop'm! You can't stop'm, I can't stop'm, they can't stop'm, nothing is going to be able to stop Him until He has finished the job of what He wants to do!
61. I LOOKED AT THE JOB HE BEGAN IN ME & HOW HE FINALLY GOT IT TO THE POINT WHERE HE IS FINISHING IT, & NOTHING THAT EVER HAPPENED EVER STOPPED IT! Nothing I did, nothing they could do! God had His way & God had His will! You say, "That sounds a little bit like predestination & foreordination, like no free will & it's going to happen anyhow! Isn't that sort of a fatalism, Dad?" In a way, yes. When it comes to the will of God, I'm a fatalist! God's going to have His way no matter what you do or I do or whatever! If you don't do it, God will find somebody else to do it! Somebody else will steal your crown, but God will get it done anyway, no matter what.
62. SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY! Are you worrying about the war next year? Quit worrying! God's got it all figured out, what you're going to do, how it's going to happen, where we're going to be & how we're going to survive it. And if we don't survive it, so what? All the better! We go home to be with the Lord real quick & somebody else can carry on! God's got it all planned! Of course, the better you follow His plan & keep close to Him & get the right signals & play the game right, the easier it will be & the better things will go. But even if you fail entirely, God will get somebody else to pick up the pieces & pick up the torch, like the Decathlon, pick up the baton & carry on where you leave off, even if you don't make it!
63. LOOK WHO'S GOING TO PICK IT UP HERE! HALLELUJAH!--THE CHILDREN ARE GOING TO CARRY ON! You say, "Why in the World is God giving us all these little children at a time like this when the War's about to happen, the Antichrist is about to arise & Tribulation's coming?" Well, look why He's already given us all these little children! I can remember even Maria asking that same question when they first started coming & they were all little babies: "Why is He burdening & weighing our girls down with all these little babies when they could be busy witnessing, litnessing, FFing & so on?"
64. WELL, NOW YOU KNOW WHY!--THEY'RE OUR BIGGEST STARS, OUR GREATEST ATTRACTION, OUR GREATEST CHANNEL FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL! So why do you think we've got all these little children? Why do you think you're busy teaching them to sing & know the Bible & everything else?--They'll be able to carry on even when you're gone! If you're gone. Think of it! Maybe this is my New Year's Message, or one of them!
65. 1983! 1993! WHAT DOES THAT BRING TO MIND?--10 YEARS TO GO TO THE COMING OF THE LORD AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION!--That is, if our calculations are right! I'm not swearing on it & it's just approximate as far as we've figured. David will be 18 then, at the peak of his youth & manhood & idealism & conviction as I was! Within the next ten years I hardened in the mold, you might say, & my mold was fixed & my goal was fixed & my ministry was fixed! I didn't know exactly what it was going to be for another 30-some years, but I was prepared & molded & fitted, the machine was built, so to speak, & all God had to do from then on was keep putting input, input, input into my computer until I was ready to roll!
66. ABOUT THE ONLY THING I'M A LITTLE AMUSED ABOUT IN READING THAT 1935 DIARY WHEN I WAS 16, IS NOT HOW SMART I WAS--& I was plenty smart, honour student, top grades, highest in the schools always--but the thing that amazes me & amuses me is how dumb I was!--How much dumber I was then than I am now! Ha! Ha! Really! I thought I knew everything then! I mean, I didn't know anything then by comparison with now!
67. I THOUGHT I KNEW IT ALL BECAUSE I WAS SMART IN ALL THOSE SUBJECTS, history & mathematics & science & everything, studying things that other high school students didn't even dream of studying! I was reading Old English, Chaucer in the 7th grade!--All those old words you couldn't even understand & you had to have an Old English dictionary in your hand all the time just to look'm up!--And loving it & enjoying it & the poetry & the terrific meaning & depth of the poet Chaucer who wrote about the 1300's or something like that.
68. I WAS READING STUFF THAT OTHER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN THOUGHT OF READING! Well, I got a good broad education, though, because I noticed I was also reading a lot of stories & tales & articles & short stories in a boys' magazine called the American Boy. I was very fond of it, I read virtually every word, even the Letters to the Editor!
69. THINK OF THE INPUT OF THE MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF WORDS & EXPRESSIONS & WAYS OF TALKING THAT GOD WAS PUTTING IN ME ALL THE TIME, even short stories & everything you could imagine, preparing me for this job, preparing me to talk to you & to be able to express myself without even hardly thinking, except just to open my mouth & my heart & God pours it in & lets it roll! It's kind of like that music teacher told me about singing: "Practice the technicalities while you're home, Dave, but when you get up on the platform to sing, sing from your heart & forget'm--they'll come automatically!"--And that's what you're hearing right now!
70. I STUDIED & I LEARNED & I PRACTISED & I DIDN'T EVEN LIKE TO WRITE! You read some of that in there too, didn't you? I hated to write! I hated to write essays & themes for school! I tried to write poetry but I couldn't really, it was a mess! I felt a terrific obligation to write letters to friends & other people, but I dreaded to write'm & I'd put'm off as long as I could. I would always be condemning myself & chiding myself for failing to write such-&-such a letter to my brother or somebody & always putting it off, postponing it. Procrastination was my practice! If there was anything I could possibly put off till tomorrow, I wouldn't do it today! And I really hated to write! Can you imagine? Ha!
71. WELL, THANK GOD NOWADAYS I DON'T HAVE TO WRITE! The Lord knew that I hated to write, so He waited until I could just talk & it could be recorded & somebody else could write it for me! There's another marvellous modern invention, a way of writing with my voice. My handwriting was almost the World's worst! You poor people who have been having to read that scribble in my Diary, that was when I was almost at my best! You don't know how bad it was before that!
72. I STOPPED SCRIPTING ENTIRELY BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T READ IT & IT WAS TOO SLOW, & I STARTED PRINTING. I learned that form of printing in Junior High School in the 7th grade & decided, "This is for me! I can write this & people can read it!" Otherwise, the way I used to write, you ought to see it! But even at that it was still laborious & difficult for me to write & to think of what to say. I would sit for hours writing a letter, trying to decide on what to say. I don't seem to have that problem anymore!--Especially after I got filled with the Holy Spirit! It just rolls! Amen?
73. BUT LOOK HOW GOD PLANNED IT, HOW HE PREPARED THE TOOL, how He sharpened it & honed it & whetted it & designed it for the job! I looked at that Diary & said, "Thank You, Lord! Why do I ever worry about how to do it or whether You're going to get it done or not? When You took that much patience & that many years to get me ready to do the job, You're sure going to get it done!"--And in the few little years we've got left, because most of the job's already over! We're almost finished, thank God!
74. IN OTHER WORDS, IF HE WAS ABLE TO CARRY ME THROUGH 64 YEARS OF PREPARATION & PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS BEFORE THAT, WHY WORRY ABOUT ANOTHER LITTLE TEN? If God was that well able to take care of me & you--of course you haven't lived that long, but at least me, & he was getting ready to have you too--to prepare us, & me especially, for 64 years & generations before that, He's certainly not planning to let things slip or fail here in the last fraction of the time that it's taken to get this far!
75. WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS, THE ENDTIME, THE FULFILMENT OF HISTORY! Don't you think God's going to finish the job the way He wants to finish it? He may not tell us exactly everything that's going to happen, He doesn't want us to worry about it. We've got enough to worry about today, don't we Peter? We've got enough to think about & plan & work on today, don't we Maria? We sure don't have to worry about tomorrow, much less next year! Right?
76. JUST KEEP BUSY, DO YOUR JOB! Like the sign said in the grocery store: "Work your eight hours a day & don't worry, some day you'll be boss, work 24 hours a day & have all the worry!" Well, we'll never be boss, thank God, the Boss is always going to be Boss & He's still got all the worry, & whether we work eight or 24, He's going to do the job, praise God! But He does use us! I don't know whether I'm getting the point across or not! Am I? (Family: Yes, Sir!)
77. THIS WAS THE THING THAT IMPRESSED WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN ABOUT LOOKING THROUGH THE TELESCOPE: "My God, if God could do all that & keep it running so smoothly, why worry about the election?" And he lost it, too!--Ha! But God's plan went on! Things went on. I'm sure one reason he lost the election was because he was too good a man to win it, too honest, too Christian, too outspoken in his opposition to Evolution & the Devil & the anti-Christ spirit of the age.
78. HE WAS TOO GOOD A MAN TO BECOME A POLITICIAN! Besides, in the justice & judgement of God, the way America was going, it didn't deserve a man like that as a leader! So God didn't let him get bogged down with politics & becoming President. He ran for President, you know, on the so-called Silver Ticket. He was promoting silver for some reason or other, I've forgotten what the issue was.
79. BUT ANYWAY, THE WHOLE THING WAS THAT IT DIDN'T MATTER TO GOD WHETHER WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN GOT ELECTED OR NOT, GOD'S PLAN WAS NOT GOING TO FAIL! And William Jennings Bryan saw that when he looked through the telescope & saw God's great Universe. He felt pretty small, like a speck of dust on a speck of dust! "Who am I? What is man that Thou art mindful of him, & the son of man that Thou visiteth him?" Who are we? (Ps.8:3,4)
80. WELL, WE'RE VERY VITAL COGS IN GOD'S MACHINERY, but if your cog breaks or a tooth in your cog fails, God's machine's going to keep right on grinding along with or without you, & He's going to make it! He's gone to all this trouble to get this far! That's how I felt when I looked at the diary. My oh my, 16, & look how He was preparing me already, & yet look how many more years it took to finish the job!
81. WHAT AM I WORRIED ABOUT, WHETHER HE'S GOING TO FINISH IT OR NOT? WHETHER I SURVIVE OR NOT? Whether the work will go on or not? Whether the war will stop it or not? Obviously from the Scripture, we're going to be living right on into the Tribulation! Amen? "Brother, I'm going to live forever! I'm going to learn how to fly! I can feel it coming together, people will watch me & die! I'm going to make it to Heaven, light up the sky like a flame! I'm going to live forever! Baby, remember my name!" Hallelujah?
82. NOTHING'S GOING TO STOP IT & NOTHING'S GOING TO STOP ME & NOTHING'S GOING TO STOP YOU, NOTHING! That's your destiny, that's your life, that's your goal, & when it comes time, dead or alive, you're going to rise to meet the Lord in the air, & so shall we ever be with the Lord! (1Thes.4:16,17) Nothing can stop it! "Death cannot keep her prey, Jesus My Saviour! He rolled the stone away, Jesus my Lord! Up from the grave He arose, in a mighty triumph o'er His foes! He arose a Victor o'er the dark domain & He lives forever with His Saints to reign!" Hallelujah! TYJ! (Tongues:)
83. "LISTEN & KISS THE WORDS THAT THY FATHER SAITH UNTO THEE & THAT DAVID GIVETH THEE IN THIS HOUR!" Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! Amen! It must be pretty important, the Lord keeps advertising it! He's my Advertising Manager! Sometimes I think Abrahim's my advertising manager, he's always blowing the trumpet for me! Well, I've always been very shy & timid about promoting myself or my name, but when I heard that song, I thought, "Well, that's about the only part of that song I don't really like: 'Baby, remember my name!' It must be talking about Jesus."
84. AND INSTANTLY THAT VERSE CAME TO ME ABOUT EVEN IF THEY HONOUR THE NAME OF A PROPHET or a Disciple or even a righteous man, a good man, God will give them that kind of reward. (Mt.10:41) Even if they just remember my name, God will reward them for it! I was real leery when I first saw people starting to write: "In the name of Jesus & David." I thought, "Oh my God! They're deifying a man, they're glorifying a man! Who am I to accept this? Maybe I ought to refuse it!" I even complained to Maria a few times: "I don't like that, it's too much like self-glorification or praising a man, & for me to let them get away with it, I'm receiving it!" Several times I tried to think of some way to stop it, & every time the Lord stopped me.
85. HE IS DETERMINED TO HONOUR ME WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT, BECAUSE I AM HIS INSTRUMENT & HIS CREATION & HIS DAVID & HE DID IT & HE GETS ALL THE GLORY & He knows it & you just simply ought to recognise that, that's the point! God rebuked me several times: "Who are you to stop Me? Who are you to stop them from even praising your name? They're thankful for it. You lead them to the Lord & into the truth, or helped to, who are you to stop them from thanking you for it, as well as Me?" That's what the Lord told me. And again He rebuked me when I was going to leave out that line, somehow change it, "Baby, remember my name!" Ha! I tried to say, "Well, that means You, Lord!"
86. LISTEN, THEY'RE NOT ONLY GOING TO REMEMBER MY NAME, BUT THEY'RE GOING TO REMEMBER YOUR NAME, & that you told them about Jesus & you told them what was going to happen, & they're going to be looking around for you one of these days, wishing they could learn the rest! "What's going to happen next? What does the Bible say now? What did your teacher tell you was going to happen next?"--Because you've got the program, you know the score, you've got the itinerary, you know where we're going & all the stops! The closer we get to the End, the more you know about it! We know more about the End than we even do the present, praise God? TYL!
87. WELL, "THE SPIRIT INDEED IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK." (Mt.26:41) I come down here tired after a day's work, & as I get inspired, instead of getting tireder & weaker, I get stronger! Well, I can't say I'm sorry, but I really tried to talk on every other subject I could think of, & I was glad we got off the Tribulation, because I just could feel I was going to get inspired on that & give you another talk! Isn't that enough? Don't you get the point?
88. I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU, THAT'S THE THRILL I GOT OUT OF IT AS I SAW THE HAND OF GOD ON MY LIFE WAY BACK THERE WHEN I WAS 16, & HE GOT THE JOB DONE! I mean, there was no need of all those years of worry & concern about the future & whether I was going to make it or "wherewithal shall I be clothed or wherewithal shall I be fed or what shall I drink?" As long as I put the Kingdom of God first, He took care of all those things & we just kept rolling along! (Mt.6:31-33) Just keep on rolling along, keep on singing a song! How does that old song go? (Sings:)
89. "I'LL KEEP ON ROLLIN' ALONG,
KEEP ON SINGIN' A SONG!
Oh, there's no need to cry
While the Lord's in the sky,
You just keep rollin' along!"
PTL! Amen? Isn't that a good song? OK, let's pray! I don't know what you can title this, any ideas? PTL! The Lord can inspire you too, you know! I always pray for a title & He gives me something. We have to at least identify the tape right away, & I always have to think of something real quick!
90. (JOHN: LIKE THAT VERSE, "YOU'VE COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!") (Est.4:14) That's the thing I was trying to remember! There was a title! It was just like the Lord was speaking to me, "I gave you a title!" I remembered that, while I was talking something came that sounded like a good title: "Thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this!"--You & I! (Peter: You said, for such an hour as this.) How about that!
91. WE HAVE COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH AN HOUR AS THIS! We're right on schedule, we're right on time, we're right where we belong! We're right exactly what God wants us to be, where He wants us to be, when He wants us to be & we're right on schedule! Praise God! Hallelujah! TYL! Us! I'm not so sure about some people--some people lag way behind & a few people have gotten a little too far ahead--but I believe the Lord has really helped us to be right on time. We're right in the right country at the right time in the right place, & we've come to the Kingdom for such a time as this! PTL?
92. (TECHI:) AMEN, YOU STARTED TO PRAY, HONEY, GO AHEAD: (Techi: Thank You Jesus for a nice day & thank You Jesus that we can live in this house, in Jesus' name.) Amen! You can always count on her to pray a good short thoughtful prayer! She really thinks about it & she really means it & she has the faith, I'm sure, to believe it & that it's going to happen, & I believe it will! TYL! TYJ! As we pray together, Lord, the prayer You taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 19:14 & "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.") In Jesus' name, keep everyone tonight, Lord, & give us a good night's sleep, rest & strength for tomorrow & have Thy way in all of these things.
93. PREPARE US AS ONLY YOU CAN PREPARE US FOR WHATEVER MAY COME, that we may be in the right place at the right time & with the right attitude of mind & heart & be doing the right thing, in Jesus' name, amen! TYL! PYL! Hallelujah! Amen! (Sings:)
"God will take care of you, through every day, o'er all the way.
He will take care of you, God will take care of you!"
PTL? If you take care of His business, He's got to take care of you, amen?--And He will!
94. LOOK AT ME, DID HE TAKE CARE OF ME? When you see an old man like me, you know God had to take care of me!--All those years I've survived & lived through! Think of it! Did He take care of me? (Family: Amen!) Well then is He going to take care of you?--Yes!--No matter what happens! PTL! GBY! ILY! Thanks for your attention & that you're interested enough in hearing the Word of the Lord that you listen, even though some of you are tired, I know. Thank You Lord & thank you & God bless you all!
95. WELL, I GUESS THE LONG & SHORT MORAL OF THAT IS, THE DIARY WAS WORTH IT AFTER ALL! If He can do it for me, He can do it for you! PTL! What's that old song? (Sings:)
"It is no secret what God can do,
What He's done for others,
He can do for you!
With arms wide open
He'll carry you through,
It is no secret what God can do!"
We haven't sung that for years! TYL! Maybe it's not quite the right words, but that was good enough! He'll care for you, that's good enough for now! (Sings again:)
96. "IT IS NO SECRET WHAT GOD CAN DO,
WHAT HE'S DONE FOR OTHERS
HE'LL DO FOR YOU!
With arms wide open
He'll pardon you,
It is no secret what God can do!"
Well, we've already been pardoned, so "He'll care for you" is a good way to sing it! GBY! Thanks again for everything!--In Jesus' name, amen!
97. NOW'S OUR HOUR!--Believe it?--Then do it! Keep'm rollin' till Jesus comes! GBAKYAMYAB, IJNA!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
