HomeARC ML 1691
DON'T "FORGET THE PAST"! DO 1691 12/83
1. ON WHICH DAY DID GOD CREATE MAN & WOMAN? (Davida: The third?) No. Teacher? (Fam: We forgot the past!) Oh ho ho ho! That's going to be a good excuse for not remembering your Bible history now, "Forget the Past!" (No.1598.) (Techi: I remember the first man & woman.) Yes, who was it? (Techi: Adam & Eve!) Right! I was holding my breath to see if you'd remember! Very good. (Techi: But it's not too good to remember the past.) Listen, wait a minute! You guys are always extremists! I'm an extremist!
2. YOU GUYS WENT SO HOGWILD ON ALL THIS DETAILED BIBLE STUDY & ALL OF SAMUEL'S TRAVELS & BALONEY & all the little towns & villages he went to & when & how & where & blah blah, that's what I'm talking about! We don't have time for that kind of detailed Bible Study. So of course I said forget the past! Well, if I'm going to have you make a choice between the two, that you either have one or the other, then I would certainly rather you'd study the present & the future & forget the past!
3. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU'RE JUST TO FORGET EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER LEARNED ABOUT THE PAST when you already know it, & that you shouldn't know anything at all about the past. You're supposed to know something & you'd be pretty dumb if you didn't! I expect you to know some Bible History & some World History & if you don't know both you can't very well understand the future & you won't ever understand or be able to interpret Bible Prophecy. Of course, now you've had it all interpreted for you, so you don't need to, & that's because you don't have time to study the Bible for 50 years like I did. Nevertheless, it took a lot of study of the past & the Bible & World History for me to come up with this study of Bible Prophecy of the future, otherwise you don't know the difference between what prophecies have been fulfilled & what haven't, what's past & what's future.
4. SO DON'T CARRY THAT TO THE EXTREME, RIDICULOUS LIMIT & FORGET THE PAST TILL YOU FORGET EVERYTHING! I'm still quoting Bible, Beloved, both Old & New Testament, & it's still an authority to me! Maybe it doesn't mean much to you, but it means a whole lot to me & the Bible was the basis of my faith. So don't go tossing away your Bibles & thinking you don't even need Bibles any more & you don't need to memorise Scriptures any more, you don't need to be able to quote Bible any more. That's the basic Book, really!
5. ACTUALLY, I'VE BROUGHT YOU TO BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE. It wouldn't have done me any good to quote Bible to most of you because a lot of you didn't even believe the Bible, but you believed in me & I persuaded you to believe in the Bible. So don't just go throwing the Bible away now, because it's still the basic foundation of our faith & I still use it as documentation & confirmation of whatever the Lord shows us.
6. I STILL SAY IT'S THE YARDSTICK OF MEASUREMENT, THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS BY WHICH WE MEASURE EVERYTHING ELSE GOD HAS EVER GIVEN US, & I've told you time & again if it isn't confirmed & can't be corroborated by the Bible, if you can't prove it also by the Bible & if it's not in accordance with the Bible, then you don't have to believe it! Is that a shocker? That doesn't mean everything's in the Bible, we've had lots of revelations that you can't find anything about in the Bible, but it means that those revelations will not be contrary to anything in the Bible--that is anything that is in the Bible which is for today.
7. THE WHOLE NEW TESTAMENT SYSTEM & JESUS' LAW OF LOVE IS VIRTUALLY CONTRARY TO THE WHOLE OLD TESTAMENT LAW OF MOSES! If you want to be legalistic about it, it is really the fulfilment of the Law. The old Law of Moses spelled out in detail how & what you ought to do if you are loving & you do love people, that you won't do this & you will do that etc. But once you've got the Spirit Herself, once you've got Love Itself, you don't need that old Law because you've got Love & you just won't do those things you shouldn't do & you will do those things you should do!
8. AS JESUS SAID, THE LAW OF LOVE DIDN'T ABOLISH THE LAW, IT SIMPLY FULFILLED THE LAW & IT WAS THE END OF THE LAW, BECAUSE THAT LAW WAS FOR THAT DAY. (Mt.5:17.) I think there were a lot of other things that Paul taught that were for the early days of Christianity which are possibly as inappropriate today & as difficult to try to abide by today as it was for the Early Christians to abide by the old Mosaic Law! This is a new day!
9. BUT STILL YOU WON'T FIND ANYTHING EVEN IN THE MO LETTERS, IN WHAT I HAVE TAUGHT YOU, CONTRARY TO THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE BIBLE, OF FAITH IN GOD & HIS LOVE & HIS SALVATION. There'll be nothing contrary to the Bible, nothing contrary in the revelations God has given today to what He's already shown, except that He fills in a lot more of the picture, a lot more pieces of the puzzle, He gives you a lot of details & clearer things that you never had before.--Not contrary to the Bible but more like a fulfilling or a filling up of the gaps & spaces that were not filled in before.
10. SO DON'T GO THROWING AWAY YOUR BIBLES, SAYING, WELL, WE'RE SUPPOSED TO FORGET THE PAST! A lot of that Bible is still present & a lot of it's still future! So if you go throwing away your Bibles, you're throwing away the past, present & future! You'd better hang on to that Bible because it's been our basic foundation of faith for a good many years & our Family was built on it & our faith was built on it, at least mine & some of us, & some of you wouldn't have believed me if I couldn't have proven it by the Bible! But I'd almost say the vast majority of our people--at least originally all you hippies--wouldn't have believed the Bible if you couldn't have proved it by MO! So it works both ways.
11. SOME PEOPLE NEED THE BIBLE & SOME PEOPLE NEED MO, & FRANKLY, I THINK THE FAMILY NEEDS BOTH! So don't go throwing away your Bibles just because I said forget the past! I'm talking about all this detailed, infinite, intricate study of all these little tiny details of ancient Old Testament Bible History & all the list of the kings & can you name all the kings & how many years they ruled & were they good or were they bad & what did they do & blah blah blah blah! That's the kind of stuff we don't need to know & we don't need to teach our kids to know anything about! But it's good for them to know about a few outstanding kings & a few outstanding heroes & a few outstanding rotters, just to know a little something about Bible History.
12. BUT LET'S NOT GO INTO THOSE INTRICATE DETAILS ON WHICH THE CHURCH WASTES SO MUCH TIME & the average Bible College is just crammed full of it & they spend all their time stuffing their heads full of a bunch of, I started to say junk! Well, it's junk today because it's like the junk cars, the auto-wrecking yards! They're old worn-out facts & figures that you don't need any more! They've had their usefulness & their day is gone, their day is past & all that kind of historical facts & figures might as well be consigned to the junkyard!--The names of all the kings & the dynasties & their relatives & how long they ruled & what they did & blah blah blah blah blah!
13. SO WHAT? MUCH OF IT HASN'T GOT A GOD-DAMNED THING TO DO WITH TODAY, NOTHING! What they did then is not going to affect you today at all, except that some of them were dandy bad examples! Paul not only says that those things were written for our benefit, but even happened to them for our benefit, to teach us lessons, as examples of what to do & what not to do. (1Co.10:11.)
14. SO WHERE THEY STILL APPLY AS ILLUSTRATING GOOD & EVIL, WHAT'S GOOD & WHAT'S BAD, THEN THEY STILL MAKE DANDY GOOD ILLUSTRATIONS & STORIES OF WHAT'S WRONG & WHAT'S RIGHT! Children require a lot of stories & you can get lots of stories out of the Bible, good stories, & I think you can still teach'm the basic main Bible stories about good kings like David & bad kings like Saul & a lot of wonderful things in the Bible, good stories, thrilling stories, illustrating good & evil, right & wrong!
15. SO DON'T JUST TOSS AWAY YOUR BIBLE & EVERYBODY SAY, "WELL DON'T QUOTE ME THE BIBLE ANY MORE & I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT THE BIBLE ANY MORE!" You're going to be pretty stupid & ignorant!--Especially if you go out in the World witnessing & the sinners can quote you more Bible than you can quote them! And a lot of them still have faith in the Bible, believe it or not, even in God & even in Jesus, & if you can't prove it by the Bible, they're not going to believe you. Some were brought up in Church & good old-fashioned faith in the Bible & they still believe it, & if you can show them by the Bible they'll believe it. A lot of them have just never taken the step of faith to receive Christ themselves, that's all.
16. (MARIA: EVEN IN HEATHEN RELIGIONS THEY STILL RESPECT THE BIBLE AS BEING THE BOOK OF THE GREATEST RELIGION WITH THE MOST FOLLOWERS IN THE WORLD, CHRISTIANITY, so you need to know a little something about it, because they may even know more than you do!) Just like you need to know a little bit of the Koran to prove some things to the Muslims themselves. The Muslims today are as far afield from the original faiths & beliefs & teachings of the Koran as the churches are today from the Bible! They're far afield & off the beam from what Mohammed actually taught, & he taught a lot about Jesus & Mary & miracles & all kinds of things, even the coming of Christ!
17. YOU CAN VIRTUALLY PREACH THE GOSPEL FROM THE KORAN--if you apply it a bit--& you'll find a lot more truth in the Koran than you will find in much of modern Islam today! This is what Godahfi was after, to try to get Islam back to the Koran, back to basic, fundamental faith in what Mohammed actually taught & said & is recorded in the Koran.
18. ISN'T THAT WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DO WITH SOME OF THESE CHRISTIANS & SOME OF THESE CHURCH PEOPLE? I mean, for God's sake, if we can at least get them back to the Bible we've gotten somewhere! They're supposed to believe in the Bible, so at least if you can quote'm some Bible & show'm some Bible verses & show'm in the Bible what they're supposed to know & what they're supposed to believe, you've got'm! How can they contradict that when they're supposed to believe it?--Same way with the Catholics.
19. I'VE FOUND CATHOLICS ARE VERY EASY TO WIN TO THE LORD BECAUSE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE. I'd just take my Bible & show it to'm: "Here, read it!" And they read it & what can they do? They've gotta believe it! I'd say, "Okay, Jesus says now you've gotta receive Him. Have you ever really received Him & asked Him to come into your heart?" And most of them didn't know & weren't sure, so I'd just have'm pray. They believe in prayer & they believe in praying, so what's wrong with praying to God & asking Jesus to come into your heart?
20. THEY JUST FALL FOR IT HOOK, LINE & SINKER, SOME OF THE EASIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD TO WIN!--I mean the common run of ordinary Catholics, not some of these intellectual critics & priests & Scribes & Pharisees & hypocrites! I'm talking about the simple little ordinary Catholic who really has a simple childlike faith in his religion & in God & in Jesus & in the Bible. About all you need to do with them is just to show it to'm in the Bible & get'm to pray & receive Christ & that's it!
21. OF COURSE THE RUB COMES WHEN THEY WANT TO DROP OUT OF CHURCH & JOIN YOU, THAT'S WHEN ALL HELL LETS LOOSE! I never realised what I was getting into until we invited that first whole Catholic family I won to the Lord to come to one of our baptisms! Up till then we were having a great time, going back there having Bible studies & everything else. They hadn't been to church for years! Think of it! They weren't even good Catholics, hadn't even been to church for years except maybe on special holy days, holy week or Christmas or for weddings or funerals or something. You know, some people go to church only three times in their life: The first time to get sprinkled with water, the second time to get sprinkled with rice & the last time to get sprinkled with dirt!
22. SO THEY REALLY HADN'T EVEN BEEN TO CHURCH, & HERE ALL OF A SUDDEN THEIR GRANDPARENTS FOUND OUT THAT THEY HAD TAKEN UP WHAT THEY CALLED SOME NEW RELIGION, THEY'D BECOME PROTESTANTS, so they brought down the relatives & the nuns & the priests & this one & that one & practically surrounded the place! They figured, after all, if they were going to get saved & come back to religion, they should come back to the right religion & go back to the right church!
23. THAT WAS IN THE OLD DAYS WHEN WE STILL BELIEVED IN WATER BAPTISM. That was a tough job in those days, you know? We really went through a lot with those bloomin' wet baptisms! Well, it was a pretty sore test for some people. We even had to baptise out in the ocean in Huntington Beach with the breakers hitting us & nearly knocking us off our feet! But we got a crowd & it was a testimony, hundreds of people standing on the beach watching & listening to what we had to say. It gave us a chance to preach the Gospel & some of them dived right in & wanted to be baptised!
24. BUT THANK GOD WE KNOW NOW WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT THAT WAY ANY MORE! We preach what the old churches used to criticise us for: "Oh, they believe in dry baptism!"--Ha! I'll tell you, you get the Holy Spirit & you'll get plenty wet!--With the right kind of wetness.--Tears for the Lord & Salvation & all the lost & you'll have a good wet heart & you'll be full of the wetness of the Spirit! PTL!
25. SO PLEASE DON'T FORGET ALL THE PAST!--Just the parts that are no longer relevant to the present or Future! You need a little past to understand both present & future!--Amen? Use it!--But don't abuse it! GBAKY living in all of His great eternal NOW!--In Jesus' name, amen!--Amen?--ILY!--D.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
