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FIGHT OR FLIGHT!--How to Respond to Persecution!       DO 2871       7/93

       (Pertinent excerpts from this GN may be read with close friends & lawyers, if you feel so led.)
       1. Our enemies are out to get us, like I just saw in that vision of a fire storm. It seems like the fire was reaching out for us. We could feel the heat & we could see the fire, & it was horrible, but it couldn't touch us! But it has touched a few. I'm especially concerned right now about the Family in France.
       2. We have to have wisdom & we have to decide on where to draw the line when it comes to persecution. We've gotten a lot from the Lord lately about standing up for Jesus & fighting, defending ourselves, going to court & opposing the anti-God System & those who are determined to destroy us, & publicising to the media what they are doing to us. And I'm sure the Lord is going to bring some kind of great glory & victory out of this current persecution & He is going to cause the wrath of Man to praise Him. (Psa.76:10.)
       3. The Family in Lyon had an initial victory. I read in one report that the judge there returned the children to their parents & said it never should have happened. And he let all our children go. But our enemies don't give up easily, & ADFI, under Dr. Richard's direction, is getting the prosecution to appeal the action that was taken by the first judge.
       4. (Family: In Lyon the children are free & they're with their parents. In Aix it's only the babies & small toddlers who are back with the Family. The kids from two years old on up are being held in at least one institution, & many are scattered out in people's separate private homes where they're receiving so-called "foster care.") (Maria: They're even trying to deprogram our kids by showing them videos of Mene & other backsliders speaking against the Family. And they're preventing them from reading their Bibles & praying out loud.)
       5. Let's face it, the Inquisition has never really stopped, & this is a revival of the Inquisition in these Last Days. The Devil is really angry & he is really trying to get us. I'll never forget that picture I saw of the Antichrist. [DELETED] I've had very few visions of either Jesus or the Antichrist, but the Antichrist reminded me of one of those satyrs, like the god Pan, half goat & half man. He was storming back & forth in front of that council of [EDITED: "ACs"], raging that they hadn't done more about us. So now they're following his advice.

       Fight or Flight?--That Is the Question!
       6. There's a lot of Scripture on fighting & resisting & standing up for your faith & testifying, witnessing & all the rest, & becoming martyrs. But there is also some advice given by Jesus Himself: "When they persecute you in one city, flee to another."--Mat.10:23. So you have got to find out what God's Will is for you & your particular situation, whether you're supposed to stand up & fight & possibly die, or whether you're supposed to flee & get out while you still have time, before they incarcerate you or your children.
       7. (Family: France certainly has heard about us! Back in the mid-1970s, during the "Les Enfants de Dieu" show group days & all the television shows the Family did there, the French really heard our Message. There may be some sheep there amongst the generation born since that time who haven't heard about us.--But overall, it seems that the French government & media have made their choice.)
       8. The System is so prejudiced, & except for a miracle of God in some of these cases, we haven't got a chance! I've always taught that you can't beat City Hall, that often it's better just to run & flee. And we have done that for a long time. But now in these particular days in the Endtime, the Lord apparently wants us to stand up & be counted & expose the truth about the System, to fight & defend ourselves, to be publicised & set the record straight in the media!
       9. Thank God, there are some cases where we do stand a chance. But frankly, I don't think we ever stood too much of a chance in France, the deck is so stacked against us there. I was amazed that the first judge in Lyon even had the fairness to let the children go. That was good publicity & I hope it got publicised; apparently it did somewhat in the media, in spite of the System's prejudice against us. But God can still do a miracle there & give us the victory in spite of how bad things seem.

       Doing All We Can for the Family in France!
       10. Are we doing all we can for them? (Peter: We're helping them with counsel & with funds.) (Maria: There is a media team in France going out every day fulltime.) (Peter: And we've had the Family in other countries deliver protests to the French embassies.) (Maria: They also got the word out at the Human Rights Conference in Vienna.) (Peter: And the French embassy in Washington, D.C., accepted our formal protest.) Good! Well, we can't expect Washington to do too much for us, but anyhow, they go through the motions & if you make enough fuss they've got to do something.
       11. (Maria: The parents have also been picketing.) They also need to get the favourable grandparents, wherever they are, to get out there & picket & protest. They certainly ought to be against this cruel snatching of their grandchildren! We should be able to get quite a bit of sympathy on this case now, both in France & abroad.
       12. I think pressure is the only thing that is going to do it in France. But are we doing all that we can do? (Peter: We have the Family praying worldwide.) I've been almost itching to go to France myself & raise a stir, but I think that's probably just what the Devil would like me to do!--Hoping I'll go to the Family's rescue somewhere where my enemies can catch me.
       13. I just hope we're doing all we can, & that the Family there knows that they have our sympathy & that we're praying like mad. I want them to know that we care & are concerned & we are praying & fighting for them, & that just because I'm not there doesn't mean I'm not concerned. My heart has been there. I've lain awake many a night, it's kept me awake. I haven't slept a lot for the last two or three nights because of that situation.

       Government Persecution of Religious Groups!
       14. The Lord brought back to me a memory of the Mormons.--How they were persecuted up to the last ditch, even when they had become a strong people in a strong city & they even ran their own government of Utah! The Feds drew up their armies around Salt Lake City & pointed their big guns at the Mormon Temple, & told them, "Either you retract your polygamy doctrine or we are going to wipe you out!"
       15. The Devil hasn't changed any, & the government hasn't changed any. Look what they did to poor David Koresh & his people! That's exactly the situation they were in. They were surrounded & commanded to surrender. They refused & so the authorities did wipe them out, & I think it was deliberate! I think the Feds rejoiced over it, & his enemies rejoiced over it.--Just like they'd rejoice over us if they won this victory.

       The Importance of Winning These Cases!
       16. So it's important that we try to win these cases, if we can. Because if we lose any cases, our enemies will really tout it, that's for sure! We need to get out the decision of that first judge in Lyon who let all of the children go, who said it should have never happened, etc. Are we publicising that in France? (Family: The media team has really done everything they think they possibly can. The French press, unlike the press in some other countries, is very hardened against us.) (Maria: They've been propagandised so much already by ADFI & other anti-cult groups.--[EDITED: "ACs"]!)
       17. I don't think we have too much of a chance there except for a miracle of God! I was even surprised that first judge made an initial ruling somewhat in our favour & returned the children to their parents. And I'm sure that our enemies from around the World have put the pressure on this Appeal Court to try to get at least one ruling against us so they can blow their horn about it.
       18. So let's do everything we can to make sure that we get somebody there who can really defend us & stand up, like we have in other countries where the Lord has given us wonderful advocates to stand up in court & defend us. And I want to know that you're doing all you possibly can to help the Family there, & to find them help. I don't want to have to lie awake all night too many more nights praying for them. Well, I probably need to anyhow, but I want to know that we've done all we can to help them. I've been concerned all along about that situation, wondering if we're doing all we can for them.
       19. I don't think we stand a chance in France except by some miracle of God. So let's hope we get that miracle & can leave in victory & not defeat. Because France is one of the toughest places of all, where we have some of our worst enemies. The French in general are just enemies of anybody else who's not French. (Maria: The anti-cult groups have been working in France for so long that most of the members of the media have a copy of the Dito Book & the FF Volume, as well as a lot of our other lit which our enemies try to use against us. So we don't get much of a fair hearing from the media.)
       20. (Family: I read that Paris has the highest concentration of Jews of any city in Europe!) I wouldn't be surprised! It was the Jews of France who helped to defeat the Germans, the Nazis of Hitler. And nearly all the Underground was comprised of Jews & led by Jews. So France is very very Jewish. We understand that the Rockefellers & the Rothschilds & all the rest still have big conferences there, & do a lot of their organising & planning from France. [DELETED]
       21. So the first thing I want to know is that we're really doing all we can for them. (Peter: I believe we are.) (Maria: We just sent out another worldwide prayer request.) I'm sure the whole Family around the World is praying, & I know the Family there is certainly praying. And the Family seems to be doing a good job of publicising the French police brutality & French violations of human rights. They've had demonstrations against it, met with politicians & talked to the media, etc.

       Using the Media to Persuade the Politicians
       22. You've got to get your side of the story out in the media to try to win some public sympathy, otherwise the politicians just sit on their rear ends & do nothing unless they have to, unless they get pressured & stirred up & have to do something to appear favourable in the eyes of the public. The best thing you can do is get the media to stir up the public to do something, then the politicians finally might do something to please the people. The System's leaders & kings are always anxious to please the people, they always want to know what pleases the people.
       23. In Israel, the government of King Herod found out that it pleased the Jews to persecute the Christians & to slay the Apostles, so they did. (See Acts 12:1-5.) Even Saul, when he was king, found out it pleased the people to save the cattle, "Okay, we'll wipe out the enemies but let's save their cattle." (1Sam.15:15,21.) He sought to please the people. Well, this is the usual attitude of politicians, to try to please the people.
       24. I haven't always been very pleasing to you guys, & sometimes I think you've thought I was downright crazy. (Maria: Well, you're not a politician, ha!) But I don't think I ever did anything just to please the people. I have to make sure I'm pleasing the Lord most of all, although I do try to please the people & make them happy too if I know it's pleasing the Lord. That's why I brought them the Gospel & have given them Jesus. I figure that's the best way to please them.
       25. But obviously some of my tactics have not pleased the people in general, even though they've pleased the Family.--Some of them haven't even pleased some of the Family! We've lost a lot of people as a result, but we're getting to be more of a Gideon's band all the time.

       Let's Make This Our Last Case in France!
       26. All right, it sounds like we're doing the best we can for the Family in France, & we're all certainly praying for them. But my counsel is, let's make this the last case in France, & then get out of there. Let this be the last case we have to have there, because the deck is absolutely stacked against us there! If we win anything in France it'll be some miracle. It's already been a miracle that the first judge gave the kids back.
       27. Of course, our enemies aren't satisfied with that. They're pushing to go to court again & are appealing, & apparently they've got the millions to do it. (Maria: Yes, our enemies appeal every case they lose against us, it must be their policy now. They appeal everything that's in our favour. They're even appealing the clear-cut victory we won in Barcelona.) Yes, it hasn't given the Devil any satisfaction that we've won all these cases, so now our enemies are going to try to drag us back into court & try to exhaust our funds. They figure they're going to wear us down, & wear our lawyers down, wear out their enthusiasm over their victories, & wear out our funds.
       28. I think we have stood up enough in some of these places & we have fought enough, about all we can afford to, & we've been worn out enough & spent enough time. And we don't want to keep getting dragged back into the same courts until our enemies win! So let's get out of these places where we have already saturated them & they've already turned us down. There is a Scripture that comes to me: What does the Lord say about casting your pearls before swine? They'll do what? They'll trample them under foot & then turn & rend you. (Mat.7:6.)
       29. And there's another Scripture that comes to me, something that Jesus said about fleeing. It doesn't use the word "flee," but it talks about "Wherever they resist you & they reject you & your message," what are you supposed to do? (Family: Shake the dust off of your feet!) Yes, go out the town gate & shake the dust off publicly & leave. (Mat.10:14)
       30. You've got to understand the difference: The best thing to do is leave when you're winning, not stay on & fight every little Podunk case until you're just worn out & the enemies wear you down & get too many victories. Let's get out of these countries where it's impossible to win. (Maria: Especially where the media doesn't change & the media won't give you a fair hearing. If they don't, then you're pretty much done for.) Yes, that sounds like France.
       31. The Lord probably allowed this to happen in France so we could be a testimony, but those who can still leave are running a big risk by remaining there when others of the Family are now tied up in court. Unless you're sure it's God's Will to stay & fight along with them, you'd better get out straightaway! A lot of God's advice is along that line.
       32. So you'd better sit down & count the cost & make sure you're able to win the war, or don't declare war! There are plenty of Scriptures on both sides, so you'd better be sure you find out what God's Will is for you, wherever you are. You'd better find out whether the Lord's advice for you is to stand up & fight & win a victory, or get out before you lose. Amen!? God bless & keep you! I love you!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

       

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family