HomeARC ML 0752
"WHY THE FAMILY?"--Nationalise, Re-organise Security-wise! No.5 NRS 5 DFO No.752 20 December 1978
--By Father David
Copyright © December 1978 by The Family of Love, CP 748, 00100 Roma, Italia.
1. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS TELL ME IT CAN'T BE DONE, & THEN I'M GOING TO DO IT FOR SURE!--People really get in a rut without knowing it. Maybe that's why the Lord led me to lead such a crazy life all my life, with my parents evangelists & us evangelists & used to constant change all the time. If things didn't change all the time, why, I'd really think something was wrong!
2. I MEAN, IF YOU CAN'T KEEP THINKING UP BETTER WAYS OF DOING IT, THEN YOU'RE DEAD--LIKE THE CHURCHES! They got in such a rut that they never got out of it. We've got to keep thinking of better ways of doing it just to stay alive! So don't tell me it can't be done this way or it can't be done that way or we've never done it that way before. Well, So what? We might just change at the drop of a hat if it's going to save our lives & the work & the Letters & whatever!--I always try to think,
3. WELL, WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN? [DELETED] [EDITED: "I"]f an overwhelming, overpowering superior conventional force attacks, which you can't possibly stand up to in any way, there are several different ways of handling the situation.
4. WHEN THE [EDITED: "OPPOSITION"] IS OUT TO GET YOU, THEY CAN GET YOU IF THEY CAN FIND YOU! There's one way to get them off your back, & that's just to make it impossible for them to find you. The standard tactic of the Communists is to operate aboveground & legally, if possible & as long as possible, particularly in order to get publicity, disciples, support & be vocal--a voice & be heard.
5. BUT WHEN IT GETS TOO HOT & THE SYSTEM MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE either to be heard or illegal to get disciples, or illegal & impossible to operate aboveground, that is the time to go[DELETED]--& they've usually done a pretty good job of it! They've got most of the world now in the palm of their hand, while the U.S. & its economy is getting weaker every day. The U.S. is literally living in a dream world of past power, glory, security & prosperity! They're not even in touch with present dangerous realities. It's just "business as usual" while the ship is sinking!
6. MORAL: DON'T LET US BE LIKE THEM! When we see that our old system is not working & isn't going to be able to function under the rising tide of opposition, then we need to plan ahead & figure out some other way to carry on & survive some other way. PG!
7. THAT'S WHY WE'RE STILL ALIVE TODAY & STILL GOING! We're not still trying to traipse throughout the U.S. in some kind of a mile-long caravan!--With this present kind of anti-cults propaganda out, the cowboys would be sitting out on the fences with rifles, seeing how many of us they could pick off as we passed by! Well, I don't intend to be a target if I can help it, & I don't intend to be a sitting duck that can't get up & move or fly away, before it's too late!
8. WHY DID YOU GUYS JOIN THE FAMILY ANYWAY? Maybe you're wondering now, why did you join the Family!--How'd you ever get yourselves into such a mess! Let's get back to the basics, right down to the brass tacks! You didn't have to join the Family to get saved, you didn't have to join the Family to find the Lord. So, what was the point in joining? (Peter: To get training.) Right!
9. WE'RE LIKE A SCHOOL, WE'RE A FELLOWSHIP, WHAT THE CHURCHES CALL A CHURCH. The trouble with the churches is they've gone all to church & all to meetings & all to selfish fellowship, & most of them have forgotten the rest of the world. So now going to church is the big thing. Being a member of the Family, having meetings & houses too meet in, church houses, that's become almost the whole thing with the churches.
10. BUT IS FELLOWSHIP THE WHOLE THING? (Peter: No.) Well, what is the whole thing, What's our excuse for living? (Peter: To tell the world about Jesus, to witness.) Right! If you're not going to be a witness & tell other folks about the Lord, what's your excuse for living? If the whole purpose in your existence is just to get saved, then why doesn't the Lord just take you home to Heaven the minute you get saved?--You'd have no troubles or problems anymore, so why not?
11. (TIMOTHY: BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEED TO KNOW JESUS.) Yes! But why do we have to tell them? Why doesn't the Lord just send around some ghosts & angels & let them tell them? Well, like I said in one Letter, if instead of us going down to the club one night, the Lord sent down a bunch of angels & ghosts, there wouldn't be any quicker way of emptying that club or anyone left to witness to! That would be the end of the witness! I doubt if anybody would have had time to get saved! Or the customers might have said,
12. "WELL, NOW LET'S FACE IT, YOU GHOSTS & ANGELS: YOU DON'T HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS AS I HAVE, and you don't realise what I'm up against. It might work for you but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to work for me!" You follow me? Can you see God's logic in taking other human beings to be His witnesses? You're the test-tube to prove it works, right? You're His proof!
13. DON'T TELL ME THERE'S NO PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD!--YOU'RE THE PROOF & I'M THE PROOF!--THAT'S SIMPLE, LITTLE CHILDISH BASICS. Well, "Except ye become as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God" (Mat.18:3), and in fact, if you don't, there won't be any Kingdom! Well, if we'll just recognise that we're just little children & we don't know anything, & the Lord's the One that knows it all, & He's the only One Who is really wise & knows what He's doing, & we just follow Him, that's really being smart! The smartest thing a little child can do is to obey & follow his parents & do as they do, & as they tell him to do, if he wants to stay out of trouble & survive, amen? PTL! TYJ! Help us, Lord!
14. WE'RE THE "ECCLESIA," THE "CALLED OUT" ONES, THE CLEANSED & SEPARATED ONES. After you were saved, why didn't you just go back to your System job & just keep on working for a living & just keep on loving the Lord & going to church, etc., hum? (Peter: Why didn't I? Because well, I had gone to church before & it didn't do anything for me. But I knew that the Family was following the Bible & the church wasn't, so I figured that was the thing to do.) So, you really liked us more than church? (Peter: Yes.)
15. YOU'D RATHER LIVE WITH US THAN GO TO CHURCH?--How about that! Well, whatever it was you left, you liked us better!--Ha! Some people left the Communist Party to come live with us, because they liked us better that the Communist Party! Some people liked us better than the hippie communes & the drugs & the free sex & all that.--You knew we had something better, and most of all we had the Lord.
16. DO YOU THINK THE FAMILY DID YOU ANY GOOD? (Peter: Oh yes!) How? (Peter: Well, when I got saved I wouldn't have known what to do if it hadn't been for the Family. If it hadn't been for their training & the fellowship & the Letters & being together, I don't know what would have happened to me!) Well, that's true because:
17. WHEN YOU ARE BORN AGAIN, YOU'RE JUST A BABE IN CHRIST, & you really do need spiritual parents to help you & to protect you & feed you & to help you grow. The Lord has many pictures in the natural of the spiritual. There is either a spiritual analogy for nearly everything natural, or there is a natural example for nearly everything spiritual.
18. GOD HAS OODLES OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE PHYSICAL TO REPRESENT THE SPIRITUAL, to illustrate it or demonstrate it or show you what it's like, & He Himself uses these all through His Word--& one of them is having spiritual fathers & mothers to care for us as spiritual babes to feed, protect & take care of us until we're able to stand on our own two feet. (1Cor.4; Heb.12.)
19. THE BABY REALLY CAN ONLY DO A FEW THINGS WELL WHEN IT IS FIRST BORN: --LIKE EAT, SLEEP & CRY! That's about what life amounts to when you're first a babe in Christ, too: You rest in the Lord, eat & cry for what you need. To cry to the Lord is prayer, one thing that ought to come natural to every born again child of God!
20. AS A NEWBORN CHILD OF GOD, YOU CAN'T VERY WELL HELP YOURSELF. You're just a babe in Christ & too young, so you have to have help from others--mothers & fathers & brothers & sisters in the Lord.--So you ask for it or cry for it & get it. PTL! Even eating, you don't even have to learn to do that, it's just a natural function that is instinctive. Just stick it in the baby's mouth & he knows what to do.--Isn't that amazing? Marvellous!
21. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS FOR SPIRITUAL BABES TOO! They should be so hungry for the pure milk of the Word, that if you show them where it's at, they should devour it, drink it in, the pure, sincere milk of the Word! (1Pe.2:2.) And a baby needs lots of rest. You need some place fairly secure where you can rest & grow in the Lord. Some natural families are a good natural environment for that. Our own natural families should be that for our own children--both physically & spiritually.
22. IN CASES WHERE PEOPLE COME FROM HOMES WHICH ARE NOT THAT WAY, THEN THEY HAVE TO FIND A NEW FAMILY. Most people in the world have found it in the churches. Well, that's better than nothing! At least they've got some brothers & sisters in the Lord, if they are in the Lord. Many are saved & know & love the Lord, & believe & read the Bible--but that's a smaller group.--
23. AT LEAST MOST OF THEM GO TO CHURCH & have fellowship with the other members of their spiritual family at least once a week or more. Some who are just nominal members in name only, go to church only a few times in their whole lives!--They seldom fellowship with their spiritual family or do any family work or help the family or share the burdens. But you need a family of some kind, whether it's our Family or some church family.
24. ANOTHER THING WRONG WITH THE CHURCHES is that when their babes have cried, though they have given them a little milk, it's been pretty weak & watery & sometimes poisonously adulterated, so their growth is stunted & they have to spend an awful lot of time sleeping spiritually & never really grow up!--They're retarded children spiritually, really handicapped!
25. THERE'S ANOTHER THING A BABY DOES when he is awake, besides crying & eating, what else?--Seems kind of natural & automatic. (Timothy: Eliminate,) Yeah, go to the toilet!--Eliminates the wastes you don't need. I think that's another thing that's wrong with some of the churches--they're too full of crap! They should have gotten rid of some old rotten wastes, but they don't have a very good changing system, so they carry all that old mess around with them & don't stay very clean!
26. BUT THERE'S STILL ANOTHER THING A BABY DOES A LOT OF WHEN WIDE AWAKE! HE EXERCISES! HE MOVES!--MOVEMENT! How do you know when you're dead? (Tim: You stop moving!) Yes, everything stops moving, usually, including your heart & your blood, your body & everything else. Movement is a sign of life, right? That's why they call us a movement. Well, that's a good compliment! It means we're alive, we're moving, a sign of life! I couldn't say the same for a lot of churches! Some churches haven't moved in a hundred years!--Some for thousands of years! They're as dead now as they were when they last died years ago!--Some even stink & need to be buried!
27. SO WHEN A BABY IS BORN HE NEEDS A FAMILY--a mother to care for him, a father to provide for him, & brothers & sisters to help him & teach him & play with him. Several things when a baby is first born just come automatically: He doesn't have to be taught to cry or taught to eat or taught to eliminate or taught to squirm & kick & so on--that all comes automatically, right? They are born with it. But then what do you have to do? (Peter: Grow.) Yes, he has to grow, but even that's pretty automatic too, you don't have to worry too much about making him grow or trying to encourage his growth, except by feeding him.
28. BUT YOU NEED TO START TEACHING & TRAINING HIM TO DO CERTAIN THINGS. Particularly, you're making progress when you teach him to do things for himself that you used to have to do for him, right? When he can start taking care of himself, like going to potty or start feeding himself with a spoon or start dressing himself or walking & talking & all the things that he needs to learn now to do to take care of himself, then he has really made a lot of progress!--At least he is not as much of a burden on his parents anymore. At least he can take care of himself.
29. I DON'T KNOW THAT I COULD SAY THAT MUCH FOR SOME CHURCH MEMBERS!--Ha! But maybe you could say that for some who have learned to some extent to take care of themselves spiritually, like reading their own Bibles, praying at home, keeping clean, etc. They certainly have to take care of themselves a lot of the time, since they only have church services about one or two or three times a week! So they are on their own most of the time. So, maybe they have learned to pretty well take care of themselves, although sometimes it looks to me like it's been a pretty poor growth & pretty stunted retarded child because he has lacked sufficient care, has not been trained & taught enough & had enough fellowship & grown enough.
30. SOME CHURCHES ARE FULL OF MONSTROSITIES, RETARDED SPIRITUAL CHILDREN, whose growth & spirituality have been stunted because they didn't get enough food & enough care & didn't grow enough. The churches have become more like nurseries than army camps! So when you even learn to really take care of yourself, you have really made a lot of progress. But when do you really become a full fledged adult?--
31. WHEN YOU HAVE LEARNED TO TAKE CARE OF NOT ONLY YOURSELF BUT OTHERS!--THEN YOU ARE AN ADULT! Then you are a parent, a leader, then you have really spiritually matured. Spiritually speaking, that means what? (Tim: When you can bear spiritual babies!) Right! When you not only can bear them, but you can also take care of them & train them & rear them, until they have grown and can take care of themselves & others!--Then you are an adult!
32. SO WHEN IS YOUR JOB FINISHED WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL CHILDREN? (Maria: When they are able to begin bearing & caring for children of their own.) Yes!--Not only when you have taught them to take care of themselves, that is not enough. Most American parents haven't even taught their children to do that! The trouble with a lot of our girls & new young parents right now is they were never even taught to take care of themselves, much less babies & children of their own! So some of our new parents are now in a hell of a mess! They never had to work so hard in their lives before! They never even had to take care of themselves before!
33. THE WHOLE AMERICAN SYSTEM IS BUILT TO BABY THE CHILDREN FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE!--From compulsory education to their old-age pensions! They try to keep them children as long as they possibly can. Some of these overprotective parental groups that have been formed against us prove how these parents want to keep their children stunted, underdeveloped, immature non adults! They just can't let them go! They've had them so many years, they can't get the idea through their thick stubborn selfishly possessive heads that someday the "children" have got to go & be on their own & do what they want to do & be independent & have families of their own, children of their own!
34. SO THEY BABY THEM ALL THE WAY THROUGH SCHOOL & all the way through college, & then they insist they take post-grad courses so they can keep them in school for as long as they possibly can. Because the longer they keep them in school, the more they keep them dependent on Mom & Dad, so that they won't leave home or they won't get completely off on their own. So they keep them from getting married as long as they can, so that no other stranger will enter in & interfere with the family & steal them away!
35. THEY FIGHT THEM LEAVING SCHOOL. THEY FIGHT THEM GETTING MARRIED. THEY SOMETIMES EVEN FIGHT THEM GETTING A JOB! Because leaving school would be independence from childish education. Getting married would be independence from the parents physically. and getting a job they would be independent economically . So most American parents fight to the last ditch on all these scores to keep the kids in school, & keep them from getting married, & "Don't get a job until you have got so much education & a big degree that you'll get a big high job & big high salary!"
36. SO SOME OF THE POOR KIDS SLAVE AWAY TRYING TO PLEASE THE PARENTS! & do all this, but seldom can live up to what their parents expect of them--and a lot of them are committing suicide because they just can't make it, they can't live up to what their parents want.
37. MOST OF IT IS JUST SELFISHNESS ON THE PART OF THE PARENTS! They want the kids to get a good job & a big income "so when I grow old, Johnny & Mary will have lots of money & a big house to keep me in and take care of me, and I will be secure!" It is selfish, selfish, selfishness, from the cradle to the grave!
38. WELL, SINCE JOHN & MARY DIDN'T LIKE THE JOB & WENT AHEAD & LEFT SCHOOL ANYHOW & got married anyway & got a little old Podunk dead-end job anyhow & didn't make much money & couldn't take care of Mom & Dad, then the government had to step in & take over & give them social security, so now they can retire on a pension & on welfare, & the parents are now fairly secure "without those stupid, little independent brats who didn't love & appreciate us enough to take care of us like they should have!"
39. IN MOST AMERICAN FAMILIES TODAY YOU DON'T FIND THE OLD MOM & DAD LIVING AT HOME WITH THE CHILDREN AT ALL anymore anyway--much less the Grandmother & Grandfather! They no longer live in the tribal atmospheres that man originally lived in. The tribe was once the thing: That was their family! That was their society! They couldn't have survived independently in those days against the odds of the elements & the animals & all the other things they had to live through & survive against! They had to stick together to survive, right? Even Jesus needed a family!--& so do you & I!--That's "WHY THE FAMILY!"--Amen? GBAKY!
40. WELL, SO YOU THINK IT'S PRETTY GOOD TO HAVE A FAMILY? But what if the Family starts getting selfish, & doesn't want any more children & doesn't want old Uncle Harry & Aunt Mary & everybody else to move in with them, & doesn't want to take care of Grandma & Grandpa & the poor relatives, widows & orphans anymore? They like it the way it is:
41. "WE HAVE OUR COZY LITTLE FAMILY, WE DON'T WANT ANY MORE FAMILY MEMBERS! We like it like it is. We don't want anymore children, because we can't afford to take care of them, they're too much trouble, too hard to train, too hard work, too hard to clothe & feed & send to school & everything else. We certainly don't want any of our poor relatives, the family in-laws & outlaws, moving in with us! We just like our little cozy couple & our cozy couple of children, & that's enough for us. That's all we want."
42. ISN'T THAT THE PICTURE OF THE AVERAGE AMERICAN FAMILY, LIVING JUST AS SELFISHLY as they can possibly live, right? Does it sound a little bit familiar?--Humm? Of course, our Family is not like that are they?--None of our Homes would be like that, would they?--Huh? What have you been hearing about our Homes lately? (Tim: More & more they say, "we can't take them in, they are just a bother, we can't take the women & children in, & widow's without husbands to support them.)
43. DOES YOUR HOME REALLY WANT CHILDREN & NEW DISCIPLES? Now honestly, from what you've seen & heard lately, would you say our Family is just as unselfish & generous & wanting to win new disciples & open their doors to the widows & orphans, that our average Home is just as eager to have more Family members as it was when you first joined?
44. I CAN REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN WE USED TO HAVE NEW DISCIPLES EVERYDAY!--EVERYDAY! We had huge colonies, yes, that's true, they were blobs. But at least there was always room for more & they were pouring in, just pouring in! Well, I hate to say it, but I'd say for about the last couple of years, they've almost been pouring out!--Even going back home, feeling unwanted, unloved, uncared for & unhappy, treated like little orphans or out-laws instead of in-laws!
45. LET'S FACE IT: LET'S BE HONEST! I don't think it's my fault. I can keep screaming my head off in the Letters, but it doesn't matter how loud I scream, it looks to me like some of our Family is going the selfish way of all flesh. I think that's why the Lord's concerned, I think that's why He's putting the heat on us, frankly!
46. MAYBE WE CAN'T BLAME IT ALL ON SELFISHNESS: Some families get to the point where they're pretty well saturated with children & they've really got about all they can handle. God has a certain amount of limitation on most families. Even most families that do not use any birth control at all don't have more than two or three or four or five children. There are a few big families that end up with more. I can remember when I was a kid, some old colored ladies used to have 20 or more!
47. BUT NOW THAT THEY HAVE BIRTH CONTROL, BIRTH RATES IN MANY WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE DECLINING.--Why?--Because one of the most unselfish & sacrificial things in the world is being a parent & having children! The average man & woman are quite selfish. They might selfishly for status & self interest & egotism be willing to have one or two children to perpetuate their name or whatever, a sort of egotistical thing, but they certainly don't think they need ten!--They don't even want five! In some countries they've even been talking about limiting the size of families by law! In others like England they conduct so many abortions they are actually massacring & slaughtering the babies!
48. HONESTLY, HAS OUR FAMILY GOTTEN TO THE POINT WHERE WE DON'T WANT ANY MORE CHILDREN?--AND YOU DON'T WANT NEW DISCIPLES? Have you heard of any of our Homes like that? Do you think you as a new disciple would be as welcome today as you were seven years ago? Well, Beloved, we may think we're getting away with it, but we're not going to get away with it with God! It doesn't matter where we are, whether in Europe or South America or somewhere else, are we going to start living just as selfishly there as we would at home & as our parents did before us?
49. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF GOD THINKS, "WELL, YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE HOME! Because you're a dandy bad example to the rest of the world wherever you are!" What do you think about that? Has our Family changed? Beloved, I'm sorry to say, I'm afraid you have!--And maybe that's why God is chastising us with persecution!--We've not been bearing enough fruit, or we're complaining about the fruit He's already given us! And when you come to the point that you want to stand still, you're going to backslide!--All the way home.
50. WELL, IT MIGHT BE BETTER FOR YOU TO BACKSLIDE AT HOME THAN ON THE FIELD! Maybe that's why God is driving you out of some fields, because you've become lazy & fruitless & don't want anymore children nor new disciples.--You've become a bad example, & He'd rather you'd backslide at home than on the field!
51. THINK ABOUT IT! If you're not going to win souls & haven't room for new disciples, "Why the Family?" May God have mercy on us & help us repent!--Amen? GBAKYAMYAB!!--With more Family!
Copyright © 1998 by The Family
