Great Revivals, The

Dad
May 23, 2003

DFO 164810/83

—Every Generation Has Its Chance!

1. WE HAD A VERY DEAR RUSSIAN FRIEND, A VERY DEAR FRIEND OF MY GRANDFATHER, & HE HAD SOME HAIR-RAISING EXPERIENCES TO TELL! He got out of Russia & because he went around in the U.S. preaching against the Communists, they were out to get him. That was in the Depression when Communism was very strong in the United States & they were doing a lot of bombing & terrorist activity & they were very strongly organised. I think Russia thought she was really going to pull an American Revolution at that time‚ & she came pretty close because everybody was poor & out of work & hungry & the Communist Party was very popular.—Although it was underground, it wasn't even illegal then.

2. THEY KIDNAPPED HIM ONCE IN THE UNITED STATES & TOOK HIM TO A DESERTED FARMHOUSE WITH A GUNNYSACK TIED OVER HIS HEAD & A ROPE AROUND HIS NECK, they poured kerosene over him & were about to light it when some farm truck or something pulled up, some old farmer probably curious to know why this car was at this deserted farmhouse, & they all quick ran. His hands & feet were tied & he almost chewed his lip off just trying to get this sack off of his head, & just by gnawing the ropes with his teeth he finally got it off so he could scream loud enough & some passing farmer or someone heard him & came & freed him. I think I had his name in one of the Letters.

3. (FAMILY: WAS THAT PETER DYNEKA?) No, Peter Dyneka was sort of a Pentecostal Baptist, head of the Baptist Association in Russia. By that time the Communist government had taken over & was pretending to have religious freedom, so the Baptists were still having large meetings & revivals in Russia. In fact, they were one of the few denominations that were recognised in Russia at all—the Russian Orthodox & the Baptists—& I think they're still recognised by the Russian government. Billy Graham even went there & held a big Baptist Convention, etc.

4. SO PETER WAS ABLE TO OPERATE MORE OR LESS LEGALLY & OPENLY IN RUSSIA, PARTICULARLY HAVING BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN. That always apparently bore some weight & they couldn't just do anything they wanted to with him. Well‚ he had a few run-ins & arrests & things, but he would just go in & have meetings, inspire'm & encourage'm, then come back to the U.S. & tell about what was going on there. At that time, about 1940, there was quite a major revival amongst the Baptists.

5. THOSE SPIRITUAL REVIVALS SEEM TO COME IN WAVES! There's a harvesting & the Lord gets that crop & then it dies down—maybe because the authorities usually make things too hot for'm! So things cool off & by & by it comes again. There was a time when Korea had a tremendous revival amongst the Presbyterians back when I was young & just a child, maybe the '10s or '20s. They had a tremendous sweeping revival‚ very very famous.

6. SO MANY OF THESE COUNTRIES HAVE HAD THEIR CHANCE, THEY'VE HEARD—AT LEAST THE FORMER GENERATIONS HAVE—BUT OF COURSE YOU HAVE TO EVANGELISE EVERY NEW GENERATION.—Especially when the older generation have had the revival & are not taught to witness, particularly not even to their children. They just take them to church, that's their idea of being religious, & the kids don't take to that too well. If that's all there is to it, they don't want anything of it‚ church is too dead! So the parents & the older generation don't really evangelise their own children or the next generation, & it has to be done all over again by somebody.

7. I DON'T THINK KOREA'S HAD ANY GREAT REVIVAL SINCE THEN AS FAR AS I KNOW‚ although not long ago there was a big wave of dissidents, nearly all Christian. They even took over one whole city there for awhile & they were having such a good time‚ the government finally put the clamps on & said it was a threat to the government, blah blah. Well, you can see what happens, that was South Korea & they get it sooner or later. I'm sure that's part of the judgements of God, half the leadership wiped out by a bomb & a planeload of passengers shot down!

8. WELL, PETER DYNEKA WAS MORE RECENT, THIS OTHER FELLOW WAS BACK MOSTLY WHEN I WAS IN MY EARLY TEENS OR ABOUT 10 OR 12. I can remember him coming to our home telling some of those hair-raising stories. I don't think they were too good for children, though, & I'll never forget that one, how he nearly chewed his lip off gnawing through a rope to get that bag off his head so he could shake it off & yell, because with a gunnysack over your head it's a little bit muffled.

9. BUT THE COMMUNISTS WERE EXTREMELY ACTIVE IN THE UNITED STATES IN THOSE DAYS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. At that time they thought they were really going to take over the whole World real quick. And of course it was in the midst of the worst Depression the World had ever known—people were hungry, starving‚ out of work, discontented—so they came mighty close! But as Capitalism usually does‚ it eventually saved itself with another war. That's how Roosevelt managed to pull the World out of the Depression, he had them all go to war killing each other & making bombs & airplanes & guns & ammunition—prosperity at the price of 25 million lives!

10. SO ANYHOW, A LOT OF THESE COUNTRIES HAVE ALREADY HAD SOME TREMENDOUS REVIVALS! China had a great revival back in I think it was the last part of the last century, at the height of the missionary activity there, & Christianity was booming in China compared to what it is now. It seems as though the Lord allows what the churches call a great revival, a great wave of evangelism & a tremendous wave of interest in religion & a great reaping, etc. Then it seems that the Lord allows persecution—the usual pattern—or war, to really put'm through the fire & try their faith, which usually suppresses the whole thing & they have to go underground to carry on.

11. THEY SAY CHURCH LEADERS NOW GOING TO CHINA ARE AMAZED AT HOW MANY CHRISTIANS THERE ARE LEFT & HOW ACTIVE THE CHURCH IS THERE! They were expecting just maybe a few hundred thousand or at the most a million Christians left, & it turned out to be many many more that are still very active in faith. They had gone underground, having meetings in homes, just like we do, because a lot of the churches were taken over & made into warehouses & factories. Well, that's probably a better use for them than they'd been used for before—the Lord's done His best to try to get these people out of those damned buildings! So they were driven underground‚ meeting in homes & survived, & now that the government there is more liberal, they're coming out of their holes & going back to church. I don't know if that's good for them or not, I doubt it. They were probably better off suppressed.

12. IT SEEMS LIKE PEOPLES' FAITH SURVIVES BETTER UNDER PERSECUTION & SUPPRESSION THAN UNDER FREEDOM & PROSPERITY! It seems that too much liberty & too much ease & luxury are the worst enemies of the faith. They do better when they're being persecuted & suppressed because then they really seek the Lord & really live close to the Lord. So nearly all of these so-called great revivals were followed by intense persecutions & suppression, revolutions, wars & whatnot. I think the one in China was followed by the Boxer Rebellion.

13. YOU'VE EVEN HEARD ABOUT SOME VERY EARLY INCURSIONS OF CHRISTIANITY INTO JAPAN IN EARLY DAYS. Weren't there a few Shoguns who were Christians? From what I recall, there were supposed to be some Christian Shoguns eventually. I don't know what the film told you, maybe it didn't go that far, but that's supposed to be the real history‚ that he won this guy to the Lord & that he was the first Christian ruler of Japan.

14. SEE, THEY DON'T TELL YOU EVERYTHING IN THESE MOVIES, ESPECIALLY THESE GOD-DAMNED ANTI-CHRISTS WHO MAKE'M! It's surprising they even made it at all. Of course, I could see they were making a real blast against the Catholics‚ for which you can't much blame them, considering the Jesuits & their tactics which were almost purely political. But there was supposed to be a Shogun who was a Christian & who was won to Christianity. I don't know whether it was Catholicism or what.

15. AND THERE WERE VESTIGES EVEN WHEN ADMIRAL PERRY CAME TO JAPAN & HE FOUND A FORM OF CHRISTIANITY STILL SURVIVING THERE. It was a remnant of missionaries that had gone there during early Christian times. Imagine surviving all that time! I've never heard any real description of it much, but that's the story. But they're usually followed by persecution & suppression to try & refine their faith in the fire & see if it's pure gold, & then later on the next generation has their chance & they're somehow given a dose of the Gospel. Whether they have a revival or great spiritual upsurge or wave depends on how they take it, how they receive it.

16. BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE RUSSIAN YOUTH! The East European youth are really responding. (Family: Ivan wrote & said that the Slavic Gospel Association got ahold of some Russian TKs & wrote for permission to be able to print'm & distribute'm throughout the East Bloc.) God bless'm! (Family: So they're working on a Spirit World TK Volume because it's a subject that everybody's interested in.) That's not too strong for them, is it? PTL! Well, they'd better not give'm any of our sex stuff, it wouldn't go too well with Gospel Associations, they're not quite that far along yet! TYL! (Looks at our topless Houris:) Isn't this a beautiful church? Hallelujah! Thank You Lord for freedom, real freedom!

17. BUT CHINA DID HAVE A GREAT REVIVAL, KNOWN IN THE CHURCH AS THE CHINESE REVIVAL. The Boxer Rebellion was an insane, demonic rebellion against the pretty oppressive dynasty at the time. One queen especially I think was kind of rough & so were a few others of those Chinese dynasties. But they did have quite an outstanding revival & my Grandfather was visiting over there at that time. He got especially interested in the Chinese because of my Grandmother's work with them in St. Louis. I told you how she had a class of about 2000 Chinese which filled the church every Sunday.—Just one little tiny grey-haired lady that did that marvellous work, even learned Cantonese so she could talk to them! (See No.1265.)

18. SO NEARLY EVERY ONE OF THOSE PLACES HAS HAD THEIR TIME & HAD THEIR CHANCE & THEIR REVIVAL SOMETIME‚ & THE LORD SEEMS TO BRING IT AT LEAST ONCE IN EVERY GENERATION. Having reaped who He could out of the older generation, then comes another wave during the lifetime of the younger generation to give them a chance, which is showing the mercy & the love of the Lord.—In spite of oppressive anti-Christ regimes, etc. Actually‚ they couldn't be much more anti-Christ than the United States!

19. I'D ALREADY BEGUN TO REALISE HOW ANTI–CHRIST THE U.S. WAS, BUT WHEN I JOINED THE HIPPIES, THEN I FOUND OUT FOR SURE! Christianity was all right in church but nowhere else, especially not in schools & colleges & places like that‚ the Devil's own territory. When we began to touch their campuses, that was it! When we touched their young people, boy, the Devil really was out to protect them & make sure they didn't catch it! They seemed to think we were some kind of a disease & they still do! But we got quite a reaping, didn't we? TTL!

20. SO I DON'T KNOW WHETHER THE LORD IS GOING TO GIVE THE U.S. ANOTHER CHANCE. I hope He does & maybe we're going to get some of it. We're already getting some of it through the radio, reaching teenagers. After all, let's face it, you're not teenagers any more‚ you're old folks now, old married folks with kids & sort of a middle-aged generation in their eyes. Our young teenage hippies in those early days would have thought you were really old Systemites!—Ha! Some of you remember those days. For awhile, almost anybody over 25 was a Systemite that couldn't be trusted. By & by as time went on, it sort of eased up to the 30s, but it was sure that you really couldn't trust anybody 30 or over!—Absolutely not! They couldn't possibly be one of our revolutionaries! Now there's a lot of us over 30! Let's hope we don't cool off.

21. (FAMILY: I WAS WONDERING HOW THE REVIVALS GOT STARTED—WERE THEY STARTED BY MISSIONARIES FROM THE STATES OR DID THEY JUST SORT OF POP UP?) Well, the missionaries have their part, definitely‚ because they went over there evangelising those places, but some of them are quite spontaneous & Spirit–led. I told you about the famous Worldwide outpouring of the Spirit in the early 1900s. The Holy Spirit was being poured out on some Negro churches, the most famous of which was the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles where there was a real outpouring of the Spirit & speaking in tongues, gifts of the Spirit, healing & all. It was Methodist, of all things, & they had a tremendous spiritual revival that spread rapidly through the more primitive Methodist churches.

22. THAT, SAD TO SAY, IS ONE REASON WHY THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT BECAME ALMOST TOTALLY "ETERNAL INSECURITY," BECAUSE THAT WAS METHODIST DOCTRINE, THAT WAS THEIR CHURCH BACKGROUND. It didn't seem to hit the Baptists as much though. These hard-shell Baptists with their hard shells, "eternal security," etc., were kind of hard nuts to crack for Pentecostalism! But the Methodists were sort of open in those days because they didn't have much—they didn't even hardly have Salvation! So the Lord was good to them to sort of try to be merciful & come in with a sweeping Pentecostal revival‚ & it began mostly in those Methodist churches, first of all the Negro churches. I think that was one reason why the Baptists wouldn't touch it, because it was Methodist, so they sort of fought it & resisted it.

23. BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, AT THE SAME TIME THAT THERE WAS THIS OUTPOURING OF TONGUES, INTERPRETATION, PROPHECY, GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT‚ HEALING & EVERYTHING, a real wave sweeping across the United States, the same thing was happening in other countries all over the World! I remember the Turnbulls telling a story of how in their mission station in India, suddenly during their prayer meetings their Indian disciples began bursting forth in beautiful prophecies in English & speaking away in tongues in English under the anointing of the Spirit‚ those that never could speak a word of English before! It was tongues to them‚ a foreign tongue, a foreign language they had not learned. I guess the Lord was trying to show the missionaries that it was a real miracle, a move of the Spirit!

24. THE TURNBULLS WERE OUTSTANDING MISSIONARIES OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ALLIANCE‚ & THEY WERE SWEPT INTO THE WAVE OF THIS GREAT OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT! Then when the old fuddy-duddies & old bottles of the Alliance began to resist it & fight it & said it was wildfire & Pentecostal & everything else‚ & they became anti-Pentecostal, the Turnbulls pulled out & established the largest Pentecostal Church, Evangelical Temple, in California at Los Angeles in the days before Amy—hers later became the largest—& were leaders in the Pentecostal movement, the largest denomination of which eventually became known as the Assemblies of God. Of course they've cooled off now & you don't find much manifestation in Assemblies either, at least not in the United States. They come & go.

25. THIS GREAT WAVE & OUTPOURING COMES WHEN APPARENTLY THE SPIRIT FEELS THE HEARTS ARE OPEN, RECEPTIVE, HUNGRY & NEEDY & SHE POURS IT ON! The Lord really blesses them, usually amongst the poor & the needy & the downtrodden who really need help & encouragement. Then once the harvest is reaped, it sort of subsides & you don't really seem to have another great one until the next generation. The great Pentecostal outpouring of the early 1900s was in the days of my parents & reaped a great harvest of spiritual inspiration & growth & souls won. People even witnessed, imagine that!—Passed out tracts on downtown street corners & opened missions for the bums‚ all kinds of things, really evangelical, really trying to reach the lost. And then they cool off.

26. THAT'S HOW GENERAL BOOTH'S SALVATION ARMY WAS BORN IN THE LATE 1800s. He was not any bum himself, he was an upper–class aristocrat of the Methodist Church, but he had a great burden to reach the poor of London in that day when things were in a horrible mess. He started going down preaching to the bums & opening missions & found out that music would attract people to hear the Gospel out on the streets & the street corners. Well, they didn't have any guitars then—they apparently hadn't gotten as far as London from Spain—so they used mostly wind instruments & tambourines & oom-pah oom–pah, that famous German base horn. You don't see many of those any more & you can't blame'm!—They were so big the coils of the horn went around the guy's body with a big flare on the end. But they took mostly smaller instruments.

27. SO THERE WAS A TREMENDOUS WAVE OF REVIVAL UNDER THE SALVATION ARMY IN LONDON IN THOSE DAYS. Of course, there'd been a great wave under the Methodists when they were still young & on-fire under John Wesley a century before that. But by the time Booth came along, they'd solidified & iced into cold formal churches—everything that Wesley had preached against! Think of it! He preached against church buildings, hierarchies, denominations, Church of England‚ Catholic Church & all that & they just had their little meetings in homes & halls & places like that. But then they gradually began to have what they called "meeting houses," & you know what happened to that, they became just another denomination of church buildings.

28. SO BY THE TIME BOOTH CAME ALONG‚ HE HAD TO TRY TO START A NEW REVIVAL. He hadn't planned to start anything, he just wanted to go out & witness & save souls & went down to the corner with his little band. They used to get rocks thrown at'm, tomatoes, eggs, all kinds of things even amongst the poor down on Skid Row where the people made fun of them & persecuted them. And in the churches, the Methodist Church & everything else, of course they were made fun of & ridiculed & at times government police even tried to stop'm. Every revival has been persecuted.

29. HOWEVER IT BECAME A REAL RAGING FIRE, A REAL REVIVAL, BECAUSE HE HAD A BURDEN FOR SOULS & HE IMPARTED THAT BURDEN TO OTHERS & they got on–fire for the Lord & wanted to witness!—Until he finally called it an army, the Salvation Army‚ & they got the bright idea of wearing uniforms & having categories of cadres & officers & all that sort of thing. Armies were quite popular in those days, & he wanted a Salvation Army! And of course they became very famous for that characteristic & did a tremendous lot of good, opening all these Salvation Army halls & missions.

30. BUT OF COURSE WHEN FINALLY HE WOULDN'T ABANDON HIS UNORTHODOX METHODS—JUST LIKE US, THE SAME OLD STORY—THEY THREW HIM OUT OF THE METHODIST CHURCH & ostracised him from all the churches. All the formalised religions & denominations wouldn't have anything to do with him, so he started his own!—He was forced to, he couldn't do anything else, & that's what happened to us.—Except we didn't come out of anything, really. I'm about the only one of you that really came out of any church denomination, most of you came out of nothing. Well‚ some of you guys here had a little taste of church once upon a time, but not much. You really didn't get very well inoculated. It sort of didn't take!

31. BUT ANYWAY, THE LORD'S ALWAYS HAD HIS DAYS & HIS TIMES IF A GENERATION WAS REALLY HUNGRY & REALLY RECEPTIVE & NEEDY IN THE SPIRIT. Look at the American youth of Huntington Beach, they weren't hungry physically really, although some of them were because they got kicked out of their homes & spent all their money on drugs. Sometimes my Mother used to go with her little go–cart down on the pier & pass out peanut-butter-&-jelly sandwiches because a lot of them were actually hungry. They wouldn't work, they spent all their money on drugs, stealing money to buy drugs‚ their parents threw'm out & wouldn't have anything to do with them, so some of them were actually hungry, but most of them were not.

32. ACTUALLY WE WERE DUMBFOUNDED & SURPRISED WHEN WE FINALLY FOUND OUT THAT MOST OF OUR KIDS WERE FROM UPPER-MIDDLE-CLASS & UPPER-CLASS FAMILIES & WITH VERY GOOD EDUCATIONS!—Well, at least as far as they went. They usually dropped out just before they graduated! I don't know why so many of our kids dropped out just before graduation, I guess the Lord wanted to make sure they didn't get any recognition of the System so they just really had to forsake all.

33. BUT THEY WERE PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT POOR, THEY WERE NOT REALLY HUNGRY, THEY HAD RICH PARENTS, THEY'D HAD EVERYTHING, BUT THEY WERE DESPERATE & HUNGRY SPIRITUALLY! The Lord knew they were really needy in soul & in spirit, so He gave them the revival they needed & the Message they wanted to hear. Didn't He give you the Message you wanted to hear?—And maybe along with it there were a few things you didn't want to hear, I don't know! Apparently some of them didn't like to hear some of the things when they really began to get a little bit wild & woolly, but some of you survived, thank the Lord! Did we ever figure out how many Family Members there probably have been over the past years since the beginning? I suppose it's impossible now.

34. SO THE LORD HAS MERCY ON EACH GENERATION & ALMOST ALWAYS GIVES THAT GENERATION THEIR CHANCE. Every generation has its chance. As for the present generation of teenagers in the United States who were children growing up when we were in our heyday there, we're still on quite a few radio stations even in the States now, so I'd say they've sort of been having some chance. They've heard about the Jesus Revolution, they've heard about us, & they've certainly gotten our literature by the millions from our people there. So I think they've had their chance.

35. BUT SEE, THE GENERATION WE LEFT BEHIND THERE BECAME REALLY HARDENED & SYSTEMATISED & INSULATED & their parents really really tried to make sure they didn't get infected—so that they're now getting infected by other things like demonism, Satanism & Hard Rock! I mean, those Hard Rock bands are demonic! They look like demons‚ they dress like devils, they paint up their faces & everything like wild Indians! And the music is demonic, it's sounds of Hell, demon-possessed! They wouldn't let us have their children, so they've given'm wholesale to the Devil, demonic, absolutely Satanic!—And they're gonna reap it!

36. THEY'VE SOWN WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS A LITTLE WIND, SO NOW THEY'RE REAPING THE WHIRLWIND! (Ho.8:7.) They thought‚ "Well, we'd rather have them go that way‚ a little drugs is not as bad as this religion. A little Rock is not as bad as that kind of wild stuff like those Jesus Freaks have got!"—So they sort of eased up & let'm have what they wanted & their way‚ let'm have the drugs & the liquor & the Hard Rock & the rest, & they're going straight to Hell!—And to various cults & isms which are completely false & preach false doctrine & they get into all kinds of rotten religions‚ because their parents wouldn't let'm have the True!

37. BUT THE LORD IS GOOD IN GIVING EACH GENERATION ITS CHANCE. It seems this is true all over the World! You can hardly find the history of any country that has not had its revivals, its Jesus Revolutions we'd say today, the great outpourings of the Spirit the Pentecostals call it. The Lord seems to give every generation its chance.

38. YOU COULD GO BACK IN RUSSIA EVEN FURTHER TO THE CZARIST REGIME & THE LEADERSHIP OF THE MAD MONK OF RUSSIA, AS HE WAS KNOWN, RASPUTIN! I mean, he was cursed & damned & vilified & everything, but he was actually leading a spiritual revolution in Russia & there were thousands of people who believed in him. He was accused of being a drunkard & a profligate & all kinds of stuff, & he probably was‚ but he had a mighty power of the Spirit of God & he really preached the Truth! I haven't heard anything he preached that I didn't like. He led a spiritual revolution in the last days of the monarchy & that was their last chance. They rejected it & killed him & they got the Russian Revolution—the Communist Revolution!

39. BUT THEN IN THE EARLY DAYS EVEN UNDER COMMUNISM THEY HAD A GREAT SWEEPING REVIVAL AMONGST THE BAPTISTS, of which this other fellow I was telling you about, my Grandfather's friend, was an early part & Peter Dyneka was a later part. I can remember Peter Dyneka telling about how he would go about Russia preaching in the Baptist Churches & they were packed out with people standing for yards outside of the church trying to hear through the windows.—Not like an American church, packed into nice comfortable pews, but packed out, standing up for two & three hours willing to hear the Gospel, & packed in like sardines!

40. SO THERE WAS A REAL GREAT REVIVAL IN RUSSIA AFTER THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST REVOLUTION because people really realised that that was not it & it was anti-Christ, fiendish & devilish! So they were really hungry for the Truth & hungry for the Gospel & there was a great famine for the Word of God. Bibles were scarce & they were copying Bibles by hand, just page by page of the Gospels secretly in underground meetings, etc., & I've told you about that. So there was another generation. Russia's had several generations of revivals.

41. ABRAHIM TOLD ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS WHEN THE FIRST MISSIONARIES WENT FROM BULGARIA TO CONVERT THE CZAR & THE CZARINA!—Way back! I don't know how far back that was‚ do you recall the history at all? It was back long before Abrahim's time. So Russia's had chance after chance & wave after wave & generation after generation of the Gospel. The Lord has never been without a witness there, never been without the Truth!

42. DON'T EVER SAY THAT SOME PEOPLE NEVER HAD THEIR CHANCE—ALMOST EVERY NATION & EVERY GENERATION HAS HAD ITS CHANCE AT SOME TIME OR OTHER. There may not have been a great revival or something, that depended on the people & how they responded & received, but every nation, nearly every generation has had its Prophet, has had its chance, has had its Gospel & some of them have had great revivals as a result, even in the East—Korea, the great Presbyterian revival, & China‚ the great revival there, which as I recall was before the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

43. MY GRANDFATHER WAS OVER THERE BEFORE THAT DURING THIS TREMENDOUS REVIVAL‚ THAT'S WHY HE WENT OVER THERE. He was invited over there to preach in all these Chinese churches which were booming! Later he was in Yangtze-Kiang, that's what they used to call it anyway, they've got a whole new language now, a new spelling for all those towns, so you can't even recognise them any more. He was there in Yangtze–Kiang when it was one of the biggest cities on the Yangtze River, when my Mother ran off & eloped with my Father! But she was very dear to her father & he was very dear to her. She was sort of his little pet like Techi is here because she was the youngest & the only girl he had, so he spoiled her of course. That's why dear David here is such a good boy, I was really tough & hard on him & didn't let him get away with anything. I didn't spoil him, so he's probably going to be the best one in the bunch.

44. BUT HE & MY MOTHER WERE QUITE CLOSE, SO SHE FELT LIKE SHE HAD TO NOTIFY HIM & SHE CABLED HIM ALL THE WAY TO CHINA THAT SHE HAD JUST GOTTEN MARRIED TO A HANDSOME YOUNG SWEDISH SINGER! So‚ typical Jew that he was, Grandfather cabled right back that he was going to take advantage of the situation & capitalise on it. He said, "Book him for my next big meeting in Aberdeen‚ South Dakota! I want him to sing for me & lead the singing." Well, my father practically never heard of an evangelistic meeting. He'd been reared in the rather formal Evangelical Lutheran Church which preached the Gospel & believed in real Salvation, but they were pretty formal & cold & no rootin' tootin' rip-roarin' shoutin' hallelujah kind of religion at all.

45. BUT MY GRANDFATHER, HE WAS STARTING THESE CHURCHES ALL OVER THE PLACE‚ ALL OVER THE WORLD! He founded churches in Australia & China & all over the United States, 50 churches in his lifetime, so he was pretty much on fire! And he was a real Jewish salesman, he took advantage of the opportunity of getting this song leader & thought he might as well put him to work right away, so he did, & he sang for my Grandfather. My Grandfather was a real preacher & a real salesman, & my Father was one of the 400 young men that walked forward & volunteered to serve the Lord out of that meeting, & some other meetings too‚ & you know the rest of the story. (See Nos.172, 351, 1265, 1350, etc.)

46. SO IT SEEMS EVERY NATION, EVERY CIVILISATION, EVERY GENERATION HAS HAD ITS CHANCE SOMEHOW. The Lord has not been unjust or unfair or unmerciful, He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2Pe.3:9) He is merciful & He's willing to send His Spirit wherever they're hungry & needy & really open & receptive & responsive. A lot of times He sends His Prophets even where they're not, so at least they will have had their chance.

47. JESUS EVEN TOLD THE JEWS RIGHT TO THEIR FACES THAT THEY'D KILLED ALL THEIR PROPHETS, SLAUGHTERED THEM ALL! He even mentioned one that's not even mentioned in the Old Testament. Of course, it's mentioned in the Gospels, but a recent Prophet that they'd had right there in Jerusalem that they stoned between the Temple & the altar, stoned to death right there! (Mt.23:34-37.) He said, "Which of them have ye & your fathers not killed?" (Ac.7:52.) They killed'm all! …

48. (FAMILY: THE GREAT OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT IN ALL THOSE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD REMINDS ME OF WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE DURING THE TRIBULATION‚ it's just going to go boom everywhere!) Oh, I think somebody asked me that question recently & I think that was the answer I gave'm. I said, "Where sin doth abound, grace doth much more abound!" (Rom.5:20.)—In spite of the Antichrist Tribulation. I think some have emphasised the bad side of it & we haven't emphasised the good side enough. When I was in the United States I wanted to really sock it to'm & shake up the churches, so I emphasised the rough side. I wanted to let the churches know what they were going to have to go through & warn'm, because they really needed it. But for real Christians who love the Lord there's a good side to the Tribulation & I've already talked to you about that. (No.1624.)

49. THERE'S GOING TO BE A TREMENDOUS REVIVAL & GREAT OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT, MIGHTY MANIFESTATIONS OF MIRACLES & POWER & PROTECTION! And all those monsters it talks about, they're on your side, they're fighting your enemies! All those curses & plagues are on your enemies. God's going to give them plenty to keep them busy, just like He has some of our enemies. Just about the time they were getting hot on our trail & breathing hot down our necks‚ the Lord really gave them trouble! They were whimpering about us, so He really gave them something to cry about & all kinds of terrible things to keep'm busy & get'm off our backs!

50. THEY WERE PERSECUTING THE CULTS & ISMS JUST RECENTLY BACK THERE WHEN WE WERE IN SWITZERLAND IN THE LATE '70s & LOOK AT THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE THEN! There are wars going on all over the World right now, terrible economic crashes & recessions & catastrophes & God is keeping them busy so they don't have time to spend on us any more! You hardly ever see an article on us any more.

51. WE HAD OUR DAY OF PUBLICITY TO PUBLISH THE MESSAGE & THAT WAS ALL THAT WAS NECESSARY. It resulted in popularity, yes‚ but then persecution because we got so successful & made the Devil mad because we'd reaped the main harvest. We're still gleaning in some of those places, even in the States, but we reaped the main harvest & you're it, most of you, North America in general, & then South America.

52. WE HAD QUITE A GREAT REVIVAL & A GREAT HARVEST AMONGST THE YOUTH IN SOUTH AMERICA IN OUR EARLY DAYS, IN THE FIRST INVASIONS OF LATIN AMERICA. We swept that continent with shows & TV & our music & they came out by the thousands, tens of thousands to hear us! I would say that was quite a great revival. They got the Message & we had a reaping. Then under Jeth & Deb & some of those it was almost smothered because of their tactics & policies & horror administration‚ sad to say, their vicious mercenary pecuniary covetous money–minded administration! All they were interested in was numbers & finances, sad to say, & that of course turned a lot of people against them & against us as a result.

53. BUT SOME LIVED THROUGH IT, SOME SURVIVED, THANK THE LORD, & NOW WE'RE SWEEPING SOUTH AMERICA AGAIN, this time a new generation of teenagers, & primarily through radio. Thank God for radio! I've been sort of knocking radio quite a bit lately because of some of their slip-ups & failures & neglects, but don't misunderstand me.—Right after that in this last Issue I'm putting a whole series of testimonies to remind you that Radio has done a lot of good!

54. SO ANYHOW, WE'RE HAVING A NEW SWEEP & A NEW REVIVAL IN LATIN AMERICA, a new reaping of a younger generation of teenagers there, & I think probably the only reason we're not having another revival in North America is because the parents who drove us out don't deserve it, they don't even deserve it for their children. They deserve the Hell that they wanted & the Hell they asked for & the Hell they're getting, & they're going to get Hell on Earth worse than that pretty soon!

55. I DON'T KNOW YET FOR SURE THAT WAR'S GOING TO HOLD OFF OR WAIT FOR THE ANTICHRIST, although it certainly looks like that from our interpretation of Bible Prophecy & closer study in recent days. Well, we know that the only thing that would save the World from a nuclear war would be for the Antichrist to rise up now & make the Pact & make the peace & put off the war a little longer. That's the only thing that'll do it. But if he doesn't come soon, let me tell you, the war's going to come yet! So don't be too sure about the war not coming soon!

56. I THINK PROBABLY A LOT OF OUR FOLKS THOUGHT‚ "OH WELL, I GUESS I CAN GO BACK TO THE STATES NOW AS THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE A WAR & no nuclear annihilation, therefore I guess we can just relax & we don't have to be missionaries after all." I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people took it that way. I heard of a few that have already thought, "Well, I guess we don't have to be out here in the boonies & this horrible heat in the Tropix & the bugs & the foreign language‚ we can go back to the dear old U.S.A. & sit it out awhile longer." Well, God's socking it to them over there too! They're having hunger & starvation & economic troubles & unemployment. They're trying to cover it up, but it gets out.

57. SO THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, HE GIVES A CHANCE, I REALLY BELIEVE. There's a verse I haven't quite got yet that keeps coming to me. He's faithful‚ He shows His mercy to all generations, something like that. His mercy is everlasting, from generation to generation. His mercy endureth forever. (Ps.100:5; 103:17; 118.) There are a lot of verses along that line, about how merciful the Lord is from generation to generation. All these generations, He always gives them a chance, their opportunity.

58. IT SEEMS THAT EVERY NATION, EVERY CULTURE‚ EVERY CIVILISATION, SOMETIME OR OTHER THEY GET THEIR CHANCE. Even Egypt got its chance in the Moses Revival!—Ha! And later on, Babylon had its chance in the Daniel Revival—Babylon & Medo-Persia both. Those were tremendous revivals, led always by some man, some Prophet of God that gave the Truth, & thousands, sometimes millions followed. In the earliest days, you could go right on down the line & remember some great Prophets of God. The Lord even gave Israel its last chance under Jeremiah, at least the last chance for that time, but there's a case of a Prophet who came & they rejected him. There was no revival‚ no response. They had hardened their hearts to the limit, so then God lowered the boom on'm & Nebuchadnezzar came with his armies & wiped'm out!

59. AND YET THE LORD STILL IN HIS MERCY 300 YEARS LATER EVEN SENT HIS SON, JESUS! Well, thank God that had a response! That was enough generations away from the old hardhearted great grandparents that there was some possibility‚ & that got a tremendous response, the Early Church Revival! And of course they killed its Prophet & a lot of its disciples, but they boomed & they reached their generation!

60. AND THEN THERE WERE SUCCEEDING REVIVALS, ONE AFTER THE OTHER, EACH GENERATION. There was a revival in the days of the disciples of the early disciples. I can't remember all the names, but in the days of their disciples there were in succeeding generations other revivals. Even under the Roman persecutions there were tremendous revivals, thousands of Christians who hid in the catacombs, etc. The Lord has given every generation another chance if they were hungry, needy, receptive, responsive, openhearted & really cried out to the Lord. The Lord gave them another great outpouring of His Spirit & thousands were saved & filled with the Spirit, the witness sweeping the nation or the whole empire sometimes.

61. THE LORD HAS NEVER BEEN WITHOUT A WITNESS! He's never been without a Prophet or Prophetess. He has never been without an outpouring of His Spirit, a great revival in the spirit & a great sweeping evangelistic movement of some kind, a great harvesting, a great reaping. So what makes you think the Tribulation's going to be any exception? I think it's probably going to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest we have ever known!—The World's last great revival‚ last great & mightiest outpouring of the Spirit we have ever seen, with the most magnificent miracles, signs & wonders!

62. MY LORD, IF THE DEVIL'S GOING TO BE DOING SIGNS & WONDERS THROUGH THE ANTICHRIST & CALLING DOWN FIRE ON THE EARTH & ALL KINDS OF THINGS‚ CERTAINLY GOD'S PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE DOING IT! The Devil's people & his false christs are going to be doing miracles too. They're going to believe in the supernatural then, let me tell you! All this stupid evolution & unbelief in the Spirit World is going to go out the window for sure‚ because they're going to see it & hear it & know it & experience it then. They're going to know both Hell on Earth & Heaven on Earth, & they can take their choice. They're going to see the Devil go all-out, all stops pulled out & in full force in all his worst‚ all he can possibly deliver! But at the same time, "where sin doth abound, grace doth much more abound!" Hallelujah?

63. SO THERE'S GOING TO BE A GREATER OUTPOURING OF POWER & THE SPIRIT & MIRACLES, SIGNS, WONDERS, PROTECTION & PROVISION FOR THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AT THE SAME TIME! God is not going to neglect His Own. He's not going to desert His Own. He said, "I'll be with you always‚ even unto the end of the World!" (Mt.28:20.)—To the End when He comes again & finally rescues us out of it, when it just gets to be impossible, when our witness is finished.

64. I THINK THE TRIBULATION IS GOING TO BE OUR LAST GREAT REVIVAL, OUR FINAL GREAT WITNESS, OUR LAST GREAT HARVEST OF CHILDREN & TEENAGERS, PROBABLY BY OUR TEENAGERS like David & Davida & Techi & all these children we're having now. They're going to be leaders of it, like the little Heaven's Girl that I saw in the dream. (No.1623.) God's going to pour out His Spirit on this generation that's coming up to lead the World in that day, in those Last Days, & manifest mighty power & faith, signs & wonders & miracles! God's going to give His provision & protection.

65. WHEN ELSE IN ALL HISTORY HAS HE SENT THE KIND OF MONSTERS TO PLAGUE OUR ENEMIES AS HE DESCRIBES IN THE TRIBULATION?—I mean, things you never heard of before, almost indescribable! Where else but in the plagues of Egypt have you ever heard of such plagues poured out upon the whole Earth, upon our enemies & the Antichrist Kingdom, the darkness & all, gnawing their tongues for pain as they pray to die & can't die! And they suffer from sores & all kinds of horrible horrors & yet they don't repent! (Rev.9:20-21.) I'll tell you‚ it's going to be some day & the Lord's going to take care of His Own!

66. SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! QUIT WORRYING ABOUT THE TRIBULATION, YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN LIVE THAT LONG! What makes you think you're going to live that long? What makes you think you're going to live another 5‚ 6, 7, 8, 10 years? Huh? We're having an unusual period of peace right now & sometimes it kind of concerns me. I sometimes feel like the old lady who when they asked her how she felt said, "Well, I feel pretty good. But of course whenever I feel good, I feel bad, because I know it won't be very long before I'm going to be feeling bad again!" She couldn't even enjoy feeling good, worrying about when she's going to feel bad.

67. WELL, LETS ENJOY IT WHILE WE'VE GOT IT, THESE DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH BEFORE THE HELL COMES! But don't be afraid of it—God's going to take care of us just like He always has. He's going to provide for us just like He always has. These days have lasted so long, you've just sort of taken it for granted. Some of you didn't go through our early days when it was pretty much Hell on Earth & persecution & we never knew where our next meal was coming from or our next gallon of gas or how many of us were going to land in jail next. You didn't go through those early days.

68. REALLY NOT ANYBODY HERE CROSSED THE COUNTRY OR SUFFERED THAT HUNTINGTON BEACH PERSECUTION. We had our "Costa Mesa 14" & our "Golden West 7" & all those others who were thrown in jail & some of them spent weeks in jail. We refused to bail'm out because we couldn't, we didn't have the money! Besides, I always told them: "If you ever land in jail‚ so sorry! We can't afford to bail you out, you'll just have to stay there. Especially if you get in jail for any good reason or for some reason that you shouldn't have gotten in jail, don't expect us to bail you out. Just pay your debt to society & that's it!" I used to warn my boys especially on driving & traffic violations: "I'm never going to bail you out, I'm not going to pay your fine. You just sit it out there & rest & pray until it's over."

69. THANK GOD, THEY NEVER GOT THROWN IN JAIL FOR ANYTHING BUT PREACHING THE GOSPEL, WITNESSING FOR THE LORD! All three of my children have been in jail for preaching the Gospel!—All but Deborah, of course, who backslid before she got much persecution. All three of them spent terms in jail, days & nights when they didn't even know what was going to happen! We've got a boy here who sat it out in jail for what must have seemed like days & nights. When you don't know when you're going to get out‚ it feels like a long time, even if it doesn't happen. GBY!

70. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN TO JAIL?—NOT FOR YOUR DRUG–PEDDLING & ALL YOUR OTHER CRIMES [BEFORE YOU GOT SAVED], BUT FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL? Hallelujah! Look at that, would you? How about that! TYJ! Isn't that wonderful? You guys ought to tell us those stories sometime. It would be thrilling & inspiring for us to hear'm. I sit here & try to pump it out of you & I finally give up & go to gabbin' myself, when you've got all these wonderful stories! If we can't pull it out of you here, we ought to make you write it. I know sometimes you deliberately keep your mouths shut because you want me to open mine, so maybe you can write your prison or jail experiences, what you suffered for the Gospel. How many have been to jail for some reason anyhow?—Half for the Gospel, half for other reasons! So you've had a little experience‚ huh?

71. THEY NEVER CAUGHT YOU, SON? Boy, that was a smart one! …

72. IT SEEMS THE LORD GIVES EVERYBODY HIS CHANCE & HE'S GOING TO GIVE THE TRIBULATION GENERATION THEIR CHANCE TOO! It's not going to be all fun & games & we're enjoying a period of particularly great peace & prosperity & productivity & tremendous publication & even publicity via radio & so on right now. So you'd better make hay while the sun shines, because it's a marvellous opportunity to do the best we can & the most we can right now.

73. I DON'T WANT TO SCARE YOU OR MAKE YOU AFRAID OR ANYTHING, BUT IT NEVER LASTS! It's always followed by a period of trial & tribulation, trouble‚ persecution & sometimes scattering. We've been scattered lots of times. We've gone through lots of persecutions & made lots of escapes, haven't we? So it won't be the first time. It may not even be the last time, we may have more before the Tribulation.—Although time's getting kind of short‚ I don't see how we could have too much more.

74. BUT THANK THE LORD DAY BY DAY, RIGHT NOW AS LONG AS IT LASTS, FOR THESE DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH WHILE WE HAVE PEACE & QUIET & THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE THE LORD! He says to pray for peace, pray for kings & magistrates & governors & rulers that you might have peace to spread the Gospel! We've sure been praying for the rulers of this country & some others too, that our Family will have peace & we can keep on spreading the Gospel as fast as we are right now, because this may be our last chance!—Either the Crash or the War are going to come next, & one way or the other it's going to be pretty rough!—Are you doing your best for Jesus now? GBAKY busy for Jesus & souls!—In Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family