KEYWORDS: people, lord, love, world, others, church

Why Our Family Really Works

David Berg

7/87—And Why Worldly Capitalism & Communism Don't Work! DFO 2342 (After watching a documentary on Russia, "Seven Days in May":)

1. I THINK GORBACHEV REALISES THAT THEY'RE NOT MAKING IT ECONOMICALLY. The trouble is the people haven't got the incentive to work, so they just loaf! That's why their products aren't good & aren't sufficient etc.

2. IT'S JUST EXACTLY LIKE WHAT HAPPENED AT VALLEY FARMS IN ARIZONA! Valley Farms was one of Eleanor Roosevelt's Socialistic experiments.—Franklin Delano Roosevelt's wife who was virtually a Communist. They took a piece of government land out in the middle of the desert, & they took some Okies & Arkies right off the grass & from under the trees‚ poor uneducated migrant workers from some places back East, & they built this Socialistic experiment, this little village with little humble homes, but far more than these people had ever had. They were what we called "shotgun houses"—long, narrow, room after room, which was very easy & cheap to build. They called them "shotgun houses" because they said if you'd have shot a shotgun through the front door toward the back door it would have killed everybody in the house, it was so narrow!

3. ANYWAY, THEY GAVE'M EACH A LITTLE PLOT OF LAND & A LITTLE HOME, & then outside in the European style, they gave them plots of land, so-many–acres-each of land around. Actually the land outside was communally owned & supposed to be an agriculture cooperative, & they were supposed to work together to grow cotton & food & raise animals etc., & everything was supposed to be equal—equal work, equal benefits & everybody shared. It was supposed to be a little Socialistic Heaven on Earth where everybody worked & did their share, & everybody got their equal shares of the production & shared equally in the profit etc.

4. WELL, WHAT HAPPENED WAS THAT THERE WERE LOTS OF LAZY PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T WORK UNLESS THEY WERE STARVING TO DEATH! The good workers & hard workers were doing all the work, while these lazy louts were sitting around doing nothing‚ but still everybody was sharing equally! So finally the guys who were really trying to make it work & pay—but were having to do all the work & yet not getting any more pay or profit than these lazy ones—they finally got fed-up & chucked the whole thing & left, leaving nobody but the lazy louts that didn't want to work! And of course after the real workers left, the lazy ones couldn't make it work at all, not even to feed themselves, so finally Mrs. Roosevelt had to give it up‚ she saw it didn't work.—But that's the Communistic principle, that Communistic attitude of "everybody shares". But it didn't work!

5. YOU SEE, UNLESS YOU'RE LIKE WE ARE, CHRISTIANS WHO LOVE EACH OTHER & LOVE THE LORD & EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE HELPFUL & WANTS TO DO THEIR SHARE, IT DOESN'T WORK! We are a commune, let's face it, but it works!—Because everybody loves the Lord & is trying to do their best for the Lord's Work. Everybody loves each other & are trying to help each other all they can, no lazy ones! Our outfit just won't take lazy people, they'll never last in our Family‚ because if they don't do their share of the work, "He that shall not work shall not eat!"—2Th.3:10. We just tell'm they'd better go someplace else!

6. SO IT WORKS!—BECAUSE WE ONLY TAKE GOOD WORKERS & PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WORK!—FOR LOVE & FOR LOVE OF THE LORD & HIS WORK'S SAKE & THE SALVATION OF SOULS! We've got incentive, we've got inspiration‚ so our kind of communes work! They're the only kind that will ever work, because of Love! Everybody wants to do his share, wants to work, & nobody wants to be considered lazy or not doing his share of the work. If anything, everybody does almost more than their share!

7. BUT COMMUNISM WITHOUT LOVE & WITHOUT THE LORD & WITHOUT CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER & WITHOUT WANTING TO REALLY DO YOUR SHARE FALLS FLAT ON ITS FACE! This is what's wrong with Russia today & this is what Gorbachev is trying to correct. He says the people have gotten lazy & won't work, because the government sets their salary, the government gives them a little apartment, the government sets the rent, the government sets all the prices, the government sets the quotas, everything is controlled & run by the government‚ & that's supposed to come out that ideally everybody profits & everybody gets the benefit etc. But it has not been working economically‚ in spite of the fact that Communism was originally an economic ideology that was supposed to make all the people equal & all the workers gain equally etc. As some of the people themselves have cracked in some of the other Communist countries, "Yes, it's made us all equal, all equally poor!"

8. SO YOU JUST CANNOT HAVE ANY KIND OF SO-CALLED DEMOCRACY & FREEDOM & EQUALITY & ALL THAT BLAH WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE PEOPLE THAT REALLY HAVE THE LORD & REALLY HAVE LOVE & REALLY CARE FOR EACH OTHER! So after 70 years of Communism, the Communistic economic system without love & without the Lord is a flat failure‚ & they're now at last beginning to admit it! So now they're trying to inspire people to work for profit & for incentive & for reward. You weren't supposed to have any profit system under Communism‚ but they found that that kind of reward & incentive—to have your own little farm or your own little business—makes people really work hard, because they know they're going to get the benefit themselves.

9. THAT'S WHY CAPITALISM HAS WORKED IN SOME REGARDS. But because of the selfishness of Capitalism, it has gone to the opposite extreme to where the rich are getting richer & the poor are getting poorer! But to the Russians it looks pretty good, considering there's a lot more produce in most of the rich Capitalistic countries.—There's more mechanisation, more profit, more money, more luxuries, more everything‚ it seems, including, of course, a lot more crime & drugs & craziness & everything else! It's too bad that when freedom has to come, so does corruption.—U.S. corruption with all its corrupt music & devilish activities!

10. BUT THEY REALISE THAT UNLESS THEY LET THE PEOPLE HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF BUSINESS ON THEIR OWN, THEY WON'T WORK HARD. In a factory where they're going to get paid whether they work or not, they'll loaf on the job! Nobody gets punished for not working because everything is supposed to be in favour of the working class. But now they're cracking down & saying the lazy people are not going to get it, they're going to get fired‚ there's going to be unemployment! Gorbachev is frankly saying, "We're not going to put up with lazy louts any more‚ we're not going to put up with crooked corrupt managers who are pocketing all the profits, if there are any, & enslaving the workers just like they do in other places!"

11. HE'S TRYING TO HAVE A REAL ECONOMIC REVOLUTION BY PARTIAL CAPITALISATION—in other words, let people run their own little businesses etc. with the help of the State. They rent the building, the tools & the equipment etc. from the government, which is a very good idea. Most poor people that are starting out with nothing don't have all that to start with‚ so the government is trying to help people get started in business & expecting them to produce more & better goods as a result, & already it's showing a slight improvement. Of course, it will take years, & it will take a continuation of such a revolution.

12. I THINK THEY GOT THE IDEA FROM CHINA, WHICH HAS BEEN BOLD ENOUGH UNDER DENG NOW TO DECIDE TO HAVE A MEASURE OF MODERATE CAPITALISM‚ MEANING PRIVATE BUSINESS ENTERPRISES ETC. They started off with the farmers, & the farmers boomed! Whereas there used to be terrible shortages of various food products in China, now there is an abundance, because the farmers are allowed to keep part of the benefits & the profits‚ & the farmers are booming now, some of them are even getting rich! There's plenty of produce, plenty of food, whereas before there were long lines of people standing in line for food in China, just like there are now in Russia because of the scarcities. The farmers in Russia have no real inspiration or incentive to work because the government takes all the profit. So now they're letting them go into business for themselves in these selected little areas, & those people are very happy & are more independent & they can make their own money & thrive!

13. I DON'T THINK RUSSIA IS USING THE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES AS AN EXAMPLE, BUT RATHER CHINA, A COMMUNIST COUNTRY! China has introduced a mild form of individual enterprise, which some people call Capitalism‚ & they've found that it really makes people work! They want to work then & they work hard to make money & to make more for themselves, not just for the government. So they're trying to have a turnabout in Russia: Since the people won't work hard just for the government, to let them work for themselves, & they figure everybody will eventually benefit.—That is‚ if the World lasts that long. We shall wait & see!

14. BOTH DENG & GORBACHEV HAVE BEEN AMAZINGLY BOLD & BRAVE & COURAGEOUS TO BUCK THE PAST & PAST BUREAUCRACIES & past lazy corrupt leaders & all that, both in China & now in Russia, trying to change those countries & bring in more private enterprise & more industrious people, get people to work for reward, for pay, for profit, for themselves, & not just some idea of "I'm working for the government because the government is the people & for the benefit of all."

15. SELFISH NATURAL MAN IS JUST NOT THAT UNSELFISH & LOVING to want to work just for the benefit of the government or the state or the people, he wants to work for himself! The only people who really want to work for others & the benefit of others are people like us who have real motivation because of love—love for the Lord & love for each other & love for lost souls! So we're willing to work, & really work hard for the sake of others.

16. WE'RE NOT HERE JUST TO WORK FOR OURSELVES! We're not here for the idea of making a big salary & good money & to get special profits & benefits, we're here because we love the Lord‚ we're here because we love each other‚ we're here because we want to do the Lord's Work & we want to preach the Gospel in all the World & save a lot of souls! But they don't have that motivation, they don't have the Lord & His Love, so the only way you can get them to work is for themselves.

17. THE ONLY REASON A WORLDLY MAN WILL REALLY WORK HARD IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE'S GOTTA WORK HARD IN ORDER TO EARN A LIVING to keep from starving & even to make money & improve his life, in other words, for self & for his family. That's about as far as his love goes, for himself & his family—his wife & children & maybe a few relatives. They're willing to work hard in order to live, & if possible‚ to try to improve their life etc.

18. SO BOTH CHINA & RUSSIA HAVE FOUND OUT PEOPLE ARE NOT WILLING TO WORK JUST FOR THE GOVERNMENT & JUST FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE & JUST FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY. They don't have that kind of love, they don't have that kind of selfless sacrificial interest in trying to help others. But we have it!—Because we have the Lord & His Love, & we love each other & we love souls, we love others! Our whole motivation in life is to help others! But you can't expect that of the selfish people of the World who only know selfishness & the only thing they're concerned about is themselves & their family & trying to make money to get up in the World. In other words, their whole motivation is selfishness, trying to work hard to do good for themselves & their family.

19. SO THE RUSSIANS & THE CHINESE HAVE FOUND OUT THAT PEOPLE DON'T HAVE THIS SELFLESS SACRIFICIAL MOTIVATION to want to help others & to help their State & their country etc. They just don't have that much inspiration or motivation or incentive to want to work for others & their good. You can't have that kind of love without the Lord! So they're at last confessing that their kind of noble, idealistic ideology of everybody living for everybody else & not just selfishly for himself hasn't worked with the selfish, self-centered Worldly people. The only people the World are willing to work sacrificially & hard for is for themselves: "What's in it for me? What's in it that's good for my family?"

20. SO THEY'RE AT LAST LETTING THEM HAVE A MODIFIED & SOMEWHAT IMPROVED FORM OF SOCIALISM which allows a little bit of selfish enterprise—which by another name is Capitalism—& they've found that people are really willing to work for themselves, & work hard to produce products & quality etc. for others in order to improve themselves & make money for themselves. The prosperous rich part of the World are only interested in working for themselves & their own good, & they're willing to really slave away at it to make money! So China & Russia are finding out that people don't have that much selflessness & unselfish concern about others to want to just work sacrificially for others. You can't have true Communism, true Socialism, true sharing like we have, unless you have our kind of sacrificial motivation, & you can only have that with the Lord & His Love!

21. SO THEIR KIND OF COMMUNISM DOESN'T WORK! Two of the biggest countries in the World are finding out it doesn't work! The two main Communist powers are finding out that people are not basically unselfish & concerned about others‚ they are basically selfish & only willing to work for themselves, so they're turning back toward a modified form of Socialism that's partially Capitalistic, allowing certain groups & certain professions to enter into private business for themselves, believing that it's going to help them to become more rich & prosperous & productive like the Capitalist countries, where people are willing to work hard because they get rewarded for it. With selfish motivation & selfish incentives, they're willing to work hard for themselves & for their families to really produce, which Communism & the Communist philosophy has not been able to equal‚ & which they can't! You cannot have a selfless, sacrificial, community–minded society with a bunch of selfish people—& the World is selfish!

22. IN OTHER WORDS, IT'S TURNING OUT THAT COMMUNISM DOES NOT WORK! In the biggest Communist countries on Earth that have been Communist for many many years, it's not working financially & economically‚ because people are not really willing to share or sacrifice or just serve others, they're only willing to work hard for themselves. So they're having to induce a certain amount of private enterprise‚ self-interest—& if you want to call it Capitalism—into their Communist societies in order to try to revive them economically & make them better in their production, productivity, quality & abundance of products.

23. THEY'VE FOUND THE ONLY WAY THEY CAN GET PEOPLE TO WORK IS FOR THEMSELVES, really, so they're giving them selfish incentives & selfish opportunities for self-interest & private enterprise, to make money & get things that are good for them individually, hoping that now it's going to help bring them up economically like the Western World. It's going to be quite a surprise to them when they suddenly see the Western World's private enterprise & Capitalist system totally collapse very soon, then they'll be convinced that at least their system is better than that. So we'll see!

24. I'VE SAID FOR YEARS THAT COMMUNISM, TRUE SOCIALISM, TRUE UNSELFISH, SELF–SACRIFICING SERVICE TO OTHERS IN A COMMUNISTIC OR COMMUNE SOCIETY IS ONLY WORKABLE AMONGST CHRISTIANS!—And it's not even workable amongst the vast majority of church Christians who live just as selfishly as any other Capitalists! They don't commune, they don't really cooperate. They go to church once on Sunday & put their little contribution in the basket to support the preacher & pay off the building debt & that sort of thing, & do very little missionary work or contribute to missions, so it hasn't worked amongst the selfish church Christians either, because they don't do it! But we are doing it & there are very few others.—In fact‚ I don't know of any others, if there had been I would've joined them a long time ago!

25. WE ARE DOING WHAT THE LORD WANTED THE CHURCH TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE, & WHICH THE CHURCH DID IN THE FIRST PLACE, IN THE DAYS OF THE EARLY CHURCH where they lived communally & "no man called anything his own" (Acts 4:32) & "owe no man anything save to love him" (Rom.13:8) & shared all things‚ just as it says in Acts 2.—They really lived communally & it worked, like it's working with us, because of the Lord & our love & sacrificial service & wanting to help others & help each other. It works!

26. BUT THE DEVIL TRIED IT & HE HAS TWO COLOSSAL FAILURES ON HAND NOW, RUSSIA & CHINA, which were intended to be the shining examples of Communism. They flopped, because people were not unselfish & people were not willing to sacrifice for each other. They're only willing to sacrifice for themselves & work hard for themselves, & eventually that also turns out to be a big flop‚ as Capitalism is going to find out when it flops!

27. MAYBE WE COULD CALL THIS: "WHY WORLDLY CAPITALISM & COMMUNISM DON'T WORK!" —Or, you can say more positively, "Why Our Family Really Works!" And the answer is, Love, God's Love!—Love for each other & love for others. It works! We're sitting right here as a testimony to that fact‚ we have thousands of missionaries around the World testifying to that fact‚ & we've won millions of souls around the World as a proof of that fact, that it works!—Contrary to the selfish, actually Capitalistic type of church system, or the deluded & misled Socialistic forms of religion such as Catholic monasticism & nunneries etc. They don't work, really, because they're not accomplishing Christ's mission of preaching the Gospel to the World!

28. THOSE MONASTIC ORDERS & CONVENTS WHO SHUT THEMSELVES UP BEHIND STONE WALLS & IN LITTLE CELLS FOR MEDITATION & work as a communal unit only for themselves, just to support themselves, but don't get out & preach the Gospel & win souls or evangelise the World, they're failures, because they're not accomplishing what the Lord wants done, even if they survive!—But we do & we are! Therefore ours works because it's the Lord's method & it's the Lord's way & the way He wanted it done from the beginning.

29. SO OUR FAMILY REALLY WORKS! It is getting the job done, & at the same time it is taking care of us. "The labourer is worthy of his hire."—Luk.10:7. We get out & work & feed the sheep & save souls, & they take care of us! PTL! The Lord takes care of us‚ of course‚ it's all the Lord, because we're obeying Him & following His plan, & it's working!

30. WE'RE ACCOMPLISHING MORE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP OUR SIZE THAT I KNOW OF, in spite of some of these churches with millions of members, like the Catholic church which boasts 600 million members, blah blah! Well, they have evangelised parts of the World, like the Catholic countries in Latin America‚ but I don't know if you want to call that evangelism, seeing that it actually doomed more people to Hell than it saved by their works religion & not preaching the truth of real Salvation! Their kind of evangelisation is not saving anybody‚ it's just insulating them against the Gospel & sending them to Hell!

31. SO PRAISE GOD, WE'RE SMALL, BUT WE'RE SAVING MILLIONS, REALLY SAVING THEM, & LIVING A LIFE OF LOVE, happiness, joy, sharing & communion, blessing, prospering, increasing & feeding & accomplishing more every day! TYL! So‚ praise the Lord! I'd better stop talking & get back to work & accomplish more, but this happens to be part of my job, talking!

32. SO THIS "SEVEN DAYS IN MAY" ABOUT RUSSIA IS VERY INTERESTING, because what they're really confessing & finding out is that their system really hasn't worked. Somebody finally woke up, & Gorbachev finally had the nerve & the guts & the bravery & the courage to stand up & buck the mob of all the bureaucrats & corrupt officials etc. who didn't want to work either! God bless him! For the sake of the people I hope he makes it, & I hope that it makes a more open Russia so we can get some more Gospel in! I prayed for Deng that China would become more open, & it did for awhile until they chased us out, but we got a lot of Gospel in, & we still are! We're still getting into both China & Russia & the East Bloc & Communist nations etc. & still preaching the Gospel, thank the Lord!

33. THEY DON'T BOTHER OUR BIBLES ANY MORE AS LONG AS THEY ONLY HAVE ONE BIBLE PER PERSON. They don't take it, they don't bother it, they don't hardly even pay attention to it, but they don't allow any other kind of literature, that's the stuff they have to sneak in. But we're advising them now not to, because some of our folks almost got seven years in prison! We're advising them now just to take in their Bibles‚ but have the Scripture references listed in the back of their Bibles on different topics & different studies. That's the way I used to do with my Bible. I kept all the Scriptures that I used for witnessing in the back of my Bible: What Scripture references to use with Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses etc.

34. WE'RE ADVISING YOU TO LIST THE MAIN SCRIPTURES THAT SUPPORT OUR VARIOUS DOCTRINES, Endtime doctrines etc., just write them in by hand in the back of your Bibles, & this the authorities don't mind. But they don't like you to carry in any other kind of literature, especially in duplicate, a number of copies‚ because they know then that you're going to pass them out‚ & when they find those, they confiscate them. If they find too many too often you're apt to get in serious trouble!

35. SO IT'S WORKED!—AND WHO WOULD EVER DREAM THAT THE LORD WOULD USE ME TO GET IT STARTED! But I was just willing & wanted to help. And who would ever dream that the Lord would start it with a bunch of bums off the street, hippie bums!—Only it turns out they weren't exactly bums, they were the children of the rich & the middle class who were just fed-up with the bum System! So praise the Lord! It took an impossible situation to do a miracle, & He did it, as long as we were willing to try!

36. I DON'T BELIEVE ANYBODY ELSE HAS DONE IT OR ANY GROUP HAS DONE IT SINCE THE EARLY CHURCH! I don't know of anybody like us anywhere in the World! There are some devout Christians & real preachers of the Gospel & evangelists & pastors who are really trying their best to get people saved, but they're still using the church system, & the church system is a failure! Look at how much we've accomplished, a little group like us, without buildings, without churches, without that damn church system!

37. JUST THINK WHAT THEY WOULD'VE ACCOMPLISHED IF THEY'D DONE IT LIKE US‚ BEEN LIKE US‚ LIKE THE EARLY CHURCH! Look how much the Early Church accomplished in just a short time! They evangelised all the known civilised Western World & part of the East in just the first 200 years of their history! They did it!—Until Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire & far beyond!—Until they started building churches! When the Devil tricked them into that templism, that church-building mania, only a little over 200 years after the Lord, they really stopped truly evangelising the World & they put all of their energies into building buildings & hierarchies & priesthoods & denominations & fighting between each other, so they haven't done it since! The Early Church was the only one & the first one to do it, & we have done it‚ our little group has done it!

38. THINK OF WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF WE HAD 200 YEARS LIKE THE EARLY CHURCH! We've only had 20 years! Think how we would grow & how we'd cover the Earth like the Early Church if we had 200 years yet to go! But obviously the Lord can't have that much mercy on the World because they're going to destroy everything if He doesn't stop them pretty soon.

39. BUT ALL WE DID WAS FOLLOW GOD'S PLAN‚ FOLLOW HIS BLUEPRINT RIGHT IN THE BOOK OF ACTS, follow the principles of Jesus, & obey & do what He told us to do: "Go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature ...and behold, I'll be with you always!"—Mk.16:15, Mat.28:20. He's never failed us, never deserted us, never let us down! We've been persecuted, we've had problems, but we always come out on top & He's always supplied every need, in fact we're prospering compared to the early days. The more we do for Him, the more He does for us! So praise the Lord! Amen?

40. IT WORKS! GOD'S METHOD WORKS! THE FAMILY WAY WORKS! THE CHILDREN OF GOD HAVE GOT IT!—Simply because we obeyed the Lord, that's all! We obeyed God's method, God's way‚ & it worked!—And because we worked at it, amen? Thank the Lord! GBY for working!