David Berg
DO 17321/84
1. WE'RE NOT IN THIS BUSINESS FOR THE MONEY‚ we're in this business to develop people who will obey & serve the Lord & do something for God & preach the Gospel & be missionaries & do what they're supposed to do! If you get to where you'll accept people just because they put money in the offering, you're getting just like the churches! The main thing we're after is not just the tithe but it's workers‚ reapers, people who are doing something for the Lord!
2. DEAR MOTHER EVE THOUGHT SHE COULD GET AWAY WITH JUST SENDING IN HER TITHE, BUT I WROTE BACK, "NOTHIN' DOIN'! YOU'VE GOT TO SEND A TRF JUST LIKE ANYBODY ELSE! If you're doing so much for the Lord, why don't you report it? Why don't you fill out a TRF?"—We have yet to ever get a TRF from dear Mother Eve. I said, "If you'll send us a TRF & obey like everybody else is supposed to & fill it out & tell us what you're doing‚ & besides that, get out of America, I'll double your support!" But she'd rather have her freedom & not fill out a TRF & not let us know what she's doing than have twice the income‚ think of that! Time & time again she's refused. I give her only a little, of course, but enough that she deserves for past services if nothing else. I figure as my ex-wife, I at least owe her that much to help her survive. It's just about worth that much.
3. THAT'S WHY IT'S SO HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE TO FILL OUT TRFs, BECAUSE IT'S SUCH AN OBVIOUS CONFESSION & OPEN EXPOSURE OF THEIR LACKS & WHAT THEY'RE NOT DOING WHEN THEY KNOW THEY OUGHT TO BE! And when they have to fill out a TRF only partially & leave mostly blanks‚ that's a little embarrassing. They know then that no matter how much money they send, they don't deserve the lit. So praise God, if they're going to think they can get away with getting all that lit just because they send money—a little pittance, a little tiny peanut gift—forget it!
4. I'D RATHER LOSE THE MONEY, CUT DOWN THE FUNDS & GET RID OF THE PEOPLE, because God will bless us more & bless the people that are left more & take better care of us if we will obey & do what He's told us to do! When people can't be trusted with that which is most or much‚ they can hardly even be trusted with that which is least, so we really don't know where to put'm. Well, as I say, the third time's the charm! You didn't know that was in the Bible, did you? "Him that is an heretick after the first & second admonition reject"—that's the third time! (Tit.3:10) Let me tell you, Beloved, you had better obey & do what you're told to do & what God expects you to do & do it & do it well, or you are going to be sorry one of these days, I don't care who the hell you are!
5. WE'RE DESPERATELY IN NEED OF OFFICES & OFFICE HELP FOR IHCs NOW BECAUSE WE'RE ON A REAL DRIVE TO REAP RADIO & send out Radio Reapers into the field, & they need office backup to handle their business, correspondence & mail response. So we are virtually doubling the support for nearly all of the IHC Offices, about 20 of them throughout the World‚ so they can get enough help & enough money to be able to afford to go out into the field & reap! "The labourer is worthy of his hire, muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn‚ they that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel" & we want to help'm all we can! (Lk.10:7; 1Cor.9:9,14) We can't give them full support, but we're trying our best to support'm all we can & we're devoting a lot of extra funds now. We've taken it away from some other people who weren't as fruitful & who weren't accomplishing as much & some ministries who more or less "shot their wad" & had their day & accomplished their job, & now we want to go out & finish it!
6. SO WHILE WE WERE WINDING DOWN OTHER EXPENSES & PUTTING AUSTERITY MEASURES INTO EFFECT, tightening our belts in order to have more to feed the poor & others, we have tightened up a number of ministries & a number of expenses & Units, etc., cut'm way down. We cut our Music Units down from about 200 people to about two dozen, but they're still accomplishing just as much now, if not more, as they did then! Well, there was a day when maybe they needed that many people, I don't know, but not now. They've sung their songs & played their music & we have the recordings‚ so now we're pretty well fixed with them & we've got enough to keep radio going for several years if we have to‚ without having hundreds of musicians & their spouses & families & kids & all dependent on us.
7. NOW WE'RE SENDING THEM OUT AS REAPERS OF THE SEEDS THEY HAVE SOWN, BECAUSE IF ANYBODY OUGHT TO BE INTERESTED IN REAPING THE RESULTS OF THEIR MINISTRY, THEY SHOULD BE! We were wondering where to get the manpower when it finally dawned on us that we don't need them recording any more & sitting around in studios all the day or living in great big 100-person blobs here & there. They've done it, they had their day‚ they had their great Loveville & Villamor, & they've done a wonderful job, God bless'm, but now that day is over. We have sown the seed, watered it, fertilised it, cultivated it & it's sprouting all over, now we need people to get out & reap it! So we're sending those same people out to reap it. PTL!
8. MEANWHILE, SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF OUR [BEHIND-THE-SCENES OFFICE WORK‚] LITERATURE & ALL THE REST, & scan the TRFs to see who deserves it & who doesn't, have just been scattering it abroad to anybody who'd send in money, regardless of what kind of a TRF they sent in, even a blank TRF! Think of it! No wonder they've had such a hell of a time in Europe & we've had this wave of bad publicity that's swept from Europe around the World lately! I blame those two people in that one Unit the most for it, for permitting it & for allowing everybody & anybody to get the lit as long as they sent money!
9. IF YOU DON'T KNOW BY THIS TIME THAT IT'S NOT MONEY WE'RE AFTER‚ YOU'D BETTER FIND OUT REAL FAST! I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MONEY! I know as long as I obey God & do His Will & obey His Word, God will supply every penny we need & a lot more! We don't have to worry about money. God damn the people who don't care a damn about our security & the work & prefer the money! We once had a whole caboodle of people like that back in '78. We got rid of 300 leaders at one shot back at the RNR, & it looks like we may get rid of a lot of their people now!
10. IF YOU THINK WE GOT THIS FAR BY MY BEING AN EASY-GOING NAMBY-PAMBY PUSHOVER STRING-FOR-A-BACKBONE MILK-&–WATER-IN-MY-BLOOD LEADER, YOU'RE MISTAKEN! If you think I'm tough, if you think I'm a hard man, you're right! That's why we're where we're at today, because I'm a tough military leader & I run a tight ship & a tight army! And whenever any officers let men get away with what they've been letting them get away with, they're fired!
11. I'M GOING TO GET TOUGHER INSTEAD OF EASIER! I'm going to raise the ante so high that nobody's going to want the lit unless they are desperate for it! I'm going to make it so tough to get the lit that nobody's going to turn in a dime to get it unless they really want it & want it bad & desperately need it! You say‚ "Dad‚ how can you be so mean to all the poor little poor people & all that?" Don't worry, we're going to be pretty easy on the genuinely poor & the genuine missionaries in the genuine mission fields. We're still going to make it easier on them than the rest of them, but we're hiking the ante on them too.
12. I DON'T THINK MISSIONARIES OUGHT TO BE ON THE FIELD WHO HAVEN'T GOT SUFFICIENT SUPPORT OR WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO RAISE IT OR WHO HAVEN'T GOT THE FAITH FOR IT. I think they're a bad security risk, a bad influence‚ a bad testimony & I think we ought to get rid of them, & the quicker they go home the better off we'd all be!—Instead of sponging off the other missionaries & their income & going around poor–mouthing & begging from others. They're nothing but a burden & a nuisance & troublemakers, & if we could clean out all these nuisances, troublemakers & people who don't know how to really get through to God & have the faith to be a missionary, we'd all be better off! We'd be better off if they'd go home to those rich countries & get a good job & earn a good salary & support a missionary since they can't be one! Amen?
13. I THINK WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE OUTRIGHT ENEMIES WE'RE BETTER OFF WITH THEM OUTSIDE THAN INSIDE. And I'll tell you, Beloved, anybody who disobeys again & again & betrays & thereby is a traitor to the cause have virtually proved themselves an enemy! They're so easy on all these other people because they want us & God to be easy on them because they're such sinners & have been for years!
14. WHY SHOULD WE LET LATIN AMERICA GET BY WITH GIVING AS LITTLE AS THEY DO? THEY GIVE AN AVERAGE OF LESS THAN HALF PER HOME OF WHAT THE HOMES IN THE EAST GIVE! Here they're a Western, Christian area, supposed to be somewhat developed & industrialised & all the rest. Of course now they're broke & in debt & a horrible economic state for the plain & simple reason they let the [ACs] loan'm too much money until they became their slaves! Now they've gotta knuckle-down & kowtow & say "Uncle Sam" & crawl & grovel & beg & plead for mercy from the Protocolists! They've got'm under their thumb now. They wanted to do all that high living, & their rich people & their rich governments got rich by borrowed money, but now they're broke, can't pay & are having to sell themselves to the anti-Christs! They're paying now, & they'll pay & they'll pay & they'll never get out of it!—They're slaves to the End!
15. THAT'S JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLDWIDE TAKEOVER! IT'S SLOW LIKE CREEPING PARALYSIS OR A CREEPING DISEASE, BUT THE ANTICHRIST'S SYSTEM IS ALREADY HERE, BELOVED! It was even here in John's day. He said‚ "Even now there are many antichrists." (1John 2:18) Who do you think he was talking about? He had to deal with them then! And they've gotten worse as the World goes by, until finally they got into control. Now they're running the World—I believe they're running both sides of the World, East & West—& they are going to take it over one of these days. They've just about got it already, they just have a few more little problems to solve. Either the Crash or the War or collapse or whatever is going to bring that about, & then they'll come to the rescue as the saviours of the World! That's how he's going to get in power‚ they're going to put him in power as their god, their great king & emperor, but that's another subject. (See MLs 1342, 1344, 1494‚ 1528, 1613, 1639, etc.!)
16. SO WHY SHOULD NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH GIVING ONLY TWO-THIRDS AS MUCH PER HOME AS THE HOMES IN THE EAST? The East is the mission field, foreign countries, really foreign to the Westerners—foreign religions, foreign cultures, pagan, heathen, all kinds of Oriental religions, non-Christian except for perhaps one country in the East! The people living in North America & Europe have had a little recession & they've had a few problems, but they've still got something to eat. Even if they're on relief they get more money & more income & more food than the people in most of the poor countries of the East!
17. THE WEST LIVES BETTER ON WELFARE THAN THE PEOPLE IN THE EAST LIVE NORMALLY‚ ALL THE TIME, & YET THEY THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH GIVING ONLY TWO-THIRDS AS MUCH PER HOME AS THE AVERAGE EASTERN HOME filled with people who've just come out of Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Shintoism & various Oriental religions! Think of it! The people getting saved & finding the Lord in the East must be real thankful, because they give better than the people back yonder where some of you came from, such as Europe & North America!
18. THINK OF IT‚ THE HOMES IN THE EAST GIVE HALF AGAIN AS MUCH‚ 50% MORE ON THE AVERAGE PER HOME, THAN THE HOMES OF EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA, & TWICE AS MUCH AS THE HOMES OF SOUTH AMERICA! It shows you how God has blessed them for obeying‚ for going East & trying to evangelise the poor & the heathen—raw heathen, real heathen!—Not Catholics‚ not formal Christians, not a Judeo-Christian culture, but a totally foreign heathen Oriental culture of one kind or another! Look how God has blessed the people who have gone East. That ought to do your souls good, Easterners! GBY! God is blessing you 100% more, twice as much as the Homes of South America & half again as much as the rich Homes of North America & Europe! Think of it!
19. I THINK I'D BE AFRAID TO BE IN THE WEST, EVEN IN THE SOUTHWEST! You know, the World population now is four billion. I can remember when I was a kid that the World population was only one billion—it has now grown to four times as much just in my lifetime!—And not too many have starved to death yet, in spite of all the predictions of the prophets of doom of an over-populated World starving to death, blah blah!—As an excuse for killing babies!—Called "abortion"!
20. NOW THEY'RE EVEN REVISING THEIR ESTIMATES & ADMITTING, "WELL, IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH AFTER ALL OR AS SOON AS WE THOUGHT!" They put it off another century or so, it's going to happen in the 2,000s, blah blah! Well, it's not going to happen then either, thank God, because we're going to be running things then! I have to laugh every time I read those articles in the newspaper about all those poor Britishers & rich people in Hong Kong worrying about their money & worrying about Hong Kong! I say, "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of it!" By the time they have to give up Hong Kong, we'll be running it—& China too! Praise God! Ha! They're worried about Hong Kong in 1997, isn't that a scream?
21. THAT SHOWS YOU HOW THE RICH ARE, HOW THE SYSTEM IS, HOW THE WORLD IS, THEY CAN'T ENJOY WHAT THEY'VE GOT NOW FOR FEAR THEY'RE GOING TO LOSE IT 15 YEARS FROM NOW! My God, they could lose their lives before that! Think of it, they can't enjoy today for worrying about tomorrow! They're practically sick just worrying about not only tomorrow, not just next year, but 15 years from now, for fear they're going to lose all their money when China takes over, lose all their power & can't run Hong Kong any more!
22. WELL, LET ME TELL YOU‚ FROM THE WAY SOME OF THEM HAVE TREATED US, THEY DESERVE TO LOSE IT!—Those British governors & rulers there who have caused us so much trouble & made it so tough on us that it's impossible for some of the Family to even get into Hong Kong any more! They deserve to lose it & God's going to take it away from them! They tried to take it away from us but God's going to take it away from them!—And He just might give it to the Chinese if we could just get over to China & get enough [Chinese] saved so they can run it! It's going to be a little difficult to run so many Chinese countries & Chinese people when we have so few Chinese disciples. We've gotta get busy & win some more Chinese so we'll have enough Chinese to run things there! PTL!
23. WELL, WE'LL HAVE ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD & THE SPIRITS & EVERYBODY ELSE TO HELP US, SO I GUESS WE'LL HAVE A LOT OF HELP! There are probably already millions of Chinese in Heaven who know the language & know the people & the culture & are going to help us. Don't think we're going to have to do it all by ourselves‚ Beloved, there are already billions of people over there, as well as all the millions of angels! So we're going to have a lot of help.
24. SO WHAT'S NEW? THAT'S WHAT WE ALWAYS DID IN THE EARLY DAYS: NEW DISCIPLES ONLY GOT THE GP LIT‚ like the people got on the streets, for the first few months, then we raised them & gave them the DFO lit for the next 6 months, & finally we gave them DO lit. And if they stuck around long enough we gave them LT lit. It's nothing new, we're just going back to the tried-&–proven methods that produced the kind of disciples we had in those days.—Not just letting every Tom, Dick & Harry have any lit he wants as long as he's got plenty of money & can give a nice big tithe! Phooey! They've gotta prove themselves before they're going to get that lit, they can't just buy it! They're going to have to prove they are bona fide, reliable‚ verifiable, Family Members who are really filling out full TRFs‚ fellowshipping, witnessing, litnessing‚ supporting & known good Family Members. No more excuses!
25. IF YOU'VE LIVED ON A FARM AS I HAVE & GONE DOWN IN THE FRUIT CELLAR & found a bunch of rotten apples on the top of the barrel, you didn't mind getting rid of them at all‚ you threw them in the garbage real quick & fed'm to the pigs! You didn't do it with the slightest hesitancy, you dug'm out fast & got rid of'm quick, & that's what we're going to do, before they rot the rest! Nobody gets the Lit any more unless they really deserve it & want it awful bad, God helping us!
26. THE LORD MADE IT PRETTY TOUGH TO BE A DISCIPLE, & IN OUR EARLY DAYS WE DID TOO! Nobody joined in those days with a mere little 10% tithe, it was 100%, forsake-all, everything‚ & follow Me!—Jesus said it! (Mt.19:21) Lately we've let them get by with a lot, get away with a lot. Well, even that in some ways was the Lord sort of letting down the bars a little bit to try to encourage some people to come back & come in & give'm another chance. Well, now they've had their chance. They've had it long enough, they've had the Word long enough, they've had their chance long enough & if they haven't made it by now, I don't think they ever will. Amen? PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!
27. AT THE TIME OF THE RNR, PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED & DISMAYED AT WHAT DRASTIC ACTION I WAS GOING TO TAKE TO FIRE ALL THE LEADERS, THROW OUT THE WHOLE BUNCH & START OVER! Some of them flat-out said—not any of these here, thank God—that "it's going to kill the Revolution‚ it's going to kill the Family, destroy all the leadership! You're destroying the Family!" Top leaders said that to me, people like Jethro & Deb & Rachel. Well, I may have destroyed some of them who deserved to be destroyed, but we've got more Family now than ever & better Family & we're doing more than ever before! I mean, what we were doing then was nothing compared to what we're doing now, & the number & quality of our Family then was nothing compared to what it is now! So that drastic, destructive action helped make the Family what it is today, purged the ranks, purified our Family & made us what we ought to be! PTL?—Like Gideon did & Moses did, etc.!
28. I CAN BE TENDER SOMETIMES, ONCE IN AWHILE‚ BUT MOSTLY I'M PRETTY HARD & PRETTY TOUGH, especially when it comes to people who cause us a lot of trouble & do us a lot of damage & have for years, & I finally get fed up!
29. LET ME TELL YOU, IF I'D PUT MONEY FIRST, I WOULDN'T BE HERE TODAY. If it was money I was after, I wouldn't be here! I'm just here because I want to do the will of God & please the Lord & get the job done & get you out doing it & get the World evangelised & get as many millions saved as we can that we can take to Heaven with us!
30. WHY WORRY ABOUT MONEY?—THE LORD WILL SUPPLY! As long as we obey Him & do His will & do things the way He wants them done, He's got all the money in the World! It's all His! "He owns the cattle on a thousand hills"—that's not even enough—"the wealth in every mine!"—Our kids used to sing that song. He owns it all, it's all His, & He'll give it to whoever will follow & obey Him & do His Will & do the job!—Not loafers!
31. DON'T YOU THINK GOD IS GOING TO PAY HIS EMPLOYEES FAIRLY & WELL & REWARD THEM WELL TOO? Don't you think God's going to take good care of you? Don't worry about money‚ God will take care of you.—If you'll obey Him & do His will, He'll foot the bill. PTL? "Our God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory!" (Phil.4:19)
32. WE CAN'T EVEN TRUST PEOPLE WHO LIVE SO POORLY & HAVE SUCH POOR INCOMES & ARE SO UNRELIABLE & SO UNWILLING TO GIVE! You say, "Well, Dad, a lot of them are poor, they can't give." Well, why are they so poor? Why can't they? Why not get busy for God & do His will & God will make'm rich like He has the people in the East! They obeyed, they came, they chose the toughest field in the World & God is blessing them hand-over-fist, giving them double the income of the people back in the West!
33. HOW'S THAT FOR GOD'S BLESSING ON OBEDIENCE? PTL! TYL!—As well as delightful places & countries & climates to live in‚ wonderful people to work with & out of the unsafe dangerous North! Amen?—Let's pray.
34. (MARIA: TYJ! THANK YOU LORD FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL EVENING OF FELLOWSHIP TONIGHT & HEARING FROM YOU. We thank You for all that You show us day by day‚ the instruction You give us, & we thank You for leading & guiding in these new Revolutions that we know are needed. We thank You that even though one problem has been shown up, Lord, that You've used it to really make a very much-needed change in our whole Family & that it will really tighten up things & help us to be more dedicated, Lord‚ as a Family, & more wholehearted & 100-percenters! Just bless & help them to all take it by faith‚ knowing that You will supply, Lord, that that's what's necessary. So thank You for how You always give us each step, step by step, Lord. Continue to lead & guide us & keep us a real army for You! Bless & keep us, Lord‚ thank You for strengthening each one here & healing their bodies. Give us all a good night's rest tonight‚ Lord, safe in Thy care, in Jesus' name.) Amen! TYJ! TYL!
35. I'M SURE THERE ARE GOING TO BE SOME CRITICS WHO ARE GOING TO SAY WE'RE JUST DOING IT FOR THE MONEY, BUT WE STAND TO LOSE A LOT MORE THAN WE GAIN, EXCEPT FOR THE LORD. Looking at it in the natural, we could lose a lot! Some people are going to say, "Oh, Dad's too hard on the poor‚ & what about all those poor people & how can he be so mean & cruel & avaricious & demand so much?" I'll tell you how, because I'm concerned about your safety & welfare & security & our whole Family & its leadership, that's how! I thought I'd better tell you that too, because I'm sure there will be people who don't like it & who'll complain & who'll object. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we'll lose some, but the kind that we'll lose will be the kind we ought to lose & the kind we'll be better off without!
36. WE'VE NEVER HAD A PURGING YET THAT WE WEREN'T BETTER OFF AFTERWARD, LATER, ALTHOUGH SOMETIMES IT TOOK AWHILE TO RECOVER. Immediately after the RNR our finances took a nosedive down about 25% of what they had been, we paid for it‚ but it was worth it! Now they're several times more than they used to be & we're accomplishing several times as much & publishing many times more! Was it worth it? (Fam: Amen!)
37. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO TAKE A BACKSTEP IN ORDER TO TAKE A FEW STEPS FORWARD. You have to back off from some things when you're going the wrong direction. If you've ever been hiking & gotten lost, you'll find out it's better to backtrack & go back to where you knew where you were & what direction to go & then start over again, than it is to keep wandering around in the woods & getting worse lost than ever! So sometimes you need to backtrack to get your bearings & find the right direction. PTL? So time spent getting the right direction & sometimes backtracking is not time wasted, any more than time spent sharpening the scythe is time wasted. Sometimes you have to do that to find out where you're at & where you're going. PTL?—And I think we found out & I think we're going to make it! TTL! GBAKYGFG in the right direction!—In Jesus' name, amen.