DO 2352 9/87

1. THE SESSIONS BETWEEN THESE TOP FOREIGN MINISTERS—SHEVARDNADZE OF RUSSIA, & SHULTZ OF THE U.S.—HAVE BEEN LASTING ALL DAY LONG, & DAY AFTER DAY, & they both have made very encouraging announcements that they have reached a basic agreement on the complete elimination of short-range & medium-range missiles, atom bombs, to get rid of'm, leaving only the Inter-continental Ballistic Missiles!—And they even made some encouraging remarks about them, saying that they will be working on trying to eliminate them next & hoping to look forward to a Nuclear-Free World & a World at peace!

2. THEY SAY IT IS THE GREATEST ADVANCE IN DISARMAMENT IN NUCLEAR HISTORY! Reagan & Shultz both made big announcements, & it's the most encouraging & optimistic I've ever heard them speak! They were really down-to-Earth, speaking frankly & very seriously & soberly. And then Shevardnadze announced it on worldwide TV.

3. IT'S A BIG‚ BIG THING, IT'S BIG, BIG NEWS! They said that the Reykjavik, Iceland Summit & the Geneva Summit both sowed the seeds of this agreement. The technical details still need to be worked out, but they have definitely come to a basic agreement & both of them said they could see nothing that could prevent them from coming to a complete treaty that could be signed by both Reagan & Gorbachev when he comes to New York before the end of the year to attend the Joint Session of the U.N. They expect to have the treaty ready for them both to sign, which will mean the complete dismantling, defanging & de-arming of these missiles within the next two or three years! It's a big job & it's going to take them quite awhile.

4. (MARIA: IT'S REALLY QUITE A CHANGE IN ATTITUDE! IS THERE A LOT OF OPPOSITION TO IT?) Well, there are a few die–hard ultra- conservatives who are opposing it & who don't think the U.S. should ever sign any kind of treaty with Russia, the more or less militant warmongers who are determined to have war with Russia, but the main parties are all agreeing that they have now reached the final stage of actually disarming!

5. I'VE HEARD THEM TALK ABOUT DISARMAMENT EVER SINCE I WAS A KID & READ ABOUT IT IN THE PAPERS FOR DECADES! If they actually do it this time, this will be the first time that the World has ever come to actually disarming‚ actually eliminating major arms! They've talked about it & they've had disarmament conferences & blah, blah, blah, but they have never really done it before!

6. SO I THINK OUR PRAYERS HAVE HELPED, & IT'S QUITE SOMETHING WHAT THE LORD SAID ABOUT GORBACHEV! THAT WAS QUITE A SHOCKER! (Maria: He kept calling him "My son"—do you think in the sense that he's His creation & He's using him?) I don't think it's in the sense of him being necessarily saved, but that the Lord is using him as a tool to try to prevent World destruction. He called Nebuchadnezzar His instrument before he was ever saved.—Jer.27:6-11. (Maria: Calling him "My son" shows a real closeness!) Yes‚ well, that means he's obviously yielded to doing God's Will, that's what I took it as meaning.—That he is God's instrument in trying to bring World peace, to make the World last a little longer, & he's doing it!

7. OF COURSE, HE'S HAD TO FIGHT A LOT OF BITTER OPPOSITION, the Old Guard‚ the old stick-in-the-mud die-hard ultra-Communists, the reactionaries who don't want to change & don't want Russia to change & don't want economic change or anything, who don't want to make peace with the U.S.—And of which the U.S. has its share too, of course, of people who don't want to make peace with Russia, a lot of whom are probably the ultra-conservative Evangelicals, the most militant, warmongering people of all! (Maria: They're so hateful & spiteful too. They claim to be forgiving & loving but they hate people who don't believe the way they do.)—Yes! They hate the Communists & they really want war!

8. THAT‚ TO ME‚ IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ASPECT OF THIS WHOLE THING, that some trigger–happy ultra-anti-Communists may consider it their spiritual duty to go ahead & press the button quick before they can get rid of all the missiles! There are Evangelical Christians just like that in the U.S. who may think it's absolutely their duty to fire before they get all disarmed, "to destroy Russia in the name of God"!—And Gorbachev probably has his share of people like that too.

9. SO THE MORE I HEARD ABOUT THIS, THE MORE I THOUGHT, "BOY, THAT'S THE DANGEROUS THING‚ if some fanatics figure they'd better push the button now before they get rid of the bombs, & jump the gun & go ahead & fire!" So in a way it's extremely dangerous! (Maria: Yes, because a lot of the Military leaders in the U.S. are now Evangelical Christians.) Yes, & the military leaders are the ones who are most opposed on both sides! The military, the real militant warmongers, hard-line Hawks, are criticising it & saying, "We're losing our nuclear umbrella & blah blah!" (Maria: And they're the ones that have access to the buttons!)—Yes‚ exactly!

10. SO IN SOME WAYS, JUST AS PEACE SEEMS LIKE IT'S ACTUALLY IN VIEW, IT IS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS TIMES when some nut is just apt to press the button before he loses his chance to do so! (Maria: Maybe one nut can't by himself, but he could get together with a bunch of nuts!) Yes, they have checks & balances so that one man alone cannot push the button, it actually takes two or three together to get the codes & the keys.

11. SO THIS COULD EITHER BE THE MOST HOPEFUL TIME IN MODERN WORLD HISTORY, in which the major Super Powers are coming to an agreement to abandon most of their nukes‚ or the most dangerous time! In other words, we're on the verge of peace or on the verge of war, one or the other!

12. SOME EUROPEANS ARE SAYING THEY'RE AFRAID THEY'RE BEING ABANDONED, because the nukes that are going to be put out of commission & dismantled, the short & medium range missiles, are mostly in Europe. And of course Russia's are nearly all in Russia & the East Bloc, including in Eastern Russia, the Kamchatka Peninsula etc.

13. THEY SAY THAT UP TO THIS TIME THE RUSSIAN LEADERS HAVE ALWAYS SAID A FLAT "NYET" OR NO TO ANY SUGGESTION THAT THEY ABANDON THEIR NUCLEAR ARMS, one of the main reasons being they didn't want to abandon their nuclear warheads in the East. But now they say they're agreeing to that too! In fact, the agreement covers about 1200 bombs on the Russian side & about 600 on the American side! The Russians have twice as many of that size. (Maria: So the Americans are getting the best deal!)—Exactly!

14. THE RUSSIANS ARE AGREEING TO GIVE UP THE MOST‚ WHICH IS REALLY ALMOST SHOCKING! (Maria: That's probably the only way the Americans would agree to it.)—Yes, that's what they're all saying. It's the best deal they've ever struck with the Russians, & Reagan is very anxious to get it done & signed before the end of the year as it'll be a feather in his cap, a cover-up to make him look like a hero & help people forget some of the bad things that have happened, by praising him for having accomplished this seemingly impossible feat! So he's taking a lot of credit for it, & of course he wants this big victory as a feather in his cap before he leaves office.

15. (MARIA: MAYBE THAT'S THE ONLY WAY THE LORD COULD HAVE PERSUADED HIM TO DO IT!)—Yes, I think so. That's the very thing that came to me, that he is so anxious to cover up his past sins, that he is willing to make almost any sacrifice! They say he's come full–circle around from just the opposite position he's had before. (Maria: To redeem himself!) Yes, the Lord let it happen, so now he wants to wipe the slate clean & have a big feather in his cap while departing from the presidency, so he'll be remembered as "The President who brought nuclear peace!"—Instead of just the opposite!

16. AND GORBACHEV IS ALSO EXTREMELY EAGER TO DO IT FOR ALMOST THE SAME REASON!—Not to wipe out his past, but to have a tremendous victory like this which the people of both nations are applauding & are greatly relieved & thankful for! The people of both nations are applauding it & are shouting praises to it! The common people, the ones who would get killed, wiped out, are the most thankful & are applauding it the most! —And the way the people go, the politicians go! It's the militaries on both sides who are having their doubts & misgivings & speaking their criticisms & warnings & cautions & blah blah blah!

17. GORBACHEV NEEDS THIS VICTORY TO HELP HIM PUT ACROSS HIS ECONOMIC PLANS to try to bring Russia out of the doldrums & mess it's been in economically with shortages & poor work‚ poor products, defective products & all kinds of things. The people won't work because they have no incentive to work, so he wants to do a little like China has done & have a partial rewarding of good work‚ letting people have their own businesses etc.‚ which the Capitalists, of course, are claiming is their system, & that he's wanting partial Capitalism, & in a way it's true!

18. RUSSIA IS NOW ALLOWING CERTAIN BUSINESSES PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, SUCH AS TAXIS, BEAUTY PARLORS ETC., & there are quite a string of them! They say it's a little difficult to get permission for it, but when they do, the government sets'm up in business! The government gives them the location & furnishes the building & buys'm the original tools & everything they need for the business or trade. In other words‚ the government is loaning them the money etc. to get set up, & then out of the profits, they're to pay the government back for its help.

19. IN OTHER WORDS, AFTER ONLY A LITTLE OVER 70 YEARS OF COMMUNISM THEY'RE FINDING OUT IT DOESN'T WORK! (Maria: Yes, like you pointed out in "Why Our Family Really Works!") (See #2342)—Yes, because without a real spirit of Love & sacrifice & wanting to help others out of duty & love & unselfishness, that kind of a thing doesn't work in this selfish worldly World where everybody is out for himself & "What's in it for me?"

20. THEY'RE FINDING THAT SUCH AN IDEALISTIC SYSTEM DOESN'T REALLY WORK WITH AN UNIDEALISTIC PEOPLE! Communism has just gotten in a terrible rut & bad economic state, & they can see that they're just not keeping up with the rest of the World in spite of their great revolution & advance & blah, blah. They're beginning to be honest enough to see the flaws in their system.

21. —AND THAT'S GORBACHEV! He's the one who's honest enough to speak out against the errors & mistakes & flaws of Communism & their system! He sees where it's really wrecked the economy, so he's trying to stabilise prices & get rid of government-subsidised prices, centralised control & a lot of the lazy old bosses & lazy workers that aren't really willing to work! So now he is going to reward good work & good management & give incentives & even profit-sharing businesses & small private businesses & all kinds of things.

22. HE'S REALLY GOING THE CHINESE ROUTE! He's seen it has worked in China, & China is still Communist. In other words, it's not going to endanger their system, at least not yet, I guess! So they're seeing that they're desperately in need of change in their economic system, & the only way they can do it is by abandoning the horrible costly arms race where about a third of their whole economic income etc. goes into arms & war & all that!

23. THIS IS THE TROUBLE WITH THE WORLD & ONE REASON WHY A LOT OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES ARE SO POOR‚ is because they spend too much money on arms & war & trying to make sure they can out-gun their neighbours! They spend such a large amount of their economy on weapons that the rest of the economy suffers.—Including the U.S.! Good night! Just think of it! They've got a 300-billion-Dollar war bill every year, war budget, spent on the monumental military establishments that they have to support & these costly weapons! The battleships & nuclear subs are starting to cost a billion Dollars apiece! And tanks & planes are now costing millions of Dollars apiece! It's getting so costly that it's terrible! It's making the Americans poor, that's what it's doing! That's why they can't undersell other countries.

24. AND NOW, 40 YEARS AFTER THE WAR, THEY'RE SUDDENLY WAKING UP TO THE FACT THAT THE CONQUERED NATIONS LIKE GERMANY & JAPAN who were forbidden by law to manufacture weapons or have big armies or big arms, have gotten to be the richest, most prosperous nations on the face of the Earth! They don't have to spend that money on arms‚ they can spend it on products for their people & spend it on research & development & all kinds of things that are beneficial & good for the people!

25. THEREFORE JAPAN & GERMANY LOST THE WAR, BUT HAVE WON THE ECONOMY & have both gotten to the top as far as their economies are concerned! The richest, most prosperous nations now on the face of the Earth per capita are the ones who lost the war & were forbidden to have big military establishments & huge armaments, so from the money they saved they've built tremendous economies! And the U.S. & Russia are now beginning to wake up to that fact, that if they didn't have to spend all that money on bombs & military establishments, they'd be a lot more prosperous & they could make a lot more things—what they call consumer goods that the consumers want & products that they now stand in line for in Russia & which Americans are buying on credit like mad! They can't really afford them‚ but they're going into debt for them, & of course, that's going to have its day of reckoning.

26. SO IN SOME WAYS THE WORLD IS BEGINNING TO LEARN A FEW LESSONS & WAKE UP, BUT IT'LL PROBABLY BE TOO LATE!—Just like this banning of the bomb. Some crazy idiot may try to talk some other guys into punching the button before they get rid of all the bombs! Let's hope not! (Maria: Well, according to what the Lord showed you, the war will come last.) Yes‚ but it could threaten to come fairly soon.

27. WE FIGURED OUT THAT THE LORD MIGHT EVEN COME AS SOON AS 1989 OR 1990. This might be another interpretation. Maybe they're going to settle this now & make peace for another 3-&-1/2 years, for example, or maybe even seven years.

28. THE U.S. WANTS THE TREATY TO SAY THAT THEY'VE GOT TO GET RID OF ALL OF THE BOMBS WITHIN THREE YEARS. Russia says that it's impossible‚ it'll take five years to dismantle them all & destroy them or whatever they're going to do with them. It's going to require a certain amount of on–the–spot inspection & supervision etc. so that each nation can see that the other one is really doing it! So if they work out all those kinks & knots & bugs, they'll be doing pretty well.

29. SOME OF THE CRITICS & SKEPTICS ARE SAYING, "WELL, THEY HAVEN'T WORKED OUT THE DETAILS YET & THAT'S WHERE THEY'LL GET STUCK!"—Because it's been over details that they've gotten stuck & struck snags before. But the optimists, who are the main government officials of both countries, seem to be very optimistic. It's the Militarists of both countries who are skeptical.

30. SO IT'S A CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE POLITICIANS & THE MILITARY! The politicians are just eager & striving desperately to reach an agreement because they know that that's what the people want, & the people are the ones that put'm in power. They know that that's what they need to save their economies—to stop wasting all this money on huge military establishments & weapons etc.! They're looking at Germany & Japan & seeing how marvellously they've done without any huge armies & weapons & they want to do the same. They're finally waking up‚ but of course we don't know yet whether it's going to be too late.

31. THE LORD IS NOT GOING TO LET THE WAR COME UNTIL AFTER HE TAKES US OUT! So if this, let's say, "threat of peace" causes somebody to start the war, then the Lord would have to come pretty soon! (Maria: Yes, if they're saying they can get it done in three years!) Yes, if somebody is going to push the button before they get it done, they're going to have to push it within the next three to five years while they're doing it. (Maria: So if the war is not going to happen until after Jesus comes‚ it means that the Lord will probably have to come within the next three to five years, right?)

32. WELL, OF COURSE, ALSO REMEMBER THIS: THEY'RE NOT EVEN WORKING ON THE ICBMS YET, the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, the big atom bombs that travel 5,000 miles & shoot across oceans! They're not working on those. (Maria: Then what's the good of taking out all the little ones?) Well, it's a relief, at least, just to get rid of some of them! (Maria: Yes, but if the big ones could do it all by themselves, what's the difference?) Well, the big ones are not nearly as trustworthy‚ reliable or accurate. They've got to fly clear across oceans & the aim is not too good & all that, so it won't be quite as easy to fight an atomic war if the only thing they can use are the big ones.

33. (MARIA: THEY'LL STILL HAVE THOSE AS THEIR LAST RESORT!) Yes, they'll still have those as a last resort, so that could still do it.—And those are the ones that the U.S. has in the U.S. itself, trained on Russia, & the ones Russia has in Russia itself trained on the U.S.! So they could still wipe each other out, but not quite so accurately & they don't feel they're quite as apt to do that. They figure the little ones can only do so much damage, maybe enough to win a war, but not totally wipe each other out. And besides, the little ones that Russia has trained on Europe would only wipe out Europe, not the U.S.A.!—Get it?

34. SO THE U.S. IS WILLING TO GIVE THOSE UP, & SOME EUROPEANS ARE BEING PRETTY SKEPTICAL & SAYING THEY'RE GETTING ABANDONED & that the U.S. is backing down now to where if there is a war, it just means that Europe is going to get wiped out & maybe the U.S. is getting out. So the Europeans are a little bit worried about getting abandoned.

35. SOME AUTHORITIES NOW ARE SO ENCOURAGED BY THE PROGRESS THEY'VE MADE ON THE REDUCTION OF NUCLEAR ARMS‚ THAT THEY'RE AFRAID THE U.S. IS GOING TO WANT TO REDUCE ITS NEARLY HALF-A-MILLION CONVENTIONAL FORCES IN EUROPE & BACK OUT, since Russia won't be quite as big a threat now to Europe because of its abandonment of its missiles that are trained on Europe. The argument they've always used is that the U.S. would have to have nuclear arms in Europe to protect Europe, because they don't have enough conventional forces there. (Maria: So if they took both out, the Europeans would really feel abandoned!)—Yes!

36. EVEN THOUGH RUSSIA TAKES ITS BOMBS OUT, THEY SAY THAT RUSSIA'S CONVENTIONAL FORCES ARE TWO OR THREE TIMES AS BIG & POWERFUL AS EUROPE'S & THE AMERICAN FORCES THERE COMBINED, so that if Russia decides to then start a conventional war, it could quickly conquer Europe! And at the same time, both countries would be afraid to use their ICBMs, their Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, because they know that those big babies would wipe'm both out!—In other words, it's a deterrent.

37. THE CRITICS & THE SKEPTICS & SOME EUROPEANS WHO ARE AFRAID THAT THE U.S., BY BEING SO EAGER TO GET THIS TREATY SIGNED, IS ABANDONING THE EUROPEANS, ARE SAYING THAT RUSSIA IS GETTING THE ADVANTAGE by keeping its ICBMs, which they're not apt to use on each other, but that they're getting rid of the other missiles in order to get the advantage of conventional forces! (Maria: Maybe it's true. Maybe that's how Russia will get the European nations in its pockets as the Bible predicts! They'll join the Antichrist.) Well, that's what I've said!