David Berg
—By Father DavidDFO 94221/10/80
—(INTRODUCTION FOR "ALL-KOMIX MAG 31")
Dear Family & Friends:
1. HERE IS YOUR LATEST ALL-KOMIX MAGAZINE 31 WITH 176 PAGES CONTAINING 38 KOMIX BY 16 ARTISTS! All of these have never been published before. So therefore you have never seen them before & they will be entirely new to you.
2. THEY'RE ARRANGED NUMERICALLY for your convenience according to the Letters from which they were taken. And of course there will be some numbers missing, since not all the Letters are suitable for Komix.
3. THEY ARE ALSO DIVIDED INTO TWO CLASSIFICATIONS, EITHER G.P.—SUITABLE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC & sales on the streets or anywhere to anybody with suitable wisdom & discretion regarding your area & its restrictions & conditions & people, & suitable for reprinting on your own for this purpose.
4. OTHERS ARE CLASSIFIED AS D.F.O. FOR THE FAMILY & FRIENDS ONLY, usually of a more deeply spiritual nature or stronger meat which is better for personal use with either the Family or those friends whom you know well, or personal contacts such as DTD, FFing, etc., which are suitable for reprinting for this type of distribution.
5. YOU LIMS & LIT-PICS WILL WANT TO TRANSLATE SOME OF BOTH CLASSIFICATIONS for your general local language audiences. Some are suitable for a general public ministry on the street or anywhere. Others are only suitable for a personal ministry amongst personal contacts‚ family & friends, if presented with care & discretion & a fairly good knowledge of the type of person to whom you are presenting them, knowing them well enough to know that the Komix are good for them & suitable for such use.
6. SOME OF THEM ARE CONTROVERSIAL & POSSIBLY QUESTIONABLE FOR USE IN SOME CASES with some audiences, so know your audience & be sure you are reprinting & distributing each Komic to those for whom they are best suited & not likely to cause you any unnecessary or serious objections or trouble.
7. SOME ARE OF A RATHER POLITICAL OR ECONOMIC NATURE of a fairly liberal leaning which you may not find suitable for ultra-conservative areas or closed countries who are of an opposite philosophy, unless very privately presented to very good well–known friends who will not use them against you.
8. OTHERS ARE OF A VERY DEEPLY SPIRITUAL NATURE INCOMPREHENSIBLE TO SOME AUDIENCES, which should be presented judiciously only to those whom you think will understand them or may need that particular message & appreciate it.
9. OTHERS ARE EVEN RATHER SEXY IN ART & CONTENT which may be offensive to certain conservative audiences, particularly the older generation in more ultra-conservative areas & closed countries of very narrow-minded religions, which could either actually get you in trouble if distributed unwisely or even get all of our material banned from that particular country.
10. SO PLEASE DO NOT REPRINT FOR MISUSE IN THE WRONG AREAS TO THE WRONG PEOPLE! KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! Be sure that you reprint for distribution to that particular audience what is best for them & will cause you the least inconvenience or trouble, as well as the material they most need.
11. YOU WILL ALSO FIND THAT SOMETIMES TWO OR THREE DIFFERENT ARTISTS HAVE ILLUSTRATED THE SAME LETTER, so simply choose the particular Komic that you prefer & reprint that one. You do not have to reprint all two or three Komix on the same subject or of the same title or from the same Letter. We are simply putting them all in here so that you may make your own choice of what you like best & think you need most & would be most useful & beneficial in your area for either or both public & friends.
12. YOU ARE EVEN FREE TO MAKE ANY CHANGES YOU THINK ARE NECESSARY to make them more suitable for your particular use or audience or area‚ either in the text or the art, so as to make them inoffensive & yet beneficial for your particular use, as long as you do not change the basic message, facts or truth. You are even welcome to delete any portion of the text or art which you feel would be unacceptable in your particular area or ministry.
13. YOU ALSO DO NOT HAVE TO REPRINT THEM IN THE NAME OF ANY PARTICULAR ORGANISATION OR FAMILY NAME or address which might be known‚ recognised & objectionable to your particular audience or if they fell in the hands of outright enemies. But usually they should bear some name & copyright or some form of credit as required in nearly all countries for any form of printed matter.
14. IF YOU FEEL IT WOULD BE SAFER TO USE YOUR OWN LOCAL NAME & ADDRESS, BY ALL MEANS DO SO, & if you feel justified in dropping the well–known name of the author you may do so. But we feel that normally due credit should certainly be given to the name of the illustrator or the artist, which is unlikely to be either known or recognised as one of us, & the literature might even be more suspicious if it bore no names & no copyrights & no credits whatsoever!
15. IN A CLOSED COUNTRY LIKE ERSTWHILE FRANCO SPAIN WE USED TO RETYPE SOME OF THE LETTERS which we wanted to give to personal friends & acquaintances without any credits whatsoever, except to say, "Here's a little something that I wrote," or "a little something which a friend wrote which we liked, which we think you might enjoy also."
16. IN SOME COUNTRIES OR AREAS THERE MAY BE AN INTENSE CAMPAIGN OR RIGID RESTRICTIONS AGAINST ANY LITERATURE of an opposite political, religious or economic philosophy to that of the government or the country, & many countries have very narrow restrictions on anything of a sexual nature whatsoever, calling the art "pornography" & the text "obscenity".
17. IN SOME AREAS RIGHT NOW THERE IS AN INTENSE CAMPAIGN BY A CERTAIN PEOPLE AGAINST ANY LITERATURE WHICH THEY INTERPRET AS BEING ANTI-SEMITIC or pro-Arab, so please be very wise & careful about anything which you republish about the Jews which might be misconstrued as being of such a nature. In some countries these people are so active & militant‚ & more so all the time, that even to write or distribute anything which they can accuse of being racist can put you in prison or make you subject to heavy fines!
18. SO WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ANY LITERATURE WHICH MIGHT BE ACCUSED OF HAVING THIS NATURE in your particular area according to your particular audience. "Be wise as serpents & harmless as doves‚ for behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves!" (Mt.10:16) It surely seems in these Last Days that the true sheep are becoming fewer & fewer & the wolves more & more numerous‚ so watch your step, watch your words & watch your lit!
19. BE SURE THAT YOU READ "COMMON SENSE LIT" (ML #923; Vol.8) & other similar Letters & admonitions along this line before you reprint any of these, so you can properly choose the best lit most suitable for your area & audience & individual ministry.
20. OF COURSE, EVEN VERY CONTROVERSIAL LITERATURE CAN BE EASILY & WISELY DISTRIBUTED TO THOSE OF THE SAME VIEWS, & could even help you win friends amongst such people. Just pick your choices very carefully & prayerfully before you reprint them for whatever use you feel you like & need most & would be most helpful in your particular area & ministry.
21. OF COURSE, SOMETIMES IT IS THE DANGEROUS DUTY OF ANY PROPHET TO GIVE AN UNPOPULAR MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED IT‚ whether they like it or not, such as the Warning Message of doom to Americans‚ our anti-abortion message to the abortionists, our anti-war message to the militarists, our warning to the West of its impending doom for its selfishness, decadence & Godlessness, & the resultant Message of Jeremiah.
22. SOME CONTAIN EVEN OUR WARNINGS TO THOSE WHO ARE ANTI-CHRIST, that they too will be judged for continuing to crucify Jesus in us & other Christians, as well as our warnings to the churches that they are failing God in not witnessing & evangelising the World or helping to support such efforts.
23. SO WE CANNOT BE MERELY MEN-PLEASERS & SIMPLY TICKLE THEIR EARS WITH ONLY WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR & AGREE WITH. We must give the Message of God as it is, to whom He wants to hear it, & let the chips fall where they may, even if sometimes it hurts. All of the prophets of God are persecuted sooner or later, & many have died as martyrs for God's Message.
24. "BLESSED ARE YE WHEN MEN SHALL REVILE YOU & SHALL HATE YOU & SHALL PERSECUTE YOU & shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake & the Gospel's. Rejoice & be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you!" (Mt.5:11,12.)
25. BUT JUST DON'T CAUSE YOURSELF UNNECESSARY TROUBLE BY CASTING YOUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE & THAT WHICH IS HOLY UNTO THE DOGS, lest they trample them under their feet & turn again & rend you. (Mt.7:6.) Don't deliberately give out a controversial message to a people whom you know will hate it & oppose it & persecute you for it‚ unless you feel particularly called to be a martyr with a Message you feel is compulsory, & that is your special ministry & you are ready to end it quickly!—Or unless you can get out fast!
26. REMEMBER WHAT JESUS SAID, "BEHOLD, I SEND YOU FORTH AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES! BE YE THEREFORE WISE AS SERPENTS & HARMLESS AS DOVES!" (Mt.10:16.) Remember, as I have said, "If you don't know your meat, know your butcher! You'd also better know what lit is meat for them, or you could get yourself butchered! Just pray & ask God what He wants you to tell'm, & then simply be the channel that brings it to them by means of these Komix if you feel them useful & helpful.
27. MAY GOD BLESS YOU & KEEP YOU & MAKE YOU & THESE KOMIX A BLESSING TO MANY, in Jesus' name‚ amen.—Thanks!—Love,—Dad