TO THE NORTHWEST BRETHREN--AND SISTERS!  DO 109   9/71

ADVICE ON WINNING & REHABILITATING CHURCH SYSTEMITES
         1. I WANT TO WARN ALL OF YOU THAT ALTHOUGH THERE ARE CERTAINLY NO NEUTRALS WHEN THE HOUR OF DECISION COMES, until that hour comes, there may be some who are still hanging in the balance who might be swayed easily one way or the other, depending on how much love & wisdom you use, or how many offenses you commit! "But offenses needs must come," & "blessed is he that is not offended in Me."--Mat.18:7; 11:6. Just remember that some people learn slowly, don't always adjust readily & need a little time to grow. You can't push some people too fast.
         2. SYSTEM WITHDRAWAL IS THE HARDEST, WORST & MOST LONG-LASTING OF ALL! It is diabolical! I ought to know! I went through it for years--& it took me a long time to get THIS far, as many others of you with strong churchy backgrounds can probably also testify. Those with strong churchy Christian backgrounds are the hardest of all to rehabilitate! Some may have even already partially left the System, but it's still hard to get the System out of THEM. It's easier to reach & teach a hippie off the street, because he's already dropped out, already hates the System & Churchianity & knows that's not where it's at! He only needs to be told where to find the Answer in the Love of Jesus & the Brethren & to see it with his eyes to believe it!
         3. BUT THE GOOD CHRISTIAN CHURCH FOLKS HAVE BEEN TOO DEEP IN IT, ARE TOO INDOCTRINATED WITH IT, too brainwashed by it & too molded through it, to get out that easy. They have real withdrawal pains--real birth pangs, & it's not easy for them & they still think the church wasn't all that bad & don't see why we have to so completely & totally break with it & rebel against the whole churchianity System! They're like the people in Mountain Valley, they're so far above the rest of the World they think they are really pretty good & don't see too much wrong with where they're at! "Isn't it better than MOST people?" That's why churchianity is such a damnable deception & such an accursed counterfeit! It's that sickening lukewarmness that puts'm to sleep & doesn't wake them up, like dousing them with either hot or cold water would!
         4. HOWEVER, BECAUSE SOME OF THEM ARE IGNORANTLY SO, because they've never had the truth or had a chance to make a decision, you might yet be able to win them if you use an extra lot of love & patience, wisdom & nursing. They're like handicapped, half-dead-born, deformed, retarded children! Horrible, isn't it, what System churchianity does to its children--the kind of children borne by the Whore! But we have to try to salvage them if we can, even though some of them seem like hopeless cases!--Especially when God throws them right in our laps or leaves the poor little orphans on our doorstep!
         5. THEY'RE TOO DIFFICULT TO CURE OF THEIR MANY RELIGIOUS DISEASES & DEFORMITIES, & they're so far behind in their extremely backward state of retardation. Even the worst of the hippies & the most radical of the revolutionaries knows more about what the score is today & what's happening & what's wrong with it than the average churchy Christian! The hippies have at least got their eyes open--but there are none so blind as the will-not-see church people! I don't know if it's even worth the trouble of trying to pry their lids open & operate on their spiritual eyesight when they don't really want to see & are satisfied just like they are. I've nearly given up on church people, they are almost a hopeless case!
         6. BUT WHEN THEY ACTUALLY COME TO US BEGGING FOR HELP, like the Nicodemuses, Rich Young Rulers, Almost Disciples, Houses of Cornelius, Blind Bartimaeuses, Ten Lepers & others really seeking help, we've got to try to do SOMETHING for them, even if only a few of them make it. We will have at least delivered our souls! These churchy people can't even begin to stand as strong meat as the kids on the street! You really have to baby them along, hold'm by the hand, keep a bottle in their mouth & constantly be comforting their wailings & answering their complaints! They are horrible, really sick, & the slightest little morsel of meat or solid food sticks in their craw or terribly upsets their extremely weak spiritual stomachs! They just can't take ANYTHING--& sometimes I wonder if they are worth the trouble!
         7. BUT LET'S FACE IT, I WAS ONE OF THE WORST OF THEM--A PHARISEE OF THE PHARISEES--a Jew of the Jews--a Hater of Hippies--a Curser of Commies--& so damn sanctimonious & self-righteous in my narrow little doctrines & exclusive little religiosity that you couldn't have touched me with a ten-foot pole! I thought I really had it made, like the Apostle Paul! I would've held the coats for those who stoned any different Stephens & would probably have tossed a few bricks myself!--Until the Lord had to strike me down with direct light & voices from Heaven before He could wake me up! And even then it took me years to learn all the facts, the whole truth, the awful truth.--So that now sometimes I even shock myself & am shocked with what the Lord is doing--absolutely awed by the radicalism of His Spirit & the Revolution of His Truth!
         8. IT'S BEEN A REAL MINDBLOWER FOR ME & HAS TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT & NEARLY BLEW ME AWAY--if it hadn't been for the persistent patience of His Spirit, the faithfulness of His Word & the love of others. Thank God, I believe I'm makin' it! I might even make it yet! I certainly haven't yet attained but we're all still learning, & with us former Pharisaical churchy Christians it's a long, hard, painful drawn-out process sometimes, instead of an immediate crisis & an instant transformation! The hippies of today are His instant disciples--but most of your former Christians have to learn the hard way. We've certainly had less success with them & I think when we finish analysing all of our backsliders of the past, we'll find that most of them were former Christians, so-called.
         9. AND I THINK YOU'LL FIND THAT MOST OF OUR STRONGEST, MOST FAITHFUL & LOYAL CHILDREN & LEADERS WERE NOT VERY CHURCHY TO BEGIN WITH! I certainly didn't rear my kids that way! They were born Revolutionists--born & reared after I had already begun to revolt! We took'm out of school & out of church & taught & trained them ourselves & never let the God-damned System have them, thank God! That's why they're all so strong today & why you're just like them! We reared you all the same--only I think some of you later children are even an improvement on the stock! Hallelujah! Amen?


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