ONLY A FIRST CHANCE!        DO 2141        6/2/85--And Paradise on Earth!        ET# 21

       1. I HAVEN'T GOT ALL THE ANSWERS, DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, BUT WE HAVE RECEIVED A LITTLE MORE LIGHT ON SOME OF THESE THINGS. The sun doesn't just pop out in the morning, boom, like that, all of a sudden! First there's a long period of dawn--that's even longer in farther northern climates--& it begins to get a little lighter & a little lighter, a little lighter, & finally the sun itself begins to show a little bit. But it doesn't jump right up into the noon sky!
       2. GOD SEEMS TO BE FOND OF DOING THINGS SLOWLY & THOROUGHLY, SLOW BUT SURE, SO THAT THINGS WON'T BE TOO SUDDEN, & that's the way He's revealed Bible Prophecy & interpretation to us. He keeps giving us a little more light & a little more light as we go along & it's a wise man who is smarter tomorrow than he was yesterday. I guess the Lord knows we're not that smart, that our heads can't hold too much at once.

       ONLY A FIRST CHANCE!
       3. JESUS HAS ALREADY COME INTO HIS KINGDOM, THANK THE LORD, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN! He's There!--And He's here too, thank the Lord! He even told a dying thief, "This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise!" Where did He go? He went to the heart of the Earth! (Mat.12:40; 1Pe.3:19; 4:6; Eph.4:9) Do you mean there's a Paradise in the heart of the Earth? Maybe Jules Verne wasn't so wrong after all in his "Journey to the Center of the Earth" where he discovered a Paradise. Of course, it turned out his Paradise was full of prehistoric monsters. Some theorists in the old days before they mapped the World very well thought you could sail up to the North Pole & the Earth had a hole in it & you could sail right on around down inside of the Earth.
       4. BUT THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS, THERE IS A PARADISE DOWN THERE! Do you know what the Bible name for it is? Some of you forgot that little study I gave on the words for Hell, that Hell has three different meanings. Our English translation only gives you the word "Hell" & it all means the same thing to nearly everybody, a Lake of Fire or a burning hell, whereas that is only the word "Gehenna". (Fam: "Sheol" is the grave.) You're dead & buried six feet under, & you go some place to wait for the Resurrection, depending on how good or bad you were. And one of those places is called what? (Fam: Purgatory?) Well, Purgatory is another name for the Lake of Fire or where you are trained, that's right, but Purgatory is not actually a Biblical word. I'm talking about the original Greek & Hebrew words. (Fam: Hades?)--Right! Hades is the Paradisical waiting place for the souls who have gone on & are not yet resurrected, but who deserve to go to a Paradise & not a Lake of Fire. So there you have three words for Hell: Gehenna is the customary, traditional idea of a fiery Hell, the opposite extreme is Hades, a Paradise--not on Earth but in Earth--& the other, Sheol or the grave, is something that seems to be neither one!
       5. HEY, THAT'S ANOTHER GOOD POINT! THERE ARE SOULS THAT NEITHER DESERVE HADES, PARADISE, OR GEHENNA, THE LAKE OF FIRE, BUT JUST SHEOL, THE GRAVE! Maybe that's why some of these ghosts are wandering all around. They haven't had their reward yet. They need another chance, the class in between, Sheol! There you are, there are our three classes again! But the churches never told you that, did they? I never thought of that in relation to the three classes of people we're always talking about till just now! There are the people that deserve to go to Hell--what most people think of as Hell--& the people that deserve to go to Paradise--what most people call Heaven--& then there are the people that don't deserve either! Their fate remains to be chosen or decided depending on their works & their responses & how they react to more chances, first opportunities.
       6. A LOT OF THESE PEOPLE WE TALKED ABOUT GETTING SAVED IN THE MILLENNIUM, IT'S NOT A SECOND CHANCE, I BELIEVE IT'S GOING TO BE THEIR FIRST CHANCE! That's why God let'm survive!--Not to give them another chance, but to give them their first chance. That's that middle group we're talking about, that in-between group who deserve neither Heaven nor Hell! Nobody deserves Heaven, of course. You deserve Heaven only because Jesus paid for it & you're saved. But there's a group in-between that we've been teaching you about who deserve neither, they only deserve a first chance! They don't deserve a second chance. Those people who've had a first chance & rejected it don't deserve any more chance, they deserve to go to Hell! And those people who received their first chance & received Jesus, they deserve to go to Heaven because Jesus paid for it. Well, what about the people in between who never had a chance? They deserve a first chance, don't you think?--And that's what I think the Millennium is for!
       7. AND BELIEVE OR NOT, IN GOD'S INFINITE WISDOM & MERCY, THAT'S WHAT I THINK THE NEW EARTH IS FOR! THERE WILL STILL BE PEOPLE WHO WILL DESERVE A FIRST CHANCE! Who will they be? Who was the first group that deserved their first chance in the Millennium & deserved neither Heaven nor Hell? (Fam: The Anti-Antichrists.)--Yes, the people already now on Earth who have been unreached by the Gospel, unreached by you & me, unreached with the Lord's Love, unreached with the Message of Salvation, how to be saved, unreached by Jesus, in other words. God is giving us the responsibility to give'm Jesus now. If they don't get Jesus now it's your fault, my fault, the church's fault, not their fault! But despite our having failed, God is not going to fail!
       8. SO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO GET THEIR FIRST CHANCE DURING THE MILLENNIUM ARE GOING TO BE WHOM? (FAM: THE ANTI-ANTICHRISTS.)--THE A-ACS!--Not all of them though, because even a lot of the anti-Antichrists have had a chance, they're just finally suddenly zealous for their religion or zealous for their country & are against the Antichrist. Not necessarily all the anti-Antichrists are going to necessarily be given a chance in the Millennium. God's going to weigh things out & He'll make the decision as to who survives the Tribulation, Wrath of God & Battle of Armageddon. But they will be some of the people now living here on this Earth!
       9. WHAT PEOPLE DURING THE TIME OF THE MILLENNIUM HAVE NOT YET HAD EVEN A FIRST CHANCE? Let's see if you're thinking. (Fam: The ones that have already died.)--Right! What about the billions who've already died & never had a first chance, when are they going to get their first chance? (Fam: On the New Earth.)--The New Earth! Are you getting it sorted out? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that clear? How about that? Well, I've told you that before but you just didn't catch it as clearly, I just didn't make it that simple & that plain. We get so involved with Scriptures & proving this & that & going up little daisy paths right & left that you get lost before we get back! But there I told you! Now have you got it? (Fam: Yes!)
       10. WHAT GROUP OF PEOPLE ARE THERE TODAY WHO NEITHER DESERVE HEAVEN NOR HELL? Don't say just the A-ACs. That's an easy moniker to give them, but I'd say generally speaking it's all the people who never had a first chance at the Gospel or Salvation, a chance to be saved.--Including probably a lot of the A-ACs. And when will they get their first chance? (Fam: In the Millennium.) If they don't get a chance now before the Coming of the Lord, they've lost that chance, they'll not go up in that Rapture, but they'll get their chance because the Lord will spare them & let them survive & they'll get their chance in the Millennium.
       11. SO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT HAD EVEN THEIR FIRST CHANCE TODAY LIVING NOW ON THIS EARTH, WHEN IS GOD GOING TO GIVE THEM THEIR FIRST CHANCE? (Fam: In the Millennium.)--Right, I'm just repeating. Repeat, repeat, repeat! When are the people living today on this Earth now alive who have never had a first chance, a first crack at Salvation & the Gospel, going to get their chance? (Fam: The Millennium!) How about the billions who've already died who never had a first chance, when are they going to get their first chance? (Fam: The New Earth!) Isn't that simple?
       12. THAT SOLVES ALL THOSE PROBLEMS THAT THE ATHEISTS & THE CRITICS & THE SCEPTICS WERE ALWAYS SNEERING AT ABOUT THE CRUELTY OF GOD & "the monstrous God that you church people teach about, that just because the African natives or some natives in the depths of somewhere never heard about Jesus, never heard the Gospel, that God's going to send them all to a fiery damnation of hellfire forever because of the failure of the church & you Christians to tell them about Jesus!" Can you believe that? I don't believe it!--In fact, it's not true!
       13. THANK GOD FOR THE MAN THAT FIRST SHOWED ME THAT! I WAS AFRAID TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE THAT, BUT I DID WONDER A LITTLE BIT & HAD THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING. Questioning the wisdom of God & the righteousness of God, that He was going to send the poor ignorant heathen to Hell forever just because they didn't know about Jesus, was one of the best points the atheists had against the churches & against their kind of doctrine of total eternal damnation for anybody that wasn't saved. My brother even came home from a Christian college, Wheaton College, with that question. Well, there's your answer, God isn't! He's not that kind of a monster, He's not that cruel, He's not that unfair, He's not that unjust! He is going to give them a chance, not another chance but their first chance! The people now living get their chance when? (Fam: In the Millennium.) And the billions that have already died when? (Fam: The New Earth!) There you are! Does that make it simple enough? (Fam: Yes, Sir!)

       A HAPPY MEDIUM!
       14. WELL, THAT'S AN HOUR-&-A-HALF & I'M GOING TO QUIT! And although I haven't read you a single verse out of the Bible, I've quoted you plenty! I guess I could go on forever, & sometimes I have, but I think we'd better quit.
       15. PLEASE, GIRLS, FORGIVE ME, BUT FROM NOW ON I CAN'T STAND BOTH IN ONE DAY--A REAL TOUGH CLASS & A REAL TENDER GIRL! It takes almost too much out of me! Maybe you don't think it takes too much out of me, you think you put a lot into it, & you do. But when I love, I love with all my heart & all my strength & all my mind & I sock it to you! We've got a lot of girls around here nodding for some reason.
       16. IF IT'S NOT WORTH PUTTING EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT INTO IT, IT'S NOT WORTH DOING IT! Praise God? Hallelujah!--So I try to give it all I've got! And if I give too many different things all I've got in one day, such as a Class & then a girl too or a business meeting, that's about too much! Because it seems I just cannot even get a girl that close without wanting to love her! You're so sweet & so pretty & so irresistible & so lovable, you were just designed to be irresistible! That's the way God made you! That's why He made women so beautiful, His masterpiece of creation!
       17. THE CROWNING CREATION OF ALL WAS A WOMAN!--GOD'S LOVE MANIFEST TO MAN IN THE GORGEOUS FORM, BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT & SWEET LOVE OF A WOMAN!--And He made them irresistible! I can't even call a woman to my room to sew up a seam without falling in love with her! I hope I don't have any other seams to sew up for awhile. God bless you, Honey! I'm not reflecting that that was too much for me, but to have Classes & all this expendage of energy all in one day, I've got to kind of stretch it out a little more & not abuse my strength & my health. I've got to try to spread things around a little bit more & strike a little bit more of a happy medium.
       18. THAT'S ONE THING I AM, I'M A HAPPY MEDIUM! Maybe you think I'm an extremist, & I am, but thinking of mediums in the sense of those who communicate with spirits & the supernatural & are channels for voices from the Other World & messages & have dreams & see pictures, that kind of medium, okay, I'm a medium, but I'm a happy medium! PTL!--And I want to strike the happy medium! I don't mean hit'm, but that means you just want to operate in a happy medium where you don't go to one extreme or the other, but you go kind of along the middle. That means a happy medium, but I'm using what they call a pun. Happy medium means two different things. It means the middle of the road, not the extreme right or left, not going off on a tangent one way or the other, not being too conservative or too wild leftist, but being temperate & moderate in all things, striking what they call a happy medium, in the middle. See? Of course sometimes you've got to be extreme to pull some people even to the middle! I've had to go off the far deep end to the right or left just to bring some people halfway! So I'm a little crazy & I'm a little extreme & I do exaggerate sometimes, but it does the trick! It gets you moving, it pulls you part way anyhow, praise God!
       19. DO YOU ALWAYS NOTICE MY LAST WORD AT THE END OF THE GN? Some of you know what this signal means: (Makes scissor-motion.) How many of you remember the story? My goodness, you mean to tell me only two people here remember the story about the two old ladies on the Lusitania?--Or was it the Titanic? Anyway, they were arguing over whether the cut in her dress was made by a knife or a pair of scissors, in other words, was it accidental or deliberate? They were arguing & arguing over it & the ship began to sink & finally the two old ladies both went under the water. I'll bet you Techi could even remember that one! As they went down, both ladies' heads were underwater & the one old lady who was arguing for the scissors raised her hand out of the water & went like that (scissor motion), she had the last word! Now, how did I get on that story, anyhow? (Fam: The GN!)--My last word in the GN, very good. GBY! It's a good thing some of you keep notes for me, I never keep any notes!
       20. I PUT ONE LAST PUNCHLINE IN A GN & WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE I TOLD THEM?--PUSH PAPA'S POSTERS! That's what they call an alliteration! How many P's are in there? (Children: Three.)--More than that! Push Papa's Posters! (Fam: Four!) I was going to say Push Pa's Posters, then I figured I had enough room for Papa! Did you hear that, Mary Dear?--Papa! (Fam: She heard it!)--Right! You're going to be surprised one of these days what she comes up with. She's been absorbing things there in the back row that you didn't even know she heard! Push Papa's Posters! Push Papa's Posters! Okay! Amen. This Papa better quit pushing & start posting you off to your jobs! PTL! TYL! Shall we pray? GBY!
       21. YOU'RE ALL MEDIUMS & YOU'RE ALL NOW GOING TO TALK TO THE SPIRITS, INCLUDING THE ONE GREAT SPIRIT! So you're mediums, you talk to ghosts & spirits! You hear voices, still small voices.--Maybe not out loud, but in your heart & your mind, right? In the World's way of describing things you're all mystics because you believe in the mystical, the supernatural, the spiritual. We're all mystics, we're all mediums! "Boy oh boy, Dad, you're talking about scarey things!" Well, they don't all have to be scarey & they're not all evil, not all monsters or horrors like you see in the movies, we've got lots of good spirits, thank the Lord! You're good spirits! All of you are spirits!--Although right now you have fleshly bodies. What's the matter, why are you so slow to agree on that? You don't want me to call you a ghost, is that it? Well, you're not exactly a ghost yet. Well, yes you are, you're a ghost living in this house that we can see!
       22. THAT'S NOT YOU! THAT'S JUST THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN! I can see you looking out from the inside, out the window! That's why I can tell so much about people from their eyes, because their spirit is looking out the windows! When you look in the windows you can pretty much tell what they're like & who they are & how they feel. That's just the house you live in! So you're all spirits! But you're not only spirits, right now you've got fleshly bodies. But you can talk to the ones that no longer have bodies, that are already gone into the Other World, & they can talk to you.
       23. THE CHURCH ACCUSES US OF BEING SPIRITISTS & DELVING INTO SPIRITISM & EVIL SPIRITS & FAMILIAR SPIRITS ETC.! "Oh, they stoned people for that under the Mosaic Law, that's evil, all bad!"--And they neglect all the spirits that are good & all the spirits that appear in the Bible that were good! Isn't that sad? They even seem to forget that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit, even called the Holy Ghost in a lot of the New Testament, think of that! Most of the churches nowadays don't like to use that term Holy Ghost because it sounds scary, it sounds too supernatural, too much like supernatural manifestations, & they want to get away from that. They want to be more practical, reasonable & down-to-Earth.
       24. WE TALK MOST OF ALL TO THE GREAT SPIRIT! That's what the Indians called God, the Great White Spirit! They knew about God, they even worshipped God the best they knew how. Nobody told them about Jesus. They knew about the Evil Spirit too, the Black Spirit, the Dark Spirit, & lots of evil spirits. But they knew about the Great White Spirit, God, the Good Spirit!
       25. SO WE'RE ALL SPIRITISTS, WE'RE ALL SPIRITUALISTS, WE'RE ALL INVOLVED IN SPIRITISM! OOOOoooo! Are you expecting to hear moans & groans & whines & howls & screeches?--No! They're not all bad spirits. We have holy spirits & the Holy Spirit & the Great White Spirit, God Himself! And Jesus Himself is now a Spirit, but He also has a marvellous Body, He's not just all Spirit, thank the Lord! So shall we communicate with the spirits?
       26. I'LL NEVER FORGET ONE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, A KING WHO'D BEEN HELPING US FINANCIALLY & LET US PARK IN HIS YARD & ALL THAT SORT OF THING. He came home & found us sitting around a table one evening with his wife, holding hands, & he nearly went off his rocker, he thought we were having a spiritualistic seance! Well, we were!--With Jesus! PTL? So let's have a little seance with Jesus right now, shall we? Let's hold hands to show our unity in the Spirit, show our love, our affection, touch! There's a lot in touch that's important! You kind of mix auras, you feel the current flowing on the line, you complete the circuit! It doesn't mean that you guys who can't reach the other guys at the end of the line are not completing the circuit, you've got one long line & a lot of electricity on that, praise the Lord?
       27. SEE, I CAN'T EVEN START PRAYING WITHOUT GIVING A SERMON! God help us! Thank God we've only got one closing prayer--so far! Amen? I can't add anything to that or take anything away from it, that's it! Thank God for the Lord's Prayer! So let's pray the Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) ILY! Lord bless & keep you all & give you a good day!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family