Jonestown Audiotape
Primary Project : Summaries
Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you
use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
Tape Number : Q 1058 (Part 2)
To read the Tape Transcript, click
here. To listen to MP3, click here.
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FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking
Date cues on tape: After trip to Guyana, probably November 1976 (Part
1)
Indianapolis, 1957-58 (Parts 2-4)
People named:
Public figures/National and international names:
Bible verses cited:
Part 1
"Don't look back on Sodom. If you have anything in Sodom, you'll perish with
Sodom... You better get rid of them, because you better not look back... It'll
happen to you what happened to the wife of the mayor, Lot's wife in Sodom, she
looked back and she was petrified." (Genesis 19, esp. 19:17-26)
"The widow's mite and the sister's mite or the brother's mite has more significance
than Rockefeller's millions, when it's given from your best that you have."
(Luke 21:1-4: "And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into
the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more
than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings
of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had." Also
Mark 12:42-44)
Part 2
Ezekiel 37 is text for sermon. (Quotes Ezekiel 37:1, "The hand of the LORD was
upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the
midst of the valley which was full of bones.")
"When [people] danced and sang, and I thought, oh God, sounding brass and the
tinkling cymbal ." (1 Corinthians 13:1, "Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal.")
"He said, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free." (John 8:32,
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.")
"And my heart panteth after God as the deer, as the hart panteth after the water
brook. I have a desire, an unquenchable thirst, I want to hear it, what doeth
sayeth the Lord." (Psalms 42:1-2, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living
God: when shall I come and appear before God?")
"The Bible says God scattered his sheep out into the mountain, or rather the
false shepherds have scattered them from mountain to mountain." (Ezekiel 34:6-12)
"How many believe that God's no respecter of persons?" (Acts 10:34-35, "Then
Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter
of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness,
is accepted with him.")
"The Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost." (Romans
14:17, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.")
"But you can't serve God in Baal. You got to choose whom you shall serve." (2Kings
10:18-28; also Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.")
"Some people think that when it says, Take not the name of the Lord in vain,
it means not to say to somebody go to hell. There's more to it than that." (Exodus
20:7, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.")
"He said, overcome evil with good. You need to know evil, you need to recognize
it." (Romans 12:21, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.")
Part 4
Acts 2 is text for sermon (esp. Acts 2:38, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
"The upper room was an appropriate place for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
to fall, because it was there in the Last Supper in Eucharist, Jesus showed
the disciples how he would pour out his life for the redemption of the world."
(Mark 14:14-25; Luke 22:10-20; and Acts 1: 13).
"You must lose your life and find it in Christ." (Matthew 10:39, "He that findeth
his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it;"
also Matthew 16:25, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it.")
"He said, if I go not away, the Comforter shall not come." (John 16:7, "Nevertheless
I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him
unto you.")
"I want to tell you, there's power in Jesus' name. Whatsoever we do in word
or deed, do also in the name of Jesus Christ." (Colossians 3:17, "And whatsoever
ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God and the Father by him.")
"He's Lord and Christ, he's been made both Lord and Christ, he taketh the right
hand of God." (Numerous references to Christ on the right hand of God, including
Mark 16:19, Acts 2:33, Acts 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 10:12,
and 1 Peter 3:22.)
"Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I am come in my Father's name. Didn't he say that?"
(John 5:43, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." In later years, Jones emphasized
the latter half of the verse.)
"When you see me, you've seen the Father." (John 14:9, "Jesus saith unto him,
Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the
Father?"
"[Don't] have a revelation of Jesus' name and a revelation of speaking in tongues
and then use it and adulterate it, and become lukewarm. He said, I'd have you
hot or cold." (Revelation 3:16, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.")
"He spoke of the angel of the church at Ephesus, and he said, I've seen your
patience. I've seen how you labored. I've seen how you could not bear those
that were evil, and you were able to eliminate all dissension, but he said,
I have one thing against you. You've lost your first love, the church at Ephesus
that had wrestled with godless ideologies and wrestled with heathen conception,
but yet that church at Ephesus was warned that I'm going to come quickly and
remove your candlestick." (Revelation 2:1-5)
"Jesus wouldn't allow Oem to build a tabernacle, when they saw the vision on
the Mount of Transfiguration. He would not permit them to build three tabernacles."
(Luke 9:33-36)
"Judge not, lest ye be judged." (Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged.")
"I say as Paul said of old, let every man be persuaded in his own mind." (Romans
14:5, "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.")
"If our hearts get repented, and we are fully baptized into Christ ... as many
have been baptized into Christ, shall put on Christ." (Galatians 3:27, "For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.")
"You're going to have a get a real understanding of God and go out by two's
again." (Reference to flood story, esp. Genesis 7:15)
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free." (John 8:32, "And
ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.")
"Ye shall be my witnesses." (Isaiah 43:10, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD;"
also Isaiah 43:12.)
"Read Ezekiel 34 and see what God's so-called shepherds have done, how they've
divided them all over the mountains out through the land and separated the flocks,
and lied, and the people would like it so."
"For he's that born to God doth not commit sin." (1John 3:9, "Whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God.")
"He that knoweth to do right and do it not, it is sin." (James 4:17, "Therefore
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.")
"Anything that's not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:24, "for whatsoever is not
of faith is sin.")
"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for that they
shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness: for they shall be filled.")
"The Kingdom's suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matthew
11:12, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.")
"He said, when we see him, we'll be like him." (1John 3:2, "Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he
is.")
"Save yourself from this untoward generation." (Acts 2:40)
"If you're still able to make it up here, we'll take you in, not whosoever will
come, but whoever can stand it will make it." (Mark 8:34, "And when he had called
the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.")
"Jesus said, he did not come for those that were whole but for those that were
sick." (Luke 5:31, "And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole
need not a physician; but they that are sick." Also, Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17)
"They called him a winebibber and a glutton, didn't they? They called him one
that ate with sinners." (Luke 7:34, "The Son of man is come eating and drinking;
and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners!" Also, Matthew 11:19)
"Then you'll look at Peter, ole lyin' Peter. He denied him. He said before the
cock crows twice, you'll deny me three times." (Mark 14:30, "And Jesus saith
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before
the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice."
Summary:
This tape consists of segments of four sermons. The first one on the tape is
the most recent, taking place in San Francisco, probably in late 1976, after
Jim Jones returned from the Jonestown project, still under construction (Tapes
from the visit include Q 569 and Q 570.) The other three segments are undated
sermons from Jones' years as a Pentecostal preacher in Indianapolis. There are
few dated references Jones mentions Nikita Khrushchev in one, the leader of
the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, which covers almost all of Jones' Indiana
years; and Jones' contacts with and admiration for Father Divine are almost
as widely-encompassing and no indication even of where he is. Indeed, there
are so few voices answering Jones' calls for responses, that the sermons could
be in small churches or even a modest assembly hall.
The San Francisco segment is a quasi-inspirational service and political address,
quasi-organization meeting of the Peoples Temple. In the midst of speaking of
miracles and the Promised Land and other familiar themes, Jones warns people
not to interfere with the work of his subordinates who are following his orders.
At another point, he equally admonishes his staff who have not advised Temple
members to give up everything they own in preparation for the move to Guyana.
The tapes opens as Jones asks people to get a copy of the picture of himself
and meditate upon it, because that's where he is putting his energy. He has
never done this before, he says, but he is doing it now. Later in the service,
he describes the miracles that came to those who did meditate.
He describes the miracles that he heard testimony of during his trip to Guyana.
He extols the wonders of the Jonestown community, especially in comparison to
what they live with in the U.S. He tells them to get ready to move, and not
to worry about what possessions they leave behind.
There are several edits in this first segment, and the tape starts again several
times as he completes a miracle cure or reads a letter of testimonial to his
work. At the same time, though, he is pragmatic about the health care some members
are receiving, and matter-of-factly urges one to be moved into another nursing
home.
He also talks about the people who had illnesses that had not been healed, because
they were not part of Peoples Temple. And that is an issue that is not up for
debate: "Do not correct me on that point. I established that as eternal veracity."
Later, he says that the miracles are part of "socialism waiting for the revolution,"
then adds, "the non-violent revolution, of course."
Jones acknowledges his own leadership at one point, his own indispensability
to the cause. "Don't put any burden like you put on Father. He knows that there's
no one that can fill his shoes, and that's a tremendous costly burden." He then
turns that to a statement of self-sacrifice: "I don't want anyone to feel that
burden but me. I don't want anyone to go through that heavy hell but me."
The balance of the tape shows a different Jim Jones from those of his California
years. The style of delivery he mastered in Indianapolis followed him throughout
his years, even if his message changed. He uses some of the same Bible verses,
especially John 8:32 ("And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free"), even if the truth itself has evolved. At other points as with
John 5:43 ("I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive") Jones emphasizes a different
part of a verse. In Indianapolis, he relies on the first half; by the time he
uses the verse in California, he uses the second half as foundation for demonstrating
his own divinity.
This Jim Jones, however, still glorifies God and Christ. He praises many things
that he will later reject. He has no patience for some Pentecostals whom he
continued to lacerate in his later years but his frustration here stems from
his belief that other Pentecostals do not follow in daily life what they say
in church that they believe.
Some things are the same throughout, however, such as his anti-intellectual
strain. Here, Jones blasts "scientific religion." In Redwood Valley, he mocks
the psychologists who criticize his services.
Note: According to longtime Temple member Mike Cartmell – whose parents
and sister died in Jonestown – the latter three sermon segments were likely
from 1957 or 1958, “around the time of the first Soviet Sputnik.”
As he wrote in June 2005, “this tape refers to ‘Huntington.’
That’s probably a reference to Huntington, Ohio… That makes sense
because Jim, at that point, had a ‘circuit riding ministry.’ Every
three weeks or so, he’d head out from Indianapolis and hold services in
South Charleston, Ohio (where the Swaneys were from), Huntington, Ohio …
and perhaps another town. He continued this pattern after his return from Brazil
in 1963, and added Columbus. I believe my mother [Patty Cartmell] was instrumental
in his adding our then-church, the Church of the Savior, in Columbus, to his
circuit. Jim usually stayed with us when he came to Columbus.”
The second segment begins with Jones telling his followers that he went to a
storefront mission, because "sometimes that's where you have to go to find the
Lord." And that's what they found, he says. He also talks about cooperative
churches he works with, outside speakers, and other preachers who will be appearing
as guests in the church. They have a different style, Jones says. "They moved
as God directed them... I knew that we got a good treat for Friday, because
I believe you'll be blessed by these." It doesn't matter where the word of God
comes from, Jones says, "if it comes in the Catholic Church or if it comes in
a Hebrew synagogue, or if it comes on a back step of a storefront mission, praise
the Lord." It's the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Jones delivers a more typical Pentecostal message, when he says, "We need the
Hand of the Lord upon us. The Hand of the Lord is dynamite... And you need that
personal, intimate relationship with God if you're to do anything."
Jones also preaches a message of Christian love. He tells of a parishioner dying
in the hospital, a man who must have been in physical pain, but whose spirit
was right with the world, because he was with God. The man was calm, unselfish;
Jones' recollection of it is tender.
Jones' anti-intellectualism appears several times in this service. Early, he
says, "didn't choose the high or the mighty or the esteemed of this world, but
he used the foolish things to confound those who think they have wisdom, who
think they are something when they are nothing." He returns to the theme later:
"You can learn all you want to about homiletics and church history, and ecumenicity,
but you need the Spirit of God." Nevertheless, elsewhere he says that he doesn't
believe "God puts any premium on ignorance."
In another departure from his later sermons, Jones recounts anecdotes to demonstrate
a point. In one, he talks about sitting in a draft, and wondering whether
no, anticipating that he'll get a cold. He got one. "It came, just as I expected
it to come, he says. Then he add, "But you and I would do as much to expect
God."
In the midst of one of his extemporaneous lessons, Jones stops himself suddenly
and corrects an error. He has just said something about "my church," then adopts
a chastened tone to say, "Blessed be the Lord, I'll not say that anymore." He
then picks up the fervor again, with the new inspiration. "It's His church.
Who shed the blood for us? Who shed his blood for us? Who shed his blood? Who
died for us? It's His church."
He urges his congregation not to take the Lord's name in vain. By that, he says,
he doesn't mean swearing, but by letting your own burdens, illnesses, and complaints
stand in the way of your service to God. "He said, I am the Life, and I came
to give you life, and when you go around ... and say you've got diseases that
don't belong to you, you're taking the name of the Lord in vain."
This is but one hint of the direction his ministry will later take him. Elsewhere,
he speaks of the commonality God's people have. "You gotta have a fellowship,
one with another, you gotta be bound together, we're gonna have to come together
as one people, bear one another's burdens and support the people's need, and
lift up one another, and be a part of one another."
This segment of the tape ends with Jones speaking about the existence of evil,
and the only way to overcome it, through good. There are those who would downplay
evil, he says, but "don't you kid yourself. There is evil, and you're the evil
one... And never forget that you're evil, but remember that He is all-sufficient.
Your faith rests in Jesus Christ."
The third part of the tape is a short segment in which Jones speaks of faith,
describing it in part as being "one of the most dangerous forces in the world,"
since men use it in evil ways, from war to segregation. But he also describes
faith as "the miracle worker" that we must seek and incorporate into our lives.
There are human failings that stand between people and a life of faith, and
Jones confesses that he finds himself falling into them. Nevertheless, he says,
"I would not dare allow my mortal mind to rid me of the hope that there is faith
for the survival of the good life, or the incarnate divinity that is within
every man."
As brief as it is, this segment still takes shots at both intellectuals ("So
we have come to say, give us intelligence, but beware of this vice of the mind,
this impediment to progress faith") and atheists ("The negativeness of the atheist
has never moved a mountain, but Christ can do all things").
The final segment uses Acts 2, the description of the Pentecost, as the text
for the sermon. Jones begins by saying people have "accused" him of basing his
ministry upon the Acts of the Apostles, to which he pleads guilty. "Yes, it
is true. I believe that that's where our foundation is... Without this, there
wouldn't be no meat or no power to the gospel of Christ."
Among the other quotes he uses is the Gospel admonition to "lose your life and
find it in Christ." The spirit of self-sacrifice in church is one that is little-known,
he says, but it is a tenet of the Christian faith. "When he will come, he will
give you a spirit of courage, he will give you the dynamics of courage and bravery."
Speaking almost as an aside to one woman, he says he won't mince words. "I believe
what I believe. You can believe what you believe, but I know there's power in
the name of Jesus... I have thanked God for the name of Jesus."
The criticism of Pentecostals which he voiced in his latter years is here as
well, but for different reasons. He says he doesn't join groups, but he would,
if there was one with the true spirit of Christ. He adds that many Pentecostals
have lost the center of that spirit. They have the structure or the skeleton
of the full spirit, but have lost its meat.
Likewise, even though he recognizes the value of the speaking of tongues elsewhere
including at other points in this sermon he also criticizes it as a "form"
or "phenomenon," merely to liven up a meeting. The fact is, though, Pentecostals
(including this congregation) are dead, and what has risen in its stead during
the last 40 years is Communism. "It's a challenge to God's people. It has its
own Bible, dialectic materialism. It has its Messiah, Karl Marx. It has its
prophets... and the only thing that's going to dispel them is to return to the
faith that was once delivered to the saints."
The best way to do that, he says, is to get away from the literal image of the
Pentecost. "I say, let's get away from the fiery tongues and the Upper Room
experience, because it'll never fall twice the same way... [I]f somebody would
come forth with a new language and a new experience and spoke English with the
clarity of the Holy Ghost, and had a new awakening in their life, I'd accept
their Holy Ghost."
He adds that those who do speak in tongues, but then return the next day to
their old ways of being a gossip or fashion conscious or other manifestations
of worldly sin, just don't "get it." When the Holy Ghost comes, he says, you'll
be born again. And what does that mean to him? "If you're born again, it means
to be born out of racialism, born out of creedalism, born out of selfish, born
out of all the lust and immorality, and born out of all the temptations and
the weaknesses of your flesh."
He asks his congregants, how many know they're not saved, that they aren't what
they ought to be, that they don't have the power that the early church had?
You have to work for it, he tells them. "You're not going to get it in any kind
of a namby-pamby church where people tell you sweet nothings and tell you, you're
the blessed church, hold out till the end, because Jesus is about to come and
get you."
At the end of the sermon, in seeming contradiction to earlier observations,
he gives Communism a better review. Jesus worked with the harlots and the drunks
and the gluttons of the world, the people whom the Communist Party tries to
reach today. "I'm so sick of... some of these Pentecostal outfits... I believe
a Communist'll have a better chance of gettin' through than this so-called pack
of wolves that call themselves the Church of God."
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 6/21/79
In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into
the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South
America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording
was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S.
Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.
On June 16, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B108-33.
This tape was found to contain the following:
Reverend JIM JONES preaching and sermonizing. There is also Reverend JONES in
a religious broadcast. The rest of the tape Reverend JONES preaches and shouts
his religious views and thoughts.
Differences with FBI Summary:
There is no religious broadcast, although the sound in one of
the four segments is of lower quality than the others, and could be so interpreted.
Other than that, the summary is accurate and meets the FBI's purposes.