Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project : Transcripts
Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

Tape Number : Q1035

To return to the Tape Index, click here. MP3 is available.
To read the Tape Summary, click here.

Jones: — nothing that you used to serve.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: That's an interesting thing, you know. (Pause) It's hard to compete with something that nobody's seen. (Pause) No matter how good a job you do — and I do a good job — it's awfully hard to compete with something nobody's ever seen. Paul said, I perceive you're too superstri— super— superstitious, he said, you should have an inscription, you may— you should make your inscription to the unknown God. And he said, you're entirely too superstitious. You have an unknown God.

Christianity was never based on the idea of an unknown God. It was based on a human God. Jesus was flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone, and he was known as God, the Alpha and the Omega, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word was made flesh. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Born without the actriments of— uh, the accoutrements of genealogy or prestige. Born without a father, as far as the world knew anything about it. That's the way the world con— considered him. [They] Said, we know whose father our— our father is. Our father's Abraham, but the inference of the written Scripture was, Jesus, you're born of a bastard. You're nothing. We know who our father is, but who is your father? But you see, that was the beauty of Jesus. Though he was made in the form of a servant, though he was born on the wrong side of the tracks, yet he saw in himself the form of God, and he considered it not robbery to be equal with God. That's a remarkable truth, if you get a hold of that truth. And though he were a servant, though he made himself a servant, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He let this mind be in him, that was attributed to God, and he told us to let the same mind be in him— in us that was in Christ Jesus. (Pause) But most folk have a— an unknown God. And Christianity is not based on an unknown God. Jesus said, when you see me, you have seen God. [He] Said, I and the Father are one. [He] Said, I've come in my Father's name, and they said uh— one time, he said, for what good work do you bless, uh, stone me, he said, (stumbles over words) the assailant said I don't uh, we don't stone you for any good work. (Pause) We ass— We assail you because you being a man, blaspheme and make yourself God. That's what got Jesus in all the trouble, and that's why we're in all the trouble. Because when somebody becomes God in the Earth, then they have a moral effect on people, they have a qualifying effect on people, they can tell people right and wrong, and they can demonstrate right and wrong. People don't like that. Everybody likes to keep God out there in the unknown, and then everybody can interpret him. Everybody that's living in iniquity, they can live in prostitution, live in drugs, live in libertinism, they can live wherever they want to, do whatever they please, and they can call the shots as they see God, giving the shots. Then nobody's responsible, and everybody's got their own interpretation. But now when God takes himself a body, then you got a— you got a horse of a different color then. You got a different story when God takes himself a body, when Principle becomes flesh, then it's not left up to everybody to say what they want for what God is supposed to be doing. It's not left up to everybody to interpret God. God speaks for himself, and addresses the masses on his own behalf, and on his own right.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: America has a superscription [superstition] to the unknown God. And because of that unknown God, the most segregated institution in America is the church at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. The most racist institutions are the churches. You can listen to the broadcast over and over, all through these religious broadcasts, you can hear hate. If you just listen with a close ear, with a scrutinizing mind, you can hear hate all the time, teaching people to hate one another, dis— disrespect for people of color.

Look at America today. It has an unknown God. 'Cause most people don't know who God is. Most people don't know that Jesus Christ is God, and that all spirits that confess not that Jesus Christ is come into the earth, is a deceiver and is an anti-Christ. Only those that know that Jesus Christ is in the flesh in 1972 is an anti-Christ. All others are deceivers. It's all you can say for them, they're deceivers. When they try to tell you that God isn't in the flesh, they're telling you a lie. Because God's never changed. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus said, Lo, I am with you always. [He] Didn't say, some thing. He said I. [He] Didn't say a feeling, he didn't say some kind of a ghost, he said I am with you always. And he said, I'll be with you— I'll be a God to you, I'll have a body as long as the earth stands. [He] Said all things may pass, but I shall never pass. Heaven and earth may pass away, but I'll never fade away. (Pause) Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. It's good to know this truth. But you see, people have a, a tradition, and traditions are hard, hard to do away with. Men have a form of God, (unintelligible word) denying the power thereof. And they have a tradition of worship in which they don't want to loosen very easily, very freely.

Now you look out over this vast universe tonight, (Pause) and vast it is, with 100 billion planets in our Milky Way system, and then 100 billion more planets, more Milky Way systems like ours, that means a hundred billion times a hundred billion. That's too many for you to count. (Awestruck) A hundred billion times a hundred billion. (Normal tone) And if you traveled at the speed of light for a year, for one year, you'd go something like six trillion miles, and six trillion miles won't get you but one of the three trillion miles you've got to go to get beyond where you can see. But most of us don't have brains enough to figure that out. So what we do is just get a big, unknown God, and we just set him up there, and he— he does all this for us. Then when we don't understand something, unknown God. You go out there to look for jobs, and there're no jobs because of your— your color, you say, well, it's the unknown God. Or it's unknown devil that the unknown God made, or the unknown Go— devil that the unknown God allowed to be. That never made any sense to me either. (Pause) Now when you get God in the Earth, (Pause) it won't be a panacea until you make him all God, and that's pretty hard to do. Meaning principle. You gotta trust God. God means Good. And when you believe in God with all your mind, heart, soul and strength, then you've got something going for you. But I want you to take this church against all other churches. The churches out there that believe in the unknown God. They say we're the devil, and they be-— they've got the unknown God working for them. (Pause) (Aside) And that clock— is it ten of ten? Well, get that thing se— set, that— that's not right, that doesn't seem right. Give me a watch— A watch is like most religious folk, can't tell anything by 'em.

Congregation: Stirs

Jones: But they set it at ten minutes of ten. All right. I knew it wasn't right, but (unintelligible word)— Well, it's too nice a watch to hold. Give me my old store-bought two-dollar watch here. Westclock. Somebody gave me a Westclock, that's all I need. (Pause) Now we do— we have a shorter time space tonight than usual. Tomorrow we'll have a normal time at 11 o'clock, but we're going to try to get a little bit of understanding, 'cause I want you to— I want you to have health. Most folk won't sit down long enough to get health, they go trippin' around, when they never get any chance to get any understanding. (Pause) And you gotta get understanding. Now you can go across the street to First Baptist or you can go down the street to Macedonia, or you can go up the street to El Bethel or wherever, you can go over here to the Church of Christ, and you read in the newspaper, you'll see every one of those preachers having a funeral every week.

Congregation: Right

Jones: And some of 'em having three funerals. Three. I read one day when Macedonia had three. He had three in one— one day. (Pause) Now you see, the unknown God— that's the kind of results you get from Him. Die like flies. Just die like flies. Take a ride across town, them folk don't travel any more than across town, they wouldn't think of going like we do, we go all the way to Redwood Valley and go all the way to Los Angeles, next weekend we'll be all the way back and up and down the roads, Los Angeles, we haven't had anybody hurt, haven't had anybody killed. Even disobedient ones that didn't uh, didn't really know what they were doing, I saved their lives. Prophesied to a couple of people the other day—

Congregation: Applause

Jones: —don't do this. Don't do this, or you're going to get in trouble, and as sure as the world, they did it anyway. [I] Said, don't you do it. Prophesied the accident, and they did, and it— (exclamation of exasperation) car all tore up, but nothing went wrong with them. I give 'em another chance. Unknown God don't give you no chances. You don't even know what's happening to you when you worship the unknown God, you're in trouble all the time, because you can't figure out nothing.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: You don't know the rules of the game. The nicer you are, the worse things go.

One voice: (Laughs) That's true. That's true.

Jones: You try to help somebody, and you get run over by a truck tomorrow (Laughs) on a street corner.

Congregation: Stirs, light applause

Jones: Oh, I'm gone have some folk he— I'm gone separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls tonight.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: (Laughs) Don't you compare me no unknown God. Now look in my house. My house isn't what I want it to be, but when I get through with my house— At least let's look at my house tonight. Nobody hungry in my house. I went downstairs to see that some that got in the food that would— wasn't even from Los Angeles, Fresno. I worry about that meticulously and precious ones work with me, I say, I want the food at certain time, I want them to have en— enough, I want to see that this one's got rest, Bea Whitney here, I went down to her personally to see her get—that she was moved from the oi— the other church over here, that everything worked out, I look after my own. Not one of mine's that is hungry tonight. Not one of mine that doesn't have a place to rest tonight, and if you don't like where you live, I'll give you a better place.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: That's what I'll tell you. I've give you a better place. I will look after my own. You say, what are you trying to do? I'm trying to narrow down, so I can figure out who on my own ark, 'cause when I get through, some of you folk are never gonna come back and see me again, I won't have to worry about you.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: (Voice rises to ministerial shout) 'Cause if you can't take the truth, you're not worth much anyhow, you see. The truth sets you free. That's all Jesus came to earth to say. He said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That's what I've come back to tell you. You're gonna know the truth, and the truth will liberate you, the truth will free you, the truth will set you free. (Moderates, still intense) Won't make any homages to the unknown God anymore, won't have to make any offerings to the unknown God, you won't have to walk down the street with your head down, afraid somebody gonna knock you over with a bolt of lightning, (Cries out) 'cause I'm gonna free you from superstitions, I'm gonna free you from all those fears. I'm gonna cause you to know that you are what Jesus was. (Pause) (Moderates) [He] Said, what good work do you stone me, Jesus said. S— We don't stone you because of good works, Jesus, it's because you, being a man, make yourself God. He said, well, isn't it written to those whom the word of God came, Scripture can't be broken. (Voice rises) He said, it's written that ye are gods. (Pause) [He] Said, I am just doing what you have had written. It's in the book. Don't look at me funny. Jesus said that every human being was a god. I'll give you the verse and scripture if you want me to give you the verse and scripture. I can give you the verse and scripture to the line, that you are God. I'm a god and you're a god. And I'm a god, and I'm gonna stay a god, until you recognize that you're a god, and when you recognize you're a god, I shall go back into Principle, and will not appear as a personality. But until I see all of you knowing who you are, I'm going to be very much what I am. God, Almighty God.

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: (Calms) You see now, that upsets you, that upsets you. (Pause) 'Cause you been brainwashed. (Pause) Jesus said he was God. Yet Jesus was made perfect through the things that he suffered. He learned obedience through the death of the cross. That means he didn't know it when he started, 'cause if he had been God b— at the beginning, he would have been perfect to begin. But he said, he was made perfect through suffering. He learned obedience through the death of the cross. So Jesus was made God. Jesus made himself conformable to the image of the death of the cross. (Calms) Anybody that's perfect doesn't have to make themselves conformable. And of course, you're just judging by a whole lot of scriptures. And all these scriptures, uh, we always end up in this, and I haven't enough time to educate folk, and folk don't want to be educated too bad. But when I get through, at least I'll have a few of you, and while the Skygod— Now, now let's make this little comparison. The Skygod. Look across the world tonight. (Pause) A great Christian Baptist home on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia, a great Baptist home for the aged, 27 people burned alive. Poor old people c— hanging out on the outside of windows, trying to hold on, and they cried to God, I heard their scream. Those Baptists crying to the Skygod. Now if they had looked to me, and that— that— that— that Baptist home was built without any fire escapes. See, now most preachers would've let you stay in there. They wouldn't have paid the rent for this tonight, they'd— and had to get special custodians at six dollars, twelve dollars an hour. They wouldna done that, but I care about you, I wouldn't have— even though I know I've got the power to keep that building, if there wasn't a rafter in it, I could hold it up in suspended air.

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: [You] Say, you're a cocky fool. I'm not cocky, I'm just practical. I know what I've done, because I got proof of it. There's a man sittin' on the front row up there— (Pause) There's a man up there, Brother [Charlie] Touchette, he's got a children's home right there on the front of— bro— front row of the balcony, a Greyhound bus fell on him, and I told the people where he was, and I held that Greyhound bus— I mean, it fell off its jack on his body, but not one harm came to him, because I said it would not be, (Calls out) and it was not.

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: (Voice rises throughout) There he stands, right up there, the white brother on the front row. (Pause) Don't think he's some kind of a willy-nilly follower, 'cause he wasn't. He— He didn't believe in me so much that he went to the FBI against me, 'cause he didn't believe in me, and he thought I was a kook, and everybody else was a kook, and it had to take something powerful to make him believe. And he's a believer, and he didn't— he didn't come easy, so don't say he's some kind of a stupid follower, 'cause he's not a stupid follower. That bus had to be kept from falling on him afore he believed it. Some of you, you imagine the Skygod comes in and talks to you and breathes on you, and you never see it, and all it is, is just a cold fall breeze or a hot spring air, and you— you th— you make up something, you know. (Pause) Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. It's sweet anyhow. When I get through, my people are living longer. So, well, that's not so. Skygod. And if I— if those Baptist people had been out there lookin' to me— see, I'll give you what you give me. I'm just a, a motivator and a duplicator and a reproducer and a dynamo and a generator. The more you give me, the more I generate. Those Baptists didn't believe me. They believed in a Skygod. And they believed in a Skygod, and consequently a bunch of dumb preachers built a building without any stairs in it, no fire escape, and those people had to burn alive, because there was no way up out in out of the building, eh— and all those Baptists were interested in was making money off those people.

Congregation: That's right. Light applause

Jones: They leaned on the Skygod, one of the most dreadful stories of that— that one missionary lady there that served so long in the Baptist mission, and she hung there for fifteen minutes, hollering, and nobody even ventured, and none of them preachers even run in to try to help her. They won't do that. I've run in with fire in my hands, been singed up and down my body, I took a baby out of a house that burned down right in Ukiah, took the baby and the dog right out of the house, I didn't even know them. (Pause) When Brother [Mike] Cartmell, who's out — the head of the security now — went down the side of a mountain, I caught him. I just jumped, and I held on, and I caught him. Now it uh— I'm just saying this, this, this. None of my children are without home. None of them are without an education, that want it. A hundred and nine of them in studies now. 'Cause I'm a Father that looks after his own. None of my children need food. If you do, all you got to do, come up here at night, and I'll take you and I'll give you a home, and if you're cold, I'll take you in. If there's one of you that's here that wants to be a follower of mine— I don't mean you— you can't carry that Skygod in here, 'cause that messes us up. Now you gotta leave that Skygod alone.

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: I said like I (Unintelligible phrase), in Elias, let the God that's God answer. He said let the God that is God answer by fire, and that's what I say to you. Let the— if the— if the Skygod is indeed your God, let him feed you. If he's your God, let him feed you. Let him house you. When you get in trouble in the courts, let him go to court for— you won't— you try to get him in court. I been trying to get him recruited, I haven't been able to find him.

Congregation: Laughs and scattered applause

Jones: No, no, child. Now let's just think about this. Let's just think about this. I'm just doing what the Scripture says, I'm being what you should've been, and I had to show you a little bit of courage to be what you ought to be. Well, some of you have— rell— well on the road. You were ready for me. You were looking for me. You were hoping that I'd come along. You just wanted somebody to tell you that all the things you thought were true, and I come along and told you, you were right. And some of you really didn't know how to take me the first time you met me, and some people don't know how to take me. Last night, two people stomped out. Man['s] life, I knew it in his hands, knew his name, told when he would die, and do— I had the key to give him life, but he stomped out, 'cause I didn't do what he told— he thought I ought to do. I didn't pray the way he thought I ought to pray. Now let's— let's just notice this. It's a beautiful, beautiful thought. (Pause) Hmm, hmm. (Pause) It's in Saint John 10:33. (Pause) Now you read that, you go home and read that tonight, Saint John 10:33, and you'll see there, that it is said, Jesus said, it is written, (Slows for emphasis) ye are gods. And that caused those people so much trouble, they killed him. They killed him for that. Boy, that was too much. Don't you tell (unintelligible word) to act like that, because you need to see the way everybody keeps this thing going the way it is. I saw Billy Graham the other night on television, and he's on there for two hours. (Pause) And he was talking about all the sins, he said people robbing and stealing, and stealing— shoplifting, he said, so much shoplifting. He can talk about all the sins of little people. I just li— I just enjoy listening to that hypocrite. He can talk about all the sins of the little people, the shoplifters, and the people that steal milk, he said, and the people that do this and do that. Why don't he tell about those dirty generals that are over there stealing oil and— and riches and the money from the people?

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: Why don't he— why don't he talk— You never hear— you— Billy Graham always talking about sin, always talking about sin. He had the devil every place. I— I— Every place you turned, on the TV, on Channel 44 and Channel uh, uh, 5, just this past week, it was something else to hear him, he was on there for two hours talking about the devil. He said, the devil devil devil devil devil devil devil. He said the devil here and a little devil there and a big devil here. [He] Said, everybody got a devil. He said, if you're sick, it's a devil. (Pause) Everything's a devil. Everybody possessed, obsessed. (Pause) And now what else can you talk, you know— and somebody said, he uh— this is what he said this week, he said, well. I heard it right on TV, don't say I didn't hear it, I listened only onc— for just about 50 minutes to listen to him, I hardly ever listen to him, but I thought I'd listen to this man, see how foolish, what he has to say is. (Pause) And he said, now I know you've heard me talk much about the devil tonight, and he said, somebody gonna ask me why did God— why doesn't God kill the devil? But he said, I can't answer that.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: Sure as— he— Sure as I'm sitting here, that's what he said. He said, somebody— how many— Anybody heard Billy Graham, knows he said it. You heard it— you heard it— he said it. He said, now somebody gonna ask me, why didn't God kill the devil? But he said, I can't answer that. He said, I can't answer that. Sure, he can't answer it. Don't make any sense whatsoever. Bunch of fools sittin' there listening to him, 50,000 people packing (unintelligible name) stadium, listening to that fool taking about some devil that their God can't get rid of. (Pause) (Referring to departing person) He said, I'm gone— gone come back. No, you won't come back till you get hungry, 'cause— you won't come back till you get in trouble, and when you gonna pray to the Skygod and beat your chest three times, and you'll remember Jim Jones and come running back. I know you, yeah, I know you.

Congregation: Few cheers and applause

Jones: You're gonna get— You're gonna get up there in front of that ol'— you gonna get in front of that judge, and you'll say, come on, God, come on, God, come on, God, and you'll try three or four times, he don't come, and you'll say, get Jim Jones, for God's sakes.

Congregation: Laughter and applause

Jones: (Voice rises throughout) So if you think that uh, you're upset by this, that's a design. I gotta find out who's willing to think. It's only right that I get somebody to be like I am. I want you to be like me. I don't want you to worship me, I want you to be like I am. I want you to become what I am. I want you to enjoy the fearlessness that I have, the courage that I have, the compassion that I have, the love that I have, the all-encompassing mercy that I have, I want you to be what I am, and something greater. I want you to give you more than I have. I want you to be greater that I am. And if you don't want go this route, then go to hell where you want to, but don't bother me.

Congregation: Sustained cheers and applause

Jones: (Calms, then builds) 'Tis so sweet. (Pause) Billy Graham just talkin' about— he said somebody gotta talk about sin, he said. Talk about the little old women, he said, even little old women stealing stuff. Why doesn't he talk about the little old governments that don't give them enough to even keep their body and soul together? Why don't he talk about the thieves that're in high places?

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: (Calms, then builds) That's what somebody needs to talk about. But he can talk about little old women stealing. Sick, this country. Sick. You s— you're afraid of Jim Jones. Jim Jones got no hungry people, he's adopted eight babies, he fed 200 babies that were starving, his homes are all beautiful, all these senior citizen homes, all of his children's home, everybody is in good frame of mind compared to the world. Why are you afraid of me? You ought to be afraid of that big bad wolf of the church out there, that big bad God wolf you got.

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: (Calms) Three years, we've created a beautiful warm community up there where every bed linen is clean and lovely, and every bed is soft and nice, and every home— every— every room has extra heat, if the main furnace isn't enough. And the beautiful ponds and lovely, lovely settings and lovely lawn furniture, and lovely flowers. (Pause) Everything that people need. That's what this God's doing. Now what is the Skygod doing? He— He is supposed to've created all of you. And yet the President, [Richard] Nixon said, two out of three of the babies of this world right now, (hushed word) tonight, are crying for hunger. They're going to bed hungry. That's what President Nixon said, this last administration, that's what the State Department of the United States said, two out of three of His babies going to bed hungry. He's supposed to have all power. If you'da get those Baptists over there in Atlanta had given me power, there wouldn't have been no aged home without a fire escape. Even our aged home has a fire sprinkler, it has a s— a fire s— alarm system in every hall, in every room, you can see the little device. No, you trust in Jim Jones, he won't put you up on no nine floors without a stairs to get down. Only the Skygod does that kind of nonsense.

Congregation: Few cheers and applause

Jones: (Pause) (Quiet) You see— [You] Say, well, I— now— Jim Jones, I don't know what to do with the universe, it's— how'd it get here? (Pause) If I see a pile of horse manure out there on the sidewalk, I know it's there. And I'm not worrying about it, because I know it stinks and I know if you get in it, it's a mess. You understand what I'm talking about.

Congregation: Yes.

Jones: (Quiet, imploring) Now the world of religion and the world of explanations about God making the devil being all-loving, the Skygod being all loving— (Pause) And these stories don't hold water. That's why I've come to give you this little book, and I'll give it to you tonight, free, as bad as the offering is, I'll give it to you free, if you can't afford it. I've put enough here to set you free. And if you— you can become what I am, and you can stir up the nation and bring sense back here and bring heaven down here, and also get another heaven to boot. If you'll listen to this little book, and study it carefully. Study it carefully. You won't find anything there but that makes sense, if you study it carefully. (Pause)

In the beginning, the Skygod was supposed to be up there in the big vast 100 billion planets, and the 100 billion universes, 100 billion times 100 billion, wherever he is, wandering through the planets, and he looked down here for one out of a hundred times a hundred billion, and he saw this little earth, and he said, well, that's where I'm gonna make somebody to worship me. That's what all these Christians say, all the people on the earth, all— the only people in the universe down here on this little ol' piece of sand. (Pause) And the scientists say that if every planet were a piece of sand, if the earth was just a piece of sand, there's not enough sand to compare to the planets that are bigger than the earth in all of this big wide globe. That's how little this little world is. And little old heads, thinking that this is the most important place on ear— on the universe, earth, that God— God— now He picked out this earth. And He was lonely. Now when I look out over the suffering, I— I'll do something about you that are here. Don't you ever call me the Creator, 'cause I don't want to be called no creator. Savior, I am. A friend, I am. A deliverer, I am. Don't call me no creator. 'Cause I'll tell you, I wouldna put you in the messes that you've been in. I love you too much. I wouldn't have put you there. But— let's just— just think now. You don't need to clap for me, I want you to think. I hope that some of you'll get my message. It's all I've come to do, is give you the truth. That's all I want uh— and I'll tell you with the power that I have, the gift that I have, the supernatural miracles— eight people were healed of total blindness last week in Los Angeles. Blinder than bats. Blinder than bats. Couldn't see their— couldn't see light, I'm talking about. These, I'm talking about this week, one woman blind, complete— I said, you're totally blind. Another woman, totally blind, can't see anything. When I got through with her with my power, she was not only seeing fingers, but she told me the color of things and told me exactly everything I held in my hand.

Congregation: Few cheers and applause

Jones: Now I don't care what you say you've heard, but you haven't seen nobody representing the Skygod do that, and you know you haven't, and you're a liar if you say otherwise.

Congregation: Scattered applause

Jones: And you've never seen anybody can take a cancer out of a person like that (unintelligible word) brother was jumping up and down, it was swollen up in great big knots like apples, and I took it away with one stroke. You can see no one like this, grandmother was up here a while ago, when I spoke the word, their child was burning up with meningitis, and it went away, just as the word said it would, you can say— you can show nobody got that kind of power. And I'd used that power and shut my mouth, (Pause) there'd be hundreds of thousands across this nation that'd flock in and give me all the kind of money I— why I could have that— I could— I could own the White House. But there's only one catch. Jim Jones is honest, and he teaches truth, and he causes people to think, and people want to get healed, but they don't want to think. They do not want the healing of the mind. Heal my toe, honey, heal my back, heal my bottom, but don't you heal my mind, 'cause my mind is too sick.

Congregation: Stirs

Jones: (Pause) I just lost two more [people] there. (Pause) All right. Now think about it. (Pause) God up there, when he's lonely, and so out of the big domain he wandered to and fro, and he said, I gotta have somebody to worship me. That's what Billy Graham explained it, that's the way he's got it in his little book, I've forgotten the name of the book, that's what all the theologians, every one of them, they may give a little different words, but they all come up with the same kind of stuff. God was lonely. Where's that old Westclock watch here now? I got it. I gotta get out of here, I'm not paying any more rent, 'cause I'd rather feed you. I'd rather feed you rather— No, I got it right there. (Sound of microphone falling)

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: John the Baptist trying to mess up the — (last two words lost in applause) (Laughs)

Congregation: Applause

Single voice: (Unintelligible)

Jones: It's really funny that I keep on trying to get through to people, that's what funny. Anyhow. God was out there and he looked over the vast horizon of time, and he was lonely. That really killed me. That always got to me, 'cause you know, I've adopted eight children or somewhat down to— I don't even keep track how many children I've reared and adopted. I've had 20, 30 through the years in my home. Some of 'em were starving when I got them, really literally starving. Sue [Suzanne Jones]now studying to be a dietician, that's what she was doing, that's what Lew [Jones], this precious young drom— drummer back there, handsome chap, he was starving when I got him. (Pause) And I took 'em in, but this idea of making children, (stumbles over words) I never make any child only to save somebody, I— I can't uh— (Pause) I can't dig this thing. But he was lonely. So he looked out— and so they say, he'd make man. What'd he make man, Billy Graham says, he made man to worship him. Now you know if I told you, come over to the church tonight, 'cause I'll give you the privilege of worshiping Jim Jones, you'd say, I'll tell you where to go and where to stay put.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: [I] Say, I'm going to give you the privilege to come over here through the night to worship me. You wouldn't come across the street, and yet I do things that would deserve praise. (Pause) Yet we've listened to that nonsense, that God was lonely and God made people to worship him, and that's how he come up with Adam and Eve. (Pause) No, Adam and Eve's a little— uh, he had some angels up there, too, I guess he had to make them too. But the angels, they didn't worship him enough. They just went away around saying, "Uhh." He wanted to get somebody that could— that uh, was smart enough to go wrong, and then know that they were going wrong, and have all kind of things happen to them so they'd have to eat the dirt, then say I'm sorry, so he could forgive them. No, I won't go over that twice, but uh, something like that. The angels— the angels couldn't do anything wrong. That wasn't enough. He had all those angels bowing and flapping their wings and the cheribums, the seraphi— that wasn't enough. (Pause) And one of those angels was too much for him. He made— the most beautiful one he made, he got too— uh, he got too ca— careless there, he made a beautiful one. Lucifer. He made him the most beautiful angel, and that cotton-picker, he wasn't—

Congregation: Laughs, light applause

Jones: (Laughs) Oh, Lucifer, Lucifer up there, and he said, Ha, ha ha. He give me too much of his brains, he give me too much of his looks, he looked out over that mess and he said, ahh, I'm not going to go around here bowing and scraping anymore, and he took a third of his angels, and run off with them.

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: Took one-third of God's angels and run off with them. And that's the kind of foolishness you been worshipping all the years. You been worshipping such nonsense as that. Don't make an ounce of sense. [You] Say, oh, you're talking about Lucifer being now, uh, what kind of a guy— I, I wonder what you'd done if you'd been Lucifer, I think that story, or that analogy is so good, that— that Lucifer once said, somebody met the devil, said, said, Lucifer, what in the world ever caused you to leave heaven? What in the world ever caused you to rebel against God? He said, I'll tell you in just five seconds, he said, I'll show you why I left heaven. He said, now you uh— He said, you know what I'm going to do, I'm gonna get up on this barrel, and he said, I want you to run around that barrel and say Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, and after about fifty times around that, the old— old fellow says, you know, I'm tired. He said, that's what (unintelligible word) the matter with me, that's the reason I left heaven.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: You know what, you're so brainwashed, some of you can't even laugh at that. That's funny.

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: The devil said, that's why he wouldn't stay in heaven, because God was up there on a throne, he had to run around saying, Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, and he got tired of it and so he left. (Pause) Some of you are still afraid that you're gonna get knocked over. I been preachin' this for a half century, I'm a granddaddy, won't be long before I'm a great-granddaddy, I been preachin' like this ever since I was a child, and I'm gonna preach a long while yet, nobody come down and knock me out yet.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: And you know what? I wouldn't care if they did, because I'd be free. When they come for me, at least I'd be free. Some of you scared of your shadow. There nobody I'm a-scared of, let them come, wherever they are, let 'em come.

Congregation: Tentative applause

Jones: You don't know how good it is. Some of you people don't know— You don't live. (Pause) You live with fears, you live with uh, bondages, and uh, there's a great truth I'd like to give you, but I gotta get rid of the old. You know, J— Jesus said you can't take new wine until you get rid of the old. You gotta get rid of the old vessel. You can't put new wine in an old vessel. You can't put a patch on this thing, you've got to get a new garment. Now, let's say (stumbles over words), God was lonely, so he made Adam and Eve too, and they were down there, the first man, the first woman, and there they were down there, (Pause) and he couldn't even get them straight five minutes. (Pause) Adam and Eve. I'm talking about silly stories, folk. Silly stories. I want you to read some of the these silly stories, and to know what you've been caught up in. You been caught up in a mess. Now Adam and Eve down there because he was lonely, and poor ol' folk didn't know their right hand from their left. (Claps hands once) God said, now you can eat of one tree, (Pause) but don't you dare eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because you do, you'll have as much sense as I got. (Pause) That's what he said. Oh, he didn't say it just that way, but he said, don't— I'm talking about— I'm not talking about the true God, I'm talkin' about the God of the old King James Bible, and all these other mistranslations. [He] Said now, you can eat any tree you want, but don't you eat that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because [if] you do, you'll have as much sense as we do. You'll know right from wrong. (Pause) Well, ol' Eve, she's out there on a food trip for her husband, she— she looked at that apple, (Pause) (Laughs) and that snake, he coiled around up there, he had more sense than anybody, a snake was— a snake was a prophet. She— she says, I want that apple (Laughs). And, and the voice of God, the false God, the ol' God of the King James says, (Dramatic voice) "Don't you do, in the day you eat of that tree, you'll surely die."

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: Ol' snake wrapped around there, he said, "Don't you pay no attention to him."

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: He said, when you eat like that, your eyes'll become open. You— when you eat that apple, your eyes will be open, and you won't die. (Pause) But the Bo— God of the Bible was supposed to have said, in the day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Now— so Eve— She listened to the snake, (clicks tongue) she took that apple, took that apple home and ate it. Ahh. Ate it, and what happened? They didn't die.

Congregation: Various voices call out

Jones: I don't want to ha— I don't want to disturb 9Laughs) any of your tender sensibilities, but they didn't die.

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: They quit worrying about God being lonely, and they got together. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughs, then applause

Jones: Anyhow— (Pause) (Voice rises) [You] Say, I come here to get healed, I didn't come to none of that nonsense. Did you know, if you listen to me, and laugh a little bit, I've had cancer, Methodist Hospital said I'd die, 17 years ago, I'm living, 'cause I've learned to laugh at all the fears and let them go by me, I've learned to give of myself to others, and if you'd just watch me tonight, you'd get what you need, and you'd get healed, oh yes, you would.

Congregation: Applause and cheers

Jones: (Voice calms) Your blood pressure'd begin to lessen down, 'cause some of your fears and your worries and your pressures, they'd pass away, because laughter's good medicine for the soul. It's good medicine. A merry heart. It makes a merry heart. Anyhoo— They didn't die. Who was right? The old devil. The devil was right. God said, in the day you eat that apple, you'll die, and the devil said, the day you do, your eyes'll be opened. And they did, they looked at each other, and they looked like they were pretty good, and— and then the trouble started.

Congregation: Laughs, then applause

Jones: So— so no sense, you see, no sense. And (stumbles over words) the Bible supposed to've said, Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman, as I've said. And then a little bit later, Cain kills Abel — they had two children, only two, just two, that's all the Bible said they had, was two — Cain han— and then he killed Abel, and then what in the world happened, after Abel got killed with the jawbone of an ass? Cain went out— Cain went out and got him a wife in the land of Nod. Now where did she come from?

Congregation: Laughs, scattered applause

Jones: Where did she come from? That's all I want you do, you give me— You give me some good reason, if— if Adam and Eve was the first, if Adam was first and then Eve— And that's why we got all the trouble, women don't know— they— they— today they're not free because of this kind of nonsense, and (stumbles over words) 'cause they— all they think they count for is a rib in somebody's side, and so— God took a rib out of Adam and spit on it, or put some dust on it, and then come Eve. That's only two. (Pause) And then them two got their eyes open, just like the devil said they would, and got together, and they had two. And those two— there were only two— but the one killed the other one, and the other one— he just politely walked away from after killing, went over in, in the Land of Nod, and got him a wife. Awww. Say, say, say. (Ministerial cry) I have come to free you from such a disease. I have come to liberate you from such as this.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: [You] Say, Jim Jones, you're gonna talk yourself out of business. Jim Jones, you're gonna talk people to set up the thing that you're doing, and do the same thing. I'd never be so glad. If you could duplicate three churches or three families like I have, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, and Redwood Valley, I'll help you. Be sure you've got as much love as I have. Be sure you've developed all the care that I have. Just take a little care. But when you develop what I've got, I'll be so glad to retire, and I'll just hold your coat while you carry on.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: Because there's no— no question about it. My people are not dropping dead like the Baptists and the Methodists and the Pentecostals. I look down on the front row, and I see people 96 years of age. Yes. I could look down there and see Sister uh, just passed her 96th birthday. Sister Ever [Rejoicing] there, on the second row. And I look down there and I see Sister Janey, who was in the last time we were in this building, I think it was, when she was in that plaster cast, just come from the hospital across the way, and I said, oh, Janey, you're not— one of my children, the preacher over there was acting up, and I wanted to show him I got more power with my— me knowing who I— you know what I know and you know I know, you know what I am—

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: Anyway. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: It's so sweet. The bones were out of her. I mean, child, I swear on your life, the bones were pressing through her skin. They broke and come out of the skin that— they said it'll never heal right. And they had her all lined up with plaster up here. I said, take it off. That preacher over there actin' like a fool, he was supposed to be a holiness preacher, and he was cussin' and carryin' on, settin' right on that wall. I said, all right, we'll show you. I said like Elias, we'll show you who's the God. I said, see what your God can do for her, and I'll show you want I can do for her.

Congregation: Cheers

Jones: I said, Janey, let the nurses cut that plaster off. And they had to cut, and they used sh— shears and they cut, and they used knives and they dug in that thing, and when they got it off, I never shall forget one of the bessed— blessed things of my life, she got something and she throwed it right up here dead on center. And that arm's been right ever since, hadn't it? She was blind, but now she sees, deaf, but now she hears. Hole in her leg for 27 years, and when I touched it, it got healed. (Voice rises to cry) Ohh, tell your child. That's the difference between having something you can see, because what you see is what you get, and if you can't see, you're not going to get it.

Congregation: Cheers

Jones: I got some of them religious folk out there all shook up. [You] Say, you don't even say good grammar. I do that just to bother you, 'cause you think you know so much.

Congregation: Cheers

Jones: Now when we get rid of— we get rid of one of those cancers tonight, one of those arthritis things, then you come up here and you do all the praying you want to, and you're hollering and you're back hoping that God'll drop me dead. And you know what's gonna happen? You're going to drop before I do.

Congregation: Applause and cheers

Jones: —'Cause I'm not gone drop, till I get ready to drop. And when there're folk like you wantin' me to drop, I just ain't gone drop.

Congregation: Applause and cheers

Jones: (Laughs) Remember you are saved by the foolishness of preaching. Didn't say you were saved by Bible reading. Said, faith cometh by hearing. And hearing cometh by the word of God, and the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. It can do things like that. It'll cut away the bone from the marrow. It'll straighten out the crooked bones and make them straight. It said it'll discern the thoughts and know the intents of the heart. It'll quicken the body, that separate the soul from the spirit. You seen three people drop dead and you saw them resurrected. Uh, their attitudes were prejudiced and, uh, they were dropped dead, but I resurrected them, and I've done it 63 times in eleven months. Eleven months, December 1 to day [date], 63 times, this year, in a public meeting.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: Now if your God is so much better than me, why don't He do something about those folk dying in all those churches? I'm not saying I've got a cure, 'cause some of you— why, you don't even know, uh— all you do, uh— times you like me. You don't know about who I am, hardly any of the time. That's something you want to believe, but it's just too big for you. [You] Say, I just know you're a friend, Jim. Now what if it— if you gave me all your faith. (Pause) You know, they always used to tell you, to believe in something you don't see, saying that if you didn't believe, say, (Cranky voice) "Now you're a uh, terrible, you've gotta have faith, you never seen it, but you gotta have faith."

Scattered laughter.

Jones: (Normal tone) Preacher always start that stuff till offering time come, then he don't talk about no faith then, honey. Nooooo, no. He talk about faith when you get hungry, he'll say, have faith. When that Baptist woman over here, the Calvary Baptist, was ah— yes, that's all right, go ahead and sue me, that's the name of the church, Calvary Baptist— when (draws out name) Calvary Baptist—

Congregation: Scattered laughter

Jones: Hmm-hmm-hmm. When she was up in trouble over here, and they never been to my church, and they were going to throw her away for taking a bottle of aspirin, 'cause her Medi-Cal was cut, he said, (Cranky voice) "You better have faith," 'cause, he said, you know I don't preach nothing like that, and he said, if you done stole something— giving that ol' lying dog, he'd been to everybody in town, stole everybody's money and stole two or three women and maybe a man or two—

Congregation: Reaction, Applause

Jones: Then that dear heart tells him, that dear heart tells him— I don't care, let him take me to s— court. My attorney's over there pantin'. (Laughs) I just like a good court suit, that'd just make me good and happy, I'd just love one. I— My— I'm too bored. Let 'em— You let— Do you know these preachers— I been waiting for George over there to sue me. George— He can't sue me, 'cause he knows he propositioned these two girls.

Congregation: Reaction

Jones: (Quiet) They're afraid to sue me, they got nothing to do. I'll treat this thing a whole lot different next time, I'm just waitin' for them to come along. Last time I listened to folk when the newspapers come, I said, well— they said— (stumbles over words, then pause) That's all right, that's nice of you. Umm, last time they got— they had these newspaper come and rippin' through here, and people said, well, [you] gotta do this, you gotta do this, now this time, I'm gone tell you, better get out before they come, 'cause the next time newspapers come, I'm gone make such a stir, (Pause) I'll be selling newspapers for three months.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: They don't worry me. I— I've got over that foolishness. You can't— You can't— (stumbles over words) Naturally, (slows for emphasis) naturally, they're going to try to get us. Naturally. 'Cause if I get through, I'm going to put these operators out of business.

Congregation: Scattered applause

Jones: (Quiet) I noticed, you know, that the Scriptures tells you, even with all of its errors, it tells you that uh, if you try to live godly in Christ Jesus, you're going to get persecution. They're gonna even deliver you to the council and the courts, and they'll lie on you, and they'll say all manner of things falsely, and they'll even kill you, thinking they do God a service. I noticed that what it says will happen to anybody that's a true believer. And I notice the only people in the newspaper's lying on, been me. (Pause) Reverend Ike gets up and publicly talks about taking a thousand dollars, one thousand dollars of the people's money every week — it was in Newsweek — saying I take a thousand dollars every week of the people's money to buy my clothes. And don't you tell me, honey, 'cause somebody just give me one of his ol' dirt sheets here, and— just look at him, look at him in a— settin' in a re— a red throne, settin' in a gold chair, se— setting in a throne called King, the King. (Pause) I'll tell you what he's the king of, but it's not a nice word, so I'm not gonna say it any— (last word drowned by laughter)

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: He can steal from people, he can live like that Stinson (phonetic) openly, in a uh, perverted relationship, that one young man that he brought out over TV and taken millions up and down the country. Ike does what he pleases, and they travel the way they want to, do what they please. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, child. (Pause) Give him an admonition, give him an admonition. (Pause) Mmm. (Unintelligible low phrase) Sure, they can't take it, (unintelligible word) people get all shook up. I'm gone shake you up more, too.

Congregation: Light applause

Jones: They do what they please, live like they want to, and nobody bothers them. I said, Reverend Petty got a little girl down on a Sunday School table, underage, and nobody put a bit of it in the newspaper. Reverend [Jay Ed] Golder, the biggest Pentecostal church, Christ Temple, out with his own cousin. Never one word of it in the newspaper. (Pause) I never bothered anybody, I'm straighter than the s— straightest thing you ever saw, just straight as you want to make straight, and I don't— I— they don't tell a word of truth about me in the newspaper. Lie, lie— I wouldn't even know me if I hadn't known— they said Peoples Temple. I wouldn't even known what they talking about. That's a sadness. I wouldn't have known what they were talking about. (Pause) Making Tim Stoen do things and he never even knew people, 'cause as they saw people getting into high places, people that were good people getting into high places, he was Assistir— ric [Assistant] District Attorney and helping poor people, and working for the people, working for the community, they didn't want nobody like that, so they lied that he was supposed to have ransacked somebody's house and somebody he didn't even knew. He, uh, never knew them. He'd never met them in (Shouts) his life. And that great big newspaper lied. You imagine me ransackin' a house when I can't even kill little animal, an insect. Or any of my people ransackin' a house— Yeah, they want to mess us up, honey. 'Cause they know, if they don't mess me up, I'm gonna mess them up, and that's what they're trying to do, you see.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: And they'll try again and again to mess me up, because you see, I would— I'd expose devils like Billy Graham. Everybody thinks he's a saint. I heard him in Indianapolis when he said, I don't believe the Bible. (Pause) Oh yeah (laughs), he told Reverend [Archie] Ijames, I and [Jack] Beam, he pu— he said, but you gotta preach it (Pause) 'cause that's where people are at. (Pause) And he told what he believed, and he told how he'd never quit preaching about integration, social action, against the war, he's forgot all these promises, 'cause he's got a nice big home with an electric fence around it, and beautiful acres, bringing in the millions of dollars every year. Oh, it's all, rake it in now. So he gets up— he gets up and talks about (hushed word) devils, little ol' women that shoplift. (Pause) But not one word— Oh, they make me so sick, I could vomit. Not one word about the international gangsters, the big corporations that bleed the people, not one word about the bank rates that you see on the TV, charge you 18% (Voice rises)— 18%, some of those shops, a year, 18, 19%, 36%. (Pause) Highway robbers. They don't tell you nothing— He don't tell you nothing about in Watts before the place burned down, that they were charging twice the price for a TV set in Watts than they were in any other neighborhood, or twice the price for food, how they were sending the week-old bread there, (voice turns angry) sending all the dirty ol' vegetables that you wouldn't give to a rabbit or a rat. Billy Graham don't preach about that, but he preaches about little old women that shoplift. I'd like to get a hold of Billy Graham, I'd pray him through—

Congregation: Applause

Jones: (Normal) Ay-yi-yi. Never enough time in the day. I want to just close with getting you to think. Think, child, to think. You go through that Bible, let's just— just run through it here, you won't get this book— some of you won't bother to get it, 'cause you don't want to know the truth. Let's just look at the first— first error on page eight. I got page after page after page after page after page after page of the lies that King James and the Douay version, all the other Bibles have told you. Page after page. [You] Said, Jim Jones, what do we believe in? You believe in me in order to believe in you. That's the only thing gonna set you free. Christ is in you. The only hope of glory you're ever gonna see. The only God you're gonna see is in you. The only Kingdom of Heaven you're ever gonna see is in you. [You] Say, I don't know about that. Well, they— there's a woman that dropped dead, was on crutches for five years, just walking out of the aisle now. She believed in me, and I said "Walk," and she walked. She was dead, and she could not— she could not breathe, no pulse, no heartbeat, no respiration, no blood pressure, I said, (Calls out) Thou shalt live. She believed in me, and I believed in her, and we're having fun together.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: Said some dirty ol' mind gonna believe something. I don't care what your dirty old mind believes. I don't give a shoot about your dirty old mind, 'cause if you thou— if you had a dirty thought, then you haven't got much salvation. 'Cause I was talking about, we were having fun, and freedom together, justice together. (Pause) Ay-yi-yi-yi. (Normal) Now let's read the first one. Genesis 1:25-26. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and God said let mes— us make man in our image. First, according to Genesis, the first chapter, the twenty-fifth verse, God made the beast first, and then He made man. Now read the second chapter. Do you know the second chapter of Genesis is an account of creation, and the first chapter of Genesis is an account of creation, and they disagree, one hundred percent, with each other? According to Genesis 2:18, and the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone. (Pause) This time, he made man first. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field. But according to Genesis 1, God made the beasts first, and then man. And you got God making vegetables before the sun shines, you know you gotta have chlorophyll for— for vegetables to grow, and you got vegetables comin' afore the sun shines. Ahh, child. (Pause) (Stumbles over words) Just read another one. Hebrews 11:17. By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac, his only begotten son. Galatians 4:22, For it is written that Abraham had two sons. You either have one or you have two, honey, you can't have both. (Pause) Genesis 25 said that Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 1 Chronicles 1:32 got honest and said, Keturah, Abraham's whore. Abraham's concubine. Now, if you're a whore, honey, you're not a wife. Or you could be, but it's hard. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughter and scattered applause

Jones: Chronicles 1:32 said that Ken— Keturah— Keturah was Abraham's (Pause) uh, mistress or concubine, but Genesis 25 said Keturah was Abraham's wife. Oh, [you] say, those are just little things. Are they? Well. I think they're pretty big. Down through the list. Just look. (Pause) Trace some of these prophets in their years in the Bible, and you'll find there's a— one account of them, and account after account, they're getting younger. More years they get, the younger they are. (Pause) Yeah. God promises Abraham everything, and He said, I'll give you the seed, all the land of Canaan, for an ever-lasting possession. Acts 7:5, and he gave him none. Not any inheritance in it. No, not so much as to set his foot off it. He didn't get his foot on Canaan, much less (Laughs) get it all, he didn't even his foot in it. (Low voice) Lies, lies, lies. (Pause) (Normal) In Hebrews 11:9— now let's read this again. Genesis 15:8 [actual reference is Genesis 17:8]. I'm about through. And I will give unto thee, Abraham, and to thy seed after thee in all the land of Canaan for an ever-lasting possession. Acts 7:5, and he gave him none inheritance in it, not so much as to set his foot on it. Hebrews 11:9, by faith he sojourned in the land of promise. There all died in faith, not having received the promise. Numbers 33:37, Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor at the commandment of God and died there. Deuteronomy 10:6 said he didn't die there at all. And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth to Mosera, there Aaron died in Mosera and he was buried. Mosera is miles away from the other place that was mentioned, Mount Hor. What do you do with this, child? (Pause) And then, as I say, that— the summer-upper is the last yellow page of this. You take it home and read it. [You] Say, I don't want to read it, I don't want to read— No, you don't want to read it. You just want to be took all time.

Congregation: Stirs

Jones: Please— please, know that if you don't read this, if you don't read this, you're gonna be in real serious trouble. I'm going to tell you this: When light comes to you, and you don't walk in the light, then darkness comes, and how gross is that darkness. I'm not going to scare you with hellfire and that kind of thing. I'm going to tell you, that you lose your soul when you don't walk in light. (Pause) You lose your soul. When you know something's right, and won't study it, to show yourself (unintelligible word), rightly dividing a word of truth, I don't care if it's in a western magazine, you're supposed to divide the word of truth wherever you find it. Rightly divide the word of truth. [You] Said, the Bible's the word of truth. I've already showed to you, the Bible's not the word of truth. In the first place, King James was the king of England who took the first ship— Good Ship Jesus, brought back blacks in chains, and he murdered people all over the whole world. He was a drunk. History supports me in that, and he had 80 more people like him that wrote the Bible, 1611 AD, you'll read it there, he was as mean a rascal as ever walked on earth, and you say you got the Bible. (Pause) Oh, you love the Bible. Do you women? You woman all love the Bible?

Congregation: Stirs, general denial

Jones: Well. Women— if you do— you women that— I saw some sister down there clutching it there in her purse, you better l— listen to it. Honey, now you wake up now, all you women wake up and listen to me real good. If you love the Bible, the Bible says let the women keep silent in all of the churches, suffer not the woman to teach [speak]. That means, honey, shut your mouth.

Congregation: Laughter, slight applause

Jones: (Taps podium) It said, to the slave, if you got a good master, be glad. [The Bible] Said, if you got a bad master, endure him. Oh, yes it does. I got a whole chapter in here on slaves. Oh, the terrible things that went on in this book. It's stuff that you ought to had more sense than to believe in a long time. (Pause) Elisha, the great prophet supposedly of God. Second Kings, second chapter, twenty-third verse. There came little children out and mocked him, laughed at him, saying, go up though, baldhead, and he turned back and he looked on them and he cursed them in the name of God, Jehovah, the Lord, and there came forth two she-bears, according to his curse, out of the woods and there— chir— those two shir— she-bears came and they tore forty and two children a pieces. (Pause) Why did you believe all that crap? (Pause) What would you've thought— What would you think of me if somebody laughed at me tonight, somebody laughed at me, and I'd say, hoo, well, I'll fix you. To— little children— if I had a bald head, children, they naturally— they— they make fun of bald heads. And most— most bald heads get a kick out of it. They're always— little children that way, they make fun, they have to be taught differently, but uh— what— so what, it's so— something for them to laugh at. Most bald heads would enjoy it. Brother [Richard] Parr down there, I'm sure, would take fun out of uh, letting them uh, make fun of him. 'Cause it's— it's fascinating to a child, (stumbles over words) and even to me, as I look down on Brother Parr's head, and see the light glistening off of it. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: And they say, you know bald head men, you oughtna feel too badly, they say that it uh— uh, they said in the— no hair on the top doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace, so—

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: Anyhow— (Laughs) What would you think of me as a prophet, if two— (Pause) If little children would come up, 42 children, and tease me, and I'd say, you're not going to tease me, I'll curse you, and I call bears to come out of the woods and tear 'em up. [You] Said, is that in the Bible? Yes, honey, that is in the Bible. [You] Said, did God do it? No, God didn't do it, and there no prophet did it, that's that lying honky from England that told you that.

Congregation: Applause and cheers

Jones: Some of you don't know whether to smile or (Laughs) go blind over there.

Congregation: Laughs

Jones: (Laughs) [You] Say, I come here to get healed. You come back tomorrow, and I promise you, I'll pray and pray and minister, I'll walk up and down the aisles, but if you'd get what I'm saying tonight, you know what? Tomorrow you wouldn't be worried about your stomach over there, tomorrow you wouldn't have that headache you got settin' there. You wouldn't have it. (Pause) You— You— You'd get straightened out. (Pause) I think that I've said about as much as can be said (Pause) that'll do any good, as we said. (Pause) God, according to the Bible, in Exodus 21, sanctions slavery. Said, if you buy a servant or slave, if his master's given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be her master's. Take them away from the man. (Pause) (Incredulous, angry) What kind of stuff— no wonder they've done this to blacks and browns and poor whites that they've put in American bond servants. They've done it in the name of religion. (Pause) Leviticus 25 says the same thing: Both thy bondman and the bondmaid which thou shall have shall be of the heathen that are around you, of them shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy. You'll take the children from them, as your inheritance. (Pause) Ye gods. Ye gods. Exodus 21:20. And if a man s— slap your servant or his maid and he die under his hand, if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. In other words, somebody can slap your slave around, and smite them and do what he wants to, but he shall not be punished, because he has money. (Pause) Philippians 4:11, I have learned in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content. I'm glad Harriet Tubman didn't believe that, I'm glad Frederick Douglass didn't believe that, I'm glad a few slaves didn't believe that.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: Colossians 3:22, Slaves, obey in other things your master. Servant, slave, same thing. (Pause) In the Hebrew, it's slave. Slaves obey all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but in singleness of heart and fear God. Slaves be obedient to them that are your masters according to flesh, with fear and trembling as unto Christ. God have mercy. First Timothy, let— am— as of many slaves as are under the yoke, count their own yoke worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. In other words, stay a slave. Titus 2:9, he— exhort slaves to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, not showing anything but good fidelity that they adorn the doctrine of God, our savior in all things. Slaves, 1 Peter 2:18, be subject to your masters with all fear. Not only to the good master, not only to the gentle master, but also to the forward, or to the evil one, or to this that is unthankworthy. If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, it is right to do. (Pause) No wonder people are spittin' on blacks still. No wonder they still blow up blacks in little Baptist churches in the South. No wonder white people are treated like dogs because they have no money, because it says, to whatever state you find yourself, therewith be content. (Pause) No wonder the Indians were run out of their homes and burned down, still only live to be 42 years of age, an average life, because, if you're Indian, too bad. If you're poor, too bad. (Pause) [You] Say, you're shaking me up. I'll shake you up more.

Congregation: Scattered applause

Jones: The last thing. I could read you thing after thing, but read the last yellow page on Jesus. Matthew 1 and Luke 3. You'll find that uh, Matthew and Luke disagree as to who Jesus' grandfather is, and how many great-grandparents he has back to Abraham. One has him having 15 more grandparents than the other. (Pause) (Calss out) Think about it. You go home and read it. (Pause) Now, where did Jesus die? Where did he resurrect? One says it was at Bethany, one says it was at a last supper, one says it was on another mountain, one says it was in Galilee. Where did he go from? (Pause) When Jesus died, one said he— when he— when Jesus was uh, born, one said he went to Egypt, the other said kept the feast of the Passover every year with his parents in Jerusalem. What did he do? One said when Jesus was crucified on the cross, that all the thieves that were there railed on him. The other says only one malefactor did, and he rebuked the other. (Pause) Now what was the case? You don't know what the case was. (Pause) Well, I'll tell you. This is it in a nutshell, and I'm not going to be able to say much more. (Aside) What is the— the— the accounting report, the uh— the elder's report, the finances, glad Sister Mabel got— (unintelligible word)

Soft voice

Jones: (Talks to person standing nearby) Hmm?

Soft voice

Jones: That's good.

Soft voice

Jones: Would be— what— what's that mean?

Soft voice

Jones: (Unintelligible word— wounds like "Wonder") whether we get paid?

Soft voice

Jones: I don't work that. Better look— better look at that.

Soft voice

Jones: Hmm. Well, we better find what we did with the other guy.

Soft voice

Jones: I know— Father Jones know you don't get something for nothing, never did, never will. (Pause) You want a little— a little of this?

Congregation: Slight laughter

Jones: Take it— take it down there, some of them sisters think I'm getting high here. Take it down there—

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: Oh you, they wouldn't believe you. Go and take it down there, and give her— give her— give some of them a drink. (Pause) Give Bea some, she knows it— There's Bea there, she's ninety-some years of age. Give her— See, they— they think I'm drinking Old— Old Crow there. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Laughs) (Pause) What is that, Bea Whitna (phonetic)? (Pause) What's that? Grape juice. Okay. Give it to Mother [Marceline] LeTourneau, and give her a swig, what'd she think it is?

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Laughs) It's (unintelligible word), it's not grape juice (Laughs).

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: What is it?

Woman: It's grape juice.

Jones: Grape juice? (Pause) That's an apple, grape and cranberry juice mixture. (Pause) Well, you see, there— there— nobody said there any wine. I don't drink any wine, because I don't want my children to use marijuana. (Pause) Wine— and I don't drink wine because I know wine causes cancer of the throat, cause cancer of the stomach, causes— you never have a throat cancer if you don't drink— drink liquor. (Pause) It's a good thing I don't drink liquor, I'd be in for it, because I sure talk a lot, 'cause I have to talk a lot to get anything across. A lot of folk right now, when I go down the line, they'll say, (Cranky voice) Lord bless you, brother. Heal my toe.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Normal tone) Afore I get down that aisle, there'll be folks saying, (Cranky voice) you— you— you— you just remember me and the Lord tonight, now you take me to the Lord. You hear? (Pause) (Normal tone) I say, I can't even tell you how beautiful the life is, until you get rid of the old nonsense. [You] Say, where are you from? How you get this power? You want to know? I'm gone tell you. I've come from another planet.

Congregation: Scattered applause

Jones: That's it. That's it. That's simple enough. That's— I come from another planet. And that's all the whole parables of all the Bibles is talking about. The wheel in the middle of the wheel, all this is just— this was just talking about visitations from other planes. And that— that all this is just parables and a lot of it's symbolic, and a lot of it's totally confused, because we got too many rotten kings that have written it and translated it. I come to another— I come from another planet, there are other planets that are higherly— highly evolved, and I can get you there, if you'll listen to me. And I can make this planet a better place, and if you don't let me help you make this planet a better place, you'll stay here until you do make it a better place. And now— now— now what'd I say?

Congregation: Murmurs

Jones: I refused to repeat it on the grounds it might tend to incriminate me. I can see the newspaper. (Newscaster's voice) Jones is from another planet.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: And as funny as it sounds, that's it. (Pause) You say, what are you doing here? What I want to ask you is what the hell you're doing here, because I come to get you.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: [You] Say, are you trying to be funny? No. (Pause) I know— I've known practically everybody in this room. If you stay with me, I knew you before. (Pause) I knew you before. You've had it proven to us by prophecies that've taken place the exact minute, day, and year, and month and hour. Many times it's been proven. But I— I've known most of you. [You] Say, I don't know you, well, then okay. You're in the wrong place tonight. You shoulda dropped down to First Baptist, you just got mixed up and got over here.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: You can correct it tomorrow, you can go over there. You can set up there and listen to that phony talk about (Cranky voice) "He's coming soon. He coming soon, I'm telling you, he coming soon." (Normal voice) That's what he'll be telling down here, that what Reverend Johnson'll be saying, or Reverend Jack— (Cranky voice) He coming soon. (Normal voice) On the radio. (Unintelligible word) (Cranky voice) That fool that follows me, my God, I've got something to tell you, right from heaven Jesus, it's coming soon.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Normal voice) That's what that— He says that every time he follows me. He sounds like a broken record. And, uh— Now the last time I heard that fellow that followed me, Snyder's got, he's got— whatever his name is, (stumbles over words), he says he's a liar, first thing, you don't even listen to him, he's a liar. (Pause) Said a young man, this young man, the old boy's 60-some, I'd say, that's young, honey, that's pretty big lie, you're stretching it some.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: That old boy— What's that man that follows me, what's that name?

Voice in crowd: Arturo Skinner.

Jones: (Dramatic) Arturo Skinner.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Cranky voice) This young man who God has raised up to tell you the same old baloney, so he can drive around in Rolls Royces and Cadillacs. (Pause) (Normal voice) And you look at old Arturo, he's sure got the clothes on. Man, I'm telling you, Arturo's fit to be tied. And he tell you, (Cranky voice) "He comin' soon. I'm gonna tell you, you better be ready, it may be tonight, it may be tomorrow, it may be at noon." (Normal voice) But Arturo's got five cars and the homes all up and down, all the way from Florida. Got a spot out there in Bermuda Islands. But he's coming soon. What's he need with a spot out there in Bermuda Islands, what's he need that Cadillac, if he's coming soon. Them fools tomorrow gone tell you, "He comin' soon," they don't mean he's comin' soon, they only want you do is get rid of that gravy so they can go out and have a vacation.

Congregation: Murmurs and light applause

Jones: (Aside) Okay, that's fine, that'll take care of it. (Back to congregation) It's so sweet, you know. All them liars tell you that. Yeah, you see, I— I don't tell you trust no Jesus coming soon. I tell you one thing, honey-bunny— I'll tell you one thing, he— noth— noth— nothing gonna come soon, but some old fool like me to tell you that if you gonna have heaven, you gonna have to build it. You're gonna have to make it yourself. Somebody gonna come in the same old, used old (voice fades as he walks into congregation)

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: You noticed I do have a new— different pair of shoes on tonight, but these are the shoes of one of my brothers back there, 'cause I got in a rush to get to a telephone and law— and left my shoes on the top floor, and they're someplace— someplace on the top floor, so I'm using somebody else's shoes. But ordinarily, I— the same shoes, I never bought any shoes. (Pause) And they say, "Ohh, you gotta watch that Jones. He's against God, he's the anti-Christ." I am. I'm giving you blessings, I'm healing you, I'm saving you when you die, I'm giving you hungry— When you're hungry, I'm feeding you.

Congregation: Light applause

Jones: Now this— oh this— this is a used choir robe, they— we just stitch it up every week. Use a little naphtha on it, clean it up.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: Hey!

Congregation: Cheers and applause

Jones: See, I want to get this thing down to business, now, so some of us can get into this, so I can do a good job for you. I want to get to know you better. Some folk, right here is like Sister [Christine Ella Mae] Bates— Good God, I don't get to shake hands with you enough really to satisfy me. 'Cause I got all these folk trampin' through here and say, (Cranky voice) "The Lord bless you, the Lord, He gone— The Lord gonna use ya." (Pause) (Normal tone) Sister Bates two years ago, she found out where her lord was. And she lay in a hospital bed, knowing that she didn't know no Skygod come and took her out of the hospital bed. I'd like to do a whole lot more for her, but I did that for her. She's up now and around. Oh, yeah. She was laying on a hospital bed over there in Oakland giving up to die.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: She knows who God is.

Bates: Yeah.

Jones: Who you say—

Bates: Jim Jones.

Jones: Oh— okay— (unintelligible phrase) Jim Jones. Oooh. Hey! Better— better hold that woman away.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Laughs) She's looking for you to drop over, and me too.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (Laughs) We're not gone drop. See, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. People are afraid. Said— You say, she believes you're God. Jesus said, ye are gods. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So you see, she sees God in me, and she got off the hospital bed. Now if she'd had seen anything like the old fool that some of you looking at a straight face, you think I'm some kind of a kook, (stumbles over words), if she'da thought I was a kook, she'da been laying over there still. She'd been gone. In— Instead of been laying over in that hospital bed, they'da had her laying out in um— some casket. And I wouldn't have gotten to enjoy this precious one. She's been such a joy to me and such a lift to me. I don't know— I don't know, but I know one thing, if I get this settled down, we're gone get them. You know what we're gone do. Why, this is ridiculous trying to have big meetings to hold people together. They don't want— you can sit down, honey, you don't need to keep standin'. I just wanted to show you can walk. They think you can't walk, you see. (Laughs)

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: It's sweet. (Pause) Thank that custodian, Brother Harris, for his kindness to us. He said we can stay a little longer, and that makes me feel good, because I'm gone use that, you know, to get straightened out— (end of sentence drowned in applause)

Congregation: Applause

Jones: If I didn't have to work myself going over on these same thing, you folks, some of you know it. You could almost tell what's coming next. I would like to get us— (Pause) I want some of you to get this cause in your mind, because the way out of this plane is unselfishness. Selfishness holds you to the earth. Its gravitational forces will keep you here as long as you're selfish. You can't get out of here. [You] Say, how'd I get here? Well, some of you got here, because you thought you knew more than I did up there, when I told you I was the chairman there, I told you not to go. And you said you knew you could come down here and save this bunch, and I told you, don't mess with this bunch. Said they had to come up on their own. (Pause) But some of you made up your mind to come, and now you're down here, and I love you, and that's why I'm down here too. Said, did I— Did you come for everybody in this room? Nope. 'Cause some of you don't know me. I didn't come for you. I'll be there when you need me, but I— right now, I didn't come for you, 'cause you don't know— you don't know me from Adam's (unintelligible word— sounds like "off socks"), you don't know me. I'll be glad to help you if you'll let me help you. [You] Say, you're telling me strange things. You won't hear me talk about this too much, but tonight I'm just gone tell you as it is, just tell you as it is. I come to get you out of this mess. And not only that, I'll show you how to build a better world while you're here. You'll have more— That thing [microphone] making a lot of crackety-crack-crack. Now you cut that out. (Pause) Give me another one of these things here, 'cause I don't want to have to hold that thing— I'm holding that thing now. (Pause)

(Unintelligible overlap of conversation as microphone changed)

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: (too soft) Shift. Go on. Shift, shift, shift. Shift your sweet hearts. I'm want to get you the tru— get a little bit of the truth over, then close it up. (Pause) That's it. Shift around a little bit. (Pause) All right. All right. Now the earth holds you down, as long as you believe in lies about— superstitions about unknown gods, and as long as you believe any other reality except the science of being and the science of mind, the earth will hold you down as long as you're selfish, capitalistic and possessive. You don't want to share, it holds you down. Just like the law of gravity. You can't get out of its gravitational pull until you get free of it. That's what I want some of you to get on with it, just like I've been freed from it. Money doesn't hold me. I don't need clothes. I don't need none of that stuff. I would never even worry about looking decent because— the only reason I'll comb my hair because if I walk out here, it wasn't combed, somebody'd say, he's looking a little tireder, and uh— I gotta show you, you know, that I look better than what the other preachers do, and they don't do one-half, one-tenth the work that I do.

Congregation: Murmurs

Jones: And I'll bet they haven't got as many grandchildren as I have, and look as well as they— as I do, pressing here half a century. I'll bet they don't look as well as I do. Uh, I'm holding my own pretty well, and I'm gone keep holdin' too, 'cause some— too many people want me to die, and I'm a contrary cuss when folk want me to die. I don't die when folk want me to die.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: S— Sweet. (Pause) And they tried to shoot me, so don't you— don't you worry about it. They tried to shoot me down, and whatever I got going is better than what you had going before you met me, because when they shot me down, you saw what happened, I picked myself right up, the nurses put their finger in there, I swear on your life, put it right in my chest, and the fingers just as big as holes, right in there. They said, you're gonna die, and I said nooo. I ain't ready.

Congregation: Laughter

Jones: I said, my people need me, I'm not ready. Not ready yet. Ah, the Skygod never did that. No, he never did that. (Pause) And he's not gonna do that. Now I'm here, and I'm different. I am indeed different. But I can make you exactly what I am, if you'll listen. You gotta get rid of all the false notions, though. [You] Say, I don't like so much talkin', but the talkin's what's going to save you. You're saved by the foolishness of preaching. You gotta get to know me. Well, we're never gonna get to know each other in these vast sessions where we have to go through the same bunch and people getting' aggravated and come in, so finally, we'll close down. There won't be public meetings. That's what's coming. (Pause) That's what's coming. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but it'll be— you'll have to— you'll have to make a reservation to get in here. And there'll be a smaller number, but you'll have to make a reservation to get in here, because we're getting tired of going over the same things. We've heard A-B-C, now we want to get to D. But I got folk here every time coming with— they can't get through A-B-C, if we try to get through A-B-C, it's Father's heart in nature. If you come, he'll try to explain it to you, and it's the (draws out word) same thing over and over again. So I'm getting weary with it. And my people getting weary with it. So we need to get down to the business of giving our all. Now we've had a few that've done it. They've put their soul into this new idea. They put their soul into it. Take people like the Swinneys. Man given up to die, could never work again, now he's driving buses, keeping a bu— a business, turning it all in, so that the children will have food, senior citizens will have homes, and they run the concessions at the park and get all this. Swaneys did the same. Her health was so bad, his health was so bad, they're active now. He drives a bus, holds a job. They're doing that. The new life has gotten them a blessing, and they give all.

That's the way it was on the day of Pentecost. That was the new earth's message there. A visitor met them then, a visitor from outer space. (Unintelligible word) Yes, it was a visitor then, a visitor now. (Pause) A visitor from another planet. That's all heaven is, another planet. And uh— so I visited then, and I'm told them of way to live. I said, sell your possessions and have all things common and part to every man as had need. Now, we don't have to have too many people to do that, and if a few people would do this, and get together, some of you young people particularly, get in and give— You're all in this thing. Put your all in it. First thing you know, in another year— and we'll be safer, 'cause we hurt ourselves, talking out here in public. Fools just listen to it and take it and use it against you. Just take it and use it against you. So we— we hurt ourselves, but if we'd quietly do our business, we could go out, and we'd own one of the hospitals here another two years. Yeah. And we'd have a hotel here, and we'd have it there. All up and down here, we'd have things. But what gets me in trouble, I'm too honest a man to be in public. (Pause)
Got some fellow sitting back there, up to no good tonight, some young fellow that ought to appreciate me, 'cause I'd be the kind of a friend when there'd no friend. I'll fight for you, one of the young men that'll lead— takes a lead, Saul here, I fought for him in the courts, and promised him through the prophecy that nobody else has got, I said, three-time loser, I said, you're not gonna be lost this time, but I'll bring you through, and he's been free for three years. 'Cause you know what? Some of you sitting right here, you still got too much color consciousness, just because I'm not just quite as dark as black you are, I'm just not quite dark enough, you— you kinda sneak around by night to see me. You're ashamed of me, like Nicodemus was ashamed to see Jesus. Now not some of you, but some of our— my black and brown people are ashamed to be publicly a— identified with me. (Pause) And I could have all of the money from the whites if I wanted, 'cause I got power like none of them ever had. They'd follow me, and they did, as Mother LeTourneau can tell you. That building couldn't hold them, 2000 be out in the yard, they'd be in the fields, I call them through the windows, they climb through the windows to get their healing. (Pause) The whites would've taken it in. But they weren't my people. 'Cause I come to those that are enslaved, those that are bound, those that have been deprived, those that don't have their equal rights, (Ministerial cry) those are the ones I've come to, the ones that need deliverance.

Congregation: Applause

Jones: The one that has freedom and is ready to come to them— (tape fades out)

End of tape

Back to the Top