Q951 Summary

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

To read the Tape Transcript, click here. To read the Annotated Tape Transcript, click here.
To return to the Tape Index, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).

FBI Catalogue           Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: None

Date cues on tape:     Likely May 1973 (speaks of “mid-May”; also cites problems with Hearst papers, which ran Kinsolving series in September 1972

People named:

 
Bible verses cited:

(Editor’s note: The verses below appear in order of biblical reference, not as they appear in Jim Jones’ address. For a complete scriptural index to the sermons of Jim Jones, click here.)

“They’re actually becoming their brothers’ keeper.” (Genesis 4:9, “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”)

“I have heard you avidly support those testimonies, that you had to be a whole and a clean and an upright people, that you could not defraud your brother, that you could not engage in violence, that you must keep the holy commandments and not kill and not lie and not bear false witness, nor commit adultery in any sense with anything that’s false or fornicatious.” (Deuteronomy 28, esp. 28:9, “The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.”)

“Will you not rob God?” (Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”)

“Some of you will perhaps help make up for some others that have not done right, and great will be your reward.” (Matthew 5:12, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”)

“I tell her about the fall of a sparrow, her dog. That’s as the fall of the sparrow. God, the infinite mind, is aware of the fall of the hairs on your head” (Matthew 10:29-30, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” See also Luke 12:6-7)

“Jesus Christ knew because he raised with the consciousness of the hundredfold degree. The hundredfold consciousness is available principle to everyone. It’s a free expression of divine universal law … I’ve declared it in the hundredfold… [Jesus] had changed his outward appearance, but it was the same hundredfold, it was the same universal mind principle.” (Numerous Gospel references to the hundredfold, including Matthew 13:8, 23; Matthew 19:29; Mark 4:20; Mark 10:30; and Luke 8:8.)

“Some of you then will recognize … whether you are a Peter, a rock.” (Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”)

“Some are called – so many – but only few are chosen. I look over these ranks and I know many of you are called, but few of you – only a few of you, only a few of you – are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” See also Matthew 20:16)

“I’m with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20,  “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”)

“No one humanly speaking knows where the body of Jesus is. But it says where the carcass is gathered together, there will the eagles be. Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together, is in your likeness in the King James translation.” (Matthew 24: 27-28, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”)

“God is not a follower. But God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15, “…The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Also, Luke 21:31.)

“[Y]ou do not know where the body of Jesus is. Even Mary and Martha made that terrible mistake after he had been laid in the tomb. Those who had walked with him by the way did not know him, because coming back from the tomb, they were still looking for Goldilocks Jesus. They were still looking for the same one that they had called the carpenter’s son. But when they were walking back on the road from Emmaus came down the road, they could not understand when the gardener was there consoling them, who was in their presence. They were telling the gardener how bad their life was, how miserable it was since they’d lost Jesus, how much they were looking forward to his return… I was within breathing distance of one who said, she knew God! Said, if no one else here tonight knows God, she said, I know God! … God was as close as a touch of a finger. And she did not recognize.” (Jones is combining two post-resurrection accounts, that of two of Jesus’ followers meeting him on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-18, and Mary Magdelene meeting the gardener in John 20: 14-16. There are several other references to the gardener in this sermon. The reference to Jesus as “the carpenter’s son” is to Matthew 13:55)

“The Word is God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”)

“Jesus was crucified because of what I am doing tonight. Jesus said, you are gods… he said it is written you all are gods.” (John 10: 33-34, “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”)

“These things shall you do and greater. He said greater shall come after me, because I have gone to the Father.” (John 14:12, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”)

“They come to kill God, thinking they do God a service. In the name of their false gods, it is said in the last days, they would even kill God… and thinking they do God a service. (John 16:2, “yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”)

“Some of you then will recognize whether you are a Saul, whether you are a Paul or a Saul.” (Conversion of Saul to Paul in Acts)

“I’m the firstborn of many brethren.” (Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”)

“And I will, whether you cooperate or not, cause every knee to bow and every tongue to confess.” (Romans 14:11, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” See also Isaiah 45:23)

“I’ve heard it said that God is coming for a church. I have heard you say that God is coming for a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” (Ephesians 5:24-27, esp. 5:27, “…a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”)

“The one that discerns the thoughts and know the intents in your heart is looking at you. The one that Hebrews 4:12 said when he came in his fullness and his glory. Said then the word was made flesh through the discerned thoughts and knows the intentions of the heart, he would separate bone from marrow.” (Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”)

“You want to be in the true church, the church of your savior, Jesus Christ, the church, the general assembly of the church of the firstborn, to innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men and women that are being made perfect in this, the only egalitarian camp.” (Hebrews 12:22-23, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”)

“I welcome their coming, I say come quickly. Come the four winds, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Come, ride hard on … the chosen ones. Ride hard on them! Ride over them. See whether they’ll stand up and defend their faith. See what they’re made of. Ride along, four horseman of the apocalypse! I call you forth! I call you forth from the east, from the west and the north and the south. Come in! Sweep in over this Temple and sever and divide and scatter! As the four winds does the feathers.” (Revelation 6)

“[S]ome here, … also have a desire to taste of that iniquity, the mother of harlots, capitalism. You have a desire to suck at her breast.” (Revelation 17:1-7)

“If you have had a vision of this new Jerusalem, the city and builder whose maker is God addressing you here, in the first person. If you want to inherit the new earth, then you will free yourself from the limitations and the debilitating circumstances of the flesh.” (Revelation 21:1-8)

Summary:

(This tape was transcribed by Vicki Perry. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)

Recorded in either San Francisco or Ukiah, likely in May 1973, this sermon deals much more with religiosity and much less with current events or political affairs than many of Jim Jones’ addresses from this period. Using the Bible – and especially the book of Matthew in the Gospel – as his authority, Jones makes a strong argument for his own divinity, sometimes as a successor to Christ, other times as Christ’s spirit in its return. Because of that invocation, Jones not only steers away from denouncing the Bible, he invites his followers to become “Christian socialists” by keeping God’s commandments. Those commandments not only include the ones everyone already knows –  “you must keep the holy commandments and not kill and not lie and not bear false witness, nor commit adultery in any sense” – but they can find the new order only by cleaning up old traditions. In the case of Peoples Temple, that ranges from avoiding tobacco and alcohol to dropping the trappings of capitalism.

Despite his use of the familiar language of the Gospels, though, Jones repeatedly refers to himself as God. He is the only one who will help his people before the courts and in the jails. “There will be no one that will stand except one you are now appearing, now that you are looking at, now that you are viewing, that one will be your only one that will come,” he says early in the tape, then adds,  “If you reject me when I speak the truth, you have rejected the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!”

People don’t know when they are in the presence of God, he iterates several times, combining the post-resurrection stories of Jesus’ followers not recognizing him either on the road from Emmaus or in the garden. “And so the confused Mary and Martha have summoned the atmosphere of people’s mission tonight. Still confused. Still looking for their savior, when their savior has always been with them. Always around. He may have a different shape, and a different form, a different sound of voice, his hair color might be slightly different, but the same God, the very same Jesus.”

But those in the Temple know God. They know their church is not like a Pentecostal church, which may be in the thirtyfold or even the sixtyfold – that would mean “forty percent of you are still dead, and only sixty percent alive” – but they are in the hundredfold of God.

In describing his healing powers, Jones reminds them of why they come to him. A man is good to have around if they need help with their car, or to do some heavy lifting, or to work in the yard. “But … when you’re sick, when you need someone to heal you when you’re dying,” they know where to go. “Come, and I will heal you,” he cries out. “Come, and I will deliver you. Come, and I will bring you through! It’s the same Jesus. It’s the same God!”

The subject of his healing powers returns late in the tape, when he reminds the congregation that no one has died in the church. He corrects himself to say, “I mean by that, they have never remained dead.… if they died, they resurrected immediately.”

Those in the Temple will also recognize who their God is when the forces of oppression come. “I’ll be more grateful when the police state comes after your savior. I’ll be more grateful when they come with wicked hands again to take me as they took the Christ of old and show them again.” That will also be the moment when they will show what they are made of. Faith cannot be tested when people are comfortable in a church, but only when the church is persecuted.

The message transitions into one of apocalypse, and Jones calls upon the forces from the Book of Revelation to “[s]weep in over this Temple and sever and divide and scatter as the four winds does the feathers.”

The words are much of daring as they are of invitation, but in the end, it doesn’t matter to him whether they follow him or not. He offers both solace and challenge, but, he warns, “your love and devotion have to be placed on the fundamental, which I am.” Otherwise, he will move on without them. “Jesus said, this is why he was crucified, because of what I’m doing tonight… I’m experiencing and demonstrating, I’m exonerating, and beautifying and exhibiting that which Jesus died on the cross for. To hinder me would be spitting in the name of Jesus.”

The service also includes a healing and revelation to a woman, and follows the pattern established in other tapes: he calls out a name that he has in his mind, and when a woman for whom that name has meaning comes forward, tells her details about her life that he has no way of knowing other than through revelation, then reveals how she can save her life and those of her daughters.

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 7/2/79

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 21, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-7R15. This tape was found to contain the following:

A lecture by JIM JONES on the bible and its philosophy.

Differences with FBI Summary:

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.

Tape originally posted December 2009