Q950 Summary

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

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FBI Catalogue           Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part “8-1-72”

Date cues on tape:     Late May 1972, a week after Jones’ birthday

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.)

Cain killed Abel because he was a competitor. It always is capitalism that causes murder. It may start out as a little innocuous thing, but finally it’ll end up causing you to murder your brother to get what he has. You’ll want to get what he has and you’ll cut his throat, knife him in the back, push him down, walk over him, but finally capitalism is the devil personified. It’s murder incorporated. And that’s what led Cain to kill Abel on that awful morning. He wanted what his brother had… [later in sermon] The same spirit that caused Cain to slay Abel was capitalism, competition. (Genesis 4:1-8)

Genesis 25 says, then Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah. K-E-T-U-R-A-H. (Genesis 25:1, “Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.”) [contrasted with 1 Chronicles 1:32]

You can’t understand anything about divine law, unless you understand reincarnation. God personified in a body. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for he’d seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. He wrestled all night with him at Peniel. Genesis 32:30 … The same God that wrestled in human form with Jacob all night. (Genesis 32:24-30)

Whatsoever you say I am, I am that I am, and I shall fulfull my work. (Exodus 3:14, “And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”)

Exodus 24, then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. And suddenly the Elders of Israel, and they saw the God. Not heard, but saw the God of Israel. (Exodus 24:9-11, “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.”)

Manoah and his wife saw [God]. (Judges 13)

2 Samuel 24:1 talks about the same event, but tells it differently. “And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 24:1, “And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.”) [contrasted with 1 Chronicles 21:1]

Remember Elisha? The bald headed Elisha, the prophet? Some children mused at him having a bald head. Children muse at me all the time.… No use of getting excited over someone making a little– and this wasn’t amusement, this was a kind of a cut, but Elisha just had little kids. Little baby children came up to him and made fun of him. because he had a bald head. They didn’t make fun, they said they joked, and it said God was incensed because the children did this. Now, how ridiculous. God or Elisha then ordered she-bears to come out of the wilderness, the woods, and to destroy all those forty children. Why, you wouldn’t go across the street to worship a God like that. (2 Kings 2:23-24, “and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”)

1 Chronicles 1:32 decidedly says Keturah, Abrahams’ concubine. (1 Chronicles 1:32, “Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine”) [contrasted with Genesis 25:1]

1 Chronicles 21:1, Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.”) [contrasted with 2 Samuel 24:1]

I can command the waves and the winds to be still if I choose, saith God. (Psalm 107:25, “For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.”)

Solomon said why, his hair is as black as the raven. (Song of Solomon 5:11, “His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.”)

And Isaiah 7:20, you have shave with a razor. (Isaiah 7:20, “In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.)

When my body aches and is racked with pain, when my eyes cannot even see but fuzzy little details, then I think on that which God is, a spirit of Socialism, and I rise up again with wings like an eagle, I soar above the clouds of mortality, I soar above all that which is mortal and capitalistic, and I fly again. (Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”)

The same God that some murderous king, Nebuchadnezzar 567 years before Christ, 567, looked in a fiery furnace even though he persecuted the Jews. He looked in the fiery furnace, and there he not only saw Eshack [Shadrach], Meshach and Abednego, but he saw Jesus Christ, God Almighty, in a body. (Daniel 3, esp. Daniel 3:25, “He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”)

You don’t even know who [Jesus’] grandfather is. (Matthew 1:1-16, contrasted with Luke 3:23-24)

You don’t whether [Jesus] went to Egypt or whether he didn’t, whether he stayed in Jerusalem. One writer says he stayed with his parents and kept the feast of the Passover every year. (Matthew 2 contrasted with Luke 2:41, “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.”)

Thy kingdom come, my will be done on earth. (from the Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:9-13)

As it said with John the Baptist, he was Elias which was and is to come. (Matthew 11, esp. Matthew 11:14, “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”)

What is it that we don’t have an ear to hear, what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Numerous references in Gospels to “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” including Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mark 4:9, 4:23, 7:16; Luke 8:8, 14:35)

I am a manifestation of the one hundred fold. Hundred percent God, what’s what we’ve been saying all along. You can be thirty fold if you want to, and look up to a dead Easter program on a pagan holiday, you can be a dead, dead dead 30 percent. Go pay some preacher to lie to you. You can be a 60 percenter, if you wish and get some experiences. Just a touch of Pentecost. Or you can move on in to where your father pastor is, one hundred percent, one hundred percent filled, just like you fill a bottle, one hundred percent with water, I am one hundred percent filled with purity, and that purity is socialism. That’s what it is. One hundred fold. (Matthew 13:8, 13:23, 19:29; Mark 4:8, 4:20, 10:30; Luke 8:8)

As I said in the fore days of old, why callest thou me good? There is none good. My flesh is no good. My birthdays are no good. My own history’s no good. My name is no good. There’s only one thing good, the Father of all things living, Socialism. God is love, and love is Socialism. The father is socialistic. That’s the good thing. Somebody’ll come up to me and say, good teacher. Jesus wouldn’t even permit to be called good teacher. Why callest thou me good? (Matthew 19:17. See also Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19)

Where the eagles gather, there has to be carcass. And where the carcass is, the eagles will gather together. And I am the carcass, willing to die, that you could live. Willing that you could eat from me, that you might know the divine principle that will save you and set you free. Say, where the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gathered together. (Matthew 24:26-28)

I am the power that heals you when you were sick, broke the bondages that were on you that no one could break, took you in when you were a stranger… [later in sermon] I’m over there hungry, destitute without homes, my– the housemaker, the provider’s gone. Well, that’s where he is. He said, I was hungry and you fed me not. Thirsty, and you gave me no drink. A stranger, and you didn’t take me in. In prison, fighting for freedom, and you didn’t come to me. (Matthew 25:35-46)

You don’t know whether [Jesus] died with one thief converted, or whether they were both scolding him and rebuking him. One scripture says the thieves railed on him, another scripture says one of the thieves. Well, the reality was one did. The other said– rebuke to the one that did. I can see the visible image as he looked across from that T-shaped tree. It wasn’t a cross like you have it, but I can look at that T-shaped tree, and I can hear him rebuking him. And I said, this day I’m gonna take you on the other side, and we will commune together. Just as we are here, we shall be there. I didn’t say this day you’ll be in paradise, because you don’t go from there to paradise. You go into the first heaven, and that’s not paradise, but I said this day we’ll start over on the other side, we’ll communicate, and we’ll continue our perfection on the other side. So that’s what really happened. (Matthew 27:38-44, contrasted with Luke 23:39-43)

What you live by, you will die by. If you live by the sword, you’ll die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52, “Then said Jesus unto him, ‘Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword’”)

Lo, I am 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.”)

Today is the day of salvation. (Luke 19:9-10, “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”)

You don’t know where [Jesus] ascended to. (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9,12; Matt 28:16-20; Mark 16:14,19)

I heard the revolutionary voice within me that I am the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” See also, Matthew 5:14, John 3:19, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 11:9, and John 12:46)

She said I sent 11 pitchers of water, and said, finally I said I’m tired of sending any more water, he only turns it to wine. What Sister Pugh said to this man, said I sent 11 pitchers of water or 10 pitchers of water, and every one I turn and send up there, he turns it to wine. So they don’t need for me to send any more water. This was her joking way of getting the message across. But you don’t know anybody [who] can do that. (John 2:1-11)

You must be born again. And the beauty of it is, my– my precious comrades, you will be born again. You shall be born again. (John 3:3-7)

You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”)

They want to keep out there because then you know that they’ll have trouble if you find out that you are gods. Jesus said, when they would stone him, he said, what good work do you stone me, is it not written, I’m only been called the son of man, it’s written that ye are gods. Jesus came to earth, as I’ve come to earth, to show people that there’s no God higher than their own self, that they’re gods. And boy, capitalism and the church age which has sold out to capitalism, it doesn’t want people to get that message. (John 10:32-34)

So Jesus said, these things shall you do and greater… he said, these things shall you do and greater, because I go to the Father … [later in sermon] That’s why I have you listen, that you might be what I am, and even greater. (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.”)

Even though the apostles live in communes, even those the apostles shared and shared alike, even though the apostles were living all night, they’d been up all night and all day for many days in that upper room, that was a pure oldtime commune. When they waited upon the anointing that they found there, the revolution that happened in that upper room. But anybody [who] lives in a commune’s a dirty hippie. (Acts 1:13-15)

Apostolic socialism as it was. Every time that a little Spirit descended in the New Testament, they sold their possessions … [later in sermon] Did you ever know the truth of socialism? And all that believed were together and had all things common, sold their possessions and goods, parted them to all men as every man had need… [later in sermon] Every time the Holy Ghost came, they sold their possessions. (Acts 2:44-45, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”)

Every time the Holy Ghost came, they sold their possessions and it was the only time that someone was struck dead, when they kept back some for themselves. And Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. (Acts 5:1-10)

But I’m glad he’s no respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34, “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:”)

These are they that set the world upside down, turn it upside down. We’re gonna get back to turning up the old capitalistic competitive exploitive world, we’re going to turn it upside down and right side up. (Acts 17:6)

You don’t know your right hand from your left without a prophet. That’s why he said how can you hear without a prophet. Or a preacher, how can he preach lest he be sent. (Romans 10:14-17: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? … So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”)

Galatians 4:22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons. (“For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.”) [Contrasted with Hebrews 11:17]

The powers of the earth are ruled by the prince of the air. Capitalism is ruling the air today, its days’ about done, but right now the prince of the air, capitalism, self-possessive, competitive, murderous competition, that’s the devil … [later in sermon] The prince and the power of the air is ruling, but God Almighty is unleashed. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

That was not in the original Scripture – slaves, obey your masters. (Ephesians 6:5, “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”)

I have ascended into the third heavens, of which there are too many mysterious and marvelous things that I cannot speak of. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

Though being in the form of man, though as Jesus was being in the form of a servant, he considered it– he was a servanttoo. And I heard him say, though I was a slave, though I was in the form of slavery, though I was in the form of a servanthood, I considered it not robbery to be equal with God. (Philippians 2:6-7, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”)

I am bringing sons into glory. (Hebrews 2:10, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”)

And that Jesus said what I am, so shall you be, and we know that Jesus was God. He mastered it. It wasn’t to begin with, ‘cause it said that he was made perfect through suffering. But God is a state of abstract perfection. God doesn’t have to be made perfect, but Jesus became God. (Hebrews 5:8-9, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”)

Whether you say I ascended from heaven or descended from hell, it matters not, I am the power that saves you from your transgressions. (Hebrews 9:15, “he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”)

Abraham had only one son, Abraham had two sons. Hebrews 11:17. By faith Abraham offered up Isaac, his only begotten son. (“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,”) [Contrasted with Galatians 4:22]

That was not in the original Scripture … it was not there. Just to servants, obey your masters, obey those that have rule over you. (Hebrews 13:17, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”)

There’s no longer any chance for me to do evil. It’s gone from me. That’s the mystery you don’t understand. I could notsin. I am so born of God … [later in sermon] And if you are born of God completely, if you graduate fully of the substance and processes of divine science, socialism, God, if you fully get God in you, you will not commit sin. He that is born of God doth not commit sin. (1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”)

God is a spirit. God is love. Spirit’s too– too abstract a word. And it isn’t the original word anyway. The closest thing to the original scripture is, God is love. (1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”)

Summary:

(This tape was transcribed by Georgiana Mamlakah. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)

This sermon, recorded in May 1972 in Redwood Valley, California, is one of many during Jim Jones’ preaching career in which he declared that God has returned to earth multiple times personified in human form, and that he himself is this generation’s manifestation of “God in a body.” Less often does he declare – as he does here – that the vehicle for these multiple manifestations is reincarnation, and that in fact, possible only through reincarnation: “You can’t understand anything about divine law, unless you understand reincarnation.”

He offers several proofs of his divinity, beyond his ability to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind and raise the dead. In determining which of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death at Calvary is accurate – since Matthew and Luke can’t agree on what the thieves next to him on the cross said – he reminds his congregation that he was there, in “the eternal spirit,” and can therefore speak with authority. Perhaps unique to this sermon, though, is the extension of his rejection of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday, which is a pagan holiday. “Wasn’t his birthday,” he muses. “Born while the shepherds tend to their flock by night. Actually born someplace in May.” After a pause, he adds, “Same time he was born this time, if you must know it.” And indeed, this sermon dates from the week after his own birthday on May 13.

The message of the day, then, is to show how the divinity separates himself from the God they once worshipped. His purpose in presenting that true God is to use his “paranormal and charismatic extradimensional faculties to establish clearly that I know all about the mythological god.” Once they understand that, they will know, “I am the inculcation of all that you held to be abstract. I am all that you held to be mythological and more. I have more power than that shadow of a God that you once had.… I have reached the realm of honesty, purity of thought, compassion and love, the personification of everything that is real, genuine and pure and honest and kind and loving. … I have concentrated God in this body. God is no longer a superstition, but God is real, real, real.”

As a result – and as it says in the Bible – because he is “so born of God… [t]here’s no longer any chance for me to do evil… There is no danger of me doing anything immoral.… Anything I do is divinely good.”

There are a couple of times in which he admonishes the people in attendance that he considers those who are not watching him as he speaks to be “grossly disobedient,” and says he can tell who isn’t paying attention, even when he seems to be looking elsewhere; their lack of focus on him baffles him, he says, in light of all the miracles he has performed.

In general, though, the sermon has a gentle message, even if it is delivered with great passion on several occasions. From the tape’s beginning, Jones speaks of God as love, as a principle, and what brings about God’s perfect love is socialism. That’s what it means in the Bible, when the Book of Acts describes the apostles as selling their possessions and holding everything in common. This principle has echoed over the years, as the greatest souls across history – whether in politics, the arts, science, or culture – have all been socialists.

At the same time that Jones uses the Bible to prove his own divinity and his cause of socialism as the same cause as the Bible’s, he spends a portion of his address cataloguing a number of the book’s errors and inconsistencies, the venality of King James who is responsible for the errors, and the modern day politicians and preachers who use that book to advance their own agendas. Capitalism is a by-product of the book, and the only socialism which survives is the socialism of and for the rich. The segue into the attack on American society is reinforced by his use of the day’s headlines – “you could understand what I’m talking about if you’d read just one day’s news,” he says at one point – as he describes the atrocities of the Vietnam War and the insensitivity of the mine owners responsible for the deaths for a disaster in Idaho.

Capitalism is the basis of all sin, he says. “Whatever your unrighteousness is, it all comes back to the seed. Competitiveness, capitalism. It’s the source of every murder, the source of every crime against your fellow man, … whatever the nature of the crime, the culprit is the same. Capitalism, the personification of evil.” And through its support of capitalism, the “lying church … the mother of whore religion” has blinded everyone to the nature of the true god.

Know your enemy, Jones cries. Know that when the system declares that “a dirty commie is the man who doesn’t believe in the Skygod,” it is speaking against the true message of the Bible. “So that’s why I say, baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins capitalism’s imposed upon you, that you might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which means absolutely nothing, unless you define it,” he says near the end of the tape. “So I say that you might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, socialism. That’s what God came to give you, socialism, an apostolic equality, an apostolic freedom, apostolic justice, apostolic sharing. That’s what the Holy Ghost is.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 7/10/79

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 22, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-14. This tape was found to contain the following:

A 35 minute session with JIM JONES and the stateside congregation; JONES was concerned about visitors at church that evening; the KATSARIS family entered the congregation and posed questions of JONES. The remaining portion of the tape is blank.

Differences with FBI Summary:

The FBI summary is in error, or mislabeled. Its description matches much more closely the tape at Q 1021-A, although even then, the time of 35 minutes in the description about is about one-third the actual length of that session.

Tape originally posted December 2022.