A Time For People And A Time For…

SAT., AUG. 7, 1982, 7:15 AM
PAUL’S ROOM, HONOLULU

Yes, o son, I did not include the contrasting term in the title, and you shall see why as this first teaching in Hawaii presents itself. You have looked forward to this experience for some time. Just be sure you experience everything possible with an openness of spirit.

The major drawback to relying on the Holy Scriptures as the only picture of and story about Me is that it seems to keep Me in a simpler, earlier time, with nothing direct to say about this modern world. It seems that I have nothing to say about high rise buildings, freeways, traffic, electric shock, and cities, even of the size of this one. What do I say about governmental deficits, taxation, present unemployment, a nuclear freeze, and modern warfare? Well, the truth is that I do have ideas and convictions to express now. There are eternal truths in the Bible, most certainly, but I did not cease speaking in those seemingly faraway times.

So I give new interpretations of truth to servants in every age and in every culture. What I am offering to you is important, but it is not a universal message of timeless truth. It is not more important than what I am giving to a Finnish woodsman or a Japanese seamstress. You will remember that one of the supreme truths of the Holy Scriptures is that My messages and commissions came through a great variety of people, and only seldom through the established religious leaders. So you write in a long and consistent tradition, longer than that of seminaries, denominations, and systematic theology. A long introduction to the theme for the day, but an important one to reiterate.

You can discern that one of the major causes of the changes that you see in this beautiful island place is an increase in numbers of people. Technology and greater capacity to create are other factors. Increased aspirations is the other important one. (I won’t get into the economics, for that is several teachings divergent from this theme.) So it is obvious that this is a time for a larger population… for that population to be concentrated in this metropolitan area… and that does contrast with your early memories of this city. As a servant of Mine it is good to have both nostalgia for the past and appreciation of the present. For if this is a time for people, for progress, and for plenty, you should appreciate this as one of My “times”, not as one of less worth than a previous one. For there will be other times that shall have certain contrasts both with this one and your earlier one here. These shall be My times also.

Are high rise buildings beautiful in My sight? In John’s visions of heaven were there high rise buildings? For what purposes? Do spirits need offices, bathrooms, electronic game arcades, boardrooms? Then why a “holy city”? I leave the question for you to ponder.