example of a messiah, a more standard and
succinct definition of the term messiah may be
helpful for comparison. In popular thought, a
messiah is a savior figure who claims divine
sanction, brings restoration or salvation, and has
followers who accept the figure’s claim about
having divine inspiration and/or powers.
Worth noting at the outset is that Jones’s
thoughts concerning Jesus were not synonymous
with his thoughts regarding the other members
of the Christian Trinity, particularly God.13
Jones’s view of the Christian God, or Skygod, as
Jones termed it, as a creating and omniscient
deity was quite low.14 The God that Christians
prayed to as an all-powerful being, Jones
maintained, was in fact incapable of being felt or
seen in the world, and perhaps did not care at all
about the plight of human beings. In a 1972 San
Francisco sermon, for example, Jones used the
language of 1 Kings 18 to challenge Christians
to prove that their God could help them:
Let the God that’s God answer…. If the
Skygod is indeed 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…. I’ve been trying to get
him recruited, [but] I haven’t been able
to find him. (Q 1035)
This distanced God was something that Jones
could not abide —“don’t you compare me to no
unknown god” (Q 1035). By way of contrast,
Jones talked about his congregation: “let’s look
at my house [church] tonight. Nobody hungry in
my house…. I look after my own. Not one of
mine that’s hungry tonight…. Not one of mine
that doesn’t have a place to rest tonight” (Q
1035). The implications of this contrast—that
Jones took physical, tangible, and immediate
care of his followers while the unknown Skygod
13 The Christian doctrine of the Trinity claims that, although there
is only one God, there are “three distinct personal expressions” of
that one God present in the world—traditionally God the Father,
Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. See Migliore (2004 [1991], 68–
70) for a standard Christian explanation of Trinitarian belief.
14 The term Skygod was a derisive synonym for God that Jones
used. The name highlighted the distance or irrelevance of such a
deity. Many sermon recordings contain the term.
hindered or ignored its creation—highlight
Jones’s prime complaint against the Skygod: a
lack of action or concern for the marginalized (Q
1035 also Q 953, Q 1019). This lack of action
or concern was evidenced by the intangibility of
the Skygod and was mirrored in institutional
Christianity.
Jones’s preaching often contained incensed
remarks against the Skygod’s inscrutable
behavior. In the same 1972 San Francisco
sermon, Jones asked the audience why—if the
Skygod was so loving—the Skygod would
create them and place them “in the messes that
[they]’ve been in” (Q 1035). In another instance,
Jones spoke out against those in his audience
who still clung to their old Skygod rather than
Jones’s new divine principle of socialism,
saying, “let them go out [of Peoples Temple]
and believe in a Skygod that’ll never come….
But don’t let them be in here holding us back by
looking back to other gods” (Q 1057, part 4).
Jones went on to warn that this Skygod was one
and the same with the God who allowed the
Jews—supposedly God’s chosen people—to be
killed in gas chambers by Nazis (Q 1057, part
4). Jones’s derision of the Skygod helped to
isolate the Temple from other Christian
denominations and created a need—which Jones
promptly filled—to interpret Christian texts in a
new way.
Despite his Trinitarian affiliations, Jesus did not
suffer such harsh criticism in Jones’s preaching.
As mentioned, Jones’s understanding of Jesus as
a messiah figure divided into two categories: a
more literal understanding based on Gospel
accounts of Jesus’s life, and a more abstract
understanding wherein Jesus functioned as a
signifier of the power of divine socialism. I
begin with the more literal interpretation.
In terms of origins, Jones aligned Jesus with the
lower class. Jesus was “born without a father, as
far as the world knew anything about it” (Q
1035). Without an earthly father to provide
prestige or a noble genealogy, Jesus “was born
on the wrong side of the tracks” (Q 1035). In
terms of socioeconomic status, Jones—and the
Gospel writers before him—presented Jesus
unattractively as a servant or a slave (Q 1057,
part 5). Often Jones lauded both this lowly
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 37
succinct definition of the term messiah may be
helpful for comparison. In popular thought, a
messiah is a savior figure who claims divine
sanction, brings restoration or salvation, and has
followers who accept the figure’s claim about
having divine inspiration and/or powers.
Worth noting at the outset is that Jones’s
thoughts concerning Jesus were not synonymous
with his thoughts regarding the other members
of the Christian Trinity, particularly God.13
Jones’s view of the Christian God, or Skygod, as
Jones termed it, as a creating and omniscient
deity was quite low.14 The God that Christians
prayed to as an all-powerful being, Jones
maintained, was in fact incapable of being felt or
seen in the world, and perhaps did not care at all
about the plight of human beings. In a 1972 San
Francisco sermon, for example, Jones used the
language of 1 Kings 18 to challenge Christians
to prove that their God could help them:
Let the God that’s God answer…. If the
Skygod is indeed 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…. I’ve been trying to get
him recruited, [but] I haven’t been able
to find him. (Q 1035)
This distanced God was something that Jones
could not abide —“don’t you compare me to no
unknown god” (Q 1035). By way of contrast,
Jones talked about his congregation: “let’s look
at my house [church] tonight. Nobody hungry in
my house…. I look after my own. Not one of
mine that’s hungry tonight…. Not one of mine
that doesn’t have a place to rest tonight” (Q
1035). The implications of this contrast—that
Jones took physical, tangible, and immediate
care of his followers while the unknown Skygod
13 The Christian doctrine of the Trinity claims that, although there
is only one God, there are “three distinct personal expressions” of
that one God present in the world—traditionally God the Father,
Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. See Migliore (2004 [1991], 68–
70) for a standard Christian explanation of Trinitarian belief.
14 The term Skygod was a derisive synonym for God that Jones
used. The name highlighted the distance or irrelevance of such a
deity. Many sermon recordings contain the term.
hindered or ignored its creation—highlight
Jones’s prime complaint against the Skygod: a
lack of action or concern for the marginalized (Q
1035 also Q 953, Q 1019). This lack of action
or concern was evidenced by the intangibility of
the Skygod and was mirrored in institutional
Christianity.
Jones’s preaching often contained incensed
remarks against the Skygod’s inscrutable
behavior. In the same 1972 San Francisco
sermon, Jones asked the audience why—if the
Skygod was so loving—the Skygod would
create them and place them “in the messes that
[they]’ve been in” (Q 1035). In another instance,
Jones spoke out against those in his audience
who still clung to their old Skygod rather than
Jones’s new divine principle of socialism,
saying, “let them go out [of Peoples Temple]
and believe in a Skygod that’ll never come….
But don’t let them be in here holding us back by
looking back to other gods” (Q 1057, part 4).
Jones went on to warn that this Skygod was one
and the same with the God who allowed the
Jews—supposedly God’s chosen people—to be
killed in gas chambers by Nazis (Q 1057, part
4). Jones’s derision of the Skygod helped to
isolate the Temple from other Christian
denominations and created a need—which Jones
promptly filled—to interpret Christian texts in a
new way.
Despite his Trinitarian affiliations, Jesus did not
suffer such harsh criticism in Jones’s preaching.
As mentioned, Jones’s understanding of Jesus as
a messiah figure divided into two categories: a
more literal understanding based on Gospel
accounts of Jesus’s life, and a more abstract
understanding wherein Jesus functioned as a
signifier of the power of divine socialism. I
begin with the more literal interpretation.
In terms of origins, Jones aligned Jesus with the
lower class. Jesus was “born without a father, as
far as the world knew anything about it” (Q
1035). Without an earthly father to provide
prestige or a noble genealogy, Jesus “was born
on the wrong side of the tracks” (Q 1035). In
terms of socioeconomic status, Jones—and the
Gospel writers before him—presented Jesus
unattractively as a servant or a slave (Q 1057,
part 5). Often Jones lauded both this lowly
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 37
