abandoned the Christian concept of a Kingdom
of God however, in Jonestown, he nonetheless
painted the impending dismantling of the
compound in biblical terms by quoting from
Matthew 11: “the Kingdom suffereth violence
and the violent shall take it by force” (Q 042).
According to Jones’s interpretation, Jesus’s
ministry built the Kingdom of God in a
countercultural, revolutionary manner that went
against the political order of the first-century
world. Such opposition was not sneaky or
implicit, but overt. To say that Jesus overcame
the sources of marginalization or suffering was
to say that Jesus literally stood up against those
sources (Q 1054, part 3). Jones saw Jesus as
revealing to the sinful their sins and boldly
calling out for change, not only to anyone who
would listen, but also to “the kings of [his] day”
(Q 1054, part 3). The urgent and noticeable
manner of Kingdom-building work that Jesus
did was especially underscored in Jones’s
understanding of Jesus as a savior to be called
upon: “When you know Jesus, you won’t have
much time to get on your knees [to pray]—
you’ll have to pray on the run” (Q 1054, part 3).
In fact, Jones interpreted the action of
revolutionary Kingdom-building as being bound
up in Jesus’s title and identity, explaining,
“Christ in the Hebrew means revolution,” and on
another occasion, “Jesus is a revolution” (Q 965
Q 1057, part 5). In both these statements, Jones
emphasized action and immanence. Truly
understanding the Kingdom-building process in
this model led to zeal and dedication amongst
members. Because the Temple was touted as the
only group interested in or capable of creating
heaven out of America’s hell, members were in
essence forced to throw their resources and
support behind Jones’s antagonistic stance
toward capitalist society or abandon hope for
social change. Even during the Temple’s final
murder-suicide ritual, Jones retained the
language of revolution: “This is a revolutionary
suicide” (Q 042).
According to Jones, this mission of radically
altering the political and economic order of the
day made Jesus’s preaching unattractive and
unpopular. The termination of Jesus’s mission
by crucifixion did nothing to improve the status
of his message. By dying in this manner, Jesus
“seemed to be a loser,” for he was killed by the
very system that he opposed (Q 1059, part 1).
Moreover, Jesus got in trouble with audiences
and authorities because his message brought
moral accountability down upon people. Jones
taught that
when somebody becomes God in the
earth, then they have a moral effect on
people…. They can tell people right and
wrong…. Everybody likes to keep God
out there in the unknown and then
everybody can interpret him…. You got
a different story when God takes himself
a body, when principle becomes flesh
(Q 1035)
Jesus did not intend his message—which many
perceived as that of a loser, drunkard, and self-
styled slave—to comfort an audience or to
endear him to authorities, but to challenge
customs and norms. Similarly, in Jones’s
message, the work of Peoples Temple
destabilized long-held racial or religious beliefs
in American society and caused society to
respond in harmful or persecuting ways.
Jones understood Jesus’s message to be one of
socialism, and he frequently made Jesus and
Jesus’s message synonymous with socialism
itself. Several times in one recording, Jones
made such a connection explicit, relating
socialism to the death and resurrection of Jesus
and the birth of the early church. Talking about
himself, Jones said, “The life that I now live I
live through this great principle, the Christ, the
socialistic principle that was on the day of
Pentecost when it said God is love, and love
means they have everything in common” (Q
1059, part 1). In the same discussion, Jones
linked Jesus and the socialist revolution together
in Jesus’s death: “I’m crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. I’ve been crucified with the
revolution” (Q 1059, part 1). Continuing to play
on the death and resurrection language of the
Gospels, Jones stated, “You can’t keep the
Christ idea, the revolutionary idea of socialism,
you can’t keep it in a tomb” (Q 1059, part 1).
These three statements suggest that Jones
understood believing in and practicing Jesus’s
message of a new order as somehow
synonymous with taking part in the death and
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 39
of God however, in Jonestown, he nonetheless
painted the impending dismantling of the
compound in biblical terms by quoting from
Matthew 11: “the Kingdom suffereth violence
and the violent shall take it by force” (Q 042).
According to Jones’s interpretation, Jesus’s
ministry built the Kingdom of God in a
countercultural, revolutionary manner that went
against the political order of the first-century
world. Such opposition was not sneaky or
implicit, but overt. To say that Jesus overcame
the sources of marginalization or suffering was
to say that Jesus literally stood up against those
sources (Q 1054, part 3). Jones saw Jesus as
revealing to the sinful their sins and boldly
calling out for change, not only to anyone who
would listen, but also to “the kings of [his] day”
(Q 1054, part 3). The urgent and noticeable
manner of Kingdom-building work that Jesus
did was especially underscored in Jones’s
understanding of Jesus as a savior to be called
upon: “When you know Jesus, you won’t have
much time to get on your knees [to pray]—
you’ll have to pray on the run” (Q 1054, part 3).
In fact, Jones interpreted the action of
revolutionary Kingdom-building as being bound
up in Jesus’s title and identity, explaining,
“Christ in the Hebrew means revolution,” and on
another occasion, “Jesus is a revolution” (Q 965
Q 1057, part 5). In both these statements, Jones
emphasized action and immanence. Truly
understanding the Kingdom-building process in
this model led to zeal and dedication amongst
members. Because the Temple was touted as the
only group interested in or capable of creating
heaven out of America’s hell, members were in
essence forced to throw their resources and
support behind Jones’s antagonistic stance
toward capitalist society or abandon hope for
social change. Even during the Temple’s final
murder-suicide ritual, Jones retained the
language of revolution: “This is a revolutionary
suicide” (Q 042).
According to Jones, this mission of radically
altering the political and economic order of the
day made Jesus’s preaching unattractive and
unpopular. The termination of Jesus’s mission
by crucifixion did nothing to improve the status
of his message. By dying in this manner, Jesus
“seemed to be a loser,” for he was killed by the
very system that he opposed (Q 1059, part 1).
Moreover, Jesus got in trouble with audiences
and authorities because his message brought
moral accountability down upon people. Jones
taught that
when somebody becomes God in the
earth, then they have a moral effect on
people…. They can tell people right and
wrong…. Everybody likes to keep God
out there in the unknown and then
everybody can interpret him…. You got
a different story when God takes himself
a body, when principle becomes flesh
(Q 1035)
Jesus did not intend his message—which many
perceived as that of a loser, drunkard, and self-
styled slave—to comfort an audience or to
endear him to authorities, but to challenge
customs and norms. Similarly, in Jones’s
message, the work of Peoples Temple
destabilized long-held racial or religious beliefs
in American society and caused society to
respond in harmful or persecuting ways.
Jones understood Jesus’s message to be one of
socialism, and he frequently made Jesus and
Jesus’s message synonymous with socialism
itself. Several times in one recording, Jones
made such a connection explicit, relating
socialism to the death and resurrection of Jesus
and the birth of the early church. Talking about
himself, Jones said, “The life that I now live I
live through this great principle, the Christ, the
socialistic principle that was on the day of
Pentecost when it said God is love, and love
means they have everything in common” (Q
1059, part 1). In the same discussion, Jones
linked Jesus and the socialist revolution together
in Jesus’s death: “I’m crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live. I’ve been crucified with the
revolution” (Q 1059, part 1). Continuing to play
on the death and resurrection language of the
Gospels, Jones stated, “You can’t keep the
Christ idea, the revolutionary idea of socialism,
you can’t keep it in a tomb” (Q 1059, part 1).
These three statements suggest that Jones
understood believing in and practicing Jesus’s
message of a new order as somehow
synonymous with taking part in the death and
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 39
