TINKERING
WITH PREDESTINATION
"Christian" idiots who think
they can help God do his work
This
is possibly only the beginning of sorrows for Israel as various loonies try to
make prophecy come true. We must also assume that the Muslim Mosque of Omar
is in peril. It is GOD'S power, and GOD'S acts that will determine how and
when the events of prophecy are fulfilled. There is NOTHING exciting about
this insane activity. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
I suppose I would only
caution the Israeli police to avoid letting this fearless leader of the cult get
hurt or killed. He would then become one of the witnesses in Revelation
to his demented following.
Apocalyptic
Christians detained in Israel for alleged violence plot Members
of Denver-based group vanished in October
January 3, 1999
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Crack Israeli police units swooped down Sunday on a pair of
homes in quiet, wooded Jerusalem suburbs, nabbing 14 members of the U.S.-based
religious group Concerned Christians who vanished en masse back in October.
Police say the arrests foiled a plot by the group to trigger a bloodbath they
hoped would usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ at the turn of the millennium.
The drama,
coming only three days into the new year, raised the curtain on what Israeli authorities
fear could be months of turbulence leading up to the turn of the millennium --
considered a pivotal event by some religious groups with apocalyptic beliefs.
Police said
they planned to ask the Interior Ministry to deport the eight adults and six children
who were detained Sunday. Group's
leader prophesied violent death Concerned
Christians is led by Monte Kim Miller, 44, who has described himself as a witnessing
figure in the biblical Book of Revelations and prophesied his own violent death
in Jerusalem this year. Miller was apparently not among those picked up in Sunday's
raid. In
October, 78 of the group's members vanished from the Denver area and have since
been the object of an intensive manhunt.
Relatives of some members of Concerned Christians said they fear that despite
the arrests, the group will continue to work toward its millennial plan.
"What I really, really want
is to see my mother away from Kim Miller's influence," Nicolette Weaver, 16, said.
"The fact is, that as long as my mother is involved with him, she is not going
to talk to me." "It's
nice the group got rounded up, but until the group gets its senses together, they
are going to continue," said John Weaver, Nicolette's father. "They are going
to build a fort for themselves somewhere, like what happened at Waco."
But Denver police investigator Mark Roggeman, who has tracked the group and tipped
off the Israeli government that they were coming, said he believes the arrests
may be helpful in breaking Miller's grip on his followers. "It
is something that is out of his (Miller's) control. It shakes them up emotionally,"
Roggeman said. "This shows he is not infallible and that God doesn't speak through
him." Police:
Plot involved attacks at holy sites Sunday's
separate, but carefully synchronized, ambush-style raids were carried out by dozens
of uniformed and plainclothes police at two homes about a mile apart in the hills
overlooking Jerusalem.
Members of the group offered no resistance. A U.S. Embassy official, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said a consular official would visit them in custody
as soon as possible.
Police said the group had planned to provoke a millennial showdown by opening
fire on officers, believing that their own deaths in the subsequent bloodbath
would help bring about the Second Coming. "They
planned to carry out violent and extreme acts in the streets of Jerusalem at the
end of 1999 to start the process of bringing Jesus back to life," said Brig. Gen.
Elihu Ben-Onn, the national police spokesman.
A senior police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members of the
group believed that being killed by police would "lead them to heaven."
Some of the planned violent acts were to have been carried out in Jerusalem's
walled Old City, the source said, possibly including the hilltop known to Jews
as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary -- traditionally a flashpoint
for religious tensions. Israeli
police would not release the names of any of the suspects arrested.
Police spokesman Shmuel
Ben-Ruby said that the children were not in jail but were being held in an "institutional
office" with their mothers. Ben-Ruby wouldn't say where the rest of the adults
were, but said that the men were "in custody." He said the group would not necessarily
appear in court.
January
1999-- The Plot Thickens
Jerusalem ready to deal with 'mania'
By Abraham Rabinovich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES JERUSALEM Israeli
officials fear the nearing millennium will bring many more threats to the nation's
security from apocalyptic Christian sects such as the American group whose members
were rounded up and deported last week.
The threat is being taken so seriously that all of Israel's security and intelligence
services -- including the Mossad, which normally deals with foreign espionage
--have formed a joint task force to deal with the problem.
With psychiatrists warning that as many as 40,000 visitors this year could require
counseling for "messianic mania," security chiefs are worried that suicides or
other violent acts at holy sites in Jerusalem could spark a broad conflagration
involving Muslims and Jews.
Some extremist sects are believed to aspire to such a development in the expectation
that an apocalypse would herald the second coming of Christ.
Last week's arrest in a Jerusalem suburb of 14 members of the Denver-based Concerned
Christians was the first coordinated operation by the special task force. Authorities
had feared the group might attempt mass suicide or even a suicidal shootout with
police on the Temple Mount.
A senior police official said the seizure of the Americans was a "showcase raid"
that authorities hope will deter other members of the sect from coming to Israel.
The 14 were expelled from the country under a court order on Friday.
Experts, however, doubt that religious ecstasies of fundamentalist Christian elements
will be dampened by such arrests. Dr. Yair Bar-El, chairman of the Israeli Psychiatric
Society, predicted last week that some 40,000 of the 4 million tourists expected
during the coming year will require psychiatric help as a result of messianic
mania. Some 800, he said, will probably require at least temporary hospitalization.
"People with
deep beliefs will be expecting to witness apocalyptic events that will change
the face of humanity," he said. These events include the battle of Gog and Magog,
the rising of the dead and the resurrection of Jesus.
Researchers at Boston University and Cornell have warned Israel to expect some
pilgrims to try to catalyze the apocalypse by violent acts.
Dr. Bar-El was the first to apply the name "Jerusalem Syndrome" to a phenomenon
he identified between the years 1979 and 1993 when he was director of the Kfar
Shaul Psychiatric Hospital in the city. Some 400 tourists were hospitalized there
during this period after seizures of aberrant behavior. Most had previous psychiatric
histories, but about 10 percent did not.
Many pilgrims gripped by religious intoxication don white garb and identify themselves
with biblical figures. Some will shout or otherwise call attention to themselves.
While such
behavior may be nothing more than a nuisance or even a source of amusement, it
sometimes takes a far more serious turn. In 1969, an Australian tourist, Dennis
Rohan, gripped by religious ecstasy, set fire to the holiest Islamic shrine in
the city, Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. His action touched off riots, not
only in Israel but as far away as India, in which many people died.
Dr. Bar-El said that most of those without psychotic backgrounds who are hospitalized
return to normal within five to seven days and are usually embarrassed at what
they have done. "They
don't like to talk about the experience afterwards," he said. "They simply don't
understand what happened to them."
Because of the millennial element, there is concern that the level of religious
intoxication will be greatly heightened during the coming year.
"If people are expecting
the apocalypse to occur and it doesn't happen, how will they react?" Dr. Bar-El
asked. Israeli
authorities have been warned by American experts on fundamentalist Christian sects
that disappointment over a failure to witness the apocalypse or Christ's second
coming could lead to mass suicides in Jerusalem.
There are also reports that at least one Christian sect would like to destroy
the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount in order to see the ancient Jewish temple
rebuilt and thus pave the way for Christ's second coming.
Israeli police, concerned about Jewish as well as Christian fundamentalists, have
in recent months installed sophisticated security devices on all the approaches
to the Temple Mount and assigned a special force of 400 men to safeguard the holy
site around the clock.
Comment:
Steve Van Nattan-- Blessed Quietness Journal: Two
things are of interest here: 1.
During the time of Christ, historians tell us that proselyte and born Jews
who lived in far places in the Roman Empire would move to Jerusalem at the end
of their life. They would bring all their savings, cash out all their assets
where they lived, and buy a subsistence plot outside the walls of Jerusalem. This
was so that they could die in Jerusalem. Well, the superstitious and vain
fools who inhabit the cults and Whorish churches of Christendom could well produce
another wave of prophetic idiots who would want to either die in Jerusalem as
the world comes to an end, or as Christ returns for them in the Rapture of the
Church. 2.
The Roman Catholic Church could well see many of its people surge into Jerusalem,
as in the days of the Crusades, in order to do Israel some favor, like run the
Arabs out of Palestine. 3.
All sorts of self-appointed fools could come to Israel to try to press Israel
into building the temple and doing more Messianic stunts which these fools imagine
must be accomplished in order to convince Messiah Christ to return. This
would include many Reconstructionists and the Jerry Falwell crowd.
4. In 999 AD, a prophet
predicted that the world was going to end in a great flood in 1000 AD. Europeans
peasants, as well as nobility, got ready to go down the Rhine River in "arks"
like Noah. The frenzy was monumental, and as the new year dawned, there
WAS a fierce rain and thunder storm all over central Europe. The people
panicked and crowded onto the boats. Unbelievers drank themselves silly,
and they ran into the streets and performed acts of sexual excess in the extreme.
Everyone was affected in one way or the other. The storm ended, and
sun came out, and they all felt like fools. This could well develop in Israel.
Dear
Christian friend: Please
stay away from Israel. They don't need anymore trouble. Also, you
may be certain that the Muslim terrorists will make the best of this raggedy
era in Israel. I would go on a tour to China instead, if I had the cash.
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