Palestinian Christians distance themselves from pro-Israel cults
Palestine-Israel, Local, 9/28/1999

Groups of Christian cults, some of which are strongly pro-Israel, have started to arrive in Jerusalem not only to mark the end of the second millennium but to prepare for the arrival of Jesus Christ, whom they sternly believe will return by the end of this year.

While cult members insist on being Christians, leaders of the Palestinian Christian community insist that they have nothing to do with Christianity. Bishop Atallah Hanna, speaker of the Orthodox Church in occupied Jerusalem, said that groups like these do not belong to the Church and their activities are even very detrimental to Christianity all over the world and to the Christians and their churches in the Holy Land. He stressed that the local Christian community has boycotted these groups and others, including "the so-called Christian Embassy in Israel, which is also seen as another branch of world Zionism."

"Mandariya, shindariya, silimindariya, thilameniania,... etc" are not typing mistakes as one would think from the first glance. They are part of a special prayer that members of a pro-Zionist Christian cult use in what they strongly believe to be the only way to talk to God. They themselves do not understand any of these words yet insist that this is the language of God, who gave it only to his followers and to those who sternly believe in him.

Members of this cult are currently in Jerusalem. They rented an Arab house on the Mount of Olives, which towers the Old City of Jerusalem and establishes an eye link with the golden Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. They meet weekly and hold joint prayers. According to these members, the messiah is expected to come to earth by the end of this year, marking the end of life on the planet. They believe that the Mount of Olives is going to be the site where Jesus is due to ascend from heaven.

Brother Raymond and his followers, including Sister Keren and Sister Sharon, have all come from the US, along with their boss and spiritual leader, Brother David, a formerly senior manager at one of General Electric corporations in the US. They all ran a successful life back in the US until one day, they said, God showed up and called on them to join for serving him.

"I was praying and I asked God what to do now that my children had gone," said Sister Keren. "And God said you always wanted to go to Jerusalem, oh excuse me to Israel, and I said that is right but I never thought about moving there and he said well think about it." Keren, like everybody else in this cult, is a staunch supporter of Israel and believes that it is the right of the Jewish people to live all over Palestine, which she claims was the Land of Israel that God gave to the Jews.

"Israel had to be a nation and the people had to be back to their land and Jerusalem had to be back in their hand," she said. "In 1967 when Jerusalem was given back to the Jewish people that was another sign. The gathering of all Jews was also a sign that the coming of the Messiah is not too far away."

Brother Raymond said that God spoke to him and asked him to sell everything he had, to give all the money to the church and to buy a one-way ticket to Jerusalem. But where did God meet Brother Raymond? "He met me at the kitchen of my house in New York and that was a very special way. I just felt his presence in a very strong way."

David has a different story. He said that from the age of 13 to 24, he was locked up in criminal institutions because he was a thief. One night, he said, God shook him out of bed, woke him up and said "there was no more time to mess around and no more time to play." "God told me he was on his way back and that I should get ready to receive him."

Keren said that when she was young, she was a nude dancer in Miami. "As I was watching a religious program on television," she said, "something wonderful happened to me. Before Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives here, he wanted to take me personally away from Israel, from Jerusalem, and transform me and translate me into the air, into the clouds where I could meet him and then into the heaven." She strongly believes God chose her to meet him in the skies of Jerusalem, and that is why she left everything back home in the US and came to Jerusalem. "When Jesus comes back, he will come to the Mount of Olives where we sit now. I will be here doing what I am doing as much good as I can," she said. "The first thing I want to see is Jesus face to face. I want to see his face. The second person I want to meet is King David."

David said that God's return would happen within a twinkle of an eye. "I will be walking along the street. One minute you will see me. The next you won't," he said. He quoted from a book he held in his hand saying that when the time comes "two people will be sleeping in bed, one will be snatched and one won't. Snatched to the Father in heaven."

David's cult members are, in the meantime, the only people willing to be exposed. Many other cult members fear media exposure, particularly after Israeli police arrested a few months ago cult members who were allegedly preparing to commit suicide en masse. The 14 members of the cult arrived in Israel and were deported after the police revealed their intentions. The police said they had on their agenda other plans including one to carry out acts of terror and violence in the Holy Land before they commit suicide. Some even did not hide their intention to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque and have it replaced with the Jewish temple that Jewish zealots plan to build. Palestinians still remember an Australian member of one of those pro-Zionist cults who set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969. Michael Rohan was arrested after the incident and he told the police he had done what he did because he believed he was going to be the new King David. He was later deported back to Australia.

David's cult members are discreet by nature, but that does not prevent them from meeting the press. It looks as if they have a message to convey to others, while maintaining a minimum of self-protection. None of them spoke of suicide en masse like others but they too behave in a way that a normal person would find very difficult to understand or comprehend.

Behind closed doors, police and Shin Bet special teams set to tackle security problems during the arrival of those tourists have warned that some of the cult members might not hesitate to launch even biological or chemical terror attacks. Publicly, however, Israeli officials behave as if it is business is as usual. Minister of Tourism Amnon Shahak said there were no security problems involving the arrival of millions of pilgrims into the country. Shahak, a former chief of staff, said that he had visited a number of Christian churches and convents and spoke to nuns and priests in charge. He added that none of those who met him voiced real serious security worries.

According to Palestinian and Israeli estimates alike, some four million tourists and pilgrims are expected to arrive in Palestine during the year 2000. It is clear that some of those at least will not necessarily be mere tourists but people with weird and strange ideas. While tourists usually arrive to tour the Holy Land and to be present during celebrations marking the end of the millennium, others arrive with what they insist to be a divine mission entrusted to them by God.

The more you walk in the Old City of Jerusalem, the more groups of this sort are seen. They all speak of this special contact they have with God, using the same kind of strange incomprehensible language. "As I was praying and wondering what should I do, I heard God telling me to come to Jerusalem and serve in a coffee shop in the Old City of Jerusalem," said Joe, another American tourist who said he belonged to the same group of Brother Raymond. As much as he believes, his divine mission is to be in Jerusalem and to prepare for the return of Jesus Christ by means of preparing sandwiches and serving coffee to people who visit the coffee shop where he works.

For cult members, almost every tragic event on earth in the past few months is a sign that Jesus Christ is coming. And that includes for instance the earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan, the typhoon in Japan and the tornadoes in the US. "You actually have to be blind not to realize that all these earthquakes had occurred to show that something is happening and that it is stronger than ever before. It is like a woman having a child. The birth pain becomes greater towards the end," said David.

Previous Stories:
  Pope John Paul II to visit Jerusalem   (3/23/1999)
  Bethlehem 2000 meeting in Rome   (2/20/1999)

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