By Mark Owen - © 2010
Chapter 16 - Armageddon and the ever-receding End Time
'Christ can return at any moment,' read an invitation to a 'Great Prophetic Rally' at Moira, Northern Ireland. 'Only born again Christians will go to Heaven when He comes . . .' the message continued, then added, 'If Christ returns before 7.45 pm on Tuesday, February 17, rally will be cancelled.' - Quoted in People magazine, 6/7/82.
A major impetus for the foundation of new versions of Christianity has come from the study of the Bible's prophetic writings, especially in relation to Armageddon, or the End Time, or the Day of Judgment - by whatever term the final stage of world history is described. The 19th century was to see a massive flowering of End Time mania. But a little background first. We should note that this belief is not distinctively Christian. It was one of the many doctrines emerging from that overheated hatchery of religious ideas in Mesopotamia and regions thereabouts. The Zoroastrians first trumpeted it abroad with enthusiasm, having incorporated it into their religion as an article of the faith around the 6th century BCE. It soon continued its merry way to emerge all over the place, not least in the later stages of Judaism, in Christianity and in Islam.
To read the Zoroastrian account is almost to read the Christian Apocalypse. Crisis and catastrophe summed up what Zarathustra (assuming Zarathustra to be a real person, a matter of some doubt) saw in the approaching End Time, when the armies of the powers of evil would be trampled down by the forces of righteousness. A vivid and colourful panorama is painted in the Zoroastrian scriptures of the events to come. In a dramatic word-picture we are told that a Saviour, Shaoshyant, is to appear at the end, when the dead will be raised, both righteous and wicked, from the places where they died. Bones will be brought forth from the earth, blood recovered from the waters, hair from the plants and life from the fire. Adults are restored as men and women of forty; children will be aged fifteen years. The wicked are punished. The forces of evil, headed up by the Devil, Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) in his Zoroastrian incarnation, are vanquished, so that the righteous may inherit the earth; a cleansed and renewed earth. Paradise was once lost; now it has been regained for man. All sounds terribly familiar, doesn't it? As in the Jewish-Christian fables, we are right back where we started from, which again poses the question, Is it possible we may fall again? If not, then why did the first Fall happen? If evil is in the end vanquished by good, why not at the start? Truly the ways of Ahura Mazda are as inscrutable as the ways of Yahweh and the Christ-god.
But, be that as it may, the Zoroastrians had introduced the world to a Great New Idea, one destined to have an enormous impact through its incorporation into the theology of Christianity and from thence into Islam. The eager, believing, ingenuous world lapped it all up! And people still do! The dual concepts of the End Time and the Judgment were seized upon by prophets and preachers far and wide. Here was meat indeed to suit the prophetic appetite. The idea spread through the civilized world in variant forms. The Stoic philosophers thought the world would be destroyed by fire, and afterwards renewed; the first is true enough. Seneca, the Roman, wrote of the destruction of all living things by fire and flood and the rebirth of mankind under happier conditions than heretofore. And all manner of prophets sounded forth from their soapboxes throughout that same Palestine from whence was to come Jesus the Nazarene. Prophecies of a coming Redeemer, Messiah or Saviour, which were by no means unique to the Hebrew religion, were mixed up with prophecies of Judgment and an endless procession of weird and wonderful ideas.
And as the world experienced each new wave of prophetic preaching, the people living at that time were sure that they were rapidly approaching the End. Certainly those prophetic utterances attributed to Jesus are clear on one issue - the End is very near. 'This generation shall not pass away,' Jesus supposedly said, 'until all these things be accomplished' (Mark 13:30). But time passed, as did this generation, and the things that were supposed to happen didn't happen, and the vision faded just a little, and the texts had to be reinterpreted. And they have been reinterpreting the texts ever since! None more so than when studying that greatest of the apocalyptic writings, the Book of Revelation (the last book in the Christian Bible).
The Apocalypse has so captured people's imagination that many who do not profess Christian faith still treat it with a sort of superstitious reverence. It is indeed a dramatic book, with visions of angels carrying plagues into the world, of a glassy sea mingled with fire, of a beast coming up out of the sea, of seals being opened, of those four horsemen riding forth, and of the new heaven and the new earth. Yes, a truly wonderful literary production, surely a high point in the prophetic tradition. And, say believers, a work carrying the indelible stamp of revelation, a work revealing the heart and mind of the Christ-god. But I remind these good folk that the Book of Revelation was not readily accepted by the early Church. No wonder Christians debate its meaning!
So varied have been the interpretations of John's Apocalypse that whole new churches have split from the mainstream of Christendom (if there ever was such a thing!) because they disagreed on vital questions concerning the Second Coming of Christ. Every tiny point in this book has been sifted through and argued over and interpreted ad nauseum, in every which-way. The Book of Revelation may well be a great piece of imaginative literature but that is all it is; it is assuredly not a route-map for those who think they march 'onwards to Zion'.
Let us start with the authorship of the book. This is debated. Just which John wrote it? And then there is the question of content. When we read the Revelation of John we seem to be hearing again some of those fiery outpourings of rhetoric found in the Old Testament prophets. Well, we are! In this sham of a book, predictions are repeated, almost word-for-word - as if they have come firsthand from the deity to John - without reference to their original sources. In fact, it is almost impossible to find one original piece of imagery in the whole book. Yet John says God gave him this special revelation (Rev.1:1)! Specious, not special, is a better term to apply to such a dishonest work.
Take these few examples. In the first chapter we have the vision of 'seven golden candlesticks' (v.12). The Old Testament prophet Zechariah beheld 'a candlestick . . . and its seven lamps thereon' (Zechariah 4:2). Among the candlesticks John saw 'one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as of the voice of many waters . . .' (verses 13-15). This is, quite simply, a composite picture manufactured by telescoping Daniel 7: 9, 13 and Daniel 10: 6. In chapter four we have the description of a throne set in heaven and one seated upon it, and a rainbow about it. This comes directly from Ezekiel 1:26-28, as do the four living creatures (Ezekiel 1:5). Such instances are multiplied many times over. Suffice it to mention one other interesting quotation. The image of the seven angels comes from the very curious book of Enoch, where they are called archangels but are seven in number. Now this book of Enoch, named after the legendary grandfather of the equally legendary Noah, was a work rejected by the Church Fathers altogether!
But let me return to those four living creatures (translated as 'beasts' in the AV but as 'creatures' in the RV). In Revelation 4: 6-8, which very closely parallels Ezekiel, they are said to bear the face or likeness of a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle ('ox' in Ezekiel becomes 'calf' but Ezekiel mentions the foot of a calf). By the 2nd century, as John's writings circulated, the Fathers began to see in these creatures symbols of the Gospel writers. As with everything else in matters of Christian doctrine, they disagreed among themselves as to which beastly apparition signified which supposed Gospel author. John was, said some, the eagle because he soars into the elevated regions of esoteric doctrine. Mark was the lion, a 'voice crying in the wilderness' but somehow this left out John the Baptizer who supposedly affected this role. Matthew was the man, because he gave out the human genealogy of Jesus. St Luke was the ox, for what reason we know not!
The Fathers could not be expected to know the true origins of these heavenly creatures. Not even Ezekiel's vision was an original insight given by the Ghost. Rather he had absorbed through the Babylonians (jailers of the Hebrews, remember) an old concept from Akkad. The Akkadians had four species of genii (tutelary spirits, sort of pre-gods, still with us in the Muslim religion as jinn). There was Sed, bull-like; Lamas, lion-faced; Natig', eagle-headed; and Ustar, the human creature. But the idea of four creatures was not even distinctively Akkadian, it is found in places as far apart as ancient Egypt and distant India and China and is linked to the four 'fixed signs' of the Zodiac. In fact a whole new world of interesting possibilities opens up in studying these four creatures, for they figure in varying forms in esoteric literature. I cannot go farther here; suffice it to point out that once again I have demonstrated clearly that neither Revelation nor Ezekiel is 'inspired' but these books present, as always, the usual rehash of the flotsam and jetsam of past belief systems.
But the Book of Revelation is something more than prophecy. It is, in effect, a whole liturgy and belief system that could well have stood alone as the guidebook of the emerging Church, had the Gospels and Paul's writings never come into being. It is, in reality, a 'Gospel' of the cult of Jesus as practised by the Jerusalem Church, which, as you will remember, was the party opposed to Paul. As such it reflected the fact, already elucidated, that this was nothing more than a Jewish sect. Now in this essentially Jewish work we find that Jesus is not mentioned all that often! And when he is, he appears primarily as the 'lamb slain' (not specifically crucified), a Redeemer, a Jewish concept. In fact, the writer of this book at times seems to be strangely unaware of the Resurrection story! He is preoccupied with the image of a suffering Messiah-figure and the fulfilment of the Jewish sacrificial system.
Christian dogma was by no means settled when this book was written, that is, a generation after the Nazarene's death. It remained for Paul to preach his Christ-god far and wide. Further, the Jesus of the Book of Revelation has no life on earth and only lives among men after the Judgment. It is this sort of information that has lead some critics to doubt the historicity of Jesus. Certainly it remained for the Gospel writers to sketch in a life for their Lord. Let me at this point divert momentarily to deal with an interesting topic. Just about everyone, even the irreligious, has heard of that famous Number of the Beast, the mysterious 666, in Revelation 13:18. Hundreds of thousands of words have been written purporting to interpret this number. They usually refer to the Hebrew practice of assigning numerical values to letters. From such considerations is derived the belief (for that is all it is) that 666 refers to the Hebrew word 'Balaam', adding up in this system to 666 and thus represents the 'false prophet' or 'the number of the world given over to judgment' or, well, under such a system all manner of things may be deduced, as the number 666 may be made up of various letter combinations!
But the Hebrews were not the only ones to assign numerical values to letters. It was common practice among the ancients, including the Greeks. Dr Paul Couchoud believes that we have here a clue, indeed, to the whole book but not quite the clue discovered by many zealous Christian believers. Couchoud believes that this clue was almost lost in transmission but not quite, for the marginal references in modern translations still quote the number 616 as an alternative in this verse. John may have been writing from a Jewish perspective but he wrote in the Greek language, a point overlooked by the number-crunchers. He used Greek terminology, such as in 1:8, where he refers to Alpha and Omega. We must also remember that this book was in something of a state of limbo for a long period from about 70 CE through to the early part of the 4th century. The number 616, which was no doubt the original version, soon lost its meaning because of the application by the early Christians of John's writings to the persecution of Nero (and thus, incidentally, confirming that the prophecies were intended for that era, not later ones).
In the Greek numerical system, the first eight characters of the alphabet, plus a special symbol for 6, represented the number 1 to 9. As John (or whoever!) sat working at his writings on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9), he looked out towards Asia Minor and saw within his purview one of the strong contenders for the faith of the people, the cult of Attis, a cult, like Mithraism, especially abhorrent to Christians for it so nearly resembled their own! The number 616, tattooed on the foreheads and hands of stubborn idolaters, translated, meant ATTIS (the Greek letters adding up as 1+300+300+5+10 = 616). It was even given in the dative case, as would be required in a votive inscription.
It is ever a grave mistake, fostered especially by the hellfire preachers, that the Bible's prophets wrote about dim distant futures. Not so! Their prophecies were almost wholly directed at events near at hand, events affecting their own generation. Only a few years had passed since the Emperor Claudius had introduced the worship of Attis and his mother, Cybele, to Rome. Attis was the god 'wounded by a sword, wounded unto death,' the god who 'was, is not, yet will appear,' and whose death and resurrection were commemorated on 24 and 25 March each year. And it was Cybele who was clearly being pictured by John as 'great mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.' The official title of Cybele was Magna Mater Deum - 'the great mother of the gods'.
Like the Hebrew prophets of old, this latter-day Jewish prophet was not peering into a crystal ball and seeing, as some believe, a future world of the 20th or 21st century. John saw before him a current rival faith to that of his Lamb Slain and of Yahweh, the god of Israel. All his invective, all of his colourful prophetic language, was poured forth against the dangerous foe, the enemy present in his own day. But times change and dangers pass and it was not long before a new threat arose, the massive persecutions launched by some of the emperors, especially Nero. And soon the Christians were interpreting John's prophecies as being directed against that 'Antichrist'. And the message of John came to be reinterpreted many times over as the centuries passed.
John expected his Lord to come soon, not in the far future. We should remember that it was Jesus himself who supposedly said that 'this generation' would not pass, until the prophecies came to fruition. But this generation did pass, and later generations passed, and nothing happened. Nothing will. 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow . . .' In the apt words of Dr Couchoud: 'From century to century this tomorrow beats an elusive retreat.' Elusive it may be, but belief is stubborn. Men and women are loath to give up their fond delusions. The nearness of the End is still being preached. In 1976, for instance, a Portsmouth (England) businessman, Ernest Digweed, died and left his entire estate to Christ, with instructions in his will to place the capital in government bonds at 12.5 percent. According to Mr Digweed, Jesus was due back in 1999 and would then have a nice little nest-egg to help him in his work, about $700,000 in all.
And then there is the Antichrist.
In the weeks leading up to the date of June 6, 1996, a rumour rapidly spread among superstitious Catholics in Colombia that the Antichrist would return on that day. There was a last-minute rush by neglectful parents to have their children baptised, 'just in case' the rumour were true. In one six-hour period, it was reported, over 7,000 children were baptised.
Before we pass from considering prophetic matters we must look at this enigmatic Biblical figure - The Antichrist - the chief of the enemy of Christ, or so are are informed. Christians have always had much to say about this figure, curious, as the name only occurs in but four verses in two Biblical letters, 1 John and 2 John. Throughout the centuries many figures of history have been dubbed by Christians with this title. Needless to say the Pope or, for that matter, several Popes, figured high on the list of favourites; the Protestant list, that is. Nero, Napoleon, Hitler, the Duke of Edinburgh, Yasser Arafat, and many more, have all been accused of being this beastly creature. Students of prophecy have vivid imaginations. In January 1983 a religious sect in Memphis, Tennessee, took hostage and murdered a policeman, claiming he was a representative of the Antichrist. According to a South Carolina Bible scholar (unnamed) the then (1988) Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev bore the mark of Satan, making him his agent on earth. 'The evidence is overwhelming that Gorbachev is the Antichrist,' claimed this insightful one. His birthmark resembled the red dragon of Revelation, with tail! The numerical value of Gorbachev's name is 666 (well, I've already dealt with that).
Back around 1,000 CE there were great numbers of people who believed they were about to face the End Time (even although the dating system by which they judged was in itself purely an arbitrary one). As the dreadful date loomed before their frightened eyes, fanatics appeared in many parts of Europe, warning, yes, banging that same old drum, 'the End is nigh.' The populace were advised to wind up their earthly affairs, so as to be ready. Jerusalem was felt to be the appropriate site for the reappearance of the Christ-god in the clouds so in the year 999 a vast army of pilgrims, selling up homes and possessions, tramped en masse to the Holy City, there to await his Coming. Great buildings, including cathedrals and churches, were left to decay as all classes, rich and poor alike, trekked to the east, intoning Psalms and gazing skyward in case the Son of God should appear. The, pilgrims, spurred on by fanatical preaching, were terror-struck at the sound of every passing thunderstorm or at the sight of a falling star. The year came and went but the Nazarene failed to appear. The prophecies had to be recast yet again. First one date, then another, all calculated after 'careful study' of the Apocalypse and the Gospels, would be adopted, then abandoned. The onset of plague, or any natural disaster, was sufficient to send people scurrying to the Book.
As the last millennium unfolded many new prophets arose, blazed for a time, then fell back into oblivion. In 1535 John of Leyden and a band of faithful followers occupied Munster as the New Jerusalem, awaiting the return of the Christ-god. They enjoyed a little orgiastic pleasure while they tarried. In a rare display of unity Jews and Christians both gave out that 1666 was the year of the End. But - the Jews looked to the first coming of the Messiah, while the Christians expected the second coming! The date had been calculated from the Book of Revelation. Panic and excitement reigned yet again. Soon after this, John Napier, a Scottish mathematician and author of A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St John, calculated that the end would come before the year 1688. Napier later changed the date to 1700; however, it mattered not as he had died before 1688 arrived.
The great Sir Isaac Newton set 1733 as the year of the End. He, too, died before he could discover his error. William Whiston, who followed Newton at Cambridge, announced on 13 October that the Beginning of the End was nigh and would start with the destruction of the 'sodom of London'. Panic-stricken Londoners headed for high places to escape predicted floods. None came. Whiston later announced a new date - 1866. Conveniently far ahead, one might observe. Emanuel Swedenborg was certain 1757 was the date. Being both a renowned scientist and having contact with the heavenly sphere one would have thought he would know, but alas, he failed the world on this score. His angelic messengers failed him just as Jeanne d'Arc's Voices had failed her.
One of John Wesley's followers, George Bell, prophesied that the world would end in 1763, on 28 February of that year, to be precise. His preaching caused a panic among the 'lower classes', ever susceptible to a prophet's rantings, none more so than the Methodists themselves, many of whom were terror-struck at the thought of Christ's Appearing. Once again - wrong! Between 1800 and 1834 especially, a great number of prophets arose, each pronouncing boldly and, of course, with certainty, 'the End is nigh.' Perhaps all this was an inevitable reaction to the rise of Rationalism and the illuminations of science. Or perhaps it was just a new turn of the old wheel of religion, one still revolving today!
Other predictors of the End came and went. We've already met Joanna Southcott. Then there was Mother Shipton and Edward Irving. The latter gentlemen was much given to speaking in tongues and one day announced that 1864 would be the year of the End. The prediction proved to be as spurious as his signs. Inevitably the USA was home to the greatest number of the prophets of doom and gloom. Chief among the zealots was William Miller, a farmer's son, poor in formal education but fanatical in devouring all manner of printed works, especially the prophecies of the Bible. Following his marriage, Miller went from faith to atheism and, in time, back to faith again. Along the way he was involved in an adventurous life of soldiering and other activities. He was once thrown from an army wagon, and suffered severe brain concussion as a result. Like Paul before him, he thus had an 'infirmity in the flesh'. It is amusing, if a trifle cruel, to speculate that brain-concussed Miller gave to the world a new and important religion, just as sun-maddened Paul did so long ago.
Discharged from the war, Miller returned to the side of the angels and began studying his Bible intensely until, after 15 years of wrestling with the problems of prophecy, he concluded that the world would end in 1834! At first he kept the knowledge to himself but one day he had the opportunity to fill a vacant pulpit in a nearby Baptist church. Soon a movement was under way, following Miller's prophetic preaching, drawing members from established churches (no doubt including some from that same Baptist church, which must have regretted having invited the interloper to occupy its pulpit!).
Believing that, as described in Matthew 24: 29,30, heavenly portents would signal the nearness of the end, Miller was heartened when, on 13 November 1833, a great meteoric shower occurred, some 250,000 'falling stars' being counted at one meteorological station between midnight and dawn. Miller had by now set a 'recalculated' date which he proclaimed as being some time in April 1843. Imagine his delight when in the spring of that year a great comet appeared in the skies, so bright that it could be seen at high noon. Other signs followed. Rings appeared around the sun and 'mock suns' occurred from time to time. It sure was a good year for portents - and prophets.
The movement grew in zeal and numbers as the great Event approached. April came and went. No Christ. Quite amazing! Where could he be? At first the faithful were shaken in their resolution but, as always, this mood did not last long! It was difficult to be precise over such dates, said the leaders. Try again. It would be some time in either 1843 or 1844; be faithful, it was Nigh. At length a brave and bold Miller published a newly recalculated date - 21 March 1844.
Hysteria reached a peak as 21 March approached. Special 'ascension robes' were made, crops left unattended, farms and homes sold up. In Salem, scene of those notorious witch burnings, a large band of the faithful marched in their ascension robes to Gallows Hill to watch for Him. (How interesting it would have been to have captured on film the spectacle of those Gallows Hill Gullibles! Would have been a great clip on YouTube.) Others went to the graveyards so as to be with departed loved ones when they rose from their graves. One man, waiting for his first wife to rise, was deserted by his slighted second wife after the expected event didn't take place. He was, she thought, altogether too anxious to meet up with his first love. Some of the more enthusiastic ones climbed trees and perched on rooftops so as to be closer to Him. Some even constructed wings and, on the stroke of midnight, on 21 March tried to fly 'into the arms of the Lord'. They flew instead into the unyielding earth and broke a limb or two.
Perhaps the highlight of these amazing antics was provided by a drunken halfwit known as Crazy Amos, in the village of Westford, Massachusetts. A group of the Millerites, complete with ascension robes, had gathered in a house to await the great event. Now Crazy Amos had a trumpet and, on hearing the tumult in his neighbourhood, rushed into the street, sounding forth for all to hear. This was Gabriel and the Day of Judgment had arrived. The Millerites rushed into the streets, expecting to be caught up into the air, only to be disappointed. Midnight passed and once again their hopes were dashed. But not their naïve faith in the Prophet.
In the face of all this one might have thought the movement would have been killed stone dead. Not so! From the remnants of this discredited rabble arose the Seventh Day Adventist Church which, in time, was to become a large denomination. In turn it spawned (as always) a number of dissenting offshoots, for disagreement is never far away from the Christian message. And as it sought to feed man's spiritual life, it established a not inconsiderable offshoot which manufactured foodstuffs to nourish the bodies of the faithful (while they wait for his coming). And, no doubt purely as a happy coincidence, this activity has produced a nice tinkling sound in the church's cash registers over many long years. So these people are not so naïve after all. And not alone in commercial endeavour - the Catholics have their wine producing monasteries while the Orthodox have their Saint Springs mineral water. Oh, and by the way, belief in the 'near return' of Christ is still very strong in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, even although a century and a half has passed since Miller's day.
But not everyone was caught up in prophecy-mania. The Amana Community, a small sect of German-born immigrants who settled in Iowa around the middle of the 19th century, was one such. The sect traced its beginnings to the early part of the 18th century. In 1719 Brother John Frederick Rock was journeying here and there in German parts giving forth messages that, he asserted, had come directly from the Ghost. Members admitted that the inspiration tended to die out now and then among their number. But they say that the years 1749, 1772, 1776 and 1816-18 were propitious times for receiving e-mail from on high. Like so many other groups, they claimed to hold the truth whereas others were undoubtedly lost. They even described themselves as the True Inspiration Congregation or Community.
By 1818 these Germans had a lady instrument (as they term their contact with heaven), one Barbara Heynemann, a 'poor and illiterate servant-maid' from Alsace, to guide their affairs. But Miss Barbara seems to have failed them, at least for a time, as in 1820 she was demoted from her exalted rank and forced to work as a household drudge in one of the member's homes. It appears young Barbara had found love - 'she had too friendly an eye upon the young men' and was being tempted by 'the Enemy'. Various ups and downs followed and she eventually did marry George Landmann. In time she was restored as a prophetess and all was forgiven.
It was while Barbara was prophesying that an amazing encounter took place. William Allen, a Quaker minister from London, visited the community in Germany. The Quakers were interested in the goings-on among the German pietists. Now the Quakers, as we have already noted, had their very own inspiration, being - or so they claimed - directly in contact with the Ghost. So William Allen proposed to the German brethren that a meeting be held at which the 14th chapter of John's Gospel would be read. He felt sure he would be inspired to holy utterances at this gathering. Imagine his dismay when no inspiration seemed to fall upon him; instead, the German lady sounded forth with her own inspired words. Allen marched off in high dudgeon. Claiming later that the Quaker inspiration was every bit as real as theirs, Allen was told in no uncertain terms that this was not so; the Quakers did not have the proper consecrated instruments to declare the Lord's will.
It should be noted in passing that innumerable groups and persons claim to have had direct personal intercourse with the Ghost. Even as I write police in Belgium were investigating a sect known as Cor Unum (meaning Single Heart). It should not surprise my readers to note that fraud was alleged. Be that as it may, of special interest to us is the fact that Father Andre de St Paul, known as 'the 13th Apostle' to his followers, formed his group in 1984 after he experienced seeing the Christ-god every day 'during a spell' (presumably he forgot to take his medication). But the Catholic Church has its instruments too. In recent times in Australia William Kamm, a Catholic layman known by the curious name of Little Pebble, was receiving inspired messages from Mary. Indeed, Mary is forever turning up hither and yon, communicating with the faithful. One of the more interesting messages to Little Pebble concerned the comet Hale-Bopp. It would collide with the sun at 1 am on 3 June 1997, with the usual terrible results for the world - earthquakes, tidal waves and electrical storms. My readers will note that 3 June 1997 has come and gone and we are all still here.
But I digress. The group founded by Brother Rock was, in 1842, taken over by Christian Metz, whose inspiration told him that the band should remove themselves from German soil, where they had experienced a certain degree of persecution, and travel to America. Like so many similar churches they had upset the community in which they lived, refusing to take oaths or send their children to public schools. Thus they moved to America and joined in the babel of religious tongues there. The members were rather uptight about sex. 'Fly from the society of women-kind as much as possible,' runs one rule, 'as a very highly dangerous magnet and magical fire'. And a catechism for children teaches: 'Have no pleasure in violent games or plays; do not wait on the road to look at quarrels or fights; do not keep company with bad children, for there you will learn only wickedness. Also, do not play with children of the other sex.' (Presuming they know the difference.)
Prophetic utterances about the End Time have continued through the years right up into our own time. I have drawn attention to many in earlier chapters. The last saviour due to put in an appearance is the Zoroastrian one, Shaoshyant, expected, according to some calculations, to arrive here on earth in the year CE 2398, giving us all plenty of time for repentance.
