Brother David stands on the rocky hillside of Bethany in eastern Jerusalem before the ancient ruins of the house of Simon the Leper. Holy Bible in hand, he reads aloud the passage from the Gospel of John that recounts the events that took place on the same spot almost 2,000 years ago.
At the foot of the hill is the tomb of Lazarus, whom, according to Christian tradition, Jesus raised from the dead; behind him sits the house of Simon, where Jesus and the 12 disciples dined after the believed miracle. And across the road is the house of Mary and Martha, where Jesus lodged.
“We are the living testimony of God’s preparation for the Second Coming of Christ,” says Brother David, his long, dark coat flapping gently in the warm winter sunshine. “We are living in the days when the scriptures tell us there will be even greater miracles than the ones we read there.”
Brother David, 58, is one of some 100 evangelical Christians who have gravitated to the area of Bethany on the far side of the Mount of Olives to prepare for what Christians believe will be the Second Coming of Jesus.
The activities of Brother David and the small group of 20 or so who meet to pray each Wednesday evening above the Almanar Pharmacy are once again coming under intense scrutiny following the recent arrest and deportation from Jerusalem of the Concerned Christians cult.
The cult members were suspected of planning violent actions in the coming year in order to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.
A former salesman of mobile homes from Syracuse, N.Y., Brother David says he gave up his wealth, his career and his last name to help the poor on the streets of New York City before moving to Israel in 1980.
Ten years later, Sister Sharon heard a call from the Lord in her native Los Angeles and came to Jerusalem, where she met Brother David and became his companion. They settled in Bethany and set up a food-and-clothing distribution center for the poor.
“This is where Jesus stayed and ministered to the poor, where God the father chose to place his family on earth and his son found love and hospitality,” Brother David says. “Today, we minister to the poor just as he did and walk on the ground where he walked 2,000 years ago.”
They have a network of 10 apartments that they rent out for $5 a night to Christians who want to join them to await the coming of Jesus. Other than this paltry income and donations, they say they have no other means of support.
Sister Sharon has seven children and 11 grandchildren. They all stayed behind in America, except for her son Raymond, 27, who was in prison when she left but later got the call himself and joined his mother 18 months ago.
In November, Raymond married Keren Arndt, 49, a former showgirl who was called to the Lord as she watched the Rev. Billy Graham preach on television just as she was about to go on stage at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. She arrived in Jerusalem for the first time two months ago and married Raymond soon after.
The wedding was simple. The couple exchanged vows before witnesses but without the benefit of a pastor or official documentation. This was in part because Raymond, like his mother and Brother David, is in Israel illegally. All three have destroyed their passports and have no visas.
“We’re not gong anywhere, so why have a passport?” asks Brother David. “I was called by the Lord, not the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.”
“They tried to get rid of me once and it cost them dear,” he says, refusing to divulge any further details of this encounter with Israeli officialdom except to say that it was in 1992 and he spent nine months in prison. “I ministered to the poor in jail just as I did on the streets — it made no difference to me.”
Brother David wants to distance himself from the Concerned Christians group.
“None of us have come here to do anything violent or to harm anyone. We don’t consider them Christians; they are a cult,” he says of the deported group.
“There’s nothing in the teachings of Christ which tells us to harm anyone. I’m happy for their sakes they were able to be caught and taken out of here.”
Brother David says he does not belong to any organization and is not planning to create one. But he hopes hundreds more Christians will gather on the Mount of Olives to witness the events that he is certain will happen very soon. “The time of Jesus’ coming is near and God is calling to individuals, not organizations.”
Brother Raymond recalls the vision he had just 18 months ago. “I went to sleep one night and God woke me up and snapped me out of my bed,” says the former drug addict. “The son of God said there is no more time to mess around and play. I’m on my way. Get ready. In one and a half years of my life, he has done for me what I haven’t done in 25 years.”
Sitting under an olive tree, Brother Raymond fluently flips through his Bible, citing highlighted passages that form the foundation of the group’s theology.
The biggest sign of the “end times” is the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel: “Throughout scriptures, Israel is paralleled to the fig tree,” says Brother Raymond. “He indicated the Jewish people would be dispersed throughout the world. When you see the fig tree blossom, you know the time is nigh.”
Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, the drying up of the Dead Sea, earthquakes, natural disasters and even UFOs were all signposted in scriptures, according to Brother Raymond. “The book has never been wrong,” he says.
When Jesus does return, says Brother Raymond, it will be unmistakable. “Millions of believers will be snapped up from the earth before the apocalypse,” he says.
These views are disputed by mainstream Christians, who say believers have no right to predict the exact date or course of events that will take place during the Second Coming.
Other millennium-watchers warn against associating the vast majority of peace- loving Christian groups, including fringe sects such as Brother David’s, with radical cults that may carry out violence. Israel is beefing up security in anticipation of attacks on Muslim sites in Jerusalem by radical groups seeking to rebuild the ancient Israelite temple and spark the apocalypse.
“We must be very careful not to generalize,” says Rabbi David Rosen, the director of the Jerusalem office of the Anti-Defamation League and an expert on Jewish-Christian relations.
“Not all those who see the date as having cosmic significance want to do anything concrete or even dangerous. However, the prospect of some fringe elements in alliance with extreme nationalist elements does raise the danger of a Waco or Jonestown happening here in Israel.”
The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which has close ties to evangelical groups coming to celebrate the millennium, insists that the vast majority of pilgrims expected during the millennium year will be peaceful.
The embassy shares the beliefs of Brother David’s group that these are “prophetic times.” But it said in a statement last week that setting dates for Jesus’ return is wrong, and media hype focusing on extremist cults is creating a “gross distortion” of Christian views on the millennium.
“Israeli authorities certainly have the right and duty to take all reasonable precautions and make informed assessments of any potential security risks,” the statement said. “However, Israelis and others need to look past the incautious dissemination of negative images and recognize that these pilgrims are coming with peaceful intentions.”
“We view the Christian observance of the millennium as an opportunity for the Israeli people to welcome and win new friends from around the world.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
