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Van Eden said he is working to
spread the message of a better world.
He knows who the messiah,is, he
said, but cannot divulge the identity.
"The messiah is hidden but he will
come out ... in the next few months,"
he said, adding that, like him, the
anointed one comes from the Royal
Dutch family of Orange. "That's the
reason I am here, to wait for the mes-
siah."
He believes the messiah was born
40 years to the day after Vincent van
Gogh painted "Starry Night" in 1891,
which heralded the messiah's birth.
By the way, that makes the messiah
Van Eden's age.
But this phenomenon is not just
linked to tourists. Israeli David
McPhale warned of cataclysmic war-
fare and destruction, not to mention
the appearance of UFOs now lying in
hiding below Haifa bay. The flying
saucers, he said, will be the protectors
of Jesus, who will arrive on an airplane
from Chicago. Then the vision gets
ugly. A huge army of American
Christians led by a Greek-American
woman hairdresser, also from Chicago,
will precede Jesus to the Holy Land in
the coming year, he said, and slaugh-
ter all the non-believing Jews.
McPhale, who claims a small fol-
lowing and actively seeks out media to
spread his message, admitted to hav-
ing been hospitalized — unfairly he
says — for mental treatment.
On the other end of the messianic
spectrum are followers of figures like
Brother David, living in Jerusalem for
close to a decade. They are preparing
for the Second Coming of Jesus and
the rapture. According to their
tenets, Christian believers will be
taken to heaven while a devastating
l war rages on down below during seven
years of tribulation preceding the
coming of the messiah.
) "Each one of us has been called
here," said Sharon, a 53-year-old fol-
lower. With seven years in Jerusalem
under her belt, she is a veteran of the
roughly 30-member group. Our only
hope is to repent and for the born-
again Christians to be taken out of here
like Elijah and seven years later come
back with Jesus Christ. In no way are
we looking forward to it, but that is
what is going to happen," Sharon said.
But, she emphasized, clearly sensitive to
the issue of Christian cults descending
on Jerusalem for the millennium, her
group is not a cult.
Brother David, sitting quietly in a
Judith Sudilovsky is a freelance writer
living in Jerusalem.
nearby armchair, jumped in. There is
nothing in Christian teaching that
talks about suicide and blowing up
buildings, he said, adding, "Many
people are trying to discredit us in
order to prevent us from proclaiming
the coming of the messiah."
The group leader also is quick to
deny the outlandish theories of
Brother Raymond, Sharon's 27-year-
old real sibling. They include implant-
ed credit card chips in the hands or
foreheads of people, which will permit
only those with "the sign of the beast"
to make purchases as is written in
Revelation 13:16, and the arrival of
UFOs — who are actually the fallen
angels of God. "I know it sounds
crazy and people like to joke about the
UFOs, but-it is very real," insisted
Brother Raymond.
Mainstream Christian groups, how-
ever, aren't laughing. One of the most
well-established evangelical groups in
Jerusalem, the International Christian
Embassy, has come out forcefully
against what a spokesman said is the
growing tendency to distort the theo-
logical significance of the year 2000."
Don't tell that to Italians Alfonso
Bottiglieri, 45, and his two compan-
ions Fausto Procopio, 45, and Mirko
Brugnetti, 30. Replete in biblical garb
and large wooden staffs, they ignore
numerous stares while sitting down in
an Old City cafe for cups of mint tea,
cookies and cigarettes.
We walk for the reconciliation of
religion, love," said Alfonso, whose
piercing sky-blue eyes leap from his
darkly bearded face. He and Fausto
have been traveling around the world
for 20 years, he said. "This is my work,
to walk and to meet people. This con-
nection for us is to be like Jesus. Faith
takes me from one place to another. It
comes from God. What I feel inside is
the coming of Jesus. I must feel his
feeling and then I feel his presence and
when I feel, I feel at one in his spirit."
But for now, he and Fausto must
take Mirko to the airport tonight, for
accounting studies await the young
man in Rome. So in a few hours
Mirko will trade in his light blue Arab
galabiya, or traditional robe, for khaki
pants and a button-down shirt.
Alfonso and Fausto, however, will
keep wearing their tunics and only
accompany Mirko as far as the bus
stop. They don't want to cause their
companion undo problems at the
security check-)oint.
"Sometirr 3, " admitted Alfonso
with a hurt- f_,,-ous glimmer in his eyes.
"I just want to take off these clothes,
be normal and dance."
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