c. 1999 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ An audio taped”Time of the End”message, found on the doorstep of a house rented by alleged members of the doomsday sect Concerned Christians and raided by Israeli police Sunday (Jan. 3), provides a graphic insight into the group’s beliefs.

The”Time of the End”message, dated June 25, 1997, is labeled No. 30, series 18, and bears the title”I am the Lawmaker”_ a reference to a phrase convicted murderer Charles Manson used in a 1988 interview to describe his 1969 killing spree.

An Israeli expert on millennium groups said the tape resembles other messages issued from time to time by the Denver-based sect’s leader, Monte Kim Miller, who is said to have predicted his death and resurrection on the streets of Jerusalem sometime in the coming pre-millennial year.

On Sunday, Israeli police detained 14 members of the group and ordered 11 of them deported in what they said was an effort to prevent acts of violence from ocurring. The other three were held for further questioning.

The taped message, delivered by a soft-spoken but unidentified voice, offers an intricate and frightening insight into the sects’s beliefs and teachings, which appear in large part to be centered around the personal history of Manson and his supposed role as a divine”lawmaker,”or”son of man.” In the message, the United States is described as a”dragon kingdom”that will receive”double the judgment”Japan incurred when it was hit with two atomic bombs at the end of World War II. President Clinton is described as a”counterfeit son of man”_ false messenger _ for his involvement in the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian interim peace treaty and the subsequent Israel-Jordan peace accords.

The message, accompanied by printed materials illustrating the points made on the tape that included photos of President Calvin Coolidge, Clinton and Manson, begins with an announcement: “This is looking to be like the final message of our time together, at least as it concerns the Manson murders.” Throughout the past century, according to the tape, false messengers and”counterfeit”religious and political figures have clouded the true meaning of biblical prophecy about God’s final judgment of the earth and Jesus’ Second Coming.

The message seems to equate the life of Manson with that of Jesus. Manson is repeatedly referred to as the”Man Son,”an apparent allusion to the biblical reference to Jesus as the”Son of Man.””The Charles Manson murders connect to the son of man judgments, that is the return of Jesus Christ,”the message says.”….The overriding theme of the Manson murders is judgment and the return of the Lord in judgment. The name `Man Son’ represent the judgments that occur upon the coming of the Son of Man _ Jesus Christ.” The 1969 Manson family killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four friends, is said to have rendered a kind of divine judgment by killing a fetus said on the tape to represent the”anti-Christ”. “The killing of Sharon Tate’s baby represents a killing of Rosemary’s baby (the Roman antichrists) by the Lord,”explains both the tape, and the printed accompanying text. A footnote on the printed text refers to the 1967 novel”Rosemary’s Baby”by Ira Levin.”The Manson murders foretell the slaying of America’s antichrists and America itself by the Lord.” Underlying the message is the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 2:3, which foresees a final end of the days of judgment followed by an era of peace in which”men will beat their swords into plowshares.” The tape also assigns a mystical significance to the number 23.”The NUMBER 23 and LAW is continually connected with the Charles Manson murders representing the return of the Lord and judgment day because of Isaiah 2:3, `for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,'”the printed message says.

Adds the tape:”We have been talking about how Man Son is a counterfeit, and sometimes a picture of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and indeed we will see that this theme of `I am the lawmaker,’ is connected with a counterfeit, and a picture of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 2:3.” The timing of key historical events _ from the closing days of World War II to the 1992 Hurricane Andrew and the 1993 Oslo peace accords _ is linked by a 23 year-span to various events in the life and saga of the Manson family.

For instance, the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki occured 23 years before Charles Manson’s first record album was taped.

Clinton was born 23 years before Manson uttered the phrase”helter skelter”on the eve of the Tate murders. Clinton, the message adds,”is connected to the counterfeit law going forth out of Zion, the counterfeit time and the helter skelter judgment _ an apparent reference to his role in the Israeli-Arab peace process.

The dark vision of the tape concludes with an equally stern prayer:”Lord we pray that as your judgments come forth, we are worthy to be judges with you … Lord, help us not to judge in the world’s ways now, so that we may judge in your ways later …”

DEA END FLETCHER