Closing Heaven's Gate
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV, Cycle B
Object:
Closing Heaven's Gate
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray." (vv. 3-6)
In 1972, Marshall Herff Applewhite met Bonnie Lu Nettles in Houston, Texas. This meeting eventually gave birth to the UFO cult Heaven's Gate as their beliefs in theology and the metaphysical merged. The two changed their names to "Bo" and "Peep." Later as the cult developed, they became "Do" and "Ti."
They left Houston in 1973 and traveled for some months, ending up in a campground near the coast in southern Oregon. Here, Applewhite claimed to have a revelation that brought together the pieces of their metaphysical quest. He and Nettles were the two prophets of chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. After 1,260 days of bearing witness to the truth, their enemies would kill them. This event would be followed by their ascension to heaven in a cloud. The cloud, he believed, was a spacecraft that would whisk true believers away toward a higher level of existence.
Over the next twenty years, the group nomadically moved from Los Angles to Oregon to Denver to Gulfport, Mississippi, to Wyoming to Salt Lake City, back to Denver and then Dallas/Fort Worth before staying a while in Albuquerque. Do and Ti preached that they were Christ-like extraterrestrials who had taken human form. Nettles died of natural causes in 1985.
The cult recruited with pamphlets and other print publications for two decades before moving to California in 1996 and actively using the Internet to transmit messages. Members of the cult opened a Web consulting business, Higher Source. The group lived together in a large immaculate seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house in Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy community in San Diego.
On Tuesday, March 25, 1997, a former cult member received a videotape with a message from Applegate stating that the group would be "shedding their containers" and "leaving this planet," and was accompanied by another tape in which members made farewells two-by-two.
On Wednesday, March 26, he went with his boss who had contracted out some work to Higher Source, to the mansion just north of San Diego. They made a shocking discovery of mass suicide. They discovered the bodies of 21 women and eighteen men, ranging in age from 26-72 in various stages of decomposition. Several days before, the 39 members of the cult had ingested applesauce and pudding laced with phenobarbital and a shot of vodka. Then they suffocated themselves by placing plastic bags over their heads. They were identically dressed in unisex black shirts, pants, and Nikes, and had purple shrouds folded in triangles placed across their faces. Many of the men had been castrated.
The cult had also left explanations of their actions on their website. They believed that "a member of the Kingdom of Heaven then left behind His body in that Next Level (similar to putting it in a closet, like a suit of clothes that doesn't need to be worn for a while), came to Earth, and moved into (or incarnated into), an adult human body (or 'vehicle') that had been 'prepped' for this particular task. The body that was chosen was called Jesus."
They further believed that "the sole task that was given to this member from the Kingdom of Heaven was to offer the way leading to membership into the Kingdom of Heaven to those who recognized Him for who He was and chose to follow Him."
Suicide would allow them to cast off their bodies and return to the spaceship that followed the Hale-Bopp comet. Another message on their website expressed that the "Older Member in the Evolutionary Level Above Human (the 'Kingdom of Heaven') has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp's approach is the 'marker' we've been waiting for -- the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take us home to 'Their World' -- in the literal Heavens."
Jesus admonished us to ignore false signs and false messiahs, and yet our fascination with the New Jerusalem sometimes leads to follow any ole "Bo Peep" instead of the Good Shepherd.
(Information gathered from.)
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray." (vv. 3-6)
In 1972, Marshall Herff Applewhite met Bonnie Lu Nettles in Houston, Texas. This meeting eventually gave birth to the UFO cult Heaven's Gate as their beliefs in theology and the metaphysical merged. The two changed their names to "Bo" and "Peep." Later as the cult developed, they became "Do" and "Ti."
They left Houston in 1973 and traveled for some months, ending up in a campground near the coast in southern Oregon. Here, Applewhite claimed to have a revelation that brought together the pieces of their metaphysical quest. He and Nettles were the two prophets of chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. After 1,260 days of bearing witness to the truth, their enemies would kill them. This event would be followed by their ascension to heaven in a cloud. The cloud, he believed, was a spacecraft that would whisk true believers away toward a higher level of existence.
Over the next twenty years, the group nomadically moved from Los Angles to Oregon to Denver to Gulfport, Mississippi, to Wyoming to Salt Lake City, back to Denver and then Dallas/Fort Worth before staying a while in Albuquerque. Do and Ti preached that they were Christ-like extraterrestrials who had taken human form. Nettles died of natural causes in 1985.
The cult recruited with pamphlets and other print publications for two decades before moving to California in 1996 and actively using the Internet to transmit messages. Members of the cult opened a Web consulting business, Higher Source. The group lived together in a large immaculate seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house in Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy community in San Diego.
On Tuesday, March 25, 1997, a former cult member received a videotape with a message from Applegate stating that the group would be "shedding their containers" and "leaving this planet," and was accompanied by another tape in which members made farewells two-by-two.
On Wednesday, March 26, he went with his boss who had contracted out some work to Higher Source, to the mansion just north of San Diego. They made a shocking discovery of mass suicide. They discovered the bodies of 21 women and eighteen men, ranging in age from 26-72 in various stages of decomposition. Several days before, the 39 members of the cult had ingested applesauce and pudding laced with phenobarbital and a shot of vodka. Then they suffocated themselves by placing plastic bags over their heads. They were identically dressed in unisex black shirts, pants, and Nikes, and had purple shrouds folded in triangles placed across their faces. Many of the men had been castrated.
The cult had also left explanations of their actions on their website. They believed that "a member of the Kingdom of Heaven then left behind His body in that Next Level (similar to putting it in a closet, like a suit of clothes that doesn't need to be worn for a while), came to Earth, and moved into (or incarnated into), an adult human body (or 'vehicle') that had been 'prepped' for this particular task. The body that was chosen was called Jesus."
They further believed that "the sole task that was given to this member from the Kingdom of Heaven was to offer the way leading to membership into the Kingdom of Heaven to those who recognized Him for who He was and chose to follow Him."
Suicide would allow them to cast off their bodies and return to the spaceship that followed the Hale-Bopp comet. Another message on their website expressed that the "Older Member in the Evolutionary Level Above Human (the 'Kingdom of Heaven') has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp's approach is the 'marker' we've been waiting for -- the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take us home to 'Their World' -- in the literal Heavens."
Jesus admonished us to ignore false signs and false messiahs, and yet our fascination with the New Jerusalem sometimes leads to follow any ole "Bo Peep" instead of the Good Shepherd.
(Information gathered from
