- Fundamentalist Christians are already
flocking to the Mount of Olives to witness the Second Coming
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- The coming of the new millennium is having
a deep effect on some religious groups, with many of them preparing for
Christ's Second Coming, Armageddon, and the end of the world.
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- In Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians
as well as Jews and Muslims, the millennium has special significance.
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- More than 100 fundamentalist Christians
- mostly from the US and Canada - have already arrived in Israel hoping
to witness the return of Christ on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives some time
in the year 2000.
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- Many of the millennialists have settled
in Palestinian towns near the Mount of Olives to witness the event.
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- With thousands more expected to arrive,
the Israeli authorities are worried about keeping the peace in the Holy
City.
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- One policeman in Jerusalem was quoted
as saying: "If the Messiah doesn't show up as expected, we fear some
of the disappointed believers may take matters into their own hands to
hasten along the end of time. Given all the problems we have here already,
Israel can ill afford a Waco."
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- One thousand years ago, simiilar disappointment
at the failure of the Second Coming to materialise is thought to have been
one of the triggers for the Holy Crusades, when thousands left Europe to
reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim rule.
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- Modern day believers say the medieval
knights got it wrong because they misinterpreted the scriptures - this
time it is for real.
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- Police fear that at least three US groups
may be planning a repeat of recent incidents when 39 members of the Heaven's
Gate group killed themselves with poison in California in the belief that
the appearance of the Hale Bopp comet heralded the arrival of a UFO that
was to rescue them from earth.
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- Another 74 disciples of the Solar Temple
group killed themselves in Canada and Switzerland.
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- Members of the obscure religious cult,
Concerned Christians, have already been arrested after threatening to commit
suicide in what they see as the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy.
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- Police said that the group planned to
provoke a bloody shoot-out by opening fire on Israeli police and members
of the group believed that this catastrophic act would hasten the prophesy.
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- The approach of the new millennium is
also having an effect on non-religious groups.
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- One US-based group, the UNAIRIUS Academy
of Science in Southern California, believes that a giant spaceship will
land somewhere in the Caribbean.
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