Cult's local ties a concern

Girl worried about Jacksonville friend

Jacksonville Times-Union/February 8, 1999
By Margie Mason

At the time, she had no idea Dustin Blythe was involved with the Concerned Christians, a cult officials say planned to open fire on Israeli police to hasten Christ's Second Coming.

''He called me up one night out of nowhere and said, 'I just called to tell you that I loved you, and I'm sorry that I wasn't the friend to you that you were to me,' '' she recalled.

Powell, 17, moved to Jacksonville nearly two years ago. It was then that she considered going with Blythe.

''It was between my beliefs and him, and I had to choose,'' Powell said. ''. . . In the end, your beliefs are ultimately what makes you who you are.''

It's a decision she's glad she made.

Last month, 14 Concerned Christians - including one from Jacksonville Beach - were arrested and deported from Israel after the FBI alerted Israeli officials of their arrival and dangerous potential. Blythe was not among them, but that doesn't stop Powell from worrying.

''I want to say they're going to wise up in the next year,'' she said, ''but I think he's [leader Monte Kim Miller] got too tight a hold on them.''

Those who track the cult agree. They say the group's fate is ultimately up to Miller, whose actions are as tough to understand as the religious doctrines and anti-government beliefs he teaches.

''Everything is cryptic,'' said cult specialist Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who's studied the group for several years. ''Kim gets meaning out of the phone book, to a date Abraham Lincoln got up and brushed his teeth, to the weather, to a football score.''

Miller tells his followers God is speaking through him. In addition, he claims to be one of two biblical witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation. He says he will die in the streets of Jerusalem sometime this year prior to Christ's Second Coming. Three days later, he says he'll rise from the dead.

Anne Marie Biondo Malesic, a 1990 Bishop Kenny High School graduate, was among those deported along with her husband and their 2-month-old son. She and the others have been holed up in four Denver hotel rooms since their return. Her brother, Vince Biondo, also belongs to the group but was not among those deported.

Concerned Christians wasn't always a cult. In fact, Miller used to preach against the evils of joining New Age movements in the 1980s, Honsberger said.

Today Miller teaches that America is Babylon and will be destroyed first when the world ends. He also tells members the only way to receive salvation is to die, just as the Bible says Jesus died.

In addition, Miller arranges marriages and requires unquestioned obedience. He also restricts cult members from having contact with family members.

''It's a living death for people, especially when you don't know where your child is,'' said Sherry Clark of Carbondale, Colo., who has a daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren in the cult. ''It's more than devastating. There are not really words to describe it.''

Clark, like Honsberger, actively campaigns against Miller, whose whereabouts are unknown. ''His ego is so inflated and the power and the pride thing is so inflated that he believes it himself,'' Clark said. ''. . . This evil satanic power behind him is what is controlling Kim Miller and his followers. This is not Christianity. This is certainly not Christianity.''

Clark mentions other cult members who committed mass suicide such as those at Jonestown in Guyana and the San Diego-based Heaven's Gate cult. She worries the Concerned Christians will be next. Still, the only thing she can do is pray for the Denver group's release from Miller's mental grasp.

''I've seen God's hands working in this all along,'' she said. ''I know that God is able to bring this to a completion.''

But Powell says Miller is the group's God. He made Blythe quit school and told his father to abandon the family construction business. Other followers she knew in Colorado disowned their children, sold their belongings and vanished.

The cult was Blythe's first exposure to any form of religion, which is why Powell believes he was so easily convinced. She recalls trying to explain that Miller's teachings deviated from the Bible, but Blythe repeatedly told her she would believe if only she could hear Miller's voice.

''They just sincerely believe that it's the Lord speaking,'' she said, ''and they don't want to disobey God - that's how seriously they take it.''

Cult families see sliver of hope

Denver Post/April 6, 1999
By Kevin Simpson

John Bayles reportedly returned to his New Jersey home, and to family, about a month ago and has been in "counseling" since then, according to cult-watcher Mark Roggeman. No details have been released, and family members have not returned phone calls.

But others with relatives still in the group were heartened by the development.

"I don't know details, so I'm just hoping all of them wake up and walk away," said Sherry Clark, whose daughter remains in the group. "(Bayles) was one of the 14 deported to Denver, so he knew Kim Miller's prophesy was not true - they were walking on Denver soil, there was no earthquake."

Miller had prophesied Denver's destruction last fall when he and 80 members of the Concerned Christians disappeared. Fourteen of his disciples were held in Israel, where authorities fears they planned violence to hasten the apocalypse, and later deported.

But after weeks holed up at the downtown Denver Holiday Inn, the 14 slipped out of town.

"I know Kim Miller still has a great deal of control," Clark said. "I'm thrilled he's out, I'm delighted, and I will be praying that he makes full reconciliation with his family. That's my hope and desire for all of them. I'm excited about that.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about my daughter and pray for her. Not a day. I consider this an answer to my prayer that one boy is out."

Jennifer Cooper, whose father, John Cooper, is believed to be financing much of the group's activity, also has high hopes that others may break away from Miller, who has predicted that he will die in the streets of Jerusalem in December, in fulfillment of biblical prophesy.

But she, too, suspects that Miller's hold over his followers remains powerful.

"It could be the beginning of the whole group being disbanded," Cooper said, "but I don't see that as being the case. I've heard nothing from my father - no e-mails, nothing. I feel as if Miller's still pretty strong over there.

"At least, that's my sense. I hope I'm wrong."

Cathy Davidson, whose sister, Connie Blythe, remains with the group, said she hoped the emergence of one Concerned Christian would begin a "domino effect."

Many of Miller's group are reportedly living in Greece - and Davidson, who lives in Yukon, Okla., has subscribed to an English-language newspaper from Athens so she can scan the pages for even a mention of Concerned Christians.

"I think it's neat he's out," she said of Bayles' return. "I just wish my sister would see the light. It's just so frustrating. Time's running out. Sometimes I wake up really angry, like I want to go over and walk the streets and find her. Other days I figure I'll just leave it to the big guy upstairs."

Concerned Christians member leaves doomsday group

Associated Press/April 4, 1999

John Bayles left the Concerned Christians and returned to his family in Pennsylvania, where he is undergoing counseling, according to KCNC-TV.

The Denver Rocky Mountain News also reported Bayles' secession from the group but said he may have gone to New Jersey.

"To go to a family he's been told is Satan (by fellow cult members) is a big step," said Denver police officer Mark Roggeman, who has been tracking the Concerned Christians.

Bayles was among 14 cult members who were rounded up by police in Israel in January on grounds they planned to commit acts of violence near Jerusalem holy sites in hopes of triggering a bloody Armageddon that would bring about the return of Christ.

Bayles appeared in court in Israel and said he never planned to harm anyone. Appearing in court with Bayles -- then listed as a Denver resident -- were Terry Smith, 42, of Eagle, and Eric Malesic, 36, of Westminster.

All 14 cult members were deported to Denver, where they stayed in a downtown hotel until leaving in early February. Members of the cult were later reported in Greece.

Last fall, more than 70 Concerned Christians members left the Denver area when their leader, Monte Kim Miller, predicted a catastrophe would befall the city.

Miller, 44, has claimed that God was using him as a vehicle to speak to his followers. His whereabouts are not known.

Instead Of Rising From Dead, Cult Leader Laying Low

Denver Rocky Mountain News/May 12, 2001

Monte Kim Miller hasn't risen to heaven. But he hasn't been seen on Earth lately either. Miller, a one-time Colorado anti-cult expert who now has his own cult followers, has kept a low profile since his prediction that Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake in 1998.

He hasn't been spotted publicly since he proclaimed he would die in a gun battle on the streets of Jerusalem on Dec. 31, 1999, and rise three days later, in time for the Second Coming.

That bit of Apocalyptic prophecy got several members of his group, Concerned Christians, thrown out of Israel and Greece. His voice can still be heard on the Internet, but his actual physical whereabouts, and that of his followers, remain cloudy. "We're figuring that maybe 60 are in Greece, with the rest believed to be somewhere in the Philadelphia area," says Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who monitors cults on his own.

Miller's a mystery, though. "None of us know where he is now," says Bill Honsberger, a local Baptist minister who has studied Concerned Christians. "I suspect Kim has been back to visit Denver," he says. "But we don't know that for sure. He's not exactly announcing his itinerary to us." Miller's Web site, while short on information, is rich in marketing: visitors are informed that Miller's gospel is the only true gospel, and are urged to purchase any of his 156 audio tapes.

The absence of new information about the cult's goings on has a sad ring of familiarity for the families of cult members. Sherry Clark has not seen - or heard from - her daughter, Robin Malene Malesic, in more than four years. "I have no idea where she is. I've heard rumors about Greece, Canada or Great Britain, but nothing factual." "It's like a living death. There's no closure."

But it isn't just family members who have to swim in the information vacuum. Not even cult trackers seem to have a firm grasp on how many members are in the group, with estimates hovering between 70 and 200, although 100 seems most likely. Nor is there a clear consensus on the threat posed by the group.

"I'm more worried about their own safety than I am about them being a threat to the outside," says Hal Mansfield, director of the Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins. "As Miller gets going further and further down the nutty path, he might think, `I've got nothing to lose; let's do a suicide pact.' "

However, "I consider them dangerous to others," says Honsberger, who claims Miller threatened his life. "I've heard tapes where Miller says, `Jesus died for us, there's a time we have to die for him. ' " Keeping a low profile while preaching to high heaven has been Miller's style. After gaining notoriety as an avowed opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s, Miller shifted gears. He claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced that God spoke through him.

After persuading his flock to quit their jobs and sell their possessions, he led his followers out of Colorado - just ahead of what he prophesied would be a devastating earthquake. In January, the group surfaced in Israel. There, authorities worried about the group's potential for violence, expelled 14 followers.They returned to Denver and holed up in the downtown Holiday Inn, shunning relatives and media hordes. In February, they flew to Greece, where they stayed until December 1999.

At that point, the Greek government, fearing the group's potential for millennial mayhem, deported 16 members, citing expired visa documents. Included among that group was John Cooper of Boulder, whose fortune had subsidized the cult to the tune of an estimated $1 million before his daughter had his funds frozen in a conservatorship.

The last time Jennifer Cooper saw her father was December 1999. "I started crying and telling him I loved him," recalls Cooper. "I told him why I did the conservatorship, and that nobody could touch the money. I told him we were here for him anytime he chose to come back." In return, John Cooper told his daughter, she said, that, "They were not a doomsday cult and that I hadn't been listening to the tapes that Kim Miller had sent to me."

Jennifer Cooper's last contact with her father was last December, when he responded to an e-mail with one sentence. Cooper's contact with her father may seem tenuous, but it's more than other cult relatives have had with their loved ones. Nelma Smith, whose son Terry was one of the men Israeli authorities implicated in the prophesied gun battle, hasn't spoken to him since "he became totally brainwashed."

She hasn't told him that one of his sisters died in November. "We chose not to write him and tell him; we know we'd be blamed for that." What cult experts find confounding about Concerned Christians is there have been no defections, despite Miller's erroneous predictions about the end of Denver and the world.

"I've been dealing with cults for over 25 years," Roggeman says. "And when something major like this doesn't happen, people will usually start asking themselves, `Is he really a true prophet? Not only did the world not end, we didn't get to stay in Israel.' "I'd give money to find out how he managed to spin things around and `correct' that false prophesy."

Families remember cult members

Concerned Christians, who vanished in '98, left relatives grieving lost ties

Denver Rocky Mountain News/October 10, 2001
By Kevin Williams

Boulder -- An image of a rose decorates the left side of the envelope.

Inside is a note dated July 18, 2000, to Jan:

"I'm sending you this picture of Nicky because I know you still love her and because I love you enough to let you know that I will always love you -- no matter what."

Betty Chavez, 48, holds the worn envelope in her hand, a smudged "Return to Sender" box withering any hope she had of reaching her sister, Jan Cooper. Cooper is a member of Concerned Christians, the doomsday cult led by Monte Kim Miller that disappeared from the area in October 1998. Nicky is Cooper's 19-year-old daughter, who left her mom before the cult's departure to live with her biological father. Chavez thought a picture, along with a written message, might appeal to her sister's emotions and bring her home.

Cooper, 53, and her husband, John, left their Boulder home and a seemingly ideal life without a word to anyone three years ago. That was when cult leader Miller predicted Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake. Media coverage was intense for a time, but now it seems the group is all but forgotten by the public.

Not forgotten by the families, however, who have been dealing with a silent pain since the cult's departure. Chavez hasn't received a letter, telephone call or e-mail, the cult's most consistent form of communication, from her sister in more than a year.

Rather than give up, Chavez wrote a book. Published in June, CULT, A Sister's Memoir, is an account of the ordeal Chavez and her family have been through. She discusses the history of the cult, the people involved, her efforts to maintain contact with her sister and the death of their older sister, Carol.

High-profile cults -- Branch Davidians, Aum Supreme Truth, Heaven's Gate -- have been in the spotlight over the past decade. These apocalyptic groups are part of 2,500-3,000 cults nationwide, incorporating from 5 to 10 million members, according to the Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center in Albany, Ohio, a recovery center for former cult members.

Concerned Christians has perhaps 100 members scattered throughout the United States and some foreign countries. The group began in Denver in the early '80s, initially preaching against the evils of cults and New Age movements. Ironically, Miller was a cult expert, exposing groups similar to his present-day flock.

"He became what he used to teach against," says Mark Roggeman, a cult specialist and police officer in Denver.

Chavez, a former member of Concerned Christians, writes the group was once a fairly normal, Christian-based religion. She says Miller got carried away, claiming God was speaking through him and saying members must give up their secular lifestyles and sever family connections.

Chavez learned Cooper and her husband left Boulder during an evening news report covering the disappearance of cult members.

For Sherry Clark, who lives in Redstone, the mass exodus of cult members in 1998 only added insult to injury. At that point, it had been a year since she had spoken to her daughter, Malene, 41, and her grandchildren, who were involved in Concerned Christians.

"It's like a living death," she says, her voice shaking, "there's no closure. I don't know if she's dead or alive. I don't know where she is."

Clark says she thinks about her daughter every day, praying she will come home. There's some anger, too: Relatives in the family have died, without Malene knowing.

Chavez has similar feelings about Cooper not sharing in their older sister's illness and her death in October 2000. Chavez also wants to dispel the public's negative impressions of cult members.

"These people are not crazy," she says. "They're very strong-willed. Imagine giving up everything you have for something you believe in. It takes a very strong character to do that."

Often times, Roggeman says, people join cults when they are emotionally vulnerable. Those already in the group take you in as if they are your best friends, appearing to care about your well-being.

"It's the suspension of critical thinking that would be common amongst all of them," says cult specialist Bill Honsberger, director of Haven Ministries in Denver. "To me, there's got to be some component that allows for very brilliant people to just quit thinking. It's a sad thing, and families are the ones who pay the price."

Chavez describes how she waited at JFK airport when Cooper and her husband were deported from Greece to New York City in December 1999, after authorities learned about the group and feared violence.

She tried to talk to her sister, but Cooper simply ignored her. At that point she realized how ill-equipped she was to get her to come home.

Since the earthquake never hit Denver and Miller's second prediction that he would die in a shoot-out on the streets of Jerusalem on Dec. 31, 1999, only to be resurrected three days later never came true, Roggeman says he "can't help but believe some of them are asking questions."

Even so, it's never easy to escape, he says.

E-mail linked to elusive religious group

Leader ID'd as 'seventh angel'

Denver Post/February 16, 2002
By Kevin Simpson

Has Kim Miller, reclusive prophet of the end-times, gone public?

The 47-year-old leader of the Concerned Christians group, who disappeared from Denver virtually overnight with about 70 followers in 1998, appeared to distribute an apocalyptic tract Friday.

If authentic, the mass e-mailing marks the first time in years that Miller has directly contacted some family members or the media. Its authenticity could not immediately be verified, and attempts to reach Miller were unsuccessful.

But one longtime follower of the saga said the prophecy was unmistakeably Miller.

"Knowing him and his style over the years, definitely," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks cults in his spare time. "The only thing that surprised me was how all-inclusive it is. I've seen him pull Scripture out of context, but now even all the presidents fit into prophecy. And Kim Miller's the one who knows it all."

After aborted stays in Israel and Greece, some members of the group are believed to be back in the United States, according to relatives. But they haven't surfaced, and Miller himself has been an elusive figure for years.

The newest prophecy proclaims Feb. 15 as the day the "Seventh Angel Sounds," and identifies Miller as that angel. According to the Book of Revelation, when the seventh angel sounds, "the mystery of God should be finished."

Although some family members have been alarmed by the group's apocalyptic focus and earlier feared some sort of millennial suicide pact, this latest prophecy appears to speak of "losing one's life" in largely metaphorical terms.

But Miller does speak of imminent end-times, and in a message filled with numerical references linked to Bible passages, he rails against the United States for pursuing political, and not spiritual, deliverance.

Some family members of people in the group received the message directly, but others contacted by The Post said they had not received a copy. Some media outlets were sent electronic copies, which circulated rapidly among those who have followed the saga of the Denver-based group.

"If this is the seventh angel sounding, then e-mail doesn't quite cut it," said Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who has studied Miller's group. "I'm a Christian pastor, and I take seriously the Book of Revelation. They're not e-mails. They're huge events."

The prophecy makes several references to the Winter Olympics.

In explaining the significance of the number 7 to his prophecy, the document notes that 77 nations began competing on the 770th day of the millennium, the same day Miller finished recording his 777th instructional tape.

According to the Games' official website, however, 78 nations are entered.

Sporting references are not new to Miller, Roggeman said, noting that Miller once cross-referenced a Denver Broncos football score with biblical verses.

Jennifer Cooper, whose father, John Cooper, is believed to be a main financial supporter of the group, took the latest message with a grain of salt and a dose of humor. She said she had e-mail contact with her father in August, and "after a few glasses of wine" wrote to the group saying she'd like to join - just to see how they'd react.

Eventually, she said, they realized she wasn't serious.

"I think (Miller) is whacked out," Cooper said. "And after 9/11, I mean, I don't think anybody really cares anymore."

Doomsday-cult leader's words reappear on Web

Denver Post/May 11, 2001
By Kirk Mitchell

The words of Colorado-based doomsday-cult leader Monte Kim Miller have resurfaced on an Internet site that offers copies of hundreds of 90-minute sermons spanning topics from "The Thigh Master" to "A Man Named Eve." "It's the first time we've had any kind of reply from him since he left Denver in 1998," said Denver police officer and local cult watcher Mark Roggeman. "Maybe his pride was getting to him that the world wasn't hearing from him anymore."

Miller, 46, the leader of Concerned Christians, left Denver in September 1998 with a following of about 70 members, who had quit jobs and abandoned financial obligations.

They departed following Miller's prophesy that Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake, Roggeman said. Since then, several members have been deported from Israel and Greece.

On the Web site, Miller denies making the earthquake prophesy.

"For those of you who do want to serve the Lord, don't be deceived by the amateurish and pathetic fabrication of a continually repeated story that I predicted an earthquake that would strike Denver," the site says.

The Concerned Christian site blames the spread of the story on enemies, including the media, which want to prove he is not a true prophet.

"I am the prophet of the Lord, the direct spokesman for the Lord," the site says.

Roggeman said Miller predicted an earthquake and also spoke of other apocalyptic events, including his violent death and resurrection in Jerusalem in December 1999.

The families of cult members had hoped their loved ones would leave Miller after his prophesies failed, Roggeman said.

"It's starting to get to them, that they may never see them again," Roggeman said.

Dawning of 'true' millennium renews concerns about cult

Associated Press/January 1, 2001

Denver -- The dawning of what some call the "true" millennium has raised concerns over an apocalyptic prophesy by the leader of a reclusive religious group.

Monte Kim Millier, leader of the Denver-based Concerned Christians, had said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium and be raised from the dead three days later. His prophecy created worries about a mass suicide.

About 70 members of the cult had disappeared along with their spiritual leader in September 1998 after Miller predicted the city would be destroyed by an earthquake the following month. But the millennial madness of 1999-2000 passed without incident, and observers of the group wondered if the prophecy was merely postponed. "It's like the anniversary of everything that was supposed to happen but didn't happen last year," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks the cult on his own time.

Miller's whereabouts are not known, but 14 members of the group who had settled in Jerusalem were deported in January 1999. The following October, Israel turned back members of the group who were trying to enter the country.

"You'd think, with all the people looking for Kim Miller, somebody would have come up with him by now," said David Cooper, whose brother is believed to be with Miller and his followers. "But for all intents and purposes, nobody's found him. It appears Kim is never really with this group.

Every time they're captured or deported, there's no Kim Miller." Sherry Clark, whose daughter and family disappeared with the group, said that, if Miller is in Jerusalem, he could easily be killed.

"That could surely happen easier than (it) could a year ago," she said. As 2001 approached, relatives wondered whether Miller had altered his take on the apocalypse by simply reinterpretting the calendar.

"I was hoping this would have been resolved in 1999, at the end of the year," Clark said. "But on some calendars, this is the beginning." Some, however, aren't worried about a suicide pact.

Cooper, whose brother is thought to be helping finance the group, said he doesn't believe Miller is a dangerous person after listening to his audiotapes and studying his doctrine. "My brother basically confirmed that, saying suicide is not a Christian value," Cooper said.

Cult leader sends email hinting end of world is coming

The Aurora Sentinel/February 18, 2002

An e-mail purportedly from doomsday cult leader Kim Miller hints that his followers believe the end of the world is beginning. It is the first communication since a Web site was posted nine months ago.

In the message, sent to relatives of cult members, churches and others, Miller said the seventh angel sounded the trumpet on Feb. 15, which he said was the 777th day of the seventh millennium.

According to the Book of Revelation, the end of the world will start after the seventh seal is broken and the seventh trumpet sounds.

The e-mail, which is also included on his Web site, was the most direct communication since most cult members were deported from Greece in December 1999, according to Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who monitors cults.

The original Web site posting only included information about how to purchase his audio tapes.

In the e-mail, Miller does not predict a date for when the world will end.

He refers to recent events such as the Winter Olympics and September's terrorist attacks and warns that people cannot be good Christians and be patriotic at the same time.

"The Lord even served warning to America that he will Judge the Judges through the unrighteous sword-bearing of Osama bin Laden's very own Manhattan Project,'' Miller wrote. "Fear God, not Osama bin Laden, about 911.''

Bill Honsberger, an Aurora Baptist minister who has studied the cult, said the idea that a Christian can't be patriotic American is a new idea for Miller.

About 70 members of the Denver-based cult Concerned Christians disappeared along with Miller in September 1998 after he predicted the city would be destroyed by an earthquake the following month.

Miller, who claimed he was divinely inspired, said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium and be raised from the dead three days later. Israeli authorities expelled members of the group because of fears that they were planning a mass suicide to coincide with the new year.

Group members fled to Greece but most were deported. Some are still believed to be living there and rest are thought to be somewhere in the Philadelphia area, Roggeman said.

Miller had gained notoriety as an avowed opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s. He later claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced that God spoke through him.

Cult leader prophesies end of world

Gazette - Montreal/February 16, 2002

Denver -- A doomsday cult leader who disappeared from Denver along with 70 followers in 1998 apparently resurfaced Friday with an ominous e-mail message that predicted the world was about to end.

Monte Kim Miller, head of the Denver-based Concerned Christians cult, said the world would end sometime Friday, according to an e- mail sent to media outlets in Denver.

"I am the prophet of the last days, and on Feb. 15, 2002, the 777th day of God's 7th millennium with fallen man, I am the 'heaven on earth' manifestation of The Sounding of the Seventh Angel, warning you of the Lord's intentions that the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ," Miller wrote.

Although the message could not be authenticated Friday, those familiar with Miller said it sounds like his work.

Miller has made similar predictions before. He said an earthquake would destroy Denver in October of 1998. The prediction was enough to get 70 cult members to leave the city.

Miller, who claimed he was divinely inspired, said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium, then rise from the dead three days later.

Many feared the prophecy would trigger a mass suicide among Miller's followers.

Jennifer Cooper of Boulder has not seen her father, John Cooper, since he joined the cult in 1997.

She was unconcerned about Miller's dire predictions.

"If I thought he was right (about the end of the Earth), I'd have to go out and get some wine and enjoy myself," she joked.

Jennifer Cooper said she received an e-mail from her dad in August urging her to join the cult.

"I'd like to see my dad return," she said.

"We miss him and he will always be loved."

Miller gained notoriety as an opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s. But he changed at some point and claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced God spoke through him.

Cult's local ties a concern

Girl worried about Jacksonville friend

Jacksonville Times-Union/February 8, 1999
By Margie Mason

At the time, she had no idea Dustin Blythe was involved with the Concerned Christians, a cult officials say planned to open fire on Israeli police to hasten Christ's Second Coming.

''He called me up one night out of nowhere and said, 'I just called to tell you that I loved you, and I'm sorry that I wasn't the friend to you that you were to me,' '' she recalled.

Powell, 17, moved to Jacksonville nearly two years ago. It was then that she considered going with Blythe.

''It was between my beliefs and him, and I had to choose,'' Powell said. ''. . . In the end, your beliefs are ultimately what makes you who you are.''

It's a decision she's glad she made.

Last month, 14 Concerned Christians - including one from Jacksonville Beach - were arrested and deported from Israel after the FBI alerted Israeli officials of their arrival and dangerous potential. Blythe was not among them, but that doesn't stop Powell from worrying.

''I want to say they're going to wise up in the next year,'' she said, ''but I think he's [leader Monte Kim Miller] got too tight a hold on them.''

Those who track the cult agree. They say the group's fate is ultimately up to Miller, whose actions are as tough to understand as the religious doctrines and anti-government beliefs he teaches.

''Everything is cryptic,'' said cult specialist Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who's studied the group for several years. ''Kim gets meaning out of the phone book, to a date Abraham Lincoln got up and brushed his teeth, to the weather, to a football score.''

Miller tells his followers God is speaking through him. In addition, he claims to be one of two biblical witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation. He says he will die in the streets of Jerusalem sometime this year prior to Christ's Second Coming. Three days later, he says he'll rise from the dead.

Anne Marie Biondo Malesic, a 1990 Bishop Kenny High School graduate, was among those deported along with her husband and their 2-month-old son. She and the others have been holed up in four Denver hotel rooms since their return. Her brother, Vince Biondo, also belongs to the group but was not among those deported.

Concerned Christians wasn't always a cult. In fact, Miller used to preach against the evils of joining New Age movements in the 1980s, Honsberger said.

Today Miller teaches that America is Babylon and will be destroyed first when the world ends. He also tells members the only way to receive salvation is to die, just as the Bible says Jesus died.

In addition, Miller arranges marriages and requires unquestioned obedience. He also restricts cult members from having contact with family members.

''It's a living death for people, especially when you don't know where your child is,'' said Sherry Clark of Carbondale, Colo., who has a daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren in the cult. ''It's more than devastating. There are not really words to describe it.''

Clark, like Honsberger, actively campaigns against Miller, whose whereabouts are unknown. ''His ego is so inflated and the power and the pride thing is so inflated that he believes it himself,'' Clark said. ''. . . This evil satanic power behind him is what is controlling Kim Miller and his followers. This is not Christianity. This is certainly not Christianity.''

Clark mentions other cult members who committed mass suicide such as those at Jonestown in Guyana and the San Diego-based Heaven's Gate cult. She worries the Concerned Christians will be next. Still, the only thing she can do is pray for the Denver group's release from Miller's mental grasp.

''I've seen God's hands working in this all along,'' she said. ''I know that God is able to bring this to a completion.''

But Powell says Miller is the group's God. He made Blythe quit school and told his father to abandon the family construction business. Other followers she knew in Colorado disowned their children, sold their belongings and vanished.

The cult was Blythe's first exposure to any form of religion, which is why Powell believes he was so easily convinced. She recalls trying to explain that Miller's teachings deviated from the Bible, but Blythe repeatedly told her she would believe if only she could hear Miller's voice.

''They just sincerely believe that it's the Lord speaking,'' she said, ''and they don't want to disobey God - that's how seriously they take it.''

Cult families see sliver of hope

Denver Post/April 6, 1999
By Kevin Simpson

John Bayles reportedly returned to his New Jersey home, and to family, about a month ago and has been in "counseling" since then, according to cult-watcher Mark Roggeman. No details have been released, and family members have not returned phone calls.

But others with relatives still in the group were heartened by the development.

"I don't know details, so I'm just hoping all of them wake up and walk away," said Sherry Clark, whose daughter remains in the group. "(Bayles) was one of the 14 deported to Denver, so he knew Kim Miller's prophesy was not true - they were walking on Denver soil, there was no earthquake."

Miller had prophesied Denver's destruction last fall when he and 80 members of the Concerned Christians disappeared. Fourteen of his disciples were held in Israel, where authorities fears they planned violence to hasten the apocalypse, and later deported.

But after weeks holed up at the downtown Denver Holiday Inn, the 14 slipped out of town.

"I know Kim Miller still has a great deal of control," Clark said. "I'm thrilled he's out, I'm delighted, and I will be praying that he makes full reconciliation with his family. That's my hope and desire for all of them. I'm excited about that.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about my daughter and pray for her. Not a day. I consider this an answer to my prayer that one boy is out."

Jennifer Cooper, whose father, John Cooper, is believed to be financing much of the group's activity, also has high hopes that others may break away from Miller, who has predicted that he will die in the streets of Jerusalem in December, in fulfillment of biblical prophesy.

But she, too, suspects that Miller's hold over his followers remains powerful.

"It could be the beginning of the whole group being disbanded," Cooper said, "but I don't see that as being the case. I've heard nothing from my father - no e-mails, nothing. I feel as if Miller's still pretty strong over there.

"At least, that's my sense. I hope I'm wrong."

Cathy Davidson, whose sister, Connie Blythe, remains with the group, said she hoped the emergence of one Concerned Christian would begin a "domino effect."

Many of Miller's group are reportedly living in Greece - and Davidson, who lives in Yukon, Okla., has subscribed to an English-language newspaper from Athens so she can scan the pages for even a mention of Concerned Christians.

"I think it's neat he's out," she said of Bayles' return. "I just wish my sister would see the light. It's just so frustrating. Time's running out. Sometimes I wake up really angry, like I want to go over and walk the streets and find her. Other days I figure I'll just leave it to the big guy upstairs."

Concerned Christians member leaves doomsday group

Associated Press/April 4, 1999

John Bayles left the Concerned Christians and returned to his family in Pennsylvania, where he is undergoing counseling, according to KCNC-TV.

The Denver Rocky Mountain News also reported Bayles' secession from the group but said he may have gone to New Jersey.

"To go to a family he's been told is Satan (by fellow cult members) is a big step," said Denver police officer Mark Roggeman, who has been tracking the Concerned Christians.

Bayles was among 14 cult members who were rounded up by police in Israel in January on grounds they planned to commit acts of violence near Jerusalem holy sites in hopes of triggering a bloody Armageddon that would bring about the return of Christ.

Bayles appeared in court in Israel and said he never planned to harm anyone. Appearing in court with Bayles -- then listed as a Denver resident -- were Terry Smith, 42, of Eagle, and Eric Malesic, 36, of Westminster.

All 14 cult members were deported to Denver, where they stayed in a downtown hotel until leaving in early February. Members of the cult were later reported in Greece.

Last fall, more than 70 Concerned Christians members left the Denver area when their leader, Monte Kim Miller, predicted a catastrophe would befall the city.

Miller, 44, has claimed that God was using him as a vehicle to speak to his followers. His whereabouts are not known.

Instead Of Rising From Dead, Cult Leader Laying Low

Denver Rocky Mountain News/May 12, 2001

Monte Kim Miller hasn't risen to heaven. But he hasn't been seen on Earth lately either. Miller, a one-time Colorado anti-cult expert who now has his own cult followers, has kept a low profile since his prediction that Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake in 1998.

He hasn't been spotted publicly since he proclaimed he would die in a gun battle on the streets of Jerusalem on Dec. 31, 1999, and rise three days later, in time for the Second Coming.

That bit of Apocalyptic prophecy got several members of his group, Concerned Christians, thrown out of Israel and Greece. His voice can still be heard on the Internet, but his actual physical whereabouts, and that of his followers, remain cloudy. "We're figuring that maybe 60 are in Greece, with the rest believed to be somewhere in the Philadelphia area," says Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who monitors cults on his own.

Miller's a mystery, though. "None of us know where he is now," says Bill Honsberger, a local Baptist minister who has studied Concerned Christians. "I suspect Kim has been back to visit Denver," he says. "But we don't know that for sure. He's not exactly announcing his itinerary to us." Miller's Web site, while short on information, is rich in marketing: visitors are informed that Miller's gospel is the only true gospel, and are urged to purchase any of his 156 audio tapes.

The absence of new information about the cult's goings on has a sad ring of familiarity for the families of cult members. Sherry Clark has not seen - or heard from - her daughter, Robin Malene Malesic, in more than four years. "I have no idea where she is. I've heard rumors about Greece, Canada or Great Britain, but nothing factual." "It's like a living death. There's no closure."

But it isn't just family members who have to swim in the information vacuum. Not even cult trackers seem to have a firm grasp on how many members are in the group, with estimates hovering between 70 and 200, although 100 seems most likely. Nor is there a clear consensus on the threat posed by the group.

"I'm more worried about their own safety than I am about them being a threat to the outside," says Hal Mansfield, director of the Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins. "As Miller gets going further and further down the nutty path, he might think, `I've got nothing to lose; let's do a suicide pact.' "

However, "I consider them dangerous to others," says Honsberger, who claims Miller threatened his life. "I've heard tapes where Miller says, `Jesus died for us, there's a time we have to die for him. ' " Keeping a low profile while preaching to high heaven has been Miller's style. After gaining notoriety as an avowed opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s, Miller shifted gears. He claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced that God spoke through him.

After persuading his flock to quit their jobs and sell their possessions, he led his followers out of Colorado - just ahead of what he prophesied would be a devastating earthquake. In January, the group surfaced in Israel. There, authorities worried about the group's potential for violence, expelled 14 followers.They returned to Denver and holed up in the downtown Holiday Inn, shunning relatives and media hordes. In February, they flew to Greece, where they stayed until December 1999.

At that point, the Greek government, fearing the group's potential for millennial mayhem, deported 16 members, citing expired visa documents. Included among that group was John Cooper of Boulder, whose fortune had subsidized the cult to the tune of an estimated $1 million before his daughter had his funds frozen in a conservatorship.

The last time Jennifer Cooper saw her father was December 1999. "I started crying and telling him I loved him," recalls Cooper. "I told him why I did the conservatorship, and that nobody could touch the money. I told him we were here for him anytime he chose to come back." In return, John Cooper told his daughter, she said, that, "They were not a doomsday cult and that I hadn't been listening to the tapes that Kim Miller had sent to me."

Jennifer Cooper's last contact with her father was last December, when he responded to an e-mail with one sentence. Cooper's contact with her father may seem tenuous, but it's more than other cult relatives have had with their loved ones. Nelma Smith, whose son Terry was one of the men Israeli authorities implicated in the prophesied gun battle, hasn't spoken to him since "he became totally brainwashed."

She hasn't told him that one of his sisters died in November. "We chose not to write him and tell him; we know we'd be blamed for that." What cult experts find confounding about Concerned Christians is there have been no defections, despite Miller's erroneous predictions about the end of Denver and the world.

"I've been dealing with cults for over 25 years," Roggeman says. "And when something major like this doesn't happen, people will usually start asking themselves, `Is he really a true prophet? Not only did the world not end, we didn't get to stay in Israel.' "I'd give money to find out how he managed to spin things around and `correct' that false prophesy."

Families remember cult members

Concerned Christians, who vanished in '98, left relatives grieving lost ties

Denver Rocky Mountain News/October 10, 2001
By Kevin Williams

Boulder -- An image of a rose decorates the left side of the envelope.

Inside is a note dated July 18, 2000, to Jan:

"I'm sending you this picture of Nicky because I know you still love her and because I love you enough to let you know that I will always love you -- no matter what."

Betty Chavez, 48, holds the worn envelope in her hand, a smudged "Return to Sender" box withering any hope she had of reaching her sister, Jan Cooper. Cooper is a member of Concerned Christians, the doomsday cult led by Monte Kim Miller that disappeared from the area in October 1998. Nicky is Cooper's 19-year-old daughter, who left her mom before the cult's departure to live with her biological father. Chavez thought a picture, along with a written message, might appeal to her sister's emotions and bring her home.

Cooper, 53, and her husband, John, left their Boulder home and a seemingly ideal life without a word to anyone three years ago. That was when cult leader Miller predicted Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake. Media coverage was intense for a time, but now it seems the group is all but forgotten by the public.

Not forgotten by the families, however, who have been dealing with a silent pain since the cult's departure. Chavez hasn't received a letter, telephone call or e-mail, the cult's most consistent form of communication, from her sister in more than a year.

Rather than give up, Chavez wrote a book. Published in June, CULT, A Sister's Memoir, is an account of the ordeal Chavez and her family have been through. She discusses the history of the cult, the people involved, her efforts to maintain contact with her sister and the death of their older sister, Carol.

High-profile cults -- Branch Davidians, Aum Supreme Truth, Heaven's Gate -- have been in the spotlight over the past decade. These apocalyptic groups are part of 2,500-3,000 cults nationwide, incorporating from 5 to 10 million members, according to the Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center in Albany, Ohio, a recovery center for former cult members.

Concerned Christians has perhaps 100 members scattered throughout the United States and some foreign countries. The group began in Denver in the early '80s, initially preaching against the evils of cults and New Age movements. Ironically, Miller was a cult expert, exposing groups similar to his present-day flock.

"He became what he used to teach against," says Mark Roggeman, a cult specialist and police officer in Denver.

Chavez, a former member of Concerned Christians, writes the group was once a fairly normal, Christian-based religion. She says Miller got carried away, claiming God was speaking through him and saying members must give up their secular lifestyles and sever family connections.

Chavez learned Cooper and her husband left Boulder during an evening news report covering the disappearance of cult members.

For Sherry Clark, who lives in Redstone, the mass exodus of cult members in 1998 only added insult to injury. At that point, it had been a year since she had spoken to her daughter, Malene, 41, and her grandchildren, who were involved in Concerned Christians.

"It's like a living death," she says, her voice shaking, "there's no closure. I don't know if she's dead or alive. I don't know where she is."

Clark says she thinks about her daughter every day, praying she will come home. There's some anger, too: Relatives in the family have died, without Malene knowing.

Chavez has similar feelings about Cooper not sharing in their older sister's illness and her death in October 2000. Chavez also wants to dispel the public's negative impressions of cult members.

"These people are not crazy," she says. "They're very strong-willed. Imagine giving up everything you have for something you believe in. It takes a very strong character to do that."

Often times, Roggeman says, people join cults when they are emotionally vulnerable. Those already in the group take you in as if they are your best friends, appearing to care about your well-being.

"It's the suspension of critical thinking that would be common amongst all of them," says cult specialist Bill Honsberger, director of Haven Ministries in Denver. "To me, there's got to be some component that allows for very brilliant people to just quit thinking. It's a sad thing, and families are the ones who pay the price."

Chavez describes how she waited at JFK airport when Cooper and her husband were deported from Greece to New York City in December 1999, after authorities learned about the group and feared violence.

She tried to talk to her sister, but Cooper simply ignored her. At that point she realized how ill-equipped she was to get her to come home.

Since the earthquake never hit Denver and Miller's second prediction that he would die in a shoot-out on the streets of Jerusalem on Dec. 31, 1999, only to be resurrected three days later never came true, Roggeman says he "can't help but believe some of them are asking questions."

Even so, it's never easy to escape, he says.

E-mail linked to elusive religious group

Leader ID'd as 'seventh angel'

Denver Post/February 16, 2002
By Kevin Simpson

Has Kim Miller, reclusive prophet of the end-times, gone public?

The 47-year-old leader of the Concerned Christians group, who disappeared from Denver virtually overnight with about 70 followers in 1998, appeared to distribute an apocalyptic tract Friday.

If authentic, the mass e-mailing marks the first time in years that Miller has directly contacted some family members or the media. Its authenticity could not immediately be verified, and attempts to reach Miller were unsuccessful.

But one longtime follower of the saga said the prophecy was unmistakeably Miller.

"Knowing him and his style over the years, definitely," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks cults in his spare time. "The only thing that surprised me was how all-inclusive it is. I've seen him pull Scripture out of context, but now even all the presidents fit into prophecy. And Kim Miller's the one who knows it all."

After aborted stays in Israel and Greece, some members of the group are believed to be back in the United States, according to relatives. But they haven't surfaced, and Miller himself has been an elusive figure for years.

The newest prophecy proclaims Feb. 15 as the day the "Seventh Angel Sounds," and identifies Miller as that angel. According to the Book of Revelation, when the seventh angel sounds, "the mystery of God should be finished."

Although some family members have been alarmed by the group's apocalyptic focus and earlier feared some sort of millennial suicide pact, this latest prophecy appears to speak of "losing one's life" in largely metaphorical terms.

But Miller does speak of imminent end-times, and in a message filled with numerical references linked to Bible passages, he rails against the United States for pursuing political, and not spiritual, deliverance.

Some family members of people in the group received the message directly, but others contacted by The Post said they had not received a copy. Some media outlets were sent electronic copies, which circulated rapidly among those who have followed the saga of the Denver-based group.

"If this is the seventh angel sounding, then e-mail doesn't quite cut it," said Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who has studied Miller's group. "I'm a Christian pastor, and I take seriously the Book of Revelation. They're not e-mails. They're huge events."

The prophecy makes several references to the Winter Olympics.

In explaining the significance of the number 7 to his prophecy, the document notes that 77 nations began competing on the 770th day of the millennium, the same day Miller finished recording his 777th instructional tape.

According to the Games' official website, however, 78 nations are entered.

Sporting references are not new to Miller, Roggeman said, noting that Miller once cross-referenced a Denver Broncos football score with biblical verses.

Jennifer Cooper, whose father, John Cooper, is believed to be a main financial supporter of the group, took the latest message with a grain of salt and a dose of humor. She said she had e-mail contact with her father in August, and "after a few glasses of wine" wrote to the group saying she'd like to join - just to see how they'd react.

Eventually, she said, they realized she wasn't serious.

"I think (Miller) is whacked out," Cooper said. "And after 9/11, I mean, I don't think anybody really cares anymore."

Doomsday-cult leader's words reappear on Web

Denver Post/May 11, 2001
By Kirk Mitchell

The words of Colorado-based doomsday-cult leader Monte Kim Miller have resurfaced on an Internet site that offers copies of hundreds of 90-minute sermons spanning topics from "The Thigh Master" to "A Man Named Eve." "It's the first time we've had any kind of reply from him since he left Denver in 1998," said Denver police officer and local cult watcher Mark Roggeman. "Maybe his pride was getting to him that the world wasn't hearing from him anymore."

Miller, 46, the leader of Concerned Christians, left Denver in September 1998 with a following of about 70 members, who had quit jobs and abandoned financial obligations.

They departed following Miller's prophesy that Denver would be destroyed by an earthquake, Roggeman said. Since then, several members have been deported from Israel and Greece.

On the Web site, Miller denies making the earthquake prophesy.

"For those of you who do want to serve the Lord, don't be deceived by the amateurish and pathetic fabrication of a continually repeated story that I predicted an earthquake that would strike Denver," the site says.

The Concerned Christian site blames the spread of the story on enemies, including the media, which want to prove he is not a true prophet.

"I am the prophet of the Lord, the direct spokesman for the Lord," the site says.

Roggeman said Miller predicted an earthquake and also spoke of other apocalyptic events, including his violent death and resurrection in Jerusalem in December 1999.

The families of cult members had hoped their loved ones would leave Miller after his prophesies failed, Roggeman said.

"It's starting to get to them, that they may never see them again," Roggeman said.

Dawning of 'true' millennium renews concerns about cult

Associated Press/January 1, 2001

Denver -- The dawning of what some call the "true" millennium has raised concerns over an apocalyptic prophesy by the leader of a reclusive religious group.

Monte Kim Millier, leader of the Denver-based Concerned Christians, had said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium and be raised from the dead three days later. His prophecy created worries about a mass suicide.

About 70 members of the cult had disappeared along with their spiritual leader in September 1998 after Miller predicted the city would be destroyed by an earthquake the following month. But the millennial madness of 1999-2000 passed without incident, and observers of the group wondered if the prophecy was merely postponed. "It's like the anniversary of everything that was supposed to happen but didn't happen last year," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks the cult on his own time.

Miller's whereabouts are not known, but 14 members of the group who had settled in Jerusalem were deported in January 1999. The following October, Israel turned back members of the group who were trying to enter the country.

"You'd think, with all the people looking for Kim Miller, somebody would have come up with him by now," said David Cooper, whose brother is believed to be with Miller and his followers. "But for all intents and purposes, nobody's found him. It appears Kim is never really with this group.

Every time they're captured or deported, there's no Kim Miller." Sherry Clark, whose daughter and family disappeared with the group, said that, if Miller is in Jerusalem, he could easily be killed.

"That could surely happen easier than (it) could a year ago," she said. As 2001 approached, relatives wondered whether Miller had altered his take on the apocalypse by simply reinterpretting the calendar.

"I was hoping this would have been resolved in 1999, at the end of the year," Clark said. "But on some calendars, this is the beginning." Some, however, aren't worried about a suicide pact.

Cooper, whose brother is thought to be helping finance the group, said he doesn't believe Miller is a dangerous person after listening to his audiotapes and studying his doctrine. "My brother basically confirmed that, saying suicide is not a Christian value," Cooper said.

Cult leader sends email hinting end of world is coming

The Aurora Sentinel/February 18, 2002

An e-mail purportedly from doomsday cult leader Kim Miller hints that his followers believe the end of the world is beginning. It is the first communication since a Web site was posted nine months ago.

In the message, sent to relatives of cult members, churches and others, Miller said the seventh angel sounded the trumpet on Feb. 15, which he said was the 777th day of the seventh millennium.

According to the Book of Revelation, the end of the world will start after the seventh seal is broken and the seventh trumpet sounds.

The e-mail, which is also included on his Web site, was the most direct communication since most cult members were deported from Greece in December 1999, according to Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who monitors cults.

The original Web site posting only included information about how to purchase his audio tapes.

In the e-mail, Miller does not predict a date for when the world will end.

He refers to recent events such as the Winter Olympics and September's terrorist attacks and warns that people cannot be good Christians and be patriotic at the same time.

"The Lord even served warning to America that he will Judge the Judges through the unrighteous sword-bearing of Osama bin Laden's very own Manhattan Project,'' Miller wrote. "Fear God, not Osama bin Laden, about 911.''

Bill Honsberger, an Aurora Baptist minister who has studied the cult, said the idea that a Christian can't be patriotic American is a new idea for Miller.

About 70 members of the Denver-based cult Concerned Christians disappeared along with Miller in September 1998 after he predicted the city would be destroyed by an earthquake the following month.

Miller, who claimed he was divinely inspired, said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium and be raised from the dead three days later. Israeli authorities expelled members of the group because of fears that they were planning a mass suicide to coincide with the new year.

Group members fled to Greece but most were deported. Some are still believed to be living there and rest are thought to be somewhere in the Philadelphia area, Roggeman said.

Miller had gained notoriety as an avowed opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s. He later claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced that God spoke through him.

Cult leader prophesies end of world

Gazette - Montreal/February 16, 2002

Denver -- A doomsday cult leader who disappeared from Denver along with 70 followers in 1998 apparently resurfaced Friday with an ominous e-mail message that predicted the world was about to end.

Monte Kim Miller, head of the Denver-based Concerned Christians cult, said the world would end sometime Friday, according to an e- mail sent to media outlets in Denver.

"I am the prophet of the last days, and on Feb. 15, 2002, the 777th day of God's 7th millennium with fallen man, I am the 'heaven on earth' manifestation of The Sounding of the Seventh Angel, warning you of the Lord's intentions that the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ," Miller wrote.

Although the message could not be authenticated Friday, those familiar with Miller said it sounds like his work.

Miller has made similar predictions before. He said an earthquake would destroy Denver in October of 1998. The prediction was enough to get 70 cult members to leave the city.

Miller, who claimed he was divinely inspired, said he would die on the streets of Jerusalem at the turn of the millennium, then rise from the dead three days later.

Many feared the prophecy would trigger a mass suicide among Miller's followers.

Jennifer Cooper of Boulder has not seen her father, John Cooper, since he joined the cult in 1997.

She was unconcerned about Miller's dire predictions.

"If I thought he was right (about the end of the Earth), I'd have to go out and get some wine and enjoy myself," she joked.

Jennifer Cooper said she received an e-mail from her dad in August urging her to join the cult.

"I'd like to see my dad return," she said.

"We miss him and he will always be loved."

Miller gained notoriety as an opponent of religious cults in the mid-1980s. But he changed at some point and claimed to be one of the two divine witnesses cited in Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. He also announced God spoke through him.