Instead Of Rising From Dead, Cult Leader Laying Low

Denver Rocky Mountain News, May 12, 2001
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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.
(...)

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.
(...)

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. ' "
(...)

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."
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Commentary:
Theologically, Concerned Christians is a cult of Christianity. It does not represent historical, biblical Christianity.

See also:
» Doomsday-cult leader's words reappear on Web, Denver Post, May 11, 2001

» More Religion and Cult News