Heaven’s Gate. What a deceptive and fatal misnomer!
On this day in 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead in their San Diego complex from mass suicide. For two days, they had consumed copious amounts of phenobarbital and vodka, purposefully ending their lives. Why would they do this?
An astronomical event was scheduled to happen. The Hale-Bop comet was going to be at its closest point to earth at the end of March 1997. The Heaven’s Gate cult believed that a UFO was cloaked behind the comet and was coming to usher all the believers into Heaven. Once they shed their human bodies, they would receive new and superior alien bodies. Cult members dressed in black with white Nike tennis shoes and stuffed rolls of quarters and $5 bills into their pockets. Covered in purple shrouds, they were ready.
How did this group get started?
Leader Marshall Applewhite, a seminary dropout and an “evangelical Christian,” was recruited by nurse Bonnie Lu Nettles, who “claimed to be in communication with spirit guides and angels and practiced astrology and yoga.”1 She cared for Applewhite in the hospital after he had a near-death experience.
“In 1975, Applewhite and Nettles persuaded a group of 20 people from Oregon to abandon their families and possessions and move to eastern Colorado, where they promised that an extraterrestrial spacecraft would take them to the “kingdom of heaven.” Nettles, who called herself “Ti,” and Applewhite, who took the name of “Do,” explained that human bodies were merely containers that could be abandoned in favor of a higher physical existence.”2
In 1985, the spaceship was supposed to arrive and take them to Heaven. Once it failed to arrive, the cult disbanded until the 1990s when Applewhite was able to revive the cult with 39 new members who wanted to escape the world and enter their extra-terrestrial home.
The followers were deceived by people who claimed to receive their own revelation: “The Bible, when it talks about God, Jesus and angels, was actually talking about
extraterrestrials, a superior race of aliens who appeared to us as gods. In the last days, the aliens will arrive in their spaceships, destroy or “recycle” the Earth, and save the faithful who were ready to “graduate” to the “Next Level.”3
There is a temptation to look at this smugly and wonder how anyone could be so gullible and dumb. The answer has nothing to do with their intelligence or gullibility. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (4) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” And we are reminded in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
Why do we consider it gullible and ignorant to believe in UFOs and aliens while there are many more people believing that religion, good works, baptism, communion, church attendance, giving, or something else gets them to Heaven? Notice what Matthew 7:13-14 tells us. “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
The masses of humanity are not on the narrow way headed for the straight gate that leads to eternal Heaven. They are on the broad path headed for the wide gate that empties into the eternal destruction of Hell. That means the masses of humanity are in a cult having no different results than Heaven’s Gate.
I admit, that’s not politically correct to say such a thing. It crosses the grain of religion. But it’s the truth based on the Word of God and not some bizarre new man-made revelation.
We need to reach as many as we can with the truth of the Gospel. We cannot save anyone. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. We just have to “throw out the lifeline” of the Gospel message. And we need to make sure that we give the true Biblical Gospel. Let Galatians 1:6-9 serve as a warning to all of us.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: (7) Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. (8) But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (9) As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
1https://www.history.com/news/heavens-gate-mass-suicide
2https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/heavens-gate-cult-members-found-dead
3https://www.history.com/news/heavens-gate-mass-suicide
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
