The Israeli police were kept busy trying to quietly extract the troublemakers without aggravating conditions, and more than one millenarian would experience the rapture of jail tonight.
As the sweet smell of marijuana came wafting up to the balcony, Bollinger clapped his hands and announced, “Okay gang, let's get some of this on tape, shall we?” The crew, who'd been standing around entranced by all this, snapped to and hustled off to gather their gear while Hunter, way ahead of them, was putting a telephoto lens on his camera to zoom in on the nudists.
Feldman scanned the turbulent assembly, feeling better about the evening's potential newsworthiness. “Well, Anke, this should be a New Year's party unlike any we've ever seen!” She looked down on the crowd with a wry smile and shook her head disbelievingly.
16
Mount of the Ascension, Jerusalem, Israel 10:00 P.M., Friday, December 31, 1999
Promptly at ten P.M. Jerusalem time, live from New York City, WNN International began their worldwide news segment
The WNN International news team in New York opened with a brief overview of the current millenarian saga, effectively conveying with selected news clips the worldwide scope of the phenomena. Next, they went to a historical background report.
At ten-thirty P.M. Jerusalem time, the newscast turned to the rise of the neomillenarian movements in the U.S. and abroad, from the early 1990s to the present. Feldman noted with special interest a report on one of the longer-standing millenarian creeds, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
Also calling themselves the Jehovah's Witnesses, and known for their fervent, door-to-door preaching, these particular millenarians would appear to have had a great deal at stake tonight. The most crucial dogma of their faith revolved around the prediction of an imminent Second Coming. This prophecy was based on complex biblical calculations derived in the 1870s by founder Charles Taze Russell. In concert with a special passage in the Gospel of Matthew, it had been foreseen and declared that the generation of Jehovah's Witnesses alive in 1914 would “not pass away” before Judgment Day occurred.
With the youngest of that generation now in their upper eighties, the millennium had become an all-or- nothing event to justify their faith and very existence. Indeed, their current spiritual leader and head of the governing board, Joshua Milbourne, who had been born in 1914, was in failing health with a serious heart condition. One way or another, for over six million adherents of the religion, the end was nigh.
The WNN report included a live bedside interview with the ailing Joshua Milbourne, who was watching the telecast in his private hospital room. In the course of his interview, Milbourne mentioned that he had several delegate Witnesses present at the Mount of the Ascension. They were there, on his behalf, to ensure that Milbourne was one of the “biblically designated 144,000,” the chosen few who would reign in heaven as “kings and priests” over the new nation of God on Earth.
Bollinger immediately dispatched two of his staff to search for Milbourne's delegates.
The interview with Joshua Milbourne was especially noteworthy because the elderly Witness was one of the few established church leaders to officially proclaim that Judgment Day would commence at twelve o'clock tonight in Jerusalem. WNN would keep a reporter at his bedside and intended to cut back to Mr. Milbourne later for a follow-up, “eating-of-the-crow” segment.
Time elapsed quickly, and Bollinger soon cued Feldman to take his position on the balcony to ready himself for the live signal switch. A red light began flashing and there was a call for quiet.
Feldman made for a striking presence on camera, out in the night air of the Holy City, overlooking the dark sky and the fires and candles of the unsettled assembly. His lean, boyish face was slightly flushed with emotion, his appearance casually masculine in an open Oxford shirt and dark cardigan sweater. He kept his commentary short for this first segment, introducing the strange scene below him as the camera swung by to take in the bedlam and nervous tension of the teeming masses.
Quickly, Feldman's time was up and the live signal was passed back to WNN International for a comparative glimpse of Rome, New York City and the Great Salt Lake. As the red on-air light went out, the crew relaxed and Feldman stepped in from the balcony to a round of congratulations.
The breeze was picking up slightly, and the clouds Feldman had noticed earlier off to the south had apparently collected into a squall. It was too far away to affect the telecast here, but would perhaps create enough of a wind to add some drama.
At Feldman's suggestion, Hunter would begin the final segment with a tight camera zoom on the storm. Flashes of lightning were developing in the distance and Feldman could make good use of the metaphor. As the clock came up on 11:45, Feldman again took his position on the balcony, Bollinger cued the camera on the squall, and Feldman smiled quickly at Anke, who responded in kind.
“There's a storm brewing over this ancient Holy Land tonight,” Feldman began, as the camera zoomed back from the angry clouds to include the young reporter in the shot. “As you've witnessed over the last few months, a great spiritual movement is taking place across the globe in anticipation of the coming new millennium, only minutes away now. There are an estimated two million people assembled in this vicinity who firmly believe that, in less than fifteen minutes, we are about to experience a climactic end, or perhaps a new beginning, to our world as we know it.”
The camera pulled back, panning to the right to include in the picture a frumpy, middle-aged woman.
“One of these people,” Feldman continued, “is Allissa Bateman from Trenton, New Jersey. Miss Bateman is a member of a religious sect who believe they are in communion with the archangel Gabriel, the spiritual harbinger who will herald the Judgment at midnight with a blast from his golden trumpet.”
Bollinger switched to another camera angle to better frame the smaller woman with the tall Feldman. The developing storm sat nicely behind and above the woman for the perfect dramatic touch.
“Miss Bateman, you've traveled thousands of miles from home to be here tonight. Can you tell our audience what you previously did for a living, and why you're here?”
“Yes, I'm forty-three years old, married with two children, Bill and Tommy, and my husband, Frank, he had to stay home with the kids and his job, of course.” Miss Bateman babbled on about a personal spirit messenger for a few more moments and Feldman wrapped her up quickly, not to lose momentum.
Cutting away between guests, Bollinger switched to cameras surveying the masses below, which were getting truly emotional now as the final moment neared. The rising wind had had a chilling effect. The majority were kneeling, praying, crying, singing, fainting. The fighting and antagonism had ceased.
Bollinger checked the clock, twelve minutes till. He cued the next guest, a tall, gaunt young man with shaved head and black robes. Very much like a monk, except he wore upside-down crucifixes from his earlobes, and his eyelids were tattooed to resemble open eyes. Very Sodom and Gomorrah, Feldman decided. He was going to have a hard time playing it straight with this guy, but the audience would love it.
“And this is Mr. Astarte. Am I pronouncing that correctly?”
“Just ‘Astarte,’ ” the man answered solemnly. “Yes, I am of the Second Realm.”
“And what's the Second Realm anticipating here tonight, Mr. Astarte?”
“Only ‘Astarte,’ ” he insisted. “We are here for the changing of the realm, the new time in which the natural cycle will occur and Lord Lucifer will ascend to His throne to rule for the next two thousand years.”
“And will this transition be a peaceful one,” Feldman wanted to know, “or will we be confronting Armageddon here?”
“We do not yet know,” Astarte informed the world. “We must be prepared for resistance, but the Lord Lucifer comes into his realm by divine right, and nothing can prevent it. If we must fight to safeguard his passage, so be it!”
With that there was a significant roll of thunder from the distant storm, and Feldman took full advantage of it. “Exactly when and how will this transformation take place, Mr. Astarte?”
