The rise of the Anti-Christ

[unclear: T]he Anti-Christ will be a Jew who will command great following in Europe. (In 1968, during the [unclear: w]ay Revolution in France, members of the [unclear: brethren] regarded Danny Cohn-Bendit—'Danny [unclear: the] Red'—as a likely embodiment of the [unclear: a]nti-Christ. He still may be the Anti-Christ but [unclear: he's] quietened down a bit for the time being). At [unclear: th]e same time as the rising of the Anti-Christ, the [unclear: r]iver Euphrates will dry up and Communist [unclear: ho]rdes will invade Europe, South-East Asia and [unclear: A]ustralasia. By this time, all those redeemed by [unclear: the] blood of Christ will have departed from "this [unclear: p]resent evil world" to join Christ in glory. Those redeemed "include, naturally enough, the [unclear: b]rethren. There are a few others: some of the [unclear: cle]rgy and other genuine Christians who are under the shelter of the Blood". The "dead in [unclear: c]hrist" (that is the redeemed dead) will also [unclear: de]part at this point. The advent of the [unclear: a]nti-Christ and the unleashing of the Communist [unclear: h]ordes (and all this terminology is the Brethren's) [unclear: sy]mbolise the terrible powers of evil to be let [unclear: those] on the world once Christ and his followers have departed.

'The Churchill Drive Hall' at Crofton Downs was opened (to coin a phrase) in September, 1967. Another hall designed and built by the Brethren, it is the biggest in Wellington. All Assembly meetings (that is, meetings of all members of the sect in the Wellington locality ') are held here.

[unclear: T]he Brethren's rules have not always been so [unclear: st]rict, although they now change with increasing rapidity as the Exclusives shut themselves further and further away from the world as, they believe, the coming of the Lord draw's nigh. I attended kindergarten as a child but, since it is not compulsory to send children to kindergarten, this is no longer permitted. My parents frequently had contact with relatives who were not Exclusives. But my earliest memories are of being taught to fear God and the consequences of sin. The greatest fear was confession: this was not 'compulsory', as in the Roman Catholic Church, but sin was unatoned until confessed and repented of. Sinners, like secret trade unionists, alcoholics, gamblers, fornicators, adulterers and suchlike, were urged in addresses to confess their sins before they were exposed. Somehow, I always connected these alarming crimes with my own childhood misdemeanours, and became terrified of attending meetings until I attended several where such depraved sinners were exposed in public. I realised then that my childhood crimes were of little importance, though not concealed from the Eye of a Wrathful God. Many children, I think, had such guilt complexes.

Early schooldays were relatively normal. Exclusive children were allowed to have other children home to play, but not to go to other children's homes; certain books were grudgingly permitted. When the Doctrine of Separation began to be enforced in the late 50's, children were urged not to play with their classmates but keep to themselves and other Exclusive children as much as possible. If one ate lunch at school, one was not to eat it with the other children. One did not go to school parties or school picnics or sing Christmas Carols with the worldly hypocrites at end-of-year functions. Any celebration of Christmas was impermissible since such celebrations are a pagan custom.

These rules, however, were not stringently enforced until my last two years at primary school and the years at secondary school, when the real crunch began. At the school I attended I got away with a good deal (reading novels, for example), but there were always two or three other Exclusive children who were eager to inform.