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| The logo used by the Heaven's Gate group |
In the midst of the tragic mass suicide of a UFO sect, Heaven's Gate, Marshall Applewhite's eldest son, Mark, alienated from his father for twenty-five years, received the shocking news of his father's suicide (along with thirty-eight of his followers) during a television newscast. Mark Applewhite, a born-again Christian and principal of a Christian school, publicly offered biblical counsel to those who were baffled by the horrific deaths that were rooted in occultic experience of contact with alien beings:
The cult leader's son hears about a mass suicide in California
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| Comet Hale–Bopp over California in April 1997 |
It started the Thursday morning before Easter, 1997. As I was walking out the door to start a busy day I heard something on television about a mass suicide in California. I was only able to ponder this for a few seconds in the rush to leave. It was such a busy day, in fact, I didn't think about the story again. Little did I know that I was about to affect me personally and become the hardest thing I've ever had to face.
The cult leader's son sees his father on national TV and realizes his father and 38 others are dead
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| Marshall Herff Applewhite, Jr (1931-1997) addressing the audience in a video |
When I arrived home, my wife Judy said, "Hurry, sit down and watch the news." The picture of a wide-eyed man speaking with a soft voice and a big smile flashed on the TV screen. I knew that smile and I knew those eyes. After 25 years of wondering where he was and what he was doing, I was staring at the face of my father on national news. In shock, I just sat in my recliner unable to think or move. The news report went on to say that 39 members of a cult, led by my father, had committed suicide. The gruesome video of the bodies lying in their bunk beds, each covered with a strange purple cloth, was shown, and I went deeper into shock. Not only was my father dead, but 38 others had
followed him to his death.
The cult leader's son says, "no comment"
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| A depiction of a scene from the Book of Revelation, which Applewhite believed described interactions between humans and extraterrestrials |
This was the beginning of an Easter weekend unlike any I had ever experienced. For the next three days the phone rang about every 5 minutes, from 4:30 a.m. until midnight, as all manner of media sought information. From the beginning my mother, sister, and I had decided to reply "no comment" to all requests for interviews. We didn't want our words twisted out of context so as to dishonor either our heavenly Father or our earthly father ...
The cult leader's son decides to stop saying, "no comment"
"Good Friday" morning I was awakened at 5:00 a.m. by a reporter's call. When I tried to go back to sleep after giving the "no comment" reply God seemed to impress on my heart the need to write down a statement that could be released to the press. I sat down at my computer, prayed for the right words, and spent most of Saturday faxing the statement to TV stations, newspapers, and magazines across the country.
The cult leader's son's letter
To: anyone hurt by by the actions of Marshall Herff Applewhite
From: his son, Mark Applewhite
I must first say that I am appalled by the things that have resulted from the actions of my father and others involved in that cult. I am deeply hurt by the knowledge that people have lost their lives in connection with my father. My sympathy and prayers go out to all those who are suffering the loss of loved ones.
I would, however, like everyone to know that this strange bent that my father went off on has not been passed on to his family. By the grace of God Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth and author of the Bible, there is hope. By that same grace, my family and I are born-again Christians with a real ticket to heaven, faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
When I was five my father left our family. He set up circumstances that could have become just another broken home that perpetuates itself to the next generation. But God, the One True God, intervened in our family. I have not heard or seen anything from my father in over 25 years, and I know nothing about the cult he was leading. In those intervening years I came to know a new Father, the Father in heaven who has now taken what could have been a disaster of a family and turned it into a family with a 20-year marriage and two children who love and serve Jesus.
I say this to bring glory to God for what He's done and who He is, and also to give hope to all people who might hear this. God has a way of taking things that are terrible and turning them into good. At this Easter season I am reminded of the fact that God took the terrible death of His Son Jesus on the Cross and turned it into salvation for anyone who would believe. In the same way I pray that God will take this terrible news of a mass suicide and turn it into a message of hope, the hope found only in the Bible, for all to hear.
If there is a lesson to be learned here it is to find the truth in the Bible and teach it to your family so that they cannot be swayed by false teaching. I hope and pray that those touched by this tragedy in San Diego would find comfort in the God of the Bible and come to know true life after death as a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ. I also pray that those who are still searching for answers, as members of this cult were, would find that Jesus is the Answer: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the World to condemn the word but to save the world through Him" (John 3:16-17).
When I had a chance to search my memory, I realized I was actually seven when my father left. Even so, I knew very little about him. One thing I do remember is that is that he was always referred to as Herff. I also remember his fun-loving playfulness, his friendly smile, and his beautiful voice. He was a strong, caring gentle father; we used to wrestle together on the floor. When my sister and I visited him after the divorce he would always go out of his way to have lots of fun things planned. The memories I have are good and I will always cherish them.
As I was faxing my statement, my prayer was that God would use it to offer hope to the families of the suicide victims and to anyone else hurt by this tragedy. I also wanted to ease any doubts of people who knew me as an elder at my Church and as a principal of a Christian school. I knew God could turn tragedy into blessing and prayed He would use my words to do so.
Sunday afternoon I heard from a reporter who had good news. He had attended Easter services at a large Church in Rancho Santa Fe, the community devastated by this suicide. He said the pastor read my entire press release to the congregation. He continued by saying, "After the service many people were talking about how the letter had helped them to refocus on God's grace and had given them some hope in a terrible circumstance." This was the first of many calls, letters, and cards with similar stories about how God was using the statement, which greatly encouraged me ...
My children had been watching the news reports all weekend ... Monday morning meant going to school and facing their friends. This could have been difficult because children can be so hurtful. Instead, as we arrived at the Christian school where I am principal, they were met by friends who gathered into a big circle around them and prayed for them.
Knowing the students would have many questions about their principal and his father " a cult leader who had just led 38 people to commit suicide, " I called an all-school assembly and talked honestly to them. Afterward I asked them to stand and pray for the families of the suicide victims. High school, junior high, and elementary students prayed together ... Throughout the ordeal, God, my heavenly Father, provided strength, patience, and perseverance for us to go on.
Having read articles and listened to interviews, I know much more now about my father and the cult he led. I kept seeing the same question recur: "Why would educated, intelligent, gentle people do such a thing?" In these articles and interviews I began to see some reasons.
Everyone is searching for something that is missing in this life on earth. We all have a God-shaped void in our lives but each of us chooses to search in different ways. I see my father's story in the Bible, in Romans 1. My father knew God, knew about God, about His ways, and about His Word, for he grew up as a minister's son.
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ... Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts ... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to their shameful lusts .... furthermore since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil greed and depravity ... they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:21-32 NIV).
My father came to a point in his life where he no longer glorified God as God or gave thanks to Him and his thinking became futile and his heart darkened. Eventually God gave him over to the sinful desires of his heart. The potential for sin to ruin our lives is great when we are allowed to go from His protective mercy to our own destructive desires.
Another fallacy was the cult's desperate attempt to earn its way to heaven through good works. My father had made up dozens of rules for the cult members to follow, rules that were meant to keep them pure, cleanse them and make them ready for Heaven. I can see how these rules stemmed from guilt my father harbored about things in his past. This kind of guilt, and the desire to do good works to earn one's way to heaven has plagued people for centuries. But God has given us the answer for this too in His Word. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV). "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18 NIV). "Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:3-4 NIV).
My desire now is to try to right some of the wrongs my father has done by spreading the truth about God and His forgiveness through faith in His Son. My father had been teaching his followers that by good works a righteousness could be achieved that would bring them into God's kingdom. But God teaches us in His Word that righteousness, forgiveness for sin and cleansing from all guilt, comes only by faith in what His Son did on the Cross. As the old hymn says, "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow."
Source: Martin, Walter, Jill Martin Rische and Kurt Van Gorden. The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008, pages 374-379.
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