Embassy of Heaven

John Joe Gray

 

John Joe Gray

The Headlines go international! They have created a new type of cult - the Liberty Cult.

This article alone brought in over 10,000 visitors within 2 days to the EmbassyOfHeaven.com site. Many uninformed readers sent hate emails to the Embassy of Heaven Church. Several emails even made death threats against our lives. Very few people asked questions and they were quick to judge. The Church staff worked around the clock answering emails and returning messages of love and hope. Several people repented of their sin of judging others and they asked for forgiveness. Praise the Lord for a few.

What amazes me is how evil the secular media is making the Gray family look. The Grays have hurt no one. The secular judicial system plays god and will not respect the Authority of the Church. The secular police are used to molest the Grays and arouse them to take up arms to defend themselves. Why aren't the secular reporters investigating why the Grays are taking extreme measures to stay alive. Instead, the secular reporters are participating in a gang rape by passing this family off as a bunch of religious kooks who are part of a cult that hates government.

Just maybe, the secular "government" is not the government. Just maybe, the Grays are victims of abuse without a remedy. Will anybody come to their aid and give them relief from the Beast System? Remember, if it isn't of Christ, then it is the Beast. Does the secular "government" confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Is Jesus allowed in the secular school system? Is marriage protected? Are the lives of babies protected? Is Sodomy (homosexuality) considered a sin? Are children raised in families with their natural parents? The unanimous answer is no!

Isn't it interesting that when there is blood in the water, every shark comes to take a bite. When one chicken draws blood on another chicken, then all the other chickens peck that chicken to death. Are people similar to sharks and chickens? Is there not one of you that will step in and say, "Enough is enough. Let us do it Christ's way. Let us try the Law of LOVE."

You can begin by sending these secular people home. Quit paying their salaries and disband their offices. Replace them with True Government according to Jesus Christ. Luke 22:24-30 tells us how. Also the parable of the wicked husbandman at Matthew 21:33-46 tells us to disband those who lock up the Kingdom of Heaven and replace them with those that will serve the Lord.

When reading this article, look at all the verbs that are used to make the Grays look evil. Then look at all the verbs that are used to make everyone else look good. Maybe the Grays are not a BAND of ultra-religious paramilitary zealots. And maybe deputy Ronnie Brownlow is not going to try to resolve this peacefully and he plans on hurting someone. It is possible. Don't you know that the world is upside down from Christ?

Embassy of Heaven Church
Paul Revere, Pastor


The TimesThe Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E1 9XN, United Kingdom
Telephone +44 (0)20-7782 5000
August 31 2000                                 UNITED STATES

Gun siege as liberty cult defies US laws

FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN WASHINGTON

A BAND of ultra-religious paramilitary zealots have barricaded themselves into a dusty Texas compound with several children and an arsenal of guns, vowing to die before they will surrender to police.

The standoff is taking place just 70 miles from Waco, and the memory of the 1993 siege in which 80 Branch Davidians and their leader David Koresh died explains why the authorities have so far proceeded with extreme caution in handling a situation that could lead to another bloodbath.

Inside the 47-acre compound, near Trinidad, in east Texas, are 16 people, including seven children, led by John Joe Gray, a self-styled militia "colonel" and a member of the Oregon-based Embassy of Heaven Church, a sect which rejects all forms of government regulation.

More than a year ago Mr. Gray, 51, defied a court order to hand over two of his grandsons, aged 2 and 4, to their father, Keith Tarkington, who has legal custody. Then last December an arrest warrant was issued against him on charges of assaulting a state trooper.

Mr. Gray failed to turn up in court and since the spring he and his family have remained holed up at his farm, behind barbed wire and padlocked gates with signs declaring "Disobedience to Tyranny is Obedience to God" and "No Trespassing, Survivors will be Prosecuted".

Trenches have been dug with sandbagged "shooting positions" from which to defend the property. The group has built a bunker inside the compound and Mr. Gray has said that anyone attempting to enter the place by force should "bring a lot of bodybags".

The group has its own website, with a photograph of the bearded Mr. Gray and the statement: "I have come out of the system of the Corporate US Government. I use no social security number, do no banking, pay no income tax, do not carry license or insurance." Mr. Gray allegedly assaulted a state trooper and took his weapon during a traffic stop last year.

Phones and electricity to the compound were cut off weeks ago for non-payment of bills, but officials believe the group can hold out indefinitely, with a generator, well pump, mobile telephone and what the local newspaper described as a "completely self-sufficient, working farm".

Mr. Tarkington, who is divorced from Mr. Gray's daughter, Lisa, and who won custody of their children when she failed to appear in a divorce court, said that the police are not doing enough to enforce the law. "Go in there! Get my kids! That's their job," he was quoted as saying.

"They are endangering my boys. One could certainly make the case that they are being abused, just being around that gun-toting, nut group."

The local sheriff, Howard "Slick" Alfred, has so far made no attempt to serve the arrest warrant while keeping the compound under close watch, including the use of helicopters. Last week three armed men emerged from the farm, destroyed surveillance equipment hidden inside a horse trailer and then retreated back inside without being intercepted by police.

"We're going to try to resolve this peacefully. The last thing we want is for someone to get hurt," Ronnie Brownlow, Mr. Alfred's deputy, said, but he added. "We're doing whole lot more than we are at liberty to discuss."

The FBI has been brought in to monitor the case because Mr. Gray has known associations with other right-wing militia groups across the country, including the secessionist "Republic of Texas", which came into conflict with the law three years ago.

Various signs posted around the Trinidad farm perimeter give the flavour of the group's views: "We are Militia and will Live Free or Die" and "90% of Catholic Priests are Child Molesters".

The Grays are believed to belong to an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and various religious fundamentalist groups and militias have come forward in support of the Texas group. Some neighbours have taken to leaving food inside the fence.

Locals say that Mr. Gray, who has lived on the farm for 16 years, was a familiar figure in the area, often clad in combat uniform and seeking recruits for his paramilitary organization, the Texas Constitutional Militia.