About Strong City
Strong City is a name given by residents of the surrounding communities to a Northeastern New Mexico Christian settlement in the area of Travesser Creek. It was apparently derived from the domain name of the community's Internet web site, StrongCity.com, first published in 1999 - now discontinued.
The Strong City settlement is comprised of members of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, founded in October of 1987 by former Seventh-day Adventists who had separated from that denomination. Since that time, many have joined who do not have their roots in Adventism.
Strong City is a biblical allusion to the Old Testament city of refuge found in Isaiah 26:1: "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks."
Some members of the group prefer to call their home Travesser, a word found in the Catalan language and possibly brought to the area by sheep herders from Spain. Officially, the English translation of the word Travesser is crossbar or crosspiece. Colloquially, it is used when referring to someone whose mind cannot be changed, or one who is "doggedly determined to cross over." To many in their church community, the name Travesser fittingly describes their unchangeable course to translate from this world into heaven - "translation" being a biblical term employed to describe those who will be taken off the earth, as were the two Old Testament prophets Enoch and Elijah, while still alive, and transported directly to heaven.
History
During the 1980's, a Seventh-day Adventist minister by the name of Wayne Curtis Bent created and conducted a seminar called LifeSupports. The intent of these seminars was to present practical illustrations and training of how the laws of life function, and how individuals create their lives to be precisely what they are. The seminar was based on Scripture and the writings of Ellen G. White, a founder and prophet of the Adventist church.
In 1987 Bent and a number of people who were associated with him through his ministry formally separated from the Seventh-day Adventist church, founding the aforementioned The Lord Our Righteousness, using the Scriptural authority found in Jeremiah 33:16: "... and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness."
- 1987 - The Lord Our Righteousness separates from Adventism.
- 1988 - 300 baptized at Hat Creek, near Redding, California.
- 1989 - The church split. One third of the membership leaves.
- 1990 - 320 acre ranch property purchased near of Sandpoint, Idaho.
- 1993 - Entire church congregates at Castle Dome near Yuma, Arizona, for the winter.
- 1994 - Church begins to study the hidden hand controlling the world through money.
- 1995 - Tax issue with Bonner County, Idaho. Shillum published. Booklet distributed around the country.
- 1996 - Church focuses on Internet outreach. WINDS website established.
- 1999 - WINDS work completed. Church prepares to leave Sandpoint.
- 2000 - After wintering in Safford, Arizona, church relocates to Travesser Creek in New Mexico. Messiah appears in Wayne Bent, and Two Witnesses are anointed.
- 2001 - Michael Travesser writes prophecy on September 10 regarding destruction of the Twin Towers the following day.
- 2002 - In June, FBI and State Police visit Strong City. KOB-TV runs sensationalized broadcast about Strong City in November.
- 2003 - Michael Travesser Family website launched.
- 2004 - State Police raid Strong City. Messiah "cut off" in the "midst of the week" according to prophecy of Daniel 9. Work of teaching and intercession ends. Judgment begins.
- 2006 - Seven last plagues announced on Shillum website.
- 2007 - Plagues poured out. Church awaits final fulfillment of seventh plague and the end of the 490 year prophecy.
The group became known among Adventists as the L.O.R. or more pejoratively as "LOR-ites", and were widely regarded as an off-shoot of Adventism. Members of the L.O.R. view the Seventh-day Adventist denomination as one of the daughters of the great harlot of Revelation 17, exhibiting the worldly corruption pervasively found in other Christian denominations that constitute Babylon.
Churches of The Lord Our Righteousness were located mostly throughout the Pacific northwestern United States, with one congregation in southern California. At first, services were conducted in public parks, rented halls and private homes, with Wayne Bent providing spiritual leadership from his residence in Sandpoint, Idaho, which served also as the church's administrative headquarters.
In August of 1988 the church gathered outside Redding, California at Hat Creek Campground for its first general meeting. Approximately 300 people were baptized into the faith near the conclusion of that camp meeting.
The following year, in the spring of 1989 an event known as the "church split" occurred, when about a third of the church's ministers left the faith, with the same approximate percentage of disaffection among the general membership.
In the summer of 1990 the church bought a 320 acre parcel of land in the mountains northeast of Sandpoint, Idaho where they built a house and meeting hall overlooking Lake Pend Oreille. Trout Creek Ranch, or simply "the ranch," as it was referred to by members, was employed as a ministerial and evangelistic training center as well as a place of general meeting and worship.
As time progressed, an increasing number of members elected to leave their stationary homes choosing, for their unique situation, the more facile life of motor homes and travel trailers. To a large degree this freed them from the demands of maintaining a home, allowing them to travel and congregate with other members, and to prepare themselves spiritually for the final events foretold by prophecy.
The ranch was suitable for trailer living mostly in mid-spring, summer and early fall. Many members moved their trailers there during that seasonal period in order to fellowship and worship together. Some opted to stay for the harsh winters, while others relocated to southwestern states such as Arizona, returning again in the spring.
Fall of 1993 found the entire church congregated in the Sonoran Desert at the foot of Castle Dome Mountain, fifty miles northeast of Yuma, Arizona. There they wintered together, camping in RVs and meeting each morning for prayer and study. Following the winter-long camp meeting, ending in April just after Passover, the members returned to their homes.
In 1994 the church began to observe clearly that the world was being governed by demonic forces, rather than belief in the benign democratic institutions as commonly held. The mishandled debacle by the U.S. Government of the Branch Davidian sect the previous year marked the beginning of a new awareness within the church, as the basic hostility of the world toward nonconforming elements was made manifest.
The congregation applied for a tax-exempt status in 1995 for its church retreat outside of Sandpoint, Idaho. Grounds for the request were based on the property being owned by a legitimate church, as defined by US and local state law. The church claimed that in good conscience they could not continue making large yearly contributions, in the form of property taxes, to public schools. They recognized the public educational system as merely a governmental indoctrination program supporting immoral practices that they claim are in direct opposition to biblical teachings. Bonner County disallowed the request, granting, however, a parsonage exemption for the residence. The church claimed that this refusal clearly illustrated that they were not free to worship according to their conscience because they were being forced to support the harmful effects of public education, at the threat of property confiscation if they refused.
The following year the church published a small booklet entitled Shillum, for the express purpose of calling attention to the true condition of human society as they viewed it, and to the hidden powers that govern the world through money. Approximately 30 members of the L.O.R. congregation traveled the United States distributing the booklet in state capitals and major cities. A public domain e-text of Shillum was also published on the Internet.
The Internet became the church's primary focus of public ministry in 1996, and their world news site, The WINDS (World Internet News Distributary Source) was launched. The WINDS provided a variety of news and commentary on current events from a biblical prophecy perspective. It expounded on the theme of Shillum by exposing the "hidden hand" that rules in government policy and world events. The readership of this site grew steadily until it peaked in 1998, when the site received roughly a million requests during one particular month.
In the same year as the launching of their news site, the church placed its Sandpoint ranch on the market. The members decided that selling the property and using the proceeds for public ministry would be morally preferable to participating in continued, forced support of the public schools teaching principles the church deemed immoral.
Another factor influencing their decision to leave was that the character of the general area, in and around Sandpoint, was undergoing a dark metamorphosis. What was once a simple down-to-earth logging community, supplemented by tourism, was becoming a Mecca for demonic spiritualists who considered the area to be a vortex of spiritual power. Additionally, unbridled pleasure-seekers were also flocking to the Northern Idaho community, agitating for special rights to accommodate their hedonistic lifestyle, flaunting their sexual orientation in public.
President Bill Clinton, on February 12, 1999, was acquitted on Congressional Articles of Impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice. This acquittal, the church saw, flew in the face of clear factual evidence that he had quite evidently committed perjury by swearing to false information on a deposition – a crime classed as a felony under Federal and State laws, and indisputably an impeachable offense. The L.O.R. church received this as a signal indication that true justice would no longer prevail in America or the world. This moved them to mothball The WINDS website, and prepare to leave the Sandpoint area, even though they had not yet found a buyer for their property.
On March 24th, only a few weeks after Clinton's failed impeachment, NATO began what the church saw as the illegal bombing of Serbia, marking the first time America had participated openly in attacking a sovereign nation for actions committed within its own borders – and the first war of aggression in Europe since Hitler invaded Poland. To the "LORite" congregation this further emphasized the fact that the world was moving into a new era of lawlessness, in which international boundaries were as meaningless as any common line in the sand.
In the autumn of 1999 much of the church gathered in Safford, Arizona for the winter, residing in various locations throughout the area. The Strong City website was launched as a way for former WINDS readers to communicate and share with each other. Preparations at that time were being made for the move to the "new land", as church members called it, although it was not clear how and when that would happen. The Sandpoint property had not sold, so the necessary funds were not yet available to secure the land that had been found in New Mexico.
The New Land
A surprising, and apparently providential occurrence took place in March of 2000 that opened the way for the church's final migration to their new home. The owner of the New Mexico property agreed to a direct trade of his land for the Sandpoint ranch, thus opening the way for the church to relocate to New Mexico. The following spring, members of the church began their individual migration to the new property.
Wayne Bent was anointed into his work as Messiah in July of that same year. It was then that he announced the Marriage of the Lamb, and adopted the name Michael of Travesser, a designation describing his work as deliverer of his people, denoted by the place where he lived — Travesser Creek. Concurrently two women in the congregation were anointed as his Two Witnesses, referencing passages from the biblical book of Revelation. These events were publicly announced and described in detail on the Strong City website.
On September 10, 2001, Michael Travesser posted a prophecy on his website that was later recognized by the church as a prophecy about the destruction of the Twin Towers the following morning.
In June of 2002 the FBI opened an investigation into The Lord Our Righteousness after receiving numerous reports from relatives of church members alleging that the group was planning to commit suicide. After learning of the investigation the church contacted the FBI field office in Albuquerque, extending an invitation to visit Strong City. Shortly thereafter approximately a dozen agents and New Mexico State Police officials visited the community. They determined that the allegations were specious and unwarranted.
The following November a news team from KOB-TV channel 4, Albuquerque, made an unsolicited visit to the church community. They informed Wayne Bent that their intentions were to disarm any prejudice against the church, and provide a balanced point of view. Mr. Bent agreed to an on-camera interview, but the resulting news broadcast appeared to the church as anything but disarming and balanced. The report, they said, repeated and sensationalized already discredited suspicions about cult suicide.
In 2003 the church launched The Michael Travesser Family website (Travesser.com, now discontinued), to provide a venue for Michael's writings, and to promote a video production setting forth his mission and the prophetic events that had been fulfilled subsequent to Wayne's anointing as Messiah. The site was closed in 2004.
In February of 2004, a considerable force of New Mexico State Police, accompanied by the Union County Sheriff and state (CYFD) social workers, made an unannounced visit to Strong City. They separated children from their parents and questioned them. Despite the intrusion, the visit was cordial and uneventful. The police told members of the church that they had received reports from relatives of church members that a mass-suicide was planned for April. Again, police left satisfied that the reports were unfounded.
A Scriptural occurrence referred to as the "Midst of the Week," delineated from Daniel chapter nine, took place in April of 2004 which marked the time referenced in that book when Messiah was "cut off." This expressed itself in Michael's work of teaching and intercession coming to an end.
In July of 2006 the website Shillum: Handwriting on the Wall was launched to announce the pouring out of the Seven Last Plagues found in Revelation chapter 16. Having fulfilled its purpose, this site was discontinued at the end of March, 2007.
The church now awaits the complete outpouring and fulfillment of the final plague, and the end of the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel 9.
Source: http://strongcity.info/LOR/sc/page/about_strong_city/
P.S. My personal opinion of all this is that the authorities are being prepared to persecute some deserving to be prosecuted; Yet, soon will persecute God's faithful few (who separate themselves from the wordly), with impunity and disdain for true justice; As prophesied the powers-that-be, will persecute primarily the Lord's children. So, what I see here is a pratice run to fulfill prophecy. However, I do not condone persecution for the sole pupose that a religious group seems strange to the out-siders!!! Our God allows for the excersize of free-will (worship is God's domain, not the authorities), and our Constitution guarantees it; until futher notice. Arsenio.
