ARCHIVED NEWS REPORTS
KIM MILLER
& BANNER MINISTRIES
Important Statement
As you may already have heard, the Israeli police have arrested some followers of Monte Kim Miller and his Concerned Christians organisation in Jerusalem on charges of "plotting extremist acts". Whether or not these charges are valid is not my point - but this statement is to put on record publicly that there IS NO LINK BETWEEN BANNER MINISTRIES AND KIM MILLER.
Some foolish individuals have apparently started a rumour to the effect that "Banner Ministries supports Kim Miller". Even if somebody thought that, they should have checked their facts with me first before telling others, thereby starting a dangerous fire that could be impossible for me to extinguish.
In the long run, it might even lead to my being questioned by the security services, not to speak of the damage it could do to this Ministry (as if the devil needed another opportunity!) Just think what some of the enemies of the Ministry might do if they take this unfounded rumour and run with it!!!
THE FACTS:
So, here are the facts about Banner Ministries and Kim Miller:
Way back in the early 1980's Kim Miller started a helpful and discerning little ministry called Concerned Christians because he - as a businessman - was concerned about the New Age trends infiltrating the business world.
His newsletters and tapes came into our possession. They examined the New Age, and exposed it in a thoroughly Christian way. We appreciated these materials, and in due course of time (since they were copyright free and Kim Miller encouraged people to distribute them) we offered them in the pages of our newsletter "Mainstream".
The tapes and newsletters came every month, and went on to cover such topics as Restorationism, Shepherding, Inner Healing and Visualisation, Vegetarianism, and the False Revival. We considered Kim Miller at that time to be sound, and many people appreciated his tapes that we made available. Indeed, Kim Miller's tapes were, and continued to be, some of the most popular tapes we ever offered.
Eventually, however, we discerned something going wrong with Kim Miller's ministry. He began to focus much more on America being Mystery Babylon, and to speak of the coming judgement on that nation. This was not only irrelevant to our UK readership, but it felt slightly odd and thus we drew the line, and - apart from the earlier tapes - we stopped offering Kim Miller's materials.
Shortly afterwards, Kim Miller and Concerned Christians seemed to drop out of sight, and mail to him went unanswered. I eventually received a short note from one of his co-workers saying he was working on a book, and so was unable to correspond or to put out any more materials.
It didn't sound very convincing. I felt there was something underneath this withdrawal, and I reasoned within myself why this could be. Perhaps he had run out of money, and was too polite to say so? Thus I sent him a $100 donation, in respect of the appreciation we all had for his tapes.
RENEWED CONTACT
Kim Miller did not surface again until many years later. Suddenly we once more received materials he had produced, with an invitation to support his organisation. At first I was pleased, but on reading through what he had written, alarm bells began to ring. This was nothing like the Kim Miller I once knew as a sound Christian. I had a bad feeling about what he was saying, without being able to put my finger on it.
Unfortunately, several other people (former recipients of Kim Miller's materials from Banner) also received his new writings, and they did take up with him again, despite my warnings. I felt rather guilty about that, since I had "got them hooked" onto him in the first place, but simple biblical discernment should have alerted them to the truth.
THE SHOCKING TRUTH
Then suddenly, one morning, I opened the newspaper and on the front page was the news that somebody called Monte Kim Miller from Denver had disappeared and taken several members of "his cult" to Jerusalem. It was feared they might commit suicide. The Israeli authorities were on alert, because Kim Miller apparently believed himself to be the coming Elijah, and that he would die on the Temple Mount around the year 2000, and be raised again three days later. It was also reported that he told his cult followers that he was a god, or God.
I was shocked, to say the least. Could this really be the Kim Miller we had known in the 1980's? But before over-reacting, I set about trying to find if there was any truth in these reports. The last people to believe are newspaper reporters!
I e-mailed a number of friends in Denver, and awaited replies. None came.
After a time, I decided to phone somebody in the States who lives in Denver and who knew Kim Miller personally. She is a good friend of mine, and totally reliable. So one evening I spent about three hours on the phone to America (I dread to think what it cost me) and got the complete picture.
To give you the short version, Kim Miller did begin as a bona-fide, if somewhat immature, Christian discernment minister. He fell in with the wrong crowd, and gradually went more and more strange. (He also did have financial problems - so at least that prompt was correct.)
All that the newspapers had reported was true - he had collected a devoted "cult" following; his teachings were totally "off the wall", he did believe he was Elijah, and he had disappeared with many of his followers from Denver, heading for Jerusalem.
After this, when friends phoned me to ask about the stories, I could give them accurate information. Further reports in the press said that Concerned Christian members had indeed arrived in Israel, and a few days ago it was reported that they had been arrested. It's not known precisely where Kim Miller himself is.
HANDLE THE TRUTH WISELY
So there you have it. Like many others, we did once appreciate what Kim Miller wrote, and said on his tapes. But when the Lord showed us he was going on the wrong path, we ceased our support. We have not carried his tapes for years now.
It seems incredible that anyone could make these facts into an accusation against Banner Ministries, but over the years I have witnessed many examples of the devil inciting people to do harm to Christians, all out of one foolish thought, word or deed. At the beginning it probably seems like no more than a conversation with friends. But we need to be aware that rumours spread quickly, especially in today's climate of bad feeling towards anything truly biblical.