About Michael Travesser

By the time Wayne Bent, later to become Michael Travesser, moved to the New Mexico property at Travesser Park in the spring of 2000, he had served as a church pastor and spiritual leader for over thirty years. In this final relocation his thoughts were of retirement, and enjoying the rest and solitude of his new home. According to his own testimony, he had no premonition whatsoever regarding the changes that would shortly occur in his life, and the controversy into which he would be thrust.

In June of 2000, Wayne Bent returned to Sandpoint, Idaho from New Mexico to finalize transactions with the buyer of the former church property. He relates that while on that trip, he was forcefully impressed by God to read the biblical book "Song of Solomon". In years previously, since the book contained images of human lovemaking that most "spiritual" men tend to shun, he would read it only with some considerable religious discomfort. It requires serious effort on the part of the reader to draw from the book the appropriate spiritual connotations, since humanity can easily construe the imagery of itself as purely sensual and ultimately sinful. In this instance, however, he was made quite aware that he must enter in to the full expression of The Song of Solomon, without, in any way, following his own humanity.

Upon returning to New Mexico, Bent developed an in-depth study on The Song of Solomon for the purpose of sharing with the church the things he was receiving from it. He clearly perceived that God was leading the church, through him, into a closer more intimate spiritual communion, as expressed in the imagery of The Song. The following Pentecost camp meeting held later that June, found Wayne asking the congregation then present if they would marry him - still quite unaware of all that would entail. He personally understood it to mean that members of the church would be fully united in heart, mind, spirit and purpose, intimately connected to God in a true love relationship as adduced in The Song. It was not until much later that God brought the understanding to Wayne that this camp meeting marked the beginning of his seven year covenant with the church, which found its completion at Pentecost in May, 2007. This messianic covenant is described in Daniel 9:27: "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week." In this, as in many time-based prophetic reckonings, a year is often represented as a day, thus making a "week" to be seven years, prophetically.

The Anointing of Messiah

Closely following this 2000 camp meeting, in early July, while sitting alone in his living room contemplating the events of the previous weeks, Bent suddenly became aware of a revelation he clearly recognized to be from God. He later described in The Finished Work, published in 2001, what was given to him in that revelation.

... as I sat in my living room chair, I was strongly directed by God, "You are Messiah." At this moment, the Spirit I had previously felt in the land entered into me. Now this Spirit of perfect rest and peace was no longer out there and influencing me. It was fully in my own soul and was identified with my own person. That Spirit was now who I was. I became God-possessed. This was my deliverance and the end of all my human woes. This anointing was a momentary shock. How could this be? The Father immediately pointed me to the Scriptures. "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ (Messiah), and hath anointed (Messiah-ed) us is God." 2 Cor. 1:21. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Messiah).' Eph. 4:13. The Father had just decreed my deliverance. He had appointed me to His heavenly purposes that all men might be brought there by faith. My faith immediately laid hold of the spoken word to my heart and the connection was made. This is the WORD I have learned to trust in. The Scriptures were clear; the believing man was to be brought to the fullness of Christ, the fullness of Messiah. God had spoken that divine existence into me at that very moment.

Up until that time the church had expected Christ to return in the sky, when Jesus would arrive in the clouds and those who believed in him would ascend up into the air to meet him. They were not expecting Jesus to return in one of their own. It was later made clear to the people that Jesus came to the Jews as one of their own, just as the messianic prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15 declares: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken."

Wayne momentarily considered the personal cost of being Messiah. The world in general would consider him a cult leader, and professed Christians would call him a false christ, quoting scriptures warning against following those who say they are the Christ. He was also quite aware of the testing that would come to his congregation, because their spiritual experience had heretofore been predicated mostly on their religious opinion.

After his anointing, Wayne wrote the following message to the church:

Greetings to the church family,

I am sharing a very personal thing with you at this time which I would desire that you consider carefully. I am just beginning to grasp the significance of it myself and it has been heavy on my soul in recent times. I have spoken with several of the family about it this past Sabbath and how it was solemn and a time for introspection.

Something has happened to me. I have changed. The Father has given me His work in a special way. His Son has come again. This is a most solemn time for me. The people are inclined to see who I have been, but that is not who is here now. It is like a metamorphosis has occurred in my soul.

I know how this sounds to the natural heart. Here is someone claiming to be Christ. What a preposterous notion! What blasphemy! Is it not written, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." But how can I deny it, since it fills my soul? I stand in the presence of God with it pressed in upon me. I know I am a savior in a way that will become apparent later on. It is about what has come upon me. It is like a whole new thing and it is still hard for me to fully comprehend what it means. How can the people know it? How is it that I know it? Isn't this the same old person speaking?

I would give you this charge, daughters of Jerusalem. Take what I have said in this letter and pray earnestly over the matter and ask Father if these things I say are true. If necessary, pray all night upon your bed. If He warns you against me and tells you to "go not after him", very well. But if His answer is, "This is my beloved Son: hear him", then come and follow me.

The marriage Wayne had announced at the June camp meeting was now beginning to take form. Just the year before this, he was contemplating his two previous earthly marriages, and the reasons they failed and ended in divorce. He recalls God speaking to his heart on the matter, saying, "I had two wives also, the Jewish and the Christian churches." The Father then told him that he - Wayne - would "marry the land," the true meaning of which did not become apparent until the church had moved to New Mexico, and Messiah came into him.

By this time, the church was beginning to realize the fulfillment of Jesus' marriage parable recorded in Matthew 25, an event also referred to in Revelation 19:7 as the Marriage of the Lamb. As events unfolded, it became evident to the people of Travesser that the Son of God had entered Wayne, and the Marriage of the Lamb was now occurring. According to the parable, oil (spiritual eyesight, the experience of hearing God speak personally to the soul) would be required for those who professed to be awaiting the arrival of Christ (the Bridegroom), and to find their way to the marriage supper. The ability to enter into the Marriage of the Lamb would determine the difference between a wise and a foolish virgin.

The Two Witnesses

An event concurrent with the appearing of Christ in Wayne Bent, served as an illustration to the church, and a means to bring them to awareness of the present spiritual realities. At that time and of their own accord, two women in the church left their homes, husbands and families, to answer the call of God to their heart. They were to be connected with Messiah in a special way, being anointed by God to bear witness of Christ's return and to the Marriage of the Lamb. These women became known to the church as the Two Witnesses. These Witnesses, according to Revelation 11, measure the temple (professed believers) by showing what it looks like to be married to God alone, with no earthly considerations whatsoever.

Even before the advent of Messiah in Wayne, when the church began its relocation to Travesser, several individuals within the body began adopting "new names" given them by God, a practice rooted in scripture, symbolizing a change of character. This is referenced in Isaiah 62: "...and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name."

When Messiah came into Wayne Bent, he was given the name Faithful, after the one described in Revelation 19:11 who rides upon the white horse, coming in judgment and in righteousness. Some time after this, due to the description given in Daniel 12:1, he received the name Michael ("who is like God" Str - 0417) which now more accurately described the work he was anointed to do: "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people ... and at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book." The name Michael described the work of deliverance he was accomplishing for the people.

Additionally, Wayne adopted the name Travesser - as did others in the congregation - it being the historic area of New Mexico in which they now reside. This clarifies the use, in some of his writings, as to why he refers to himself as Michael of Travesser, a common means in earlier history of identifying an individual with his geographic region.

His Purpose

The Wikipedia entry on Michael Travesser is succinctly summed up in the following paragraph:

Michael Travesser ... is the spiritual leader of the sect, The Lord Our Righteousness, which dwells in a place called, Strong City, which consists of about 77 people living in Travesser Park, near Travesser Creek in the U.S. state of New Mexico as well as other devotees around the world. Travesser and his followers believe that he is the Son of God and that he, along with his followers, fulfill the second coming of Jesus. Wikipedia, a/o May 27, 2007.

Michael Travesser's mission and who he is, as he explains it, is significantly unlike the first coming of the Son of God in Jesus of Nazareth. Travesser's anointing - the full expression of Christ as it was in Jesus - is now to find its identical presence, not just in a single man, but in every Son of God in these end times. He came to exemplify, in types and symbols, and in reality, what is truly meant by the "Marriage of the Lamb." What it means to be married to God in the most intimate and personal way. Michael says he is simply the first fruits, as it were "the firstborn among many brethren" who will receive "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Rom. 8:29, Eph. 4:13

Michael was born, not as was Jesus, but of two, sinful earthly parents, inheriting the same fallen nature that Adam passed on to the human race. He grew up as every other child, with a rebellious heart, the occasional sin - in other words, most all the expressions of what humanity calls "normal" in childhood and eventually in maturity.

As Michael once phrased it, "God took this beer-drinking, cigar-smoking, cussing, ex-Navy man, and made of him the Son of God," in the very likeness of Christ, a miracle God is willing to perform, Travesser says, for anyone willing to have it done. It was in this normal, worldly, sinful human life that God chose to exemplify that willingness. In Michael, God would marry humanity to Himself, transforming them into the very purity of His only begotten Son.

In spite of the care Travesser has taken to indicate this very great difference between the present coming of Christ, and the first one in Jesus of Nazareth, he has been accused innumerable times of claiming for himself alone the title of the fullness of the Son of God for this time, as Jesus was for his. He has even cited the Melchizedek Text of the Dead Sea Scrolls which say, "He [Messiah, the anointed one] will take the lead among God's heavenly saints in executing the various sentences of judgment" [11Q13] indicating that that sentence presents another strong verification that the second appearing of Messiah would differ from the first, in that there would be a host of individuals of whom the Spirit of Christ is in full possession.

The Prophecies

In the seven years since Messiah first began the establishing of his covenant through Wayne Bent, several overlapping prophetic "markers" have served to strengthen the faith of the church in the way they see God has led them.

Foremost among them is the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 - the only messianic prophecy in the entire Bible with a timeline specifically indicating both the first and second coming of Christ. This prophecy initially pointed to the coming of Christ in Jesus of Nazareth, and was fulfilled on time, and to the letter, at the end of the Jewish dispensation. Carried forward to the Christian dispensation, the 490 prophecy began ticking again when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the chapel door of the Wittenburg church. The final "week" of this prophecy began on October 31, 2000, when the work of Messiah was established in the Consummation of the Marriage of the Lamb. The final week terminates on October 31, 2007, closing the 490 year prophecy for the Christian dispensation.

Two more prophecies - one in the Old Testament, and one in the New - each revealed that Messiah would be on the earth during a specified period of time. At the first advent of Christ there was a prophecy, well known to the Jews, which should have told them that indeed their Messiah was already among them, long before he was baptized in the Jordan River and publicly proclaimed.

That ancient prophecy revealed that Israel's national sovereignty and legal authority as a nation would not come to an end until their Messiah walked the earth. Found in Genesis 49:10, it reads:

The scepter [sovereignty and rulership] shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

At the time Jesus was born the whole of Palestine had been subjugated by the Roman Empire and a ruler selected by the Romans was installed on the throne of Israel. Even the Jewish High Priest was chosen by Rome's appointment. By the certain word of their own Torah, their Redeemer was already among them - but they did not recognize him: "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him." Acts 13:27

Likewise, the second advent of Christ (which Michael Travesser claims differs substantially from the first, in that Messiah comes in his people, and not as a separate individual) came by very much the same token as the first:

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 2 Thess. 1:10

The preceding Genesis prophecy, telling Israel their national sovereignty would not be removed until their Messiah was already born, according to Travesser, was echoed in another given by Jesus, and recorded in the Book of Luke. That prophecy foretold the time when physical, earthly Israel would again possess Jerusalem:

And they [the Jewish nation] shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Luke 21:24

Jerusalem had been under the control of Gentiles from the time foretold in the first prophesy when sovereignty over the city was wrested from the Jews by the Roman Empire, until the era of Gentile control ended and their holy city would again be part of Jewish-controlled Israel. When the United Nations partitioned Palestine in 1948, creating the state of Israel, the old city of Jerusalem was not included in the UN declaration.

Rebuilt and walled in stone by the Turkish sultan, Suliman the Great, in 1517, Old Jerusalem was still part of the Hashimite kingdom of Jordan, and forbidden to be entered by Jews. [As a side note, It would seem credulous to label as coincidental the idea that an Islamic sultan commenced the rebuilding of physical Jerusalem in the exact same year the Protestant Reformation began the rebuilding of spiritual Jerusalem.]

Then, in the last half of the twentieth-century, things changed - rapidly.

Shortly after dawn, 7:14 am, Monday, June 5, 1967, a secret command was issued that launched the entire Israeli Air Force. Their destination: Egypt, Syria, and ultimately Jordan. Thus began the Arab/Israeli "Six-day War" which, as the name implies, ended six days later, on a Sabbath, with Syria accepting peace negotiations with Israel.

On the fourth day of the war, Thursday, the eighth of June, Israeli commandos drove straight to the heart of then Arab-occupied Old Jerusalem. With an intensity of purpose fueled by what they believed to be two-thousand years of national homelessness, they fought on until they found themselves in the presence of the massive Herodian stones of the ancient Western Wall. Believed to have been once a part, two millennia ago, of the last Jewish temple, the most sacred place in all Judaism was once again under Jewish control. This event portended a fulfillment of prophecy little understood until the beginning of the third millennium. Old Jerusalem was again in the hands of Jews.

Just as the prophecy of Genesis proclaimed that the Jewish Messiah would come at the very end of Israel's sovereignty as a nation, so also, says Michael Travesser, the second coming of Messiah was to be heralded by Jerusalem once again coming under Jewish domination - the "times of the Gentiles" having been fulfilled, i.e., come to an end.

On the morning of June 10th, the last day of the Six-day War, less than forty-eight hours after commandos secured the Western Temple Wall on Mount Moriah, twenty-six-year-old Wayne Curtis Bent, who was destined to be proclaimed by his congregation as Michael the Deliverer, was quietly baptized into the Christian faith in a small church near Poway, California.

History

Michael Travesser was born Wayne Curtis Bent, May 18, 1941 in Riverside, California, the second child of Ralph and Elizabeth Bent. When he was three-years-old, Wayne's mother was killed in an automobile accident near the high desert town of Datil, New Mexico. Wayne and his older sister were passengers in the car, but were unhurt. Not long afterward, Wayne's father remarried, eventually bringing four more younger siblings into the family. Having mostly been raised in Southern California, Wayne also lived for a time with relatives on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

At eighteen, he left home and joined the U.S. Navy, serving until age twenty, being honorably discharged into the Navy Reserves. In 1962, at age twenty-one, Wayne married, and a year later had his first child, a son, followed by two girls.

In 1967, after being a member of the Southern Baptist Church of Poway, California for about two years, and while holding the position of Sunday School teacher, Wayne became convicted of his lost spiritual condition and was converted to Jesus Christ. He relates that at the time of his conversion, God told him to leave the Baptist church, and to keep the Sabbath. At the time he was unfamiliar with the Seventh-day Adventists, whom he later found and joined a short time later.

Soon after joining the fellowship of Seventh-day Adventists, Wayne was called to the ministry, enrolling in ministerial studies at La Sierra College in Riverside. In 1969, while continuing his education, he began serving as a ministerial intern in a small church in Ramona, California, not far from his old home in Poway.

In 1974 Wayne was transferred from Ramona to a church back in Riverside, California, where he served as associate pastor. During this time he also attended Loma Linda University, receiving his master's degree in religion in 1976. After completing his formal education he was assigned as head pastor to the Adventist Church in Colton, California where he served until 1982.

At that time, leaving the salaried position of church pastor, he relocated to Sandpoint, Idaho to begin working full time on the LifeSupports seminars.

Over time Wayne began to notice opposition to his seminar from the Seventh-day Adventist church hierarchy, and from local pastors of Adventist churches where his seminars were held. This resistance developed even though the doctrine presented was clearly set forth in scripture and in the writings of their own prophet, Ellen White, known parochially as The Spirit of Prophecy.

The contention created by the Adventist leadership over what, to Wayne Bent, was an obvious denial of their own foundational beliefs, resulted in the resignation of his ministerial credentials to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and withdrawal from fellowship in that body. This separation closely preceded the birth, in 1987, of the church known as The Lord Our Righteousness.

Wayne Bent is the author of Life and How it Supports You, His Only Gift, and Jesus - The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail.

Related articles:

• Two Messianic Witnesses
• Michael Travesser Says, "Now It All Ends."