Why I claim to be the Christ
By a curious coincidence, I have lived in an Eden zone for all of my life. It is a place and it is a state of mind. The place inspires the state of mind just as the beauty of this planet has inspired countless human beings over the course of history.
The place is a holy place, a shrine without the adoration, but a shrine nonetheless. It is a place where God walks with men and women and they are happy. There is great happiness in Eden.
My Eden is where I grew up in Pennyburn, Derry city, Ireland. It specifically revolves around Maybrook Park, the Belmont football pitches, and St Patrick’s Primary School, Pennyburn. Our park is enclosed on all sides by a primary school, a nursery school, two special needs schools, an adult special needs training centre, a Mormon Church and the Belmont pitches.
It is truly an Eden.
I have been suffering from manic-depressive illness at various degrees of severity since I was twenty-four. At times during my life it was difficult to think of a good reason why I was going through what I was going through. I knew it was God’s will, and I believed that in a literal sense.
I thought that there was a chance that I was the great auditor from heaven, who was checking the way that the least of God’s children were being treated. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. It had all happened. Thirsty, I had called at the door of a stranger and he had given me cups of water. I was found naked by a roadside, and clothed. I was in the ICU, a prison, within a hospital and people had visited me.
So in a sense I sensed that I was the Christ. I had absolutely no doubt about it at times. God was guiding me as a person to the conclusion that I was his son. I had only to look at where I lived and I found some intriguing coincidences.
Derry was important to me. It was the New Jerusalem so far as I was concerned. Coincidentally, it had the walled inner city, the most complete set of walls in Europe, and these walls were symbolic of the New Jerusalem’s walls in the Book of Revelation. It is quite a coincidence that Derry has these walls.
Indeed the old Jerusalem had its walls, which the Romans had destroyed only to find that a new empire, based in a different part of the world, and in a different era, had built another beautiful fortress where the Lamb was to reside.
Derry, the place of so much oppression over the last several hundred years, was the place where the 144,000 citizens, who had the name of the Lamb and his father written on their foreheads, were to reside.
Then I looked and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father’s name written on their foreheads. (Rev 14:1)
Thus the Lamb was to have a name, and his father was to have a name, and in human terms this name would be significant for the 144,000 who lived in the New Jerusalem.
I interpreted the phrase ‘written on their foreheads’ in a unique manner, but it was probably the only meaningful interpretation. To me, it meant that the name was to be so obvious that no-one could miss it. My name held special significance now that I realised that names were all-important.
I had by coincidence the most famous surname in the history of Ireland, O’Connell, due to the efforts of the Liberator of Irish Catholics, Daniel O’Connell, and it was fitting that my name, the name of the Irish Christ, was to be coincidentally so. It was the most powerful name in the Irish historical sense, immersing the Irish Christ into the midst of Irish history and culture even further.
But the Liberator coincidentally had a son called John O’Connell, and so in a sense I was the son of the Liberator, another way of saying the Son of God, the ultimate liberator.
But my name was even more important in the context of Derry, the New Jerusalem. The walled city of Derry was situated in a peninsula called Inishowen, or in English, the island, as it formerly was, of John. So coincidentally I lived on the island of John.
But the peninsula was situated in the ancient kingdom of Tyrconnell, meaning in Irish, ‘the land of Connell’. So coincidentally I also lived in the land of Connell.
I was John O’Connell, John of the clan Connell, living on ‘the island of John in the land of Connell’, my name and my father’s name ‘written on their foreheads’ (Rev 14:1), or so obvious it couldn’t be missed. It was a monumental coincidence. I was the Lamb of God. I had no doubt about that.
There was also the saint Colmcille, the founder of Derry, who made prophecies about the city.
The king who will cause a lasting change,
Shall be from Desmond – the prediction is correct –
Goodness forever after that time.
(From The Prophesies of St Malachy and St Colmbkille by Peter Bander (Colin Smythe Gerrards Cross) )
Colmcille predicted that a king from Desmond would come to cause ‘a lasting change’. He emphasises that the prophecy is correct when he refers to the man from Desmond.
There shall be ‘goodness forever after that time’. What’s the betting that Colmcille is actually referring to the second coming of Christ when he refers to the man from Desmond?
I would say that it’s a safe bet that he is doing this.
Desmond was a kingdom in the times of Colmcille, roughly centred around county Kerry. Although I am not from county Kerry, my surname is. On top of this fact, my middle name is coincidentally Desmond. My full name, therefore, John Desmond O’Connell, is significant in that it coincidentally takes account of both the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and the prophecies of the founding saint of Derry, Colmcille.
It is also true that I have written many books now which have various degrees of judgement contained in them. That is not a coincidence. I believe that in writing them I have been performing my solemn duty.
And, of course, there will always be a John the Baptist figure if there is a Christ. John Hume, the Nobel Laureate, and former leader of the SDLP, is mine.
In other words, I can through coincidences connect myself to the second coming of Christ. But they really are very rich coincidences, and those who try to dismiss them would have little love in their heart and indeed much bad faith.
