Vale David Kriss

by Matthew Harris


Three days ago, whilst in that twilight of sleep, the phone brusquely awoke me.  I got up to answer it, only to be greeted by the news that David Kriss is dead.  I have gone through much soul searching over these three days and wish to document my feeling over the passing of David Kriss.

I met David Kriss just after Easter 1993.  I was 22 years old and had completed my undergraduate degree in Music at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA, Melbourne University) and had recently started a Graduate Diploma in Education.  I had made a good friend who attended Blackburn Baptist Church and studied with me at the VCA; he took me to a house in Nth Balwyn to meet a Christian man who ran a house Church meeting.  I remember trudging into David’s house that April evening and sitting through the Bible study and a worship time.  This instigated nearly seven years of involvement with him and the ‘Hope of Israel Ministries’.

I was present during critical times in the life of David and his ministry, I witnessed many of the formative practices (the garments, separation of women & children, prophecy of an Indonesian Invasion, move to the country and purchase of land in Neerim Sth) but mostly, I witnessed David’s life as he lived it out.

I cannot write a hagiography of this man, as he was not saintly in any respect.  I cannot say that I am sorry that he is gone; as it may spare others the pain I have felt and widely witnessed.  However, I was deeply disquieted at the news that David was gone.

As a matter of record the truth needs to be told. David regarded himself and his disciples as the vanguard of true faith.  They would not only be the corrective measure for the worldwide Church, but David would be its leader.  He was the Elijah, heralding the second advent of the Messiah and the prophet given to the Church in the end-times.  However, David was a false prophet in a truly Biblical sense.  He made much of this verse in Matthew’s Gospel:

“Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward...” Matthew 10:41

This verse is taken as a grave warning against disobeying or even doubting, let alone casting aspersions over David Kriss the prophet.  It is clear that the context forbids this type of reading of the text.  In v40-42 the text is about Christ returning kindness that is shown to his servants, those that recognise prophets as prophet, the righteous as righteous and little ones as disciples.  It is not a threat with the type of gravitas that David thinks it is.

However, there are warnings of that type of solemnity in Scripture and they surround the issue of the false prophet.

“But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death…If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.” Deut 18:20&22.

In the light of the New Testament, one should not kill a false prophet, but nonetheless, his prophecy must cease.  Further on is the clear command to not be afraid of him.

I left David’s cult in 1999 after a false prophecy regarding an earthquake to hit Melbourne on 17^th  August that year.  This was to be a precursor to a cataclysmic event surrounding the year 2000 celebrations which involved severe seismic activity and culminating in Australia being annexed by Indonesia; needless to say that the annals of history have demonstrated this prediction to be false.  This, however, is scratching the surface when it comes to David and false prophecy.

David’s understanding of soteriology (salvation) has been coloured by his prophetic declarations, as members are required to submit to a stringent and austere clothing regime, one that is taken from the ancient Jewish and current Muslim world.  His legalism, that has been introduced through mystical spiritual experience and his antipathy to the authority of Scripture have wrought much damage in the lives of his followers.  One’s salvation ends up being directly proportional to the state of one’s relationship with David. One no longer preaches the gospel – rather one ends up discussing and converting people to David’s distinctive teaching.  This was both my experience and the experience of many others; and whether they want to admit it – those still trapped in his deception.

The truly disturbing memories I have of my time there are in regards to the suffering experienced at David’s hands.  He was a cruel man.  Moreover, he was a megalomaniacal bully who demands obedience and enjoyed watching the suffering of others.  There are countless examples of this; however, it is best illustrated by his distain of women.  With alacrity he brutally subjugated them and demanded that they serve the men in the fellowship.  It is not hard to imagine the human toll in this, for instance, a woman in domestic violence who reaches out to David, a man who demands submission in every way to their husbands.  Imagine the family members who lose their children when David makes them commit to him over the family.  David lost his family, therefore his followers must too.  I know a man who was only in the cult for 6 weeks; the change in him caused a split from his wife. 

David championed violence towards children and taught that this was Godly fatherhood. His use of Proverbs 20:30 in corporal punishment of children is particularly sickening:

‘The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil…’

 I followed him in this, a young man learning to be a Christian and a father.

I saw David some eighteen months ago, I bumped into him in a local shopping centre, we arranged an informal chat – I must confess, I wanted to renew my pleas for him to reject his false beliefs, disband his ministry and return to the faith he has abandoned.  It didn’t get that far as he issued a list of demands on how a meeting was to proceed and sealed it with the ‘Thus sayeth the Lord...’ imprimatur.  It was the same temper tantrums he has always had when he doesn’t get his way or loses control of people.

Well David is now gone, gone to stand before his maker.  Jeremiah has the most to say about false prophets especially chapter 23.

‘"For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in My house I have found their wickedness," declares the LORD … For I will bring calamity upon them, The year of their punishment," declares the LORD … "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD.’  v 11-12, 16

It seems that the appointed year of punishment is 2011 for David Kriss and calamity has now come upon him.  I cannot know what his final moments were like, I just know what the Bible says about such people, so I wish it were different – if I only could have got him to listen.

So why am I apprehensive at the news of his death?  David has gone and I need to ensure that his legacy in my life is gone too.  I am the hard, uncompromising, brutal, unloving man that David taught me to be.  Now that he is gone, may his legacy die too.

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