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‘Resurrection’ date in doubt

News24.com, South Africa
July 21, 2004
Tom de Wet
www.news24.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday July 21, 2004

Hertzogville – It seems as if Paul Meintjies’ predicted “resurrection” from the dead has been postponed.

Speculation in this Free State town had been that the late Meintjies would arise from the dead on July 29.

Then, it seemed the momentous occasion would take place on August 5.

However, an upset David Frances, founder of Action for Christ Ministries, who predicted the “resurrection”, said from Durban on Wednesday he had no clue where these dates had come from.

He said: “The Lord can inform me tomorrow at 02:00 that now is the right time, and then I’ll drive to Hertzogville. It may be many more days still. We don’t know when the Lord’s command will come.”

He says people are “putting a spoke in the wheel”.

After Meintjies’ death on July 1, Frances told Anna Meintjes and two of her children, Pieter and Petro Josephs, that God’s message to him was that Meintjies must not be buried because he would rise from the dead.

R250 a day to keep father in mortuary

The family members belong to Frances’s parish, and the choice of whether they wanted to take God’s word to heart or not was left up to them.

They decided to keep Meintjies in the local mortuary, for which they pay R250 a day.

Hertzogville residents and family earlier said the date of July 29 was given to them as when the “resurrection” would take place.

Then, this week, the date was changed to August 5.

Pieter Meintjies told Volksblad on Wednesday they had been strong in their belief from the beginning that the Lord had His own time, and they would wait.

“David told us after my father’s death he would be coming to Hertzogville on July 29, and we asked the funeral director to keep the body till then.

Permit to keep body has expired

“This was a preliminary date. People accepted it as the day my father would rise from the dead.

“This week, the mortician said he had to extend the permit to keep my father’s body for such a long time as it expired on July 29.

“We asked him to extend the permit by a week, so that it expired on August 5. This doesn’t mean my father will rise on this date.

“A big surprise awaits those who are planning to gather here on July 29, as well as for those planning on August 5. My father might awake tomorrow.”