The Alabama man was arrested after traveling around the country to California. There, authorities say they threatened churches in the Los Angeles area, claiming they were on God’s mission. Officials have identified the suspect as 38-year-old Joshua Michael Richardson. Also known as Joshua Michael Jericho, he was taken into custody in late August after a series of nasty threats.
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As reported in WVLT 8, Richardson sent an email to St. Michael Abbey in Silverado Canyon on August 19, where he claimed he was “Angel of Michael’s Death” and “A Pale Horse Rider” from the Apocalypse book. Written that he was sent “to reap the Lord before his harvest,” he warned that he would travel from Alabama to a monastery from Alabama, one of the few churches in the country that still practices the East Feast of Michaelmouth.
Authorities said Richardson later attended abbey services, took the priest to a private area and came “to separate the vulnerable from the weeds.” A few days later, Richardson was arrested in Santa Monica. In his car, investigators discovered body armor, a large capacity magazine, brass knuckles and a knife.
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Threats were taken seriously by law enforcement, but what stands out is the way Richardson twisted the Bible to justify his intentions.
Michael is described in the Bible as not an angel of death, but as an archangel protecting God’s people. The “pale horse” of revelation represents the answer to judgments during bit-humiliation, not the role that a person asserts the present. The harvest images used in Matthew and the Book of Revelation describe the angels gathered at the end of their age at the command of God, not the individuals carrying out today’s violence. Even the parable of wheat and tar reveals that the separation between the righteous and the evil one happens at the end of time, not at the hands of the false people.
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Instead of following Christ’s command to preach the gospel and make disciples, Richardson asserted authority that belongs only to God and his appointed agents. His actions show how dangerous it is when someone tries to confuse a symbolic prophecy for a personal mission and carry out God’s judgment on their own.
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We live in an age where many people are fooled and misused the Bible to justify horrifying behaviour. This is evidence of the devil’s oppression and manipulation, highlighting the urgent need for believers to be filled with the discerning power of the Holy Spirit, rooted in Biblical literacy and promised to properly understand God’s Word.
James Rusher is a staff writer for Charismatic Media.
