Guide Note

73 year-old House of Yahweh founder and leader Yisrayl Bill Hawkins was arrested May 15, 2008, for the second time on charges of bigamy, the unlawful act of having more than one wife simultaneously. Members who have left the sect confirm that Hawkins has at least 24 wives and the state reports that he fathered two children last year with two different woman.

Hawkins proclaimed to the world that a nuclear war would take place on September 12, 2006, and when that prediction failed to materialize, he amended his statement to say the war was "conceived" on that date but would actually take place nine months later.

Fast Facts

1. Birth name: Buffalo Bill Hawkins
2. Birth date: August 28, 1934
3. Residence: Abilene, Texas
4. Legally changed his name to Yisrayl Bill Hawkins
5. Formerly a Country-Western singer and Abilene police officer

Hawkins founded the sect in 1980 and is a self-proclaimed prophet who teaches that he and his brother J. G. (Yaaqob) Hawkins were sent by Yahweh (God) to ready the world for the Second Coming of Yahshua (Jesus). According to his former wife Kay, he began to teach polygamist beliefs after being exposed in an affair with the church secretary.

His followers live in mobile homes, trailer parks or nearby houses and not on the compound grounds. They are required to tithe one third of their earnings to the church.

After Hawkins affair was exposed: "He began to rewrite the Scriptures. Any Scripture that did not go along with more than one wife was rewritten to imply that it was all right to have more than one wife.""—Kay Hawkins, former wife

"I'm not asking much out of you - I'm just asking that you be willing to die rather than leave this house."—Yisrayl Bill Hawkins to church members