the break was finalized in 1924 with Ivine being excommunicated from the main group. The greater majority of church members remained under the overseers who followed Irvine's "Alpha" revelation. Few were aware of the circumstances of his departure, and no public discussion of the matter seems to have occurred, although rumors of a "mental breakdown" or "indiscretions with women" were spread (the latter may have arisen out of his having fathered a son out of wedlock as a young man prior to his start in ministry). Irvinite loyalists continued to support and be guided by Irvine. Unlike those who continued to follow only his "Alpha Gospel", these refused to adopt any official name, although they came to be known among themselves as the "Message People" or "The Witnesses". To Jerusalem Irvine spent many of the World War I years in America. During this time, he again visited with Pentecostals in Los Angeles, and reportedly experienced the gift of tongues and of interpreting tongues. He returned to his family in Kilsyth, Scotland around September 1919, and moved permanently to Israel in November that year. Although Irvine had become isolated from the general membership of the larger sect, which continued to follow his "Alpha Gospel", many among its leadership continued to maintain contact with him, even making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit with him. During the controversy leading up to the schism between the overseers and Edward Cooney in 1928, Irvine was asked to intervene to settle the dispute, although he limited his involvement to advising Cooney to return to Ireland. The Message Irvine believed that a final "Age of Grace", for which his "Alpha Gospel" had been intended to proclaim, had come to an end in August 1914, and that he had been chosen by God to bring a last message of Jesus Christ to the world before the final judgement (the "Omega Message"). He claimed to be the divinely appointed and foretold prophet and Reader of the Book of Revelation. As part of that role, he would eventually become one of (along with the Apostle John) the Two witnesses of Revelation ch.11 who would have special powers to prophesy and perform miracles, and would be killed in Jerusalem and raised up after 3½ days and taken up to heaven in a cloud prior to the return of Christ. He prophesied that there would be a coming great famine, and