| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Noahs Dove" |
| Date: |
06 Aug 2007 01:13:35 AM |
| Object: |
"For many shall come in my name..." |
They Call Him Jesus of Siberia
At least 5,000 people have moved to Siberia to follow a former traffic
police officer they believe is Jesus Christ.
By Kevin Sullivan
The Washington Post
=EF=BF=BC
Kevin Sullivan / The Washington Post
Torop=E2=80=99s followers holding their morning prayers in the circular gar=
den
that lies at the center of the village they are building in Siberia.
ABODE OF DAWN, Russia =E2=80=94 Ten kilometers from the nearest road, in the
vast Siberian wilderness, a bearded man in flowing white linen robes
sat at his kitchen table and talked about his crucifixion at the hands
of Pontius Pilate 2,000 years ago.
In a voice barely louder than the rain falling on the mountaintop home
his followers have built for him, Sergei Torop said it was painful to
remember the end of his last life, in which he says he walked the
Earth as Jesus Christ.
Torop, 46, is a former Siberian traffic police officer who is now the
spiritual leader of at least 5,000 devoted followers. They have
abandoned lives as artists, engineers and professionals in other
fields to move to this corner of Siberia, 3,200 kilometers from
Moscow. In empty woodlands, they are building from scratch an entire
new town, where they pass their lives near the man they call
Vissarion, =E2=80=9Che who gives new life.=E2=80=9D
Government officials and religion analysts call his Church of the Last
Testament one of the largest new religious groups in the country,
which has become an incubator of novel faiths since the Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991.
Thousands of new religious groups have formed all over the world in
recent years as increasing numbers of people become disillusioned with
traditional religions, according to experts who study worship trends.
In Russia, millions of people returned to the Orthodox Church after
seven decades of state suppression of religion, but hundreds of
thousands of others sought new faiths for new times.
Periodically, Torop comes down from his mountaintop home to meet his
followers, who bow down and worship him. On Sundays, he receives them
at his house. Torop has also preached in Moscow, Western Europe and
the United States. Critics variously dismiss him as a delusional or
perhaps dangerous cult leader. But people who have flocked here
declare themselves certain of his divinity.
=E2=80=9CWhen I saw Vissarion, my heart said, =E2=80=98This is him. This is=
the one,
the teacher I have been waiting for all my life,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D said Lyu=
ba Derbina,
44, a former Red Cross translator from Murmansk. =E2=80=9CYes, I believe he=
is
Jesus Christ. I know it, like I know I=E2=80=99m breathing, and that=E2=80=
=99s it.=E2=80=9D
It was already sticky-hot and spitting rain at 7 a.m. one recent day
as a hundred people gathered for morning prayers. Most were in their
30s and 40s. They met, as they do every day, at the circular garden
they are building at the center of the village.
Kneeling in the muddy grass, they sang hymns amid the tall pines and
soaring white birch trees. Others became lost in silent prayer: One
woman didn=E2=80=99t seem to notice the bugs on her bare ankles, already
scarred with bloody bites.
Then they gathered beneath the community basketball hoop and divvied
up chores for the day: Work crews were dispatched to create roads and
paths; to re-channel mountain streams into plastic tubes for household
water supply; and to run workshops on woodcarving and embroidery.
Despite harsh winters when temperatures can dip to minus 50 degrees
Celsius, more than 250 people live in the growing village. They have
named it the Abode of Dawn. Some 4,000 to 5,000 more followers live in
about 40 other villages scattered along old logging roads within a few
hours=E2=80=99 drive.
Framed photos of Torop, wearing purple robes, hang in hundreds of
small wooden homes. Here they measure time by the life of Vissarion.
Because he turned 46 in January, the followers are now living in Year
47.
By Torop=E2=80=99s order, alcohol, drugs and smoking are strongly discourag=
ed,
and everyone maintains a strict vegetarian diet. The villagers try to
eat only what they grow, supplemented by big sacks of basics such as
sugar, grain, salt, flour =E2=80=94 and the occasional box of Earl Grey tea.
The emphasis on environmental awareness is part of Torop=E2=80=99s teaching=
s,
contained in a nine-volume =E2=80=9CLast Testament=E2=80=9D and 61 commandm=
ents. He
preaches kindness to all, nonaggression and peace. His commandments
include =E2=80=9CBe pure in your thoughts,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CDo good deeds =
beyond all measure=E2=80=9D
and =E2=80=9CDestroy nothing without reason.=E2=80=9D
The Believers
Galina Oshepkova, 54, said that 18 months ago she was a divorced
mother of two sons, searching for meaning in her life in her native
Belarus. Then a friend showed her a videotape of Torop. To her, she
recalled, he looked so much like the classic images of Jesus, with his
long brown hair and beard. In his sermon, he said he had come back to
Earth because people had forgotten his teachings about peace from
2,000 years earlier.
=E2=80=9CThat was the end of my search,=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 Oshepkova said, b=
oiling porridge
over a propane stove in her dirt-floor kitchen. =E2=80=9CI felt my heart
beating really fast, and I knew, =E2=80=98This is the truth. This is Him.=
=E2=80=99 He
is the second incarnation of Jesus Christ.=E2=80=99=E2=80=99
Oshepkova gave her apartment and all her possessions to her sons and
moved to Siberia. She said she arrived with two suitcases and no
money, and was invited to move in with other followers. She is now
married to Nikolai Oshepkov, an engineer also from Belarus. Now he
designs the village=E2=80=99s network of solar panels and generators and its
rudimentary networks of piped water.
=E2=80=9CWe are building heaven on Earth,=E2=80=9D Oshepkov said. =E2=80=9C=
The conditions here
are severe. Life is physically hard. But we have found what we were
waiting for.=E2=80=9D
=EF=BF=BC
Kevin Sullivan / The Washington Post
Priest Sergei Chavalkov lighting a candle under a photo of Torop in a
temple in the village.
Alexander Dvorkin, a Moscow academic and one of Russia=E2=80=99s leading
specialists on new religions, called Torop a cult leader who is
exploiting vulnerable followers.
=E2=80=9CTo have this kind of control over people is bad,=E2=80=9D Dvorkin =
said. He
estimated that as many as 800,000 Russians are members of religious
sects.
Torop=E2=80=99s followers, he said, are idealists who have had difficulty
adjusting to the freewheeling new world of Russian capitalism.
=E2=80=9CThey think, =E2=80=98I am more important than you because I am wit=
h Jesus.
The end of the world will come, and where will you be with your money
and big car?=E2=80=99=E2=80=99=E2=80=99
Many followers interviewed said they were happy to give their money to
a community they found so rewarding, but Dvorkin said it amounted to
Torop fleecing them. Assets turned over by followers are the main
income of the group; it also earns money from sales of handicrafts,
such as woodcarvings, knitting, pottery and oil pressed from cedar
nuts.
Some one-time followers later dropped out. Maria Karpinskaya, 55, was
a divorced mother of one when she met Torop in 1992 in Moscow. She
moved to Siberia. At first, she said in an interview in Moscow, Torop
seemed like a strong spiritual leader who dreamed of creating a
=E2=80=9Cbeautiful life =E2=80=94 like a new America.=E2=80=9D In 1995, she=
said, she came to
the conclusion that Torop was only claiming to be Jesus for personal
gain.
=E2=80=9CThe hypnosis disappeared and I realized my life was ruined,=E2=80=
=9D she
said. =E2=80=9CHe doesn=E2=80=99t believe he is Jesus Christ. He is just ma=
nipulating
people. It=E2=80=99s PR, it=E2=80=99s a brand. Jesus is a brand.=E2=80=9D
Home With the Stars
There is only one path up to Torop=E2=80=99s mountaintop home. Boris Mozhin=
, a
mechanical engineer from Moldova, acts as the leader=E2=80=99s gatekeeper.
Mozhin sits at a window next to a Soviet army crank phone,
supplemented by two cell phones and a radiophone on a desk. A large
portrait of Torop hangs on the wall.
=E2=80=9CWhen you are with a person you love, your heart beats faster =E2=
=80=94 that=E2=80=99s
what it=E2=80=99s like to be with the teacher,=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 said Mozhi=
n, 54, who moved
here nine years ago with his wife, also an engineer.
Past a shed filled with neatly cut cordwood and a snowmobile, Torop
stood in his kitchen doorway in white robes, awaiting two visitors.
His house has three floors and a majestic panoramic view down to the
village and wilderness beyond.
He and his wife live here, along with the younger of their six
children. The older ones live in the village with Torop=E2=80=99s mother, w=
ho
is divorced from his father.
Torop spends most of his days in the house painting and praying,
followers say. He asked the guests to sit with him, folded his hands
and said, in a soft voice, =E2=80=9CHow may I help you?=E2=80=9D
His hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail streaked with gray; he
had soft hazel eyes and high cheekbones.
Speaking slowly, with long pauses, he said he had a typical upbringing
as the son of a Siberian construction worker. At 18, he joined the
Soviet army and spent two years on a construction unit. In 1985, he
took a job as a traffic cop working the night shift.
=E2=80=9CWhen I had to do street patrols, I would just watch the stars,=E2=
=80=9D he
said. =E2=80=9CI felt clearly that the stars were my home.=E2=80=9D
Sometime around 1990, when he was 29, he recounted, =E2=80=9Csomething woke=
up
inside of me=E2=80=9D and he realized his divine nature. He said he then
understood that God had sent him to Earth because hatred and war and
environmental degradation had become rampant.
=E2=80=9CTo do what I=E2=80=99m called to do, I need to have a human body,=
=E2=80=9D he said.
=E2=80=9CI live in a body in order to bring man closer to God.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CThis is the first time I have been needed in 2,000 years. This is a
critical point. Only when mankind becomes one family on Earth will the
doors to the universe become open to them.=E2=80=9D
Matt.24
[5] For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall
deceive many.
Mark.13
[6] For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall
deceive many.
Luke.21
[8] And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall
come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye
not therefore after them.
Matt.24
[24] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and
shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mark.13
[22] For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall
shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the
elect.
Vissarion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
=EF=BF=BC
=EF=BF=BC Vissarion
=EF=BF=BC
=EF=BF=BC Tiberkul church
=EF=BF=BC
=EF=BF=BC A painting by Vissarion
Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop (Russian: =D0=A1=D0=B5=D1=80=D0=B3=D0=B5=D0=B9 =
=D0=90=D0=BD=D0=B0=D1=82=D0=BE=D0=BB=D1=8C=D0=B5=D0=B2=D0=B8=D1=87 =D0=A2=
=D0=BE=D1=80=D0=BE=D0=BF), known
by his followers as Vissarion (=D0=92=D0=B8=D1=81=D1=81=D0=B0=D1=80=D0=B8=
=D0=BE=D0=BD), is a Russian mystic. He was
born January 14, 1961. He founded and heads a religious movement known
as the Church of the Last Testament with its head church in the
Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk Depression east of Abakan, in the
southern Siberia Kuraginsk district of Krasnoyarsk territory. He has
around 4,000 followers (called Vissarionites) in around thirty
villages in the immediate vicinity of his base at Sun City.
Vissarion claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus. He teaches
reincarnation, veganism, and the impending end of the world, or at
least of civilization as we know it. In May 1990, aged 29, Vissarion
claims to have experienced a mystical revelation. He first spoke
publicly in Minusinsk on 18 August 1991. He founded the "Church of the
Last Testament" (=D0=A6=D0=B5=D1=80=D0=BA=D0=BE=D0=B2=D1=8C =D0=9F=D0=BE=D1=
=81=D0=BB=D0=B5=D0=B4=D0=BD=D0=B5=D0=B3=D0=BE =D0=97=D0=B0=D0=B2=D0=B5=D1=
=82=D0=B0), also known as "Community
of Unified Faith".
He was born in Krasnodar; after service in the Red Army, he settled in
Minusinsk. He worked as a traffic policeman before losing his job in
1989. In 1991 he was "reborn" as Vissarion, the returned Jesus Christ.
In his system this does not make him God, but instead the word of God.
His religion combines elements of the Russian Orthodox Church with
Buddhism, apocalypticism, collectivism, and ecological values. His
followers observe strict regulations, are vegans, and are allowed no
vices such as smoking or drinking alcohol. Money is banned. The aim of
the group is to unite all religions on Earth.
Vissarion is also a painter.
Tiberkul, the settlement in the Taiga, was established in 1994 on a
territory of 2.5 square kilometres, and today counts some five
thousand inhabitants, largely living autochthonous and on ecological
principles. It is centered around the villages of Petropavlovka and
Cheremshanka, at ca. 53=C2=B053=E2=80=B2N, 93=C2=B045=E2=80=B2E. The settle=
ment is now also
called Ecopolis and has a three-tiered structure: the Town itself
(Abode of Dawn), the Heavenly Abode, and the Temple Peak.
Vissarion's sect is estimated to have some ten thousand adherents,
with claims of up to 50,000 adherents in eighty-three communities
spread over 150 square kilometers.
Since 1992, biographer Vadim Redkin (born 1958) has published an
annual volume detailing Vissarion's activities. Vissarion has
attracted a number of followers from Germany's esoterical subculture,
and seven volumes of Vadim's account have been translated into German.
[edit]See also
=E2=96=AA List of people who have claimed to be Jesus
[edit]External links
=E2=96=AA Official Russian-language website
=E2=96=AA English-language website
=E2=96=AA Audiovisual journalism piece about the movement
=E2=96=AA Globe and Mail: Jesus Lives
=E2=96=AA The Washington Post: Novel Faiths Find Followers Among Russia's
Disillusioned
=E2=96=AA The Guardian on him
=E2=96=AA Section in news about religion in Russia listed under "Sect in
Siberia
=E2=96=AA Sydney Morning Herald article
=E2=96=AA http://www.vissarion-unifaith.org/main.phtml
Categories: Articles lacking sources from July 2006 | All articles
lacking sources | 1961 births | Russian religious leaders | Mystics |
Russian vegans | Living people | Charismatic religious leaders |
Siberia | Abrahamic religions
List of people who have claimed to be Jesus Christ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from List of people who have claimed to be Jesus)
Jump to: navigation, search
The list of people who claimed to be Jesus Christ consists of those
notable people who have made statements about being Jesus Christ.
Who
Image
When
Claim
John Nichols Thom born 1799 Cornishman who claimed to be the
reincarnation of Jesus Christ and his body temple of the Holy Ghost.
He was killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on
May 31, 1838 in Kent, England.
Ayya Vaikundar 1833=E2=80=931851 According to Akilattirattu Ammanai, the
scripture of Ayyavazhi Narayana, who was one among the trinity in
Vaikundar was the one who incarnated as Jesus.
Klaus Kinski 1926=E2=80=931991 Famous Polish-German actor who developed =
the
idea that he was Jesus after performing as him in a monologue; while
filming Aguirre, the Wrath of God, he often slipped into the Jesus
role. As director Werner Herzog said, "Often, it was difficult to talk
to him, because he answered like Jesus" [1].
Jim Jones May 13, 1931 =E2=80=93 November 18, 1978 Claimed to be the
reincarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine.
[2] (see Jonestown).
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh December 11, 1931 =E2=80=93 January 19, 1990) He
claimed to realize he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ [3].
Matayoshi Jesus born 1944 In 1997 He established the World Economic
Community Party based on his conviction that he is the God and Christ.
[4]
Marshall Applewhite 1945=E2=80=931997 Applewhite posted a famous Usenet
message declaiming, "I, Jesus=E2=80=94Son of God=E2=80=94acknowledge on thi=
s date of
September 25/26, 1995: =E2=80=A6.[5] This was two years before he and his
Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide to rendezvous with a spaceship
hiding behind the comet Hale-Bopp.
Hogen Fukunaga born 1945 He claimed to realize he was the
reincarnation of Jesus Christ and the Buddha [6].
Suma Ching Hai Birth date unknown, possible late 1950s A meditation
teacher who claims to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara and a living
reincarnation of the Buddha and Jesus Christ. [7] [8]
Sergei Torop born 1961 Russian who claims to be "reborn" as
Vissarion, the returned Jesus Christ. He founded the Church of the
Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in
Southern Siberia. [9]
Grigory Grabovoy born 1963 A Russian religious leader who claims
the ability to abolish death, resurrect the dead, cure cancer and
AIDS, teleport, pinpoint mechanical problems on airplanes, and that he
is Jesus. He promised grieving mothers of the 2004 Beslan school
hostage crisis that he could resurrect their dead children for an
amount of rubles roughly equal to US$1500, each.
[edit] Religious leaders
* Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda =E2=80=94 Organizer of the Growing in Grace
who claims that the resurrected Christ "integrated himself within
me.".
* Luc Jouret =E2=80=94 Leader of the Order of the Solar Temple and was
believed to be the third reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
* Maitreya =E2=80=94 The expected world teacher who is promoted by the
British author Benjamin Creme.
* Charles Manson =E2=80=94 Founder of "The Family".
* Jung Myung Seok =E2=80=94 Founder of Providence Church, international
fugitive wanted for rape among other crimes.
[edit] Others
* Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko =E2=80=94 A supporter of the New Chronolo=
gy,
claims that Jesus Christ is the same person as the prophet Elisha,
Saint Basil of Caesarea, and Pope Gregory VII.
* Vince Taylor =E2=80=94 Musician.
* G.G. Allin =E2=80=94 Claimed to be "Jesus Christ, God and Satan all in
one."
* Mehmet Ali Agca a Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope
John Paul II
* Tom Graeff =E2=80=94 filmmaker who claimed to be Jesus Christ II in t=
he
early 1960s
* David Icke =E2=80=94 Claimed he was the Son of God on UK chatshow
'Wogan' in 1991.[citation needed] He later refuted his claim, saying
that the media had misinterpreted his remarks.
[edit] Notes
1. ^ From My Best Fiend. the documentary detailing his life.
2. ^ Galanter, Marc (1999). Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion.
Oxford University Press; 2nd edition. ISBN 0-19-512370-0. (meta-
citation)
3. ^ Fear is the Master, a video that uncovers the cult of Rajneesh
[10]
4. ^ "After the Upper House Election, Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi should hand the seat of the Prime Minister to Jesus Matayoshi,
the one true God."Cgunson
5. ^ I, Jesus=E2=80=94Son of God=E2=80=94acknowledge on this date of Sep=
tember
25/26, 1995: 1. I am about to return to my Father's Kingdom. 1A. This
"return" requires that I prepare to lay down my borrowed human body in
order to take up, or reenter, my body (biological) belonging to the
Kingdom of God (as I did appx. 2000 years ago when I laid down the
body that was about 33 years old in order to reenter my body belonging
to the Kingdom of Heaven). Marshall Applewhite (1995). UNDERCOVER
JESUS SURFACES. alt.consciousness.mysticism. Retrieved August 15,
2005.
6. ^ Link to a BBC article on his statements and claims.
7. ^ For the past three weeks the face of "the master", as her
followers call her, has smiled out from laminated posters tied to
traffic lights and road signs advertising the event and bearing the
message: "See the living god". Mullins, Andrew. "Cult warning on
travelling 'god'", The Independent (London), 20 June 1999.
8. ^ Followers of Suma Ching Hai claim she is the living
reincarnation of Buddha and Jesus Christ, and go so far as to drink
her bathwater and buy up her used personal items, marketed as
"Celestial Clothing." One disciple bought her sweat socks for $ 1,100
because "when the Master leaves the physical world, at least I will
have her socks." Phillips, Andrew. "Cash and the campaign", Maclean
Hunter Limited, 13 January 1997.
9. ^ In an article from The Guardian he states: "It's all very
complicated," he starts quietly. "But to keep things simple, yes, I am
Jesus Christ. That which was promised must come to pass. And it was
promised in Israel 2,000 years ago that I would return, that I would
come back to finish what was started. I am not God (My emphasis). And
it is a mistake to see Jesus as God. But I am the living word of God
the Father. Everything that God wants to say, he says through me".
http://www.lighthousetrails.com/formanyshallcome.htm
=EF=BF=BCDiscusses the following:
1=2E The Age of Aquarius and its meaning in today's world
2. New Age practices like Reiki and yoga
3. Harry Potter and real witchcraft
4. The law of attraction and Oprah
5. Present day New Age prophets
6. Yoga in the public schools
7. Tantric sexuality and its spiritual risks
8. The Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism)
9. Wicca and its growing appeal
10. The occultic explanation of the Holocaust
11. Interspirituality and the coming false Messiah
12. The New Age as a force in politics
13. New Age hostility toward the church
14. The New Age in light of biblical prophecy
=EF=BF=BCRay Yungen, author, speaker and research analyst has studied
religious movements for the last twenty years. He is also the author
of A Time of Departing. He is available for radio and television
interviews and for seminars, conferences and college assemblies. His
exuberance for life and his love for Jesus Christ and for people are
evident in his writing. Mr. Yungen resides in Salem, Oregon.
Most people believe the New Age has been long gone from our society,
and if practiced at all now it is only by unconventional fringe
types. For Many Shall Come in My Name reveals this is not the case.
In fact, quite the opposite has occurred. The New Age movement (a term
not normally used by its proponents) has permeated virtually all
aspects of our society. This "Ancient Wisdom" spirituality can be
quite readily encountered in the following fields: Business,
Education, Health, Self- Help, Religion, and Arts & Entertainment.
This book examines them all.
=C2=A0
"I have read many books on the New Age Movement; the most concise and
informative, in my opinion is For Many Shall Come In My Name by Ray
Yungen"
Clyde Snobelen
Revelation Publishing
.
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