The Anti-Christ Cometh?

From CNN:

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.

But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.

De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )

"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.

"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."

Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?

Prophets 'spoke to me'

De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia," Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.

But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.

De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.

De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.

The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:

Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.

De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.

The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.

You can read more about the "messiah" here.

So, where to begin . . . .

It's entirely possible this guy had some kind of higher state experience of speaking with "angels" or something, which is how someone at his apparent developmental level might interpret such an experience. But that higher state experience has clearly been translated through the lens of his much lower stage, not to mention his apparent narcissism and other possible neuroses.

The fact that anyone believes him is what boggles the mind. It's one thing for some guy to proclaim himself the son of God, it's another for anyone to believe the nutjob.

The interesting thing here, to me, is that there is a grain of truth in some of what he says. There is no devil and no sin, at least not in the way the Christians typically think of those concepts. And really, we all are imbued with the essence of God, whatever that may be.

The diamond encrusted Rolex, however, and the armored cars don't really speak well to the supposed God in this man. Maybe he is the anti-Christ -- I certainly don't much of anything Christ-like in him.

Tags: anti-christ, CNN, 666, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, Creciendo en Gracia, Miami