Whats your thoughts?

2/21/2007 9:33:23 PM	Whats your thoughts?
hamandbeans Reading, MI age: 42	I recived this from a friend. Adjust font size: Decrease fontDecrease font Enlarge fontEnlarge font 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 Video) "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. Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty. He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers. And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm? Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood. The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth. "Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross." And de Jesus says that means him. So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin. He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose. "If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle
2/22/2007 11:27:58 PM	Whats your thoughts?
jewelz5 Monteagle, TN age: 53	Whats the mystery hamandbeans...does the Jerry Springer show ring a bell?
2/23/2007 12:40:10 AM	Whats your thoughts?
hamandbeans Reading, MI age: 42	?
2/23/2007 6:16:41 AM	Whats your thoughts?
gawd Appleton, WI age: 53	I agree Jewelz...jerry Springer rings a bell here! LOL [Edited 2/23/2007 6:16:54 AM]
2/25/2007 3:50:16 PM	Whats your thoughts?
sebzalive Pamplin, VA age: 81	ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
2/25/2007 4:19:26 PM	Whats your thoughts?
wolfy9459 Dayton, OH age: 45	A big bell Kenny
2/25/2007 4:22:21 PM	Whats your thoughts?
sebzalive Pamplin, VA age: 81	Ham, Did you think this was a good thing?
2/25/2007 4:26:45 PM	Whats your thoughts?
hamandbeans Reading, MI age: 42	NO i did not i thought it was somewhat scary to be truthfull. Just wounderd what others thought about it.
2/25/2007 4:31:28 PM	Whats your thoughts?
sebzalive Pamplin, VA age: 81	It is very scarey. Right up there with the dead bald people with purple triangles and new tennis shoes catching comets. I think while we may see things differently... we are not that different. SL
5/3/2007 9:43:38 PM	Whats your thoughts?
shyangelgirl Saint Paul, MN age: 33	Hi Ham, to tell ya the truth...I couldn't even finish it. But the part I did read scared the you know what out of me...It was a bit much for me to handle, I will try to finish it at a later date. It's more than creepy...Oh Lord help us all.
5/6/2007 8:22:52 PM	Whats your thoughts?
newspring Madison, SD age: 53	Hamandbeans, these are my thoughts 2Ti.3:8 Now just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are hostile to and oppose the Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned. Mt.24:4 Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you (deceiving you and leading you into error). 5For many will come in (on the strength of) My Name (appropriating the name which belongs to Me), saying, I am the Christ(the Messiah), and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place; 8 All this is the beginning (the early pains) of the birth pangs (of the intolerable anguish). 9 Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. 10 And then many will be offended and repelled and will begin to distrust and desert (Him Whom they ought to trust and obey) and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred. 11 And many false prophets will rise up and deceive and lead many into error. 12 And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, 13 But he who endures to the end will be saved.
5/7/2007 1:05:22 PM	Whats your thoughts?
viklet Arlington, TX age: 51	If he said he knew he was Napoleon, Henry the IIIX, or Robin Hood He would be somewhere that has a rubber room handy. If you say you are Jesus you can run around scamming the people stupid enough to believe in you. They have an equal number of screws loose.

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