Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Jesus resurrected?

Ok, I know that obviously this claim can't be true, but it is amazing what people are willing to believe. The Globe&Mail is running this story about a cult in Russia where a former traffic cop is claiming to be a reincarnation of Jesus. They call themselves the Vissarionites, and have given up everything to live with their leader way out in the middle of nowhere.

Now, there are two things that I find particularly interesting in this story:

1 - The requirement to give everything to the community, and that their leader lives in relative luxury compared to the people and they serve him. Obviously these people are not reading their Bible, because I cannot imagine Jesus actually wanting people to serve him. From the New Testament, Jesus was the most humble person you could imagine, only interested in bringing God's word to those here on earth.

2 - The requirement to be away and isolated from the rest of society. Although we may be tempted to leave the world to it's own devices and go off on our own, Jesus taught that the message of salvation was to be spread to all who would listen. It must be hard to do that while being isolated off in the wilds of Russia somewhere, eating a vegan diet that doesn't give one enough energy to do anything but get by day-to-day. Which brings up another issue, that of a prescribed diet with only certain foods allowed. This kind of religious law, and the continued breaking of it by the Jews was the primary reason for the crucifiction of Jesus, dying for our sins and the new covenant. Therefore, all that is required to be one of God's children is not adherence to the law, but a belief that Christ is the son of God and salvation is reached through Him only.

From the story, I didn't get the impression that the reporter actually believed any claims of deity, but there were certainly many people who did. What was really scary, is that this cult is set to become a state recognized religion, as it has been in existence now for over 15 years, and in 1997 Boris Yeltsin signed a law requiring any religion to be in existence for 15 years before being recognized as 'traditional'. According to the report this was an

attempt to suppress the bizarre array of religious movements that sprang up after the collapse of the Soviet Union.


I just pray that their application fails, and that more people open their eyes and see the travesty and heresy being commited by this man and his supporters as so many people are taken in by his lies.God_

No comments: