All Comments (15)

Of course, everyone knows when Jesus returns he will be blond haired, blue eyed and speak English. God would never let Jesus return as a Russian, for Christ's sake.

Fine Anonymous..

And now a rousing recitation of the 23rd Psalm:

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9e7c4b40cf5a13cea6ca

Now. This is a must see Anon. It is guaranteed to make even a cranky atheist smile..

Thank you Michael for clearing this mess all up.

As we begin the Lenten season:

Book of Common Prayer Daily Office Lectionary
February 6

Ash Wednesday
Ps. 95, 32, 143; Ps. 102, 130; Amos 5:6-15; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/bcp/

Press listen.

C'mon now Bish, your fellow-Blighty Elvis Costello said it true: "What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?"

Surely you don't imagine the Anglican Communion has a monopoly on these? Oh, we do? Perhaps that explains, then, why we're currently riven by strident cries of schism and calls for division.

Let's not get too hung up on the issue of Vissarion's messianic bona fides. For what is more important, the messenger or the Message? And has he not, at least, been granted the same spark of the divine flame just as each of us has? And did not Jesus say, "Let your light shine before all people..."?

Vissarion's message is simple, straightforward and distinctly both Christlike and apostolic. But alas -- he has no D.D. and hence no street cred amongst the scarlet-cassock set. But then, neither would that itinerant 1st-century outlaw rabbi.

Hoax you say? Speak of the Devil.

I see you're borrowing a play from the Gospel play book, Jesus came but only a precious few believed. As the Jews rejected Jesus you're rejecting the reincarnated Jesus.

By your own rules you cannot prove He is not Jesus reincarnate. You can't kill him because Jesus could be back for a "booster" shot or dying to save the world as just one example of how an Almighty God that can be crucified has serious shortcomings.

Try http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul and remember that as God has but one son there are many Devils that can and do breed houses full of offspring. Maybe this fellow is the brother of Jesus. Devils lie and want to be God you know.

For your sake I hope this fellow isn't Jesus reincarnate but then by saying Jesus was the son of God you commit the only deadly sin, blasphemy. So I don't suppose it matters much one way or the other in the case of followers of Jesus.

This Siberian con man should have declared himself the new Jesus and new Mohammed incarnated into one. Or maybe Jesus, Mohammed and Joseph Smith for a new trinity? Hmmm, the Obfuscating Jihadist then would have to deal with old Mo up front and personal. Since she never does that, we reiterate her true thinking about the warmongering, long dead and "stenchifying" Arab and his hallucinogen-based religion.

1. Believes in "pretty/ugly wingie" thingies and teaches her children that such fictional things really exist.

2. Believes that the long-dead Arab did actually talk to the "pretty Gabriel" in the hot "Gabe" cave and therein received the warmongering and anti-female words now listed in the koran.

3. That being a Sunni she is superior to Shiites in all aspects of life.

4. That Islam is perfect and the koran inherently condones no sin even though the 24/7, 800 year-old blood feud between Sunnis and Shiites gives significant credence that greed, hate, suicides, assassinations, maiming, and murder are condoned by the koran. Having multiple wives also gives significant credence to the sins of rape, adultery, lust and polygamy. The condoned treatment of these wives gives credence that the koran allows the sins of hatred, anger and greed.

Hi, J. :)

I think in understanding reincarnation claims, (and being someone from a religion that holds to the reality of reincarnation,) ...it's important to understand what goes through the mind of someone claiming to be a reincarnated celebrity, or even a 'channeler' or anything like that.

Christians and certain others are often rather burdened by the idea that one *has* to be either Jesus or Satanic in order to interpret these experiences in any way other than really exists in their conceptual world. Leads to a certain bias toward grandiosity: ie people have certain experiences and believe it *has* to be just that special, if it's special at all.

Leaning on authorities'll do that to one.

My observation is that those who are attached to this sort of worldview will fall over themselves to contest and deny claims, (or for some, fall into step behind em,) ...without ever really *listening* to what their possibly-spirit-touched-folk actually say.

Frankly, I'm not too interested in psychoanalyzing the guy from across the world, (Well, ok, that *is* interesting to me, but I hope I know better) ...I suggest that it might be more productive for some to think along the lines of: "What if it *was* 'for real?' How would we deal, and why?"

In terms of this forum, I see a lot of people demanding Bible-based authority over my simple Pagan life, yet pish-poshing the idea that the Jesus I'm supposed to worry about might actually come back.

Their world. Interesting how they deal with it.

Bishop N. Thomas Wright,

Thank you for your essay.

Vissarion may sound like a low-grade version of self-help religion you get in popular bookshops, bits and pieces of this and that, so perhaps we should consider his appeal - why and how in Siberia.

Perhaps it is because religion has become a gobbledygook of mind twisting theology that Vissarion's appeal was due to the simplicity of his message as Jesus was?

I don't Vissarion to say he is seriously deluded or a muddled hoaxer, but he saw a vacuum, a gap and filled it.

Thank you and best regards

"J"

One would think that a religion all in my face about all manner of stuff on the basis I'm supposed to believe Jesus is coming back, would be less hasty about dismissing the actual claims. :)

You never know. :)

He definitely sounds kind of New Age, but then again, that's how they sold the original guy, too, theoretically. Fact is, calling him a kook for not making apocalyptic claims about books and such things as actually make less sense than what this fellow says, seems kind of amusing to me.

Plenty of folks out there make claims to being reincarnated teachers and prophets, ...usually don't have the details to verify it, ...but personally, I take a more practical view: how good are you at it *now.* :)

I certainly think there'd be little point to someone coming back and saying the same thing as people thought he said a couple thousand years ago, so I wouldn't think modernity would be a disqualifier as such.

If you go in for that sort of thing in the first place, that is. :)

"A man in Siberia named "Vissarion" who has 5,000 followers claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ."

So he claims to be the reincarnation of the resurrected Christ? That's mind boggling!

Now on to to more important things - the beginning of Lent, taking up the cross, confession, acts of mercy, etc.

Nice idea Mr. Mark to bad for that idea that almost no Christians outside of the Catholic Church accept the notion of Transsubstantiation. There are three versions of Christian thought on the Eucarist. To abbreviate Trans, con, and purely symbolic. with to my mind not exactly a whole lot of difference between the latter two.

Two options: Delusion or Hoax -- I wish NT Wright had considered only these two options when he wrote his book about the resurrection.

Mr. Mark,

Most excellent idea!!!

Continuing on- No, this guy is a fraud and charlatan akin to con men who use fortune telling spiels. No different than the religious con prophets in the fictional OT, Mohammed's "Gabe-fest" in the koran, the Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John fortune telling/embellishments of the NT, the "Mormon-con" of Joseph Smith and the "prophet" gibberish of JOSEVZ.

Option Three: prove that this guy isn't Jesus.

A simple comparison of his DNA with the DNA of a transubstantiated communion wafer should do the trick.

;)