List of people claimed to be Jesus

This is a list of notable people who have made statements claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth or the Second Coming of Christ in some form.

Claimants for being Jesus

Further information: Christian new religious movement

• Wayne Bent - End of the World Cult
• Marshall Applewhite - Applewhite posted a famous Usenet message declaring, "I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 25/26, 1995: ...".^[1] 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.
• Inri Cristo - A Brazilian man who claims to be the second Jesus.
• Matayoshi Jesus – In 1997 he established the World Economic Community Party based on his conviction that he is the God and Christ.^[2]
• José Luis de Jesús Miranda – Organizer of Growing in Grace who claims that the resurrected Christ "integrated himself within me".
• Jim Jones - Claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine. ^[3] Organized a mass murder suicide at Jonestown, Guyana.
• David Koresh - Born Vernon Wayne Howell, was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, proclaimed that he was "the Son of God, the Lamb."
• Ariffin Mohamed – Also known as "Ayah Pin", the founder of the banned Sky Kingdom in Malaysia. He claims to be the incarnation of Jesus, as well as Muhammad, Shiva, and Buddha.
• Laszlo Toth – Hungarian-born Australian who vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà in 1972.
• Arnold Potter - Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; called himself "Potter Christ".
• Thomas Harrison Provenzano^[4] – convicted murderer who possibly was mentally ill. Provenzano compared his execution with Jesus Christ's crucifixion.
• Jason Reid - Founder of the church of radiology.
• Georges-Ernest Roux – Founder of the Universal Christian Church, now named Universal Alliance, clamed to be Jesus, then God, called the "Christ of Montfavet" or "Georges-Christ".
• Ahn Sahng-hong – South Korean man worshiped by World Mission Society Church of God
• John Nichols Thom - 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.
• Sergei Torop – a 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.^[5]
• Kyle Peter VanZandt - American Broadway singer from 1952-1955 who famously suffered a nervous breakdown during Wonderful Town. Once revived, he referred to himself as Jesus Christ and earned a small cult within his hometown of Staten Island.
• Ernest Norman, founder of the Unarius Academy of Science, was allegedly Jesus in a past life.

Claimants for being siblings of Jesus

• Hong Xiuquan – Self-proclaimed "little brother" of Jesus Christ. He formed an army that fought in the Taiping Rebellion, which ultimately caused the deaths of over 25 million people.

Claimants for being Christ/Messiah, but not Jesus

• Sun Myung Moon – Founder of the Unification Church, who considers himself the second coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.
• Apollo Quiboloy, Founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group.
• Jung Myung Seok – Founder of Providence Church, who also considers himself the second coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.
• David Shayler – former MI5 (British Security Service) officer who gained notoriety after being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for his passing secret documents to the press. In July 2007 Shayler claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
• Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (1835-1908) claimed to be the awaited Mahdi as well as the promised Messiah (Second Coming of Christ) being the only person in Islamic history who claimed to be both. He claimed to be Jesus in the metaphorical sense; in character. He founded the Ahmadiyya Movement within Islam in 1889 envisioning it to be the rejuvenation of Islam, and claimed to be commissioned by God for the reformation of mankind. He declared that Jesus of Nazareth survived crucifixion and died a natural death having migrated towards the east.

People named "Jesus Christ"

• GG Allin – punk rocker, whose real name was Jesus Christ Allin and possessed a large cult following. He was given this messianic name because his father, Merle Colby Allin Sr., then 33 years old, told his wife, Arleta Gunther, then 20 years old, that Jesus Christ himself had visited him and told him that his newborn son would be a great and all powerful man in the vein of the Messiah.

See also

• List of Buddha claimants
• List of messiah claimants
• List of avatar claimants
• List of people who have been considered deities
• Messianic complex
• People claiming to be the Mahdi

Notes

1. ^ Galanter, Marc (1999). Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. Oxford University Press; 2nd edition. ISBN 0-19-512370-0.(meta-citation)
2. ^ I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 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.
3. ^ "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
4. ^ Link to a BBC article on his statements and claims.
5. ^ 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 (June 20, 1999). "Cult warning on travelling 'god'". The Independent (London).
6. ^ 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 (January 13, 1997). "Cash and the campaign". Maclean Hunter Limited.
7. ^ 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".
8. ^ "Killer Who Said He Was Jesus Is Executed". CBS News. June 21, 2000. Retrieved February 10, 2010.