Recently, CBS4 News did a run on a man named Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda. He proclaims himself the Son of God. A 40-year-old divorced father of four lives in South Florida with his second wife and teaches throughout Central and South America Cuba, and US Prior heroin addict and condemns, “Jesus” (as he calls himself) is in charge. over a group called “Grace Ministries Growing”. They, like their leader, believe that there is no heaven or hell, and that there is no sin.
This doctrine is popular with his congregation, who believe that they are the only elect of God and will receive salvation no matter what they do here on earth. They even go so far as to say that all other religions are false and must be destroyed. To this end, they organize tours against other religions, burn and destroy religious icons and books, and even prevent other religious congregations from traveling.
This is not the first, and probably not the last, man in history to pretend to be divine. There were many before him. Unfortunately, the rest of these turned out to be nothing but holy.
The Branch Davidians were originally affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SAC). Like many Christian groups, SAC believes in the will of Jesus Christ. to return to earth to gather his people and the preacher in his kingdom on earth. But the SAC believed that the return of Christ was imminent. Some within the SAC have formed their own opinion about exactly “how” and “when” Jesus’ return will occur.
A man named Victor Houteff founded the original sect that would eventually be referred to as the Branch Davidians. He believed that Jesus would not return to earth until a small number of particular groups of Christians were organized and purified to return. He outlined these views in the book he wrote in 1930 as the author of Rodus Pastoris.
Houteff, while trying to form his new group, declared himself to be God’s messenger. He told his disciples that he was specially chosen to organize God’s people on earth to prepare them for the coming of Christ. According to a report delivered by the US Attorney General, Houteff believed he had two major duties. She was the first to reveal the contents of the book, which is said to be sealed with seven seals. The second group was to cleanse the chosen Christians. According to him, these acts of Christ the second coming, according to him, were the trigger, they were the trigger.
Houteff is the one who located the suit near Waco, Texas. It started with a group of about eleven students, all of whom came from SAC. However, when the group gained insufficient membership within the ranks of the SAC, they began to recruit from the outside and completely left the original church. At that time they took the name Davidian 7-Day Adventists, referring to their supposed organization “of the house of David.”
When Houteff died in 1955, the government of his church briefly shifted to his wife, Florence. Like her husband, she declared herself to be God’s messenger. He claimed to have received a message from God that the end of days would occur on April 22, 1959. several hundred people sold in the public records and only got to Waco when they rolled around on April 23rd. and nothing was done.
An unsuccessful prophecy must have sounded for this religious cult. A few members, however, remained hard-hearted. Benjamin Roden brought it under his control, and named it the General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. He also proclaimed himself divine; at this time claiming to be the successor of King David. She died in 1978. His wife Lois took over the cult. He took somewhat different steps with his followers. Rather than declaring herself divine, she received visions directly from God by herself.
He declared that God is both male and female and is actually the third person of the Holy Trinity. > The spirit – – was a woman. For he said that his visions showed that Christ, when he returned to earth, would come in the form of a woman. This statement sets up a power struggle in the middle of the group between her and her son George. A series of prodigious events took place which continued and amplified this rivalry for many years.
By the spring of 1993, there were 130 members in Waco. A major international recruitment drive brought new members to the group from all over the world. Some businesses have been created to support the group. Pipes of great quantity were purchased, with some of them arranged for gun shows to raise the head of the church.
The formal name of the church at that time was the students of the Seven Seals. Reports say that the word Branch Davidian is derived from a statement by Roden to “Roden let go of the dead shepherd and move the living branch.” However, the name is not commonly used by the cult itself. However, it was done in the common media.
In 1990, the group’s new leader changed his name from to “David” as a supposed descendant of King David and “Hearts, from In 1992, Coresh named the compound “Apocalypse Ranch.” It was reported as Armageddon Faith in Waco, Texas.
Coresh taught his disciples that Christ’s death on the cross provided salvation only for those who had died within a certain period of time, although there seems to be some disagreement as to what period it refers to. And he told his people that they could only be saved through their works with their church. He also taught that the “lamb” mentioned in Revelation 5 was not really Jesus Christ, but himself, and that he had to open the seven seals that would trigger the order necessary to end the world. He went on to make the groups believe that only the Branch Davidians would ascend to heaven with God.
Rumors and stories from church members said that Koresh had several wives, most of whom were middle-aged. It was said that if he wanted to marry, he would simply dissolve the marriage in order to free her with him. It was also reported that all other cult members (except Koresh and his wives) were expected to remain celibate. Coresh himself stated in the videotape that he fathered more than a dozen children from several different wives, whom he claimed to have impregnated at the age of 12 to 13. The exact number of children from him, or from the supposed marriage. remains uncertain.
Former members also reported that strong corporal punishment was normal around compounds, especially in children. Rumors of sexual assault have often been made, but never proven. Several investigations conducted by Child Protective Services could not uncover enough evidence to uncover a crime against the cult leader.
Many others reported that the sanitary conditions of the compound had severely deteriorated at the time of the release. This was confirmed by the US Department of Justice, which reported that “it would be extremely unhealthy at best, and potentially life-threatening at worst, if children were to continue to be forced to live in such an environment.” There were additional claims that the compound contained eleven tons of weapons, including antitank weapons.
Government reports confirm that the Branch Davidians believed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was approaching Armageddon. To whose opinion they so piously clung, it would have been unlikely to interpret the events in any other way. In fact, it seems likely that the group was more than ready to go to their Father in heaven, believing that all that would be left would be a wasteland with billions of dead inhabitants.
The Gate of Heaven was often referred to as a fatal cult. He is charged with the death of thirty-nine people (21 women and 18 men). According to reports submitted to the US government, the cult split into three groups and carried out ritual suicides over a three-day period around March 23, 1997.
As it turned out, Heaven’s Gate was only one of three groups founded by Marshal Herff Applewhite. The first group – – Individual Human Metamorphosis – traveled to the Colorado desert in 1975 to await the arrival of a UFO that seemed to come to bring them home. The ship never came. In 1993, Applewhite founded another group, which he called Total Overcomers Anonymous. He is also on record as announcing in USA Today that “Earth’s current civilization” will be “recycled”.
The group, which was based in San Diego and called Heaven’s Gate, combined elements of Christianity with their beliefs in UFOs. Some gospels and the Apocalypse. This was proven by the UFO visitation. Like the Branch Davidians, the worshipers of this group believed that they were the “chosen ones.” They believed that they would allow the gates alone.
The basis of their belief was that a group of extraterrestrials had come to earth two thousand years ago. In one of the extra-terrestrial lands, as if in a ship (the Star of Bethlehem), he took the human form of Jesus Christ and finally left that body to return to a higher level. The group believed they were the descendants of a wave of extraterrestrials who returned to earth and assumed human form in the 1920s. But something went wrong on the way and the “Turks” were scattered without a clear memory of where they were. Applewhite believed it was his duty to unite the group’s posterity and prepare for their return home.
According to the reports of people with whom the group did business, the cult members referred to themselves as “brother” and “sister”. It is believed that monks and nuns assumed similar roles in nature. They dressed in black form-fitting shirts and pants in a basic unisex uniform. According to information found in the complex, the members had to remain celibate. Several of the male species, including the founder of the group, submitted to voluntary castration. They believed that such acts were a form of preparing themselves for the next level, where everyone is free of gender, sexual identity and activity.
The group gathered together in a common, which they called their monastery. Most people are believed to have had little contact with anyone from the so-called ancient land. Background checks It was confirmed by the government that some members of the cult had wives, children, and other family members because they believed. he “does not agree.
The partners supported themselves through a technology-based business called Superior Source, which designed WWW pages for profit. They also used the Internet as a recruitment tool. The surviving members of the group who did not come up with the others apparently continue to distribute materials and information.
Applewhite, who called himself the Present Representative, drew parallels between himself and the spirit from the next level that inhabited the body of Jesus Christ. In a videotape taken shortly before his death, Appelwhite and his followers watched the future unfold. They believed that through death in due time they would leave their restraints and replant their souls into one vessel and another until they reached the representative level.
They said they were afraid of the “powers of this world” who wanted to persecute them, arrest them, torture them (both physically and psychologically). This may be the reason that the group had a lot of armor and weapons.
The People’s Temple may be the most famous of all modern religious cultures. Its founder, Jim Jones, was an ordained minister in the Christian Church/Disciple of Christ. It must be noted, however, that his ordination took place at a time when he allowed the churches to choose local congregations and to ordain their ministers. This no longer exists.
Jones’ organization was initially intended to be an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless and unemployed. According to Keven Hozak, Philosophy and Religion Department of North Dakota: Jones “preached the social gospel of human freedom, equality and love, which demanded help from the smallest and lowest members of society.” His message and tone must have resonated with the people who rather quickly gathered a large group (about 900) in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1950.
Like others before him, and because Jonah preached that the end of the world was at hand. He firmly believed that there would be a nuclear war. Because the armory magazine of Ukiah, California is one of only a few places in the United States of America to have survived a nuclear attack; Jones moved his church over a period of time. Later, however, they moved to San Francisco, then Los Angeles, and finally to Jonestown, Guyana. .
The People’s Temple leased 4,000 acres of land from the government for the Jonestown complex. The group established an agricultural cooperative there where animals are known to have been raised for food, and they have mixed in tropical fruits and vegetables. phthisical as well as for sale.
A large group of people use in-flows and out-flows throughout their lives. Reports from those who had left the cult were often disturbing. Rumors of human rights abuses were raised. Others have described Jonestown as running a concentration camp where people were held against their will. All the rumors and theories about the cult eventually reached the ears of Congressman Leon Ryan, who went to Jonestown in 1978 to inspect it.
By all accounts, the visit went well. However, when time was running out, sixteen residents of Jonestown demanded that they return to the US Congress. While waiting for the local transport to arrive, the group was fired upon by security guards of the People’s Temple. Congress and four others were killed; three of whom were members of the press. eleven others were wounded.
Fearing retribution, the cult reportedly opted to commit the group’s death by drinking a dark grape drink laced with cyanide and several sedatives, including Valium, Penegram, and chloral hydrate. However, several hundred of the victims appeared to have been murdered by injection. Others were shot. A few fled into the forest and survived. He died in Jonestown in the year of the Lord 7331 in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred; 638 of whom were adults and 276 children. Their bodies were already in an extensive state of disrepair when the authorities finally arrived.
Whether we want to believe it or not, there is likely someone else around the corner who has preached their Messiah. Whence he or she should appear from among the remains. The damage he or she causes is obviously unknown. Let’s just hope that history doesn’t repeat itself again and again all in the name of religion.
Major Report:
- “Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events of Waco, Texas; February 28 to April 19, 1993,” US Department of Justice, at: http://www.usdoj.gov /
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Report:
- Religious Tolerance (.com
