Followers of the Antichrist

Metro Spirit ^ | 03/08/2007 | COREY PEIN

[Alex Murphy]

Last Sunday, the growing in Grace church met a Holiday Inn in Grovetown. Sermons are broadcast on the internet.

The church is humble. The blinds are closed and the lights are off. A digital projector casts a square of light on the wall.

In this dim and blurry image, North Augusta’s faithful few glimpse their salvation. From the speakers in the corner, they hear of heresies that have gripped the world outside.

The tiny conference room in a cheap hotel off I-20 ($89.99 a day, plus tax) contains more chairs than people. But what the congregation lacks in numbers it makes up for in fervor. Any pastor would envy their devotion, their generosity and their enthusiasm for doctrine.

Every Sunday morning they meet to worship a Puerto Rican ex-junkie who calls himself the Antichrist.

Growing in Grace leader Jose Luis De Jesus Mirenda.

In the flesh
Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, known to thousands of followers as Jesucristo Hombre, or Jesus Christ Man, has 666, the Mark of the Beast, tattooed on one forearm. On the other arm, de Jesus has inscribed SSS. This stands for his church’s motto, “salvo siempre salvo.” En Ingles: Saved always saved.

Some of his followers, and their children, have lined up to copy the tattoos. Predictably, this made headlines from CNN to Newsweek to Canal 12 en El Salvador. The church is keen to get the word out about de Jesus. He thrives on publicity. Even critical stories about the church, Creciendo en Gracia (Growing in Grace), are embraced — as are those who write them.

I was welcomed from the first telephone call. Smiles and hugs were forthcoming.

Last year, my friend Mariah Blake wrote the first article in English about de Jesus for the Miami New Times. After the story came out, people she’d never met before would stop her on the street and flash their SSS pendants. The newspaper’s cover was featured in one of the church’s promotional videos, now posted on YouTube. “Jesus Christ is already on the earth,” says the narrator. “The international media’s announcing it all over the world.”

It was only this year that de Jesus, 60, began calling himself the Antichrist. For the preceding couple of years, he’d been saying he was the Second Coming. In the doctrine of his church, this is not necessarily a contradiction.

Believers admit it’s complicated.

“It takes a few lessons before you understand everything,” says Jessica, whose husband, Victor Chavez, founded the Augusta branch of Growing in Grace last year. They are a handsome young couple who came to Augusta by way of Costa Rica, Brooklyn and New Jersey.

Victor was a Baptist until he joined Growing in Grace in Costa Rica. He was attracted by the message — everything de Jesus said was so different than what he’d been told by other pastors.

De Jesus preaches that there is no sin and no Hell. It is faith alone, not deeds, he says, that saves souls. He says that Paul was the only true apostle of Christ and that the others, all Jews, are the source of wickedness in the world. He says his church will establish the “Government of God on Earth,” with himself at the head. He says his followers and their children constitute la super raza — the super race.

“It’s all in the Bible,” Jessica says. “If it’s not in the Bible, I’m not going to believe that.”

De Jesus and his bishops do cite selected Biblical verses in their sermons, which are prerecorded and broadcast over the Internet to satellite churches like Victor’s. Growing in Grace claims more than 350 such “educational centers” in 30 countries. Miami was the flagship, though de Jesus recently relocated to Houston. Total membership is usually cited at 100,000, but given the televisual nature of the congregation, it may be impossible to know for sure.

Services begin and end with music. Jessica and Victor share a set of earbud headphones, while speakers in the corner play for all to hear and quietly sing along, if they wish.

A Él, solo sólo a Él
A Él gratitud y gloria
A Él todo honor y toda honra
Sea a Él
Gratitude and glory to Him… Only to Him.

Sowing seeds
Jessica hands out empty envelopes. Congregants open their wallets.

On the wall, a bishop paces on a stage, preaching into a microphone. The money they will give is for “sowing seeds,” he says. In the room, the people stand to pray.

“God loves the person that gives,” says the recording of the bishop.

“Whenever Jesucristo Hombre comes, people laugh and make fun of him,” he says. “But they’ll see that he’ll be raised as the leader of nations.”

“God says that all gold and silver is mine.”

“Do you accept the glory?” asks the bishop.

“¡Recibo!” the people in the room reply. They do accept the glory.

“If you are part of this government, you’ll be raised up and privileged. One day you’ll reap and be exalted.”

In this version of grace, believers don’t have to wait until they die to be rewarded. The kingdom of Heaven will come to earth, and then the chosen people will rule and prosper. This hotel room will be remembered as one of the places where the glorious new order took root.

The bishop cites a verse, Romans 15:9. The gentiles will be raised up but not, he says, the Jews.

More logos flash across the wall. Finally, Jesus Christ Man arrives.

Victor turns on the English-language audio feed for my benefit. A translation bleeds over the original Spanish.

“I love you very much,” says de Jesus. “You are a precious church. You are the mother of all nations.”

In the back row of the church, a young man watches intently, his arms crossed. A cute blonde baby toddles around the room. The baby’s mother and grandmother wander in and out. In the hall, you can’t hear de Jesus, and no one out there seems to notice.

The topic of today’s sermon is announced: “The fatigue of the religious system.” On the church Web site, accompanying children’s lessons can be found, with “activities for the little gods,” like crossword puzzles and crafts projects. The take-away message for today’s lesson, number 279, simplifies (if not clarifies) the sermon to come: “Thanks to the indescribable words of our God, Jose Luis de Jesus, we know that we live by faith and for faith, and not by works of the flesh.”

Jesus Christ Man smiles. He is polished and engaging. No Charles Manson.

He speaks against the “Jewish doctrines” of baptism, circumcision, communion and the laying of hands. “Jesus of Nazareth was not a Christian. The apostles were not Christian. They were Jews,” he says. He denounces televangelists — some of them miracle-working “sorcerers” — who preach that people should sacrifice earthly pleasures.

“You cannot change the flesh,” de Jesus says. “No matter how much you sacrifice, the flesh is exactly the same.”

So-called good works are of the flesh, and thus, cannot be holy. So don’t bother. “Where you try to help, then the plan of God is delayed.”

Victor fast-forwards through part of the sermon. The image of de Jesus shrinks to squeeze between the bluish lines and buttons of Microsoft Windows.

The rhetoric grows more intense. De Jesus condemns the Catholic Church as tainted by Jewish law. “They subverted the world so much that when I appeared they called me a false prophet,” he says.

A white light flashes through the hotel room. A fire alarm. It blares intermittently through the service.

On screen, De Jesus says signs and miracles are God’s tricks.

“The Hispanic people have been deceived. The American people have been deceived. The entire world has been deceived with a false gospel.” He is angry.

“None of you can be deceived.” He is reassuring.

“All of these priests, the Pope and Protestant leaders from Billy Graham onward, all of them have been confused with a false gospel. They have deceived the world with a false gospel. They should be condemned.” This is his message.

“Let us sing and celebrate,” de Jesus concludes.

The music begins again. Victor and Jessica and the two other people in the front row stand up to sing toward the light on the wall. A few other worshipers in back hesitate, but after a minute, they stand, too.

The alarm cuts the darkness.

SSS: 'Saved Always Saved'

The meek shall inherit the earth
Some find the appearance of a self-proclaimed Antichrist with a sizable following and the means to reach millions of people as scary as hell.

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda has been denounced by the leaders of traditional Christian churches in Latin America and in the U.S. cities where he has gained a foothold.

In online discussions, a few critics admit they’re worried that Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is actually who he says he is — the Antichrist, whose arrival precedes the End of Days.

“To me it seems that this man is the antichrist the bible speeks [sic] of,” wrote an anonymous commenter on The Reformed Baptist Thinker, a blog written by a former Mormon now attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Jesus would never promote being rich is good, in fact he preached against it and said that the poor people of the earth would reign in the kingdom of hevean [sic] on earth. The bible also says that the antichrist will use the media to gain worldwide attention.”

Others detect anti-Semitic themes and fascist iconography in the movement’s teachings. The church logo resembles the U.S. presidential seal, a graphic allusion to its explicitly political aspirations. Its “SSS” logo plays on Spanish word for 666, seiscientos sesenta seises, but it also suggests the Nazi Schutzstaffel, or SS, who ran the concentration camps.

A Growing in Grace bishop says there are some Jews in the ministry. But, he says, they don’t retain their traditions. “Eventually,” the bishop explains, “all Jewish people will come to the gospel.”

By far the most common charge against Creciendo en Gracia is that it’s a cult. De Jesus has brushed aside the pejorative. He doesn’t seem to care what people think. This is probably a necessary attitude for anyone claiming divine inspiration.

Historically speaking, cults fail to become accepted religions because they are suppressed by the state, because their leaders die without successors or because their membership fails to grow. De Jesus’s church is not so different from other small religious sects with unusual teachings, except that he openly disdains Jews and claims to be the living reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He’s even claimed, on CNN, that he is greater than Jesus Christ. The interviewer was skeptical.

Since de Jesus’s followers are by and large Hispanic, his church has grown under the radar in this country, despite the occasional publicity.

But Christian leaders in Latin America fear that people will take him seriously. So do mainstream Spanish-speaking Christians in the United States, who are doubly concerned that de Jesus’s pronouncements will make their community look bad.

Pastor Angel Maestre heads the Centro Cristiano Oasis de Benedicion, a nondenominational church on Deans Bridge Road in Augusta with a congregation of about 140 on Sundays. Most of them are Puerto Rican and military. A recent editorial in Maestre’s church newsletter singled out de Jesus for ridicule and scorn.

You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to see the truth about Jesucristo Hombre, the editorial said — and that is, he’s a petty thief. Don’t lose hope, it went on, because the true Jesus Christ will one day fulfill his promise to return.

Maestre says he’s not worried about de Jesus, “I’m worried about the people who are humble enough to get tricked into this kind of ideology.”

“It’s not a religion,” he says. “It’s something weird.”

“It’s amazing how corrupt he is, how much disrespect he has for the Bible,” Maestre says. "He’s not Christ. He’s not the Holy Spirit. He’s not Paul. He’s not the Antichrist either. He’s nobody. He’s just another human being.”

Bishop Rafael Encarnacion and a bodyguard.

The converted
After the Sunday service in North Augusta, Growing in Grace Pastor Rafael Rodriquez stands to introduce himself. A warm smile spreads under his moustache. He wears a sharp blazer and a gold necklace with a kitty-cat pendant, rather than a crucifix.

The cross, he believes, outlived its usefulness 2,000 years ago. Why dwell on ancient history?

Rodriquez is de Jesus’s man in Charlotte, N.C., and the surrounding area. His congregation has grown to about 25 people in a year and two months’ time. Its outreach consists of a Sunday AM radio program and a public access television show, along with the usual pamphleteering.

“We don’t go knocking on doors,” Rodriquez says.

Rodriquez came to U.S. from Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. For most of his 53 years, he was Pentecostal. He led a number of churches. But he turned from that faith a decade ago. He says the breaking point came when the lead pastor of his church started an argument with a worshiper over a Mother’s Day meal.

“It became a huge situation. And I decided, ‘No more church,’ Rodriquez remembers. “If this is church, and this is gospel, then I’d better be off somewhere else.”

“They don’t have pity. They don’t have compassion when people fail,” he says of his former church.

The old-style church bosses people around. That’s not how it works under de Jesus, who Rodriquez discovered at a seminar in West Palm Beach. “God isn’t waiting to hit you with a bat,” the pastor says, leaping toward me in mock assault. “There’s no sin.”

You can do no wrong, as long as you believe. It is an appealing — some would say seductive — message. Especially compared to the guilt-laden teachings of the Catholicism that dominates Latin America.

“I want to see more mercy than sacrifice,” says Rodriquez. “We’re not there to accuse and condemn.”

I ask why de Jesus’s followers are mostly Spanish speakers. Rodriquez says it’s not just a language issue: “South and Central America, those countries are poor. They have nothing. So the Lord wanted to start with them.” When Europeans colonized the Americas, he says, they brought the “circumcised” gospel of the Jews. Now, the uncut gospel of Paul and de Jesus will spread north from lands once subjugated and still poor.

De Jesus himself reportedly lives lavishly. Luxury is OK in his book.

Rodriquez has met de Jesus many times at church conventions. I ask him if de Jesus is speaking literally when he says he’s the Antichrist.

“What he’s trying to do is take the fear from people,” Rodriquez replies. It’s religion that makes people afraid. And the sooner existing religions are destroyed, the sooner de Jesus can usher in his theocratic utopia.

“It’s coming: The destruction of all churches. And it’s hard to say, but it’s true,” Rodriquez says.

I point out that some people will find this prospect upsetting.

“I understand! I know that people who are in church now want to make God happy. But Christ died on the cross, and he forgave everybody on the cross,” Rodriquez says.

“A united church would be great. That way we’d have peace, because everybody would be thinking the same, doing the same,” Rodriquez says. “If people don’t wanna believe right now in Jose Luis, that’s OK. But they’re gonna lose, because sooner or later the truth is gonna become real.”

The followers of Jesus Christ Man know what the wider world thinks of them. But they’re not particularly troubled by life on the margins. Indeed, as Hispanic immigrants to the United States in a time of rising white nativism, many were already there.

“Something was glad in my heart when I started talking to you,” Rodriquez tells me when I say goodbye. “I hope the Lord gives you an open mind … and that you become part of the ministry. We have to reach the American people, too!”

Saving the believers
“Welcome, Corey,” says the bishop. “You are blessed.” The congregation turns toward me and claps.

The church appears to be growing. One week later it has moved to fancier digs — a Holiday Inn in Grovetown. Head U.S. Bishop Rafael Encarnacion is here, in the flesh, for a regional convention. About 30 adults and half as many children show up.

Before blessing me, he welcomes two new members to the church. One, a guy from Raleigh, N.C., says he’d followed de Jesus on the Internet for five years, but that this is his first seminar. The crowd welcomes him.

Encarnacion’s bodyguards stand in the corners. They’re built more like office workers than bouncers, but they’re packing.

“Seiscientos sesenta seises,” the bishop says: 666. “That number is precious.”

He lets us in on the Antichrist’s plan to use Colombia as a hub to raise his church and from there become president of the world. Then the bishop gets down to business.

“How many of you would like to have mas dinero?” he says. The congregation opens their Bibles to II Corinthians, and Jessica begins passing out envelopes. “No matter what, the ministry will prosper. It’s for you, the individual. If you don’t plant your seeds, you’re not going to reap anything. It’s very simple.”

The congregation files past the collections jar. A little while later, de Jesus appears on the screen. “Our padre,” the congregation says.

This week’s sermon is lively. “Our job is to save the believers,” says de Jesus, “to save them from themselves.”

He expounds on his Colombia strategy. He says he doesn’t want to involve himself in politics, but he’s got a friend there he hopes will become president.

In the row ahead of me, a young mother with hoop earrings has a bilingual Bible. Passages de Jesus cites are already highlighted in yellow and pink.

II Corinthians 3:14. A veil blinds you. “The Antichrist will take off the veil and lead you to the right path.”

The children are la super raza. “They don’t have veils.”

A boy with a video camera keeps it fixed on the screen, on the image of de Jesus.

After the service, I introduce myself to Bishop Encarnacion. He remembers my friend Mariah Blake from Miami. He already seems to know she’s moved out of the country.

The bishop’s two teenage sons, raised in the church, hang back while he greets the congregation. His wife, Damaris, is strikingly zealous. Her gold SSS pendant matches her hair. Her enthusiasm overwhelms. She interrupts her husband to make doctrinal points, praise de Jesus, blame the Jews and defend his church from anticipated criticism.

“People say, ‘oh, it’s a cult,’” she says. “When you go down to reality, we’ve been living in a cult for 2,000 years.”

I mention that the 666 tattoos have gotten his church a lot of attention.

“That’s what we’re looking for, attention,” Bishop Encarnacion says. “But the main thing is to hear what he’s saying.”

Encarnacion isn’t tattooed. But one young believer in the room, Placido from Hickory, N.C., shows me the 666 and SSS on his forearms.

“Our people are very special. They like to think,” the bishop says, tapping his forehead.

[mnehring]

bfl

[tractorman]

Just another deceiver in the fast lane to hell.

[mnehring]

His followers remind me of a quote I heard recently..
When you don't believe in anything, you'll believe everything..

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

This guy has a long way to go to reach the level of deceit and power that Satan's final deception will entail. But he is another sign of the times.

Personally, I think some person or persons will come out of the Middle East claiming to have the "peaceful" solution to the problems over there, and cause a massive amount of people to follow there deception.

Revelation 13
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

[tractorman]

Amen brother.
Doesn’t it seem that people with a moral vacuum can get sucked in by anything?

[HarleyD]

Just don't let the dispensationalists hear of this. :O)

[ArrogantBustard]

Is he a pacifist? Is he an environmentalist? Is he an ecumenist?

[walden]

That's a paraphrase of a thought often expressed by G.K. Chesterton.