SERGEI Torop was a traffic cop in the small Russian town of Minusinsk until 1989, when he announced that he was the Son of God. Now, according to The Age, Melbourne, he commands a following of thousands in the Siberian mountains.
“It’s all very complicated,” he starts quietly, his long brown hair framing a beatific smile. “But to keep things simple, yes, I am Jesus Christ. That which was promised must come to pass.”
Meet the Messiah of Siberia, Vissarion Christ — the Teacher, as he is known to his thousands of disciples, who are convinced he is the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, come back to save the world.
“Life is so hard here,” says Denis, a 21-year-old Russian émigré who arrived from Brisbane to see if Vissarion really was the answer to his questions. “No doubt about it, mate,” he affirms. “Definitely the Son of God.”
But to his critics in the established churches who accuse him of brainwashing and defrauding his followers, Vissarion is a charlatan deluding the devotees of “a destructive, totalitarian sect”.
His adherents claim that Vissarion’s memory goes back 2,000 years. His phenomenal recall reveals things that Bible researchers have yet to uncover. For instance, only Vissarion knows that he, as Jesus, loved peaches, that Jesus was a painter who moved through the land and held flowers and birds, and that he made various little things which he gave to the Roman soldiers.
You can get much more information about Vissarion here.
UPDATE (August 23). Sergei Torop is not the only Russian claiming to be Jesus Christ. He has competition in the form of Grigory Grabovoy 43, who claims to be the Second Advent of Christ.
Grabovoy also claims he has the power to raise the dead, and made international headlines when he said he would resurrect the children who died in the Beslan school terrorist atrocity if he was paid a large sum of money.
Grabovoy, who also says he has the power to cure AIDS, now has his sights set on the Russian Presidency in 2008.
Wikipedia has a fascinating list of others who have claimed to be Jesus Christ here.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:42 am
Sandals with socks! Oh, dear, what a fashion faux pas! Anyway, how can he be the Son of God with socks on? It doesn’t stand up to reason.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Hello all: Names Emile,I am just a small town guy who grew up learning everything the hard way. Mostly I learned about People. I still don’t have a license, or profession yet, but I will still stop and listen to almost anyone. I will create a biography sometime but right now I don’t fell that is pertinent information compared to the message I can share.
I will pour my spirit over the earth so that those who come after me will know who I am. This is being done. The conscious awareness I hold, Is one shared and available to all. It is intricate science, it is global religion as well as current everyday maintenance. I do not need to reveal myself at all…… I speak freely to all. The only wrong anyone does is to ignore themselves and one another and the planet with passion and intensity. Do not eat of the tree of knowledge…. if you do, for surely you shall die….Appreciate your true nature, and you will find the knowledge you need to live comfortably with nature. Humans grew out of the earth no matter how we look at it….SO, the most pure and natural environment nature provides is what is most beneficial to our species.
The only knowledge required in authority, is the truth in nature, which is revealed in the obvious. The most pertinent knowledge cannot come from humans. EX. ” How to create the building blocks of life”, “Whether or not there is an ultimate purpose for humans”, “Knowing how to reverse a Millennium of Damage”. “What do the Bible and writers of old really tell the world”? To go beyond the obvious is to dilute the simplicity of human nature. Nature made the earth and all that is upon it to be used and maintained by us all, not to be manipulated and sold off as something a man has done.
The theism of a supreme deity is contradicted by the obvious. Awareness as it has been established, only transcends the physical through the will of natural essence. Matter,electricity,chemicals,water,air,simple interaction… “My father in heaven” becomes the combined awareness of the current conscious status of everyone on the planet and surrounding “live Planets” Nothing would exist without the will of natural essences to grow flourish and populate all living organisms.
Natural essence is driven by “cellular differences” (anything pertaining to “Living Cell growth and reproduction”.
When the essence that creates animals and plants is forced outside the plane of matter it becomes recycled in nature. Physical matter returns to the Earth, electrical impulses return to the electric field surrounding Earth, and our thoughts and memories are carried with them. When someone is born, all these natural essences combine to create a living conscious being.
I’m not saying that there is NO plane of “spiritual” awareness and transcendence…. To be alive is to experience the natural world at it’s utmost…. Especially when your healthy and in a healthy environment. Awareness thrives throughout all of civilization and the animal world. What one thinks of today, another will think of tomorrow. What one feels today another will feel tomorrow, as with whatever we do, each day we all look for a way to make our lives better when it really stares us in the face, but we ignore it, or push it away, trade it for the comforts of play and entertainment.
If anything, being alive is a great way to prepare for that higher understanding of what it means to be the living dead. Experiencing the essences is a way of learning what it means to be human.
I have done research over the years and what I have found draws tears to my eyes…. there is unyielding damage and danger everywhere… What does this say for our future? I tell ya brothers and sisters, unless we stop what we’re doing wrong, life as “we” know it will continue to be contradictory.
K well, I have to go for now but I will Write back . Emile.
December 31st, 2008 at 6:27 am
Was my comment saved? and how can I access it again? Emile…..