List of people who have claimed to be Jesus Christ

The list of people who claimed to be Jesus Christ consists of those notable people who have made statements about being Jesus Christ.

Who	Image	When	Claim
John Nichols Thom		born 1799	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.
Ayya Vaikundar		1833–1851	According to Akilattirattu Ammanai, the scripture of Ayyavazhi Narayana, who was one among the trinity in Vaikundar was the one who incarnated as Jesus.
Klaus Kinski		1926–1991	Famous Polish-German actor who developed the idea that he was Jesus after performing as him in a monologue; while filming Aguirre, the Wrath of God, he often slipped into the Jesus role. As director Werner Herzog said, "Often, it was difficult to talk to him, because he answered like Jesus" [1].
Jim Jones		May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978	Claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine. [2] (see Jonestown).
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh		December 11, 1931 – January 19, 1990)	He claimed to realize he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ [3].
Matayoshi Jesus		born 1944	In 1997 He established the World Economic Community Party based on his conviction that he is the God and Christ. [4]
Marshall Applewhite		1945–1997	Applewhite posted a famous Usenet message declaiming, "I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 25/26, 1995: ….[5] 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.
Hogen Fukunaga		born 1945	He claimed to realize he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and the Buddha [6].
Suma Ching Hai		Birth date unknown, possible late 1950s	A meditation teacher who claims to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara and a living reincarnation of the Buddha and Jesus Christ. [7] [8]
Sergei Torop		born 1961	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. [9]
Grigory Grabovoy		born 1963	A Russian religious leader who claims the ability to abolish death, resurrect the dead, cure cancer and AIDS, teleport, pinpoint mechanical problems on airplanes, and that he is Jesus. He promised grieving mothers of the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis that he could resurrect their dead children for an amount of rubles roughly equal to US$1500, each.
Apollo C. Quiboloy		born 1963	A Cebuano pastor who claims to be the Christ. He has also marked Pastor Eli Soriano as being condemned to hell.

Religious leaders

• Bahá'u'lláh — Founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Believed by Bahá'ís to be the "Return of Christ in the Glory of the Father" predicted in the Bible.
• Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda — Organizer of the Growing in Grace who claims that the resurrected Christ "integrated himself within me.".
• Luc Jouret — Leader of the Order of the Solar Temple and was believed to be the third reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
• Maitreya — The expected world teacher who is promoted by the British author Benjamin Creme.
• Charles Manson — Founder of "The Family".
• Jung Myung Seok — Founder of Providence Church, international fugitive wanted for rape among other crimes.
• Ariffin Mohamed — Also known as Ayah Pin, is the founder of banned Sky Kingdom in Malaysia. He claims to be the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as well as Muhammad, Shiva, and Buddha.^[1]

Others

• Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko — A supporter of the New Chronology, claims that Jesus Christ is the same person as the prophet Elisha, Saint Basil of Caesarea, and Pope Gregory VII.
• Vince Taylor — Musician.
• G.G. Allin — Claimed to be "Jesus Christ, God and Satan all in one."
• Mehmet Ali Ağca a Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II
• Tom Graeff — filmmaker who claimed to be Jesus Christ II in the early 1960s
• Arden "Aardvark" Anderson — American boxer who repeatedly claimed throughout his career that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ
• David Icke — Claimed he was the Son of God on UK chatshow 'Wogan' in 1991. He later refuted his claim, saying that the media had misinterpreted his remarks.
• Lumberjack Victim — Internet radio station DJ with an addiction to beer.

Notes

1. ^  From My Best Fiend. the documentary detailing his life.
2. ^ Galanter, Marc (1999). Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. Oxford University Press; 2nd edition. ISBN 0-19-512370-0. (meta-citation)
3. ^ Fear is the Master, a video that uncovers the cult of Rajneesh [10]
4. ^  "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
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ Link to a BBC article on his statements and claims.
7. ^ 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. "Cult warning on travelling 'god'", The Independent (London), 20 June 1999. 
8. ^ 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. "Cash and the campaign", Maclean Hunter Limited, 13 January 1997. 
9. ^  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".

See also

• Messianic complex
• People claiming to be the Mahdi
• List of messiah claimants
• List of people who have been considered deities
• Godman (Hindu ascetic)
• List of deities
• List of demigods
• List of Buddha claimants
• List of charismatic leaders based on Max Weber's definition
• List of people who have been considered avatars
• Divinity and Mortality
• God complex
• Joan of Arc

References

• Maitreya's website
• An article on Marshall Applewhite
• Inri Cristo's official English website
• An article by David Sisler on Jim Jones
• Information on the Order of the Solar Temple
• Rick A Rose Study Of Destructive Cults/Cultleaders

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