And what would happen if we put all impersonators in one room?
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
If you put all those who claim to be Jesus in one room, what would happen? I suspect three things: there’d be no competition of miracles; there’d be nothing like the depth of thought from the Sermon on the Mount; and they’d shine at making disaster predictions.
If you had all Jesuses in one room and told them they couldn’t come out until they worked out who was the real Jesus, how would they do it? How many would lose their meekness and humility? How many would be diagnosed and taken away in white vans to receive help?
Here’s one conversation recorded when three Jesuses were forced to live together for 15 months in a psychiatric institution (beginning July 1, 1959).
“You oughta worship me, I’ll tell you that!” one of them yelled.
“I will not worship you! You’re a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!” said another.
“No two men are Jesus Christs. . . . I am the Good Lord!” said the third.
Their story became a book and a film, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.
There was another Jesus on Channel 7’s Sunday Night, September 18—he’s also known as Alan Miller. At one point, he wrote on his whiteboard, “I’m Jesus, deal with it.” Bizarre.
Asked about miracles in the New Testament, he said something like, “Yes, I did the miracles. No, not the walking on water one, or the turning water into wine.”
He’s living with (could be married to, it wasn’t made clear) a woman who believes she is Mary Magdalene—she is his third Mary Magdalene.
The scary thing: some people believe him. And because he thinks he’s Jesus, there’s no need to refer to the Bible. That’s dangerous.
There is only one real Jesus. He’s all-sufficient.
Tags: Bruce Manners