Rhys Evans, (1607 – c.1660) who later renamed himself 'Arise Evans' was a Welsh prophet who travelled to London to spread his premonitions. He was arrested and imprisoned around 1650 at Newgate Prison for impersonating Christ.[1][2]
Ann Lee (1736–1784), the founder and leader of the Shakers. Lee's followers referred to her as "Mother", believing that she was the female incarnation of Christ on Earth.[4]
John Nichols Thom (1799–1838), a Cornish merchant and politician who claimed to be the "saviour of the world" and the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in 1834. He was killed during a confrontation with government soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill, Kent.[5]
Arnold Potter (1804–1872), SchismaticLatter Day Saint leader; he claimed the spirit of Jesus Christ entered into his body and he became "Potter Christ" Son of the living God. He died in an attempt to "ascend into heaven" by jumping off a cliff. His body was later retrieved and buried by his followers.[6]
Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892), born Shiite, adopted Bábism later in 1844;[7] he claimed to be the prophesied fulfillment and Promised One of major religions including Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. He founded the Baháʼí Faith in 1863.[8] The Baháʼís believe that the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Second Coming of Jesus, as well as the prophecies of the 5th BuddhaMaitreya and many other religious prophecies, were begun by the Báb in 1844 and then by Bahá'u'lláh. They commonly compare the fulfillment of Christian prophecies to Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, where in both cases people were expecting the literal fulfillment of apocalyptic statements.[9]
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India (1835–1908), claimed to be the awaited Mahdi as well as the Second Coming and likeness of Jesus, the promised Messiah at the end of time. He claimed to be Jesus in the metaphorical sense; in character. He founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1889, envisioning it to be the rejuvenation of Islam, and claimed to be commissioned by God for the reformation of humankind.
Cyrus Teed (1839–1908), American physician, claimed to be the incarnation of Jesus Christ and to have obtained knowledge regarding the Hollow Earth theory, presenting a cosmological model having the Earth as an inverted sphere and the remaining universe located within it.[12]
Carl Browne (1849–1914), American activist and leader of the Coxey's Army protest movement, claimed to be the partial reincarnation of Jesus.[13]
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20th century
John Hugh Smyth-Pigott (1852–1927). Around 1890 Smyth-Pigott started leading meetings of the Agapemonite community and recruited 50 young female followers to supplement its aging population. He took Ruth Anne Preece as his second wife and she had three children named Glory, Power and Hallelujah.[14] The house which may have belonged to Smyth-Pigott in St John's Wood was visited by John Betjeman in his film Metro-Land. It is built in the neo-gothic style. It is currently the home of the television presenter Vanessa Feltz and was previously the home of Charles Saatchi.[15] Smyth-Pigott died in 1927 and the sect gradually declined until the last member, sister Ruth, died in 1956.[16] Her funeral in 1956 was the only time when outsiders were admitted to the chapel.[17]
Manuel Herrick (1876–1952). American politician who saw himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, thus gaining the nickname "Okie Jesus Congressman."
Haile Selassie I (1892–1975) did not claim to be Jesus and disapproved of claims that he was Jesus, but the Rastafari movement, which emerged in Jamaica during the 1930s, believes he is the Second Coming. He embodied this when he became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930, perceived as confirmation of the return of the Messiah in the prophetic Book of Revelation5:5 in the New Testament, who is also expected to return a second time to initiate the apocalyptic day of judgment. He is also called Jah Ras Tafari, and is often considered to be alive by Rastafari movement members.[18]
Hilario Moncado (1898-1956), a Filipino political activist and "mystic".[19] He was the founder and leader of the Filipino Crusaders World Army (formerly the Filipino Federation of America), a religious and patriotic group in the Philippines colloquially known as the "Moncadistas".[20] He claims to be a reincarnation of Christ through José Rizal (a National Hero of the Philippines).[21]
Krishna Venta (1911–1958), born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, founded the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California in the late 1940s. In 1948 he stated that he was Christ, the new messiah and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates. He died on 10 December 1958, after being suicide-bombed by two disgruntled former followers who accused Venta of mishandling cult funds and having been intimate with their wives.
Jesu Oyingbo (1915–1988), a Nigerian man who proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ returned.[24][25]
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), believed by members of the Unification Church to be the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ, fulfilling Jesus' unfinished mission. Church members ("Unificationists") consider Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, to be the True Parents of humankind as the restored Adam and Eve.[27][28]
Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997), an American who posted a Usenet message declaring, "I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 25/26, 1995: ..."[31] Applewhite and his Heaven's Gate religious group committed mass suicide on 26 March 1997, to rendezvous with what they thought was a spaceship hiding behind Comet Hale–Bopp.[32]
Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935–2007), born as Hulon Mitchell Jr., a black nationalist and separatist who created the Nation of Yahweh in 1979 in Liberty City, Florida. His self-proclaimed name means "God, Son of God". He could have only been deeming himself to be "son of God", not God, but many of his followers clearly deem him to be God Incarnate.[34][35] In 1992, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison.[36]
Wayne Bent (b. 1941), also known as Michael Travesser of the Lord Our Righteousness Church. He claims: "I am the embodiment of God. I am divinity and humanity combined."[40] He was convicted on 15 December 2008, of one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 2008.[41]
Ariffin Mohammed (1943–2016), also known as "Ayah Pin", the founder of the banned Sky Kingdom in Malaysia in 1975. He claimed to have direct contact with the heavens and is believed by his followers to have been the incarnation of Jesus, as well as Shiva, and the Buddha, and Muhammad.[42]
Tony Quinn (b. 1944), owned Yoga communes in 1970s Ireland where an orphan girl responsible for younger siblings endured a 40-day water-fast and ceased menstruation. He later created Educo which promoted the Ten percent of the brain myth and was rubbished by Professors of Psychology and Psychiatry in Ireland. It was found by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court that his allocation of shares in International Natural Energy was affirmed by a "clumsy forgery". An ex-follower sued Quinn for "assault and battery; allegedly obtaining money by false pretences; alleged fraudulent misrepresentation, intentional or careless infliction of mental suffering and suborning" in 2010.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][excessive citations]
Hogen Fukunaga (b. 1945) founded Ho No Hana Sanpogyo, often called the "foot reading cult", in Japan in 1987 after an alleged spiritual event where he claimed to have realized he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha.[55]
José Luis de Jesús (1946–2013), Puerto Rican founder, leader and organizer of Growing in Grace based in Miami, Florida, who claimed that the resurrected Christ "integrated himself within me" in 2007.[56]
David Icke (b. 1952), English former footballer and conspiracy theorist, who said in a 1991 television interview with Terry Wogan that he was "the son of God".[60]
Hasan Mezarcı (b. 1954) is a former politician and member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (1991–1995) who was expelled from the Welfare Party and imprisoned for his extreme view against secularism. He claimed to be Isa after his imprisonment.[61][62][63]
Shoko Asahara (1955–2018) founded the terrorist Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo in 1984. He declared himself Christ, Japan's only fully enlightened master and the Lamb of God. His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world. He outlined a doomsday prophecy, which included a Third World War, and described a final conflict culminating in a nuclearArmageddon, borrowing the term from the Book of Revelation16:16.[64] Humanity would end, except for the elite few who joined Aum.[64] The group gained international notoriety on 20 March 1995, when it carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. He was sentenced to death, and was executed on 6 July 2018.
Marina Tsvigun (b. 1960), or Maria Devi Christos, is the leader of the "Great White Brotherhood".[66] In 1990 she met Yuri Krivonogov, the Great White Brotherhood founder, who recognized Marina as a new messiah and later married her, assuming in the sect the role of John the Baptist, subordinate to Tsvigun.
VissarionSergey Torop (b. 1961), a Russian former traffic officer who claims to be "reborn" as Vissarion, Jesus Christ returned, which makes him not "God" but the "Word of God". Also known as "Jesus of Siberia," Torop has an appearance similar to depictions of Jesus. He dresses in all white flowing robes and has long brown hair and a beard. Before claiming to be the Vissarion, Torop worked as a traffic policeman until he was fired in 1990. He founded the Church of the Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in Southern Siberia in 1990. The Church of the Last Testament has been described as being a mixture of beliefs from the Russian Orthodox Church, Buddhism, apocalypticism, collectivism, and with ecological values. The church currently resides on the largest religious reservation in the world in Siberian Taiga.[67][68]
Yang Xiangbin (b. 1973), a woman referred to as "Lightning Deng" and "the female Christ" in the literature of Eastern Lightning, a Chinese Christian new religious movement. Eastern Lightning claims that Jesus has returned to earth as a Chinese woman, citing the Gospel of Matthew24:27: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be". Eastern Lightning is banned in the People's Republic of China due to several prolific violent crimes committed by its members; Chinese and international news media have in turn described the group as a cult.[69]
Alvaro Thais (b. 1948) is a Brazilian esoteric guru who made claims to be the second coming of Jesus in 1979, after allegedly having a revelation in a seclusion during some days in Santiago, Chile. Following the supposed epiphany, he changed his name to "Inri Cristo" (en: Inri Christ) and began to preach his doctrine, having traveled to several countries in Latin America and Europe. He also founded the institution Suprema Ordem Universal da Santíssima Trindade (en: Supreme Universal Order of the Holy Trinity) on February 28, 1982, after invading the Metropolitan Cathedral of Belém, where he attacked the vicar and broke images. When arrested, he claimed that he was practicing the "libertarian act". After spending fifteen days in the São José Liberto Prison, Inri was released and returned to Curitiba.[70]
Alan John Miller (b. 1962), more commonly known as A.J. Miller, a former Jehovah's WitnessElder and current leader of the Australia-based Divine Truth movement.[72] Miller claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated with others in the 20th century to spread messages that he calls the "Divine Truth". He delivers these messages in seminars and various forms of media along with his current partner Mary Suzanne Luck, who identifies herself as the returned Mary Magdalene.[73]
Delores Kane (b. 1965) is a former MI5 officer and whistleblower who, in the summer of 2007, proclaimed herself to be the Messiah. She has released a series of videos on YouTube claiming to be Jesus, although she has not built up any noticeable following since her claims.[74][75]
Maurice Clemmons (1972–2009), an American felon responsible for the 2009 murder of four police officers in Washington state, referred to himself in May 2009 as Jesus.[76]
Todd Kincannon (b. 1981), former head of the South Carolina Republican Party, was arrested in 2018 for killing and mutilating his mother's dog. He claimed to police he was the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and that God had told him to do it, because “every 1,000 years there needs to be a sacrifice and blood must be spilt."[82]
Gabbie Hanna (b. 1991), an American Internet personality and singer-songwriter, went on a multi-post rant on TikTok in August 2022 claiming to be the Second Coming of Jesus.[83]
Ezra Miller (b. 1992), an American actor who, in June 2022, allegedly referred to themselves as Jesus, the Devil, and a Messiah to Native Americans.[84] Miller later claimed to be seeking treatment for "complex mental health issues".[85]
Jey Rence Quilario (b. 2000), also known as Senior Agila and the president of the Socorro Bayanihan Services. Ex-members claimed that Quilario allegedly believed himself to be God, the reincarnation of the Santo Niño and the Messiah.[86]
Notability is established with a Wikipedia article, either as a biographical article about the person who claimed to be Jesus, or an article about their followers
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