its sunday and i'm avoiding church, i'm sure i'll be getting phone calls later and i'v to try and be strong and not lie or this means they have power over me, and blimey i'm use to livin with no respect for myself but when it comes to the lord what makes me true? I asked a couple who are members what they thought of vissarian and they never heard now for a church such as there's i was puzzled, this guy had a change in his life which to most he'll seem bonkers but wow if you ever watched the documentary on this ex russian police man you'll be question your beleives from the church, and i would like to ask anyone in were do the church stand in beleiving in angels, archangels? I sorry if these questions are not whats interesting here, but sometimes i still feel alone with my faith. Thank you

Looked it up...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vissarion

Wow, what a strange one. LDS Corp has some competition. He claims to be Jesus reincarnated (phone SLC and let them know!), but he sounds more like Joe Smith (Polyg, marrying a girl who was brought up in his home)...

I read the Shack when a lot of people were talking about it.

I guess I would call it a feel good fluff book. I decided the movies and books that give god some kind of unconventional identity is a step up because it helps people think about things differently and get more meaning from things.

But belief in that kind of thing? No. I don't see any need or evidence.

There are multiple examples of people who make extraordinary claims. The evidence is never adequate. It is human nature to make up things.

If I told you I was reincarnated Cleopatra, I doubt you would take me seriously. It's the same for people who like to think they are gods or angels.

Check out Demon Haunted World by Sagan.

I liked "The Shack", but it was sad ... hard to forgive someone who killed your child :(...

This is the first I've heard of vissarian. With out a doubt, some of his teaching must be beautiful, but I sense a "dark side"...a Joe Smith, David Koresh, Jim Jones type of deal, don't you?

Enjoy your Sunday off!

i think there are just others to who claim to be god like and not just the church who believe its only them men who are todays latest in charge them ones dressed in suits, i'v never know anything like it,

The morg would have a serious problem with the Vassarians...

"...and money is banned"

Sergey Torop (Vissarion) is the product of his time; i.e the end of the USSR. He was unemployed in 1989 when he began getting his visions/feelings/messages, and notice that he announced that he was Jesus in 1991, the year the Soviet Union dissolved. Notice also that he lives in Siberia; the Soviet government used to pay people twice as much to live there, then the money was cut off after 1991 and many of the settlements collapsed, with people moving back to European Russia or on to the Siberian port cities or towns bordering China....so this would be like a mystical cult forming in Detroit or other rust belt towns, if Vissarion lived in the US.

You see this alot in societies undergoing extreme stress and change, the return to religion or the creation of new religions or cults. In America, Fundamentalist Christianity emerged out of the rapid changes in our society in the 19th century, and that sort of religion became popular again during the Cold War. The social stresses of the 19th century allowed for the rise of Christian Science, Mormonism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses; I would expect to see more Christian knockoffs emerging in the Western world thanks to the present economic unpleasantness.