At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. Matthew 24:23 NIV
Right now, in Siberia, a former traffic policeman has convinced a slew of followers that he is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sergey Anatolyevitch Toro is a 56-year-old Russian man, who, before he rose to prominence as the leader of a massive false Christian cult, he directed traffic and was a soldier in the Red Army prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Fox News reports that he now goes by the name “Vissarion” and claims to be the founder of the so-called Last Testament church, which is based in central Siberia in a community called Petropavlovka, or what Vissarion calls a “Siberian utopia.”
According to The Mirror, Vissarion says he wants to join every religion on the globe together, which doesn’t sound much like the Jesus of the Bible. (Maybe the Antichrist though!)
He also reportedly has two wives and six children, and teaches, again contrary to the Bible, that a “great flood is coming and he promises salvation and spiritual perfection to his followers,” which number over 5,000. God of course promised Noah He would never again flood the earth (Gen 9:11).
Newsweek claims that Vissarion’s second wife is a 19-year-old who posed nude for some of his paintings and that he was still married to his first wife when they wed.
Watch tomorrow at 9pm as @simon_reeve meets former traffic policeman Vissarion whose followers believe him to be the reincarnation of Jesus. pic.twitter.com/JW2eJlwRaS
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) October 4, 2017
Simon Reeve of the BBC recently interviewed the cult leader and one of his teachers, who told Reeve that “We have a school of noble maidens here. We’re preparing girls to become future wives, future brides for worthy men. She has to understand not to rise above the man, not to be proud of her independence but to be shy, inconspicuous and weak.”
“I genuinely felt like I should be calling social services. They’re teaching Vissarion’s ten-volume sequel to The Bible,” Reeve said of his visit to the cult.
There are many accusations that Vissarion is “brainwashing and embezzling” his followers, which is common of cults. One thing is certain: he is deceiving them.
This is why it is so important to be grounded in the Word. There are 5,000 clueless people who fell into this absolute nobody’s cunning ways when a simple survey of basic theology would prove he is a fraud. How many people have claimed to be the Second Coming simply for the sake of preying on gullible people who just want someone to follow?
We are told in Scripture to utterly destroy everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5) and that in the last days there will be carnal false prophets leading men astray (1 Tim 4:1-2). These men are wolves who are leading many terribly astray!
Jesus will come back, but it won’t be in the form of a Russian traffic policeman, it will be on a white horse, with a sword, and the whole earth will tremble. Then, there will be no confusion–and every knee will bow to the King, whether they followed Him in this life or not. Pray that those caught up in this ridiculous deception will turn away from this deception and come to know Him before it is too late!
