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This man thinks he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ

He went from being a traffic cop to declaring himself as the reincarnation of the son of God in a Russian region.

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Fast forward to 2017, where he is now known as Jesus Christ, Daily Mail reports.

Here is what you need about this unbelievable transformation of a 54-year-old man born on January 14, 1961.

He is currently the founder of the Church of the Last Testament.

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He went from being a traffic cop to claiming to be Jesus Christ reincarnated in 1989. Now, he leads a religious sect in Siberia. The teachings of this group is based on his own book, The Last Testament.

His followers love him dearly.

Since 1989, he has managed to attract 5,000 people from all parts of the world. These church members are called Vissarionites and they call their leader the Teacher, Messiah and Vissarion. Church members are not allowed to smoke, drink, use money or any other perceived immoralities of this world. The purpose of this is to embrace a simple existence, which they do by living in wooden huts located around their master.

The interesting thing is that he does not live with his members rather he lives in a chalet closeby with 50 or so of his closest followers. This does not stop them from adorning their walls with his images and playing his sermons during the community’s meetings.

He has interesting teachings.

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Vissarion teaches his followers about the apocalypse, reincarnation and vegetarianism. The Mirror reports that he also teaches that “great flood is coming and he promises salvation and spiritual perfection to his followers.” Agriculture without the use of modern technology and a minimalistic lifestyle is encouraged.

The church does not celebrate Christmas as this has been replaced by a feast day on Vissarion’s birthday, They also celebrate the anniversary of Vissarion’s first sermon in 1991 every August 18th. This is the church’s biggest holiday of the whole year.

He rarely grants interviews.

There are very few interviews of Siberia’s Jesus Christ online. One of the last was done with The Guardian, when photographer Julia Sellmann visited the settlement in August 2015. Despite her being there, she was unable to speak with him and could only describe the church.

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According to Sellmann, "the community is organised in two kinds of families, the natural and the unified family’. The ‘natural family’ describes the biological kinship between man, woman and children. Whereas the ‘unifed family’ is ‘the communal organisation of every village and follows Vissarion’s vision that his followers must learn to overcome their egoism and instead live together as brothers and sisters.” She was also unable to take photographs of a lot of the members because her camera was believed to “release negative energy that leads to a deep confusion in the body.”

However, BBC’s Simon Reeve was able to interview Vissarion and a teacher this year as part of a documentary. The teacher said, “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.”

Not everyone approves of this church.

The reporter said he found the teacher’s statement to be “scary stuff.” He added, “I genuinely felt like I should be calling social services. They’re teaching Vissarion’s ten-volume sequel to The Bible.”

When asked about accusations from critics that say that he is “brainwashing and embezzling” his followers,  Vissarion‘s response was that this made “sad.”

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“Sad, what else can I feel? This is unavoidable. I’ll put down the basis that will change all humanity,” he said.

According to Reeve, the interview ended with Vissarion asking his followers to “donate money and provide labour for his profit-making businesses.”

Vissarion has one wife and six kids, one of them was adopted from a single mother. He spends his time painting, which was how he met his current 19-year-old  wife.

They met when she posed nude for his paintings. Newsweek reports his first wife left him after he married this young lady.

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