In a tattoo parlor on trendy South Beach sat the daughter of the man who claims to be God.
Jo Ann De Jesus: "He's back. He's here to teach us that we should reign in life. That there is No sin.”
Jo Ann is one of several dozen members of a religious sect called Creciendo en Gracia -- Growing in Grace -- who were tattooed on their arms, ankles, even their necks with 666: the biblical sign of the anti-christ.
Watch this story here (the video starts at about 8 minutes into the show).Why? Because their spiritual leader says he is the anti-Christ. Not the embodiment of evil, but rather the second coming.
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda: "666. Anti-Christ means do not put your eyes on Jesus of Nazareth; put it on Jesus after the cross. That's me.” And, he says--the word "anti-Christ" is a bad translation of a word that actually means the new Christ -- "the 2nd coming."
Puerto Rican-born Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda founded the sect 20 years ago in a warehouse outside Miami. The charismatic 61-year-old de Jesus claims millions of followers, most in Latin America. His sect has hundreds of churches, cable TV stations and says it brought in $1.4 million in donations last year.
He also says there are more and more converts in United States.
He even claims: "I do greater things than Jesus of Nazareth. Much greater." He’s even gotten the tattoos that his followers are getting – 666 on each forearm.
De Jesus says those expecting the second coming of Christ on a cloud with angels have misinterpreted what Jesus himself said: "He says, you won't see me anymore! Because he will come in a different body. Which is me."
Professor Daniel Alvarez says de Jesus is dangerous because he believes he's God: “He's in their heads. He's inside the heads of these people. This kind of megalomaniacal moves are the ones that are very disturbing because it shows he does believe his own hype and he's capable of saying to his members go do 666 on your arm. I also believe he's capable of asking his church members to do even something more dramatic than that."
De Jesus laughs at the implication: “They are going to keep waiting for me to kill everybody.” This is a reference to the deaths of more than 900 cult followers in the so-called Jonestown massacre nearly 30 years ago.
De Jesus' followers say the idea of mass suicide is ridiculous: “If somebody tells us drink some koolaid and we'll go to heaven -- that's not true. We are already in heavenly places."
Then there's the man who wants to see democracy in action: in Tampa, Florida the race for city council is neck and neck, so the candidates have taken to offering some incentives to people who get out and vote. One candidate owns a strip club in town, and says, "When you go out and vote and get your 'I voted' sticker you bring that sticker to the Mons Venus and we'll allow you to get in free." It sounds like it ought to be illegal but its not! Any Florida business owner can offer discounts to voters ... yeah even strip clubs!
