September 19, 2011
When Channel Seven’s “Sunday Night” host Chris Bath introduced last Sunday’s opening segment on a cult leader claiming to be Jesus Christ, my expectations soared when she said this special investigation had been eight months in the making, and would be presented in no fewer than three parts.
Wow, I thought. Eight months! This will be really in-depth. I bet they’ll nail this fraudulent imposter and expose him for all the world to see as a fake charlatan (please pardon my tautologies — it’s a besetting weakness). Disappointingly — bordering on infuriatingly — this did not happen. A.J.Miller, the imposter (do I have to say “alleged”?) came out of it with his credibility not much shakier than it was already.
The investigation was conducted and presented by guest reporter Dr.David Millikan, a former ABC television and radio presenter and an expert on cults and sects. Presented in three segments, the report in general may have been described as “in depth”, but sadly the interviewing was anything but. In fact, instead of relentless and incisive questioning, Dr.Millikan often resorted to making comments, allowing A.J.Miller (aka “Jesus Christ”) to get off the hook and evade answering the question by saying “Well that’s your opinion David.” Persistent, probing follow-up questions were very few and far between.
Here are some questions Dr.Millikan didn’t ask, that might have had a far better chance of catching A.J. out in his preposterous deception:-
1. Some, or perhaps many, of your followers have left their spouses because you or your teachings have convinced them the partner they left was not their true “soul mate”. How do you tell who are true soul mates and who aren’t? Convince me by reasoned argument that the couple in America whose marriage your teachings broke up were not true soul mates. Try telling that to the heartbroken husband whose wife has left him to join your cult.
Furthermore, how would you yourself feel if someone in so-called authority declared that you and your wife “Mary Magdalene” were not true soul mates? Would you take the slightest bit of notice? No need to answer that.
2. On a related matter, the first Jesus discouraged divorce in the strongest terms. And yet you on the other hand encourage divorce in the manner described above. If you’re the same person, how do you explain such a dramatic about-face on this issue?
3. You’ve just admitted that the woman sitting beside you is not the first woman whom you’ve convinced (or tried to convince) that she was Mary Magdalene. You’ve admitted there was one other. So are there two Mary Magdalenes, or did you get one of them wrong? And how can you be sure which one you got wrong? What if the one you’re with now isn’t the right one? And in any case, the real Jesus never made mistakes like that. You’ve just in effect admitted you’re fallible, so how do you reconcile being the perfect Son of God with being so fallible and hence by definition so non-divine?
4. How many of the children in your group have you fathered? How many of your followers have you slept with, how many of them were married, how many divorced, and how many were under twenty?
5. You’ve claimed that in your first incarnation 2,000 years ago, you performed some of the miracles mentioned in the Gospels, but not others. For instance, you did raise Lazarus from the dead and you did heal the sick and the blind, but you didn’t walk on water or change water into wine. By what criteria have you decided which miracles you did perform the first time round, and which ones you didn’t? Could it be, perchance, that you have chosen to discard walking on water and changing water into wine because they would be too easy to put to a simple test today — a test that you know very well you couldn’t pass?
6. Furthermore, how many resurrection and healing miracles have you performed this time round? Please introduce me to those of your followers [or non-followes for that matter, whom the first Jesus routinely healed] whom you have raised from the dead, or whose lost sight you have restored, or whose crippled or paralytic bodies are now miraculously whole, or who have been cleansed of demonic possession. I can’t wait to meet them all. On the other hand, if you haven’t performed any such miracles, how can you possibly expect anyone to take remotely seriously your claim to be Jesus Christ?
7. The mother of the first Jesus was a virgin when He was conceived. Was your mother also a virgin? If not, then all of the ancient prophecies about the Messiah coming from a virgin cannot apply to you, so you’re not Christ the Messiah after all. You’re just an extremely ordinary bloke called A.J.Miller, period (sorry, two periods).
8. In this life you used to be a property developer or similar profession, presumably making a handsome profit. Were you Jesus at that time, or have you only become Jesus since then? If you were Jesus at that time, how do you explain the stark contrast with the first Jesus, who never had a penny to His name, and who warned strongly against the dangers of greed and material wealth? If on the other hand you were not Jesus at that time. when and how did you suddenly become Jesus half way through your life? The first Jesus was Jesus right from birth [indeed for an eternity before then], so why weren’t you?
9. Do you claim your appearance in this present incarnation is the Second Coming of Christ the King? The Bible makes it clear that the real Second Coming will be a stupendously spectacular event the like of which the world has never seen. With respect, there couldn’t possibly be a greater contrast between the Biblical descriptions of the anticipated real Second Coming, and your life as a relative nonentity mooching around with a few dozen deluded followers on a few acres in the middle of nowhere in outback Queensland.
10. The first Jesus died, rose from the dead, and later ascended into heaven, where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. How is it possible that you can be seated at the right hand of God in heaven, and be down here on earth at one and the same time? Not even the first Jesus Himself managed the trick of being in two distant places at once [or even non-distant ones]. As Pauline Hanson might say, “Please explain?”
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTIONS:
(a) Name your twelve disciples with whom you were intimately acquainted over a three year period, such that you could never possibly forget any of their names.
(b) Name the disciple who replaced Judas in the Twelve.
(c) Repeat for us your much loved Beatitudes as recorded in Matthew chapter 5.
(d) In your own words — or rather I should say, those of the first Jesus — what is the greatest commandment of all, and what is the second that is like unto it?
(e) How many temptations did Satan put before you during your time in the wilderness, and what were your responses to them?
(f) Who were the other two people seen with you on the Mount of Transfiguration?
(g) Complete the declaration that begins, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me….”. And from which book of the Old Testament did you read this passage in the synagogue in which town?
(h) What did Peter say when you asked him, “But who do you say that I am?”, and what was your reply to Peter’s answer?
(i) What relation were you to John the Baptist, and how did he die?
(j) At the risk of ending on a slightly trivial note, is Judas in heaven or hell? What about Mahatma Ghandi? And Elvis Presley?
Rowan Forster is a Melbourne-based freelance journalist.
Alrighty, so, I have been stuck in a very unfortunate situation for the last several years that has forced me to read almost every article ever written on this incessantly delusional individual and for my very first comment on the subject I have to say that what I just read is hands down, my all time, favourite, number 1 article that’s been written! Bravo!