Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be divine*

POSTED: 1908 GMT (0308 HKT), February 19, 2007

Story Highlights
• Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a minister, says he is God
• De Jesus preaches that there is no devil and no sin
• His church claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries

By John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.

But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus,
or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray
to God: He says he is God.

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of
Nazareth," de Jesus says.

De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he
is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more
dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers
get 666 tattoos for their leader Video)

"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof.
Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University
who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.

"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him
more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."

Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more
than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff
with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples
Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?
Prophets 'spoke to me'

De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia,"
Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the
movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that
their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.

But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church
that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.

De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in
prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.

De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in
a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I
am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000
years," de Jesus says.

The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:

# Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin
America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.

# De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he
says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.

# The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a
seal similar to the United States.
Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex

If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also
does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts
traditional vows of poverty.

He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly
than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex
to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in
armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from
his devoted followers.

And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?

Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of
God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.

The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's
the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.

"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means
don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a
Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of
Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."

And de Jesus says that means him.

So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his
claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the
group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to
have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.

He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect
them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones.
Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.

"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's
not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told
CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.