by Dr Mark Keown

Last Sunday night (May 26) TV One’s Sunday aired the report “The Gospel According to AJ.” Several years ago, “AJ The Messiah” was run on the same show. Clearly there is a real fascination with this man. Sadly it gives many another excuse to think religious people are rather daft.

If you did not see either of these shows, they feature a certain A.J. Miller in Queensland who genuinely believes that he is Jesus reincarnated. He does not claim to be God for he denies that Jesus himself was God. This is appropriate, because his background is the Jehovah Witness movement which denies the deity of Christ. He also denies the virgin birth and that Jesus’ death was a sacrifice for sin.

Miller appears at one level to be a normal Aussie bloke in his thirties. He is even real enough to accept that many people think he is mad. He claims to remember his own miracles (some of them) and his crucifixion. His current partner is Mary Luck who remembers being Mary Magdalene in the first century and who claims to recollect Jesus’ crucifixion. A.J. and Mary claim to have been married in their intial incarnations and had a daughter. Miller believes that he and Mary are soul-mates and at the first incarnation the soul was split into two and become one – they are now reincarnated soul-mates. Miller has a number of disciples who also claim to recall Jesus’ life. Some of them were very successful people including a Kiwi palliative care doctor, Dr Karen Pronk and a Kiwi carpenter, Max Love. (I am not sure if this is his real name?).

Miller is attracting followers to his “God’s Way of Love” community, is raising money, forming a compound, breaking up families, and predicting Armageddon, including a new continent emerging beside Hawaii and a tsunami destroying Australia – and I presume NZ. He preaches the “divine love path” and his influence is growing. Miller appears very reasonable. However, clearly he is mistaken about being Jesus. Here are some of the reasons that we can be utterly confident that this A.J. Miller is not the not Jesus the Messiah reincarnated.

1. His bodily form is wrong: If Miller was Jesus he would be a resurrected Jew, not a reincarnated “normal Aussie bloke.” Although he may be multi-lingual due to his exaltation, he would no doubt speak Aramaic and Hebrew and perhaps Greek and Latin. Jesus did not rise spiritually to return as a different person, but he rose bodily as the same person, although transformed. Miller does not have scars and says he has a different body. Jesus had the same body and would have the scars of his death as he did when he revealed himself to Thomas. Jesus will not reincarnate, he will return. Neither will his disciples reincarnate and return; this is nothing like Christianity.
2. His supposed return is wrong: Christ’s return in the Scriptures will not be birth in Australia, but will be a dynamic visible event in “the same way” as his departure, i.e. a return to earth (Acts 1:11).
3. His understanding of Christ’s ministry is wrong: Miller picks and chooses which miracles Jesus did. Jesus ever actively sought to break up marriages and families as Miller does. Miller is a pop-psychologist, whereas the real Jesus healed with word and touch. Jesus did not hide away in the outback building a commune warning of Armageddon. He went out into the world to preach, heal, feed and gather people to do the same. Jesus did not tell people to hide away and prepare for Armageddon but told them to go into the world and preach and demonstrate the Kingdom.
4. His sexuality is wrong: Jesus was celibate and unmarried whereas Miller is married and claims to have been married in his past life. There is absolutely no evidence that he was married to Mary Magdalene and the claim that they had a child is unfounded. Neither is his idea of the human soul splitting into two, the male and female, and being reunited as one as “soul mates” representative of a biblical anthropology.
5. His attitude to money is wrong: Although supposedly not directly requesting money from this disciples, Miller is raising money from all over the world to build his “empire.” The real Jesus did not act in this way but had no “place to lay his head” and died naked and poor. He lived through the generosity of women who travelled with him. He did not acquire money for anything and rebuked those who sought wealth at the expense of others.
6. He is a fulfilment of prophecy of the real Jesus: Jesus warned such false Christ’s would come in Mark 13:21-23. He told his followers to “be on your guard” against such people – this is one of those times!
7. He denies the biblical story of Christ: Aside from the issue of claiming that Jesus was not celibate and was married to Mary, he denies Jesus’ virgin birth and death as a salvific sacrifice for sins. As such, he corrupts essential elements of the story held by the first NT writers and recorded in Scripture.
8. His attitude to Jesus is completely wrong: The main reason to reject Miller is that he thinks he is Jesus. A Christian believes in Jesus, and does not claim to be Jesus. A Christian has the attitude of John, “he must increase, I must decrease.” A Christian does not seek personal glory, but Christ’s glory. He is not Jesus and he is not a Christian. He is one of those false prophets and Christ the Scriptures warn of.

As such, we should not be drawn into A.J. Miller’s obvious charisma and claims. We should also pray that those captivated by the movement are set free and find the real Jesus!

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