The death of the apostle Samuel and the miraculous acts that accompanied the appointment of his successor Naason

Abstract

Guadalajara is home to the Latin American Pentecostal Church with more adepts and frank expansion: The Light of the World. In 2016 its leader and apostle (as it is called) Samuel Joaquín died happening in its dignity of head of the Church the fifth of its children, the pastor located in California Naasón. It is striking how this Pentecostal movement did not dissolve into the death of its founder Eusebio Joaquin, as it happens to many religious organizations whose cohesion depends on the leadership and charisma of its founder. On the contrary, of being a religious movement of the sectarian type, nailed in the bosom of a city of rooted Catholicism; Which in its origins had to overcome the cristera intransigencia, the Light of the World managed to become a Church of international rank. The study I present is a first attempt to explain how the miraculous event (for example, an epiphanic or prophetic dream), charismatic leadership and the doctrine that mythifies the figure and family of the founder are factors that have strengthened the Light of World. These three factors, incidentally, came into play in the process of legitimizing Naasón as his father's successor at the head of this religious organization.