Samuel Joaquin Flores, the 77-year-old leader of the Guadalajara-based evangelical Iglesia Luz del Mundo (Light of the World Church), died Monday after a short illness. Considered by his flock to be a divinely elected apostle of God, he took over leadership of the church at the age of 27 after the death of his father, Aaron Joaquin Gonzalez, in 1964.
Under Joaquin Flores' five-decade stewardship, church membership grew to an estimated five million people in 37 countries.
As its leader, Flores saw himself as an apostle, just like one of the original 12 led by Jesus, who could preach the gospel of God with a focus on the early, more modest traditions of Christianity.
Started by Joaquin Gonzalez in 1926, Luz del Mundo describes itself as the restoration of primitive Christianity, believing modern Catholic society and religion are plagued by luxurious material goods and excessive behaviors. Men and women are separated during services, ministers must be married, there is a strong emphasis on Bible reading and the denomination’s adherents believe in the second coming of Christ. The symbol of the cross is not recognized. There is no dancing, drinking alcohol or dating. Women wear long skirts and marriages generally take place within the Luz del Mundo community.
Messages of condolence for Joaquin Flores were issued by political leaders Monday, including one from Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval.
The Luz del Mundo has enjoyed a long history of collaboration with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), dating back to the time the Hermosa Provincia neighborhood was set up on the outskirts of Guadalajara in the 1950s. Congregation members comprise an overwhelming majority of the neighborhood's population and streets have names like Jordan, Jerico and Nazareth.
Work on the luxuriant Luz del Mundo temple, the focal point of the neighborhood and an easily recognizable structure on the Guadalajara skyline, began in 1982 and finished a decade later.
For most devotees of the denomination, Joaquin Flores was akin akin to a god. His mere arrival at the annual "Santa Cena" celebration in Guadalajara – attended by 300,000 adherants – was enough to prompt instantaneous tears and adulation.
As leader of Luz del Mundo, Joaquin Flores oversaw the construction of schools, hospitals and other social services provided by the church. In the 1990s, the church expanded form the American continent to countries such as United Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ethiopia and Israel.