Pastor John Paul Miller of Solid Rock at Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, told his congregation that he attempted to raise his late wife, Mica Miller, from the dead following her suicide late last month. As reported by The Christian Post, Miller made the remarks during the eulogy of his late wife at a memorial service at the church on May 5.
“As Christians, of course, we know she’s not here. [She’s] in Heaven, worshiping and enjoying and probably haven’t [sic] had time to look down here yet,” Miller said during the service.
“But I’ve been down to the body about four times this week and each time it still didn’t hit me [that she was gone],” Miller said. “I thought she was gonna wake up. I even tried to raise her from the dead one time this week.”
Miller also told the congregation he thought his attempted resurrection of his wife was successful because he saw someone who looked like her, who turned out to be her sister.
“I went to the mall. … She [Mica] had bought me this dog tag. The chain broke, so I went to the mall to get it fixed. And I saw a female about 20-30 feet in front of me. And she was wearing one of Mica’s dresses, and she has the same tattoo Mica has on her arm and the exact same hair, and out of just instinct, I screamed, Mica!” he said. “The girl turned around; it was one of her sisters. And I thought I raised her from the dead. She’s alive, you know. But I can’t wait to see her one day.”
Following Mica’s suicide, Miller was relieved by all ministerial duties "for a time of healing, counsel, and guidance, pursuant to our governing instrument,” according to his mentor and spiritual advisor, Rev. Charles Randall. At the same time, however, Randall told The Christian Post that Miller would continue to be the lead pastor because God had not told him to do so.
As Crosswalk Headlines previously reported, Mica had served Miller with divorce papers on April 25, just two days before her death, and had first filed for divorce on October 23. Her sister, Sierra Francis, said that Mica was looking forward to being free from her husband because he was reportedly abusive. Miller has been the face of controversy in the past. In 2017, his first wife, Alison, who's the mother of his five children, alleged him of engaging in sex acts with minors younger than 16 and being addicted to prostitutes. She also claimed that Miller was caught in an affair with Mica in 2015 while she was working as their babysitter and married to his then-best friend, Jeremy Deas.
“Our marriage and my husband’s career were less than stable at the time, because at the time my husband’s affair was discovered, he had previously admitted to both me and our congregation that he had an addiction to prostitution,” Alison wrote in an affidavit at the time seeking alimony.
“He had also confessed to me and other staff members of the church that he had sexual encounters with young females from the church, who were under the age of sixteen,” she added.
Alison also shared that Miller refused to get counseling for his sex addiction at the request of church officials.
“When he refused, the majority of our church left the congregation,” Alison wrote.
During an interview with CP, Miller admitted to the affair with Mica and being forced to start over and his church, but he did not go into details alleged by Alison.
According to NewsNation, Miller confessed to posting a nude photo of Mica on social media after she tried to divorce him.
“I’m sorry for putting a picture of you on the internet,” he said in an apology email. “It was for less than one hour and immediately taken down. I was hurt that you are telling everyone horrible intimate details of my past sin, and I just wanted to try and hurt you. Please forgive me. It was evil of me to do that.”
The pastor told CP that Mica was diagnosed with “bipolar II, schizophrenic and dependent personality disorder” shortly after they got married in 2017. Despite trying to manage her symptoms with lithium, Miller said Mica complained that the medication caused her to gain weight or caused her to slur. What Miller did not share was that he also had mental health struggles and was taking medication.
On May 10, Ty Longerbeam posted a dated video to Facebook showing Miler experiencing what some claimed to be drug-induced psychosis. Miller is shown lying on a lawn next to a vehicle and telling someone that his medication had changed. He also claimed that ants were crawling all over him even though no ants were visible crawling over him. When asked if he wanted help from his mother, Miller refused.
“I don’t want my mom”, he said, noting that she is always trying to get him on medication and “this is what it does.”
“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t do nothing,” he said.
According to The Christian Post, both the US Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations in South Carolina have been consulted as part of investigation into Miller’s suicide.
Photo credit: ©YouTube/NewYorkPost
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.