A reader asked me to discuss Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale North Carolina.
I listened to a couple of Bible teaching sessions from the church’s radio ministry and could detect an emphasis on personal faith; I got much more information, however, from few secular news reports that included victim testimonies of former members of the fellowship.
I linked one of those news report; if you want more information, listen to related videos on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kmHonFxRjc
The following links will provide understanding about gross errors in Christian teaching that were discussed by the news report on the Spindale, NC fellowship.
Description of Spindale fellowship from Wikipedia:
Word of Faith Fellowship began in 1979 when Jane Whaley and her husband Sam Whaley converted a former steakhouse to a chapel. She was a math teacher and he sold used cars. Jane Whaley, the daughter of a plumber and a homemaker who had two brothers in rural North Carolina, led the group as it grew from a few people to 750, and added almost 2,000 followers in related churches in Brazil, Ghana, Scotland, Sweden and other countries.[2][3][1] Though Jane Whaley had no formal training in ministry, she was described as a compelling speaker and leader.[4] The Whaleys’ student from Rhema Bible College, Brooke Covington, is a minister in the church.[5]
To read more at Wikipedia, click following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Faith_Fellowship
Errors described by the News report and Wikipedia excerpt above:
- Jane Whaley had NO formal Christian education
- Physical abuse: hitting, slapping, beating, putting children in isolation; past incidents of abuse related to beating children who identified as gay
- Calling children wicked and unclean for such things as liking sports
- Members called Jane Whaley, “grandmother”
Jane and her husband started the church. Even though she had no formal training, she apparently established the teachings and rule of conduct for the church.
Have we heard of this type of fellowship before?
Yes, consider the following:
Jehovah’s Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity… The group emerged from the Bible Student movement founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell, who also co-founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 to organize and print the movement’s publications.[3] A leadership dispute after Russell’s death resulted in several groups breaking away, with Joseph Franklin Rutherford retaining control of the Watch Tower Society and its properties.
To read more on the JWs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses
Another church that diverged from protestant mainstream churches, and was started by several individuals, having “distinctive teachings” [unbiblical teachings]:
The Seventh-day Adventist Church[a] is a Protestant Christian denomination[3] which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday,[4] the seventh day of the week in Christian and Jewish calendars, as the Sabbath, and its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ. The denomination grew out of the Millerite movement in the United States during the mid-19th century and it was formally established in 1863.[5] Among its founders was Ellen G. White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard by the church.[6] Much of the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church corresponds to common evangelical Christian teachings, such as the Trinity and the infallibility of Scripture. Distinctive teachings include the unconscious state of the dead and the doctrine of an investigative judgment. The church is known for its emphasis on diet and health, including adhering to Kosher food laws, advocating vegetarianism, and its holistic understanding of the person.[7][8] It is likewise known for its promotion of religious liberty, and its conservative principles and lifestyle.[9]
To read more on the above church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church
Another church that was founded by an individual, long after the biblical traditions of the mainstream Christian church were established via church councils; and the Protestant Reformation (wherein was a return to the biblical gospel taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and carried forth by the apostles He chose), is the Mormon church:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16.5 million members and 67,000 full-time volunteer missionaries.[7] In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States,[8] with over 6.5 million members there as of January 2018.[9] It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
To read more about Mormonism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints
Another church that was founded by an individual and diverged from the Bible is the People’s Temple:
James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and self-professed faith healer. He launched the Peoples Temple in Indiana during the 1950s. Jones and his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of himself and his followers in his jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978.
Rev. Jones was ordained in 1957 by the Independent Assemblies of God and in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ.[note 1] He moved his congregation to California in 1965 and gained notoriety with its activities in San Francisco in the 1970s. He then left the United States, taking many members to a Guyana jungle commune called Jonestown.
To read more on Jones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
Other individuals that have started independent churches that diverged from biblical teachings include:
Benny Hinn; Joel Osteen and the many false teachers covered in this blog in the category of Prosperity Preachers.
To hear the first and foundational post in that category, click the following link:
Other CATEGORIES in this blog where false teachers are discussed: [these are not linked]
Mysticism: Rob Bell; Rick Warren; Brian McLaren
Beth Moore: she is therein discussed in several posts
Man-Centered Preaching: New Apostolic Reformation false teachers; Carl Lentz and Hillsong…
Summary: The topic of false Christian teachers and teachings is a huge topic. The church today seems to be about 90% UNBIBLICAL.
You may think that to be a little thing, until you read through the Bible.
My first read of the Bible left me frightened. What frightened me? I saw firsthand, that God had specifically described Himself; how He was to be worshipped; mankind; how they were to live to comply with His Laws; and much more.
Since I was then already a church member, I saw that the church I was in diverged from what God’s word prescribed. I thereafter attended several other churches over the next decade, evaluating them in terms of God’s word. They all fell short, but some were very far from aligning with the Bible, while some sought to follow the Bible, preached sermons from the Bible, etc.
The big point in the aforementioned is that a Christian has to know the Bible to be able to identify false teachers and ministries.
All false teachers pervert Bible doctrine; if you do not know Bible doctrine, then you will not be able to discern their perversions.
Consider the following Bible passages:
From Romans 10:
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?3 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
From Deuteronomy 30:
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish.
The next post will cover the other three points from the news report on Spindale NC:
- Physical abuse: hitting, slapping, beating, putting children in isolation; past incidents of abuse related to beating children who identified as gay
- Calling children wicked and unclean for such things as liking sports
- Members called Jane Whaley, “grandmother”