The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith may not yet be a household word but this group of churches, with headquarters in Philadelphia, has been in the news in the past several years since the death of their bishop, S. McDowell Shelton on October 13, 1991. After his death battles raged between the surviving elders, including Shelton's "sons" (who were not his biological sons, they were sort of adopted into what he called his royal family and given his last name), as to whom would take over the leadership of this semi-denomination with over 70 churches worldwide. Colorful scenes of fistfights and heightened emotions filled our Delaware Valley newscasts, causing scandal before on onlooking scoffing world.

When the dust settled, a new leader emerged: one of Shelton's "sons," Kenneth N. Shelton, now to be known as Bishop Omega Yediduth Limmud Ben Judah, the new proclaimed "prophet" who claims to be able to dispense the Holy Ghost to the people. (His Holy Ghost, however, is referred to as an "it.") The dead bishop is still looked to as some sort of patron saint and is invoked by the title of "His Most Holy Apostolic Blessedness" or just "Blessedness" for short.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith follows the strange teachings of his "Blessedness" such as condemnation of doctors and medicine, rejection of public charities such as welfare, renunciation of all kinds of insurance (automobile, life, health), rejection of holidays such as Christmas which is considered heathen. But one of the worst teachings they promote is the denial that Jesus Christ is currently the Son of God. These teachings are heard across the country on over 50 radio stations on the church's broadcasts called "The Whole Truth." They are heard locally in Philadelphia on Christian radio station WZZD on Sunday mornings.

But, "The Whole Truth" does not deliver what it promises. Its condemnation of many of Christendom's essential doctrines, such as the Trinity and the bodily resurrection of Christ, puts them on the outside of Christianity. They are indeed a dangerous religious cult victimizing many unsuspecting individuals in the mostly African-American Community.

Its view of the Godhead is similar to the Oneness Pentecostal cult, the United Pentecostals who believe that God the Father became the Son and the Son became the Spirit. Historically the heresy is sometimes called modalism. The Churches literature puts it this way: "Jesus Christ is Father, was Son, and is now Holy Ghost in the Church (pamphlet "Is Jesus Christ the Son of God Now?" by S. G. Johnson). And like the UPC, they teach that baptism is essential to salvation and salvation is evidenced by the speaking in other tongues.

In the aforementioned pamphlet they distribute, a challenge is given by the late Bishop Shelton: "THERE IS NO SCRIPTURE IN THE BIBLE THAT SAYS, JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD NOW. I defy the entire world to produce Bible for such a statement. There is none." (Emphasis in original.) Here's a synopsis in the church's own words of their teaching on the subject of the Son of God:

"The Sonship began in Mary's body. This was the beginning of God's Son. He was God's Son because God begat that body...When that body died and shed blood, it was the end of God's Son...He made a body and got in that body...He got rid of the human body while He was here. He did not carry it to heaven. That body had never been to heaven. That human body had never been in heaven and did not go to heaven...God's Son ended on the cross...The Son of God didn't rise from the dead. The Sonship started in the womb of Mary and ended on the cross...It is true that the Son of God does not exist anywhere now...Some say there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. That is not the truth. It is an unscriptural statement. The Bible does not teach three distinct persons in the Godhead" ("The Whole Truth," Vol. 47, No. 40)

It is amazing that this group could be so daring in their challenges to the church to disprove this heresy since it is so easy to do. Here are just a few verses to disprove their foundational false doctrine, all of which come from the New Testament and written about the Son of God after his ascension had already taken place.

In Acts 7:56 as Stephen is being martyred he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." This shows a clear distinction between the Son and the Father and refers to Jesus as the Son.

Revelation 18:1 Jesus is again called the "Son of God." And in Revelation 22:16 we read: "I, Jesus, have sent my angel...I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star." If the man Jesus no longer existed, why would the Father (as they claim Jesus now is) refer to himself as Jesus and mention his earthly lineage from David?

These "Apostolic" people should shake in their boots as they read the warnings by the pen of the Apostle John written decades after Jesus returned to heaven to those who would deny the Son:

"Whoever denies the Son (which they do by saying He no longer exists) does not have the Father" (1 John 2:23)

"Whoever confesses that Jesus is (not was) the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God" (1 John 4:15).

"He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (1 John 5:12).

The church's pamphlet, however, responds to all such biblical prooftexts with one of their own, Romans 4:17: "even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." In anticipating bible believers pointing out verses concerning the Son of God they say that where that term is used it is the Bible "speaking of things that were not as though they were (p. 5 of pamphlet). This sort of unreasonable reasoning makes it futile to reach this sort of person with the truth.

Christians need to call or write their radio stations and ask them to remove this non-Christian cult program from the airwaves. Besides the false and heretical doctrines mentioned, there is also evidence that this group's leadership exercises unbiblical control over the lives of their people and puts them under a hard and difficult legalistic lifestyle that is sure to cut their lives short on earth and cause them to miss eternal life as well. The elders and bishops and so-called prophets are set up as unquestionable and unapproachable to the lowly spiritual underclass.

On page 24 of their booklet, "The Whole Truth," (Vol. 47. No. 40) a caption under a photograph read, "The saints lined up and gathered for the opportunity to speak with, touch, and receive personal autographs from the royal priests." This is an ugly scene of a religious caste system that would be anathema to the Lord Jesus Christ who told his disciples that they were not to lord it over each other, but they were to wash one another's feet. May God deliver these "saints" from this heavy yoke of bondage!