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Jeff Jenkins was the pastor of Believers Christian Fellowship in Lima, Ohio for almost 33 and a half years. Rod Bergen and Tim Kraus talk to Jeff about:
– What have been the biggest changes in his thinking since he left the message 7 years ago?
– What has surprised him most since he left the message?
– Has he had any contact with other message ministers since he left?
– How has his ministry developed since he left the message?
– What is his advice to those that have left the message?
– What is the proper approach to religion and faith based on his experience since leaving the message?
Links
– Our first interview with Pastor Jeff
– Jeff Jenkins discusses the 1963 Arizona Cloud
The following is a transcript of the podcast:
Amazing to hear from Jeff. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Dear Brothers, I was raised in a Message church in central Indiana. The Lord led me out of Message teaching into salvation through faith in Christ alone teaching as a college student in my 20s. I have felt for 20+ years that I couldn’t stomach looking into the doctrine of the Message, as I had this deep fear of blasphemy associated with any criticism of “The Prophet”. I literally told my husband that I need to keep William Branham “on the shelf”. Through the past year, several conversations have led me to want to critically evaluate my fundamentalist upbringing, and when I mustered enough curiosity and bravery, I finally did a Google search and landed first at William Branham Historical Research and then at Off the Shelf. I believe the phrase “on the shelf” must have been in implicit memory, as I don’t remember having been taught that. What I do remember is listening to tapes of vitriol toward women, a compelling and heartbreaking WMB life story, and a quagmire of confusing doctrine. It has been a week of great liberation for me (and for my sister, who also left the Message) to work through the podcasts on these two websites. Jeff Jenkins testimony was particularly compelling as we were familiar with his church and ministry. Having WMB’s life story/vision/prophesy exposed as cobbled together fabrication and manipulation has made me both angry (how could so many of us based our faith on lies for decades after this man’s death) and free.
Memories of WMB’s words against women have come vividly back as I’ve read them on these and associated websites (like Bitter Belly), and these are the words that anger me the most, because as a young girl, those were the ones I collected to describe myself. While I have been convinced by my Savior, my Comforter, and My Friend that I am an image bearer of God and His Child, His Daughter, I am angered that men I knew, loved, and trusted pushed play on a tape player and knowingly spread WMB’s words into the ears of women and little girls in our small church and parroted those words in daily life. Brothers in the Message, these words are destructive and venomous and will eat at your daughter’s heart.
Many blessings to you, faithful Brothers, for following the truth, for believing in the evidence when you see it, for not forsaking your minds, created by and gifted to you by God.
Thank you for sharing. I needed to read that!