The Chad Mitchell Trio...blast from the past! I still remember when John Robert Stevens was passing out material from The John Birch Society. Wow!

Oh, and Bob Dylan too! And the sweatshirt. Thanks, Changed and Jewel!

Reepicheep Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Chad Mitchell Trio...blast from the past! I
> still remember when John Robert Stevens was
> passing out material from The John Birch Society.
> Wow!


Yea, I was down in San Diego and there were people (including R. D. Cronquist) pushing John Birch Society conspiracy theories, recommending this book or that book. I asked one of the guys where he got the literature and was directed to a bookstore up in north park somewhere. I stopped in and found out it was a JBS bookstore. Went home and took a shower :-).

Chronquist called an emergency ministries meeting one Wednesday night (no ladies allowed, for some reason) where he played a tape from Peter Beter, a prominent conspiracy theorist in the ‘70s, who claimed the Russians had a energy beam weapon on the moon and were threatening the United States, etc. As they say, you can’t make this stuff up.

There was no shortage of bizarre stuff flying around. For some reason it was always the democrats who were the bad guys behind it all. Rockefeller and other celebrity “nephilim.”

Incidentally, I remember reading something about the New Apostolic Reformation movement where there was a comment about the Nephilim thing. So the conspiracy lives on I guess. I think I caught this listening to a “Let’s Talk About Sects” podcast.

TheJewel wrote:

There was no shortage of bizarre stuff flying around. For some reason it was always the democrats who were the bad guys behind it all. Rockefeller and other celebrity “nephilim.”

Incidentally, I remember reading something about the New Apostolic Reformation movement where there was a comment about the Nephilim thing. So the conspiracy lives on I guess. I think I caught this listening to a “Let’s Talk About Sects” podcast.


You are absolutely right.My first glimmer of this happened shortly after Robert F. Kennedy was assasinated. I overheard an older lady at church saying that this had happened because John Robert Stevens had prophesied it. I had a discussion with my mom about my belief that it was not "Christian" to pray for or wish for another's death.

And about the New Apostolic Reformation connection, I have often thought that JRS may have opened a door, but in a bad way. Now that I have read and thought more about this, I believe that all of it originated in the Latter Rain movement. Lots of rotten fruit. I'll look for that podcast.

Too bad the 'door opener' didn't leave many of these doors shut. That would have been helpful. It would mean less nonsense for survivors of his 'ministry' to contend with.

Reep wrote:
And about the New Apostolic Reformation connection, I have often thought that JRS may have opened a door, but in a bad way.

Reepicheep Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TheJewel wrote:
>
> You are absolutely right.My first glimmer of this
> happened shortly after Robert F. Kennedy was
> assasinated. I overheard an older lady at church
> saying that this had happened because John Robert
> Stevens had prophesied it. I had a discussion with
> my mom about my belief that it was not "Christian"
> to pray for or wish for another's death.
>
> And about the New Apostolic Reformation
> connection, I have often thought that JRS may have
> opened a door, but in a bad way. Now that I have
> read and thought more about this, I believe that
> all of it originated in the Latter Rain movement.
> Lots of rotten fruit. I'll look for that podcast.

I suspect that there was a lot in JRS teaching that wasn’t “original” to him (that has been said by many). I had a coworker that once referred to his girlfriend as “a spiritual vampire.” —- I guess the relationship wasn’t going too well. I was floored to hear that term (outside of TLW) and asked him where he got that. After probing a bit, I found out he had grown up in Four-Square churches in LA. It is apparent that JRS pulled from a lot of places.

As for Latter Rain, there was a lot of that influence as well. There were several of the older Coniah people that were followers of Bill Briton who was one of the Latter Rain people. Latter Rain is where all of that manifestation of the sons of god teaching came from.

The Jewel wrote:

I suspect that there was a lot in JRS teaching that wasn’t “original” to him (that has been said by many). I had a coworker that once referred to his girlfriend as “a spiritual vampire.” —- I guess the relationship wasn’t going too well. I was floored to hear that term (outside of TLW) and asked him where he got that. After probing a bit, I found out he had grown up in Four-Square churches in LA. It is apparent that JRS pulled from a lot of places.

As for Latter Rain, there was a lot of that influence as well. There were several of the older Coniah people that were followers of Bill Briton who was one of the Latter Rain people. Latter Rain is where all of that manifestation of the sons of god teaching came from.

Thanks, Jewel. I don't recall knowing about Bill Britton, probably because I don't remember John Robert Stevens ever talking about him. Your mention of him led me to find this article:

[religion.fandom.com]

Also mentioned in this article is an interesting item about The Living Word Fellowship:

Disputed movements
• Sam Fife and The Move also known as Endtime Body-Christian Ministries.

• The Living Word Fellowship or "The Walk", founded by John Robert Stevens, has Latter Rain roots.[17] Royal Cronquist was another well known leader in this group. Like others influenced by Latter Rain, Stevens later distanced himself from the movement. Influential charismatic author Francis Frangipane came out of Stevens' ministry, leaving before it turned in what he viewed as a negative direction. A 1985 documentary by Anthony Cox negatively portrays his experiences with the Living Word Fellowship.[18]"

Changed wrote:

Too bad the 'door opener' didn't leave many of these doors shut. That would have been helpful. It would mean less nonsense for survivors of his 'ministry' to contend with.

I agree. How I wish we had had the internet in those days. When some of my friends started posting on this and other forums, my eyes were opened. I said, "They are saying what I have been afraid to think."

Reepicheep Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks, Jewel. I don't recall knowing about Bill
> Britton, probably because I don't remember John
> Robert Stevens ever talking about him. Your
> mention of him led me to find this article:
>
> [religion.fandom.com]
>
> Also mentioned in this article is an interesting
> item about The Living Word Fellowship:
>
> Disputed movements
> • Sam Fife and The Move also known as Endtime
> Body-Christian Ministries.
>
> • The Living Word Fellowship or "The Walk",
> founded by John Robert Stevens, has Latter Rain
> roots.[17] Royal Cronquist was another well known
> leader in this group. Like others influenced by
> Latter Rain, Stevens later distanced himself from
> the movement. Influential charismatic author
> Francis Frangipane came out of Stevens' ministry,
> leaving before it turned in what he viewed as a
> negative direction. A 1985 documentary by Anthony
> Cox negatively portrays his experiences with the
> Living Word Fellowship.[18]"

The name Bill Branham also comes up a lot and is mentioned in your article. Look at his Wikipedia page and you will see some pretty kookie stuff. Like TLW, all of these guys live on posthumously through their ministry associations.

I can remember going to some home meetings with Latter Rain people in the early 70s. There was a small group that met in a home in North Park (San Diego). Dave Cokas knew some of these people —- which is likely how I ended up there. These guys were all very spiritual people. RD Cronquist was definitely a fan and follower of Francis Frangipane.

The guys in Florida (Bob Mumford, Don Basham, Deric Prince) had some basis in TLW as well in that early 50s time frame. They were big into the “shepherding” thing but later denounced it as false. I think Mumford had once been an elder at Grace Chapel.

A significant uptick in our stats. I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened shortly after TheJewel mentioned the John Birch society and Peter Beetr (sp), among other things.

Page Views: 3,668,568

Comments: 12,569

Conspiracy Theorists: Unknown