VP WIERWILLE SAID HE TOOK HIS BOOKS TO THE DUMP
(BUT DON'T BELIEVE HIM)
Victor Paul Wierwille frequently claimed that every other teacher was stuck in the mire and error of "tradition" and "theology" and he alone knew and taught the "rightly divided" word of God. He emphasized that he did not depend on theology books, but instead studied the Word for himself. He even claimed that he took all of his books to the dump so that he could study the Word alone:
"For years I did nothing but read around the Word of God. I used to read two or three theological works weekly.... One day I finally became so disgusted and tired of reading around The Word that I hauled over 3,000 volumes of theological works to the city dump. I decided to quit reading around The Word. Consequently I have spent years studying The Word..." (Power for Abundant Living, pp. 119-120. (Wierwille's city dump is pictured here, but don't count on finding any of his books there.)
Wierwille further insisted that his book Receiving the Holy Spirit Today was entirely original.. He insisted that he used only the Bible in writing it:
"I prayed that I might put aside all that I had heard and thought out myself, and I started anew with the Bible as my handbook as well as my textbook" (RTHST sixth ed, p. x).
Wierwille claimed that God himself, not human authors, taught him. Wierwille said that God
"... spoke to me audibly.... He said He would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others." (Recorded in The Way- Living in Love, Elena Whiteside, p. 178)
Wierwille's followers truly thought that Wierwille's teachings were drawn directly from the Word, not from other authors, and that Wierwille taught by revelation.
However, the facts show that Wierwille's claims are entirely false. He obviously kept many books other than the Bible, and even copied many of them word for word or thought for thought, leading his followers to believe that the teachings were his own rather than just repeating other men's words.
Wierwille had a life long practice of plagiarizing other's writings. Documented examples span from 1954 to 1984. In fact, more than three-quarters of his book Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, which he claimed was drawn solely from the Bible, was copied from E. W. Bullinger and J. E. Stiles. Wierwille also plagiarized large sections from E. W. Kenyon and drew a lot of material from other men such as Albert Cliffe. See other articles by J. Juedes for many examples.
Wierwille claim to use the Bible alone even as he was copying directly from other authors suggests several things. First, he lied about the origin of his writings. Second, he sought praise, adoration and devotion from his followers and used this method to try to attain it. Third, he apparently felt he lacked the innate ability to research and teach the Bible on his own, and had to plagiarize others to make his followers think he did. People who have the ability and discipline to study the Bible themselves don't need or want to plagiarize as Wierwille did. Overall, this shows a lack of integrity and honesty.
Dr. John Juedes, www.abouttheway.org
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