Splinter Groups: Church of Christ Elijah Part 3

Answering Mormons Questions by Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson deals with 36 commonly asked questions by your LDS friends and neighbors. It's a great resource for Christians who want to share their faith with friends and loved ones.

Be sure to pick up your copy today at your favorite Christian bookstore. Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. We continue our series looking at some of the smaller groups of the Restoration Movement. This week we've been looking at a group called the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message, and as we've mentioned this week, it was founded by a man by the name of Otto Fedding. Now, that name probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you.

In fact, a lot of the names that we may be mentioning in this series might be very unfamiliar to you. But one thing to keep in mind, a lot of the groups that we are talking about, they all look to Joseph Smith as basically being their founder. Now, how much they emphasize Joseph Smith and their modern teachings, that remains to be seen.

But certainly, these groups are connected in that way. You could say that this is Joseph Smith's legacy. And as we mentioned earlier in this week, and we also mentioned last week as well when we began this series, many times Mormons will criticize Christians because there are so many quote-unquote denominations within Christianity, as if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church that exists, which in their mind, that's what they think. However, what many Latter-day Saints might not even be familiar with is the fact there have been dozens of splinter groups since Joseph Smith founded his church in 1830.

This is one of those groups. And though you may not ever come in contact with an individual who is a member of this organization, it would not be bad for you in a conversation to bring up the fact to a Latter-day Saint. Should they use that as an argument to say, look, you also in your movement have numerous groups or denominations, if you will.

So if you're going to use that as an argument against Christianity, then you have to also use it as an argument against the existence of your church as well. And they can certainly say, well, we're the largest. Well, yes, you are. At 16 million, you well beat out all of the other groups combined. But just because you're the largest, does that necessarily make you true?

Yes. Bring out these other groups. And we have these articles to go to mrm.org slash splinter groups with a hyphen in between. We have links to the seven different groups that I researched.

I tried to pick those seven largest. I've given you a lot of information. Become familiar with some of these groups so that you might be able to say, well, what about the Church of Christ with the Eliza message? They claim that they have truth, even though they're small. How do you know that they're not the true followers of Joseph Smith?

And I think that would be a fair question. Well, Otto Fedding, as I mentioned before, was born in 1871. He died in 1933. And like many other leaders of these movements, they are not really educated in the way of theology. Otto Fedding was actually a realtor. And he was originally baptized into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has now come to be known as the Community of Christ. Now, after he was baptized in that group in 1891, he became a priesthood holder in 1899. But he leaves the RLDS organization in 1925, and he joins the Church of Christ Temple Lot group. This is the group that fought for the ownership of the property they feel Joseph Smith dedicated for a temple to be built in the future. This man, Otto Fedding, within a year, he became an apostle of the Church of Christ Temple Lot. I wonder, he must have had a lot of charisma to be able to do this.

Yeah, you would think so. Well, anyway, he joins the Church of Christ Temple Lot, he's ordained, as you said, as an apostle the following year. Then on February 7th, 1927, he claimed that he was visited by John the Baptist, who told him that this church should begin construction of a temple on the temple lot property that was across the street from the property owned by the Community of Christ. Well, now you have to understand, back then it was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that it was Joseph Smith himself, as they believe, who in 1831 prophesied that a temple was going to be built on this very spot. Now, we might mention, there is no building on this lot other than the temple lot church in the very corner. That structure is there, from what I remember, it burned down at one time and it was rebuilt, but the lot itself does not have a temple to this very day.

And then what happens is, he ends up getting these messages published in a magazine that they had, called The Zion's Advocate, and they even had a groundbreaking ceremony. It was done on April 6th, 1929, which is 99 years after the church was founded. So it was done specifically on April 6th for a purpose. I asked on an earlier broadcast, why did this organization get founded on April 8th, 1930? Why not April 6th? We don't know the answer to that, folks, but it would seem to carry on with this pattern of April 6th being a special day among the restoration movements. Otto Fetting chose to instead have it founded on April 8th, 1930, not April 6th. So we have April 6th, the groundbreaking that takes place.

They say this building is going to take seven years to build. John the Baptist gets involved, Bill. He ends up saying that the markers should be moved 10 feet to the east, and apparently they followed that.

So Fetting has a lot of control, but he makes a mistake. He had 11 messages, and then he came up with a 12th one that was received on July 18th, 1929, just a few months after the groundbreaking ceremony of this temple. And verse 4, John the Baptist commanded that the church leaders were to get rebaptized for their unfaithfulness as directed from the word of the Lord. Listen to verse 4. Behold, the Lord has rejected all creeds and factions of men who have gone away from the word of the Lord and have become an abomination in His sight. Therefore, let those who come to the Church of Christ be baptized, that they may rid themselves of the traditions and sins of men, preparing themselves that they may be fit and worthy for the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost, and as the greater power shall come, that they shall be ready to receive it with joy. What does John the Baptist tell Otto Fetting? These leaders have been unfaithful.

They need to get rebaptized. Is this a power play, do you think, Bill, that Otto Fetting is making? It certainly sounds like it's a power play, but a message like that is probably not going to sit very well with your colleagues. It reminds me of when 70 George P. Lee got up and rebuked his fellow colleagues as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he was promptly excommunicated afterwards. Like you say, he has 11 messages, he's doing really well, everybody's believing him, but then he comes out with message number 12.

Should have stopped with message number 11. What does it say in verse 8 of this message? Verse 8 says, remember, the priesthood was not and will not be taken from the earth since I conferred it on Joseph Smith, but the greater power of the priesthood has been withheld because of the transgression of those who have been entrusted therewith.

You always have to put the blame on someone else. Joseph Smith was notorious for doing that, so we're seeing this pattern also being followed in this group as well. And then he's rejected by the Temple Lot church leaders for good reason, because they didn't like what he had to say, so he leaves the church in October of 29.

And in fact, he takes a lot of the membership with him. So this was devastating to the Church of Christ Temple Lot. Close to half of the church members were taken, including several of the church's apostles, and then on April 8th, as you mentioned, in 1930, he founds the Church of Christ with the Elijah message, and he continues to receive these messages from John the Baptist. And these messages are very similar to Joseph Smith's Doctrine and Covenants. It's written in King James kind of English, and it's John the Baptist revealing what Jesus wants him to know, and he writes down these words.

The final communication was given on January 28th, 1933. This is number 30, and Fedding quotes God in verse 2 as saying, I have given the plans for the temple, but my people are not worthy or cannot enter therein. Does that sound familiar, Bill? And then verse 3 goes on to say, Thus says the Lord, I will not leave my people if they will keep my commandments and serve me as I have instructed you, yea, my spirit touches the hearts of many who have no understanding of my law. I have heard the prayers of my people, and all is in my hands. And the last part of verse 3 sounds informal, and it's kind of a note that's written there, and it says, At this juncture the messenger left. That's John the Baptist.

He leaves. He said he would be back and spare me a little longer. Then it says, He returned and gave what follows with another six verses added. And this is what he says at the very end of this final message he gets to deliver. This was presented to me by the messenger, and I read it as a messenger unrolled the roll, which he had shown me the previous night, on which was written the word of the Lord.

And they actually have a testimony of four witnesses to this 30th message, and they said that it was delivered by the messenger from God. They had notarized statements from a notary public, and it was W. R. Beckster, Roy E. Fetting, Jenny M. Fetting, and Elizabeth M. Mills. After he gives this last message, the man dies, and then a new leader comes into power, a man by the name of William A. Draves. But Draves doesn't come into power immediately. It doesn't seem like this organization has a structure set up for how they get a successor like the LDS Church has today. It would take four years after Fetting's death when William A. Draves would then become the leader of this movement. Just like Fetting, Draves was a former R.L.D.S.

member. He had also joined the LDS Church, and he lived in Nucla, Colorado. And in October of 1937, he claimed the very same John the Baptist appeared to him. This is something that the main leader is going to get.

He's going to get these direct revelations from John the Baptist, telling the leader what Jesus wants them to know. In the preface to the vision that he received, this is how Draves describes the scene. I had awakened several times in the night and went back to sleep praying. I awakened with a start hearing footsteps on the ground floor. I raised up in bed and looking toward the staircase. I noticed a light coming or beginning to shine up the stairway.

I was somewhat astonished to think someone would be walking in my house when I knew I had locked the doors. Immediately I saw was a man dressed in a white robe and with no light in his hand as I had supposed. A light seemed to radiate from him, lighting the whole room. While immediately around him it was much brighter. His beard was radiant, his eyes which shone like neon light, though piercing and bright, were gentle and pleasant, his looks kind. I was somewhat afraid, but his smile helped to drive away my fear. I thought perhaps it may be an angel of God. When he appeared on the top of the stair, he seemed to float quickly to my bedside.

I trembled and pulled the covers to my chest while sitting up in bed. Almost, Bill, this sounds like the Ebenezer Screws story. If nothing else, it sounds pretty familiar as far as Joseph Smith's experience with the angel Moroni appearing in his room. Tomorrow we're going to continue looking at this organization, The Church of Christ with the Elijah message. I'm Mormonism.