Part 2 of 2: Plagiarism & V. P. Wierwille

Welcome back for the second of two posts about Victor Paul Wierwille and the books he “borrowed from.” These two posts are especially for former followers of The Way International, what I now consider a fundamentalist cult. In my memoir, Undertow, readers find out how I discovered, while working in The Way’s biblical research department, evidence showing that Victor Paul Wierwille (1916 – 1985) blatantly copied from another man’s work and led us to believe it was his own. This is called plagiarism and it is serious. That book was J. E. Stiles’, The Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Interview with Ralph Dubofsky continues

These posts give us a chance to hear more on this disturbing topic from a former top Way leader, Ralph Dubofsky. Years ago, in Wierwille’s personal research library, Ralph saw Wierwille’s disturbing slight-of-hand.

If you missed Part 1, which includes the definition of plagiarism, an introduction to Ralph, his story of how he got involved with The Way, and his answer to Question #1, click HERE.

The following are Ralph’s answers to Questions #2 and #3, the last of the interview.

Some explanatory comments appear in brackets.

Question #2

I know you did some work on biblical research projects with the founder of The Way, Victor Paul Wierwille. What can you tell us about them?

My career with The Way Research Department began in 1972 when an older couple, serving as traveling Word Over the World Ambassadors [missionaries for The Way International], visited our monthly Bagels ‘n Lox Sunday Brunch Fellowship in Queens, New York. The wife gave a great presentation on the Tabernacle and The Temple [teachings from the Old Testament], including scale models of both, along with depictions of the High Priests’ clothing. We had a good number of ex-Jews in our fellowships, and we were thrilled at this presentation! I was immediately hooked and began a long-lasting communication with her, including during the development of The Way’s class about The Tabernacle, which I eventually taught at The Way College of Emporia in 1977, and which also was my required graduating Way Corps research project.

In 1973, when I entered the Way Corps at HQ in Ohio, we had weekly meetings on Tuesday nights when Wierwille would teach from the Bible. We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in meetings with either Rev. Walter Cummins [Wierwille’s research assistant] or Wierwille’s research secretary. Walter taught us things like basic Greek grammar and vocabulary and “Research Principles.” Wierwille’s secretary taught “Research design and writing.” We also learned some Aramaic taught by Bernita Jess, the woman Wierwille put in charge of conducting Aramaic research. I had an affinity for Greek, and because Walter was also my Research Adviser, we became quite close.

Uncle Harry [Wierwille’s older brother] often arranged for me to meet with Walter [as it turned out, Walter was Harry’s step-son], and we’d talk over topics about the Tabernacle and Temple and Priesthood, and I kind of became a de facto Old Testament expert, which opened the door for me to work with Dr. John Somerville [Wierwille’s son-in-law] who taught that topic to the in-resident Way Corps at Way HQ in 1974. That experience led me into studying Old Testament history, and I taught a class by that name at Way HQ and other Way training centers in Gunnison, Colorado, and Rome City, Indiana.

Question #3

How much access did you have to Wierwille’s personal research library? What kinds of materials did he have? Did you see any evidence of plagiarism?

There were two stages of my getting access to Wierwille’s “library.” The first was in 1973 when I spent time in the Way Corps library set up in a trailer at Way headquarters in Ohio (HQ).  That was my first year in the Way Corps. In that library, Wierwille had put books by Christian authors like Starr Daily, Oral Roberts, Rufus Mosley, E. Stanley Jones, Norman Vincent Peale, E. W. Kenyon, Glenn Clark, Billy Graham, Oswald Chambers, and a whole bunch of others that were sources of Wierwille’s self-invented ministry.

During that time, at lunch in the dining room, I’d often share from those books, and Wierwille liked that I did that. Then he allowed me to see some of the “theological works” in his personal library.

My access to Wierwille’s “personal research library” began in the fall of 1973 when Wierwille’s research secretary gave me a behind-the-scenes tour—some materials were in a wall safe in Wierwille’s home office there at Way HQ. His library included the complete twenty-three-volume set of E. W. Bullinger’s Research Journal, Things to Come, bound copies of almost every book or lexical aid Bullinger ever wrote, Wierwille’s original copy of Bullinger’s The Companion Bible, and Dr. Charles Welch’s works on the New Testament books of Romans, Hebrews, and The Book of Revelation. Wierwille also had handwritten commentaries by the Aramaic scholar, George Lamsa, and by Bishop K. C. Pillai, who wrote about customs described in the Bible.

In addition, there were several works by Rosalind Rinker, including a black and white advertising flyer titled, “Power for Abundant Living,” and a couple of typed collections of her papers, letters, and other correspondence.

[Rinker was a Christian missionary who Wierwille said influenced him to accept the Bible as the Word of God]

Wierwille “copies” J. E. Stiles

Wierwille also had a copy of J. E. Stiles’ book, The Gift of the Holy Spirit, and several other written works by Stiles. I also saw the photocopies of the first transcript of Wierwille’s book, Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, which turned out to be a photocopied version of J.E. Stiles’ book, The Gift of the Holy Spirit that had various brackets and arrows scribbled on it, along with notes, in Wierwille’s own handwriting!

Wierwille used that copy when he taught his classes called Power for Abundant Living (I found this out from his research secretary). Those classes were recorded and transcribed by his personal secretary, Rhoda Becker, then proofread by three people: Rhoda, Wierwille’s oldest daughter, and Wierwille’s wife, Dorothea. Then the proofed copy was printed and bound into a book by American Christian Press with Wierwille’s name as the author, NO mention of any other authors, and no citations from their works.

[American Christian Press was solely owned by Wierwille. It was located at Way HQ, Wierwille’s old family farm outside New Knoxville, Ohio.]

Wierwille “copies” E. W. Bullinger

There were other books Wierwille copied from, too, such as E. W. Bullinger’s, How to Enjoy the Bible and The Church Epistles. Wierwille’s story, regarding the use of Bullinger’s work, was that he had “discovered” the selfsame material that Bullinger wrote BEFORE he ever even heard of E.W. Bullinger! He said he had been introduced to Bullinger’s work in 1955 by a Dr. E. E. Higgins, who, according to Wierwille, told him that he “taught like Bullinger wrote.” [Wierwille tells this story in Elena Scott Whiteside’s book, The Way: Living in Love.]

I was blown away when reading every appendix in Bullinger’s Companion Bible. Those included teachings Wierwille incorporated into his own PFAL class: that four, not two, were crucified with Jesus and that Jesus actually died on the cross on a Wednesday [not Friday] and rose from the dead late Saturday afternoon. Those appendices also outlined literary structures of every book in the Bible, explained the six [not three] denials of Peter, and numerous other things Wierwille “borrowed.”

So, Wierwille’s version of how he came to be teaching the same material as Bullinger, Stiles, and a man named B. G. Leonard, is that those men’s works were VALIDATIONS of his own “original research.” They just happened to prove Wierwille right!

Wierwille and B. G. Leonard

I saw Wierwille’s copy of B.G. Leonard’s entire class syllabus, mimeographed and annotated by Wierwille and his wife, Dorothea! The first thing I noticed in leafing through it was that the definitions of the gifts of the spirit, which Wierwille called “manifestations,” were almost VERBATIM what they were in Wierwille’s syllabus for his Advanced Class on Power for Abundant Living! That blew me away. I was looking right at Leonard’s syllabus for his Bible class, Gifts of The Spirit, with all the definitions and scripture references, the same ones Wierwille put in his class—Wierwille’s material was even in the same order as Leonard’s!

[B. G. Leonard taught a class about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Wierwille took in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the summer of 1953]

I was also blown away while reading How to Enjoy the Bible, and The Church Epistles, both by Bullinger. It became obvious to me that these men’s works were NOT validations or confirmations of Wierwille’s research, as he claimed, but rather they were SOURCES!

Wierwille’s library gets organized

After my first year in the Way Corps at HQ (Sept. 1973 – Sept. 1974), Wierwille sent our Corps on the field for what he called an interim year (Sept. 1974 – Sept. 1975). The idea was that if we stayed faithful we could come back to HQ for another in-residence year and then graduate.

In September 1975, I returned to Way HQ when I finished my interim year, which I’d spent in Charlotte, NC. By this time, Wierwille had bought a fancy mansion in Sidney, Ohio, and named it The Fine Arts and Historical Center. We called it the Sidney House. He assigned an in-resident Way Corps woman as the official historian of the ministry to work there cataloging all the books from the Way Corps library and all the materials from Wierwille’s personal research library. She kept all that stuff locked up at the Sidney House and created various displays that changed once a month, like one for Mrs. Wierwille’s diary from the trip to India that she and Wierwille made in the 1950s, and original copies of Wierwille’s booklet, “The Dilemma of Foreign Missions in India,” and other pamphlets.

Later, in the early 1980s, everything from the Sidney House was moved back to Way HQ and put in the new Outreach Services Center (OSC) building in a safe place in the “Trustee Wing,” which is where the three trustees had offices. That “safe place” was guarded by a super loyal staff guy—an ordained clergyman—as well as Rev. Christopher Geer, Wierwille’s valet and bodyguard.

More “sources” revealed

In 1976, I graduated from the Way Corps and Wierwille assigned me to Michigan as the state WOW Ambassadors Coordinator. [WOW = Word over the world. Ambassadors were volunteer missionaries] Many of the WOWs were stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is one of the publishing capitals of Bibles, lexical aids, thousands of commentaries, and books on all kinds of scriptural matters. The publishing houses of Zondervan, Baker, Kregel, and Eerdmans are all there. Baker and Kregel each had an old and rare book basement. Those places were regular stops for me, and I was able to collect numerous out-of-print works by Bullinger, Charles Welch, and many lexical/study aids which I told Rev. Walter Cummins about when I found them. [Walter was Wierwille’s biblical research assistant]. Also, I made several visits to a man named Oscar Baker in Warsaw, Indiana.

Wierwille and Oscar Baker

Oscar Baker ran a little printing and publishing place from which The Way purchased all the E. W. Bullinger books sold in The Way Bookstore, along with Bullinger’s Companion Bible. Oscar Baker’s main collection, though, was not of Bullinger’s works, but of Charles Welch’s. Welch was many times referred to as Bullinger’s “successor” because he took over at The British Trinitarian Bible Society when Bullinger retired as Chairman, and later went on to continue a research journal much like Bullinger’s Things to Come, which Welch called The Berean Expositor.

Oscar Baker told me he first met Wierwille in 1957 at a public appearance of Dr. Charles Welch. A most interesting thing he mentioned during one of our long talks, was that he remembered how “a single woman” named Grace Bliss was driving Wierwille around the Midwest to follow Welch around on his tour. He thought that “strange.”

Welch’s works were almost as numerous as Bullinger’s and he used the same exact “research principles” that Wierwille lifted verbatim from Bullinger’s book, How to Enjoy the Bible. The book, The Just and The Justifier, was Welch’s treatise on the book of Romans [in the New Testament]. It, along with Bullinger’s The Church Epistles, was literally the script for Wierwille’s teachings to The Way Corps in later years when he taught, verse by verse, the books of Romans, Ephesians, Thessalonians, and Timothy.

Also, Bullinger’s book, Great Cloud of Witnesses, his treatise on the New Testament book of Hebrews, and his book, The Church Epistles, along with Welch’s books, became the textbooks for ALL of Wierwille’s teachings to The Way Corps.

Oscar Baker also shared with me Welch’s itineraries from the two visits Welch made to the U.S., including little maps.

So, if you add up all these sources, as well as F.F. Bruce’s works and the book authored by W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle, you’ve got just about everything Wierwille taught as if he got his Th.D. in the subjects.

[Wierwille got a Th.D. in 1948 from Pikes Peak Bible Seminary and Burton College, a non-accredited school in Colorado]

As my own experience in studying and researching what we called “The Word” broadened and deepened, I grew increasingly disenchanted with Wierwille’s “research,” Walter Cummins’s flagrant compromises, and how Wierwille expected us to kowtow to every piece of “garbage” he tried to pawn off as “revelation from God,” either by inference or implication. In any case, what he taught was not the “accuracy of the Word” as he claimed, but well within the bounds of private interpretation.

—End of Interview—

Note from Charlene: Anyone who ever worked in The Way’s Biblical Research Department, as I did, knows the truth about Wierwille plagiarizing from others. We used to rationalize this by saying, well, he never said he taught anything original, he said he took what he learned from others, put it together (like a puzzle), and “made it accurate.” Really? Accurate according to whom?

VIDEO about Wierwille’s plagiarism

This topic is also documented on video by Dr. John P. Juedes here.

Dr. Juedes has researched The Way International and written articles about it for 30 years.