THE DAKE BIBLE CULT

By Ryan Hicks

[I wrote this article back in 2001 and am deeply saddened to see that the Dake Bible cultists are even more lost than they were before. At first I contacted the leader personally, then I brought another brother in and the Dakite leader still did not repent, so then I wrote the article for the church to see (done perfectly in line with Matthew 18:15-17). The Dakites have attacked my forum to spread their love for their pet sins (mainly they seem to focus on divorce and remarriage, because many of the more vocal Dakite cultists are divorced and remarried or married to a divorcee, something Jesus calls adultery in Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18, etc.). Even the cult leader himself attacked my forum and pretended to be a truth seeker, when I called him out on his lies he pretended he was not trying to be someone else. He was embarrassed by his sin, but the cultists loved it and laughed about it and his filthy posts.

I would also add that most of the people that enjoy Dake's works or discuss him on message boards and forums dedicated to him are not cultists and do not exalt Dake in the least.]

The late Finis Jennings Dake wrote many books, but the material he is most well known for is his reference Bible entitled, "The Dake Annotated Reference Bible." It is basically a compilation of Adam Clarke and E.W. Bullinger's life's works (among others), and is fairly Scriptural. It does err in a major area when he contradicts himself numerous times over the issue of divorce and remarriage. This has become a central issue for those who worship Dake, who I call the Dakites.

Dake's notes' position of blatant contradiction and error on repentance being required for all sins, including that of an adulterous remarriage is the worst. It is sad, because it takes away from the good that can be found in Dake's materials. For example, Finis Dake taught:

[Note on Matthew 19:9]:

Seven Reasons Marriage is Indissoluble:

1. By divine institution (Mt. 19:4, 6, 8)

2. By express commandment (Mt. 19:5-6)

3. By the example of Adam and Eve (Mt. 19:8)

4. Because marriage makes a man and a woman one in flesh, with complete union of interests, fortunes, desires, joys, sorrows, and a lifelong partnership (Mt. 19:5-6)

5. Because of the evils consequent to divorce for themselves, their children, and others who become entangled in sin by it (Mt. 19:9; Mk. 7:21; Rom. 1:29-32)

6. Because of the penalties involved by causing such evils (Mt. 19:9; Gal. 5:19-21; 1Cor. 6:9-11)

7. Because there is no excuse under the gospel for "hardness of heart" against each other (2Cor. 5:17-18; Eph. 4:24; Gal. 5:24)


[Note on Galatians 5:19-21]:

No man who commits these sins [including all adultery] will ever inherit the kingdom of God unless he confesses and puts them out of his life (see 1Cor. 6:9-11, notes). Let any man claim that he can be saved and yet live in these sins and the judgment will decide whether he or Paul is right.

Now you would get the impression from reading these notes that all sin must not only be confessed, but must also be put out of one's life if they are saved. Well, in other notes Dake contradicts this on the sole issue of adulterous remarriages. It seems this is the one single sin that according to him all one has to do is confess it as sin, but they do not have to put it out of their lives. Dake does not go in much detail about this, but he put enough doubt and misleading for anyone to see false repentance as an option when it comes to this form of adultery.

[Note on Matthew 19:9]

Any man who divorces his wife for any cause except fornication commits adultery if he marries another. Any man marrying her that is divorced for her own fornication commits adultery. This was evidently an unpleasant answer to these scheming men who wished to be free to put away their wives for "every cause."

What does the verse he is commenting on actually say? "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." Firstly, he perverts the obvious distinction between fornication (relations before marriage between two unmarried people) and adultery (relations between a married person and another person). Then he adds words to the Scripture by saying that Jesus meant a woman that was put away for her own fornication, when Jesus said, "her which is put away," not qualify it as being a specific divorcee. Clearly Dake contradicts himself and blatantly opposes the plain teaching of the Bible for one that allows for sin.

Dake also teaches the absurd in his attempt to excuse divorce and remarriage when he comments on 1 Corinthians 7:15 which reads, "But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace."

[Note 1 Corinthians 7:15]

Here we have another legal and scriptural reason for divorce and remarriage. If the unbeliever refuses to live with a wife or husband because of Christianity and if he or she is determined to leave on this account, the Christian is not under further marriage bonds and is not held responsible or punished by requirement to remain single the rest of his or her life because of the rebellion of another. The Christian is to submit to the breaking of the marriage covenant under such circumstances.

All 1 Corinthians 7:15 tells us is that if the unbelieving spouse departs, a believer is to let them depart. Why? Because God has called them to peace. They are not under bondage in such cases. It says nothing about remarriage. A lot of remarried people say that because it says, "A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases," that it means they are free to remarry. Well, that contradicts Paul's teaching just a few verses above in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, which only allows for remaining single or reconciling in the case of departure. The very case Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 7:15. Whether it is you departing or your unbelieving spouse departing, you have only two options, to stay unmarried (that means do not get remarried) or be reconciled. This is plain, and only one looking to excuse the sin of remarriage could see it any other way.

When Paul is talking to unmarried people, some already espoused to a wife, and some loosed from their espoused wives (1 Corinthians 7:25-28), Dake, of course, changes who is being talked to and warps the entire meaning. Paul plainly says "Now concerning virgins," and that is the group he is addressing, not the already married, so obviously verse 27 and 28 still refer to the virgins, because Paul only starts addressing another group in verse 29. Let's see what Dake says about 1 Corinthians 7:27:

This means divorced from a wife or husband on legal and scriptural grounds. Because of the "present distress" of that day the advice was: "seek not a wife"; but if you do marry you have not sinned

If he taught Biblically on this issue, then maybe we could assume that he was referring to those espoused also, but when one looks at the rest of Dake's notes it becomes clear that the agenda is to push divorce and remarriage as good options and not attach any weight of wrong to them. Once again he pushes his divorce and remarriage myth. It is even more sad, when you realize that Dake taught "Death breaks all marriage bonds" (Note on Romans 7:2), and yet dreamed up all manner of other things he thinks break the marriage bond. Mainly he sees a divorce decree, given for whatever reason, even others than the ones he make up, will end the marriage bond, that God Himself says only death ends (Romans 7:2-3; 1 Corinthians 7:39), and Dake even says this in his radio teachings.

Truly when divorce and remarriage is excused or even claimed to be blessed of God, there Satan must needs be president of that church. I think this can be found to be no difference.

Dake teaches that when it comes to a sodomite, they must repent and discontinue all sin (which is true). He also teaches that when it comes to an adulterer or adulteress who is remarried, all they have to do is confess their sin. He then reasons that the mere confession of this sin makes their adulterous remarriage no longer adulterous and makes God look the other way at it. Essentially, the whole idea is that the adulterer (that is one by means of entering into an adulterous relationship) does not have to get the sin out of their lives like every other sinner. This select group of sinners can sin with impunity, and are encouraged to do so by Dake's notes excusing this sin.

It is impossible to know what he would have said to these people who idolize him and quote his word as the word of God, and whose lives center around the main area he was wrong in, but it is safe to say that this error alone was fatal and has damned numerous people to hell. It is worse yet, because many pastors preach Dake's notes like they were their own, without thinking for themselves. Thus, Dake's influence of false repentance and easy-believism in the area of divorce and remarriage continues even to this very date many years after his death. The main aspect that seems to drive a lot of the followers of Dake is the love of divorce and remarriage and the hatred of anyone that dares to expose the hypocrisy in the teaching of Dake (claiming that adulterers and adulteresses do not have to repent of their sin to be forgiven, but that everyone else does).

Here are some of the things the Lord said about such a sin:

Matthew 5:31-32
31   It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32   But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Matthew 19:9
9   And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Luke 16:18
18   Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

Now it is abundantly clear that "whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery" because marriage is only ended by the death of the spouse, not divorce, abandonment, or anything else (Romans 7:2-3; 1 Corinthians 7:39), regardless of the claims of Dake.

Having pointed the Scriptures out to the Dakites myself, I can tell you that their main argument is based on how they feel and their emotions. If it is not that, then they go back to quoting some of Finis Dake's notes. Speaking of Finis Dake's notes, the reason they quote them and hold them in such high regard (as God's own words, they say), can be seen in the following quote taken from one of the lesser members of their cult:

The Dake material is all you need, because it's all God's word. That's what He Vowed to teach the word of God . Why spent a life time looking for truth when we already have it in the Dake's Bible?
Monday, 01-Jan-01 13:40:20

 

205.188.198.31 writes:

 

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Just Five Points OF Contrast
Thursday, 01-Feb-01 08:06:55

Message: 193.78.199.94 writes:

Orthodoxy and also many Charismatics, Pentecostals and Evangelicals reject the following doctrines and by doing so the Dake Bible: [then went on to list 5 doctrines]

There are certain sufferings that are needless for any Christian to go through in any land at any time. A Christian does not have to live in sin and suffer for his own wrongdoings at any time or place. If he does live in sin he is no longer a Christian.... [Emphasis his]

He makes it plain that any person living in sin is no longer a Christian, and yet he allows for divorced and remarried adulterers and adulteresses to be Christian when they live in the sin of adultery among other sins! Such hypocrisy warps the entire gospel, and makes for the unrepentant and devil possessed to actually believe they are children of God when the Scripture says otherwise (1 John 3:8-10)!

On Matthew 19:6 Dake notes:

Many today claim that all married people are not joined together by God, so they are free to marry the one God intended them to have. The fact is that God recognizes all legal marriages and will hold people responsible for their vows (Rom. 13:1-10).

Yet, he says that God does not hold people accountable for their vows if they get a divorce. On a tape in the late 50's Dake said that you could get divorced and remarried 50 times or infinitey as long as you got the proper bill of divorce, the marriage was as good as gone. So how can anyone take their marriage vows seriously if, according to Dake, a piece of paper destroys them?

In Romans 6:2 Dake has a note called, "Twenty Reasons For Not Living In Sin"

1. Death to sin nullifies it (Rom. 6:2-3).
2. Resurrection from spiritual death (Rom. 6:4-5).
3. We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).
4. Death to sin and resurrection from sin mean walking like Christ (Rom. 6:5; 1Pet. 2:21-22; 1Jn. 2:6; 1Jn. 4:6, 17).
5. The old man is crucified and dead (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22-24; 1Jn. 5:18).
6. The body of sin is destroyed, that henceforth we should not sin (Rom. 6:6).
7. We are freed from sin (Rom. 6:7, 18, 22).
8. Faith counts sin dead (Rom. 6:8).
9. Sin has no dominion over us (Rom. 6:9).
10. Sin not to reign in the body (Rom. 6:12).
11. The body must not yield to sin (Rom. 6:13).
12. Married to Christ, not sin (Rom. 7:4).
13. We walk in the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4).
14. We are made free from the law of sin (Rom. 8:2).
15. We are spiritually minded (Rom. 8:6).
16. Christ is in us, not sin (Rom. 8:10).
17. We are not debtors to sin (Rom. 8:12).
18. Spirit mortifies sin in us (Rom. 8:13).
19. We have Spirit of freedom (Rom. 8:15).
20. Intercession of Christ and the Holy Spirit keeps us (Rom. 8:26-27, 34).

So we see numerous and great reasons for not living in sin, and yet Dake taught people to stay in a sin that permeates numerous lives. As many as a third or more of Americans are remarried or married to a divorcee! And if they read Dake's writings they get no rebuke for this sin. They may go through an entire life of reading Dake's notes and never come to the truth! The greater tragedy is that with so much of Dake's material actually being good, many people just assume Dake was right because he gave a lot of references, even though if they actually read the references they would see that on the issue of adultery, he was dead wrong! On this issue he has lead who knows how many people into hell through notes, books, and tapes propagating divorce and remarriage.

These cultists tend to be divorced and remarried or married to divorcees. That sin alone is a problem, but that could apply to many "churches" today. The thing that makes them stand out is their outright idolatry of Finis Dake (It should be clarified that many on their message board are not cultists, they are merely people that like Dake's works). The Dakites are subtle, at times, because they know all the Christian buzzwords and try to disarm the discerning believer into believing that Dake worship is fine. They put Finis Dake's words on equal level with the Scriptures. They do what most cults do and say "Yes the Bible is the final authority," but then they make any arguments or appeals from their guru. If you quote a Scripture they quote Finis Dake in correction to the Scripture! And as you will see in the screenshots, some just come out and tell you that Dake alone is the final authority. The Bible is "a" authority, but not "the" authority. Here are some screenshots from the cult's message board as of May 5, 2009 (http://www.dakebibleboard.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3213, I am posting screenshots because I expect them to edit or take down their posts to hide their sins and because I do not want to misquote them):

Just in case you did not follow the screenshots, to sum it up they say that:

• Claiming Dake is wrong on anything is pointless
• Disagreeing with Dake makes you a heretic
• If people disagree on something, Dake is the final authority to go to for an answer

Here is another screenshot from the Dake cult leader responding to a person that asked why they worship Dake and exalt his words above God's. The person asked him if he had repented, and look at how adamant the cult leader is against the thought of repenting! Notice how vile and venomous these people are:

We need to need to seriously pray for these Dakite cultists. While Dake's notes have much good to add a benefit for people, they still lead others astray and into sin by good words and fair speeches in regards to divorce and remarriage (Romans 16:17-18) and their idolatry of Finis Dake. This is dangerous and damning to the soul. No man's words are equal to God's words. If you even question that last statement then you are not saved. The Scripture plainly tells us what happens when people put their faith in man:

Jeremiah 17:5-6
5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Look at the promise to those that put their faith in the Lord alone:

Jeremiah 17:7-8
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

It is my humble and heartfelt desire that any Dake Bible cultist reading this page will choose to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be the person that is blessed because they "trusteth in the Lord!"