Pillar of Fire International
OrientationMethodist
TheologyWesleyan-Arminian
General superintendentJoseph Gross
HeadquartersZarephath, New Jersey, U.S.
FounderAlma Bridwell White
Origin1901 (1901)
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Branched fromMethodist Episcopal Church
Places of worship76[1]
HospitalsZarephath Health Center
Primary schoolsAlma Heights Christian Schools, Belleview Christian School, Eden Grove Academy, Sycamore Grove School
Tax status501(c)(3)[2]
Tertiary institutionsBelleview College, Pillar College
Official websitewww.pillar.org

The Pillar of Fire International, also known as the Pillar of Fire Church, is a Methodist Christian denomination with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey.[3] The Pillar of Fire Church affirms the Methodist Articles of Religion and as of 1988, had 76 congregations around the world, including the United States, as well as "Great Britain, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, and former Yugoslavia."[1]

Bishop Alma Bridwell White (1862–1946), founder of the Pillar of Fire Church

The denomination runs radio stations, a printing press, and educational institutions including a seminary.[1]

Zarephath Christian Church in Zarephath, New Jersey

In the early 20th century, Pillar of Fire was known for its support for women's rights;[1] in the same century, it was known for supporting the Ku Klux Klan and its racist platform.[4][5] In 1997 and 2009, Pillar of Fire repudiated the denomination's former association with racism and requested forgiveness from God for formerly holding this position.[5][6][7] In the present day, worshippers at the mother church in Zarephath are "young, old, white, black, Asian, Hispanic."[5]

Pillar of Fire missionaries, November 25, 1914
Assembly Hall service c. 1965 in Zarephath, New Jersey
Missionary homes of the Pillar of Fire Church in 1966

History

Founding

In 1901, the Church was founded as a Methodist denomination by Alma Bridwell White in Denver, Colorado. The Pillar of Fire was originally incorporated as the Pentecostal Union, but changed its name to distance itself from Pentecostalism in 1915.[8] While the Pillar of Fire is Methodist in doctrine, Alma White and her followers believed that the mainline Methodist Church had become corrupt.[9] Alma White and the members of the Pillar of Fire dedicated themselves to the holiness movement in the Wesleyan tradition. Adherents were referred to as "Holy Rollers" and "holy jumpers" because of their religious frenzy.[8][10][11][12][13][14] White was noted for her association with the Ku Klux Klan, her feminism, anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, anti-pentecostalism, racism, and nativism.[15] With its founder being the first woman bishop in the United States, the Pillar of Fire is a supporter of women's rights, printing the periodical Women's Chains to propagate support for the movement until 1970.[1]

Ku Klux Klan, historically intolerant ideologies, and repudiation of the Ku Klux Klan

Klanswomen gather on August 31, 1929 in front of Assembly Hall, Zarephath, New Jersey, for "Patriotic Day" during annual Camp Meeting. [16]

In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Pillar of Fire Church was vocal in its support of the Ku Klux Klan, to an extent which was unique for a religious denomination.[17][18][19][20] Alma White prolifically spoke and wrote of both her and the Pillar of Fire Church's support of the Klan and many of the Klan's principles including anti-Catholicism, white supremacy, antisemitism, nativism, and temperance. In 1943, shortly before her death, she and the Pillar of Fire Church significantly but not completely distanced themselves from the then discredited and nearly bankrupt Klan organization, but they still continued to promote many of the Klan's intolerant principles. In a 1920s sermon which she republished in 1943, she said

We have no connection with the Klan organization. We endorse them in the principles for which they stand. However there is no room in our hearts for racial prejudice.[21]

However, White and the Pillar of Fire still advocated white supremacy in the same 1943 book-set which asserted their distaste for racial prejudice. In her chapter which was titled "White Supremacy" she wrote

The slaveholder, in many instances, was as much to be pitied as the slaves. He, too, was a victim of the system. ... .Where the slaves were well treated they were happy and contented ... But some radicals could never see this side of the question. They dwelt continually on the cruelties of a few hard taskmasters and ignored the good people who had the welfare of their dependents at heart. No matter what the better class of slave owners might do, they had to bear the stigma of cruelty with the worst of tyrants. ... .Where property rights are involved, supported by the government, the only safe and sane way to make wrongs right is by cool-headed procedure.[22]

She also said to the New Brunswick Daily Home News,

"My people are not members of the Klan, but we agree with some of the things that they stand for to assert our American right of free speech. We have always stood for one hundred percent Americanism and so does the Klan, so naturally we agree there."[23]

Additionally, the Pillar of Fire's pulpit and its printing operation were both extensively used to advocate many of the Klan's most intolerant values. In 1922, Bishop Alma White promoted the Klan in a sermon which she preached at the Pillar of Fire Church in Brooklyn, New York (which was coincidentally incinerated in the 1960 New York air disaster[24]) and published that sermon in The Good Citizen. The speech was titled "Ku Klux Klan and Woman's Causes" and one section was subtitled "White Supremacy."

The Klansmen stand for the supremacy of the white race, which is perfectly legitimate and in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Writ, and anything that has been decreed by the Almighty should not work a hardship on the colored race ... It is within the rights of civilization for the white race to hold the supremacy; and no injustice to the colored man to stay in the environment where he was placed by the Creator. ... When the black man was liberated it was time for women to be enfranchised, without which the colored man with his newly-acquired rank became her political master. ... The white women bore the sting of humiliation for more than half a century in being placed in an inferior position to the black men in the use of the ballot and the rights of citizenship ... To whom shall we look to champion the cause and to protect the rights of women? Is there not evidence that the Knights of the Klu [sic] Klux Klan are the prophets of a new and better age?

The Pillar of Fire Church strongly argued against social and political equality for Blacks and it also advocated racial segregation and the repeal of the fifteenth amendment.[25][26] The Pillar allowed the Klan to hold meetings or cross burnings on at least several of the church's numerous properties including numerous documented Klan gatherings in Zarephath, New Jersey; Brooklyn, New York; Bound Brook, New Jersey; Longmont, Colorado; and Westminster, Colorado.[12][27][28] White participated directly in many of these meetings. During this time, the Pillar of Fire Church published The Good Citizen, a monthly 16 page political magazine and three books, The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy, Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, and Heroes of the Fiery Cross, all of which heavily promoted the Klan and its agenda from 1921 until 1933. Ideologically, in these publications, the Pillar of Fire Church promoted anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, nativism, and white supremacy, all primarily under the guise of patriotism.

The radical belief in human equality which is at the heart of the Christian message eventually caused the organization to repudiate its historical relationship with the KKK on its website in 2009:

Much talk has also arisen over her brief but significant association with the KKK, which has also been publicly condemned and repented of by the POF leadership with a request for full forgiveness. Despite these and other errors in its history, the Lord in His grace and mercy has chosen to bless the ministry.[6]

And in its local paper in 1997:

We regret, repudiate and repent, and ask for full forgiveness for anything in our past that is short of Christian standards based on God's Word, following Jesus' model prayer that teaches us to ever pray and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. (Luke 11:4) We specifically regret mistakes and bad judgement by previous generations or anyone in our membership of the past.[7]

While the Pillar of Fire's repudiation of its association with the Klan characterized it as brief, it continued to promote the Klan's ideologies of intolerance for religious and racial minorities along with the Klan's belief in the equality of all white Protestant women for several decades. In 1943, 22 years after the church started to publicly work with the Klan, it republished Alma White's pro-KKK books as a three-volume set under the title Guardians of Liberty, reaffirming its positions in support of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, nativism and most notably, anti-Catholicism. Volumes II and III of Guardians contained introductions by Arthur White, affirming his support of his mother's intolerant ideologies, primarily but not exclusively in regard to anti-Catholicism. After his mother died in 1946, he was the Pillar of Fire's general superintendent until 1981.

Robert Saydee, the presiding elder of a Pillar of Fire congregation and an immigrant from the African nation of Liberia, stated in 2017 with respect to the denomination's former association with the Ku Klux Klan that "We are not proud of it at all. But it happened in history, and things happen to people, and the organization changed tremendously after that, and we never looked back" and with regard to Bishop Alma White, the Liberian American presbyter stated: "There is no reason to discuss her. We know she is the founder, but there is no discussion or preaching about her. No, we don’t do that."[5] In the same vein, Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the University of Southern California, stated that the Pillar of Fire Church had essentially been "jettisoning their history in favor of looking like essentially everybody else."[5] In 2017, The New York Times stated that members "don’t know about the church’s history" and that "leaders [of the Pillar of Fire Church] have issued statements denouncing and regretting the church’s historic involvement" with the KKK.[5]

1950s–present

Following the death of the founder, under the leadership of her son, Arthur Kent White, the religious fervor declined and the emphasis on outreach evangelization and church planting ended; the organization branches in America fell from a high of around 52 to the current six. The Pillar of Fire, as of 1988, had churches in the United States, as well as "Great Britain, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, and former Yugoslavia."[1] In the United States, the Pillar of Fire has branches in Zarephath, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado; Westminster, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio, Los Angeles, California; and Pacifica, California.

It primarily operates four ministry focuses, namely local church, radio, education, and missions.[3] Its radio stations have contemporary Christian music, Christian gospel music and Christian hip hop music.[5]

In the present-day, worshippers at the Pillar of Fire mother church in Zarephath are "young, old, white, black, Asian, Hispanic."[5]

Name

The name of Pillar of Fire comes from Exodus 13:21–22, which states: "By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people."

Beliefs

The organization's doctrinal position is self-described as Wesleyan-Arminian theology in common with other Methodist denominations.[29] The central beliefs of the Pillar of Fire are as follows: biblical inerrancy, Trinitarianism, the physical resurrection of Jesus, the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit, the "universal depravity of the human race", the necessity of "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ", belief in "justification by faith and in Christian perfection, or entire sanctification, as a second definite work of grace", the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and premillennialism.[30]

Continued work of the Pillar of Fire

The Pillar of Fire continues its work today working in three main areas: radio, education, and missions, both local and overseas.[31]

United States congregations

Zarephath Health Center

The Zarephath Health Center was opened in 2003[32] and utilizes volunteer physicians, nurses and support people to meet the health care needs of the poor and uninsured on the campus at Zarephath, New Jersey. The Health Center sees 300–400 patients per month who otherwise would not be able to obtain affordable health care. Dr. Eck testified to the Joint Economic Committee on Health Insurance on April 28, 2004, to demonstrate the sustainability of this model.[33]

International missions

There are missions in India, Costa Rica and Liberia as well as:[34]

  • The oldest of their missions was in Hendon London, England, and was established in 1904 by Alma White. The mission organized a Charitable Trust on 19 September 1992, and was registered as a charity in December 1992 (Charity No. 1015529). In response to a complaint received by the Charity Commission in 2002, an inquiry was held, the charitable trust dissolved and transferred its assets to the U.S. organization, and the charitable trust was removed from the registry as it had ceased to exist.[35][36] One of the stated aims of this mission was to evangelize the local Jewish population in the vicinity of the mission.[37] Ironically, after the mission was sold, the property became a kosher boutique hotel[38] in 2010.[39]
  • Reverend Smallridge was given permission to start a Pillar of Fire Church in Nigeria in 1974.[40]
  • The Pillar of Fire was established in Malawi in 1984 by Reverend Moses Peter K. Phiri.[41]

Schools

Primary and secondary

Colleges

Pillar Media

Pillar Media is the parent organization for several media outlets geared toward Christians.

Radio stations

Discontinued periodicals

  • Pillar of Fire
  • Pillar Magazine
  • The Dry Legion
  • The Good Citizen
  • Rocky Mountain Pillar of Fire
  • London Pillar of Fire
  • The British Sentinel
  • The Occidental Pillar of Fire
  • Woman's Chains[1]
  • Pillar of Fire Junior
  • Pillar of Fire Bay Chronicle
  • The Alma White Evangel

Notable members

General superintendents

Other leaders and notable members

  • Reverend Robert K. Cruver, Jr.
  • Reverend Stephan P. Nash
  • Bishop William Cruver
  • Reverend Branford Clarke
  • Reverend Pauline White Dallenbach
  • Reverend Thomas A. Goode, he sued the church in 1920 saying the church "had alienated the affections of his wife and defrauded him of his property"[57]
  • Bishop Wilber Konkel
  • Bishop E. Jerry Lawrence
  • Bishop A. R. Stewart
  • Reverend Johannes Maas, ordained by Bishop Arthur White in 1956, international president, Worldwide Faith Missions[58][59]
  • Reverend Kathleen Merrell White[60]
  • Reverend Gertrude Metlen Wolfram (1888–1959) was the dean of Alma White College[61]

Timeline

  • 1862 Birth of Alma White as "Mollie Alma Bridwell" in Kinniconick, Kentucky[9]
  • 1887 Marriage of Alma Bridwell to Kent White
  • 1896 Church established in Denver[62]
  • 1901 Methodist Pentecostal Union Church dedicated in Denver in December[8]
  • 1902 Alma White ordained an elder[63]
  • 1904 Pentecostal Union Herald changed to Pillar of Fire[64]
  • c. 1905 Pillar of Fire separates from Methodist Episcopal Church
  • 1907 Creation of community at Zarephath, New Jersey[8]
  • 1909 Alma White separates from husband after he converts to Pentecostalism[62][65]
  • 1913 Begins publishing The Good Citizen, which is in print until 1933
  • 1915 Publishes "Why I do not eat meat"
  • 1917 Name of church officially changed to "Pillar of Fire"[64]
  • 1917 Alma White College founded in Zarephath, New Jersey[45]
  • 1918 White becomes the first woman ordained as a bishop in the United States[8] by William Godbey[62]
  • 1920 Acquires Westminster University of Colorado property in Westminster, Colorado[66]
  • 1924 Publishes Woman's Chains, which is in print until 1970[62]
  • 1925 Westminster University renamed Belleview College and Preparatory School[66]
  • 1925 Publishes The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy
  • 1926 Publishes Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty
  • 1928 Publishes Heroes of the Fiery Cross
  • 1928 KPOF radio station in Westminster, Colorado[67]
  • 1931 WAWZ radio station in Zarephath, New Jersey[68]
  • 1932 Church established in Morrison, Colorado[69]
  • 1936 Property estimated at $US 4M with 4,000 adherents in 46 congregations[65]
  • 1943 Republishes Guardians of Liberty as a three volume set
  • 1946 Death of Alma White on June 26[8][70]
  • 1946 Death of Ray Bridwell White on November 5[71]
  • 1946 Arthur Kent White begins tenure as second general superintendent
  • 1978 Alma White College closes[45]
  • 1981 Arthur Kent White ends tenure[53]
  • 1981 Arlene White begins tenure as third general superintendent
  • 1984 Arlene White ends tenure
  • 1985 Donald Justin Wolfram begins tenure as fourth general superintendent[72]
  • 2000 Donald Justin Wolfram ends tenure[72]
  • 2000 Robert B. Dallenbach begins tenure as fifth general superintendent
  • 2003 Donald Justin Wolfram dies on August 25[54][72]
  • 2008 Robert B. Dallenbach loses vote of confidence at 2008 camp meeting. Vice Superintendent Joseph Gross becomes sixth general superintendent.
  • 2009 Somerset Christian Academy, formerly Alma Preparatory School, closes

Alma White, the Pillar of Fire, and their association with the Klan are dramatized in Libba Bray's New York Times best-selling 2012 murder mystery The Diviners, in a chapter titled "The Good Citizen." The Diviners is being made into a feature film by Paramount Pictures.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (10 November 2016). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 1808. ISBN 978-1-4422-4432-0.
  2. ↑ "Pillar of Fire". "Tax Exempt Organization Search". Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Pillar of Fire International". Pillar of Fire International. Archived from the original on June 23, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  4. ↑ Lock, Norman (7 June 2020). American Follies. Bellevue Literary Press. ISBN 978-1-942658-49-8. As for the second exception, Alma Bridwell White, founder and bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey, was a zealot of the Klan during th 1920s and 1930s.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Otterman, Sharon (15 September 2017). "A Booming Church and Its Complicated, Ugly Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2021. Pillar of Fire long ago moved away from the hate of the Klan, and its leaders have issued statements denouncing and regretting the church's historic involvement with it. In a sign of how different the modern church is, the local presiding elder of the denomination, Robert Saydee, is an African refugee.
  6. 1 2 "The History of the Pillar of Fire". Belleview College. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  7. 1 2 Parsons, Monique (April 24, 1997). "Zarephath repents its past". Home News Tribune. We regret, repudiate and repent, and ask for full forgiveness for anything in our past that is short of Christian standards based on God's Word, following Jesus' model prayer that teaches us to ever pray and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. (Luke 11:4) We specifically regret mistakes and bad judgement by previous generations or anyone in our membership of the past. {{cite news}}: External link in |quote= (help)
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Bishop Alma White, Preacher, Author. Founder Of Pillar Of Fire Dies At 84. Established Several Schools and Colleges". New York Times. Associated Press. June 27, 1946. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Bishop Alma White, founder of the Pillar of Fire Church and author of thirty-five religious tracts and some 200 hymns, died here today at the headquarters of the religious group at near-by Zarephath. Her age was 84.
  9. 1 2 "Alma Bridwell White". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Née Mollie Alma Bridwell. American religious leader who was a founder and major moving force in the evangelical Pentecostal Union, which split from mainstream Methodism in the early 20th century. Alma Bridwell grew up in a dour family of little means. She studied at the Millersburg (Kentucky) Female College and in 1882 moved ...
  10. ↑ "'Holy Jumpers' An Old Religion Headed By A Woman. Something About This Curious Sect Which Lillian Allen Crossed the Sea to Join and Was Stopped by Immigration Authorities". The New York Times. December 11, 1910. Retrieved December 16, 2009. When Lillian Alien, the English girl, was halted by the immigration authorities last week at the cabled request of her well-to-do father, it was disclosed that she had come here to join a religious sect called the "Pillar of Fire," or the "Holy Jumpers."
  11. ↑ "How They Jump, Where They Jump, When They Jump, Why They Jump, and Who They Are". The New York Times. August 18, 1907. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Hidden on a little New Jersey farm, a community of sixty persons, one-half of them children, are trying to vitalize a complete reaction against money greed, hypocrisy, and the present-day Christian Church and to keep it alive by religious hysteria.
  12. 1 2 "Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers". The New York Times. May 2, 1923. Retrieved September 22, 2010. Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were locked up in their church, the Pillar of Fire, in Main Street, surrounded by a mob of nearly 1,000 hostile citizens, several hundred of whom broke up a meeting held by the Holy Rollers to organize a Klan here last night.
  13. ↑ Mitchinson, Cyril Edwin (1927). The Babbitt Warren.
  14. ↑ "Poor Aimee". Time. October 22, 1928. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Worst of all, there came a rival female evangelist from New Jersey, a resolute woman with the mien of an inspired laundress—the Reverend "Bishop" Mrs. Mollie Alma White, founder and primate of the Pillar of Fire Church. Bishop White, who has thousands of disciples ("Holy Jumpers") in the British Isles, clearly regarded Mrs. McPherson as a poacher upon her preserves or worse.
  15. ↑ Kandt, Kristin E. (2000). "Historical Essay: In the Name of God; An American Story of Feminism, Racism, and Religious Intolerance: The Story of Alma Bridwell White". Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. 8: 753. Alma White and the Pillar of Fire were unique, however, in their public alliance with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, the Pillar of Fire was the only religious group to publicly associate itself with the Klan.
  16. ↑ Lawrence, L.S. (October 1929). White, Alma (ed.). "Patriotic Day at Zarephath Camp-Meeting". The Good Citizen. Pillar of Fire Church: 10. The Assembly Hall was filled in the evening, with about 100 klanswomen and a few klansmen in robes. The first speaker of the evening was Bishop White. She gave a fiery message on the topic of race and social equality. ... She expressed hope that the Klan would do its part in keeping the blood of America pure
  17. ↑ Neal, Lynn (June 2009). "Christianizing the Klan: Alma White, Branford Clarke, and the Art of Religious Intolerance". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 78 (2): 350–378. doi:10.1017/S0009640709000523. S2CID 162426152. White's words and Clarke's imagery were combined in various ways as a means to spread a message of religious intolerance which was both persuasive and powerful.
  18. ↑ Kandt, Kristen (2000). "Historical Essay: In the Name of God; An American Story of Feminism, Racism, and Religious Intolerance: The Story of Alma Bridwell White". Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. Archived from the original on 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2009-09-16. Alma White and the Pillar of Fire were unique, however, because of their public alliance with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, the Pillar of Fire was the only religious group which publicly associated itself with the Klan.
  19. ↑ Blee, Kathleen (1991). Women of the Klan. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07876-5. Bishop White's transformation from minister to Klan propagandist is detailed in voluminous autobiographical and political writings. [Bishop] White's anti-Catholic, anti-semitic, and racist message fit well into the Klan's efforts to convince white Protestant women that their collective interests as women. ... were best served by joining the Klan.
  20. ↑ White, Alma (1928). Heroes of the Fiery Cross. The Good Citizen. I believe in white supremacy.
  21. ↑ Guardians of Liberty, Vol. 1, Alma White, page 120.
  22. ↑ Guardians of Liberty, Vol. 3, Alma White, Chapter 7, White Supremacy, page 103.
  23. ↑ Guardians of Liberty, Vol. 1, page 119
  24. ↑ Dean, Clarence (December 17, 1960). "Brooklyn Scene: A Quiet Byway Is Invaded by Death and Chaos" (PDF). New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2010. The gray stucco church into which the plane rammed was a three-story, gabled structure known as the Pillar of Fire Church.
  25. ↑ White, Alma (August 1929). "America---the White Man's Heritage". The Good Citizen. Pillar of Fire Church: 3. Where people seek for social equality between the black and white races, they violate the edicts of the Holy Writ and every social and moral code ... Segregation is our only hope. Social and political equality would plunge the world into an Inferno as black as the regions of night and as far from the teachings of the New Testament as heaven is from hell. The presumption of the colored people under such conditions would know no bounds ... This is white man's country by every law of God and man, and was so determined from the beginning of Creation. Let us not therefore surrender our heritage to the sons of Ham. Perhaps it would be well for white people to take the advice of a great American patriot, Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans and repeal the Fifteenth Amendment. The editor of The Good Citizen would be with him in this.
  26. ↑ White, Alma (August 1929). "America---the White Man's Heritage". The Good Citizen. Pillar of Fire Church: 4.
  27. ↑ Donato, Rubén (2007). Mexicans and Hispanics in Colorado Schools and Communities, 1920–1960. State University of New York Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-7914-6967-5. On New Year's night in 1924, the Klan in Longmont placed an eight-foot cross with red flaming lights in front of the Pillar of Fire Church, located on the corner of Main Street and Sixth Avenue. Because the church was on private property, Klan members asserted, 'there can be no objection to its location.'
  28. ↑ Wagner, Albin. "Westminster University Princeton of the West" (PDF). Retrieved November 21, 2009. The church established a junior college and bible seminary there, which after 1925 was called Belleview College. The campus of the school was frequently used for meetings of the Ku Klux Klan during its hey-day in Denver, and residents recall burning crosses high on the hill.
  29. ↑ Pillar of Fire Church: Doctrinal Statement in Brief, accessed August 31, 2006
  30. ↑ "Pillar of Fire: What We Believe". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
  31. ↑ Pillar of Fire
  32. ↑ Zarephath Health Center
  33. ↑ "Testimony of Alieta Eck, MD - "Rethinking Insurance"" (PDF). jec.senate.gov. April 28, 2004. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  34. ↑ "Missions". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on August 1, 2009. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  35. ↑ "Pillar of Fire, Registered Charity No. 1015529" (Press release). Charities Commission. March 16, 2005. Archived from the original on August 20, 2003. Retrieved August 30, 2006.
  36. ↑ "The Pillar of Fire Mission". Christian Science Monitor. May 21, 1920. London, England. Mrs. Alma White, president of the American organization 'The Pillar of Fire,' which aims at curbing present tendencies in women's dress, and supports a 'dry' program, recently opened her ...
  37. ↑ "Missions: Great Britain". Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2011. Hendon is predominantly a Jewish area. This makes the subject of Jewish evangelism a priority to us in Hendon.
  38. ↑ "Thepillarhotellondon.com". Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  39. ↑ Leon Symons (October 28, 2010). "Last orders as shuls buy pubs". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  40. ↑ "Pillar Missions in Nigeria". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010. Reverend Smallridge introduced Essien to Pillar of Fire leadership, and in 1974, was given permission to start a Pillar of Fire Church in Nigeria.
  41. ↑ "Pillar Missions in Malawi". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010. The Pillar of Fire Church was established in Malawi in 1984, when Reverend Moses Peter K. Phiri, a native of Malawi, contacted Pillar of Fire to discuss African missions.
  42. ↑ "Local Church and Partner in Ministry". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2007. Our school and church belong to a group of national and international ministries founded and directed by the Pillar of Fire, International. The Pillar of Fire provides us with oversight, advice, and material support, and gives us opportunities to participate in congregational, educational, media, and missions ministries around the world.
  43. ↑ An Overview of Eden Grove Academy School, accessed August 30, 2006 Archived August 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  44. ↑ Sycamore Grove School: A Ministry of the Pillar of Fire Church Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, accessed August 30, 2006
  45. 1 2 3 Institutions that have closed, merged, or changed their names Archived February 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 3, 2006
  46. ↑ "Klan Buys College Close to Princeton". The Harvard Crimson. October 31, 1923. Retrieved July 6, 2009. Bishop Alma White, the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church, and an author of various religious works, is President of the institution under the new regime. In an interview for the Princetonian today Bishop White deplored the present indifference of the undergraduate to the Klan and predicted that in the near future "it will sweep through the intellectual student classes as through the masses of the people."
  47. ↑ Introducing Belleview Christian College, accessed August 30, 2006
  48. ↑ Somerset Christian College: History Archived 2007-02-17 at the Wayback Machine, accessed August 30, 2006
  49. ↑ AM91 & Castle History Archived 2006-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 1, 2006 - "KPOF is the oldest station of the Pillar of Fire Network, which is the oldest network of Christian Stations in the World."
  50. ↑ Star 99.1 Jobs Archived 2006-12-14 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 1, 2006 – "STAR 99.1 is a radio-ministry of Pillar of Fire"
  51. ↑ Jaker, Bill; Sulek, Frank; Kanze, Peter (1998). The airwaves of New York. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0343-8.
  52. ↑ 93.3 Cincinnati Ohio Christian Radio, accessed September 1, 2006 - "93.3 WAKW is a service of Pillar of Fire, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization"
  53. 1 2 "Bishop Arthur White, 92, Dies. Headed Pillar of Fire Church". New York Times. September 18, 1981. Retrieved July 21, 2007. Bishop Arthur K. White, president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey, died Monday at his home in Zarephath. He was 92 years old.
  54. 1 2 "Donald Wolfram moved souls during street services". Denver Post. Retrieved July 21, 2007. Donald Wolfram, who was an early participant in religious street meetings in Lower Downtown Denver, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. Wolfram, 83, was a lifelong member of the Pillar of Fire Church, and as a young man, he joined other members for religious meetings in downtown Denver. The meetings resembled those of the Salvation Army, with a band and speaker. Wolfram usually played the trumpet or trombone, said his daughter, Suzanne Wolfram. Eventually, he learned to play about a ...
  55. ↑ "Preacher, racer are two of a kind. Dallenbach brothers follow different roads that intersect with love". Denver Post. April 30, 1990. Retrieved July 21, 2007. It's quite a spin from Wally's life as a race-car driver to the Rev. Robert Dallenbach's small Pillar of Fire Church, where drinking, dancing and smoking are forbidden. While Wally directs Denver's Grand Prix races this August, his older brother likely will be a few blocks away, preaching at Alma Temple. The Reverend Bob wears a charcoal-gray suit and Roman collar. His 8-year-old, church-owned Ford station wagon bears license tag ... But things aren't always what they seem with the brothers Dallenbach ...
  56. ↑ "Somerset Christian College". Somerset Christian College. Archived from the original on 2009-09-06. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
  57. ↑ "Minister Sues Pillar of Fire. Charges Organization With Alienating Wife. Reveals Secrets and Requirements of the Cult. Avers Head Has Amassed Fortune from Gullible". Los Angeles Times. December 31, 1920. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-01-11. Charging that the Pillar of Fire, an organization of nation-wide scope, of which Alma White of Bound Brook, N.J., is founder, had alienated the affections of his wife and defrauded him of his property, the Rev. Thomas A. Goode, a former member of the organization, today filed suit in the District Court for $100,000 damages.
  58. ↑ Scribd.com
  59. ↑ "Dr. Johannes Maas Biography | Holiness Movement | Methodism".
  60. ↑ Who's who in American education. Who's Who in American Education. 1966. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  61. ↑ Gertrude Metlen Wolfram (1954). The widow of Zarephath. Pillar of Fire Church.
  62. 1 2 3 4 Book Review of Susie Cunningham Stanley's "Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White" Archived 2006-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Bethel College (Indiana), accessed September 2, 2006
  63. ↑ Time Line 1900s, accessed September 2, 2006
  64. 1 2 Historic Downtown Colorado Springs Archived 2007-09-28 at archive.today, accessed September 2, 2006
  65. 1 2 Robert McHenry (1983). Famous American women. Dover. p. 438. ISBN 0-486-24523-3. Alma White College 1917.
  66. 1 2 Historic Westminster, Colorado: The Princeton of the West Archived 2006-10-05 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 2, 2006
  67. ↑ Denver Radio: 80 Years of Change Archived 2009-05-19 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 1, 2006 – "On March 9 [1928], KPOF went on the air and was owned by a religious movement called the Pillar of Fire.
  68. ↑ "New Jersey AM Radio History, Page 8 (1300 to 1380)". Radio-History.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-05. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  69. ↑ The Town of Morrison, Colorado: Pillar of Fire Church, accessed September 2, 2006 Archived August 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  70. ↑ "Fundamentalist Pillar". Time. July 8, 1946. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-25. [She] built a sect called Pillar of Fire — with 4,000 followers, 61 churches, seven schools, ten periodicals and two broadcasting stations. Last week, as it must even to 'the only woman bishop in the world,' Death came to the Pillar of Fire's 84-year-old founder.
  71. ↑ "Ray Bridwell White; Pillar of Fire Church Leader, Son of Late Bishop, Dies". New York Times. November 6, 1946. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  72. 1 2 3 "Promoted to Glory: Donald Justin Wolfram, 83, Bishop". Belleview College. Retrieved 2007-08-26. Dr. Donald J. Wolfram left this life on August 25, 2003, after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 83. He was immediate past president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire International Christian denomination, an office he held from 1985 through 2000. He was laid to rest at Belleview Cemetery, Westminster, Colorado, on the campus where he had labored so faithfully for the Lord. Dr. Wolfram was born November 13, 1919, at Zarephath, New Jersey, to Rev. Albert and Rev. Gertrude Metlen Wolfram, pioneer missionaries in the Pillar of Fire. He was ordained to the ministry at age 16, later was consecrated a bishop, and spent his life working for the cause of Christ and holiness of heart and life.

Further reading

  • Cyril Edwin Mitchinson; The Babbitt Warren (1927)
  • Charles Wright Ferguson; The New Books of Revelations: The Inside Story of America's Astounding Religious Cults (1929)
  • Alma White's Evangelism Press Reports, compiled by C. R. Paige and C.K. Ingler (1939)
  • Susie Cunningham Stanley; Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White; Cleveland, Ohio; The Pilgrim Press, (1993) ISBN 0-8298-0950-3
  • Blee, Kathleen M. (1991). Women of the Klan. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07876-5.
  • Randall Balmer; Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism (2004) ISBN 1-932792-04-X
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