This page contains information concerning the false teacher Dr. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and other followers of Apostle Eric vonAnderseck and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck the founders of Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. It is intended to warn the Lord's flock This page contains information concerning the false teacher Dr. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and other followers of Apostle Eric vonAnderseck and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck the founders of Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. It is intended to warn the Lord's flock of Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th week, Apostle Joann Cremer, Apostolic Stewardship, apostles, apostolic governance, apostle, living apostles, apostles today, living apostles, Christian faith, restoration apostles, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus apostles, the apostles, the apostle, apostles of Jesus, 12 apostles, twelve apostles, john the apostle, the twelve apostles, twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, apostle Eric, apostle, apostle Eric vonAnderseck, apostle Erik, apostle Eric vanAndorsek, apostle Eric, apostle Eric vondorseck, apostles of Jesus, the apostles, apostles of Christ, the apostles of Christ, the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, living apostles, what is an apostle, saints, saint, grace, grace of God, grace of God, cross, disciples, new testament, gospel, gospels, bible, discipleship, about apostles of Jesus, faith, Christian faith, theology, revival, restoration, restore, teach, apostolic, apostolic governance, apostolic governance, church, covenant, school of theology, Christian school, Christian theology school, school of theology, theology school, Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th week Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th week, Apostle Joann Cremer, Apostolic Stewardship, apostles, apostolic governance, apostle, living apostles, apostles today, living apostles, Christian faith, restoration apostles, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus apostles, the apostles, the apostle, apostles of Jesus, 12 apostles, twelve apostles, john the apostle, the twelve apostles, twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, apostle Eric, apostle, apostle Eric vonAnderseck, apostle Erik, apostle Eric vanAndorsek, apostle Eric, apostle Eric vondorseck, apostles of Jesus, the apostles, apostles of Christ, the apostles of Christ, the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, living apostles, what is an apostle, saints, saint, grace, grace of God, grace of God, cross, disciples, new testament, gospel, gospels, bible, discipleship, about apostles of Jesus, faith, Christian faith, theology, revival, restoration, restore, teach, apostolic, apostolic governance, apostolic governance, church, covenant, school of theology, Christian school, Christian theology school, school of theology, theology school, Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th week

A Warning About Eric vonAnderseck and his Second 8th Week schools

Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th weekThis page contains information concerning the false teacher Dr. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and other followers of Apostle Eric vonAnderseck and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck the founders of Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Second 8th week, Apostle Joann Cremer, Apostolic Stewardship, apostles, apostolic governance, apostle, living apostles, apostles today, living apostles, Christian faith, restoration, apostles, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus apostles, the apostles, the apostle, apostles of Jesus, 12 apostles, twelve apostles, john the apostle, the twelve apostles, twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, apostle Eric, apostle, apostle Eric vonAnderseck, apostle Erik, apostle Eric vanAndorsek, apostle Eric, apostle Eric vondorseck, apostles of Jesus, the apostles, apostles of Christ, the apostles of Christ, the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, living apostles, what is an apostle, saints, saint, grace, grace of God, grace of God, cross, disciples, new testament, gospel, gospels, bible, discipleship, about apostles of Jesus, faith, Christian faith, theology, revival, restoration, restore, teach, apostolic, apostolic governance, apostolic governance, church, covenant, school of theology, Christian school, Christian theology school, school of theolgoy, theology school apostles, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ, Peter, John, Paul, jesus apostles, the apostles, the apostle, apostles of jesus, 12 apostles, twelve apostles, john the apostle, the twelve apostles, twelve apostles of jesus christ, apostle eric, apostol, apostle eric vonAnderseck, apostle erik, apostle eric vanAndorsek, apostleeric, apostle eric vondorseck, apostlesofjesus, theapostles, apostlesofchrist, theapostlesofchrist, the twelve apostles of jesus christ, living apostles, what is an apostle, saints, saint, grace, grace of God, graceofgod, cross, disciples, new testament, gospel, gospels, bible, discipleship, about apostles of jesus, faith, Christian faith, theology, revival, restoration, restore, teach, apostolic, apostolicgovernance, apostolic governance, church, covenant, school of theology, christian school, christian theology school, schooloftheolgoy, theology school, Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology Maria vonAnderseck - maria@second8thweek.com

 

 

 

Please visit our new site. There you will find updated articles. And that is where we will post future articles on this False Apostle. Recently we received an email from a person who nearly fell into the clutches of Mr. vonAnderseck’s cult. Read it at the new site.

 

This web page is meant to be an introduction to Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and other followers of Apostle Eric vonAnderseck and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck the founders of Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries.

Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck bill themselves as living apostles and on their web sites will try to convince you that you are not able to understand God’s Word without their guidance. In their schools (Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, and Second 8th Week Ministries) they teach that they and not the Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth. Apostle Eric bills himself as the Chief Apostle of all of North America. They want to change your beliefs so that you will submit yourself to their “apostolic stewardship” or “apostolic governance” as they call it. “Apostolic stewardship” or “apostolic governance” is nothing more than having your beliefs bent to conform to the error that these people teach.

You might be asking yourself why anyone would want to write about some guy who thinks that he is the chief apostle as Eric vonAnderseck believes he is. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck are really very small players as far as those who are actively deceiving the body of Christ go. They only reach a handful of people and my guess is most of those that they do reach probably quickly recognize that these supposed apostles are not what they say they are.

From the communication that others and I have had with Eric's followers they seem to be those who have been hurt and vulnerable to manipulation. The mode used by these self-assigned "living apostles" to teach their erroneous and dangerous lessons are the schools founded by Apostle Eric vonAnderseck and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck. They are the Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, S8W Apostolic Institute, Second 8th Week Apostolic Coalition, and Second 8th Week Ministries. The courses offered by these schools are actually “apostolic stewardship” or “apostolic governance” and they are used to re-train people to stop believing they can trust the Holy Spirit and to believe that Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck are the only true carriers of the truth of Jesus Christ today.

Are these people frauds who are out the bilk the unsuspecting of their money or are they just delusional? Who knows, they may not even know what their own true motives are. I’m not writing in order to judge motives, I’m writing only to warn the Body of Christ that there are yet more false teachers on the loose. If this work warns even one person, that is good and the work has paid off.

 

Please pray for these people: Apostle Eric vonAnderseck, Apostle John Welty, Apostle Joann Cremer and Apostle Maria vonAnderseck and pray for the people they are teaching their errors to at the Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, the Apostolic Institute of Theology, Second 8th Week™ University, S8W Apostolic Institute, Second 8th Week Apostolic Coalition, and Second 8th Week Ministries.

 

In researching this apostle’s beliefs we have found that he believes that:

 

Does Eric glorify himself or does he glorify Jesus? The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus and the real Apostles pointed to Jesus. In the Epistles the name of Jesus is mentioned 254 times, Paul 45 times and Peter 5 times. You only need to give Eric vonAnderseck's web pages a quick glance to see that he and not Jesus is center stage. True apostles point you to Jesus much more than they point to themselves.  Eric points to himself.

On Eric vonAnderseck's web site is the boast "He has recorded over 3,000 dreams and over 6,000 spiritual experiences.(In addition to these over 9,000 documentations, in the last 3 decades he has logged in 2,016,000 minutes of prayer, read through the Bible chapter by chapter numerous times, and offered an estimated 146,000 spiritual sacrifices of prophecy." 

No truly humble person or real Apostle would allow such claims to be made. No sane person would expect that another person would boast about millions of minutes of prayer. Jesus said in Matthew 6:6, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Humble promoter of Jesus Christ? No. Tireless self-promoter? Yes!

 

Contents:

1. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck denies the power of the Word of God to Save.

2. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck places himself as the giver of truth and dethrones the Holy Spirit.

3. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck calls himself a doctor.  But is he a doctor? What's up with Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology?

4. Comments from “The Bereans.Net”

5. A study on non-Christian cults. Taken from http://studyoncults.blogspot.com/
   a. The False Apostle Eric Von Anderseck
   b. The False Apostle Eric pt.2
   c. What Does This False Apostle Teach?


   d. Introduction to testimonies (from former cult members)    e. The Testimony of John and Debbie Virshek (part 1)
   f. The Testimony of John and Debbie Virshek (part 2)

6. The false apostle Eric vonAnderseck and his false teaching about Enoch

7. More comments by Debbie Virshek taken from End Times Prophetic Words

8. Comments from a person who attended one of the false apostle Eric's lessons, fought their mind control and was made ill by it.

9. Links to web pages that expose the false teachings of Eric vonAnderseck and his Second 8th Week schools

10. Is the false teacher Eric vonAnderseck correct about apostolic governance?

 

 

1. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck denies the power of the Word of God to produce Salvation.   

Beware of Eric vonAnderseck, he will tell you that he is the chief apostle and he teaches some dangerous things at his self-founded Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology, but before I bore you to death and while I still have your attention I want expose the most blatant error he teaches.

Eric vonAnderseck wrote:
"If your soul stands in doubt of your salvation can the scriptures in-of-itself birth the experience of your salvation. The scriptures can validate the experience, but not produce it.” We see that Eric clearly says that the Scriptures cannot produce salvation.

 

Honestly, I’m so sickened I almost do not know what to say. Does this man who dares to call himself an apostle, truly believe that Scripture cannot produce salvation?

Let’s take a look at what Scripture says.

Let’s first look at John chapter 1 and we see that the Word is Jesus and Jesus is God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2)

When Eric vonAnderseck states that scripture cannot produce salvation he is, in effect, saying that God cannot produce salvation. (The Word is God.)
But maybe that’s not what Eric meant; it’s possible I’m making something out of nothing. Let’s look at what other scriptures say and see if the Bible or Scripture can produce salvation. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24) Jesus is pretty clear that his Word brings salvation. We hear the Word, believe it and are saved. This is how the Word produces salvation.

The Apostle Paul had something to say about this idea that the Word can produce salvation. He wrote, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) We see that Paul wrote, what he learned from Jesus. In short we hear the Word, we believe or have faith in the Word and the Word saves us.

The self proclaimed apostle, Eric vonAnderseck and what he teaches at his Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology are dangerous and anti-Scriptural. What he teaches denies the power of our Lord’s Word to save. Is heresy to strong a word?

I hope you will join me in praying for him and for those he has deceived.

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-2)

 

2. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck places himself as the giver of truth and dethrones the Holy Spirit.

The erroneous apostle Eric teaches, at his school, Second 8th Week, that the Bereans who Luke wrote about in Acts 17:11 were not as noble as Luke thought.

10As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. (Acts 17 NIV)

Luke was either with Paul in Berea or he was recounting what Paul, Timothy and Silas told him. So when Luke wrote "the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians" he was probably not speaking his own opinion, he was probably either repeating what the others told him or he was giving an eyewitness account of what he, Paul and the others saw.

Why did these great men of God believe "the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians"? There are two reasons spelled out in the text, "they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

It is essential for those, like apostle Eric vonAnderseck, who are leading the Lord's sheep astray, to attack the idea that every Christian should examine the scripture to see if what they say is true. They want their followers to trust only them so that the manipulation and brainwash cam be complete.

At Second 8th Week this is what is taught, "The Berean Method is self-referencing, because the substance of the knowledge is not born of the anointing, but formed by the logic and study of doctrine. Jesus made to His apostles the distinction of both, that of the anointing and that of the letter. The church needs apostles today to reference the church to God." (“The Berean Method of Discernment” September 18th, 2009 | Author: Apostle Eric vonAnderseck)

Notice two things about what the false apostle writes. First, knowledge is ... formed by ... logic" Scripture says that the Holy Spirit leads us in all truth. "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:12-14)

Eric wrote that our knowledge comes from logic and that it is “self-referencing”, in order to make the gullible lose their trust in their own ability to hear the Holy Spirit and the ability of good Christians to speak the truth. With this and other similar statements, found on Eric's web pages, he sets himself up as the only reliable source of truth in North America. We see how he develops his idea that we can trust no person but him in this sentence, "The church needs apostles today to reference the church to God." Eric is saying don't trust the Spirit, don't trust Pastors or Preachers, and don't trust your ability to read and understand the Word that God gave you, trust only me.

Now look at the second part of the sentence and see how apostle Eric further attempts to manipulate your thinking. "knowledge is ... formed ... by the study of doctrine" Luke wrote that the Bereans, "examined the Scriptures.” Eric vonAnderseck replaced the word "scripture" with "doctrine.” Friends, scripture is God's Word and God's Word is not the negative thing that Eric vonAnderseck attempts to turn it into by calling it doctrine.

Eric would like us, and his followers, to believe we are unable to read and understand the Word of God. Through subtle and sometimes not so subtle manipulation he tries to place the himself in the role of the Holy Spirit. Read what a real Apostle wrote to follower of Jesus and compare it to what is taught at the Second 8th Week schools by Eric vonAnderseck.

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." (1 Corinthians 2:12) Paul taught that we gain understanding from the Holy Spirit, not from Eric.

Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15) Paul taught that the Word must be studied.

14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3) Paul explains that Timothy knew scripture because he was taught as a young child, that teaching most likely came from Timothy's mother and grandmother. (2 Timothy 1:5)

Beware of those who will turn you away from reading the Scripture and away from trusting God to reveal his truth to you. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. Build your faith by diligently praying and reading scripture. God has freely given us his word in order for us to be saved. Pray for them and those they decieve.

 

3. Apostle Eric vonAnderseck calls himself a doctor. But is he a doctor?
While looking over Eric’s web page I noticed that he has given himself many titles. On one page he calls himself “Dr. Eric vonAnderseck, ThD, DD, Chief Apostle of Jesus Christ for the Second 8th Week of Righteousness.” I’m sure that you would agree that, that is quite an impressive title.

I asked Eric several times where he got his degree and to prove that he is indeed a doctor. He refused to answer me and refused every request to prove that he is a doctor.  Instead of giving a clear honest answer vonAnderseck played word games, implied titles don't matter and continually answered questions with more and more questions.

I later learned that Eric founded his own school “Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology” and that school is where he got his doctorate from. It seems that the self appointed apostle Eric vonAnderseck created his own school and then wrote himself and his wife, Marie, degrees. I can only suppose that his wife, Dr. Maria vonAnderseck, taught him and he taught her, and they then graded each othes papers.

The apparently false apostle Eric vonAnderseck wrote, on his doctoral thesis, that Dr. Maria vonAnderseck helped him greatly with writing it. Are we to suppose that she evaluated his thesis that she helped write?  Who evaluated hers, and who helped her write it? Did she sign his degree and he signed hers?

The following quotes are taken from some of Eric's many web pages. 

"Dr. Eric vonAnderseck, Chief Apostle of Jesus Christ, Founder, Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology'

" Dr. vonAnderseck founded the Second 8th Week International Accreditation Agency. In 2003 Drs. Eric and Maria vonAnderseck founded Second 8th Week, Inc."

“Second 8th Week University, the international distance learning University founded by the vonAndersecks in 1999, stands as a beacon and pacesetter in Christian Education for Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation.”

From what Eric writes we see that he founded his own school and then founded and accrediting agency.  HMMMM does the term "conflict of interest" come to mind?

This is taken from the Bio page on Eric’s web site.
“Dr. vonAnderseck’s lifetime work and philanthropy has earned him a Doctor of Divinity award from Second 8th Week™ University, where he serves as the Provost and Chief Educator and Lecturer.” (more titles!)

Also from the same article:
“Dr. Maria vonAnderseck serves as full professor at Second 8th Week University where she earned her PhD degree in Theology for her work with Dr. E. vonAnderseck and for her research in Applied Sociology: Phenomenological Studies Associated with Spiritual Transformation.”


Again, please join me in prayer for these guys and those who they have deceived or may deceive.

 

4. Comments from “The Bereans.Net”

The following are comments that were posted on  The Bereans.net the author of the post has taken the time to read the FAQ page and show the glaring contradictions that were found between it and scripture.  I would like to take the time to thank “abugian” for the time taken to point out these problems with Apostle Eric’s doctrine and also for the permission to post the comments here.

 

12-27-04, 06:23

  #1

abugian

Webservant

 

My Redeemer lives!

 

 

Reformed Pentecostal

Posts: 20,630

Member Since: Apr 2003

 

Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

You can check them out in their website http://www.second8thweek.com/ and their statement of faith here: http://www.second8thweek.org/StatementOfFaith.htm.

In their FAQ page, we read,

"The apostle Eric does not preach or teach NEW doctrine. There is nothing NEW about Jesus Christ. The original foundation knowledge of Christ is being restored."

To them, the role of their apostle is to restore the original foundation knowledge of Christ. Why does it have to be restored? What's was happening before he realized that he is an apostle? This is what they have to say,

"We have all seen, first hand, what happens when Christians expect doctrine to flow through them individually, there is no corporate unity in the Body; believers are found to be scrambling for some ‘common ground’ unity that compromises truth and does not bring the fullness of Christ."

According to them, there is confusion when individual Christians use the Holy Spirit to teach them doctrines,

When each individual Christian tries to use the Holy Spirit to teach them doctrine there is mass confusion. Is the Holy Spirit confused, teaching each Christian doctrine that is in direct opposition to the next Christian? No.

As an example, they cited Moses in the Old Testament and then the apostles in the New Testament. With regards to the apostles they said,

"Apostles are given as the contact point for the people concerning doctrine, not because there was any virtue in the person, but because God is using the vessel. Believers are NOT joining their faith to an apostle, they are joining their faith to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and enabled to walk in perfect faith according to the apostles' doctrine. Those who heeded the words of the apostle through the Headship of Christ in the book of Acts, and obeyed the doctrinal commandments of Jesus Christ which

So what have we gathered so far? Individuals should not use the Holy Spirit to teach them doctrines because they'll only get confused. They should look upon the apostle as the contact point concerning doctrines and all will be well and good right? Then why did Paul and Barnabas separated ways during the time where true apostles walked the earth? (Acts 15:39) Why was there a dispute between Peter and Paul with regards to administering the New Covenant? (Galatians 2:11ff) Dispute will occur with or without the apostles but it is the Holy Spirit that opens their minds and binds them all together in love! According to 1 Corinthians 2:15,

"But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."

Isn't the spiritual here refers to any individual who is spiritual?

In 1 Corinthians 14:37 it is written,

"If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord."

Isn't the any man here refers to any man who is spiritual? Paul was appealing to the individual as long as the individual is spiritual it will makes sense for him. Why is that? Because of the Holy Spirit!

According to them,

"God has a plan to bring the Body into one theology. When God has a plan, He also has a means to implement that plan, and vessels in place to fulfill that plan. While unfaithful stewards still desire God to bring the Body into one theology through a doctrinal pool to which all contribute, this has already proved to be impossible, an undertaking detrimental to faith, and in direct contradiction to scripture. Pure doctrine comes through the Headship of Christ through the office of the apostle, these are called to steward the grace of God and bring the Body into one faith."

Do you know whose theology is that? The theology of Eric vonAnderseck another apostle wannabee. came through apostles, were sanctified of God. This was the beginning of the Second Covenant government."

 

12-27-04, 06:38

  #2

abugian

Webservant

 

My Redeemer lives!

 

 

Reformed Pentecostal

Posts: 20,630

Member Since: Apr 2003

 

Re:Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

In the Why We Need Apostles page, the deceit is obvious.

They showed that since the early church needed the living apostles of Christ then it must also follow that the churches of today should also unite under the living apostleship of Eric vonAnderseck and his one theology.

One scripture they cite is I Cor. 4:1, which says, "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and STEWARDS of the mysteries of God." They explained,

"It is clear that in order for an apostle to actively direct the affairs of the Church he must be LIVING; in order for the apostles to have the charge and oversight and care of the Church he must be LIVING. The 'care' or 'concern' of the Church is that the believers remain true to Christ."

If that is the case, why then did apostle Paul knowing his impending end (martyred either 67 or 68 AD) charged Titus, the first bishop of Cretians to ordain elders in every city? (Titus 1:5, AD 64-66) Why didn't he charge an apostle who would succeed his place?

Paul charged the Bishops equipped them to adhere to their teachings and pass on what they learned from him as evident in his letter to Timothy,

"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:2)

Timothy was the first bishop of the Ephesian church. Look at the text! Paul charged Timothy who was not an apostle to teach other men who shall be able to teach others also. Paul did not appoint an apostle to succeed him who will then appoint other apostles so that every generation can have a living apostle who will be a stewards of the mysteries of God! Why? Wasn't that his job? His job was to steward the mysteries of God. Those mysteries were then taught to presbytery or the teachers who then taught the same and so on and so forth.

12-27-04, 07:00

  #3

abugian

Webservant

 

My Redeemer lives!

 

 

Reformed Pentecostal

Posts: 20,630

Member Since: Apr 2003

 

Re:Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

The Second 8th Week according to them is the,

"[T]ime that God has allotted for the restoration of His truth and government will come with great grace and power, exceeding the power of the First 8th Week."

Allegedly it is,

"[T]he final evangelistic move the Body of Christ has been waiting for. It will be dynamic, and will be evident on a global scale as the believers come into ONE Body, embracing ONE faith in Christ."

One faith, means the faith that you will learn from Eric vonAnderseck. The First 8th Week is referred to is,

"The ministry of Jesus Christ; the beginning of the Church in power."

The Second 8th Week is thought to be the period which precedes the Tribulation but it came after the period when the Church was in darkness and the sheep were blindfolded. They also call it the Latter Rain.

Like Darwin Fish, Erick vonAnderseck capitalizes on the diversity of churches today. He attacks such diversity in order to advance their peculiar theology, a theology that does not really solve the situation but only adds to the existing diversity. Criticizing the ecumenical movement Eric said,

"The 'ecumenical' movement is suggesting 'unity' through an agreement to collaborate on the efforts of many faiths to solve the earth's problems. Each is allowed to hold comfortably to their own theology without being crowded by another. The environment of the 'ecumenical' group is created to allow for each independent faith in God while at the same time providing a table for corporate problem solving."

He would rather have all these churches be in ONE THEOLOGY, Eric vonAnderseck's theology.

 

12-27-04, 07:41

  #4

abugian

Webservant

 

My Redeemer lives!

 

 

Reformed Pentecostal

Posts: 20,630

Member Since: Apr 2003

 

Re:Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

Matthew Slick of CARM wrote a big deal about apostle wannabee Eric vonAnderseck. Check it out in

--> HOW TO HAVE PERFECT FAITH


"The 'Apostle Eric' is a false teacher, a self proclaimed apostle who teaches contrary to God's word. He denies the Trinity, requires speaking in tongues as a manifestation of salvation, offers different interpretations of scripture than historic Christianity, condemns standard Christianity with its pastors and teachers, and elevates himself as the apostle to the North American Continent. I strongly advise that Christian and non-Christian alike avoid him." URL: http://www.carm.org/perfect/howtohaveperfectfaith.htm

 

12-27-04, 08:25

  #5

abugian

Webservant

 

My Redeemer lives!

 

 

Reformed Pentecostal

Posts: 20,630

Member Since: Apr 2003

 

Re:Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

With regards to the breaking of the bread, Eric vonAnderseck has this to say,

"When Jesus broke the bread at the Last Super, He was giving the apostles an example to follow later when the Church would be established. Jesus was not introducing a physical rite for the TRADITION of FAITH, but was providing a symbolic gesture that would have meaning later." True and False Apostles

But this is what Jesus said in Luke 22:19,

"This is my body which is given for you. DO THIS in memory of me."

The true apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:25-26,

"In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. DO THIS, AS OFTEN as you drink, in memory of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Now who is in error? Who is the false apostle?

 


All rights reserved - The Bereans: Apologetics Research Ministry.

 

5. The following was taken from “A study on non-Christian cults”

@ http://studyoncults.blogspot.com/ . 

I have been unable to reach the original author, however, if you are the author please contact me,  There is a link to email me at the bottom of this page.
Thank you so much for the time and effort that you put into your blog. Thank you  John and Debbie Virshek for giving your testimony.  God Bless you all.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The False Apostle Eric Von Anderseck I want to start my study with a classic example of a non-christian cult. Eric Von Anderseck, with his wife Maria, is the leader of a cult called Second Eighth Week Ministries. Confused yet? Don't worry you will be even more confused as we get into this false apostle and the message he is trying to spread. I will now post an excerpt froma study done by Matt Slick entitled "Why write about Eric Von Anderseck". Why write about the apostle Eric It is necessary to write about the apostle Eric vonAnderseck because he is a self proclaimed apostle of God who says he is commissioned by God to reveal the "true and restored" gospel to the North American continent. Since, one of the purposes of CARM is to expose false teachers, to document what it is they teach, and compare it to scripture, it is necessary that I write about yet another false teacher surfacing on the web. I first encountered the teachings of Eric VonAnderseck on an Internet chat program called paltalk. Immediately warning flags went up as I listened to the teachings about special knowledge, about "the apostle Eric" being the apostle to the North American continent, about a preexistence, and about how all other churches are false -- except his. This kind of message about him being sent by God to "restore the truth" is typical among cult groups. You see, in order for their teaching to flourish, they must first claim that the "true" teachings of the Christian Church have been lost and that "they" are the ones who are sent to reveal what God "really" wants Christians to know in these last days. This is no different with the apostle Eric vonAnderseck who claims to not only have had many visitations from angels, but also to be the one who is restoring the truth to the North American Continent. He claims to have been the 7th person who was standing in a line of spirits in the preexistence as they were being prepared to go to earth. He claims that he heard a voice asking "Who will go for Me?" He volunteered to go and an angel then took him to the front of the line and it was proclaimed that he would be used in the last days to reveal the truth. Of course, his claims violate the biblical teaching against a pre-existence (1 Cor. 15:46) and it falsely assumes that an apostasy has occurred (2 Thess. 2) -- which hasn't happened yet. We know that the apostasy spoken about in 2 Thessalonians is related to the arrival of the antichrist and he has not yet arrived. Since he has produced a lot of information and since organizations are now finally beginning to expose him, he has reconstructed his web sites and posted a very strict copyright policy in an attempt to prevent any quotations of his material being used in any manner. He is also trying to prevent any critics of his writings from retaining any copies of his material for research purposes. Penalty of law is also mentioned. Is this the methodology of someone with the truth? Or is it the methodology of someone with something to hide and who wants to be in as much control as possible? Basically, the apostle Eric vonAnderseck is trying to prevent even the "fair use" of material by which he might be examined. Of course, copyright laws are Federal level laws and it is very costly to initiate a Federal lawsuit which, in the case of fair use laws and quotes and commentary, wouldn't even make it to Federal Court. It seems that the apostle Eric vonAnderseck just doesn't want his information challenged in any way. He wants to be able to teach whatever he wants without anyone criticizing him or comparing his teachings to the Bible. What is he afraid of? This reminds me of the various mind control techniques used in some cult groups where the leadership attempts to retain strict control over what is said and done and then they often tell their members that if they leave their group, they are in danger of damnation. After having spoken to several ex members of his group, I know that this is what is happening there. In addition, the apostle Eric vonAnderseck is attempting to begin teaching on the Internet under extremely controlled conditions. If you are to go to Live Q&A with Apostle Eric, you would see the restrictive rules he has laid out. He apparently wants to control very precisely any of his so-called teaching sessions. He will not allow any debate or discussion about what he teaches. This is a sign that he is afraid of open discussion and afraid to be challenged. This way, he can attempt to minimalize the damage that might be done by people asking intelligent and biblical questions as they compare his teachings to God's word. I know this is a long post and I want to thank Matt for permission to use his paper. My next post will deal with people who have broken away from this false apostle, most of their stories are very chilling and you will see how much influence Satan has placed in this man.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The False Apostle Eric pt.2 The False Apostle Eric, the supposed Apostle of the Second 8th Week has a website where he says... "God has given me the measure of grace as an apostle to make known the Mystery of Christ and to establish the foundation of the Truth into the hearts of believers." [He has since changed the pages on the site] He says that he has been called by God to hold the office of apostle and prophet for the North American continent. He also claims to have had many visitations by angels. Since he is evangelistic and his followers are too, it is necessary to write about him and expose his errors. The "False Apostle Eric" goes on to say that his commissioning began in the preexistence as a spirit when an angel prepared him to be an apostle of the Christian church in the last days. "I was the 7th person standing in a line of spirits. Angels were busy preparing these souls for their earthly existence; their activities, from their birth to their death. I heard a voice saying, "Who will go for Me?" I didn't know who asked the question or what the mission was, all I remember is that I felt compelled to volunteer so I said, "I'll go." A very large angel dressed in a white robe took me out of line and up to the front. A voice again spoke and said, "I will use him in the last days." (Reference moved by Eric.) He goes on to state that during his early conversion in 1971, he heard an audible voice from God. He also claims that at one time to have seen the moon unusually bright with 12 stars circling it. (Note: Since the original writing of this paper, the "false apostle Eric" has changed the locations of the references that I cite below. originally, after each of his quotes I had included a URL link to his web site verifying the quote so they can be checked in context.) Therefore, I have modified the original link to simply state ("Reference move by Eric.") First of all, there is no spirit pre-existence for people. 1 Cor. 15:46 clearly says "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual." Second, his testimony is a self-focused proclamation of how he is to be the true teacher of the Christian church in the last days. Jesus is not the central focus of his conversion experience. There is no commissioning by Christ (which would not happen, anyway). Instead, it is by an angel. His claims are very similar to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism who also taught a pre-existent spirit state, a commissioning by God, and visitations by angels. Only Joseph Smith claimed to be a prophet, where "Eric" claims to be an apostle. According to the Bible, an apostle is one who has seen the risen Lord: 1 Cor. 9:1, "...Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" Furthermore, in Acts 1:21-22, the Apostles qualified the replacement of Judas as someone who had seen the risen Lord. Historically, "By the second century, the term no longer identifies an office of the church."1 Why? Because the Apostles had died. Therefore, it seems clear that an apostle is someone that "Eric" is not qualified to be and this is important. Whenever anyone sets himself up to be the apostle to a nation to restore the true gospel, cults are formed. While reading through his website you are introduced to new thoughts and new terms with a writing style reminiscent of Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures which is used in the non-Christian cult of Christian Science. Eddy uses a rambling style of writing that is difficult to follow unless you are indoctrinated into the new terms and phrases she uses. The "Apostle Eric" does the same thing. Here is a sample of his writing: "These elements are not only paired to show binary relationship, but must also be understood in proclitic relationship. This means that in addition to the binary relationship that the elements of grace and faith have, they also share a proclitic relationship with sanctification and holiness." Wading through such prose requires much effort. The result is that as you attempt to unravel what he is saying, if you are not knowledgeable on correct biblical doctrine, you can easily be swayed by this style of writing and accept what Eric tells you the Bible "really" means. Again, this is how many cult leaders operate.


Tuesday, March 18, 2008 What Does This False Apostle Teach? The apostle Eric has a statement of faith on his website. It has many good doctrines listed including the deity of Christ, His physical resurrection, His ascension, His return, sole mediatorship, etc. But what is lacking is mention of the doctrines of the Trinity, the efficacious atonement, the nature of hell and its duration, how one is saved, salvation by grace, etc. This is very troubling. Also, included in his statement of faith is this: "Man must repent of sin and receive the testimony about Jesus Christ in order to be saved. [please see lesson]." This last statement is very suspicious since his lessons are necessary to read in order to find out what you must do to be saved. As someone who has read thousands of pages of cult material for more than 20 years, Eric's website raises many warning flags. The question remains as to whether or not Eric really is a Christian or not. He affirms the deity of Christ and His physical resurrection (But so does oneness theology, and it is ultimately false). When reading his material and email based Bible lessons, salvation seems to be a process that can only be understood through his teachings. Nevertheless, after reviewing his list of 125 false teachings in the present Christian church at large, I have listed a few of them of concern and commented after each one. 1. Jesus sacrifice was not substitutionary He is wrong here. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), having been made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). On our behalf means that Jesus took our place; hence, a substitutionary atonement. 2. Being saved is a process, not a one time event. This is incorrect. Justification is the legal declaration by God upon a sinner that the sinner is declared righteous in His sight. This is accomplished by faith (Rom. 5:1). This declaration is based completely and solely on the work of Jesus that is "reckoned" to the sinner. This is an instantaneous occurrence when the person believes and trust in Christ (Rom. 4:5, 22-24). 3. If you are saved, you must speak in tongues. This is not true. Mormonism where extra-biblical revelations are accepted along with new scriptures and faulty interpretations are offered. 5. Grace is not unmerited favor. Sorry, but Eric is mistaken again. Grace is indeed unmerited favor in the context of salvation. Grace is God's kindness to us in allowing us to receive something good that we do not deserve. It is, of course, unmerited by us. This is why we are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). 6. Righteousness is gained by obedience to the standard (standard is not defined). This has obvious problems with it. All the cults teach that righteousness is attained through some form of obedience. This alone can qualify the Apostle Eric and his group as a non-Christian group. 7. There is no need for water baptism for new converts. Eric states that true baptism is of the Spirit, not of water. But in so claiming, he ignores Romans 6:3-4 where we are baptized into Christ "having been buried with Him in baptism." This is an obvious allusion to immersion in the baptismal waters. Quotes from "False Apostle Eric" Following are quotes from the writing of "False Apostle Eric" on his website. They are some of the more disturbing comments. "When Jesus said, 'It is written' He was saying, 'This is the desired pattern of the Spirit.'" A. This is incorrect. When Jesus said, "It is written," He was referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. Following are a few of the quotes where Jesus said, "It is written." i. Matt. 4:3, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’" ii. Mark 7:6, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me." iii. iv. John 6:45, "It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me." "There is only ONE God (Eph.4:6), and that ONE God chose to manifest Himself in 3 different ways: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit (Mt.28:19)." (Reference moved by Eric.) . Eric seems to teach modalism, a denial of the Trinity doctrine. Modalism is unbiblical and teaches that God is one person who manifests in three forms, not three persons (Trinity) as is the correct, biblical teaching. This, combined with his mandatory tongues speaking teaching below, puts him in the class of oneness Pentecostal theology, a false doctrinal position. "Communion --- Jesus was not setting a tradition of faith, but providing symbolism that is seen in our faith. Jesus did not mean for us to repeat the act of the last supper in remembrance of Him. The communion of Christ is the feast of the Holy Ghost. When we come together we are feasting on the things that the Holy Ghost supplies through each vessel. This is how we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ." (Reference moved by Eric.) . His comment that "Jesus did not mean for us to repeat the act of the last supper in remembrance of Him," is ridiculous. Jesus commanded us to do just that in This is very wrong. Justification, which is a legal declaration by God, upon the sinner, that the sinner is declared righteous in His sight, is based completely and solely on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Rom. 3:24, "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Rom. 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Rom. 5:1, "Therefore having been justified by faith..." Rom. 5:9, "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood..." A. This so-called apostle fails to rightly divide God's word. "Water [baptism] cannot save us from sin, but the Spirit can." (Reference moved by Eric.) It should be quite obvious that it is Jesus who saves us from our sin, not the Spirit. The Bible never teaches us that the Spirit saves us from our sins. "False apostles talk about themselves in their testimony." (Reference moved by Eric) . If this is true, the "Apostle Eric" is guilty of this because he is the subject of his own website a great deal. As I read through his material, in my opinion he talked about how he is called of God, a true apostle, prepared by an angel in the pre-existence, etc. There wasn't much about Christ by comparison in these talks. Later, however, Christ was mentioned but He is not central. "The so called 'reformers' [Luther, Calvin, etc.] of the past were not apostles and none of them brought the church out of darkness. They contributed to the problem with their 1/2 truths." (Reference moved by Eric.) Eric sets himself above Martin Luther and John Calvin and others who in centuries past were gifted by God to accomplish great things for the Christian church. The reformation, sparked by Luther and continued by Calvin, carries down to this day, the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. They restored to the light, the truth of God's word that had been hidden by the legalism and tradition of the Catholic church. For Eric to claim he is greater than they is an absurdity. "Within the basic element of REGENERATION we see the fruits of the Spirit that the Apostles taught." (Reference moved by Eric.) . Small point, but if Eric were a true apostle of God, don't you think he would know that it isn't "fruits" but "fruit." In the Greek in Gal. 5:22 when it mentions the fruit of the spirit, the Greek word "karpos" (fruit) is in the singular, not plural. "RIGHTEOUSNESS -- Having met the terms that God has set for our release from sin, God declares that we have met His standard, and we are accepted of Him. The TERMS for our release from the PENALTY of sin are the same TERMS that God set for our release from the BONDAGE of sin. The terms upon which God grants righteousness are always the same: Obedience to grace." The problem here is that we are not obedient to grace. Grace is unmerited, unearned favor from God. It is something in God that we benefit from. It is not something we obey which is wording too close to works righteousness, for my comfort. Grace is something that rests in God alone. We are the subjects of His grace. We are not obedient to it. We are obedient to His word. Furthermore, the connection of obedience to grace here is a warning flag in that it hints about us having to do something to be saved. Though it isn't explicit, it is poor wording and caution must be taken lest he start teaching a form of legalism and special knowledge which only the "Apostle Eric" is able to divulge. "We are JUSTIFIED BY FAITH when the activity of our works is the ordered activity of the law of grace....We are justified because we are acknowledging, molding with, and submitting to God through what He has authorized for our faith. This participation with the system of God's salvation is what justified us; and we are justified by faith" (Reference moved by Eric.) The phraseology is cryptic and unclear. It is exactly this kind of sentence structure that is subjective and open to a wide range of interpretation. What is he saying here? It isn't clear. When someone speaks in cryptic phrases, in order to understand him you must learn "deeper" things that only "he" can reveal. This, of course, can be dangerous as a person is lead down a theological rode that leads to an unknown place. "We are JUSTIFIED BY WORKS when we touch only the things of Jesus Christ that He has provided for our labour with Him; when we use only the tools of the covenant that represent Him. These works are provided for us to enter into His rest." (Reference moved by Eric.) Of course, the danger here is "Justification by works." Romans 5:1 says we are justified by faith and James 2 speaks of justification by works. But the latter reference is justification before man where the former, Romans 5:1, is dealing with justification before God. The "Apostle Eric" does not clarify this in his statement...another warning flag.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Introduction to testimonies I would like to now post the testimonies of two people who were a part of this group and fell into the teachings of this false apostle. You will see many things in these testimonies, inconsistencies, false teachings, evasiveness, and even dreams sent by the Holy Spirit. These testimonies are truly chilling. These testimonies are from John and Debbie Virshek and I obtained permission from them to use their testimonies for teaching and combating this false apostle and his wife. While I will be using their names I will omit names of their friends by their request.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The Testimony of John and Debbie Virshek This is our testimony of how we were deceived and how the Lord Jesus delivered us out from the lies we believed from the false apostle Eric (his websites are: www.second8thweek.com, ("university"), www.second8thweek.org, (Perfect faith through Apostles), www.researchoncults.org We will break our testimony down into 3 parts, starting September/October 2000, then into November/December 2000, then finally January/February/March 2001. We will be including in our testimony information about our friends, but not their names. We started doing the false teachings, through the Second 8th Week, with them and they are a part of our testimony. We live in the same town, we love them and consider them our friends, but we cannot fellowship with them anymore because they are deceived and leading others into deception as well. There also are other believers in our town that we know personally that have been deceived by the "apostle Eric" at the Second 8th Week. We love all these people and pray that they will come out of this deception, and be restored back to Jesus Christ. We would like to briefly explain our spiritual condition when we first started reading this false apostle’s doctrine. John: I had been saved for 4 months, and I really wanted to know the Lord. I read my Bible everyday. I prayed everyday. The Lord spoke to my heart. I know the Lord was with me, and the Holy Spirit was in me. But there was so much confusion in my life, from the church we went to, and in mine and Debbie’s marriage. All I knew was that Jesus was my Savior. In the church that we belonged to, I would ask questions about God, the Holy Spirit, etc. Our Pastor would give me books to read instead of telling me that all the answers I needed were in the Bible. So I learned to look elsewhere for God. I was learning to rely more on man than on God. So when this deception came along I was primed to be deceived, because I wasn’t relying on God alone. I wanted to learn about God, and I wanted God to fix a certain problem in my marriage. I didn’t know what it meant to “wait” on the Lord. What these false teachings provided for me was a quick fix. This so-called apostle seemed to “know” something, and I thought these false teachings were my answer. Having said this, I do not blame anyone, I take full responsibility for the path I chose to take. Debbie: I had been saved for 5 years. In 1999 I left my church where I had gone after my salvation. While there, the Lord had laid in my heart a solid foundation. I knew what the “truth” was; I knew the voice of my Shepherd. I left because of a personal disagreement between myself and the leadership of the church. I went to another church, and 1 year later John came to the Lord in May of 2000. John and I started to go street witnessing in a nearby town, and we were active in our church. Even though we were doing these “good” things for the Lord I did not feel like I was growing much. The Lord was also causing things to surface that were hidden in my heart, things that He wanted to heal. I was in bondage because of past sin, and I knew that it needed to be addressed. I really wanted to be free! But rather than fall on my face before the Lord, repent, and seek Him only, I started looking for relief from other people. I knew my answer was in the Lord and His Word, but I became impatient. I was open to this deception for many reasons. The biggest one I think is, I just wanted more of God and the devil was able to trick me for a time. September/October Everything started for us around September of 2000. At this time my best friend and sister in the Lord told me that she had found a website on the internet by a man who claimed to be an apostle. She gave me a few of his teachings, and told me how to get to his website (Second 8th Week). I (Debbie) went to his website, and I began to read. In the beginning I had a hard time understanding most of what this so-called apostle and his wife were teaching. I also had a feeling of something not being right, but they seemed so spiritual that I thought they knew something about God that I didn’t. At about this time I had given some teachings to John to read. We discussed them together with our friends. At this time we all expressed doubt that this man was an apostle, and agreed that his teachings were difficult to understand. We decided that we would check it out anyway, and see what would happen. We (J&D) thought, in the beginning, that this was only going to be a Bible study. Around the end of October we (J&D) decided that we would do Eric’s “elements of the gospel”. We and our friends decided that we would start meeting after church, on Sunday, to study these teachings together. We all enjoyed being together. Our families were good friends. We enjoyed fellowshipping together over lunch, and as we did these teachings. The funny part is that we would just get finished with church, and still be so hungry for the Lord, that we would spend all afternoon together doing these teachings. At first everything seemed ok, but as we continued this, every Sunday, some concerns started to arise. We still had a hard time with this man saying he was an apostle. But the way these people (Eric&Maria) wrote made them seem so spiritual, so we continued. This was the Holy Spirit warning us that something was wrong. We overrode these feelings, because of what we thought we were learning. This is when the Lord gave Debbie a dream (dreams & visions #1). When I told my friend about this dream, she didn’t have much to say about it. But we both did think it was an interesting dream. I tried to forget about it but I could not. Dream 1. This dream was given to Debbie when we started to do the elements of the gospel: I was in my kitchen baking, and Eric was sitting at the table talking to me. I could not understand any of the words he was using. I was trying to understand, and pretending that I could. He sounded nice, but when I looked at him, his eyes were very evil. As I looked into his eyes it scared me tremendously. After this dream the Lord reminded me of the scripture that says, “the eyes are the windows to the soul. This dream I (Debbie) could not stop thinking about. I (D) wanted to get to know Eric and Maria better. So I asked them some questions about themselves. They wouldn’t answer my questions. What they said was, “they didn’t want us to mold ourselves after them.” I thought this was a very strange answer. So I kept asking them to answer my questions. I wanted to know how big their church was, how many people were in their church, what they did for a living, etc. They finally answered; they told us they do not go to a church, that they have assemblies at their home. They told us there were 3 other people besides themselves, and they had been out of the church for 20 years. We thought this was very odd, that a so-called apostle hadn’t been to a church for 20 years, and only had 3 people listening to him. When we expressed our concern about him not being in the church and only having 3 followers, his answer was; God had been preparing him just like God prepared Paul. We accepted this answer. Another warning ignored!!! November/December It was about this time that my friend was having home groups (through our church) at her home. She was trying to bring some of Eric’s teachings into the Bible study. Some of the people expressed an interest in who this man was, and what he was teaching. At this time Eric and Maria said that they would like to come to our area to meet us, and do some teaching in person. The people in the home group found out that he was thinking about coming up here, and they said they would want to come and listen to what he had to say. When Eric and Maria found this out they said no one else could come, except those people who had been reading his teachings. He said that he didn’t want to answer any questions. This caused the people in the home group to be greatly concerned about what we were getting involved with. They even told my friend something was wrong with Eric if he was not willing to answer questions about what he was teaching. This was just another warning we all received, but ignored!!! I (D) now began to email them (Eric & Maria) on a regular basis, and whenever I could, I would be at their website reading. At this time 2 things were happening inside of me. Part of me liked what I was learning. I thought that I was learning things about God that I had never known before. The other part of me (the Holy Spirit warning me), felt uneasy, nervous, confused, and the two could not mix. While I thought that I was advancing in the Lord, in my knowledge of Him, I started to notice things in my heart and life that were not lining up with the foundation that Jesus had laid in my heart from the beginning of my salvation. I noticed that I was reading this so-called apostle’s doctrine more than my Bible. I knew this was not right!!! I was homeschooling at the time, and it was a struggle for me to focus on my children during school time. I was either reading their website, or emailing with them. My priorities were getting mixed up!!! I started to become critical about other believers. For instance, if they didn’t speak in tongues, they didn’t have the Holy Spirit and were not saved. I started to lose my love for the members of the Body of Christ. I started thinking our church was not under the right authority, because there was no apostle. The men of God that I enjoyed listening to on the radio (Chuck Swindol, David Jeremiah, Charles Stanley, etc.) were wrong too. When I would listen to the music on Christian radio, or one of my tapes, I felt like I was doing something wrong. You see, I was told by this false apostle that praise & worship music was not accepted by God. This brought confusion to me, because when a song would come on the radio, and I wanted to worship God, I would feel condemned because of what I was “learning” (brainwashed). At this time I expressed my feelings to my husband, and to my friend. I (John) felt nothing. I was so new in the Lord, and so ignorant to the ways of the Lord, that when the Holy Spirit had warned me, I had no idea what He was saying to me. I was being “fed”, and still thought I was learning about God. When I (D) told my friend that I was feeling uneasy, nervous, and confused, she told me that she had been feeling the same way, and also physically ill. She told me that she had emailed Eric & Maria, and told them how she was feeling. They (E&M) told her that there was a group of people in South Africa that were feeling the same way. They said it was only the church’s false doctrine being purged out of them, and us. We know now that this was the Holy Spirit warning us, and them. We again ignored these warnings!!! Something strange happened to me (D) at this time. I was standing behind John while he was emailing with Eric one evening. As I was reading with John, a shining, flickering object came off the computer screen. At first I thought something was wrong with my eyes. When I turned around I saw three more of these objects in different places in the room. I then told John and the kids, “I think I am seeing angels.” But my family did not see them. They all left but one. This one was on my left side, and everywhere I went, it followed me. It was a shiny, vertical form. At first I thought this was kind of neat, but then I started to feel very uncomfortable, and scared, because it would not leave me alone! After about 1/2 hour of this, I started to panic a little. So I prayed, “Lord if this from You, please make me not scared, but if it is not from You, take it away.” Immediately it was gone! John and I didn’t know what to think. I told my friend about this, and she said that she had seen similar things also. When I told Eric & Maria about this, Eric told me he sees these all the time, and that they are present at his assemblies. He said they were ministering spirits. I believed him! Another warning from the Lord that we ignored!!! We now began to give these teachings to our Pastor and people at church. We thought that the problems in our church could be solved by this so-called apostle’s doctrine. Our Pastor pretty much ignored what was given to him by my friend and by myself (D). He only took notice after John had given him a teaching. This is when things started to heat up. Our Pastor finally read through what was given to him. He expressed his concerns, and disapproval of these teachings. We asked him what was wrong. He pointed out a few specific things that were in error. The “not being saved unless you spoke in tongues,” and “having to be under a living apostle.” He also said, “there is something else wrong with these teachings but I don’t know what.” But at this time we (J&D) were already in deception and becoming brainwashed by this false doctrine. So we didn’t listen to our Pastor, and his discernment. Another warning from the Lord that we ignored!!! Another important event that happened is that Eric and Maria sent us (regular mail) some scripture cards. We were supposed to read these everyday along with his teachings. These were verses about apostles, and spiritual government, etc. On one of the cards was a verse from Genesis 5:24 about Enoch. We thought this was strange because it seemed to not belong with the other scriptures. When I asked about this I was told about Enoch, that he was such a righteous man, but not much else was said. So we just blew it off and didn’t think it was very important. But it was. We just wouldn’t find out why until later. January/February/March We had a New Years Eve party at our house. We invited friends from church, our Pastor, and their families. We played games and had a lot of fun. The next day we called and invited our Pastor over to our home to meet with us and our friends. We were going to try and convince him that this so-called apostle’s doctrine was of the Lord. We honestly believed that we would be able to persuade our Pastor that this was the route that the church should go. Our Pastor was set up! Before he came over we emailed Eric & Maria and told them about the meeting. We asked them, “What do we say to convince him?” They (E&M) told us what scriptures to take him to, what key words and phrases to use, i.e.; “grace and truth” and “pattern.” They told us to use these words when we talked with him. Before our Pastor came over for the meeting, he had emailed Eric and asked him a bunch of questions. Eric replied back to him. What our Pastor didn’t know is that Eric forwarded our Pastor’s letter to us with Eric’s answers. We knew in advance the questions and statements our Pastor would ask us, and Eric told us what to say. This was deceitful, dishonest and most definitely NOT of the Lord!The Bible says in 1John 2:21 “no lie is of the truth”. This was another warning we ignored!!! During the meeting our Pastor told us that if we were going to continue to pass out these teachings to people at church, that he would denounce these teachings, and us, from the pulpit. He also told us that he would be talking to the people we had given these false teachings to. He would tell them to get rid of them, and that they were not from the Lord. This was the end of our meeting. Even though we had a decision to make, to follow Eric, or to stay in the church, our minds were already made up. When we were not at church the following Sunday, people from church started to call because they were concerned about what was happening. I (D) found out that our Pastor had talked to my friend, and she was very upset, because he told her she was going to lose her soul if she continued with this false apostle. So I decided to call our Pastor myself. When I called him, he told me the same thing, “that I would lose my soul if I didn’t stop following these teachings.” This made me very upset. Because of the statement my Pastor had previously made, that “there is something wrong and I don’t know what it is,” I said to him, “ You cannot say that I will lose my soul if you can’t tell me why.” John then talked to our Pastor and told him that, “if we find out that this is wrong, we would come to him and tell him that we were wrong.” The statement our Pastor had said to me, about losing my soul, haunted me the entire time I was under this false apostle. The next thing that happened was that two men from our church wanted to meet with all of us at our friend’s house. They were going to try and address what was wrong with these teachings. So we met with them. One of the men quoted some scriptures that got us (J&D) to stop and think. When we got home we decided to put everything from Eric & Maria away for 2 weeks, and seek the Lord. That very night the Lord gave John a dream (dreams & visions #2). Because we interpreted this dream wrong, and had the wrong interpretation confirmed by the false apostle, we didn’t put everything away for 2 weeks like we said we would. We continued on. Another warning from the Lord that we ignored!!! Dream 2: This dream was given to John after we talked to our pastor and told him we would put away everything from Eric and Maria, and seek the Lord:I was walking through deep snow, struggling to make it to the road. Finally I made it to the road. The road was plowed and straight. I had my family with me. We were walking up the road to the mansion on top of the hill. From the left front, coming from out of the deep snow on to the path, came running a wolf with a radio collar on. My family said, “Oh! Look at the dog.” I said, “It is a wolf. You can tell by the radio collar”. It came running and bounding like it wanted to play. Then it ran past us back down the road. We all turned around to watch it as it jumped from the road to the snow playfully.We e-mailed this dream to Eric and Maria, they interpreted it to mean:The wolf was our pastor, and he was leading us away from God.Correct interpretation:Now we know that walking through the snow was me (John) before salvation. Coming on to the path was when I got saved. My family and I were on the straight and narrow path leading to the mansion, which is heaven. The wolf is Eric and his teachings. He turned us away from the mansion, to make us watch him and not watch God. Now we entered a new level of deception. We had separated ourselves from the “Body,” and we were accountable to no one but the false apostle. Instead of our time together with our friends being Bible study (even though we never studied out of the Bible) we were now having “assemblies.” Since our friend had been doing these false teachings the longest, Eric made her the Elder of our group. Eric told us that they have assemblies everyday. He said we should try to have them at least 3 or 4 times a week. As we began our so-called assemblies together, we started to try and indoctrinate our children with these false teachings. Our children really didn’t want to have anything to do with this. They did not understand anything this false apostle taught. We tried to explain to them about God wanting us to come to Him through the “contact points,” “tools of covenant,” “speaking in tongues,” etc. This brought confusion to our children.Jesus is not confusing to children.In Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, “let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for such is the Kingdom of heaven”. Another warning from the Lord!!! Even though we (J&D) were pretty much fully indoctrinated by now, I (D) could not get rid of the memory of my dream (#1), and what my Pastor had told me about losing my soul. I was finding it very hard to understand that we were the only ones that knew “the whole truth of God,” and that the entire Body of Christ was wrong. I kept telling myself and my husband that “if there was only 1 more person in this area that was doing this, I thought I would be ok.” My feelings of isolation were growing stronger. I couldn’t fellowship with my friends from church anymore. I also had no connection in the spirit with Eric or Maria, like I had with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. We rationalized this as, “we had not met them face to face yet.” Because we were so deceived and we thought we were gaining such great knowledge about God, we continued to ignore the warnings of the Holy Spirit. By this time, in our assemblies, we were not singing to the Lord anymore because we were taught this was not a contact point with God. So I begged my friend to ask Eric and Maria if we could have music in our “assembly” because I missed singing to the Lord. They (E&M) told us it was ok to have a couple songs, because now we had the correct truth laid in our heart by the apostle, and we knew the “right” way to come to God. We started noticing more references to the books of Enoch in Eric’s false doctrine. When we asked about this, we were told that these were missing books of the Bible. We were told that they were inspired just like the Bible. This bothered us but we figured we would just ignore the Enoch parts. Another warning ignored!!! By this time we were having our assemblies on a regular basis. John and our friends all seemed to be doing great with this false doctrine, but I (D) continued to have problems. I couldn’t quite put myself totally under Eric, and I still didn’t feel right about how we left our church. I was having a real hard time ignoring the warnings the Holy Spirit was giving us! I was so deceived that I didn’t understand what God was trying to tell me. By this time I was almost totally convinced that Eric was an apostle, and I believed that if I walked away from Eric, I would be walking away from God. We know now that this was part of what they were teaching, that without Eric’s false doctrine we couldn’t be with God. I was confused! I loved Jesus with all my heart and only wanted to go wherever He wanted me to go. 1 Cor. 14:33 reads, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” At this time, 2 of this false apostle,s followers, who also lived in Port Huron, broke into Eric and Maria’s house and stole their computer. When we were told this, we couldn’t believe it! These men had studied under this false apostle for 4 years. Eric had laid hands on them and confirmed them in their callings, “prophet,” and “teacher.” We thought, “How strange, this doesn’t make sense.” How could they steal from “the apostle?” What had they been taught, to be comfortable enough to steal? We thought they were so spiritual, and then to do something so obviously wrong. We asked Eric and Maria what had happened? They told us that these 2 men wanted to come up here to our town to teach us. Eric told them they could not come up here. They got mad and stole the computer, so that Eric and Maria could not communicate with us. This action did not stop them, or us. Another warning from the Lord!!! Around the beginning of February 2001, my friend received a teaching from Maria called “The Baptism of Light.” My friend told me this teaching was about heaven. Maria told her not to let anyone read it that was “faint of heart.” When she told me about this, I got a real creepy feeling, (Holy Spirit). I told her that I wasn’t ready to read it yet; I told her I felt afraid. February 10th: Eric called me (John) on the phone and taught me about suffering for the Lord. He talked to me for about 2 hours. He was very “to the point” about everything, no chit chat. I felt no spiritual connection with him. February 16th: The Lord gave John a dream (dreams & visions #3). Dream 3: I dreamt about Eric and Maria, walking around me, interrogating me. I was very conscience of the fact that they were interrogating, not asking questions. I did not send this dream to Eric and Maria for interpretation. February 20th: Our friend was getting ready to go to Florida, and we were going to have our last assembly before she left. We really didn’t have anything planned so she asked us if we all wanted to do “The Baptism of Light.” We agreed. This teaching was about heaven, and how when we die we will go back INTO God, and become gods. Eric said this was the 3rd covenant, or baptism of light. Eric teaches that we will have creative powers to create new worlds etc. He also says that the mansions Jesus spoke of in John 14:2 are not places Jesus is preparing for us, but that they are rooms INSIDE of God Himself, and this is where we will enter INTO. This is what Eric teaches the 3rd covenant is: WE BECOME GOD! This was the turning point for me (D). After we left our friend’s home that night I could not shake the creepy feeling I had again. Just like when my friend told me about this teaching a few weeks previously. Eric’s teaching made heaven seem dark to me. I had never been afraid of heaven before. I always knew heaven was the place where I would see Jesus face to face, and get to be with Him forever. I looked forward to seeing my saved family and friends. I knew there would be no more tears and a place of pure joy. Now I was afraid to go there????? I didn’t want to create anything; that was Gods job, not mine. I knew this was not right! This man Eric claims that because he is an apostle of God, God gives him special knowledge. He said God showed him what the 3rd covenant was and how we would operate in it. What happened next I describe as “the Holy Spirit rising up within me.” God was opening my eyes to this evil doctrine. The next day before my friend left for Florida, I told her that something was going to happen while she was gone. I didn’t know why I said that. I just had a feeling (the Holy Spirit). The same day that our friend left, Eric called John and did another study with him. Maria also contacted me (D) and asked me if I would like to talk to a new person who was starting to study “the apostle’s doctrine.” She thought it would be good for me because then I would have someone to fellowship with while my friend was gone. I thought it was strange that Maria herself would not want to fellowship with me, and that she would want me to help teach someone new when I was the doubter of our group from the beginning! I agreed to email this woman; her name was Valerie. As God was opening my eyes, I knew something was wrong so I decided to go back to Eric’s website and look at things again. While I was reading, the Lord had things jump off the page at me; things Eric was teaching that I had never noticed before, even though I had already read them. First I noticed how Eric took many scriptures from the book of Isaiah, and said they were about him. I knew these scriptures were Messianic prophecies about Jesus Christ, not Eric! I noticed in his testimony where he talks of a bearded man who appeared to him. Eric says this was Enoch. I began to ask Eric questions about these things. I told him how those scriptures in Isaiah were about Jesus, not him. Eric’s reply was that those scriptures were also meant for the apostles. I asked him if he had tested that spirit of Enoch that came to him in his room. According to 1John we are to test the spirits. Any spirit that does not confess Jesus is God in the flesh is not from God. This spirit did not confess Jesus Christ. It told Eric he was the “deliverance one.” Eric’s answer to this was that if Moses and Elisha could visit Jesus, then Enoch could visit him. I started to tell John that something was really wrong with what we were doing. I told him I was emailing Eric with questions about who he was claiming to be. I told John about the scriptures Eric was claiming were about him. I told John that Eric was giving me the run around when he wrote back to me, and was not really answering my questions. At this same time, Valerie (the woman I was supposed to be teaching) emailed me with a question. She asked me if I was feeling strange about Eric’s teachings. She also said she felt like something was wrong but she didn’t know what! Well this was getting to be a pretty common phrase by now. It seemed everyone that came in contact with this so-called apostle had the same check in their spirit. I knew this was the Lord speaking through Valerie to me, and I was not going to ignore His warnings anymore. February 22nd: The Lord now began to open John’s eyes. This night John and I (D) were praying before bed. The Lord gave John a vision, (dreams & visions #4a). We talked about this vision, and we knew we were the metal and God was the forge. He was tempering (strengthening) us for the battle to come! That same night the Lord gave John a dream, (dreams & visions #4b). This dream got John’s full attention!!!! He (J) emailed this dream to Eric and Maria for interpretation. They said that it was just the “church system” being cleansed from him (J). We were very suspicious of their answer because we knew that this dream was about them. By their lack of answer, it proved to both of us (J&D) that this dream WAS about them. Dream 4a: When Debbie and I were praying before bed, I got a vision of a forge, with metal being put into it.Interpretation:We knew that we were the metal, and God was the forge. He was tempering (strengthening) us. Dream 4b: We, (Debbie and I) were in a basement of a huge building. We met a group of people who wanted me to sit in a mud puddle, to wait for, and to worship God. I did. I told them that this was stupid. They got mad. We left. Then we were sitting at a long table with a bunch of other people. The table and chairs were short, like kindergarten furniture. We were waiting to see someone, but it all hinged upon a test we were to take. This woman passed out the test and she was very mean to me (abrasive). So I leaned forward in my chair and, with it being so small, my foot went out behind the chair. I knew that I was trying to trip this woman, and I kind of did. I read the first question on the test. It asked: “What importance do you place on a ouiji board in your life, 1-10?” I asked, “One being the least and ten being the greatest?” The woman started to whip me, very violently, with a wooden pointer stick. I said, “To answer your question, ZERO IMPORTANCE IN MY LIFE.” I got up, and she continued to whip me. I took the pointer from her and broke it. I started to look for Debbie, and I couldn’t find her. Everybody was running around at this time and there was a lot of confusion. I knew Debbie was around the corner, but I couldn’t get there. There was a feeling of incredible evil that was coming our way, and getting stronger. I woke up. The feeling of evil was so strong that I started praying, and I went and checked and prayed over all of our children. I went back to bed and prayed over Debbie, until the feeling of fear and evil went away. I slept poorly all night. I e-mailed this dream to Eric and Maria. Maria wrote back. She didn’t have a lot to say, except that "it was just more of the church being cleansed from me.” By this dream, the Lord got my attention! Correct interpretation:Sitting in the mud = my spiritual state before the so-called apostle's doctrine. The small table and chairs = I was a baby in the Lord, I had been saved for only 9 months, and 3 of those months were under them (Eric and Maria). The woman giving the test = This was Maria. Her being abrasive to me = Lack of love from them (Eric and Maria). Me tripping her = Starting to realize something was wrong. The question about the ouiji board = The so-called apostle's false doctrine. Standing up and breaking the stick = Breaking out from under their control and false teachings. Not being able to find Debbie = Debbie was already questioning them and was almost totally convinced that they were wrong. The evil coming = Satan is the author of these teachings. The Lord was showing us what was to come if we did not get out!


Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The testimony of John and Debbie Virshek cont. After Valerie’s email to me about how she was feeling, I noticed that I felt an immediate connection with her. I knew she was my sister in the Lord and I had never seen her. This was something I never felt with Eric or Maria, and had thought was because I hadn’t met them face to face yet. Well, I couldn’t use that excuse any longer. Valerie told me she was going to pray and seek the Lord about Eric & Maria. She said she recognized the feeling of something not being right, and that the Lord would show her if she sought Him. She said she would contact us when she had an answer. Meanwhile I (D) continued to ask Eric questions. I saw on his website in his teaching called “apostles separation and cleansing” that he said if there were other apostles in the world they would have to come to him (Eric) for cleansing. He compared himself to Moses; that just as God used one man to cleanse the people then, God is going to do the same now. Eric was claiming to be that man, because he said the “church” is in darkness and needs cleansing from a living apostle. I knew this was wrong!!!I also saw something else Eric said about this so-called Enoch that visited him. Eric claims that Enoch is an angel now in heaven, and his name is Metitron. He has 70 eyes and 70 wings. This was not only wrong, but just plain strange! Eric still didn’t answer any of my questions with straight forward answers; they were always very wordy. February 25th: The Lord gave John a dream (dreams & visions #5). Dream 5: John had a dream that he was in a rock pile, picking through the rocks. The rocks represented truth, and trying to find truth. A lot of rocks looked like truth, but were not. It was frustrating because the rocks were so similar. This dream explains itself, and shows the confusion that we were in. The emails continued between Debbie and Eric. Now Eric told me I was asking all my questions out of fear and not for the purpose of learning. I told him, “You bet I am asking out of fear, as what I am discovering about you is frightening me.” I was now begging Eric to please answer my questions with simple answers, but he wouldn’t. You see, I didn’t want to believe the worst about him; and he was making me feel like I was confused, and misunderstanding him. He told me that satan was getting into my head and giving me these fears, and that I needed to put scriptures around my house to keep satan out. I did not do this. Even though I was confused (spiritually), I was not confused about what God was showing me about Eric’s false doctrine. In my spiritual confusion, I decided I could not follow Eric & Maria anymore. I told John that I was done, that they were not from Jesus, and I had to stop! John was not yet convinced. March 1st: Valerie sent us an urgent email. She said that our souls were in great peril, and she wanted to talk to us on the phone. When she called she said we were dealing with “luciferic evil,” and said that Eric’s teachings were “convoluted,” meaning truth covering many lies. She found out that Metitron was part of ancient Jewish mysticism (the 3rd book of Enoch). This was where Eric got his information about Enoch being an angel. At this time I (J) was convinced that Eric was wrong and had deceived us. All I could think about was going over to our friend’s house to warn him about what we were being taught. Right after Valerie’s phone call Debbie and I went to our friend’s house to talk to him (his wife was still in Florida). We told him what we were discovering about Eric, about who and what he was claiming to be, and about what he was teaching. Our friend did not know what to think. After we got home we went online to try and find out about Metitron. What we found was frightening and very evil, and some of what we found was in line with Eric’s “Baptism of Light” teaching. March 2nd: We emailed Eric with some very specific questions. We asked him to answer us very simply, with yes or no answers. He gave very confusing answers that went around our questions. He accused us again of asking these questions out of fear. I (D) then asked him, “if I decide not to follow you anymore, would I be walking away from God?” He told me that I would be walking away from the “grace and truth” of God. He also said, “What about everything you have learned? How can you deny that God was with you while you were learning from the truth I have shown you?” God was with us the whole time, protecting us and guiding us out!!! They then told us we were not welcome to contact them anymore, and they blocked our emails. We were out! I (D) went upstairs to pray. Even though I knew Eric was wrong, I was still confused. I was thinking that Eric had made a good point when he told me that God was with me while I was learning his “doctrine.” I was confused; was he or was he not an apostle? I was thinking because of all the things we had been “learning” that God was showing us that Eric was an apostle. As I was praying to the Lord about this, He gave me this word:“I do not give you more of Me to confirm a man, I give you more of Me to confirm Myself.”I wrote this down in my Bible; I knew this was truth! John called our friend and read to him the emails between Eric and us. At first he didn’t see anything wrong with them. We were very concerned about him! March 4th: We met on Sunday with our friend. He said to us that he felt the Lord told him to read the entire book of 1 John. He also said the Lord told him “to learn more.” He told us that he knew it meant to learn more about Eric & Maria, not to learn more about the false apostle’s doctrine. As we continued discussing this false doctrine, his eyes were being opened and he seemed convinced that these teachings were wrong. He then said, “My family will have nothing to do with this anymore.” He said that when he got home he was going to disable their computer and leave a note on it, so that when his wife got home, she would not be able to contact Eric & Maria. March 6th: Our friend came home from Florida. We met her at her house shortly after she arrived. We told her all that we had found out about Eric & Maria, and the false doctrine he was teaching. We showed her the scriptures that Eric claimed were about him. We told her what Eric and Maria believed about Enoch being Metitron, and all the emails back and forth, and how they blocked us from contacting them. We discussed these things with her for most of the afternoon. She was bothered by all that we told her, and she said that it didn’t sound very good. She told us that her husband left her a note on the computer telling her that she was not allowed to have any contact with Eric & Maria. We went home rejoicing that our friends were going to get out of this deception also. March 7th: I (D) had talked to my friend on the phone and her whole attitude had completely changed. She agreed that what we had explained to her about this false doctrine was wrong. She told me that they were going to continue to study under Eric anyway, because of the peace that they had, and because they didn’t want to stop learning. They wanted to finish doing the “elements of the gospel.” She also said that it didn’t matter if some of what he taught was wrong, because the “elements” were so truthful. I was very upset by this, because I thought she was going to come out of this deception with us. She was my best friend. I looked up to her as my sister in the Lord, and I didn’t understand why she was going to continue with this false doctrine. I was devastated! I didn’t know what was right or wrong. Now I was even more confused. At this time, the Lord let me (D) see how far away I was from Him. It was as if there was a big gulf between me and Jesus. I felt like I was drifting away from Him and I didn’t know how to get back. In my almost 7 years of knowing Jesus, I had never experienced this type of spiritual feeling. This feeling frightened me beyond words. I was having a hard time hearing the voice of my shepherd, a strange voice was now there, one I did not know! I had been crying, and crying out to the Lord. I was asking Jesus, “What is happening to me? What is the truth? How did I get to this place I am in?” I asked Him to show me exactly what I had done wrong. My Lord then gave me a scripture in Jeremiah 2:20-22 (dreams & visions #6). I knew this was for me. I knew this was my answer, and it cut right through my heart. I didn’t know what to do with it. I felt like my sin before God was so great. I thought, how could I be restored! I kept this to myself for almost a week, because I didn’t know if Eric was the “noble vine, and seed of highest quality” or if it was Jesus. That night as we were praying the Lord gave John a vision (dreams & visions #7). Dream 6: The Lord gave Debbie a scripture in the first week of March, 2001: I pleaded with God to show me what was wrong and this is what He said: Jeremiah 2: 20-22. “For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, ‘ I will not transgress,’ when on every hill and under every green tree you lay down, playing the harlot. 21. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? 22. For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before Me,” says the Lord God. I knew this scripture was from the Lord, but was so confused at that time that I didn’t know if the noble vine, and seed of highest quality was Eric or Jesus Christ. NOW I KNOW ONLY JESUS CHRIST IS THE NOBLE VINE AND SEED OF HIGHEST QUALITY!!!! Eric and his false doctrine are the degenerate plant, satan is the alien vine. Dream 7: This is a vision the Lord gave John on the evening of March 7, 2001: I saw a bear in a barrel bear trap. It was sticking its claw out. I was thinking that if someone put their finger under the claw that the whole bear was still behind that claw. Because the bear is in the cage, and you can’t see it, you really don’t know how dangerous it is. It can still tear you apart, piece by piece, with that one claw. Interpretation: We only saw a part of the false teachings, and we know what that part did to us spiritually. What we had not seen was more dangerous than what we had already come in contact with. March 8th: I (D) was still very confused, and doubting everything. I called my friend again to try and convince her to stop. She told me that I was overreacting, and that Eric’s doctrine was not that bad. I got off the phone very upset. We both went to Eric & Maria’s website and discovered that they had removed specific parts off of “Apostles Separation & Cleansing.” They had taken the part out about Enoch being Metitron, with 70 eyes, and 70 wings. They also changed other parts of their website. We knew that Eric changed these things because we had confronted him about them. There are only 2 reasons for them to remove or change parts of their website. 1. They realized they were in doctrinal error,or 2. They were hiding the parts that people were questioning. We know that they were hiding things because they never believed that they were in error. March 10th: I finally told John about the scripture the Lord gave me in Jeremiah 2:20-22, and how I felt that I couldn’t come back to the Lord. John reminded me of the blood of Jesus. John asked me if I had read a little further in Jeremiah. He then read to me from Jeremiah 3:12-13; this was a great comfort to me. I then remembered that Jesus Christ is the noble vine, and not Eric. So I acknowledged my sin to the Lord, of leaving Him to follow another voice. The Lord then reminded me of the very basis of my salvation.I knew Jesus died on the cross for me - this is truthI knew His blood covered all my sins - this is truthI knew that because I believed these truths, that the Holy Spirit was inside me - this is truthI knew He promised He would never leave or forsake me - this is truth THE CONFUSION LEFT! March 12th: The Lord gave John another dream (dreams & visions #8). Dream 8: I was in a house, in the only lit corner with a father and his son. It was dark out. Evil was trying to get in the window, and coming out of the shadows trying to get into the light that we were in. We were very afraid. I was not going to let the evil get to us. So to protect us I sat in the corner with the father and son in front of me. Interpretation: Instead of me protecting the father and son, The Father and The Son were protecting me! They had me in the light! The enemy (Eric’s false doctrine) couldn’t enter the light anymore! March 13th: We went to our friends’ house to try and convince them again about everything that was wrong with Eric’s teachings. We were not successful! They were going to continue! We went home very sad, and not sure what we were going to do next. March 14th: We were talking about everything that had happened in the past 2 weeks. All the questions we had asked Eric, and all the answers he gave us. We didn’t understand why he got so angry and why it was so wrong to ask questions out of fear. We wondered what we had done that was so bad, that he would block us from communicating with them. We were still confused. Was he or was he not an apostle? Then the Lord spoke words into John’s heart; Jesus loves us, and would never tell us to leave or kick us out because we were asking questions or were afraid. God is love, understanding, and longsuffering towards us. This word from God greatly comforted us and took away the confusion about who Eric claims to be. He is not a true apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord had now delivered us from the hold that this deception had over us, and He put us on the path that has led us to where we are now. ALL PRAISE, GLORY, AND HONOR TO HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE. Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!! What We Learned From This experience From the beginning of our deception with the "apostle Eric", (his website's are: www.second8thweek.com "University", www.second8thweek.org "Perfect Faith Through Apostles", www.researchoncults.org), and up to the present time the Lord has taught us many things. The things He has taught us were not meant just for us, He wants us to share them with you. 1. Stay in the Bible. There are no answers to any of life’s questions or problems outside of the Word of God. If you are jumping from book to book, speaker to speaker, church to church, prophecy to prophecy, if you are looking to anyone or anything else for answers, besides Jesus and the Word of God, you will be deceived. We want to say that it’s ok to read Christian books, listen to speakers, visit other churches etc... do so with discernment, and never rely more on man than on God. Do not believe or accept everything anyone tells you about God. We are not saying this to cause you to be paranoid, just to be cautious. Ask yourself this question: If all I had was my Bible, and the Holy Spirit inside me, would that be enough for me to have a relationship with God? If your answer is yes, Praise the Lord. If your answer is no, you need to come back to your “First Love, Jesus Christ.” 2. If you are born again you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. He will warn you immediately of anything not from God. It is very important to know the voice of God, and how He speaks to us individually, and corporately. Again, stay in the Word. Example: In our testimony when we said “another warning from the Holy Spirit we ignored,” we did not realize at the time that the Holy Spirit was warning us. We were not discerning the voice of the Lord because of the deception that we were in. We were reading and studying more of Eric’s false teachings than we were our Bible. We were out of the will of God. In His mercy He continued to warn us. So when you get a “check” in your spirit and you’re discerning that something is not right, pay attention. Stop and seek the Lord. Ask Him to show you what is wrong. Sometimes He will show right away. Sometimes He just wants you to stop and listen to Him. The Lord wants us to obey HIM, not to follow your friends or family to a place where the Lord does not want you. There is safety in numbers. If you have questions about a teaching, a speaker, a book, etc... ask your Pastor, ask the Elders, ask your brothers and sisters in the Lord. That is how the Body of Christ works. Above all, everything and everyone that you associate yourself with spiritually must line up with the Word of God!!! 3. If you are dry, discontented, discouraged, lukewarm, or hurt by the church etc., instead of blaming the church, or people in the church for how you are feeling, look at yourself. Are you reading your Bible everyday? Are you praying everyday? Are you worshipping the Lord everyday? Have you submitted yourself to Jesus? Please do not start looking in other places. Seek the Lord, and stay in the Word. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” God WILL answer you, and fill your heart with Himself as you wait on Him. Think of the word wait as serving. So when you wait on the Lord you are serving the Lord and others. No matter how much you don’t want to go to church, you need to go. Pray and read your Bible, don't stop doing these things. The Lord may want you to learn something, and He will not keep you there forever. You WILL come out on the other side. With this said, you need to ask yourself these questions: If the Lord never answered another one of my prayers, would He still be worthy of my praise and worship? Was His death on the cross for my sins enough for me? 4. Beware of anyone who says they have some new revelation about God. Do not listen to them. There is no new revelation from God outside of His Word. He does reveal Himself to us through His word. But what the Lord reveals to me from His Word, may not be for you, and vice versa. Know the Word so you can discern what people are teaching or saying about God. 5. Do not forsake the fellowship of the Body of Christ. If you are being told that you do not need to be in church, or that the church is wrong. This is error! If you are isolated from the “Body” you are easy pickings for the devil. The Bible tells us we need to be in church. The Bible uses the word church some 114 times, and 96 references are clearly to the local church. Here are some names and titles given to the church: A. The Israel of God (Gal 6:16) B. The Pillar and Ground of Truth (1Tim 3:15) C. The Family of God (Eph 3:14-15) D. The Body of Christ (Eph 1:20-23) E. The Bride of Christ (Eph 5: 28-32) (Rev 19:6-9) F. The House of the Lord (Heb 3:1-4) G. The Temple of God (Eph 2:21-22) 6. If someone tells you that only “they” can interpret the “mystery of the Bible” and the Holy Spirit does not teach us, only “they” can teach us, this is in clear contradiction of Scripture. The Holy Spirit was sent as our comforter, and leader into all truth. He is our personal teacher of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit confirms only Jesus Christ, never another person, no matter who they claim to be. Read the book of John, chapter 14. 7. There is a movement now in the church that says, God is restoring the 5 fold ministry, with apostles and prophets leading. This teaching is in error. The five fold ministry has never stopped operating. The people who are promoting this are setting themselves up as self appointed apostles and prophets to rule the church. We are all to submit one to another, not some type of pyramid system. (Eph 4:11-13) 

 

6. The false apostle Eric vonAnderseck and his false Metatron teaching

Eric vonAnderseck, who founded Second 8th Week Apostolic Institute of Theology and then awarded himself a doctorate from the same school, teaches bizarre things from uninspired and heretical sources.

One of these lessons is about an angel that God never mentions in Scripture. The angel is called Metatron.

Scripture does not say much about Enoch the most well known verse is Genesis 5:24 "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” I suppose that the first thing that comes to mind is why would God turn Enoch into an angel?
Angels were created to serve God and men. The writer of Hebrews wrote, "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" So we must ask ourselves why God would walk with Enoch, take Enoch from earth (Enoch did not die.) and then make him an angel, which is lower than the man he was? Men are made in God's image and there is nothing that indicates that angels are made in God's image, why would God recreate Enoch into an image not His own?

The story of Metatron is a product of the occult, Islamic myth and Jewish myth. There are two prevalent myths about Metatron, the one Eric vonAnderseck teaches is that Enoch (Genesis 5) was transformed into the angel Metatron and was given the position of the scribe of Heaven. The origins of the story are what must cause those with discernment to be concerned Eric’s teachings and to question Eric vonAnderseck's claim that he is an apostle and a credible Christian teacher. This should also make the follower of the Living God wonder about the credibility of the Second 8th Week schools, it's teachers and it's students. The story about Metatron has its beginnings in the books of Enoch and the heretical Babylonian Talmud. The books of Enoch are Old Testament Apocryphal books that are not considered by most Christians to be books that were inspired by the Holy Spirit and they are not included in either the Hebrew or most Christian biblical canons. Their origins are unknown and their biggest claim to fame is that they were possibly quoted from in the New Testament book of Jude. (There is similar wording in the book of Jude and in the book of Enoch, but there is enough difference that there is doubt that Jude actually quoted from the book.) Other than than the theory that Jude quoted from them, there is no other reason to think the book of Enoch was an inspired writing. Some things that the books say are so bad, Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai in the second century A.D. pronounced a curse upon those who believed it. Similar language also came from early Christians.

How do we know the Holy Spirit did not inspire the books of Enoch? Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would testify about Him. Jesus also said that no person goes to the Father except through Him. From what Jesus has taught us we know that anything that deviates from His truth is not from Him. Here are a couple of verses from Enoch that proves it is an unreliable source fro truth.

Enoch 40:9- "...seen and whose words I have heard and written down?’ And he said to me: ‘This first is Michael, the merciful and long-suffering: and the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, is Raphael: and the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel: and the fourth, who is set over the repentance unto hope of those who inherit eternal life, is named Phanuel."

Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And yet the writer of Enoch (The actual author is unknown.) states that there is an "angel" who is for that purpose. 

For those who love Christ this one heresy by itself should be proof enough. But there is more and I’ll give one more example.

Enoch 48:1-3 "1 And in that place I saw the fountain of righteousness Which was inexhaustible: And around it were many fountains of wisdom: And all the thirsty drank of them, And were filled with wisdom, And their dwellings were with the righteous and holy and elect. 2 And at that hour that Son of Man was named In the presence of the Lord of Spirits, And his name before the Head of Days. 3 Yea, before the sun and the signs were created, Before the stars of the heaven were made, His name was named before the Lord of Spirits."

“Revelation 1:8. John 1:1-5; 10-14. Jesus is eternal. But he was named? Things with a new life are named. God, who has no beginning and no end, was not named "God" one day. Why would Jesus, who is also eternal, suddenly be named? Head of Days is not found in the Bible. And besides, if the Word was with God, and was God, how can He be in God's presence to be named? "God was in God's presence...to name himself" It doesn't make sense. John and Enoch don't mesh.” (Is it possible that the information in the book of Enoch is accurate and is acceptable for us to believe in the Lord's sight?)

The second source of information about Metatron is the Babylonian Talmud. I will only say this source of information is heretical and dangerous. I’ll just give a couple of quotes to illustrate.
Sanhedrin 55b:
"A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition."
"and if her deceased husbands brother cohabits with her she becomes his."
The penalty of adultery may be incurred through her if a niddah (bleeding or menstration) she defiles him who has a connection with her."
(ShirleyM - Note it is the bleeding part that defiles not the age of the child.)
Sanhedran 101ab says that Jesus fornicated with his jackass.
http://talmudblasphemy.com/talmud_tidbits.html

This is all any Christ follower needs to know about the Talmud. There are much worse things than this in it. (Thanks to ShirleyM for the Talmud education.)

The credibility of any thing that is taught is founded on the source it comes from. What Eric vonAnderseck teaches at his Second 8th Week schools, about Enoch, comes from sources that no Christian scholar would view as credible, inspired by God or a source of truth. Eric’s use of this material, to teach doctrine from, is just more reason to view him with extreme caution and to run for your eternal life from him.

 

7. More comments by Debbie Virshek taken from End Times Prophetic Words

(This comment was copied from the End Times Prophetic Word Blog. It is an outstanding blog and it is worth the effort to check it out.)

Hi everyone!

I went to sleep last night thinking about second 8th week. Like I said in my previous post that there is alot of things I could write, and as I think of them and have the time I will.

A few things I remembered last night:

First, in Eric’s account of his pre-birth existence, there are obviously many things wrong with it but one thing that not too many people know is that he changed his order in line from 7 to 10. I dont know why he did that but he most certainly did. Up until a couple of years ago he was always the 7th in line then all of a sudden he was 10th. Maybe it was a slip of the pen but he has not changed it back yet. Don’t you think that if someone had such a great revelation as a pre-birth existence they would at least remember where they were in line? And anyone out there in his group for longer than say 3 years, you know I am telling the truth, but. It may seem like a trivial matter but I do not believe that it is. We have caught Eric and those in his group in numerous lies, it just goes to show that they are not of the God of the Bible nor the Jesus of the Bible because no deceit comes from God.

Second, something else not very many people know about. During the first couple of years of our website (it went up in 2002) we really tried to expose eric any way we could for the false apostle that he is, with the hope of help those in his group. We put up on our website many of his teachings and how they do not line up with the 66 books of the Bible. One thing we noticed was his testimony, not the one he has up now, but his original testimony. In it in his account of his salvation experiance nowhere was Jesus mentioned AT ALL. He talked about God, and being up on a hill, and seeing the wind come, and speaking in other tongues, and hearing a voice, but no where was Jesus mentioned nor him repenting of his sins…..nothing. So we put this up on our website, and erics responce was that the apostle paul told different accounts of his salvation experience, and we said yes he did but paul NEVER forgot to tell of Jesus nor leave Him out. The next thing we knew was that eric took down his testimony and put up the one he has now, and he added Jesus all over the place in his new testimony…..he is quite the deceiver. The majority of people wouldnt know that but it is very important to know. Also in his original testimony he mentioned hearing a voice and when we confronted him if that voice acknowledged Jesus Christ coming in the flesh as 1 John teaches he said he didnt have to because he is an apostle and he knows truth from error. In his new testimony, I believe he now says that it was Jesus talking to him.

These are just a few more things for people to ponder. If anyone reading this is thinking about or has been studying with eric or any of his false apostles for less than 6 months, GET OUT NOW YOUR SOUL IS AT STAKE! Do not listen to the warm fuzzy feeling you are having or the knowledge you think you are gaining. Listen to the warnings you are getting from the Holy Spirit (if you are a Christian). Because all the knowledge and good feelings will not save your soul only Jesus Christ and His shed blood for your sins can…..nothing else no other person.

In the mighty name of Jesus
Debbie Virshek
conquering love

 

8. Another interesting comment from a person who attended one of the false apostle Eric's lessons and was made ill by it.

(This comment was also copied from the End Times Prophetic Word Blog. As I wrote before it is an outstanding blog and it is worth the effort to check it out.)

I know this is an old post, but the group is growing by leeps and bounds. I know, I went through the first two orientation sets and attended one assembly on line before I realized what I had gotten into and withdrew from the school and broke all associations with them.

They are such nice people and believe truly down deep that they are right, however, what I experienced made me realize that their teaching is a little out there. My first assembly I spent a lot of time trying to keep up, teaching out of the book of Adam and Eve (I had no idea there was such a book). They went on and on and the typing in the chat column was distracting with all sorts of what looked okay for writing and seemed to be uplifting but before I knew it I was not paying attention to what JoAnne was saying and got physically sick, so I believe something was released in her words. After taking a couple of days to really pray, I felt that this was not the place for me. The emphysis on knowledge made me feel like was sitting in a scientologist room, although I had never been in one, that is what came to mind. I had to fight to get my own mind back after just two orientations and one assembly. It is not worth it. I know they believe they have the words of truth, but I did not hear anything any deeper than the commercialization of the churches, which I completely agree with. There is a lot of abuse in the church and leaders have failed their people by not staying before God, teaching Grace and bringing people to the knowledge of you need a savior every day, not just that one time. However, their teaching that only their tools are acceptable when ministering before the Lord, made me question especially when they wanted you to empty yourself of all you accept now and accept only those tools that you are dangling without until orientation is overwith and you move into their specific teachings. I could not do it and when I renounced it and left the school, my joy in the Lord returned, my Faith was restored and I know that I know what I have believed before then and what I believe now is the truth. I am going to stick with my pastor and the Holy Spirit from now on. Too much deception in the church and now on the internet.

Like I said these are likeable people, however, satan will come as an angel of light and probably be very likeable.

I will say this one last thing, anyone who is in it or considering it, remember this, all that glitters is not gold. It is not all you are told or think it is.

Signed a repented heart who is back under the waterfall of God’s Grace. I will never leave it again.

Comment by Hopeabounds | February 11, 2009

 

9. Links to web pages that expose the false teachings of Eric vonAnderseck and his Second 8th Week schools

1. Why write about the "Apostle Eric" vonAnderseck?

2. Eric Von Anderseck’s Mind Bending Second8thweek Group

3. Eric VonAnderseck & Joanne Cremer of Second8thweek ministries

4. Gene Keys Myspace Page

5. Eric, Maria vonAnderseck and the Second 8th Week Ministries, Inc.

6. Q & A: What About The Second 8th Week?

7. The False Apostle Eric Von Anderseck

   # The False Apostle Eric pt.2

   # What Does This False Apostle Teach?

   # Introduction to testimonies

   # The Testimony of John and Debbie Virshek

   # The testimony of John and Debbie Virshek cont.

8. Second 8th Week Ministries :( 

   Part 2 - Exposing the False Teachings

   Part 3 - how I heard about this "ministry"

   Part 4 - First impressions of her

   Part 5 - Correspondence with JoAnne Cremer

   Part 6 - Confrontation

   Part 7 - More reactions

   Part 8 - the final part

9. Thirty attack points from the "Apostle Eric" answered: 1-10 

   Thirty attack points from the "Apostle Eric" answered: 11-20

  Thirty attack points from the "Apostle Eric" answered: 21-30

10. How to Have Perfect Faith

11. Another False Apostle : Eric vonAnderseck By R.S. Neaville

12. Second 8th Week Ministries - A Warning

 

10. Is the false teacher Eric vonAnderseck correct about apostolic governance?
apostle Eric vonAnderseck writes in his article "Apostolic Stewardship Over the Church" "The Bible also tells us that it is through living apostles that Jesus provides Himself as a spiritual covering for all who believe in Him. Are you without the spiritual covering of our Lord Jesus Christ? Does your faith fall short of His glory? Are you confused and your spiritual growth stunted? Then we invite you to come into covenant with God by the stewardship of this ministry."

I can find no scriptural reference to "The Bible also tells us that it is through living apostles that Jesus provides Himself as a spiritual covering for all who believe in Him."

Its clear that scripture says the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:20) In the context of that chapter Paul seems to be saying that the church WAS built on the foundation of the Apostles and Jesus. There is no indication that once that foundation was laid there was further need for Apostles, who are like the twelve and Paul.

apostle Eric vonAnderseck cites 1Corinthians 12:28 as his basis for establishing himself as chief apostle. This brings up the question, “Are there apostles today?” I think that any person who reads scripture would agree that Apostles do exist in some form today. But, in the case of apostle Eric vonAnderseck we need to establish whether or not Apostle exists in the same way the Apostle Jesus appointed existed and do they have the authority that apostle Eric vonAnderseck claims to have.

Let’s first see what the attributes of the first thirteen Apostles were.
a. They were commissioned directly by Jesus.
Eric says the Lord commissioned him, but unlike true Apostles there were no witnesses, Eric has no proof. Every one of the thirteen original Apostles could prove through multiple witnesses that Jesus called them.

In fact Eric is not even a reliable witness for himself. On one page he states, “Pre-birth Revelation of Apostolic Calling: I was the 10th person standing in a line of spirits.” On another page he states, “I was the 7th person standing in a line of spirits”

b. The thirteen original Apostles healed every person that they wanted to