Who or What is The Church of Wells?

Maybe some of you were able see an episode of Dr. Phil earlier this week concerning the Church of Wells. So, who or what is the Church of Wells? It is a local church which is located in Wells TX which is about 40 to 50 miles south of Tyler TX. It is actually about a two hour ride from where I am writing this. I didn't see the entire episode of Dr. Phil since this is not on my list of TV shows to watch. I did, however, catch about the final five minutes of that episode as I was waiting for a local newscast to begin. It got me thinking about who these people are; what little I heard at the end of that episode led me to believe this is a cult. It sounded like one of those brainwashing cults who lure people in and then in a very subtle manner convince them to adhere to the cults way of thinking. Now, at this point, there are many secularist who would declare, "That's what Christianity is and does." No, that's not what Christianity does. When I began to hear about Jesus Christ, who He was and what He did for me, I knew I had to do my research on this guy. What I discovered was, everything I had been told was true. Jesus is a loving and forgiving God. Salvation comes through Him as a result of His death on the cross and His resurrection. Nobody had to lure me into a building and begin to drug me and convince me through lies that Jesus is God. His Holy Spirit come to live inside of me and gave me that new life.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Cor 5:17

But the Church of Wells doesn't provide this path to salvation for those who they lure in. The following statements are from a web site which has done extensive research on the Church of Wells: 

http://www.thechurchofwells.org/examine-yourselves/

Concerning salvation: 

The elders make a judgment call on candidates wishing to join the cult group in Wells, Texas. The elders pass conclusive judgement in regard to whether a candidate or member is “saved” or not. It has been hinted at that they believe that their elders hold an “ability” to “know” at a level that is more than mere biblical discernment, having a supernatural, God given, spiritual “ability” to “know” definitively about the condition of a soul.

Does anyone remember David Koresh? He thought or proclaimed, he was Jesus. We all know how that ended and, of course, he took many of his followers down with him. The one sure sign of a cult is control. This group encourages people to disown or shun their families and everything outside of this group. The idea is the followers will be corrupted by the outsiders. They claim to follow a strict adherence to the Bible and its teaching on how to live pure holy lives according to the way God wants them to live. Now, this is good advice for Christians but, does your pastor refuse your fellowship with people outside of the church? Does your pastor tell you how you must live your life? Does your pastor dictate everything in your life? This group, or should I say, these leaders, manipulate and control the lives of the followers who are in this cult. How about Stockholm syndrome? The members are constantly being indoctrinated by these leaders and are slowly believing everything they are told by these guys.

Stockholm syndrome, or capture bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. Definition from wikipedia.org

The leaders of this group are referred to as elders and at times, by their followers, as prophets of God. The leaders are opposed to everything the true Church of Jesus Christ stands for. They claim they, and only they, have the absolute truth and everyone outside their little world is doomed to hell. There have been members or followers leave and these leaders have declared 'death judgements' on them. Of course, these phony death judgements never came to pass but that didn't stir followers to realize these were false prophecies and proclamations.  The Bible is clear on the speaking of false prophecies,

“But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’  If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.  DT 18:21-22

How do these guys recruit? In the same way every other cult does; they prey on the victims of dissatisfaction. They may be unhappy with life in general or they may be unhappy with the church they are attending. New, immature Christians are easy targets because they haven't had time to grow spiritually and be able to discern what is true and not true. It sounds so right to them because these guys use all the right lingo and phrases. So, they give it a try and before they know it, they are sucked in and buying into the lie.
The following link is for a local newspaper in Tyler TX which reported on one of the families affected by this cult.
 https://tylerpaper.com/lifestyle/faith/austin-man-chronicles-five-days-with-church-of-wells-with/article_f8303818-4d77-11e8-b969-ffee9875c41e.html
The article tells of one of the families seen on the Dr. Phil episode and how their son spent five days with this cult. The family stated that they submitted a hair follicle for drug testing and found muscle relaxers and a sleep aid. Why would you pastor ask or tell you to take these before counseling with you? Hopefully he wouldn't. The article does not say if he was directed to take it or if it was slipped into food or drink. But, it appears to be another tactic they use to indoctrinate a person into the beliefs of the group.
This cult is the extreme example of what is know as shepherding. This is a type of leadership used in some the more hyper-charismatic movements. Years ago, I had some friends who were caught up in these types of churches. These guys were referred to, in the church, as pastors but they never had any pastoral type responsibilities. They would work full time jobs Monday through Friday and had to be at the church all day Saturday. What did they do at the church on Saturday? Basically nothing, they just had to be there. They couldn't take a vacation with their family unless they received approval from the leader assigned to them and the leader had to get that approval directly from the pastor. And, don't fail to show up on a Saturday. One of these guys left that church but he was so broken he didn't consider himself worthy enough to be involved in any kind of ministry let alone teach the Bible. I encouraged him repeatedly to seek the word of God and understand what it said to him. In time he did recover but it was a tragedy to see what this church had done to him.
Another local church which I had friends attending was similar but they went to the extent of preaching the only place one could be saved was in that church. I attended a program they were having and at the end of the skit they preformed, church leaders would roam through the crowd and ask if people were saved. A friend of ours who was with us was asked and she said yes. She was then asked where she got saved and she responded and then she was told if she wasn't saved in that church, she wasn't truly saved.
 I had a friend come out of this movement who is now a pastor. He once told me he knew something wasn't right but it took him a while to figure it out. He told me what did the trick was he believed the Bible more than the church teachings. Imagine that.
I had never heard of this small cult in Wells TX but now I have and I believe we are called to send out the warning and let others know. The Bible is clear on who Jesus is and what He stands for. It is so easy to be misled if we are not reading and studying and knowing what the Bible teaches. When we know what the real thing looks like, the phonies will stand out clearly.

Bill Petite