Another God
The Teachings and History of Finis Jennings Dake,
Examined in His Own Words
“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached,
or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received,
or a different gospel which you have not accepted — you may well put up with it!”
2 Corinthians 11:3–4 (NKJV)
About this book
Many Pentecostal and charismatic Christians study from the Dake Annotated Reference Bible, and many pastors preach from it. Few of them have stopped to ask what its notes teach about God Himself. I have, and this book is my report.
Finis Jennings Dake (1902–1987) wrote those notes, and he taught the same things at greater length in his course God’s Plan for Man. Together they teach that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate beings, each with His own body, soul, and spirit. They teach that God the Father has a body of ordinary size, lives in one place, and travels from place to place. They teach that God does not know ahead of time what free people will choose, and that His grace “is naturally limited by the free moral agency of man” (God’s Plan for Man, p. 342). In the printings made before 1988, the same Bible also gave thirty reasons for keeping the races apart.
The church has a name for three separate divine beings. It is tritheism, belief in three Gods, and the church has always called it heresy. Dake kept the church’s words, and on the doctrine of God he filled them with another God.
In each chapter I quote Dake’s own words with the page numbers, explain what he meant, and compare his teaching with Scripture and with what the church has always confessed. Where his notes teach what the church has rejected as heresy, I say so. Where I could photograph the page, the photograph is here so you can check it yourself.
I was trained in Pentecostal schools. I hold the historic creeds, and I believe the gifts of the Spirit are for today. My argument is with Dake’s doctrine of God, not with Pentecostal faith.
About the author
Matthew Friend holds a B.A. in Bible and Theology from Southeastern University, an M.A. in Counseling and an M.Div. in Pastoral Ministry from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, an S.T.M. in Systematic Theology and an M.A. in Pastoral Counseling from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Th.M. and a Th.D. in Systematic Theology from Trinity Theological Seminary. Three of those degrees come from Assemblies of God schools. He has served in ministry through teaching and counseling.
Contents
Part I: The Man and the Method
Who Dake was, how he read the Bible, and how he used the church’s words.
Chapter 1: The Bible on the Table The case against Dake’s doctrine of God, where I stand, and the measure Dake set for his own teaching.
Chapter 2: The Life of Finis Dake Dake’s life from 1902 to 1987, and how his publishers later presented it.
Chapter 3: The Trial The federal case of 1936 and 1937, told from the newspapers of the time, and its absence from the story later told about him.
Chapter 4: Taking It Literally Dake’s rule of reading the Bible literally wherever possible, and how it produces his God.
Chapter 5: Same Words, Another Dictionary How Dake kept the church’s words for God and changed what they mean.
Part II: The God of the Dake Bible
What the Dake Bible teaches about God, and what Scripture and the creeds teach instead.
Chapter 6: Dake’s Godhead in His Own Words His teaching that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate beings, each with a body, soul, and spirit.
Chapter 7: One God: The Bible’s Answer One God in three persons, from Scripture and the creeds, and why Dake’s three beings are tritheism.
Chapter 8: A God with a Body His teaching that God the Father has a body of ordinary size, and what Jesus meant when He said that God is Spirit.
Chapter 9: A God Who Is Somewhere His teaching that God lives in one place and travels, set beside the God who fills heaven and earth.
Chapter 10: A God Who Learns His teaching that God does not know ahead of time what free creatures will choose.
Chapter 11: A God Who Cannot His teaching that human free will limits God’s grace by nature, and that there are things God cannot do.
Chapter 12: A God Who Changes His teaching that God changes His plans and promises, answered from Malachi 3:6 and Numbers 23:19.
Chapter 13: The Christ of the Dake Bible Christ as one of three separate Gods, and what Dake says Christ laid aside when He became man.
Chapter 14: The Spirit of the Dake Bible The Holy Spirit as a third being with His own body, and what it means that the Spirit lives in the believer.
Part III: The World of the Dake Bible
The world Dake built with the same method, from before Adam to the eternal state.
Chapter 15: The World Before Adam The civilization Dake placed before Adam, and the few texts it rests on.
Chapter 16: A Material Heaven Heaven as a planet and an eternal order of natural families, weighed against the words of Jesus and Paul.
Chapter 17: Healing and the Atonement Healing promised on the same terms as forgiveness, the blame that falls on those not healed, and the God who still heals.
Chapter 18: The Laws of Faith Prayer treated as a set of laws that guarantee the answer, set beside Jesus’ own prayer in Gethsemane.
Chapter 19: The Crowded Heavens A spirit world mapped in detail, with a demon behind nearly every human fault.
Part IV: The Race Notes
The thirty reasons for segregation, the Bible’s answer, and what later printings did with the note.
Chapter 20: Thirty Reasons The thirty reasons for segregating the races on N.T. page 159 of the original printings, photographed and documented.
Chapter 21: One Blood The Bible’s answer to the race note, beginning with Acts 17:26.
Chapter 22: The Quiet Erasure How the note was reworded, rewritten, and replaced after 1987, with no explanation inside the Bible.
Part V: Legacy, Defenders, and the Way Home
Where the teaching went, what its defenders say, and the way back to the God of the Bible.
Chapter 23: Dake’s Legacy Where Dake’s teaching traveled, claimed only as far as the documents show.
Chapter 24: Answering the Defenders The case Dake’s defenders make, and why it fails on his own pages.
Chapter 25: Loving the Bible More Than the Notes What to do with the Bible in your hands, and the God the notes made small.
Appendices
Appendix A: The Trial Record The newspaper reports of the 1936–37 case, with a link to each one.
Appendix B: Page 159 in Full The race note photographed and transcribed in full.
Appendix C: The Editions Compared What each printing shows of the race material, from the original wording to the newer typeset edition.
Appendix D: A Dake Dictionary Dake’s key words, his own definitions of them, and what the church has meant by them.
Appendix E: Dake and the Historic Faith Dake’s positions beside Scripture and the historic confessions, doctrine by doctrine.
Appendix F: Sources and Bibliography Every source cited in the book.
For readers who came for the documents
If you came for the documents themselves, start with Appendix B. It shows page 159 of the New Testament notes in photographs and gives the race note in a full transcription. Appendix A lists the newspaper reports of the 1936–37 federal case and links to each page.
“Test all things; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NKJV)