Chapter 02: Who Was Finis Jennings Dake?

The story of Finis Jennings Dake is one of the most troubling paradoxes in American Pentecostal history. Here was a man who claimed supernatural biblical knowledge, who could quote thousands of Scripture verses from memory, and whose annotated Bible would influence millions of believers worldwide. Yet this same man was a convicted felon, expelled from his denomination for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, and a teacher of heresies so severe that orthodox theologians have compared his doctrine to that of the cults. Understanding who Dake really was—not the sanitized version promoted by his publishers, but the documented historical figure—is essential for evaluating the dangerous theological legacy he left behind.

From Pentecostal Preacher to Prolific Author

The Poverty-Stricken Beginnings

Finis Jennings Dake entered the world on October 18, 1902, in the small town of Iberia, located in Miller County, Missouri. He was born into crushing poverty as the eighth of eleven children to James Henry Dake and Mary Ellen Hicks Dake. The Dake family struggled to make ends meet even when James was alive, but their situation became desperate when he died in July 1912, leaving nine-year-old Finis and his siblings virtually destitute.

The death of his father marked a turning point that would shape Dake’s entire life trajectory. Unable to bear the grinding poverty at home, young Finis left in his mid-teens to seek his fortune elsewhere. For approximately two years, he lived as what he himself called a “hobo,” riding the rails and working odd jobs to survive. He found employment as a ranch hand, developing the rough independence that would characterize his later ministry. During this period, he even harbored dreams of becoming a “cowboy actor,” perhaps hoping to escape his hardscrabble existence through the glamour of the emerging film industry.

These years of wandering and hardship would later be reframed in Dake’s testimony as a time of preparation for his ministry. However, they also reveal a pattern that would repeat throughout his life: a tendency to operate outside conventional structures, to rely on his own resources, and to create his own narrative about his experiences.

The Claimed Supernatural Encounter

In the winter of 1920, at age seventeen, Dake returned home to discover that many of his family members had converted to Christianity during his absence. This homecoming led to his own conversion during a prayer meeting, but it was what allegedly happened several months later that would define his entire ministry.

This claim of instantaneous, supernatural biblical knowledge became the cornerstone of Dake’s identity. He would be known as “the Walking Bible,” a man who could quote thousands of verses without carrying a physical Bible. For thirteen years, he hosted twice-daily radio programs where he answered biblical questions entirely from memory, never once opening a Bible during the broadcasts.

However, this supernatural claim raises serious questions. No other witnesses corroborated this experience, and the claim itself bears striking resemblance to the testimonies common in early Pentecostal circles where supernatural experiences validated ministry credentials. More troublingly, if God had indeed supernaturally imparted biblical knowledge to Dake, why did this divine gift not prevent him from teaching heresies that contradicted two thousand years of orthodox Christian doctrine?

The Education That Revealed Early Warning Signs

Following his conversion and claimed supernatural experience, Dake pursued formal biblical education, but his time in Bible schools was marked by conflict and controversy that foreshadowed his later problems. In 1921, he enrolled at Glad Tidings Bible Institute in San Francisco, one of the early Pentecostal training centers. However, he left after just one year due to theological conflicts with his teachers.

The nature of these conflicts is particularly revealing. Even as a student, Dake was already teaching that God possessed a physical body, soul, and spirit—a view that contradicted the orthodox Christian understanding of God as spirit (John 4:24). When his teachers corrected him, rather than submitting to instruction, Dake left the school. This pattern of rejecting theological correction when it conflicted with his personal interpretations would characterize his entire ministry. “What we mean by Divine Trinity is that there are three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead, each one having His own personal spirit body, personal soul, and personal spirit in the same sense each human being, angel, or any other being has his own body, soul, and spirit,”¹ he would later write, expressing his fully-developed tritheistic heresy that may have had its roots in these early student conflicts.

Dake then transferred to Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri, the Assemblies of God’s flagship school that had been founded in 1922. He managed to complete his education there, graduating in May 1925, but even during his student years, he was already pastoring churches—an unusual arrangement that suggests both his charismatic appeal and his unwillingness to follow normal educational protocols.

It’s worth noting that Dake later claimed to have studied for 75,000 to 100,000 hours over his lifetime—a figure that would require approximately seven hours of daily study throughout his entire adult life. Yet when we examine his actual educational background, we find less than four years of formal Bible training, much of it marked by conflict with his instructors over basic theological doctrines. The contrast between his limited formal education and his grandiose claims of biblical expertise should have served as a warning to those who would later embrace his teachings.

The Creation of the Dake Annotated Reference Bible

Early Publishing Ventures

Dake’s journey toward creating his annotated Bible began long before the work itself was published. His first major written work, “Revelation Expounded,” was reportedly composed in 1926 when he was just twenty-four years old—merely one year after graduating from Bible school. The audacity of a twenty-four-year-old with minimal theological training writing a comprehensive exposition of the Bible’s most complex prophetic book reveals much about Dake’s self-perception.

According to Dake’s own account, the original manuscript of “Revelation Expounded” was written to counteract what he saw as “foolish and sensational speculation among teachers of prophecy.” Yet ironically, his own interpretations would later be criticized for exactly these characteristics. The book promoted his hyperliteral hermeneutic—the practice of taking every biblical statement as literal fact regardless of context, genre, or clear metaphorical language.

Following his release from prison in 1937 and his expulsion from the Assemblies of God, Dake claimed he spent his imprisonment “writing a book—a commentary on the Bible.” Whether this claim was true or merely an attempt to spiritualize his incarceration, it’s clear that his time in prison marked a turning point in his publishing ambitions. Cut off from denominational ministry opportunities, Dake would need to create his own platform for influence.

The Seven-Year Project

The Dake Annotated Reference Bible represented approximately seven years of intensive work, from around 1956 to its complete publication in 1963. The New Testament portion appeared first in 1961, followed by the complete Bible two years later. Dake worked on this project while pastoring and traveling as an evangelist, often claiming to work eighteen to twenty hours per day on the annotations.

The sheer volume of material in the Dake Bible is impressive, and this comprehensive nature partly explains its appeal. For Pentecostal and Charismatic believers who had long felt underserved by study Bibles produced by cessationist theologians, Dake’s work seemed to offer a scholarly resource from within their own tradition. The Bible included extensive notes on spiritual gifts, divine healing, demons and angels, and prophetic themes that resonated with Pentecostal theology.

However, quantity does not equal quality, and the very comprehensiveness of Dake’s notes meant that his theological errors were woven throughout the entire Bible. His tritheistic view of the Godhead, his physical conception of God, his racist interpretations, and his confused soteriology were not confined to a few problematic notes but were systematically integrated into his commentary on hundreds of passages. In his own words, Dake claimed to have drawn from “over 20,000 references about God in Scripture”² to develop his heretical views about God’s physical nature.

Dake’s teaching on God’s corporeal form was detailed and unambiguous. He explicitly stated that “God is a person who is Spirit, infinite, eternal, immutable, self-existent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, invisible, perfect, impartial, immortal, absolutely holy and just, full of knowledge and wisdom, in whom all things have their source, support and end. God is known in Scripture by over two hundred names. He is described as being like any other person as to having a body, soul, and spirit.”¹⁰ He went even further, claiming that God “dwells in a mansion and in a city located on a material planet called Heaven.”¹¹

The Publishing Success Despite Scandal

What makes the success of the Dake Bible particularly troubling is that it was published and gained popularity despite Dake’s criminal record being a matter of public knowledge. The Chicago newspapers had extensively covered his 1937 conviction for violating the Mann Act. The Assemblies of God had publicly expelled him from ministry. Yet by 1963, when the complete Dake Bible was published, these facts seemed to have been forgotten or ignored by much of the Pentecostal community.

Dake Bible Sales, later renamed Dake Publishing, was established as a family business to produce and distribute his works. The company marketed the Bible aggressively to Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, Bible bookstores, and individual believers. They emphasized Dake’s claimed supernatural knowledge of Scripture and his thousands of hours of study, while carefully avoiding any mention of his criminal conviction or expulsion from ministry.

The marketing strategy worked remarkably well. By the 1970s and 1980s, the Dake Bible had become known as “The Pentecostal Study Bible”—the first widely distributed study Bible produced from within the Pentecostal tradition. Major televangelists and prosperity preachers began citing it in their sermons. Bible schools adopted it as a textbook. Missionaries carried it to foreign fields. What had begun as the project of a disgraced minister had somehow become one of the most influential religious texts in modern Pentecostalism.

His Influence on Modern Pentecostalism

The Word-Faith Connection

Perhaps nowhere is Dake’s influence more evident—and more troubling—than in the Word-Faith movement that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century. Major figures in this movement, including Kenneth Hagin Sr., Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn, have extensively used Dake’s materials and cited his Bible as a primary source for their teachings.

The connection is not coincidental. Dake’s teachings provided seemingly scholarly support for many of the Word-Faith movement’s most controversial doctrines. His teaching that humans are “miniatures of God in attributes and power” became the foundation for the “little gods” doctrine promoted by Copeland and others. Dake explicitly taught this concept, stating: “man in reality is simply a miniature of God in attributes and powers.”³ This dangerous doctrine blurs the Creator-creature distinction and forms the theological basis for the Word-Faith teaching that believers are “little gods” who can speak things into existence just as God did. Dake’s detailed exposition of this heresy appeared in his comprehensive work on creation, where he taught that “Man was a miniature of God in soul and spirit faculties and had a physical body made in the image and likeness of God. He was uncorrupt, free from prejudices, sinful lusts, and all evil.”¹² His guarantee of health and wealth through faith aligned perfectly with the prosperity gospel. His hyperliteral approach to Scripture allowed Word-Faith teachers to take promises out of context and apply them universally.

Kenneth Copeland has called the Dake Bible one of his primary study tools and has incorporated many of Dake’s interpretations into his teaching. The late Kenneth Hagin Sr., often considered the father of the Word-Faith movement, regularly cited Dake in his books and sermons. Rod Parsley praised the Dake Bible as “one of the greatest literary works ever made for Pentecostal and Charismatic believers.”

Even Jimmy Swaggart, despite his own later scandals, provided a glowing tribute at Dake’s funeral in 1987, declaring, “I owe my Bible education to this man” and calling him “a scholar unparalleled.” The irony of one disgraced minister praising another seems to have been lost on those present.

The Perpetuation Through Bible Schools and Churches

Dake’s influence extends far beyond celebrity preachers to the grassroots level of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. Numerous independent Bible schools, particularly those associated with the Word-Faith movement, continue to use the Dake Bible as a primary textbook. Students in these institutions are taught to view Dake’s annotations as authoritative interpretations of Scripture, often without any awareness of his theological errors or moral failures.

Independent Pentecostal churches, which often lack denominational oversight or theological accountability, have been particularly susceptible to Dake’s influence. Pastors who themselves were trained using the Dake Bible pass on his interpretations to their congregations, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of theological error. Church libraries stock his books, Sunday school classes use his materials, and believers give Dake Bibles as gifts to new converts, all without understanding the dangerous doctrines they are promoting.

Research conducted in the mid-1990s found that fifteen out of sixteen Christian bookstores visited carried Dake materials prominently displayed. Today, more than thirty-five years after Dake’s death, his publisher reports selling nearly 40,000 copies annually. The Bible is now available in digital formats through major Bible software platforms including Accordance, Logos, and various mobile apps, ensuring that his influence will continue into the digital age.

The Missions Field Impact

Perhaps most concerning is the impact of Dake’s teachings on the global missions field. As American Pentecostal and Charismatic missionaries have carried the gospel around the world, many have also carried Dake Bibles as their primary study tool. This means that Dake’s heresies have been exported to developing churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where believers may have even less access to sound theological education that would help them identify his errors.

In some countries, translated portions of Dake’s notes have been published separately from the Bible text, creating study guides that spread his false teachings even more widely. Indigenous churches, eager for biblical study materials in their own languages, have unknowingly absorbed Dake’s tritheism, his physical view of God, and his prosperity teachings as if they were biblical truth.

The global impact is difficult to quantify but undoubtedly significant. When churches in Nigeria teach that God has a physical body, when believers in Brazil claim that Christians are “little gods,” when congregations in the Philippines practice racial segregation based on supposed biblical mandates—the influence of Finis Dake can often be traced as a contributing factor.

Why His Errors Matter 35+ Years After His Death

The Persistence of Published Error

Unlike spoken errors that fade with time, published heresies have a permanence that can influence generations. The Dake Bible sits on shelves in homes, churches, and libraries around the world, appearing to be just another study Bible among many. New readers, unaware of the controversies surrounding its author, approach it as a legitimate biblical resource. The very physicality of the book—its leather binding, gilt edges, and comprehensive appearance—lends it an air of authority that belies the dangerous teachings within.

Dake Publishing, still operated by Dake’s descendants as a family business, has made a deliberate decision to preserve all of his original teachings unchanged. They market this as “preserving the truth” and maintaining Dake’s legacy, but in reality, they are perpetuating heresies that should have been corrected decades ago. Even the racist “30 reasons for segregation of races” remained in the Bible for years after the civil rights movement, only being addressed when public pressure became too great to ignore.

The Undermining of Biblical Authority

When believers discover that teachings they received from the Dake Bible are heretical, it can precipitate a crisis of faith. If they cannot trust what they thought was sound biblical interpretation, how can they trust any biblical teaching? This undermining of confidence in Scripture is one of the most serious long-term consequences of Dake’s influence.

Consider a believer who has been taught from the Dake Bible that God the Father has a physical body with hands, feet, and eyes that can be measured. Dake’s teaching on this point was extensive and detailed. He compiled what he called “63 Facts About God”⁴ including specific bodily parts such as: “He has a spirit body… Shape… Form… Image and likeness… Back parts… Heart… Hands… Fingers… Right hand… Mouth… Lips… Tongue… Feet… Eyes”⁵ and many more physical attributes. Dake went on to explain in elaborate detail that “God goes from place to place in a body just like anyone else. He is omni-present, but not omni-body, that is, His presence can be felt everywhere but His body cannot.”¹³ He continued, describing God’s activities: “He wears clothes; eats; rests, not because he gets tired, but because he ceases activity or completes a work; dwells in a mansion and in a city located on a material planet called Heaven; sits on a throne; walks; rides upon cherubs, the wind, clouds, and chariots drawn by cherubims; and does do and can do anything that any other person can do bodily that is right and good.”¹⁴ When they later encounter the biblical teaching that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and learn about the orthodox understanding of divine incorporeality, they face a difficult choice. Either they must reject what they’ve been taught (potentially along with the teacher or church that taught them), or they must engage in mental gymnastics to reconcile contradictory teachings, or worst of all, they may simply conclude that the Bible itself is contradictory and unreliable.

This crisis is compounded when believers realize that the same Bible that contained theological errors also contained moral failures in its author’s life. How can they trust biblical interpretation from a man who violated federal law by transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes? The scandal of Dake’s personal life, when discovered, often leads to a broader skepticism about religious authority in general.

The Gateway to Greater Deception

Dake’s errors rarely exist in isolation. Those who accept his teaching that humans are “miniatures of God” are primed to accept the Word-Faith teaching that believers are “little gods.” Those who embrace his guarantee of health and wealth through faith are prepared for the full prosperity gospel. Those who adopt his hyperliteral hermeneutic lose the ability to properly interpret biblical genres and literary devices, making them vulnerable to all manner of interpretive errors.

In this sense, Dake’s teachings serve as a gateway drug to theological addiction. They provide an entry point for increasingly serious doctrinal deviations. A believer might start by appreciating Dake’s extensive cross-references and end by accepting his tritheistic view of the Godhead. A pastor might begin by using Dake’s outlines for sermon preparation and eventually find himself teaching that God lives on a material planet called Heaven. Dake explicitly taught this error, claiming: “Heaven itself is a material planet (Gen. 1:1; Heb. 11:10-16), having cities, mansions, furniture, inhabitants, living conditions, etc.”⁶ He elaborated further on this heresy, stating that “Heaven is a real planet like the Earth. Heaven, therefore, is not an invisible nothing or a cloud floating around in space where saints sit and play a Jew’s harp forever.”¹⁵ His materialistic conception of the spiritual realm even extended to detailed descriptions of the New Jerusalem: “On the mountains and in the valleys are built the many mansions of John 14:1-3. There are living fountains of waters springing up through the city and rivers of water, clear as crystal.”¹⁶

The progression is often subtle and unconscious. Because Dake mixes truth with error throughout his annotations—accurate cross-references alongside heretical interpretations, legitimate Greek and Hebrew definitions beside fantastical speculations—readers gradually lose the ability to distinguish between sound doctrine and false teaching. The very comprehensiveness that makes the Dake Bible attractive also makes it dangerous, as users become dependent on Dake’s interpretations rather than developing their own biblical discernment.

The Continuing Spread of His Teachings

The Modern Publishing Empire

Dake Publishing has evolved from a small family operation into a sophisticated publishing and distribution network. They now offer the Dake Bible in multiple formats: large print editions, compact editions, leather-bound, hardcover, and paperback versions. The company has licensed Dake’s content to major Bible software platforms, ensuring its availability on computers, tablets, and smartphones worldwide.

The publisher’s website promotes Dake materials with carefully crafted marketing that emphasizes the positive while concealing the negative. They highlight endorsements from prominent preachers (many of whom have their own theological problems), showcase testimonials from satisfied users, and present statistics about the Bible’s comprehensive nature. Nowhere do they mention Dake’s criminal conviction, his expulsion from the Assemblies of God, or the numerous scholarly critiques of his theology.

Beyond the Bible itself, Dake Publishing continues to sell his other works: “God’s Plan for Man” (over 1,000 pages), “Revelation Expounded,” “The Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ,” and various other titles. They also market study aids like his “Plan of the Ages” chart, which promotes his unique dispensational system. Each product reinforces the others, creating an ecosystem of Dake materials that can thoroughly indoctrinate an unsuspecting student.

The Institutional Entrenchment

More troubling than individual sales is the institutional entrenchment of Dake materials in certain segments of Christianity. Some Bible colleges have built entire curricula around the Dake Bible, training new generations of pastors in his interpretive methods and theological errors. These institutions often operate independently, without accreditation or denominational oversight that might provide theological accountability.

Church libraries, once stocked with Dake materials, rarely remove them. The books sit on shelves for decades, available to each new generation of believers. Sunday school teachers, often volunteers with limited theological training, may turn to the Dake Bible for its convenient outlines and extensive notes, unknowingly passing on his errors to children and new believers who lack the discernment to identify false teaching.

Home Bible study groups, which often operate without pastoral supervision, are particularly vulnerable to Dake’s influence. A group leader with a Dake Bible can appear extraordinarily knowledgeable, quoting statistics, cross-references, and detailed notes that impress other members. The social dynamics of such groups—where challenging the leader might seem unloving or divisive—can prevent necessary theological correction.

The International Propagation

The translation and distribution of Dake materials internationally represents one of the most serious aspects of his continuing influence. In countries where theological education is limited and study resources are scarce, the comprehensive nature of the Dake Bible makes it extremely attractive. Mission organizations, often focused on evangelism rather than theological precision, have sometimes distributed Dake Bibles without understanding the doctrinal problems they contain.

In some African countries, where prosperity theology has taken deep root, Dake’s teachings provide a seemingly biblical foundation for health-and-wealth doctrines. His claim that God wants all believers to be rich and healthy resonates in contexts of poverty and disease, offering hope that can easily become false hope when not balanced with sound biblical theology.

Asian churches, particularly in areas influenced by shamanistic or animistic backgrounds, may be especially vulnerable to Dake’s teachings about the spirit world. His detailed (though often unbiblical) descriptions of angels, demons, and spiritual warfare can syncretize with pre-existing spiritual worldviews in dangerous ways. His teaching that God has a physical body may resonate with Eastern concepts of deity that differ from biblical monotheism.

Latin American Pentecostalism, already prone to experiential excess in some quarters, finds in Dake an apparently scholarly justification for teachings about supernatural power, spiritual warfare, and divine healing that go beyond biblical bounds. His hyperliteral approach to Scripture aligns with a tendency in some Hispanic churches to read the Bible without attention to context or genre.

Distinguishing the Man from His Message

The Complexity of Personal Character

It would be convenient if we could simply dismiss Dake as a charlatan or fraud, but the historical record suggests a more complex reality. By all accounts, Dake was genuinely devoted to Bible study, spending countless hours in research and writing. His ability to quote Scripture from memory was real and impressive. His zeal for spreading biblical knowledge seems to have been sincere, even if misguided.

Those who knew Dake personally often described him as humble and approachable, willing to spend hours answering biblical questions from anyone who asked. His radio programs, where he answered questions without referring to a Bible, demonstrated not only remarkable memory but also a genuine desire to help people understand Scripture. Former students and associates have testified to his generosity with his time and knowledge.

The Danger of Personality Cults

The tragedy of Dake’s influence illustrates the danger of personality cults in Christianity. His followers often seemed more committed to Dake himself than to biblical truth. When confronted with evidence of his theological errors, many responded by defending Dake rather than examining the evidence. When his criminal conviction was mentioned, supporters either denied it, minimized it, or argued that it was irrelevant to his biblical interpretation.

This personality-driven loyalty created an environment where correction became impossible. Publishers who might have edited out his most egregious errors feared alienating his devoted followers. Pastors who recognized problems in his theology hesitated to speak out against someone revered by their congregations. The very comprehensiveness of his work—35,000 notes!—seemed to place it beyond criticism, as if quantity could substitute for quality.

The elevation of Dake to near-infallible status in some circles represents a form of Protestant popery, where one man’s interpretation becomes authoritative for millions of believers. This contradicts the Protestant principle of sola scriptura and the priesthood of all believers. When Christians read the Bible through Dake’s notes rather than allowing Scripture to speak for itself, they have effectively replaced biblical authority with human authority.

The Importance of Theological Accountability

Dake’s story highlights the crucial importance of theological accountability in Christian ministry. His expulsion from the Assemblies of God, rather than ending his influence, simply freed him from denominational oversight. Operating as an independent minister and publisher, he was accountable to no one for his teachings. No theological review board examined his Bible before publication. No ecclesiastical authority could correct his errors once they were in print.

This lack of accountability enabled both his moral failures and his theological errors. When he taught that God has a physical body, no church council could discipline him. When he promoted racial segregation, no denomination could revoke his ordination (he had already lost it for moral reasons). When he divided the Trinity into three separate Gods, no theological commission could demand a retraction. Dake’s formulation of this tritheistic heresy was explicit and unambiguous: “There is one God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, and one Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:3-6). Thus there are three separate persons in divine individuality and divine plurality.”⁷ He elaborated on this damnable doctrine throughout his writings, stating: “Cannot any number of persons retain their individuality and still be one in unity? Could not this be true of the Godhead? Could not God exist as three separate persons with three separate bodies, souls, and spirits, and still be one in unity?”¹⁷

The independent Bible church movement, which has been particularly receptive to Dake’s materials, often lacks the theological structures that might identify and correct such errors. Pastors trained in unaccredited Bible schools using Dake materials go on to plant churches where they perpetuate his teachings without any external theological oversight. The result is an echo chamber where error reinforces error across generations.

How Good People Get Deceived by Bad Theology

The Appeal of Comprehensive Answers

One of the primary reasons good, sincere Christians fall under the influence of teachers like Dake is the human desire for comprehensive answers to life’s questions. The Dake Bible, with its 35,000 notes, seems to provide an answer for everything. No biblical question is too obscure, no prophecy too mysterious, no doctrine too complex for Dake to address in detail. For believers struggling to understand difficult passages or seeking guidance for life decisions, such comprehensive coverage is extremely attractive.

This comprehensiveness creates an illusion of biblical mastery. A pastor preparing sermons with the Dake Bible can quickly find outlines, illustrations, cross-references, and applications for any passage. A Sunday school teacher can appear remarkably knowledgeable by simply reading Dake’s notes aloud. A home Bible study leader can answer virtually any question by consulting the extensive annotations. The convenience is seductive, but it comes at the cost of genuine biblical understanding.

The danger lies not just in the wrong answers Dake provides, but in the fact that he provides too many answers. Mystery, paradox, and acknowledged difficulty are essential parts of honest biblical interpretation. When every question has a definitive answer, when every mystery is explained, when every tension is resolved, we have likely moved from biblical theology to human speculation. Dake’s willingness to explain everything should have been a warning sign, but instead, it became a selling point.

The Exploitation of Spiritual Hunger

Many who embrace Dake’s teachings are genuinely hungry for spiritual truth and deeper biblical knowledge. They want to know God more fully, understand His Word more clearly, and live more faithfully as Christians. This spiritual hunger is commendable, but it can also make believers vulnerable to those who claim special insight or supernatural knowledge.

Dake’s claimed supernatural gift of Scripture memorization gave him unique credibility among those who valued spiritual experiences. In Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, where supernatural gifts are emphasized, someone who claimed to have received biblical knowledge directly from God carried special authority. Why would God give such a gift to someone who would misuse it? Surely, the reasoning went, someone with such supernatural biblical knowledge must be trustworthy.

This confusion of spiritual gifts with theological accuracy is a persistent problem in experiential Christianity. The ability to quote Scripture, speak in tongues, prophesy, or perform miracles does not guarantee sound doctrine. Indeed, Jesus warned that many would prophecy and cast out demons in His name whom He never knew (Matthew 7:22-23). Paul warned that even an angel from heaven should be rejected if preaching a different gospel (Galatians 1:8). Yet many Christians continue to evaluate teachers based on their spiritual experiences rather than their theological fidelity.

The Failure of Theological Education

The widespread acceptance of Dake’s teachings also reflects a failure of theological education in many churches. When believers lack basic understanding of historical Christian doctrine, they cannot recognize departures from orthodoxy. When they don’t understand the Trinity, they cannot identify tritheism. When they don’t grasp the nature of biblical interpretation, they cannot recognize hermeneutical errors.

The problem is compounded by the way many churches approach Bible teaching. Sunday sermons often focus on practical application rather than theological instruction. Bible studies emphasize personal experience over doctrinal understanding. Sunday school classes use fill-in-the-blank workbooks rather than engaging with serious theological questions. The result is believers who know Bible stories but not Bible doctrine, who can quote verses but not understand their context, who have religious experience but lack theological discernment.

In such an environment, a resource like the Dake Bible seems like a godsend. It provides the theological depth that churches aren’t teaching, the doctrinal explanations that pastors aren’t providing, the comprehensive biblical knowledge that believers crave but aren’t receiving through normal church channels. That this theological depth is actually theological error becomes apparent only to those with sufficient education to recognize it—precisely the education many haven’t received.

The Social Dynamics of Deception

Once Dake materials become established in a church or community, social dynamics make it difficult to dislodge them. If the pastor uses a Dake Bible, questioning Dake means questioning the pastor. If the Bible study group has been using Dake materials for years, criticizing them means criticizing the group’s history and identity. If grandparents gave their grandchildren Dake Bibles as graduation gifts, rejecting Dake means rejecting a family tradition.

These social pressures create a powerful incentive to overlook or rationalize problems with Dake’s teachings. When someone raises concerns, they’re often met with responses like: “But he knows so much Scripture!” “Look how many people have been blessed by his Bible!” “Nobody’s perfect—we should focus on the good and ignore the bad.” “You’re being divisive by criticizing a man God has obviously used.”

The fear of division keeps many silent who recognize problems with Dake’s theology. Pastors don’t want to split their churches. Bible study leaders don’t want to upset their groups. Individual believers don’t want to be seen as troublemakers or know-it-alls. So the errors continue unchallenged, passed from generation to generation, spreading like theological cancer through the body of Christ.

A Case Study in Theological Danger

The Criminal Conviction That Should Have Ended His Ministry

The events of 1936-1937 should have permanently ended Dake’s influence in Christian circles. The facts are not in dispute: Dake, then a 33-year-old married pastor with children, transported a 16-year-old girl named Emma Barelli across state lines for immoral purposes. He registered with her at multiple hotels under the false name “Christian Anderson and wife.” He drove her approximately 360 miles from Wisconsin to Illinois, staying at hotels in Waukegan, Bloomington, and East St. Louis.

When federal agents arrested him on May 26, 1936, Dake initially pleaded not guilty and even requested release to attend church services, showing either remarkable brazeness or complete disconnect from the severity of his actions. Faced with overwhelming evidence from the three hotels where he had registered with the minor under false names, he changed his plea to guilty on February 9, 1937, to avoid a jury trial that would have likely resulted in a harsher sentence.

The Mann Act, under which Dake was convicted, was a federal law designed to combat human trafficking and the interstate transport of women and girls for prostitution or “immoral purposes.” While the law was sometimes misapplied in cases of consensual adult relationships, Dake’s case involved a minor—a 16-year-old school girl from Kenosha, Wisconsin. There was nothing ambiguous about the criminality of his actions.

The Assemblies of God responded appropriately by revoking his ministerial credentials in March 1937. This wasn’t a harsh or hasty decision but a necessary response to criminal behavior that violated both biblical standards for ministry and federal law. According to Scripture, an elder must be “blameless” and “of good reputation with those outside the church” (1 Timothy 3:2,7). A convicted felon who had transported a minor across state lines for immoral purposes clearly failed these requirements.

The Theological Errors That Should Have Disqualified His Teachings

Even if Dake had lived a morally exemplary life, his theological teachings alone should have disqualified him from influence in Christian circles. The errors weren’t minor disagreements over secondary issues but fundamental heresies that struck at the heart of Christian faith.

His Tritheistic Heresy: Dake taught that the Trinity consists of three separate Gods, each with “a personal spirit body…a personal soul…and a personal spirit” (God’s Plan for Man, page 35). He explicitly stated, “The doctrine of the Trinity is a mistake. There are three separate Gods” (Dake Bible, page 96, note h). This isn’t a minor variation on Trinitarian theology but a complete rejection of monotheism, the foundational belief that there is one God. It’s the same error that separates Mormonism from Christianity. In his detailed exposition, Dake argued that “In no conceivable way can we force a meaning of three persons in one person; three beings in one being; or three manifestations of only one person in any of these or any other scripture.”⁸ He went further, explicitly rejecting orthodox Trinitarianism: “So the old idea that God exists as three persons in one person is not only unscriptural, but it is ridiculous to say the least.”¹⁸

His Physical God Doctrine: Dake insisted that God the Father has a physical body with measurable dimensions. He wrote that God has “a body, shape, form, image and likeness of a man…God has a personal body…He has a head, hair, face, eyes, ears, nose, mouth” (Dake Bible notes). This directly contradicts Jesus’ teaching that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and denies God’s omnipresence, since a physical body can only be in one place at a time. Dake’s comprehensive list of God’s supposed physical attributes demonstrates the extent of this heresy. He asked rhetorically: “Furthermore, why would God, in hundreds of places, refer to Himself as having bodily parts, soul passions, and spirit faculties if He does not have them?”⁹ failing to recognize anthropomorphic language in Scripture. He continued his exposition of God’s corporeality: “Bible writers not only stated that God has a body, but they also testified that they have seen it with the natural eyes. Abraham made a dinner for God and two angels and they actually ate food (Gen. 18). Jacob had a physical wrestling match with God all night (Gen. 32:24-30).”¹⁹

His Adoptionist Christology: Dake taught that Jesus only became the Son of God at His incarnation and only became the Messiah at His baptism. This ancient heresy, known as adoptionism, denies the eternal Sonship of Christ and undermines the doctrine of the Trinity. It suggests that Jesus was promoted to divine status rather than being eternally God the Son.

His Confusion of Nature and Person: Throughout his writings, Dake confused nature and person in ways that created theological chaos. He taught that God has three bodies, three souls, and three spirits—essentially nine persons in the Godhead. He claimed humans could become divine in nature, blurring the Creator-creature distinction that is fundamental to biblical theology.

His Racist Theology: The original Dake Bible contained “30 reasons for segregation of races,” using twisted biblical interpretation to support racial discrimination. He taught that God intended racial segregation and that interracial marriage was sinful. These teachings weren’t merely cultural blind spots but claimed biblical mandates for racism.

The Pattern of Rejecting Correction

Throughout his life, Dake demonstrated a pattern of rejecting theological correction and ecclesiastical authority. When teachers at Glad Tidings Bible Institute corrected his teaching that God has a physical body, he left the school rather than submit to instruction. When complaints arose at Southwestern Bible School about his Pre-Adamite doctrine, he resigned rather than reconsider his position. When the Assemblies of God expelled him for criminal behavior, he simply joined another denomination rather than accepting discipline.

This pattern reveals a man who considered himself above correction, whose confidence in his own interpretations exceeded his submission to the broader Christian community. The claim of supernatural biblical knowledge likely reinforced this attitude—why should he accept correction from those who had merely studied Scripture when he had received his knowledge directly from God?

The unwillingness to accept correction is a dangerous trait in any Christian, but it’s especially destructive in a teacher whose influence extends to millions. James warns that teachers will be judged more strictly (James 3:1) precisely because their errors affect not just themselves but all who learn from them. Dake’s refusal to accept correction meant that his errors were not only perpetuated but amplified through his published works.

The Warning for Today’s Church

The Necessity of Theological Vigilance

The story of Finis Dake serves as a stark warning about the necessity of theological vigilance in the church. His influence demonstrates how quickly and widely error can spread when believers lack discernment and when churches fail to guard the gospel. The fact that his materials continue to sell tens of thousands of copies annually, decades after his death and long after his errors have been documented, shows that the church has not learned the lessons his story should teach.

Every generation of Christians faces the challenge of distinguishing truth from error, of identifying wolves in sheep’s clothing, of testing the spirits to see whether they are from God. In our age of digital communication and self-publishing, this challenge has become even more acute. Anyone with a computer and internet connection can publish biblical commentary, create online courses, or build a following through social media. The gatekeepers that once filtered out the most egregious errors—denominational publishing houses, theological review boards, ecclesiastical authorities—have less influence than ever.

The Importance of Character in Christian Leadership

Dake’s criminal conviction reminds us that character matters in Christian leadership. The biblical qualifications for elders and teachers emphasize moral character as much as teaching ability. A man who would transport a teenage girl across state lines for immoral purposes and register at hotels under false names lacks the integrity necessary for Christian ministry.

Yet somehow, many in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have been willing to overlook or minimize Dake’s criminal behavior. Some argue that it happened before his greatest works were written, as if subsequent productivity could erase past criminality. Others suggest that we should separate his personal failures from his biblical insights, as if the two could be divorced. Still others claim ignorance of his criminal record, though it has been public knowledge since 1937.

This willingness to overlook moral failure in favor of perceived spiritual gifts or biblical knowledge is a recurring problem in Christianity. We see it in the tolerance of abusive pastors who preach well, in the support of televangelists despite financial scandals, in the defense of Christian leaders whose personal lives contradict their public teaching. The Dake phenomenon is part of this larger pattern of valuing gifts over character, success over integrity, knowledge over holiness.

The Call to Biblical Discernment

The continuing influence of Dake’s teachings calls the church to renewed commitment to biblical discernment. This doesn’t mean becoming hypercritical or divisive, but it does mean taking seriously the biblical commands to test everything, hold fast to what is good, and reject what is evil. It means being Bereans who examine the Scriptures daily to see if what we’re taught is true (Acts 17:11).

Biblical discernment requires both knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge comes through careful study of Scripture in its context, understanding the original languages, historical backgrounds, and literary genres. It comes through learning the church’s historical theology, understanding what Christians have believed throughout the centuries and why certain doctrines were rejected as heretical. It comes through systematic theology that sees how biblical doctrines relate to and support one another.

But knowledge alone isn’t sufficient. Wisdom is needed to apply that knowledge appropriately, to distinguish between primary and secondary issues, to correct error while maintaining love, to stand for truth without becoming harsh or divisive. This wisdom comes through prayer, through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, through the counsel of mature believers, and through experience in applying biblical truth to real-life situations.

The Hope Beyond the Deception

Despite the damage Dake’s teachings have caused and continue to cause, there is hope for those who have been influenced by his errors. Throughout church history, God has preserved His truth and protected His people from even the most persuasive false teachings. The gates of hell have not prevailed against the church, and they won’t prevail now.

Many who once relied on the Dake Bible have come to recognize its errors and moved on to sound biblical resources. Pastors who once preached his doctrines have repented and now teach orthodox theology. Churches that once promoted his materials have removed them and implemented better theological education. The truth has a way of prevailing over error, even if it takes time.

For those currently under the influence of Dake’s teachings, there is a path forward. It begins with humility—acknowledging that we may have been deceived and need correction. It continues with study—learning what the Bible actually teaches rather than what Dake said it teaches. It proceeds through community—submitting our interpretations to the broader Christian tradition and the accountability of the church. And it culminates in truth—the freedom that comes from knowing and believing what God has actually revealed rather than human speculation.

Conclusion: The Lasting Lessons of the Dake Phenomenon

A Man of Paradoxes

Finis Jennings Dake remains one of the most paradoxical figures in American religious history. He was a man who claimed supernatural biblical knowledge yet taught doctrines that contradicted basic Christian orthodoxy. He professed deep devotion to Scripture while twisting it to support his own interpretations. He presented himself as a humble Bible teacher while refusing correction from anyone. He built a reputation as a spiritual giant while hiding a criminal past that should have disqualified him from ministry.

These paradoxes aren’t merely historical curiosities but warnings for contemporary Christianity. They remind us that spiritual experiences, even genuine ones, don’t guarantee theological accuracy. They show that extensive biblical knowledge can coexist with fundamental interpretive errors. They demonstrate that apparent ministry success—thousands of followers, millions of books sold, decades of influence—doesn’t validate a person’s teaching or character.

The Danger of Unaccountable Authority

Dake’s story illustrates the danger of unaccountable religious authority. After his expulsion from the Assemblies of God, he operated as an independent minister and publisher, accountable to no one for his teachings or conduct. This independence, which might have seemed like freedom, became license for unchecked error.

The independent Bible church movement, which has been particularly receptive to Dake’s materials, often lacks the theological and ecclesiastical structures that might identify and correct such errors. When every pastor is his own pope, when every church is an island, when every interpreter is equally valid, error flourishes unchecked. The Dake phenomenon should cause independent churches to reconsider the value of theological accountability and ecclesiastical connection.

The Responsibility of Publishers and Distributors

The continuing publication and distribution of Dake materials raises serious ethical questions about the responsibility of Christian publishers and bookstores. Should they continue to profit from materials that contain documented heresies and were written by a convicted criminal? Do they bear some responsibility for the spiritual damage caused by these materials?

Dake Publishing’s decision to maintain all of Dake’s original teachings unchanged, marketing this as “preserving the truth,” represents a choice of profit over theological integrity. Christian bookstores that stock Dake materials, often prominently displayed alongside legitimate study Bibles, contribute to the confusion of undiscerning believers. Bible software companies that include Dake’s notes in their platforms give them a digital permanence and accessibility that ensures their continued influence.

At minimum, these materials should carry warning labels about their theological problems and their author’s criminal history. Better would be to stop publishing and distributing them entirely, recognizing that whatever value they might have is outweighed by their dangerous errors. Best would be to actively work to counter their influence by promoting sound biblical resources and theological education.

The Need for Better Biblical Resources

One reason for the Dake Bible’s success was the lack of study resources produced from within the Pentecostal tradition. Believers who valued spiritual gifts, divine healing, and the continuation of miracles found that most study Bibles were produced by cessationists who denied these beliefs. The Dake Bible filled this vacuum, even if it filled it with error.

This highlights the need for theologically sound study resources that take seriously the full range of biblical teaching, including the miraculous and supernatural. Pentecostal and Charismatic scholars who are committed to orthodox theology need to produce study Bibles, commentaries, and theological works that provide alternatives to resources like Dake’s. The answer to bad theology isn’t no theology but better theology.

The Ultimate Question

The ultimate question raised by Finis Jennings Dake’s life and influence is this: Will we value truth over convenience, orthodoxy over comprehensiveness, character over charisma? Will we be willing to reject popular teachers when they teach error, successful ministries when they lack integrity, comprehensive resources when they contain heresy?

The answer to these questions will determine whether the church learns from the Dake phenomenon or remains vulnerable to the next charismatic teacher with comprehensive answers and hidden sins. The stakes are high—not just correct doctrine but the gospel itself, not just theological precision but the souls of those who might be led astray.

Finis Jennings Dake is dead, but his influence lives on. His books still sell, his notes still mislead, his errors still spread. The question is whether the church will finally recognize the danger he represents and take the necessary steps to protect believers from his toxic legacy. The warning has been sounded. The evidence has been presented. The choice now lies with each Christian, each church, each institution that must decide whether to continue tolerating error or to stand firmly for truth.

May God give His church the wisdom to discern, the courage to confront error, and the love to restore those who have been deceived. And may the story of Finis Jennings Dake serve not as a model to follow but as a warning to heed, not as a legacy to preserve but as a mistake to avoid. For in the end, it is not the breadth of our biblical knowledge or the size of our ministry that matters, but whether we have been faithful to the truth once delivered to the saints.

Footnotes

¹ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), “89 Proofs of A Divine Trinity” section.

² Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), “89 Proofs of A Divine Trinity” section.

³ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), Psalm 8:3 notes.

⁴ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), Psalm 8:4 notes, “63 Facts About God.”

⁵ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), Psalm 8:4 notes, “63 Facts About God” list items 2-15.

⁶ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), “89 Proofs of A Divine Trinity” section.

⁷ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), “89 Proofs of A Divine Trinity” section.

⁸ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), “89 Proofs of A Divine Trinity” section, point 18.

⁹ Finis Jennings Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963), Psalm 8:3 notes section.

¹⁰ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 57.

¹¹ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 57.

¹² Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 153.

¹³ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 57.

¹⁴ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 57.

¹⁵ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 835.

¹⁶ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 990.

¹⁷ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 56.

¹⁸ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 65.

¹⁹ Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan for Man (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1977), 53.

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