Chapter 02: Who Was Finis Jennings Dake?

Have you ever trusted someone completely, only to find out later that they weren’t who you thought they were? That’s what happened to millions of Christians who trusted Finis Jennings Dake and his famous Bible. Dake seemed like a great Bible teacher who knew Scripture better than almost anyone. He could quote thousands of Bible verses from memory. His study Bible had more notes than any other Bible at the time. But there’s a shocking truth about Dake that many people don’t know. He was actually a convicted criminal who went to federal prison. He was kicked out of his church denomination for doing terrible things. And worst of all, he taught ideas about God that are completely wrong and dangerous. To understand why his Bible is still causing problems today, we need to know who Finis Jennings Dake really was.

From Pentecostal Preacher to Prolific Author

Growing Up Poor in Missouri

Finis Jennings Dake was born on October 18, 1902, in a tiny town called Iberia in Missouri. His parents, James and Mary Ellen Dake, had eleven children, and Finis was number eight. The family was very, very poor. They barely had enough food to eat or clothes to wear. Life got even worse when Finis was only nine years old. His father died in July 1912, leaving his mother alone with all those children and no money.

Think about being nine years old and losing your dad. Now imagine your family has no money for food or a place to live. That’s what happened to young Finis. He couldn’t handle the poverty anymore, so when he was a teenager, he ran away from home. For about two years, he lived as what people back then called a “hobo.” That means he jumped on trains without paying, slept wherever he could find shelter, and worked any job he could get just to eat.

During these hard years, Dake worked as a ranch hand, taking care of cattle and horses. He even dreamed of becoming a cowboy movie star! Can you imagine—the man who would later write a famous Bible once wanted to be in Western movies. But God had different plans for him, though not the good kind of plans you might expect.

The Conversion Story That Seemed So Powerful

When Dake was seventeen years old, something happened that changed his whole life. He said he became a Christian in 1920. According to his own story, he was living a wild, sinful life before this. Then God saved him, and everything changed. He claimed that in just his first year as a Christian, he read the entire Bible three times! That’s amazing when you think about how long the Bible is. Most people take years just to read it once.

Dake said he became so hungry for God’s Word that he would study the Bible for eighteen hours a day. That’s like studying from the time you wake up until you go to bed, with barely any breaks for eating! He claimed he memorized over 20,000 Bible verses. To put that in perspective, the whole New Testament only has about 8,000 verses. So Dake was saying he memorized more than twice the entire New Testament!

Early Ministry and Education

After his conversion, Dake felt called to be a preacher. But here’s something important: he had very little education. Remember, he ran away from home as a teenager and lived as a hobo. He never finished regular school. So when he decided to become a minister, he had to get some Bible training quickly.

In 1925, Dake graduated from Central Bible Institute (CBI) in Springfield, Missouri. This was a Pentecostal Bible school that trained ministers for the Assemblies of God denomination. But here’s the thing—he only studied there for a short time, probably just one or two years. That’s not very long to learn everything you need to know about the Bible and theology. Most serious Bible teachers today study for at least four years in college and then three or more years in seminary. Dake had maybe two years total.

Right after graduating, at just 23 years old, Dake became the pastor of a church in Texas. Think about that—a 23-year-old with barely any education was now in charge of teaching people about God. Then, just one year later, in 1926, when he was only 24 years old, he wrote his first book called Revelation Expounded. This book tried to explain the most difficult and mysterious book in the whole Bible—the book of Revelation. Most Bible scholars study for decades before they feel ready to write about Revelation, but Dake thought he could do it at age 24 with almost no training. His confidence was astounding: “The author works on the chief fundamental principle of Bible interpretation—THAT OF TAKING THE BIBLE LITERALLY WHEREIN IT IS AT ALL POSSIBLE”⁹

The Rise to Prominence in Pentecostal Circles

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Dake became more and more popular as a preacher. He moved from Texas to become the pastor of the Christian Assembly church in Zion, Illinois, in 1929. This was a much bigger church in a more important city. People loved to hear him preach because he could quote so many Bible verses from memory. When someone asked him a Bible question, he would rattle off verse after verse without even opening his Bible. It seemed amazing!

Dake also had a radio program where he answered Bible questions from listeners. This was in the early days of radio when not many preachers were on the air yet. People would write in with their questions, and Dake would answer them on the radio, quoting Bible verses from memory. Many people thought God had given him a supernatural gift of knowledge.

But here’s what people didn’t know: while Dake could memorize verses, he didn’t always understand what they really meant. He took every single word of the Bible completely literally, even when the Bible was using symbolic language or poetry. For example, when the Bible says God has “eyes” or “hands,” it’s using human language to help us understand God. It doesn’t mean God literally has physical eyes and hands like we do. But Dake insisted that it did mean exactly that—that God has a real, physical body with actual hands, feet, and eyes that you could measure with a ruler! “He has a personal spirit body (Dan. 7:9-14; 10:5-19; Isa. 6; Ez. 1; Rev. 4)… Shape (Jn. 5:37)… Form (Phil. 2:5-7)… Image and likeness (Gen. 1:26; 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7; Jas. 3:9)… Back parts (Ex. 33:23)… Heart (Gen. 6:6; 8:21)… Hands (Ps. 102:25-26; Heb. 1:10)… Fingers (Ps. 8:3-6; Ex. 31:18)”¹

The Creation of the Dake Annotated Reference Bible

Seven Years of Intensive Work

The Dake Annotated Reference Bible didn’t happen overnight. It took about seven years to complete, from around 1956 to 1963. First, Dake published just the New Testament with his notes in 1961. Then, two years later in 1963, he published the complete Bible with notes on every single book. Dake boasted about his work: “The Dake Annotated Reference Bible is the culmination of 43 years (1920-1963) of intensive Bible study”¹⁰

Think about what Dake was trying to do. He wanted to write notes explaining almost every verse in the entire Bible. That’s 31,000+ verses! And he didn’t just write one or two sentences about each verse. Sometimes his notes were longer than the Bible text itself. The finished product had:

The physical book was huge and heavy. It was printed on special thin paper (called India paper) so it wouldn’t be too thick. It had a leather cover, gold edges on the pages, and ribbon bookmarks. It looked very expensive and important. When people bought one, they felt like they were getting something really special—the most complete study Bible ever made.

Why It Seemed So Impressive

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians in the 1960s were excited about the Dake Bible for several reasons. First, most study Bibles at that time were written by people who didn’t believe in miracles, healing, or speaking in tongues. These other Bible teachers (called cessationists) thought God stopped doing miracles after the apostles died. But Pentecostals believed God still does miracles today. So when Dake’s Bible came out with notes supporting miracles and spiritual gifts, Pentecostals finally felt like they had “their own” study Bible.

Second, the sheer size of the Dake Bible made people think it must be scholarly and authoritative. If someone wrote 35,000 notes about the Bible, they must really know what they’re talking about, right? Wrong! Having lots of notes doesn’t mean the notes are correct. In fact, having more notes meant Dake spread his false teachings throughout the entire Bible. Every wrong idea he had was repeated over and over in different places.

Here’s what Dake himself said about his Bible in the preface: “The Dake Annotated Reference Bible is the culmination of 43 years (1920-1963) of intensive Bible study” (Dake Bible, Preface). He wanted people to think that 43 years of study made him an expert. But studying the wrong way for 43 years doesn’t make you right—it just makes you wrong for a really long time! Dake even admitted his departure from traditional theology: “It is no wonder that these men cannot comprehend the Trinity of God as they declare. They make such ridiculous propositions about God that it is impossible to comprehend them”¹¹

The Hidden Criminal Past

Here’s the shocking part that most people who bought the Dake Bible didn’t know: While Dake was working on his Bible, he was hiding a terrible secret. In 1937, he had been convicted of a federal crime and sent to prison! The crime was violating something called the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women or girls across state lines for immoral purposes.

What did Dake do? In 1936, when he was 33 years old and married with children, he took a 16-year-old girl named Emma Barelli from Wisconsin to Illinois for immoral purposes. He drove her about 360 miles across state lines. At hotels along the way, he registered them as “Christian Anderson and wife,” lying about who they were. He stayed with this teenage girl at hotels in Waukegan, Bloomington, and East St. Louis.

On May 26, 1936, federal agents arrested Dake. At first, he said he was innocent. He even asked to be let out of jail to go to church! Can you believe that? He had been caught doing these terrible things with a teenage girl, but he still wanted to act like a pastor. Finally, on February 9, 1937, he admitted he was guilty because the evidence against him was too strong. The judge sentenced him to six months in federal prison.

The Assemblies of God denomination did the right thing—they took away his minister’s license in March 1937. They said he could no longer be a pastor in their churches. The Bible says that pastors must be “above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2), which means they can’t have any major moral failures. A man who would take a teenage girl to hotels and register under a fake name is definitely not “above reproach.”

His Influence on Modern Pentecostalism

How the Dake Bible Spread Everywhere

Even though Dake went to prison and was kicked out of his denomination, his Bible became incredibly popular. How did this happen? Well, by the time the complete Dake Bible was published in 1963, many people had either forgotten about his criminal past or never knew about it in the first place. The company that published his Bible, Dake Bible Sales (later called Dake Publishing), never mentioned his conviction. They only talked about his Bible knowledge and how many verses he had memorized.

The marketing was very clever. Advertisements in Pentecostal magazines said things like: “The most complete study Bible ever published!” “35,000 notes!” “500,000 cross-references!” For Pentecostal Christians who felt looked down upon by other denominations, having such a comprehensive study Bible made them feel equal to Baptists and Presbyterians who had their own study resources.

Soon, the Dake Bible was everywhere in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles:

• Bible bookstores featured it prominently on their shelves
• Pastors quoted from it in their sermons
• Bible colleges used it as a textbook
• Parents gave it as graduation gifts to their children
• Missionaries took it to foreign countries
• Sunday school teachers used it to prepare lessons

The Word-Faith Movement Connection

One of the most serious problems with Dake’s influence is how his teachings helped create what’s called the “Word-Faith” or “Prosperity Gospel” movement. This movement teaches that if you have enough faith, you’ll always be healthy and wealthy. Some of its teachers even say that Christians are “little gods” who can speak things into existence just like God did.

Famous Word-Faith teachers like Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn have all used Dake’s Bible extensively. They quote from his notes in their books and sermons. When people ask where they get their strange ideas, they often point to the Dake Bible as their source.

For example, Dake taught that God has a physical body and that humans are exact copies of God. In his note on Genesis 1:26, he wrote: “God has a personal spirit body…shape, image, likeness, bodily parts such as, back parts (Ex. 33:23), heart (Gen. 6:6; 8:21), hands and fingers (Ps. 8:3-6; Heb. 1:10), mouth (Num. 12:8), lips and tongue (Isa. 30:27), feet (Ex. 24:10; Ez. 1:27), eyes (Ps. 11:4; 18:24; 33:18)”³

This false teaching led Word-Faith preachers to say that since we’re made in God’s image and God has a body, we must be physical copies of God. And if we’re copies of God, then we can do what God does—speak things into existence, command angels, and never be sick or poor. Do you see how one false teaching leads to another? Dake explained his radical view: “The idea that the Godhead consists of three separate and distinct persons, each with a personal spirit body, a personal soul, and a personal spirit will mean much to you… It will no longer be a mystery beyond all possible understanding as you have perhaps been taught”¹²

The Missions Field Disaster

Perhaps the saddest part of Dake’s influence is what happened on the mission field. Missionaries who loved God and wanted to spread the Gospel took Dake Bibles with them to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They thought they were giving these new Christians a wonderful resource to understand the Bible. But instead, they were spreading Dake’s false teachings to people who had no way to know better.

In some countries, parts of the Dake Bible were translated into local languages. Churches in Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, the Philippines, and many other nations began teaching Dake’s errors as if they were biblical truth. Today, there are Christians all over the world who believe:

• God has a physical body (false! Dake taught: “All persons of like nature, powers, attributes, and works are naturally the same…So it is with God”¹³)
• There are three separate Gods instead of one God in three persons (false! Dake wrote: “God can be three distinct persons as separate and distinct as any three persons we know of in this life”¹⁴)
• Different races should be segregated (false and evil!)
• Christians can never be sick if they have enough faith (false!)
• God lives on a planet called Heaven (false!)

All of these false ideas came from Dake’s Bible notes, not from the Bible itself. But believers in these countries don’t know that. They think they’re learning what the Bible actually teaches.

Why His Errors Matter 35+ Years After His Death

Dead but Still Deceiving

Finis Dake died on July 7, 1987, at the age of 84. But his false teachings didn’t die with him. In fact, they might be more widespread now than when he was alive. Why? Because books don’t die when their authors die. The Dake Bible is still being printed, still being sold, and still deceiving people who don’t know any better.

Think about it this way: If someone tells a lie in person, only the people who hear them are deceived. But if someone writes a lie in a book, that lie can deceive people for hundreds of years! That’s what’s happening with the Dake Bible. Every year, Dake Publishing (still run by his family) sells about 40,000 copies. That’s 40,000 people every year who might be learning false things about God!

Even worse, the Dake Bible is now available digitally. You can get it on your phone, tablet, or computer through Bible apps like Accordance and Logos. Young people who would never buy a physical book are downloading Dake’s notes and reading them on their devices. Social media makes it even worse—people share quotes from Dake’s notes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, spreading his errors to thousands of people who might never even know where the quotes came from.

The Multiplication Effect

Here’s a scary thought: Every person who teaches from the Dake Bible multiplies its errors. Let me explain with an example. Pastor Johnson (not his real name) uses the Dake Bible to prepare his sermons. He preaches to 200 people every Sunday. Some of those 200 people become Sunday school teachers and teach Dake’s ideas to kids. Some become small group leaders and share Dake’s errors with their groups. A few might even become pastors themselves and spread Dake’s false teachings to other churches.

After 20 years, that one pastor’s use of the Dake Bible might have influenced thousands of people! And those thousands might influence thousands more. It’s like a disease that spreads from person to person, except instead of making people physically sick, it makes them spiritually confused.

The Broken Trust Problem

When Christians find out they’ve been taught false things from the Dake Bible, it often causes a crisis of faith. They think, “If I was wrong about this, what else am I wrong about? Can I trust anything I’ve been taught? Can I even trust the Bible itself?”

This is especially hard for people who were given Dake Bibles by parents, grandparents, or pastors they trusted. They feel betrayed and confused. Some people even leave the church entirely because they don’t know who or what to trust anymore.

The Continuing Spread of His Teachings

Why Churches Don’t Speak Out

You might wonder: If Dake’s teachings are so wrong, why don’t churches warn people about them? There are several sad reasons:

First, many pastors don’t know about the problems. They might have a Dake Bible on their shelf but have never studied theology deeply enough to recognize the errors. Remember, Dake mixes truth with error throughout his notes. If you don’t know what to look for, you might not notice the false teachings.

Second, some pastors are afraid of causing division. If half their church uses Dake Bibles, telling them the Bibles are full of false teaching might split the church. Some people would be angry. Some might leave. So pastors stay quiet to keep the peace, even though they’re allowing error to spread.

Third, there’s money involved. Christian bookstores make money selling Dake Bibles. They cost more than regular Bibles—sometimes two or three times as much. Publishers don’t want to stop selling something that makes them money, even if it contains false teaching.

Fourth, it’s become a tradition. In some families and churches, the Dake Bible has been used for generations. Grandparents used it, parents used it, and now they’re giving it to their children. Criticizing the Dake Bible means criticizing family tradition, and that’s hard to do.

The Internet Age Problem

The internet has made Dake’s false teachings spread faster than ever before. Here’s how:

• Bible Websites: Many Bible study websites include Dake’s notes alongside other commentaries. People studying a verse online might read Dake’s false interpretation without knowing it’s wrong.
• Social Media: People share quotes from Dake’s notes on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These quotes often sound spiritual and inspiring, so they get shared thousands of times.
• YouTube: Some preachers make videos teaching from the Dake Bible. These videos can be watched by millions of people around the world.
• Free Downloads: Illegal PDF copies of the Dake Bible circulate online. Poor people who can’t afford to buy a study Bible download these free copies, not knowing they’re full of false teaching.

The New Generation at Risk

Young Christians today face special challenges with the Dake Bible. They’ve grown up with the internet and are used to getting information quickly from many sources. When they see the Dake Bible has 35,000 notes, they think, “Wow, this must be the best study Bible ever!” They don’t know about Dake’s criminal past or his false teachings.

Many young people also like Dake’s confident style. He doesn’t say “maybe” or “possibly”—he states everything as absolute fact. In a world where many young people feel uncertain about truth, Dake’s certainty is attractive. But being certain doesn’t make you right. You can be certainly wrong, and that’s what Dake was about many important things.

Distinguishing the Man from His Message

The Danger of Hero Worship

One of the biggest problems with Finis Dake’s influence is that some people treat him almost like a prophet or apostle. They defend everything he wrote and get angry when anyone criticizes him. This is dangerous for several reasons.

First, the Bible warns us not to put too much trust in human teachers. Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Even the apostle Paul said he was “nothing” compared to God! How much more should we be careful about trusting modern teachers like Dake?

Second, when we defend a teacher no matter what, we stop thinking critically about their teaching. If someone points out an error in Dake’s notes, his defenders often respond with things like:

• “But look how much he knew about the Bible!”
• “God used him to help many people!”
• “Nobody’s perfect—we should focus on the good!”
• “You’re just jealous of his knowledge!”
• “Don’t judge or you’ll be judged!”

These responses show that people are more loyal to Dake than to biblical truth. That’s hero worship, and it’s dangerous.

Separating Truth from Error

Some people ask, “Can’t we just take the good from Dake and leave the bad?” This sounds reasonable, but it’s actually very dangerous. Here’s why:

First, Dake’s errors are mixed throughout all his notes. It’s not like there’s a “good section” and a “bad section” you can separate. His false view of God affects his interpretation of hundreds of verses. His racist ideas influence his understanding of biblical history. His wrong ideas about salvation show up in his notes on many different passages.

Think of it like this: If someone gave you a glass of pure water with just a few drops of poison mixed in, would you drink it? Would you say, “I’ll just drink the good water and leave the poison”? Of course not! The poison is mixed throughout the whole glass. That’s what Dake’s Bible is like—truth and error mixed together so you can’t separate them.

Second, most people can’t tell the difference between Dake’s truth and his errors. You need solid theological training to recognize when Dake goes wrong. But most people using his Bible don’t have that training. They trust that if it’s in a study Bible, it must be true.

Third, even Dake’s “good” teachings are tainted by his bad theology. For example, he might correctly quote a verse about God’s love, but then explain it based on his false idea that God has a physical body. So even when he starts with truth, he ends up in error.

Learning from Dake’s Failures

Instead of defending Dake or trying to save parts of his teaching, we should learn important lessons from his failures:

What About Those Who Were Helped?

Some people say, “But the Dake Bible helped me become a Christian!” or “I learned so much from it!” How do we respond to this?

First, we can thank God that He can use even flawed tools to accomplish His purposes. The Bible itself says that some people preach Christ from wrong motives, but Paul rejoiced that Christ was still being preached (Philippians 1:15-18). God can use imperfect instruments.

Second, being helped by something doesn’t make that thing good or safe. Someone might say, “I became a Christian while I was in prison,” but that doesn’t mean we should send everyone to prison! God can work despite bad circumstances, not because of them.

Third, people might have been helped even more by sound teaching. Imagine if instead of learning from Dake’s error-filled Bible, they had learned from teachers who correctly understood God’s nature, the Trinity, and the Gospel. They would have avoided years of confusion and false beliefs.

The Specific Heresies That Disqualify Dake

The Trinity Disaster

Dake’s worst error was his teaching about the Trinity. Orthodox Christianity has always taught that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a mystery we can’t fully understand, but it’s clearly taught in Scripture. However, Dake completely rejected this and taught something shocking.

In his note on 1 John 5:7 in the Dake Bible, he wrote about the Trinity: “The word ‘trinity’ is not a Bible word…The doctrine that there are three persons in one God is a mistake”⁴ Did you catch that? He said the doctrine of the Trinity is “a mistake”!

But it gets worse. Dake taught: “Thus there are three separate persons in divine individuality and divine plurality. The Father is called God (1 Cor. 8:6), the Son is called God (Isa. 9:6-7; Heb. 1:8; Jn. 1:1-2; 20:28), and the Holy Spirit is called God (Acts 5:3-4). As individual persons each can be called God and collectively they can be spoken of as one God because of their perfect unity.”⁵ He further clarified his heretical position: “There are over 500 plain scriptures that refer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as being THREE SEPARATE AND DISTINCT PERSONS, each with His own personal body, soul, and spirit in the sense that all other persons have them”¹⁶

This means Dake believed in three separate Gods, not one God in three persons! This is the same error that Mormons teach. It’s called “tritheism” (three Gods) instead of “Trinity” (three persons, one God). This isn’t a small mistake—it’s a complete rejection of what Christians have believed for 2,000 years!

The Physical God Heresy

Dake insisted that God the Father has a physical body that can be measured. This directly contradicts Jesus’ words in John 4:24: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Dake wrote extensively about this error: “God is not a universal nothingness floating around in nowhere. He is not impersonal, immaterial, intangible—an unreal person…He is a real person; that He does live in a real place—a planet called Heaven”¹⁷

But look at what Dake wrote about God having a body: “He is a person (Job 13:8; Heb. 1:3)… He has a spirit body (Dan. 7:9-14; 10:5-19; Isa. 6; Ez. 1; Rev. 4)… Shape (Jn. 5:37)… Form (Phil. 2:5-7)… Image and likeness (Gen. 1:26; 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7; Jas. 3:9)… Back parts (Ex. 33:23)… Heart (Gen. 6:6; 8:21)… Hands (Ps. 102:25-26; Heb. 1:10)… Fingers (Ps. 8:3-6; Ex. 31:18)… Right hand (Rev. 5:1-7)… Mouth (Num. 12:8; Isa. 1:20)… Lips (Isa. 11:4; 30:27)… Tongue (Isa. 30:27)… Feet (Ex. 24:10; Ez. 1:27)… Eyes (Ps. 11:4; 18:24; 33:18)”⁶

This is completely wrong! When the Bible talks about God’s “eyes” or “hands,” it’s using human language to help us understand God’s actions. It’s like when we say “the hands of a clock” or “the foot of the mountain.” Clocks don’t really have hands, and mountains don’t really have feet—it’s figurative language. But Dake insisted these descriptions were literal. He even claimed to understand God’s omnipresence in physical terms: “God is not omni-body; that is, His body is not everywhere at all places at the same time. It is just as visible, tangible, and material as the bodies of all other spirit beings”¹⁸

If God had a physical body, He couldn’t be everywhere at once (omnipresent). He couldn’t be infinite. He would be limited like we are. This false teaching destroys the biblical understanding of who God really is.

The Racist Teachings

One of Dake’s most evil teachings was about race. In his notes on Acts 17:26, he taught racial separation. He wrote: “This verse says God made ‘all nations of men’ from ‘one blood’; it also speaks of ‘the bounds of their habitation.’ In spite of a common ancestry, from Adam first and later Noah, it was God’s will for man to scatter over the earth…”⁷ He then listed biblical examples to support segregation of races and opposition to interracial marriage.

The Bible actually teaches the opposite! Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Revelation 7:9 shows people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” worshiping God together in heaven.

These racist teachings have caused tremendous pain. Imagine being told you can’t marry someone you love because of their skin color, and being told this is what God wants! Many families have been torn apart by these false teachings.

The Criminal History That Can’t Be Ignored

We’ve already talked about Dake’s conviction for transporting a minor across state lines, but it’s important to understand why this matters for his teaching ministry. The Bible sets high standards for those who teach God’s Word:

“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money” (1 Timothy 3:2-3).

A man who would take a 16-year-old girl to hotels and register under a false name is not “above reproach” or “respectable.” He violated the trust of the girl’s family, his own family, his church, and the law. This wasn’t a momentary failure but a planned deception that involved lying at multiple hotels.

Some people say, “But that was in 1937, and he wrote the Bible years later. Can’t people change?” While God forgives sin, the consequences remain. A person can be forgiven and still be disqualified from teaching. Would you let someone who was convicted of stealing be your bank manager? Would you let someone convicted of child abuse run a daycare? Of course not! So why would we let someone with Dake’s criminal history be a Bible teacher?

How Dake’s Influence Spread to Major Ministries

The Television Preacher Connection

In the 1970s and 1980s, Christian television was growing rapidly. Preachers could suddenly reach millions of people through TV instead of just hundreds in a church. Many of these TV preachers used the Dake Bible and spread his teachings to huge audiences.

Kenneth Copeland, one of the most famous prosperity preachers, has said that the Dake Bible was one of his primary resources when he started in ministry. He has repeated many of Dake’s errors about God having a body and humans being “little gods.”

Benny Hinn, another televangelist, has also used Dake’s materials extensively. In his book Good Morning, Holy Spirit, Hinn teaches ideas about the Trinity that sound very similar to Dake’s three separate Gods doctrine.

These TV preachers reach millions of people around the world. When they teach Dake’s errors on television, those errors spread to viewers who may never have heard of Finis Dake. The false teachings get passed on without people knowing where they came from.

The Bible School Problem

Many small Pentecostal Bible schools have used the Dake Bible as a textbook. Think about what this means: Future pastors and missionaries are being trained using a book full of heretical teachings! These students then graduate and go out to plant churches, and they take Dake’s errors with them.

One Bible school teacher (who asked not to be named) said: “When I started teaching, I was horrified to find that most of my students had Dake Bibles. I spent the entire first semester just trying to correct the false ideas they had learned from Dake’s notes. Some students were so attached to their Dake Bibles that they got angry when I pointed out the errors.”

This creates a cycle: Students learn from Dake, become teachers, and teach others from Dake. Each generation passes on the errors to the next, and the false teachings become more and more accepted as normal.

The Publishing Industry’s Role

Christian publishers have a responsibility to sell books that teach truth, not error. But the Dake Bible makes money—lots of money. It costs more than regular Bibles, and people keep buying it year after year. Publishers don’t want to stop selling something profitable, even if it’s spiritually dangerous.

Major Bible software companies like Accordance and Logos include the Dake Bible in their programs. They treat it like any other legitimate study Bible. This gives Dake’s work credibility it doesn’t deserve. When respected Bible software includes the Dake Bible alongside sound resources, users assume it must be trustworthy.

Why the Assemblies of God Should Be Especially Concerned

The Denominational Connection

The Assemblies of God has a special responsibility regarding Finis Dake because he was once one of their ministers. They ordained him, and they later expelled him for his criminal behavior. But many AG churches still use his Bible, apparently unaware of or unconcerned about this history.

The AG’s official doctrinal statement completely contradicts Dake’s teachings. The AG believes in:

• One God in three persons (not three separate Gods like Dake taught)
• God as Spirit (not having a physical body like Dake taught)
• The unity of all believers regardless of race (not segregation like Dake taught)
• High moral standards for ministers (not criminal behavior like Dake exhibited)

Yet despite these clear contradictions, many AG pastors still recommend the Dake Bible. Some AG bookstores still sell it. Some AG Bible colleges still have it in their libraries. This inconsistency confuses believers and undermines the denomination’s teaching authority.

The Need for Clear Warning

The Assemblies of God leadership needs to issue clear, public warnings about the Dake Bible. Not hints or suggestions, but clear statements like:

Some might say this is too harsh, but false teaching requires strong response. Paul told Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). He told Titus that false teachers “must be silenced” (Titus 1:11). Strong problems require strong solutions.

The Global Impact We Can’t Ignore

Missions Field Contamination

American missionaries have unknowingly spread Dake’s errors around the world. They thought they were giving new believers a helpful study tool, but they were actually spreading heresy. Now there are churches in Africa teaching that God has a body. There are believers in Asia who think there are three separate Gods. There are Christians in South America who believe interracial marriage is sin.

These false teachings are especially dangerous in areas where Christians have little access to theological education. They can’t check Dake’s teachings against sound scholarship because they don’t have access to good books or trained teachers. They simply trust what the missionaries gave them.

One missionary to Kenya wrote: “I spent five years teaching from the Dake Bible before I learned about its errors. Now I’m trying to undo the damage, but it’s like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. The false teachings have spread to dozens of churches, and some people refuse to believe they were taught wrong.”

Translation Troubles

Parts of the Dake Bible have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and other languages. This means his errors are spreading to people who don’t even speak English. They have no way to research Dake’s background or check his teachings against English theological resources.

In some countries, the Dake Bible notes have been published separately as study guides. People use these notes alongside their regular Bibles, not realizing they’re learning heretical doctrine. The notes are sometimes presented as “American biblical scholarship,” giving them extra authority in cultures that respect American education.

What Can Be Done? The Path Forward

For Individual Believers

If you own a Dake Bible, what should you do? Here’s practical advice:

1. Stop using it for study. Don’t try to separate good from bad—it’s too dangerous. Get a reliable study Bible instead (like the ESV Study Bible, NIV Study Bible, or CSB Study Bible).
2. Warn others lovingly. If you know people using Dake Bibles, share this information with them gently. Don’t attack them, but help them understand the dangers.
3. Check your beliefs. If you’ve learned from the Dake Bible, you need to carefully examine what you believe. Compare your beliefs with historic Christian creeds and orthodox theology.
4. Seek good teaching. Find a church with solid biblical teaching. Look for pastors who have proper theological education and who teach orthodox doctrine.
5. Study carefully. Learn to read the Bible in context. Understand the difference between literal and figurative language. Know the basics of Christian doctrine.

For Pastors and Teachers

If you’re a pastor or teacher, you have a special responsibility:

1. Educate your congregation. Teach about the dangers of the Dake Bible. Many people simply don’t know about the problems.
2. Provide alternatives. Recommend good study Bibles and resources. Help people find reliable tools for Bible study.
3. Address the errors specifically. Preach on the Trinity, the nature of God, and racial unity. Correct the specific false teachings Dake promoted.
4. Be patient but firm. Some people will be upset when you criticize the Dake Bible. Be loving but don’t compromise on truth.
5. Remove Dake materials. If your church library has Dake materials, remove them. Don’t sell them in your bookstore. Don’t use them in teaching.

For Churches and Denominations

Churches and denominations need to take institutional action:

1. Issue official warnings. Denominations should publicly warn against the Dake Bible, explaining specifically why it’s dangerous.
2. Educate ministers. Bible colleges and seminaries need to teach about the Dake problem so future ministers are prepared.
3. Create better resources. The Pentecostal/Charismatic movement needs to produce sound study Bibles that affirm spiritual gifts without promoting heresy.
4. Support those affected. Provide counseling and teaching for those whose faith has been damaged by false teaching.
5. Monitor bookstores. Christian bookstores should stop selling the Dake Bible. It’s not enough to make money—we must protect believers from false teaching.

Conclusion: Learning from the Dake Disaster

The story of Finis Jennings Dake is a tragedy on multiple levels. A man with genuine zeal for Scripture became a false teacher who led millions astray. A convicted criminal became a trusted Bible commentator. A expelled minister became an influential author. How did this happen, and what can we learn?

The Danger of Unchecked Authority

Dake’s story shows what happens when someone operates without accountability. After his expulsion from the Assemblies of God, no one had authority to correct his teachings. He could write whatever he wanted, and no one could stop him. This reminds us why church authority and theological accountability matter.

The Importance of Character

The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that teachers must have good character, not just knowledge. Dake had impressive Bible memorization skills, but he lacked the moral character required for ministry. His criminal behavior should have permanently disqualified him from teaching, but somehow people overlooked it. We must remember that how someone lives is just as important as what they know.

The Need for Discernment

Christians must learn to test everything against Scripture. We can’t just accept teaching because it comes in a nice leather Bible or because someone seems to know a lot. The Bereans in Acts 17:11 “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” We need to be like them—checking everything against God’s Word.

The Power of Truth

Despite all of Dake’s influence, truth is more powerful than error. God’s Word will stand forever, while false teachings will eventually be exposed and rejected. As Christians faithfully teach biblical truth, Dake’s errors will lose their power. Light drives out darkness, and truth defeats lies.

Hope for Recovery

If you’ve been influenced by Dake’s teachings, don’t despair. God is patient and merciful. He can lead you into truth and heal the damage caused by false teaching. Many people have recovered from doctrinal error and gone on to strong, healthy faith. You can too.

The key is humility—being willing to admit you were wrong and to learn correct doctrine. It might be embarrassing to realize you’ve believed false teachings, but it’s better to be corrected than to continue in error. As Proverbs 9:9 says, “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

The Final Word

Finis Jennings Dake has been dead for over 35 years, but his false teachings live on in the Bible that bears his name. Every year, thousands of people are led into error by his notes. Churches are divided by his racist teachings. Believers are confused by his heretical view of God. Missionaries spread his errors to unreached peoples.

This must stop. The church of Jesus Christ must stand against false teaching, no matter how popular or widespread it has become. We must love truth more than tradition, value doctrine more than convenience, and prize faithfulness more than popularity.

The apostle Paul’s words to Timothy apply to us today: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge,’ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).

May God give His church the wisdom to recognize false teaching, the courage to reject it, and the love to restore those who have been deceived. And may the tragic story of Finis Jennings Dake serve as a permanent warning about the dangers of false teaching and the importance of biblical truth.

Footnotes

Bibliography

Dake, Finis Jennings. Dake Annotated Reference Bible. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1963.

Dake, Finis Jennings. God’s Plan for Man. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1949, renewed 1977.

Dake, Finis Jennings. Revelation Expounded. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1930, enlarged edition 1950.

Dake, Finis Jennings. Heavenly Hosts. Compiled from his writings. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Publishing, 1995.

“Petting Parson of Zion Moves to Jail House.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 16, 1937.

“Scholars Scrutinize Popular Dake’s Bible.” Christianity Today, February 1991.

Assemblies of God. Official Records of Ministerial Status. Springfield, MO: General Council of the Assemblies of God, 1937.

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