Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-06-19
A PRETENDER.
Account Of the Man Who Claims
to Be The Christ.
History OF the Origin and Growth o1
Modern and Remarkable Relig-
ious Belief The Beck
NANTES.

MIS- Dora Beekman, the wife of Congre-
! gational minister, originated the body Of
strange believers fifteen years ago. She
! preached that In her own person were the
attributes of the risen Lord She was the
woman Christ, inspired and made sacred by
the indwelling of Christs spirit
Rev. George J. Schweinfurth, the present
head of the church, was born in Marion, o. -,
in 1853 of German parentage. He is said
TO bear a close resemblance to the popular
! picture Of Christ The contour of his face
follows the lines of the paintings of the
| real Christ with great accuracy Schwein-
furth depends upon this similarity for
some of his most powerful arguments in
making disciples.
His blasphemous claims are best told In
his own words to q New York Herald re-
! porter:
II am Christ, said he II am more than
Christ. am the perfect man and also God
1 am the Almighty Himself
This is my second advent on earth and I
am accomplishing untold good The time
is not far off when 1 shall make such mani
festattons of my divinity and dpower as will
startle the world and bring believers to me
by thousands and tens of thousands
I'm 1888, three days before the death of
Mrs. Beekman, she transferred her spiritual
holiness to me. Before her death outsiders
enormously called her the woman Christ ,
That was not true. She was the spiritual
| bride of Christ After her death at first I
| was only sensible that possessed the at
| tributes of Christ and had in my own person
His spirit coming a second time on earth
Within the last year there has been still
greater knowledge, and can now declare
that am God Almighty. My name is 4 am,
that am
II have unlimited power. can raise the
| dead, cure disease, and do all the miraculous
things which l accomplished when l was
| on earth before.
II shall be here many years and the
world will see wonderful sights before
cast off this body But am incarnate, and
when this goes into the corruption of
death my spirit will enter another body
and still live ON earth. How or when the
present body Will die has not yet been re-
| vealed of the Father. But in form and
substance the identical body now pos
sess was the one that was crucifed on
Calvary.
There are many things in the Gospels
that are inaccurate about my cruciixion
and my life on earth and / am now occu-
pied In writing a new and true version
of the New Testament that can be ac-
cepted as the perfect and inspired word
THE evil charge that we practice free
love shows how little the world knows of
the purity and sinlessness of our lives I
am the type of the sinless one, and those
| who live with me and believe become pure
| even as am pure, and in them there can
be no guile. Our marriage ceremony is
| binding, and there can be no divorce As
| for myself never experience the passions
of man, for ! am God. Our Church of the
Redeemer' will supplant ali others on earth
The so-called orthodox churches are the
beasts of Daniel and must be destroyed"
At the time Mrs Beekman originated her
strange doctrine, Rev. Schweinfurth was
young Methodist minister of prepossessing
appearance. He preached in the country
churches in the vicinity of Rockford, Ill &,
with good success particularly among the
women of his congregations Suddenly he
renounced his faith and, becoming disciple
OF Mrs. Beekman, was installed as bishop
with a rowing commission to go in quest
of proselytes. AT the death of Mrs
Beekman Schweinfurth came forward
and declared that just as she was diving he
saw a glimpse of Heaven Through the
windows of her soul, " and from her lips
came the words: You are Christ the holy
one. My spirit passes into thine, and by
this act transforms thy whole being. Go
forth pure and sinless, the only son of God
Thou shalt bring all nations to worship thee
and put to rout the evil one and all the
hosts of darkness"
From that day the growth of the organi-
zat1oR, both in financial resources and
membership has been simply wonderful
The sect has churches at Chicago St
Charles, Minneapolis, Mimi, Paw Paw, Ill,
Louisville, Ky, Leavenworth and Kansas
City. New converts must go to Rockford
to learn their duties and obligations, and
those who are willing to work are
assigned fields of labor. Services are held
every Sunday afternoon at one o'clock, and
Schweinfurth always breaches. Sometimes
| his sermons occupy from tive to three
hours in delivering. Stenographers are
employed to take down his every utterance,
and copies are made on typewriters and
sent to ali the branch churches, where they
sye read to the faithful
| Schweinfurth makes special effort to at
| tract men who will take an active part in
| spread ;ng his doctrines A Baptist minister
! in Pennsylvania is recent convert and
| Congregational minister in Maine has Just
written 90 Lord Schweinfurth stating that
he believes Christ is now on earth and ask
ing for light on his claims TO being che Mes
siah-
Schweinfurth possesses In his own name
| property which has been given him out
| right to the amount of $500, 900 at the low
| est calculation. Whenever q member of
! the t'Church Triumphant" is found he sets
aside a tenth of all his earnings as tithes for
the Lord, snd the Lord deposits it in differ
ent banksin his own name.
The home OK the pretender is large.
J roomy mansion about five miles south of
Rockford With its wings it easily accom-
modates q hundred persons There are
usually about fifty females there and
dozen or fifteen men Tho male disciples
do the heavy work and are drudges They
live on the plainest food and sleep in the
attic Most of them, having become tnfat-
unted with the new religion, count them
selves happy to labor and suffer for the
cause, and have given up ali their earthly
| possessions to the Christ
Thirteen women who by long residence
and devotion have approached sufficiently
near to the purity of their Christ are called
"angels." They eat with Schweinfurth,
taking but two meals a day. The rest OF
the women eat separately at another house
| and the men all have other quarters for
the most perfect and called by ''Schwein-
| furth hIs souls mate Her community
| name is Angelica she is pale, dark-eyed
| creature OF twenty two years, willowy and
| spirituelle, with a far-away look IA her
eyes She occupies a special apartment,
! which is tae most iavishly and richly
! adorned of any in tho house. Her room is
l very near "Christs,n and she is never seen
! about tho house, and visible to others only
at meals wheA she sits on his right hand
There are certain dnal rites celebrated
| which are called THE Garden of Eden"
test This is known to be a fact though 1t
! is one of the few things that no one seemed
/ ready to explain. It is understood how
ever, that it is modelled quite closely after
the Mormon endowment house.
/ Doe.tors In C,cr,nonv