Weaponized Religion: From Latter Rain to Colonia Dignidad

The Latter Rain Movement of the late 1940s and 1950s created a new breed of Pentecostalism that dramatically impacted Christianity in the United States, as well as many other countries around the world. Initially viewed as a movement by God, a number of well-respected men and women participated in the movement during its early years. Over time, however, many of those same men and women came to realize that there were wolves among the sheep. Political ideologies not aligned with sound biblical theology crept into the movement, causing the group to explode into several splinter groups. New sects were created, and while some of them reformed, others became very destructive and militant. Such is the case with Paul Schäfer Schneider, leader of the Colonia Dignidad compound in Chile. When Schäfer's Pentecostal community was raided by government officials, it was discovered that the men and women dressed in the style of Pentecostal-holiness fashion had been manufacturing, selling, and using weapons-including sarin gas-all from what appeared to be a humble religious community. Schäfer was the leader of a splinter group of "The Message", the cult following of William Marrion Branham, aka William Marvin Branham, from Jeffersonville, Indiana. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of groups that splintered from William Branham's post WWII healing revivals. Those whose lineage branched directly from any of the original versions of William Branham's cult of personality seem to wander further into extremism than the more distant splinter groups, but with the vastly different versions of doctrine used by different versions of William Branham's stage persona, the spider web of siblings and cousins to the group seem countless. Collectively, they are called the New Apostolic Reformation, nicknamed "The Christian Taliban." Read more