Dr. E.C. Fulcher, Jr.

Dr. Fulcher did not plan on pastoring a church.  It was the furthest thing from his mind, he wanted to play music for a living. But as the great Scottish poet once said, the best-laid plans of men often go astray.  He had grown up in churches and seen the hypocrisy, compromise, and make-believe worship and wanted no part of that. In fact, at 17 years old, he fell into agnosticism. The corrupted church world, rife with hypocrisy and compromise, had driven him to doubt God’s existence.  It only lasted for a short time.  He hid away and fasted for 21 days and nights, asking God to visit him, or he was giving up on all forms of so-called Christianity. While on the fast, God spoke to him concerning his ministry and anointing shortly to be manifested.  Also, God revealed to him that it was the religious traditions that were out of control and false, not God.  He began studying the Word of God even more intensely and began building his ministry on Luke 4:4, which says, “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

In the beginning, Dr. Fulcher was an evangelist going from church to church, from crusade to crusade with his message that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.  But God had other plans for him.

In 1970, Dr. Fulcher began to call his ministry “Crusade for Truth”.  He had developed the reputation as a debater.  This came from challenging other preachers who did not preach the Truth as it is written in the Bible but were steeped in the traditions of men.  Many congregations liked him to challenge their pastors because they knew their pastors were wrong.  As you might imagine, he did not have the support of many established churches since his message was in direct opposition to what they were preaching.

These were difficult times.  Not everyone was willing to listen to and accept the Truth.  During this period, he was also writing tracts for his magazine Crusade For Truth and sending them out.  In late 1974 he wrote a tract entitled, “The Key of Deliverance”.  Somehow, it got to a woman who ran a little church in Level, Maryland.  She contacted him and told him that his tract had fed the little flock that attended their church and she wondered if he would come and preach to them.  They were sheep in search of a preacher.

Level, Maryland is a small town in Harford County near the Susquehanna River.  The people there were touched by what he said, and there were some in the congregation who were so touched by God that they wanted to hear more of Dr. Fulcher’s straight, hard truth.  So he was invited back.  For the next year, he traveled back and forth from where ever he was holding a crusade to Level until he was led by God to cut back on the crusades and establish himself in the surrounding area.

In November 1975, with a small nucleus of believers, Dr. Fulcher rented an old bar in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and with this nucleus of believers, he established the foundation of a ministry that was to become capable of launching the message to the world via short-wave radio and eventually Internet Television.  It became known as Truth House Ministries™, and his magazine changed from Crusade for Truth to The Present Testament Magazine.  This was not as easy as you might think, because, even though they were eager to learn the truth, they were as full of tradition as anyone else.  This purging took years of strained teaching to get them where they are today.

Some of the main goals of Truth House Ministries™ Church, Inc. are to:

1) Preach the message of grace and freedom to people who are bound by religious tradition and opinions of man, and:

2) To show that, even in today’s world, a Christian can be an intelligent, educated and completely normal person, capable of fitting into any part of society.  All they have to do is put God first.  Christians do not have to speak in tongues or quote Bible verses at people.

Dr. Fulcher teaches that one of the greatest ways in the world to witness to people about God is by keeping your mouth shut.  We are not supposed to try to save anyone.  We are supposed to be witnesses.  In Matthew 24:14, it says,  “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Written by Eric B. Ruark

Church at Level, Maryland. This is where Dr. Fulcher was invited to preach by the small flock that had read his tract “The Key to Deliverance”.

The old bar in Harve De Grace, Maryland that Dr. Fulcher rented when he moved to Maryland to preach full time. The small nucleus of believers renovated this property.

Dedicated believers of Dr. Fulcher’s ministry did the renovations.

More renovations by the dedicated small nucleus.

Transforming this bar into a house of worship.

The finished stage where Dr. Fulcher would preach from.

The finished auditorium.

The front-liner room where messages would be taken from callers around the world.

Truth House undergoes a makeover.

“The Key of Deliverance” from Dr. Fulcher’s Crusade For Truth Magazine. This is the magazine article that the flock in Level, Maryland read and fed them so much they invited Dr. Fulcher to come and preach to them.