Dr. E.C. Fulcher, Jr.

According to the Bible, Jesus said, “For ye have the poor always with you.” (Matt 26:11) For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always, and (Mark 14:7) For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.  Pastors like Dr. Fulcher have to teach their congregations that physical wealth is not the wealth that Jesus was talking about.  When Jesus taught his disciples on the mountain, he told them that (Matt 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The bible teaches in (Matthew 11:5) The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and in (Luke 7:22) Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things you have seen and heard; how the that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.  

When traditional Christian churches talk of doing the work of the Lord, they refer to such things as feeding the needy. But what does God say His work is? In (Matt 11:29) Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. The key phrase being “learn of me.” Dr. Fulcher and Pastors like him that wish to teach what it truly means to do God’s work will have to instill in their congregations what Jesus implied when He said “learn of me.” It will be like a domino effect, you learn of Christ, you do His work.

When Dr. Fulcher created Truth House Ministries™ Church, Inc. and The Present Testament Ministries™ and those first, few, people began following him, he was faced with a daunting task.  Most people come to a church with preconceived ideas of what a Christian is and what a Christian does.  As the Pastor, Dr. Fulcher had to literally wipe the blackboards of the peoples’ minds clean of misguided traditions, incorrect teachings and false understandings and write anew the true Word of God on their hearts. 

One of the first things Dr. Fulcher had to teach his congregation was what was the truth behind doing God’s work.  Ask virtually any man or woman on the street who calls themselves a Christian and they will tell you that doing God’s work revolves around feeding the needy, giving money to the poor, housing the homeless and any other of the numerous charitable functions that most traditional churches think up.  Traditional churches have all kinds of charitable programs through which they claim to be doing God’s work.  The Catholic Church alone has dozens of programs that their faithful can give to.

The Bible says in (1 Cor. 15:50) Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.. If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, what can then?  Just as the Pastor teaches that there is an inner and an outer version of the Bible, there is an inner spiritual man and an outer fleshly man.  It’s the inner, spiritual man that must do God’s will.  He is, in fact, the only one who can. 

Most Christians know little or nothing about the inner man because their Pastors don’t teach it.  Most Pastors, having come through traditional Bible schools, don’t know the Truth themselves and being unaware of the Truth are not able to pass on what should be as basic as a-b-cs. 

So when it comes to the topic of Feeding the Needy, what do you think it means? Do you take what traditional views and concepts or do you take the words Jesus spoke in the bible when he explained who the needy were and what His work was?

Written by Eric B. Ruark and Tanya J. Tillman