Dr. Earnest C. Fulcher, Jr. was born at 5:32 pm on November 12, 1951, in Bluefield, West Virginia. His father was the minister of a Pentecostal Holiness church.  Throughout his childhood, he witnessed many “behind the scenes” practices that he did not like. 

Even at a young age, he became sick of the hypocrisy, compromise, and make-believe worship.  It fueled an intense hatred against hypocrisy and compromise concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For example, both of his parents followed the ministry of William Branham very closely.  One of the things William Branham taught was that it is a sin to use notes while preaching.  According to Branham, when a minister started preaching, whatever came out was supposed to be the word of God. 

However, Dr. Fulcher discovered that when Jesus preached his first sermon, he used notes by reading from the book of Isaiah.  Dr. Fulcher realized that this kind of opinionated teaching is one reason why the church world is so far from the truth. 

William Branham also preached some truth.  For example, he believed very strongly that all of man’s wisdom is of the devil.  To this day, Dr. Fulcher still agrees with that statement.  The Bible teaches us to study to show ourselves approved.  Therefore, learning about the Bible is not of the wicked one. 

However, he came to learn that William Branham was wrong on some of the things he taught.  Sometimes, the best way to defeat your enemy is to educate yourself and learn about him.

Since he was eight years old, he has played Gospel music professionally, which set the stage for his transition into the ministry.  By the age of 12, he was preaching to youth groups before the main service on Sundays. 

After his third week of preaching, the youth groups had become filled with adults.  They wanted to hear the young Fulcher preach rather than the Pastor of the church.  It, of course, did not sit well with that Pastor.

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 1970, he left home to start his ministry called “Crusade for Truth.”  Before he left, his dad put his hand on his shoulder, and as Abraham blessed Isaac, his dad said, “Son, I just want you to know, you ain’t never going to make it because you’re too hard.”  Hearing those words lit a burning fire in Dr. Fulcher, and he set out to prove him wrong. 

From the day his ministry was conceived, he fought against false prophecies, preachers, churches, traditions, doctrine, and even family.  Every time a preacher prophesied against him, it made the fire inside of him burn even hotter.

As you can imagine, there was no significant demand for 18-year-old preachers when he started his ministry, and by this time, he had a family to support.  He did not have a “regular” job because he had committed to focusing on his ministry full time. 

He was not a stranger to hard times.  Beans and potatoes became the primary source of sustenance for many days.  The pressure from friends and family to get a job outside the ministry to support his family was intense.

He did not have the support of any established churches. On his own, he went to towns that he had never heard of and put a few radio commercials on the air.  Also, he sent a mailing out.  Many times he used the phone book to get the addresses for the mailings. 

Instead of purchasing time on the radio stations, he sent stations a “community bulletin” on a 3X5 card.  He hoped that a least 10 out of 20 stations would make a gratis announcement of his upcoming services.

Over time, different churches invited him to preach once a month, which was a great blessing since they already had an audience.  Often, he would preach the entire week.  However, since he was still in the beginning stages of his ministry, he was often obliged to preach for little or no money. 

Since the churches did not take the offering until Sunday, he had to pull his car into the woods to sleep, sometimes while it was snowing.  The next night he would have to preach wearing the same clothes.  Without money, it was common for him to go for days without eating. 

At one point, he lived in his car for two weeks.  There have even been times when he has slept on park benches because he did not want to bother the Pastor of that town.  Once, his car broke down in the hills of Kentucky at 3 am, leaving him lost with no money to fix the flat tire that stranded him.  However, someone who owned a garage stopped by to help.

Family and friends continued to pressure him.  They wanted him to get a job outside of the ministry.  Although it would have been easy to cave in, he remained faithful to his calling.  To this day he is as fervent as he was in those early days of his ministry.  He would not give in! 

Looking back at those early days, Dr. Fulcher remarked that had he given in to the intense pressure, the cold or the hunger, and instead opted to compromise his faith, he would not be firmly established in the present truth, and neither would his congregation.

Although unintentional, he had developed a reputation as a debater and fighter from the early age of 15.  This came from challenging preachers at crusades (many times in front of large audiences) who did not preach truth.  If they came back with, “If you think what I am saying is wrong try to prove it,” that was his cue.   Winning a public debate was not the issue.  Truth was the issue. 

Many congregations liked him to challenge and embarrass their Pastor because they knew their Pastor was wrong.  Think about that!  His success in debating came in part from his ability to quote scriptures exactly as they are written, while his opponents often added or deleted words. 

He has debated Junior Jackson, Bill Podaras, H. Richard Hall, and many more.  He has even debated William Branham’s son, Billy Paul Branham.  He does not debate much these days because the only preachers who are willing to debate him are those trying to establish their own reputation. 

At age 18, he enrolled in the United Christian Bible Institute of Cleveland, Tennessee.  His studies were cut short because he began receiving more offers to preach at different churches.  This is the time period when God was developing his ministry. 

The offers increased to the point that he was preaching somewhere every weekend.  He was invited to run a church in Ohio for a short period, but they did not like his message of truth.  Nonetheless, he took control, being forced to leave only when they stopped giving. 

These were very difficult times.  He did not have any furniture for his apartment, so he and his family slept on the floor.  They ate soup and crackers for weeks at a time.  The congregations he taught were so stingy that they would only give discarded things for him to live on. 

Nevertheless, he was still thankful for what he did get and he did not complain.  He would have talks with God about his financial situation, hoping for some relief.  He found solace in 1 Timothy 6:8, where it says,

“And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”

He continued to preach that God is a need supplier and wants his people to prosper, all the while wearing clothes and shoes that had holes in them. 

In the early days of his ministry, he had healing lines where many people were healed of various diseases.  Blind eyes were opened.  Deaf ears were opened.  Cripples were walking.  One day, he slipped on a ladder and broke his arm.  Even though it was very hard, he still stood in the pulpit and taught the message of faith with a cast on his arm, putting God first in all things.

Around 1971 a minister asked him to be the associate Pastor and musician at his church in Arkansas.  The minister had given him the impression that his salary would be $125.00 per week, a lot of money back then.  All he had to do was play music and help him in the church.  Was this the break he was praying for? 

He moved his family there in a 1964 Pontiac that had bald tires.  His wife was also pregnant at the time.  However, when he arrived at Arkansas, the minister said that he wanted him to give up everything he was doing, get a job and just be in his church.  The minister believed that once he got him there he would be able to wrap him around his little finger and that he would give up preaching. 

Again he was put to the test and again he remained faithful to the calling God gave him.  He told that minister that he would not give up on what God has led him to do regardless of whether anyone liked it. But now he was stuck in Arkansas.  He did not know anyone, he had no income, and the rent for his apartment was $75.00 a month. 

Soon after that he left Arkansas and moved back to North Carolina to help Bill Podaras. Finances were so bad that he found it necessary to move in with his in-laws.  It wasn’t that he was afraid to work.  Before he began his ministry, he had worked different jobs.   He was committed to do what God told him to do. 

Nevertheless, those who were supposed to support him persecuted him the most about getting a job.  Even Bill Podaras wanted him to only play music for him because his music got the church up and dancing.  He could not convince him to stop preaching, however, so he had Dr. Fulcher preach when he did not want to show up.

Eventually, that backfired. Bill Podarass held a tent meeting in Norfolk, Virginia where the highest attendance over a period of 40 days was 13 people.  He left town for a week to set another crusade up in Baltimore, Maryland and left Dr. Fulcher and Nealy Bishop to preach that week. 

By the time Saturday night arrived, there were about 140 people in attendance because they had heard about this wild and crazy young preacher.  Dr. Fulcher would throw shavings at the audience, skip across the stage, dive off the organ and jump off the top of the speakers.  When Bill Podaras returned and saw how many people were attending, he took over.  The crowd left.  Attendance went back down to 13 people.

Towards the end of 1972, just prior to leaving Bill Podaras, they were in Colorado preaching.  On the way home, while in Kansas City, Missouri, Bill Podaras took ill and had to go to the hospital.  While he was in the hospital, Dr. Fulcher walked the streets of Kansas City all night.  

That night, God spoke to him to tell him how to launch his own ministry that he was called for.  God told him that he had put him with the other ministers for a certain type of Pastoral training for a short period of time. 

The first thing he was supposed to do was respond to a church in Galax, Virginia that had asked him to preach there.  God told Dr. Fulcher that when he was done with the crusade, they would ask him to take over the church for a short while. He didn’t want to be a Pastor of a church because he was enjoying traveling, preaching and playing music. 

It seemed to be a far-fetched idea because it was the Pastor of the church that had asked him to go there.  Dr. Fulcher held services from Wednesday to Sunday that week.  Galax, Virginia was considered to be a place where preachers were unable to get big crowds. Yet the church was packed because he advertised his arrival. 

When it was over, he slowly packed his belongings because he knew they were to ask him to take over the church.  However, no one said anything so he drove away.  He stopped at a restaurant down the road for something to eat, wondering what happened. Had he misunderstood what God had told him?  Just then a car drove by the restaurant at high speed.  

Suddenly the driver of the car locked its brakes and pulled into the restaurant.  It was the Pastor of the church in Galax, Virginia.  He walked up to Dr. Fulcher and said that God had told him that Dr. Fulcher was to take over the church. 

So he went to that church to purge it and clean it, all the while learning how to deal with rebellious hypocrites.  From 1972-1975 he preached to what he considered to be a church full of devils, demons and evil spirits.  He rebuked and reproved, sometimes showing longsuffering and sometimes not.  And he preached doctrine.  The church, considered dead at one time, grew to approximately 140 people.  After it was built up, he preached it down to zero. 

The last sermon he preached there was preached to an empty room because no one showed up.  Since he knew what to expect, he had told his family to stay home.  His last sermon was entitled, “I Indict You.”  So he indicted the whole congregation and shook the dust off of his feet.  He gathered his things and left without locking the door because he did not consider it to be a church anymore.

While he was dealing with this church, he printed his fourth magazine called, “The Key of Deliverance,” dated October-December 1974, and mailed it out.  It was a message of faith and deliverance.  Somehow, a woman, who was the head of a church in Level, Maryland, received the magazine.  It inspired her and the church so much that they contacted Dr. Fulcher by letter telling him that it fed them. 

In the letter, they invited him to preach at their church.  In those days, he was still holding crusades with 30 to 1,500 people in attendance.  However, it did not matter to him.  He preached because God told him to preach. 

So Dr. Fulcher contacted the woman and told her he would preach at her church.  All the while, he was thinking it was a church that needed help because she had told him it was a small church and had very little money.  It did not matter to him, even though he was not making very much money during that time.  He bore the expense and went there for a weekend.  When he arrived, he found out that she was not actually preaching.  She was in charge of the church and searching for a man of God.

In 1975, Dr. Fulcher arrived in Level, Maryland on a Friday.  The first message he preached was called “The Hour of Your Visitation”.  The second message he preached was called “The Gates of Hell”.  He preached, God moved and the church was shocked.  No one had ever heard the things he taught. 

There were some in the congregation who were touched by God that wanted to hear straight, hard truth.  So he was invited back.  And, in that year, he began to go there once a month to preach.  Eventually, he was led by God to go to Level more regularly, so he began to cut back on crusades at other places.  By November of 1975, he was preaching in Havre de Grace, Maryland full time. 

One of the sermons he preached in the beginning years was called “Thermometer Christians.”  This sermon had a profound effect on several of the people who were in the church then.  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 was not easy because, even though they were eager to learn the truth, they were as full of tradition as anyone else.  It took years of strained teaching to get them where they are today. 

Now it is in Havre de Grace, Maryland where Dr. Fulcher founded Truth House Ministries™ Church, Inc. and The Present Testament Ministries™.  He is also the sole agent in charge of all operations for Miracle Deliverance Revival, Inc. in Maryland. 

Realizing the immense potential which short-wave radio has for preaching the gospel to the world, he became one of the first ministers in the modern era ever to use it.   Since then, he has been very instrumental in helping other ministries become involved in short-wave, including Dr. Gene Scott.

In 1978, he was the first minister allowed to broadcast on WRNO and KUSW.  Shortly after that, other ministers began to discover the power of short-wave radio.  Now there are innumerable ministers on short-wave radio. 

However, his show is often rated the number one religious talk show in America by the Monitoring Times Magazine.  Since those early days of his short-wave ministry, his talk show has gone worldwide.  Had it not been for his forward vision, there would probably not have been the ensuing rush of ministers to the short-wave radio ministry. 

Some well-funded ministers back then were trying to preach their message to the world by buying time on AM and FM radio stations in each city.  This practice, of course, was a never-ending battle. 

One minister in particular read one of Dr. Fulcher’s magazines stating that he was covering the world and they wanted to know how he was doing it.  Dr. Fulcher introduced him to short-wave radio.  Since then, that minister has made many short-wave stations wealthy, and owns one of his own in the Caribbean.

Since 1971, when his ministry was just getting started, many people have insisted that Dr. Fulcher’s preaching style was just a fad that would soon pass.  While these people knew that Dr. Fulcher knew the Bible, no one would listen to him.  They said he was young, mean and hard, and did not have any love.   

Now “making it” means different things to different people.  Some people believe that if you do not have a big crowd, you have not “made it.”  Dr. Fulcher has made it, but he made it because of his staunch adherence to the truth.  The truth has made him.  He is a “made” man. 

While his congregation is not large, he is preaching the truth to the entire world through short-wave radio and Internet television.  The people who follow him are dedicated, and love to hear the truth of God’s word being taught.  They are the strongest church in the world.

In 1979, Dr. Fulcher wrote a book called “Pharisee Religion.”  Over the years, he discovered that traditional churches had not only perverted and changed many doctrines of God, but they also preached many rules that were not in the Bible.  These churches were putting people in bondage through their false teachings. 

Traditional churches teach that everything imaginable to man is a sin.  In his book, he exposed their “traditions of men” as false doctrine, and why it put their people in bondage. He began to preach that our salvation is obtained by grace through faith, and proved that the blood of Christ covers our sins. 

He showed that we can do nothing ourselves to obtain grace or keep it.  This message of grace caused many of the people he had fellowshipped with in the past to turn their backs on him.  They preferred the bondage of rules they cannot keep rather than the truth and freedom grace bestows.

In 1985, Dr. Fulcher was the first minister to be invited by the atheistic Soviet government to preach Christianity at their embassy in Tokyo, Japan.  Bob Hoolahan, President of the Assemblies of God missionary division of the PTL ministry, was shocked to hear that he was invited because they had been there for years trying to get in. 

Within 2 weeks of his visit to Japan, Dr. Fulcher was invited to speak at 4 different Bible colleges as well as the Soviet embassy.  Since Bob Hoolahan was very helpful to Dr. Fulcher while he was there, he invited the PTL group to go with him. This act of reciprocity helped them out as well.

From 1985 until 1988 he was plagued with back problems.  He took this opportunity to continue his studies, and earned his doctorate in Bible Knowledge and Religious Philosophy in record time.  His disciplined approach to studying made this possible. 

Yet, his doctoral studies did not add to his knowledge of God. The course of study provided by the United Christian Bible Institute confirmed to Dr. Fulcher that traditional Christianity was full of error. 

In fact, he was often obliged to give what he considered to be wrong answers on his exams.  In the interest of getting passing grades, he provided the answers they wanted to hear.  Sometimes he wrote the real Bible answer next to the answer they wanted. 

He has also talked with Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, and Jim Bakker.  However, he has never worked closely with these ministers and has not spoken to them in more than 20 years.

Dr. Fulcher has preached in almost every major city in the USA, with the exception of Seattle.  He has preached in 7 countries including Mexico, Greece, Japan, Ireland and Israel.  While he was in Israel, he visited all the places Jesus had been and stood on the same spot that Paul stood on Mars hill.

He preached beside the Jordan River, admonishing some women preachers there that the Bible said they should not be preaching.  For three nights in a row he talked with Arabs about the message of Jesus Christ.  He was the only one they would talk to because he knew enough of the Bible to acknowledge that they were also Abraham’s children.

He has appeared on national television with Dr. Gene Scott.  He has ministered and performed alongside many renowned people.  Some of note include: The late Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, Senator Macain of Arizona, Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, Maryland, and singer Merle Haggard. 

He has played music for H. Richard Hall, as well as the late A. A. Allen and also been on stage with the “Singing Rambos.”  Over the past 30 years, he has appeared on stage with innumerable well-known people in the entertainment field as well as the ministry.

He has written 32 books, and is the Editor-In-Chief of the Present Testament Magazine™, which is distributed in 13 countries.  Dr. Fulcher teaches God’s word on WorldWide Short-Wave Radio for a total of 8 hours a week, 7 days a week. 

His short-wave talk show is heard by millions of people in over 100 countries around the world.  He said, “I feel very honored and blessed that God has allowed me to walk the path he has.  However, nothing takes the place of ministering the Present Day Truth”. 

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 a witness.  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.”

Dr. Fulcher intends to continue to use short-wave radio to teach the plan of salvation, which is grace and faith, and to show people that their own works will not save them.  He will also continue teaching theological revelations from God’s word, and on The Great Pyramid in Egypt, Atlantis, Homer’s Odyssey, Plato, Socrates and other points of philosophy. 

Dr. Fulcher will use all these teachings to show that God is in control and that his word is right.  In addition, he will reveal that science actually proves God’s word is right, and that it is the traditional churches’ doctrine that blocks the understanding of God.       

He is one of the few preachers, if not the only one on short-wave radio, who strives to bring dignity, honor and respect back to God’s word, purely because it is God’s word.  Many churches and ministries resort to gimmicks such as building programs, orphanage programs and other programs to raise money. 

He wants people to give strictly for the teaching and because they love God’s word.  Dr. Fulcher feels that his greatest accomplishment, whether in the music field or in the ministry, is when people say he teaches God’s Word in a way that they can understand it!

Here is my link to Truth House Ministry Church, Inc that I Pastor over.

www.truthhouse.org