Foundation Church of the Divine Truth,
Inc.
The Foundation Church of the Divine Truth, Inc. is one of
two organizations that emerged out of the organizational chaos
that beset the Foundation Church of the New Birth beginning
in 1982. In that year, the sole surviving trustee of the church,
Rev. John Paul Gibson, died. Leadership passed to Victor Summers.
Since its founding, the headquarters and most of the
leadership of the church had been in Washington, D.C. However,
in 1983 Summers moved first to San Diego, California, and
then to Lake Helen, Florida. He then resigned from all church
offices and disbanded the church.
Members in the Washington, D.C., area who did not accept
Summerss actions reorganized as the New Birth Christian
Healing Sanctuary and were granted permission to receive the
Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed. Foundation Church of the Divine Truth, Inc.
583
mail directed to the former churchs postal mail box. Then in
1985 nine former members founded the Foundation Church
of Divine Truth as the successor to the former Foundation
Church of the New Birth.
The Foundation Church is based upon channeled messages
believed to be from Jesus Christ, a selection of high celestial
spirits, and other spirits received through James Edward Padgett
(18521923). Padgett was a Methodist Sunday School
teacher who had become interested in Spiritualism following
the death of his wife in 1914. Advised to begin practicing automatic
writing, he soon became adept at it. Shortly thereafter,
he received a message, purportedly from Jesus Christ, telling
him to pray for an inflowing of the Fathers divine love. Padgett
was told that he had been selected to disseminate the Fathers
truths to humankind.
Padgett channeled some 1,500 messages between 1914 and
1923. The manuscripts were left in the care of an associate, Leslie
R. Stone. Stone saw to the publication in 1940 of a selection
of the channeled material under the title True Gospel Revealed
Anew by Jesus. Subsequently three other volumes, the last published
in 1972, appeared. These four volumes are believed by
church members to constitute Christs second coming.
The message of the Padgett channelings flows from Spiritualism
and affirms the continuity of the soul after death, and its
life and continued growth in the spirit realm. The soul progresses
through various realms to paradise (the sixth realm).
Should it seek to be filled with the divine love of the Creator,
it may then progress to the celestial heavens. In heaven it is
conscious of its immortality and continues to receive inflowings
of the divine essence of the Father. Jesus mission on Earth was
to make known the possibilities of divine love to all persons.
It has several hundred members in the United States, Canada,
England, Nigeria, and Togo. It has published a new edition
of Padgetts writings under the title Angelic Revelations of Divine
Truth. A second group of followers of the Padgett teachings was
organized in 1991 under the churchs original name. Currently,
the Foundation Church functions as a through-the-mail,
nonprofit Christian Spiritualist foundation. It may be contacted
at PO Box 66003, Washington, D.C. 20035-6003.
Sources
Padgett, James E. True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus. 4 vols.
Washington, D.C. Foundation Church of the New Birth,
195872.
