John Robert Stevens wrote when he was just 14 years old: “My joy must be in doing His will, in being His slave, in the confidence that whatever comes to me, when following Him, is His doing. In a real sense, I make Him responsible for my life.” He was writing about Jesus Christ, but it would turn out in the decades following that he could well have been writing to his future devotees as to how they should feel about himself.

UPDATE: The Oops! I'm in a Cult podcast found that John Robert Stevens' 'To Be a Christian' was plagiarised word for word from this text, published in 1897.

Full research sources listed here. You can support us on Patreon or Acast+, with a one-off donation, or grab some merch. Sarah Steel's debut book Do As I Say is available on audiobook now.

With thanks to Audio-Technica, presenting partner for season 3 of Let's Talk About Sects.

Links:

• I Saw Satan: Breaking away from a Boomer Christian cult — by Andrew Marzoni, The Baffler, No. 44, March 2019
• Vain Glory — documentary film by Tony Cox, 1986
• A Brief History of The Living Word Fellowship — internet archive of The Living Word Fellowship’s now defunct website
• The Life of John Robert Stevens — website about John Robert Stevens by The Living Word, “a California nonprofit corporation”, accessed February 2020
• Frequently Asked Questions — Shiloh website, accessed February 2020
• An Open Letter to The Living Word Fellowship Congregation — from Shalom Abrahamson-Caples, 24 October 2018
• Shalom Abrahamson-Caples’ Facebook post — linking to the open letter, 25 October 2018
• Comparison of ‘To Be a Christian’ and excerpt from ‘The Call of the Cross’ — comparing John Robert Stevens’ 1933 text and George Herron’s 1892 text

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