A True Cult

Please see the note at the bottom of this page.

I. Lewd behavior and lewd doctrines

Darwin in a goofy poseScripture says self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). The apostle Paul wrote, "That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God" (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5). Proverbs 5:18 gives this command to husbands: "Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife [not "wives"] of thy youth." Ecclesiastes 9:9 says, "Live joyfully with the wife [not "wives"] whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun." Malachi 2:14-15 says, "the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife [not "wives"] of his youth."

But Darwin Fish's ideas of sex and marriage are perverted (Titus 3:11). He justifies sexual self-gratification through masturbation and insists that the Bible condones polygamy and the keeping of concubines. Thus he turns the "grace of our God into lewdness" (Jude 4). In his article justifying masturbation, Fish writes,

God has made a way for even those who are not married (male or female) to at least somewhat satisfy the sexual drive via masturbation. It is oppressive to teach that such an act is against the will of God.

But Scripture says it is a sin to use the body for self-gratification, rather than reserving it exclusively for the pleasure of one's spouse: "Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Corinthians 7:3-4).

Sexual self-gratification is also a violation of the biblical principle of sexual self-control (1 Corinthians 7:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Darwin Fish speaks against the Word of God when he advocates masturbation as a means of sexual self-satisfaction. Since Fish pretends to despise all forms of self-love and has condemned many others as lovers of themselves, his error is compounded by the sin of gross hypocrisy.

In another article defending the practice of polygamy, Fish writes,

"It's a good thing to find a wife, and who's to say it's a bad thing to find more than one? God doesn't say any such thing, and neither should we."

It is a lie to say, "God doesn't say any such thing." Jesus said God ordained marriage as a union between two people:

"Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?" (Matthew 19:4-5).

Jesus went on to say,

"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery (v. 9).

Notice what our Lord is saying: an unlawful divorce doesn't nullify a marriage. Since the original couple is still deemed married by God, a second marriage is adulterous. Jesus' argument would make no sense whatsoever if He viewed polygamy as acceptable. So when Darwin claims "God doesn't say" . . . "it's a bad thing to find more than one [wife]," he lies and calls Jesus a liar. Jesus plainly says in Matthew 19 that it is a bad thing to have more than one wife.

The apostle Paul agrees: "Let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband" (1 Corinthians 7:2).

Why did God permit polygamy in the Old Testament, and even give laws that dealt with polygamous unions (Deuteronomy 21:15)? For the same reason He permitted divorce: "because of the hardness of your hearts . . . [B]ut from the beginning it was not so" (Matthew 19:8; cf. Acts 17:30). God gave Adam only one wife. Noah and his sons had only one wife apiece (1 Peter 3:20). That is God's plan for marriage—"two shall become one flesh"—according to Jesus. Darwin Fish has rejected the plain teaching of Jesus.

In the Old Testament, God expressly forbade the king of Israel to "multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away" (Deuteronomy 17:17). David disobeyed that commandment, and the consequences of his polygamy included not only the struggle with lust that led to his sin with Bath-Sheba, but also a case of incest and murder among his own children (2 Samuel 13), and treason and public disgrace from his own son (2 Samuel 16). Solomon also disobeyed that commandment, and his sins of polygamy destroyed him and divided his kingdom (1 Kings 11:3-4).

But Darwin Fish mangles the Word of God by claiming that David's polygamy is exonerated by verses like 1 Kings 15:5 ("David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite") and 1 Kings 11:6 ("Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David.") According to Fish, those verses mean David "was not disobedient against the Lord" when he multiplied wives in violation of Deuteronomy 17:17.

But 1 Kings 15:5 cannot mean that the incident with Uriah was David's only sin ever, because elsewhere Scripture clearly states—in David's own words—that he also sinned greatly when he numbered Israel (2 Samuel 24:10). The verse in 1 Kings 15 is simply saying that the Uriah episode was the one great blight on David's character and reputation. It left David with a lasting reproach and permanently sullied his name. Although his guilt was taken away, the reproach of that sin was never removed (2 Samuel 12:13-14; Proverbs 6:32-33). Far from suggesting that David's polygamy was acceptable to God, the verse indicts David for a web of sin and deceit that included a polygamous marriage—a sin whose foundation was laid by the culture of polygamy.

So Darwin Fish is in serious error when he teaches that polygamy and concubinage violate no principle of Scripture. His teaching encourages the sinful tendency of married men to look at women other than their wives as objects of desire—while also giving them permission to masturbate rather than exercising self-control and saving their bodies exclusively for their wives (1 Corinthians 7:4-5). And by this, Darwin Fish turns the grace of God into lewdness (Jude 4).

II. Damning Idolatry

Darwin Fish worships a god of his own making. The Fish-god is not the God of Scripture. Fish writes,

Contrary to popular opinion . . . God is a man.

He cites Exodus 15:3 as proof: "The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name." Misinterpreting the expression "man of war," Darwin Fish sets Exodus 15:3 in direct contradiction to Numbers 23:19 ("God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent") and 1 Samuel 15:29 ("The Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.") Fish rejects the clear statement of those texts, saying they mean merely that God is not a mortal man.

Darwin Fish has deliberately humanized God, in contradiction to the Bible's teaching that God is an eternal, invisible, omnipresent Spirit (1 Timothy 1:17; John 4:24; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 11:27; 1 John 4:12; John 1:18), who is not confined to time or space (1 Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:23-24). Denying the plain truth of all those passages, Darwin Fish insists that God dwells in a literal, material, localized human form, with a flesh-and-blood human body. Fish quotes John 5:37 ("And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form")—and writes,

Does this [the word "form"] indicate that the Father also has a body? Yes it does.

Fish goes on to list a number of biblical anthropomorphisms, claiming these prove God has fleshly body parts:

In Genesis 6:6; 8:21; 1 Samuel 2:35; 13:14; Jeremiah 8:18-19 and Hosea 11:8 the Lord speaks of His heart. He also speaks of His heart in Isaiah 16:10-11; 63:15; and Jeremiah 31:20, but in these passages "heart" (NKJV) comes from a Hebrew word which is more literally rendered "inward parts," "internal organs," or "bowels" (e.g. see the KJV for these verses, and also note Jeremiah 4:19). In Jeremiah 9:1 He speaks of His head and eyes ("Oh that My head were waters, and My eyes a fountain of tears," see verse 3 that it is the Lord who is speaking). In Jeremiah 23:9 He speaks of His heart and bones (see verses 7 & 11 that it is God speaking, "says the Lord"). In Exodus 24:10; 2 Samuel 22:10 and Nahum 1:3 His feet are mentioned. 2 Kings 19:28; Psalm 18:6; 34:15; 78:1; 130:2; Isaiah 37:29; Ezekiel 8:18; and 1 Peter 3:12 mention His ears. His nostrils are mentioned in Exodus 15:8; Psalm 18:8, 15; and Isaiah 65:5. Ezekiel 1:27 and 8:2 speak of His waist. His mouth is mentioned in Psalm 18:8; 33:6; 119:13, 72, 88; 138:4; Proverbs 2:6; Isaiah 1:20; 45:23; 48:3; 55:11; 58:14; 62:2; Jeremiah 9:20; 23:16; and Micah 4:4. His arm and voice are mentioned in Job 40:9. 1 Samuel 2:35 and Jeremiah 15:1 speaks of the mind of the Lord. His fingers are mentioned in Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10; and Psalm 8:3. His hands are mentioned in Job 34:19; Psalm 95:5; 102:25; 111:7; 119:73; 138:8; Isaiah 45:11-12; 49:16; and 65:2. Obviously, there are many references to the body parts of God, and each one of these references may refer to the Father or the Son, or both (Colossians 2:2 KJV or NKJV).

But when Scripture speaks of the arm of the Lord, it contrasts His arm with an arm of flesh (2 Chronicles 32:8; Job 40:9; Isaiah 31:3). God cannot be a flesh-and-blood being, for Jesus said to Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:17). In fact, the Bible says, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." Jesus said, "God is Spirit" (John 4:24, not "God has a Spirit), and "a spirit hath not flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39).

Darwin's laughable attempts to explain away the clear meaning of those verses fail, especially in light of Philippians 2:5-9, which says Christ deemed equality with God nothing to be grasped and took on the form of a man. If God were already a man, what was the point of the incarnation? Why did the Father need to "prepare" a human body for Christ (Hebrews 10:5) if He already eternally had one?

Darwin's attempt to humanize and materialize God is similar to—and probably worse than—Open Theism's brand of humanist theology. Both heresies deny the Bible's use of figurative language to describe God. The Open Theists make the Bible's anthropopathisms literal, suggesting that God has fluctuating emotions and changing thoughts. Darwin Fish makes the anthropomorphisms literal, claiming God is a material being.

Is God a literal rock (Ps. 18:31)—an inanimate stone? Darwin's main henchman, Al Soto, once answered that question affirmatively (see Al Soto's post on Factnet, Friday, January 10, 2003). Thus the Fishites are guilty of rank idolatry—worshiping a god of their own making, remade in the image of man. They are a short step away from worshiping a god made of inanimate stone.

Darwin Fish's teaching also denies the triune nature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 28:19; Isaiah 48:16; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 2:18). Fish writes,

THE "TRINITY" FALLS SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.

This is a HOT one! The Bible NEVER uses this term, and typically how this term is used today, it falls short of what is revealed in the Word of God about who God is. . . . There are seven spirits describing the Holy Spirit clearly portrayed in Scripture.

Elsewhere, Fish describes the "the seven Spirits which are before [God's] throne" (Revelation 1:4) as seven persons:

There is one Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:4), but this one Holy Spirit is plural in who He is (as God is plural in who He is).

Since God's "plurality" involves three distinguishable persons, Darwin's teaching suggests that the Holy Spirit has multiple personalities. Based on a twisted misinterpretation of three verses in Revelation, he ends up with at least nine Persons in the Trinity. That is the same doctrine once taught by Benny Hinn (though Hinn did the math a little differently).

But there is zero evidence in Scripture that the Holy Spirit has multiple personalities. The three proof-texts Darwin cites say nothing about multiple personhood in the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Bible clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is One Person with one will and one mind (1 Corinthians 12:11; Romans 8:27): "By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). "through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). The doctrine of the Trinity that Darwin Fish rejects is clearly included in Ephesians 4:4-6: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

Yet Fish suggests that the Holy Spirit "is plural . . .as God is plural"—and God's "plurality" involves three distinct Persons. What Darwin is teaching goes miles beyond what Scripture actually states—and that is the very thing he professes to abhor. Thus he demonstrates his own hypocrisy, as well as his damning idolatry.

III. A Different, Damning Gospel

Darwin Fish preaches a gospel that diminishes what Christ has done on behalf of His people and places all the emphasis on what the sinner must do. It is a gospel of works, where "grace is no longer grace. . . If it is of works, it is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6). Fish teaches that the righteousness of Christ alone is not a sufficient ground for justification before God, but that the believer must also bring a righteousness of his own to the throne of God's judgment in order to receive eternal life.

In Fish's system, Christ offers forgiveness for sins, but the "believer" is on his own when it comes to acquiring meritorious righteousness. This is classic Roman Catholic teaching. Fish writes,

On the day of judgment, those who are His will not only have their sin already washed away by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7) so that there will be no condemnation (Romans 8:1), but, granted they live any length of time, they will also have behind them a life filled with the righteousness of God (Romans 10:10). In other words, their words, thoughts, and actions will have exemplified a godly holy life (Psalm 15), and they will be justified, just as Abraham was justified by works (James 2:21-24).

Darwin Fish's hope is therefore in his own righteousness, unlike the apostle Paul, who counted his own righteousness as dung and said his great hope was to "be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:10). Paul wrote, "To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). The Fishites are working for salvation, and according to Scripture, those who work will receive the wages of their works (Romans 4:4)—works of "righteousness" that are but filthy rags in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6). And the wages of that kind of "righteousness" is death (Romans 6:23).

Darwin Fish has corrupted James 2:21-24 in precisely the same way Roman Catholicism does. When James wrote that "Abraham our father [was] justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar" (v. 21), he was not saying Abraham was justified before God and granted eternal life because of his works. James is speaking of Abraham's justification before men. Genesis 15:6 is where we are told that Abraham "believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." That justification took place years before the birth of Isaac in Genesis 21:2. So the "justification" James refers to in James 2:21 is the proof of Abraham's faith before men. James establishes his meaning clearly in James 2:18: "But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Then after citing Abraham's obedience in being willing to sacrifice Isaac, he says (v. 23), "And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God"—because his actions proved the reality of his faith and established before men what had already been established by God's decree: that God had befriended and fully justified Abraham, counting him fully righteous, through faith alone (Genesis 15:6).

Darwin Fish further agrees with Roman Catholicism in confusing the imputed righeousness that pertains to justification with the practical righteousness of sanctification. Flatly contradicting Romans 4:5, he claims that imputed righteousness "not only includes the forgiveness of sins (Romans 4:7-8), but also practical righteous living." Thus he makes the believer's own works a false ground for justification, contradicting Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:8-9, and a host of other New Testament passages.

Darwin Fish's emphasis on human works in salvation causes him to miss the full significance of Christ's vicarious work on believers' behalf. Fish's system requires sinners to produce a righteousness of their own in order to be fully justified. Referring to the parable in Matthew 22:2-14, Fish writes,

What does the "wedding garment" represent? It represents "the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:7-8). This man was found without the required "righteous acts" in his life, and he is therefore bound hand and foot and cast into hell (Revelation 21:8). The scariest part about this parable is the fact that he actually made it into the wedding hall! For all practical purposes, it appeared that he had entered the kingdom of God. Yet, when examined, he is rejected and cast to the abode of hypocrites, that place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 24:51).

So in Fish's system, the believer's own works are the necessary ground of justification. Badly misinterpreting Revelation 19:8, and taking that verse out of context to apply it to the parable in Matthew 22, Fish insists the believer's own works are a suitable garment of righteousness before God. Scripture clearly teaches that "all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6), so our works cannot be an adequate covering (Isaiah 59:6). Isaiah 61:10 says, "My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." The garment of righteousness is therefore not our own "righteous acts," but the Lord's own righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9).

But in Fish's system, the sinner must bring works of his own to the table in order to be justified. The false gospel Fish proclaims is therefore exactly the same gospel Paul anathematized in Galatians 1:8-9. It is not the gospel Paul preached according to Romans 4:4-5, Philippians 3:1-10, and 1 Corinthians 2:2.

In fact, far from preaching only "Christ and Him crucified," Darwin Fish's preaching emphasizes several other favorite subjects of Darwin Fish: doctrinal perfectionism (with the standard of "perfection" being Darwin's own twisted perversions of Scripture); God's hatred; Darwin Fish's hatred of Christianity; the errors of other teachers; and the necessity of absolute fealty to Darwin Fish—while portraying these things as the necessary "righteousness" for final justification at the judgment seat of Christ. In a post made to a Web forum on October 04, 2002, Al Soto spoke for Darwin and all other Fishites: "If you do not believe like we do and follow our doctrine you cannot be saved." That is a hellish corruption of biblical truth.

Fish furthermore tries to foster fear in his followers with this same notion that the believer's ultimate salvation depends not on divine grace, but on the believer's own efforts at endurance. One of Fish's disciples has written, "[Christ's] words terrify me still, as He said that many will seek to enter the narrow gate and will not be able."

But Scripture says, "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4:17-18).

Stoking the fear that they might end up in hell even after trusting Christ is one of the main ways Darwin Fish rules his cult. Note that one of Fish's chief complaints against John MacArthur is the false accusation that MacArthur is guilty of "watering down" the fear of God. MacArthur has pointed out that a righteous fear of God is motivated by reverence and awe rather than a craven loathing or a revulsive kind of horror. Fish seems to assume that "reverent" fear is somehow less "fearful" than the terror he wants to instill in his followers, so he accuses MacArthur of denying that believers really need to fear God.

But those familiar with MacArthur's teaching know that he frequently cites passages like Luke 5:8; Matthew 17:6; Revelation 1:17, etc. to show that Godly fear produces trembling, and dread, and terror (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:11). In his book The Love of God, MacArthur writes:

Scripture tells us repeatedly that fear of God is the very foundation of true wisdom (Job 28:28; Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 15:33; Mic. 6:9). People often try to explain the sense of those verses away by saying that the "fear" called for is a devout sense of awe and reverence [devoid of anything like real fear]. Certainly the fear of God includes awe and reverence, but it does not exclude literal holy terror. "It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread" (Isa. 8:13).

We must recapture some of the holy terror that comes with a right understanding of God's righteous anger. We need to remember that God's wrath does burn against impenitent sinners (Ps. 38:1-3). That reality is the very thing that makes His love so wonderful. We must therefore proclaim these truths with the same sense of conviction and fervency we employ when we declare the love of God. It is only against the backdrop of divine wrath that the full significance of God's love can be truly understood. That is precisely the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. After all, it was on the cross that God's love and His wrath converged in all their majestic fullness.

So Darwin Fish is lying when he claims "MacArthur waters down the fear of God into a 'reverential awe' excluding the 'terror' that Job speaks of."

What Macarthur opposes (and what he was refuting in the snippet Fish cites from his Matthew commentary) is the teaching of false teachers like Darwin Fish who attempt to foster craven fear—the kind of fear Darwin's disciple admitted he is tormented with. Compare James 2:19: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe; and tremble!" That kind of fear will not help Mr. Fish's followers in the day of judgment.

IV. Anti-Christian Hatred

Darwin Fish admits that he hates Christianity. He writes,

We unashamedly stand OUTSIDE what is called "Christianity" today. As Jesus rejected and opposed what was called "Judaism" in His day (Matthew 23; John chapters 5, 8, & 10; etc.), so we reject and oppose what is called "Christianity" in this present evil age (Philippians 2:15). . . . Therefore, so that you might know where we stand, and for the record, we want it to be very clear, that we reject the false Christianity of our day and hate it (Psalm 119:104).

What we teach and stand upon (i.e. the Word of God) sets us apart from the lies, hypocrisy, and deceit that has prevailed upon the "Church" (both now and in its history).

Despite Darwin Fish's arrogant claim, he is himself guilty of "lies, hypocrisy, and deceit," as we have shown. He is so blinded by hatred for the people of God that he refuses to recognize anyone as an authentic Christian in 2,000 years of church history. Far from being distressed by this, he glories in it. He says,

We have yet to meet any other disciples of Christ who we are convinced are among those who continue in the faith. . . . To our recollection, we have not yet met a believer that was already in the truth before they met us. Hopefully, we will some day. So far, everyone we have met has been in some way caught in the deceit of this age (2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3; 2 Peter 2:2). We ourselves were caught in such deception, but the Lord delivered us from those who speak perverse things; and He continues to deliver us (Proverbs 2:12).

Meanwhile, the Fishites have exchanged the message of the gospel for an ungodly message of pure hatred. The central theme of his Web site, his picket signs, the tracts his cult distributes, and virtually everything his followers post in Web forums, is hate.

Darwin and his cohorts love to talk about God's hate, and they hate to talk about God's love. They have turned what the Bible teaches about God's character on its head, so that the god they proclaim is a trigger-happy killer who generally hates humanity and delights in judgment and damnation. The posters Darwin displays in his public picketing typically say things like "Jesus Caused 9-11-01"; "God Kills"; "God is Angry"; and so on.

Darwin thinks the Bible teaches that believers should be hateful, too. In his article on Kieth Green, Darwin writes, "Keith did not trust in the Lord. If he had, he would have hated Catholics, especially the priests." Darwin loves to quote Psalm 119:104, 128: "I hate every false way." He also quotes Psalm 139:21-22 to justify making people the object of his own human hatred. And the way Darwin teaches his followers to "hate"—including the way he himself models hatred—is an ungodly, unkind, philistine kind of hatred that is puffed up with egotism and self-conceit, and has no proper place in the lives of any of Christ's followers (see Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:14, 20-21; 1 Peter 2:23, etc.).

The group's undue obsession with hate is made even more notable by their almost complete silence about God's love or the believer's love for his neighbors. When this was pointed out to Al Soto in an on-line forum he replied, "OK, I miss your point here. God hates....right? That's what Scripture teaches. If God hates then.....uh....He is hateful."

Converts to Darwin's cult often become overtly hateful to relatives and friends who express any concerns. According to close family members, the young wife of one convert was told by several men in the cult that she was a "whore, stubborn and going to hell with her baby if she did not move to Fish's church. She did not move. [She] is a young, tiny, woman with a baby. Three or four, counting [her husband], went into her home and took all her furnishings and fridge, and food from fridge, took the firewood outside, and left this girl who has been married only one year with a baby. [She is now living] with her unworking Mom and disabled stepdad, who lives in a one-bedroom unit."

But Scripture says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). Believers are commanded to love even their enemies (Matthew 5:44). Darwin Fish's disobedience to that command can be seen in the abusive way he and Al Soto treat all who disagree with them. In doing this, they think they are doing God a service. But that is because they do not know God (cf. John 16:2-3).

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

Romans 16:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:5, 16, 23; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; Titus 3:10; and 2 John 10-12 all say that we should turn away from such a man. We beg you, please do.

"You have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19, see also "The Heart of the Gospel: Romans 3:21-31""")

Exposing the Errors of a true cult

Darwin Fish: The FAQ http://www.atruecult.com/dfishfaq.htm

A note from Phil Johnson: In May 2018 I took this part of my website offline because I could not keep up with the sweeping changes that were affecting the Fishite Cult, and the cult (inappropriately calling themselves "A True Church") had diminished to virtual insignificance. One of the group's two key founding members, Al Soto (who was mentioned on almost every page of my original exposé) had left the group, repented of his involvement there, and (for a time at least) was pursuing discipleship in a Bible-believing church. I didn't think it fair to keep polemical material online in perpetuity, attributing to Mr. Soto positions he had renounced.
     My understanding at the time was that Darwin Fish's authority as the group's teacher had diminished because one of his daughters abandoned "the faith." It's been difficult since then to get definitive information about what is happening in the group and what they teach. They went through a period of political activism in the Trump years, but Darwin himself seems now to have returned to proselytizing for his sinister brand of religion.
     In 2022 I received some trolling messages on Twitter from a character who apparently had joined the cult and adopted the same overweening argumentative style as some of the original Fishites. So I've decided to restore these pages and let them stand as my answer to any person foolish enough to consider joining this sect.
     Note that some of the names and details regarding specific individuals in the cult are now out of date. Everyone I corresponded with from the cult from 1994-2010 (including Darwin Fish himself) has gone through some kind of disastrous spiritual and moral meltdown, most have left the group, and at least one cult member literally committed suicide. So please continue to pray that all the individuals and families who have been spiritually confused, led astray, and even permanently damaged by this cult will find true redemption through the simple gospel of Jesus Christ.
Darwin Fish's Shocking Lewdness

(May 2003)

lewd (lood) adj. lewd·er, lewd·est. 1.a. Preoccupied with sex and sexual desire; lustful. b. Obscene; indecent. 2. Obsolete. Wicked.

Darwin Fish is the founder and overlord of a group that call themselves "a true church"—a small house-church cult that was based for several years in Lake Hughes, CA—but they moved to a rural area between Peggs and Moodys, Oklahoma, sometime before the autumn of 2009. Under Darwin's leadership, members of "a true church" picket churches, religious meetings, and other large public events, trying to draw people into their cult and under Darwin's dominion.

By the standard to which he holds others, Darwin Fish is a false teacher (2 Peter 2:1); a cloud without water; a tree whose fruit withers, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; a raging wave of the sea, foaming out his own shame—leading himself, and everyone who follows him, into the blackness of darkness forever (Jude 13). The following documents some of Fish's lewdness and false doctrine.

Fishites