Franklin Walden - Teaching Baal Worship

Today we decided to add “Dr.” Franklin Walden to “False Teachers Exposed” (this came to me in the night last night). As it turns out, he passed away at age 76 only 76 days ago today, and their site reports that his son, Franklin Jr., is succeeding him. A remarkable timing with our decision when we had no idea he had just died.

Here is a mark of a false teacher - one who has his son succeed his “ministry.” If a ministry is of God, it is not succeeded by anyone, much less a family member. It ends with the minister who was called and who performed his duty by God’s grace.

Examples of falsehood are Franklin Graham succeeding his father, Billy Graham; Donny Swaggart succeeding Jimmy Swaggart; Jimmy Bakker’s son riding on his coattails; Richard Roberts following in the steps of Oral Roberts; Robert Schuller’s son following him, being his spitting image, not only in appearance, but also in personality and presentation, though apparently not in “vision” - Senior has this year dismissed Junior because of that lack of agreement.

But we don’t need any proof of a false ministry by the time the sons follow in the footsteps of their fathers. There is plenty to warn us long before; the original tree will have been bearing much telling fruit a long time for all to see who have eyes to see.

Here is the record of what happened at the church meeting conducted by Franklin Walden:

In 1980, Art and Doreen Beals called, inviting us to a meeting at the Mount Zion Apostolic Church at the north end of Winnipeg. Their friend from Georgia, Franklin Walden, would be preaching there. We went.

Franklin was trying to preach like a Negro preacher, with passion and theatrics. He added the Negroid language and voice characteristics, which Caucasians do not have. It was all show, and we could not enter into the atmosphere of the meeting. People were all shouting, singing, praising, and raising their hands, as is often the case at Pentecostal meetings.

When Art and Doreen saw that we were not falling in and flowing with it, they were offended and accused us of disturbing the “moving of the spirit,” in which case, they said, we would jeopardize souls being saved.

At the end of the service, most people were responding to the “altar call,” going forward and raising their hands toward Franklin Walden as he stood there; he seemed to be taking all the worship and praise for himself from those in front of him.

As we watched the people at the front, the Lord spoke to me saying, “This is a Baal worship service.” I was floored. I knew He was not speaking figuratively. It was actually what it was.

When I later asked Art about Walden’s black preaching style, he explained that Walden preached as the blacks like to hear it, because he preached to many blacks in Georgia. Was he being all things to all men, or was he a manpleaser? If I am to believe the Lord's words, I would have to say the latter.

In pondering the Lord’s Word to me about Baal worship, He revealed to me that it was essentially hero worship. People in the churches are following men and worshipping those who are charismatic, impressive, or outstanding, like Billy Graham, T. D. Jakes, John Hagee, and Joyce Meyer, political leaders, movie and sports stars, and so forth. They look after the outward appearance. Those who excel in the flesh often seek to be, and are, worshipped. The greater crime is that in religious circles, these things are done in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was about this time that the Lord gave me another shocking revelation. The ancient false gods worshipped by Israel in Biblical days are being worshipped today in all Christian churches, as well as by all nonChristian religions. These false gods are called Ashtoreth (the goddess of love, fertility, and prosperity) and Baal (the hero god).

Christians worship these gods, yet think they are worshipping Jesus Christ. They worship heroes (Baals) such as prominent televangelists, for example, and walk in false love (Ashtoreth). The love in which they walk is not the love of God, but a feigned and self-righteous one, the counterfeit spirit from Satan, who comes as an angel of light. What is worse is that they do it in the Lord’s Name.

That is what the Lord showed us about Franklin Walden, a man who taught others to sin, teaching them to worship false gods in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Victor Hafichuk
October 31, 2009