• Doctrinal Roots: Wellspring Church's teaching on Sonship traces back to William Branham’s heretical Manifest Sons of God doctrine, emphasizing elite Christians who achieve higher spiritual status through obedience and performance.

• Performance-Based: Members are taught that maturity and “Sonship” must be earned by submission and good works, twisting scripture to make spiritual approval conditional rather than rooted in grace.

• Biblical Correction: Scripture (Gal. 3:26; 4:4–7) affirms that believers are already sons and heirs through faith in Christ - not by human effort, but by God’s completed work.

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A  prominent leader and faith healer in the 'New Order of the Latter Rain' revival was a man named William Branham. He claimed to have interactions with an 'angel' that directed him (similar to Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism). Some regarded him as a prophet however he authored many strange and heretical teachings. He denied the Trinity and developed a heretical doctrine called the "Manifest Sons of God". Variations of this teaching are still found in some Pentecostal and Independent churches. 

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Norman H. James (and thus Wellspring Church) teaching on 'Sonship' is rooted in Branham's heretical teaching on the Manifest Sons of God. While Norman James' version of this teaching was watered down and had variation, any inspection of Branham's teaching will show the obvious connection between the 'Sonship' teachings at Wellspring and the "Manifest Sons of God" doctrine developed by Brahnam and popularized in the Latter Rain Movement.

 

The key point is that top level, elite Christians become 'Sons of God' who will rule in the next life. One becomes a 'Son of God' through obedience to church leadership and performing well in this life. One can lose their 'Sonship' through disobedience or rejection of church leadership.

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In Wellspring Church theology, there is a concept that once you are born again, you are only a babe in Christ. This is true in the maturing sense of the word. Like a babe, we start off with the pure milk of the word. We make messes. We have to learn how to walk. It is indeed a process. Our lifelong goal is to progress and go on to maturity.

 

But Wellspring Church goes a step further and makes the claim that not only are you a babe in maturity level, you are also only a babe positionally. Eternal reward is reserved in full for those who attain to mature sonship. This kind of sonship is tied to erroneous concepts of adoption and reward and selective proof texts using various Greek words that describe children.

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First, there is the Greek term, 'nepios', which is a babe. Wellspring Church teaches that this refers to a new convert and also a born again believer who never deals with his flesh”, “learns to submit” or “presses on”. Then there is 'teknon', which is a generic term for child.

 

Finally, there is 'huois'. This word denotes a mature son, who knows the will and ways of the Father and can be trusted with carrying out His ways.  William Branham (and Wellspring Church)  developed a concept of this term that blends truth with error and fashions a performance based ladder of submission, obedience to authority and following arbitrary standards in order to achieve this special exalted, overcoming position in the eternal Kingdom of God.

 

The 'huois', or mature son, is used interchangeably with the concept of those who have “been converted”, “the overcomers”, “the manchild”, and “those who will rule and reign with Christ”.

 

Wellspring Church teaches the concept that if you work hard enough, overcome sin, submit to authority, don’t get offended, suppress your feelings, then you have proven to God that you can handle being one of His 'Sons', a trusted leader in the Millennial Kingdom.

 

They teach that at the 3 ½ year point of the tribulation all of these elite Christians will be ‘revealed’ while the rest of the Christians will continue to go through the last half of the tribulation. They base this on a unique interpretation of Revelation 12, where the woman is the church, the elite Christians are the first born Manchild and the rest of the woman’s offspring are those Christians who get ‘caught up to speed’ on the ‘true gospel’ and come out of the church at large into the special Wellspring gospel understanding during the last half of the Tribulation. These, 'late comers' will be protected, however, during the remaining portion of the tribulation. Wellspring Church does not believe in a rapture of the church at the beginning of the Seven Year Tribulation.

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These Revealed Sons are the ones that God will use as leaders and they will rule over the rest of the Christians and people born and living under Millennial rule during the 1,000 year reign of Christ. Wellspring Church  believes that these 'overcomers' will rule and reign with a rod of iron, along with Jesus Christ.

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They take the completed work of Christ and add to it a list of do’s and don’ts, subtly replacing the easy yoke of salvation by grace alone with the heavy burden of a never good enough, exhausting hamster wheel religion. There is no Sabbath rest in their way of thinking.

 

We will not belabor the point of developing the concept further. You know the selective scriptures that are used to set up the lifelong effort of “working out your salvation with fear and trembling”. Norman James preached a 3 part series on this subject entitled, 'The Revealing of the Sons'. Chris Otis preached on the topic as well. The selected scriptures used in this teaching places the onus on you and your performance, not on the completed work of Christ. They fail to balance their view of earned position in the Kingdom with the fact that we do not overcome by what we do, but solely by the blood of the Lamb. When we get to heaven, we are, as the hymn says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

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We would like to leave this subject with a careful look at a passage of scripture that can truly free you from viewing sonship as something that has to be earned. It as a gift, completely provided for you entirely by the work of Christ on the cross.  Let’s look at Galatians 4:1-7. This portion of scriptures is used at Wellspring to drive home the concept that congregants are initially immature babes and children and if they will just listen to and obey the leadership, then there will come times in their life that they will be recognized (with a pastoral complement, or a prophetic direction, or increased position) as having matured.

 

Members live for these sparse times of approval. They are the carrot that keeps everyone working so hard. After all, we are to “please the one who enlisted us” (another scripture used out of context - it is referring to Christ, but they say it refers to the pastor).

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Read through the section of Gal. 4:1-7, but focus your attention on verses 4-7.​ In Galations 4:4-5 it says: "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

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In the Manifest Sons of God teaching, this is used as a proof text that adoption is conditional, based on what we do after being born again. After all, it says 'might'. We were taught that there will come a time at the midpoint of the tribulation, where the true sons will receive their adoption for all to see. If that is the case, then the following verses would refer to the current state of the believer as a generic 'teknon' or child, but note what the passage says:

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Gal 4:6-7: "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

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Let that sink in. You are sons. You are no longer a slave, but a son, and an heir.

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We are going to jump into the Greek weeds for a moment to drive this crucial point home. The Greek word for son in these verses is 'huios', a mature son, not 'teknon' or 'nepios'. The verb tense is present tense, meaning now you are. The verb mood is indicative, meaning the statement is a real, certain, and objective fact. The voice is active, meaning the subject, (which in this passage is God) is the One doing the work. So, to sum up the passage: It is a fact that God has already made you at this present time an overcoming son.

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Praise be to God for what He has done for us; not praise be to you at some future point for what you did in this life. There is only One overcomer, there is only One Manchild. It is Jesus Christ, and a Christian's life is hid in Him (Col. 3:1). Rest in His completed work. Take His yoke upon you, it is easy. Find a love for Him again, based on the complete work He has done for you and in you. Do not fear His judgment or question His approval. He loved you when you were His enemy, how much more does He love you, now that you are a son!​

 

To all those who have felt the burden of this false teaching on sonship, take comfort in these simple, powerful words from Paul the Apostle to the church in Galatia:

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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

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