Ewald Frank (preacher)

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Ewald Frank (born December 24, 1933 near Danzig ) is a German preacher , founder and leader of the Pentecostal community Free People's Mission in Krefeld .

Beginnings

Frank was born near Gdansk in 1933 . After the war ended in 1945 he lived in West Germany. Until 1955 he devoted himself to self-study of the Bible. After major events by the US preacher William Branham and others in Karlsruhe, a small group of supporters formed in Krefeld, whose leader was Ewald Frank. From 1956 to 1959 he stayed in the USA and Canada.

The beginnings of the people's mission go back to New Year's Eve 1959. On that day, Ewald Frank invited 14 people to a meeting in his private apartment in Krefeld . At the end of this encounter there was a closer union of those gathered, which became the nucleus of the later congregation.

In 1962 Ewald Frank heard "the voice of the Lord" according to his own statements. Since then he has felt called to "spiritual service". At first he was active in Pentecostal churches, but since Branham's death he sees himself as a carrier of his eschatological message.

Foundation of the people's mission

Frank rented a small hall in Krefeld and began his popular missionary work . In 1964, the Free People's Mission Krefeld , founded by Frank, was recognized as a non-profit organization. At that time it had 250 members. In the same year Ewald Frank went to India for the first time to do missionary work. In October 2014 he set out on his 25th mission to India.

Frank divorced in the 1970s. He then wrote a book "Marriage and Divorce" in which he tried to justify the divorce. Women play a subordinate role in the Free People's Mission, which Frank, like his role model Branham, sees as justified by the fall of man in paradise and the sexual attraction of women.

Frank goes on many mission trips. Today his congregation has about 3000 members (as of 2001). The mission's own printing and publishing house is located next to the church with 550 seats at the headquarters of the mission in Krefeld. The Free People's Mission has 16 full-time employees (as of 2014) and is mainly financed through donations. Parishioners are not registered anywhere. According to idea, around 300 visitors take part in the church services . 1200 guests came to the two 50th anniversary services on October 5th and 6th, 2014.

References to Colonia Dignidad

After the escape of the sect leader Paul Schäfer , Frank evangelized among the members of the Colonia Dignidad in Chile, which made the Krefeld people's mission a magnet for fleeting members of the community. Chile banned him from entering the country. Because of the reports in the Rheinische Post and Telepolis about his proximity to Colonia Dignidad, Frank is conducting legal proceedings against journalists from both media; Among other things, there is a dispute over the question of whether Frank has given refugees "refuge" to cadres of the sect wanted by Chile.

As early as 2005, Helen Zuber wrote in the Spiegel : “Like Schäfer once, missionary Ewald Frank from Krefeld conjures up dark visions of the end of the world. He too warns of the lure of the depraved world out there. He's happy to leave a few pious videos around which Schäfer's orphans gather in faith. It's almost like it used to be. "

The lawyer Petra Schlagenhauf, who represents victims of the Colonia Dignidad, told DLR Berlin in 2014 : “After Schäfer was no longer there, a new preacher named Ewald Frank from Krefeld appeared and became his spiritual successor, organized mass baptisms and received people in Germany who came from the colony, and this man also represents a very fundamentalist Christian line, has no theological training, but has a church center in Zurich and another in Krefeld, which is the headquarters. "

In 2014, almost 20 of the 100 returned residents attended the services of the People's Mission in Krefeld, said Ewald Frank 2014 idea. The doctor and former assistant to Paul Schäfers Hartmut Hopp also lives in Krefeld and visits the people's mission. He fled Chile after a court sentenced him to five years in prison for aiding and abetting child abuse and deprivation of liberty. In 2011 Frank still claimed: “The man is not here, at least not yet. I can't say what will happen in the future. ”As recently as 2011, Frank denied any connection to Colonia Dignidad in the Rheinische Post.

theology

The goal of the Free People's Mission is the “complete return to the teaching and practice of the early church in the apostles' time,” Idea quotes the mission. Frank and his people's mission reject the council resolutions as a “falsification of the original word”. Frank also rejects the Nicene Creed , which unites all major Christian churches, and the Trinity (Trinity). He practices rebaptism and encourages his followers to withdraw from their previous religious communities.

classification

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, the head of the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW), Reinhard Hempelmann, arranged the people's mission. The Free People's Mission is an “ eschatologically oriented Christian special community that cultivates the legacy of the controversial Pentecostal healing evangelist William M. Branham”. The doctrine of faith spread by Frank does not represent the claimed “pure biblical truth”. “Rather, it deviates in key points from the consensus of faith of the ecumenically connected Christian churches and communities,” Hempelmann clarified.

Publications

  • (Ed . :) William Branham, a prophet sent by God , Krefeld 1950, 20 pp.
  • The Council of God , Rathmann, Marburg 1964, 98 pp.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oswald Eggenberger: Churches - Sects - Religions. Religious communities, ideological groups and psycho-organizations in German-speaking countries . P. 137 (Pentecostal Churches)
  2. 50 years of the Free People's Mission in Krefeld. 1,200 guests attended two anniversary services. In: idea-pressedienst, No. 279, October 6, 2014
  3. Claudia Knepper: “Members of the Colonia Dignidad arrested”. In: material dienst der Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen , 8/2011, p. 300 ( online , accessed December 13, 2011).
  4. Small question from the Left Party in the Bundestag 17/6401 u. a. "Colonia Dignidad" from July 1, 2011 ( online (PDF; 168 kB)).
  5. Ingo Niebel: "Meeting with" the average reader "in court" In: Telepolis from December 13, 2011 (accessed on December 13, 2011).
  6. What should become of us? SPON , accessed February 7, 2016 .
  7. Life after the sect. Former members of the Colonia Dignidad in Germany. Retrieved February 7, 2016 . In the transcript incorrectly "Schlagenhoff" instead of Schlagenhauf
  8. 50 years of the Free People's Mission in Krefeld. 1,200 guests attended two anniversary services. In: idea-pressedienst, No. 279, October 6, 2014
  9. Life after the sect. Former members of the Colonia Dignidad in Germany. Retrieved February 7, 2016 .
  10. Sebastian Peters: Sect Doctor - New Trace to Krefeld. Rheinische Post , accessed on February 9, 2016 .
  11. ^ Oswald Eggenberger: Church sects religions. Religious communities, ideological groups and Pscho organizations in German-speaking countries. P. 137 (Pentecostal Churches)
  12. 50 years of the Free People's Mission in Krefeld. 1200 guests came to two anniversary services. In: idea-pressedienst, No. 279, October 6, 2014