Teaching of Ted R. Weiland

A Review of Ted R. Weiland
and Mission to Israel Ministries

“Songs for His People”, and Why I left Ted’s Group:

By John Hurt

Starting in 2005, my family and I attended the yearly “Songs for His People,” conference, which was a Christian Israel music festival held each year in late February near Branson, MO.

The music festival was held in a mid sized convention center, and at its peak, around 400 people attended.

The main purpose of this conference was to allow Christian Israel families and their children to play music for everyone. Even though there was no “racism” or “hate” taught at this conference, the fact that a white person could believe that he was “Israel” was enough to get someone’s reputation destroyed by association.

The local newspapers would send in people to find out who was there, and a prominent musical family that made their living by writing and playing children’s songs had their reputation damaged by the newspapers. I did not know this when I first started attending.

The organizers of “Songs for His People” would always put Ted Weiland as their keynote speaker, and the first few sermons I heard him give were very powerful, uplifting, and based on the Bible. Again, there was no hatred of other races, just that we should be held to a higher standard if we thought we were Israel.

Baptismal Regeneration

The first “crack” I noticed in Ted’s sermons was that he taught that we are literally "Saved by Water” and not just by the power of Jesus Christ.

Ted believes that salvation does not occur when Jesus Christ saves you. According to Ted Weiland, no one can be saved by Christ until after they are immersed in water in the ritual of Baptism. Ted quoted 1st Peter 3:21, which can be misconstrued to support this idea.

Ted Weiland started his ministry as a preacher for the "Church of Christ," a denomination that believes baptism in water is necessary for salvation.

This is the doctrine of "Baptismal Regeneration", a doctrine that originated with the Catholic Church, and is now taught by the Church of Christ.

I was raised in the Church of Christ, and as a child, I accepted this doctrine.

But when I matured, I realized that this doctrine was not correct, and I repented and left the Church of Christ denomination.

Ted Weiland has never left the Church of Christ on this issue and still believes that water baptism is required for salvation.

Ted's Book on "Salvation by Water"

When confronted on "Baptismal Regeneration" by Steve C. Halbrook in his "Beware of Ted Weiland" article, where Mr. Halbrook stated:

“Ted R. Weiland teaches that water baptism saves”

Ted replied that Halbrooks' statement was "blatantly false."

Then Ted Weiland gave his own statement to Steve Halbrook on water baptism, which proves what Mr. Halbrook said about Ted was absolutely correct:

"Let me state my position as clearly and succinctly as I can: Ted R. Weiland does not believe baptism saves. He does, however, believe that no one can be saved by the blood of Christ without being baptized."

Ted Weiland's answer is misleading. No one believes that baptism alone without Christ will save you. That would be like taking a bath.

If you read Ted's statement carefully, you will find that Ted is teaching that after you have been saved by the blood of Christ, if for some reason you are still not baptized, then you can not be saved.

So according to Ted Weiland, it takes both Christ and the water to save anyone. Christ alone is not sufficient.

What is worse is that when Ted gets up to preach this garbage to an audience without someone opposing him, he comes down on his audience with both feet.

Ted Weiland practically said at “Songs for His People” that it was “my way, or the highway” to being saved by water baptism, and anyone who disagreed was lost and going to hell.

When Ted taught we are saved “by the water” at “Songs for His People,” at least two of the very prominent musical families got up and walked out, or let it be known that they were not coming back to Songs for His People as long as Ted Weiland was there.

This is when many people stopped attending the "Songs for His People" conference.

I politely discussed the doctrine of "Salvation by Water Baptism" in private with Ted Weiland.

I pointed out to Ted that the "Thief on the Cross" in Luke 23:43 was saved by Christ without the opportunity for baptism in water.

Ted listened to me, but made no comment.

My wife recently pointed out that from that time on, Ted kept me at a distance, and I was never again in his circle of friends. At the time, I thought Ted was just too busy.

But if my wife was correct, and discussing the Bible in private from another viewpoint would destroy a friendship, then I don't need that type of friendship. I just want the truth.

The Celebration of Christmas

The next year at the "Songs for His People" conference, one of the musical families that provided “Celtic” music came out with a Christmas album, which created a lot of controversy.

It was controversial because nearly everyone at the conference considered Christmas to be a Pagan Holiday, and not Christian.

But to support the family that made this Christmas album, Ted Weiland gave a sermon and said that since Christmas celebrates Christ, it was important for us to now start keeping the Christmas holiday.

The Idol of Jeremiah 10:3

I was shocked. I knew that December 25th was the birthday of Mithras, the Sun God of Constantine, and that Christmas had nothing to do with Christ.

Christmas is yet another Catholic doctrine that Ted Weiland follows. Christmas was invented by the Catholic Church in the 4th century.

Mixing the profane with what is holy is the definition of blasphemy.

When we mix the profane with the holy, like the profane Santa, reindeer, the Christmas tree, December 25th, etc., with the holy Name of Christ, that is blasphemy and breaks the 3rd Commandment by taking the Name of Christ in vain:

Exodus 20:(7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

I want to be “guiltless” before God, and I don’t follow Ted on this at all.

Christmas is a pagan holiday dedicated to Mithras and renamed for Christ.

Reindeer and Santa Claus have nothing to do with Christ, and blaspheme His Holy Name.

Pastor Sheldon Emry wrote an excellent book called “Is Christmas Christian?”, which you can purchase from America’s Promise Ministries that proves Christmas is a pagan ritual and not from Christ.

Click to Order from "America's Promise"

When Ted Weiland began supporting the pagan holidays, I “saw through” Ted Weiland. Ted knows better and is more interested in appealing to his audience than in following the truth.

Yet Ted's views on Christmas didn't make him more popular, but ran even more people away from "Songs for His People" and his own ministry.

Preterism

The next topic at "Songs for His People" that Ted Weiland embraced was yet another doctrine created by the Catholic Church called "Preterism." This is the belief that Jesus came back in AD 70 and fulfilled all of the New Testament prophecy at that time.

Jesuit Luis de Alcasar's Book (1614), which is the founding text of modern Preterism.

The modern Doctrine of Preterism is an eschatology concocted by the Jesuit theologian Luis de Alcasar in 1614 as an attempt to keep the Protestants from identifying the Roman Catholic Church as the Anti-Christ.

This Roman Catholic doctrine claims that Christ came back at the Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and fulfilled all of the prophecy that Christ had given on the Mount of Olives and the prophecy written in the Book of Revelation like the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead, and others.

The opposing Protestant eschatology of "historicism" believes these prophecies have not been completed and will continue to the end of time. With this historicist view Protestants such as Martin Luther and many others have identified the Roman Catholic Church as the prophetic apostate "Mystery Babylon," with the Pope as the Anti-Christ.

The origin and true purpose of the Catholic "Doctrine of Preterism" is to prove to Protestants that the Roman Catholic Church, which tortured and killed millions of Christians for their faith, cannot be the Anti-Christ or Mystery Babylon of Revelation 17:6, as Preterism claims that all of these prophecies were fulfilled when Christ returned in AD 70.

But there is no historical basis for the Preterist idea that Christ came back in the 1st century and set up His Kingdom, or that He resurrected the dead at that time. Pliny or Josephus, or some other historian would have documented it if Christ came back in AD 70.

And the world would not be as it is today, if Christ had set up His Universal Kingdom in the 1st century.

And the dead still remain in their graves, so it should be obvious to everyone that there was never any "resurrection of the dead" in the 1st Century.

Even Paul opposed the Doctrine of Preterism, as this malarky of a 1st century resurrection was apparently being taught in his day:

2nd Timothy 2:(17) And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

(18) Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Even a blind pig can find an acorn. And if someone like Paul can understand that Preterism is garbage, then so should everyone else.

I don't understand how anyone in their right mind could be so gullible as to believe something so obviously untrue.

Ted Weiland and his acceptance of Preterism all started with a man who attended "Songs for His People" and seemed to initiate a discussion of Preterism in nearly every conversation. I really thought the man was off his medication, as he spoke incessantly.

This man with his Preterist ideas would ask if you were a "full blown", or only a "partial" Preterist. Through this, he got everyone's interest and stayed in the spotlight, which attracted other people who wanted attention.

Ted Weiland jumped right in the middle of the Preterist discussions, and led his followers into this new dogma. You won't find Preterism on Ted's website, as Ted only teaches the doctrine of Preterism privately to his closest followers.

I think the reason Ted Weiland supports Preterism is to create controversy, which makes the people who follow Preterism feel important, like knowing something that other people do not know.

And believing in Preterism is something you have to accept to be in Ted's "inner circle of friends," which I see as a loyalty test.

So "Preterism" is now a test of whether you are "in or out" of Ted Weiland's inner circle.

Preterism is also a test of whether you are "in or out" of your mind.

The End of the "Songs for His People" Conference.

After this, I started to notice that every year Ted Weiland spoke at “Songs for His People,” then the next year the crowd got smaller. People got tired of listening to Ted Weiland.

This was a very conservative group that spent time studying the Bible. Not many believed Ted's ideas on "Baptismal Regeneration", and almost no one supported Ted's ideas about Christmas, as they are not in the Bible.

And Ted's support of "Preterism" is just weird.

These teachings of Ted Weiland repulsed a lot of the people who attended. I believe that Ted Weiland literally killed the "Songs for His People" conference.

When I attended the last "Songs for His People" conference in February 2014, it was down to 50 people, with Ted Weiland as the only professional speaker. And only 2 or 3 musical families bothered to participate.

The only reason I kept taking my family to “Songs for His People” was to see the friends I had made there. I did not care what Ted Weiland taught after he came out in support of Christmas and the other Catholic doctrines.

But it hurt to see that the “Songs for His People” conference, which had lasted over 15 years and at one time had up to 400 people in attendance, had dwindled down to nothing. I think the reason "Songs for His People" failed was because of the doctrines of Ted Weiland.

Next Chapter:

The "Most Disgusting Doctrine" of Ted Weiland.

You can contact me at:

John Hurt

1857 Brindley Hollow Rd
Buffalo Valley, TN 38548

Whatever you tell me will be kept confidential and will not be repeated.

If you would like to learn how Christ is superior to all other writers in the New Testament, please go to jesuswordsonly.org