by
G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman
Christian myths, legends and sanctified superstitions abound: Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s petition to the FCC to ban Christian broadcasting; the hitchhiker who tells of Christ’s imminent return, then vanishes; an entrance to hell in Siberia; and Procter and Gamble’s sponsorship of occult activities.1
Superstitions have existed for centuries2 and have received a new treatment by Rebecca Brown, whose latest book offers a curse theology that is more mystical than biblical.
Breaking satanic and demonic curses has been a staple of the Charismatic fringe for some time, although few of its exponents agree on the extent of curses or how to break them. Personal Freedom Outreach dealt with the subject in an article in a previous PFO Journal editorial called “The Roots and Fruits of Deliverance”3 and concluded that neither its roots nor fruits were biblical.
Brown’s book, co-written with her husband, Daniel Yoder, is titled Unbroken Curses — Hidden Source of Trouble in the Christian’s Life. This, like her other books, is an unbiblical treatise on spiritual warfare full of factual and historical misinformation and embellishments. The book’s only redeeming aspect is that it allows us to confront the errors of those who apparently want to live under a curse rather than the liberty of the sons of God.
Some Christians think that a silent contempt for teachings such as Brown’s is the best response and that to answer her only validates the ideas while others argue that silence lets these teachers deceive the untaught without hindrance.
Longtime readers of The Quarterly Journal will recall that Rebecca Brown is really Ruth Bailey, a small-town physician who, after Indiana authorities revoked her license in 1984, traveled to California and began promoting her strange views of the occult and deliverance with the help of Christian tract and comic book publisher, Jack T. Chick. Police reports, medical documents, newspaper articles, and testimony of family and neighbors all verify her confused life and spurious claims.4
Brown also had during the first decade of her spiritual “career” an associate named Elaine who claimed to be the bride of Satan — complete with a honeymoon — who said she had been “Satan’s representative” to the world who negotiated weapon sales with foreign heads of state.5 Previous books by Brown tell stories of the two teaming up to fight occultists in their small Indiana town and of Brown delivering nearly 1,000 people from - Satanism in just over two years.6
Brown also wrote that in the mid-1980s, before she moved to California, she made a covenant with God that included the condition she “would eventually lay down [her] life out here for the Lord.”7 Despite that covenant, Brown dissolved her partnerships with Elaine and Jack Chick and left California. On Dec. 10, 1989, she married Daniel Michael Yoder, who was living in Phoenix, Ariz., at the time.
Brown spins another yarn in the biographical sketch of her husband in Unbroken Curses.8 She writes that her husband was born into “a very wealthy Jewish family of international bankers” and that when he was six years old, his parents sent him to Switzerland to study under Rabbinical and Cabalistic teachers in an “exclusive boarding school.” According to Brown, Yoder continued his schooling there until age 19 and later completed graduate studies in Switzerland.
Reminiscent of Elaine’s tall tales of ritualistic abuse, Yoder also speaks of descriptions of unrestrained torture and abuse by the Cabalists “through his years at school.” Upon his arrival at the boarding school, young Daniel was taken into the “subterranean levels” of the institution and “placed in a small windowless room” where he was kept as a prisoner. Following a failed escape attempt, Yoder found himself in a “small round room, just a few feet in diameter.” Here the evil rabbis “removed the lid from the top [of the chamber], and dumped thousands of spiders down on top of him, many of them poisonous.”
As the spiders began to crawl over and bite him, Yoder cried out in anguish. “Immediately, a brilliant shaft of light pierced down through that building, down into the cold little room where Daniel was cowering, shivering and crying on the floor,” Brown writes. Two arms reached forth from the light and cradled the child as he “slept in the arms of Jesus.” “When he awoke, all of his spider bites were healed,” Brown writes.
Brown’s account says that after completing his schooling, Yoder inherited a fortune, quickly rose to power in his grandfather’s business, then his family’s business, and finally formed corporations of his own. “Wealth became a play toy; power was his god,” Brown writes. At thirty years of age, Yoder’s parents ordered him into a “forced marriage” with a woman named Kai, claiming the wedlock would “further the family fortune.” According to Brown, Kai, too, had been “terribly abused because of being raised in Cabalism.”
Following their marriage, Kai “found Jesus Christ and gladly accepted Him as her Lord and Messiah.” Because of her conversion to Christianity, the couple’s families had “hired men to capture them and to force Kai to renounce Christ or kill her.” For three months they eluded capture, but “in God’s permissive will” they were finally abducted. Brown writes, “They were flown to Israel where Daniel was chained to a wall and forced to watch as Kai, his first and only love, was tortured to death!”
Yoder then allegedly “fled to the United States where he hid in a cabin in the mountains and studied Kai’s Bible for a whole year.” As a result, he accepted Jesus Christ and left his family and wealth. On Nov. 10, 1989, he met Brown and just a month later they were married. Shortly afterwards, they moved to Lake Park, in northwestern Iowa.
“From the very start, I knew something wasn’t just quite right with the couple,” Dickinson County Sheriff Greg Baloun told PFO. Baloun was the Lake Park Chief of Police in 1990 when Brown and Yoder arrived in Iowa. “He passed himself off, the first time I met him, as a [semiretired, well-to-do] neurosurgeon. He never passed himself off as a minister to me. He was always a doctor,” Baloun said. Baloun added that Yoder said “his father was a doctor,” not a very wealthy international banker.9
Baloun says Yoder told him how he had to expeditiously travel from California to Nevada to do a delicate medical operation. “He told me how he had this Chrysler Cordova that would do 200 miles an hour and that he ran from California into Nevada to do a special surgery in a mere amount of time,” Baloun recalled. When asked why stops for gas didn’t impede his record pace, Yoder said, “I had a customized 40-gallon gas tank.”
“He had an answer for everything,” Baloun said. “He was a big talker, but you could catch him in lies all the time.”10
Lorraine Bush, a local real estate agent who handled the couple’s lease agreement on a two-story home in Lake Park, agreed with Baloun’s evaluation. “I was suspicious of him right away,” she told the local newspaper.11
Following a six-month stay in Lake Park, Brown and Yoder moved to Estherville, a town 25 miles to the northeast. They remained there briefly, then moved to Spencer, where Yoder became associated with a nondenominational fellowship, the Wells of Living Grace Church.
Baloun’s suspicions eventually extended to other law enforcement departments. An investigation into Yoder began in November 1990 by several agencies, including the Emmet County (Iowa) Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General and the Iowa State Patrol. The investigation ultimately revealed that Yoder also went by such names as William Joseph Stewart and Tony Michael Griffin and had used different Social Security numbers and birth dates.
As the investigation intensified, Yoder left Iowa and returned to Phoenix where, as a result of the persistent detective efforts of Iowa State Patrol Officer Marv Loebach, he was arrested on July 29, 1991. Yoder was charged with falsifying motor vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses, and falsifying Social Security records by allegedly using the Social Security number of a dead man.
On Sept. 6, 1991, he was extradited to Iowa. The next day, he was indicted on two counts of perjury. Authorities learned that he had a criminal record and had served time in Minnesota and Missouri and admitted to receiving “psychological evaluations, counseling, or hospitalizations.”12
Yoder was released on Sept. 9 after D&R Bonding Agency of Spirit Lake posted a bail bond of $10,000.13 Six weeks later the charges were rephrased into three counts, the first being perjury and the second and third being designated as fraudulent practice in the third degree.14 On Nov. 12, Yoder entered a written arraignment and plea of not guilty to all three charges.15
As the prosecution sought more information from Yoder, it received a stream of misstatements and conflicting information. In an Application and Order to Amend court document it was noted: “That Defendant’s charged name herein be amended from Daniel Michael Yoder to the Defendant’s true and correct name William Joseph Stewart.”16 Beyond his aliases, various other court documents revealed contradictory birth dates, occupations (such as pastor and bookstore manager) and Social Security numbers.17
However, one fact gathered by the prosecution from Yoder, that remained consistent throughout, was that he had only “completed seven years of school.”18
In spring 1992, following recommendations made by inson County Attorney, Yoder opted for a “bargained plea” and “voluntarily” entered a “plea of guilty.” The county attorney had recommended to the court the following sentence and disposition: “(1) Fine of $2,000.00 plus a 30 percent surcharge. (2) Court costs to be taxed to the defendant. (3) Dismiss Counts I and III.”19 On April 29, 1992, Yoder entered a guilty plea on Count II of the indictments. The court document signed by Yoder stated in part: “I hereby enter my PLEA OF GUILTY TO Fraudulent Practice in the Third Degree, an aggravated misdemeanor, in violation of Section 321.97 and 714.11(3) of the Code of Iowa, which crime was committed by me on April 4, 1991, as charged in said information.”20
Based on Yoder’s guilty plea, “the judgment of the Court” stated “that the Defendant be and he is sentenced to pay a fine of $1,976.92, a surcharge of $593.08 and court costs of $60.00.”21 The fine, surcharge and court costs were ordered by the court to be paid within two days. Yoder complied and the case was closed.22
The couple left Iowa and Brown resumed compiling her story of purported battles with the demonic. They currently live in Clinton, Ark., and have altered the name of their ministry from “Wells of Living Grace” to “Wells of Joy.”
Brown’s premise is that most, if not all, of a Christian’s problems stem from unbroken demonic curses. She writes that most Christians are unaware that curses of poverty, calamity, temptation, misfortune and struggle are there because of curses placed on them (or their families) through inheritance, trespassing on the devil’s territory, breaking vows to God, or forgetting a sin and failing to confess it.
Brown’s contention is that we must know every type of curse. Any unrelieved problem is probably the result of ignorance of an unbroken curse. No doubt she has been reading the extreme views of C. Fred Dickason, Mark Bubeck, Frank Hammond, Neil Anderson, James G. Friesen, C. Peter Wagner and others, but she fails to cite sources.
Brown writes that no one is exempt from these curses. She advises:
“Search your home. Do you have statues of demon gods in your house? Pray over everything. Be aware that many children’s toys are actually statues of demon gods.”23
Or, consider this:
“If you have visited a mosque and removed your shoes, you have been guilty of giving honor to a demon god! This is an abomination in God’s eyes and will bring a curse on you.”24
Brown writes that tattoos and hairstyles bring demonic curses25 and the former should be covered with oil and curses are to be broken at our command.26
Brown teaches that visiting King Tut’s tomb in Egypt or when the exhibition was brought to America must be repented of to break a demonic curse. Brown writes that more than 13 years of illnesses and demonic attacks in her own life were the result of such a visit.27
Brown suggests:
“Are you experiencing unsolved problems in your life, your family, or your church? Perhaps the source of these problems is an unbroken curse. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any curses that may be in operation in your life.”28
Conspicuously absent from Brown’s recommendation is any biblical reference or justification for such advice. As long as we are in a fallen world among sinners and our bodies are unredeemed and subject to decay and death, some problems may never go away. Christians must pray for God’s grace as commanded in 1 Corinthians 12.
Romans 8 reminds us that all these catastrophes are a part of life and that they in no way diminish the love of God for us. Paul in that chapter does not direct us to break the curses. Rather, he says, trust in the love and sovereignty of God.
Brown clearly puts believers back under the Law with these words: “However, the spiritual principles laid down for the children of Israel in the Old Testament still hold true in our lives today.”29 She has found “spiritual principles” from the Old Testament that on closer reading are not even there; they are bizarre notions that she reads into the Old Testament text. Going back under the Law is bad. Going back to the Law and making up things is even worse.
Brown lists three types of curses: “Curses from God; Curses from Satan and/or his servants with the legal right to curse; Curses from Satan and/or his servants without the legal right to curse.”30 Again, no Scripture is cited but she loosely uses “deliverance” buzzwords and terminology such as “legal right.” She also teaches that, “Curses from Satan and/or his servants always involve demon spirits. When a curse is placed, demon spirits are sent to a specific person or family for a specific purpose.”31
While Christians should believe in demonic influence (especially on the unsaved) and while Christians believe in the reality of temptation and that the Bible reveals much about Satan and demons (especially their limitations, defeat and doom) they should reject Brown’s writings for what they are: sheer imagination and the regurgitation of others’ false teachings.
The idea of curses and breaking curses on a believer, especially the perpetuation of family curses is clearly heresy in regard to the doctrine of sanctification. Another variation on the theme is the teaching of the need for deliverance from . This , either from past personal sins or ancestral sins, has to be broken with special prayers or rituals. While most teachers contradict each on the specifics, Brown appears to have picked up all the strands.
While this teaching puts the potential of the cross’ work at the disposal of believers, the believer must work to keep free of demonic influence. Ephesians 6 is clear that means of sanctification are to be used and the unseen world will be taken care of by our Savior.32
Curse theology consistently teaches that a pervasive or demonic power must be taken off the life (broken) after conversion by means of special prayers, rituals and words, and the process usually will involve a deliverer. The usual means of grace (prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, ordinances) are not considered sufficient. Those of the deliverance school usually call demonic what can be explained using the biblical model of besetting sins, sinful habit patterns, sin’s mastery and the put off/put on dynamic of the New Testament. There is a deceit and a of sin that today would be called addiction. Change is difficult but there are biblical means and methods to deal with sin’s without lapsing into superstition.
In Chapter 2 Brown uses the Joshua 7, Ai/Achan story in a classical “deliverance” misuse of Scripture. Using this story as a justification for curses and ritual incantation prayers of deliverance proves far too much. An understanding of this event actually defeats what Brown is trying to establish. Achan stole clothing, silver and gold from the battlefield, knowing that the loot was to have been destroyed. Disobedience, not demons, had to be dealt with.
We know that in Achan’s situation, as well as in other cases of Israel’s history, God used family or communal judgments with Israel. That was part of the Law system under Moses. It cannot be used as a principle for the Church with demons and curses introduced that are foreign to the text. It is silly to say that whole families, or a whole Church or the whole body of Christ would be judged, demon-plagued and killed because of the sin of one person. Again, Brown proves too much.
Grace is not the Law and the Law is not Grace. Israel is not the Church and the Church is not Israel. There are no demons mentioned in Joshua 7 and family excommunication (in this case death under the Law) was enacted as the answer, not ritualistic praying to break curses. Matthew 18 shows us that excommunication of the individual from fellowship (not death) is the way today to “rid sin from the camp.” Why didn’t Jesus tell us to break the curse in Matthew 18?
The elaborate prayer rituals and incantations Brown gives to her readers to take authority over demons are the product of an imagination gone riot33 with no New Testament teaching to support them. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus tells us that the heathens use vain, repetitious prayers. Jesus removed demons (from the unsaved) with a word, not a ceremony. The Hebrew word “curse” occurs in the Old Testament 82 times and has various meanings. Pagans thought they could use the power of cursing to deal with their enemies as in Numbers 5. Pagans also used ritualistic incantations to try breaking curses. Israel was warned against learning the ways of the heathen.
The Hebrew word qalal (translated curse), can mean belittling or putting someone down as in Exodus 21:17. It can also be an oath to one’s God as in 1 Samuel 17:43. In Job 24:18 it is simply used as nonblessing. To not be blessed was looked on as being cursed in a general sense.
Genesis 3:17 shows us that arar (another Hebrew word for curse) can be used of God’s pronouncement of judgment on those who break covenant. The New Testament speaks to us of God’s loving chastisement in Hebrews 12. Confession of sin and change of lifestyle is the obvious response to God’s correction.
The words of British scholar W.E. Vine are helpful:
“God alone truly ‘curses.’ It is a revelation of His justice, in support of His claim to absolute obedience. Men may claim God’s 'curses’ by committing their grievances to God and trusting in His righteous judgment. ... The Septuagint translates arar by epikatarasthai, its compounds and derivatives, by which it comes into the New Testament. ‘Curse’ in the Old Testament is summed up in the statement, ‘Cursed is the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant ...’ (Jeremiah. 11:3). The New Testament responds: ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree ...’ (Gal. 3:13).”34
It is futile to argue for any kind of curse on a believer, including the curse of the Law from Exodus 20:5 (to the third and fourth generation), since Christ has redeemed us and set us free from the curse of the Law. The greater Moses has set us free from the law of sin and death. Romans 5 elaborates on that deliverance. Judgment for sin comes to any generation that hates God (Exodus 20:5) and mercy comes to any generation that loves God (Exodus 20:6). There is no demonic osmosis taught in Scripture.
Vine further notes that the Greek word for curse, anathema, means “the disfavor of Jehovah.” The Greek word katara is a putdown “uttered out of malevolence.” Another Greek word kakologeo is simply to speak evil of someone. There are other noun and verb forms, but they offer no more than the above.35
Brown also cites examples of unjust suffering in the world.36 It is true that at times the innocent suffer because of the overt sin or passive neglect of a parent. Sin has real and horrible social consequences that no one doubts. The nature of our response to the consequences is important.
Parents can pass down repetitive sin patterns taught to their offspring. However, God’s grace and conversion can make all the difference. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 1:18-19 that we are not stuck in our parents’ traditions or patterns of living, but are redeemed and set free by the blood of Christ. We can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.
Brown makes much of the fact that the Jews in Nehemiah 9 confessed the sins of their forefathers.37 Understanding Jewish cultural patterns and the Hebrew word confession helps clarify the issue and show Brown to be wrong.
The careful Bible student will first note that there’s nothing about demons or demonic curses mentioned. Secondly, there is nothing about ritual or exorcistic prayers to break curses. Thirdly the context is that the “confession” is an acknowledgment of the idolatry of the previously exiled Jews which produced caution in the new generation to avoid that sin in particular. Fourthly, according to verse 5, this was the activity of the priests and Levites as the mediators and not all the people were personally involved. In type, those priests stand for Christ and His work for us.
In their acknowledgment, the priests affirm God’s right to have judged their forefathers by dispersing them to Babylon through the means of Assyrian and Babylonian invaders. God had not forsaken them (verse 31) however, and had allowed them to return to the land (verse 36). Now what they would do was not break some curse but simply commit themselves to God’s covenant in a new way. It was the captivity that did the chastening and cleansing, not a curse-breaking ceremony.
The Hebrew word in Nehemiah 9:2 translated confess is yadah. It is a word that emphasizes the underlying sinfulness of all creation.38 It is much like Paul saying “all have sinned.” In saying that, Paul was not referring to curses that had to be broken but like Nehemiah’s people acknowledging the sinfulness of humanity and the truth that only God is truly sinless and perfectly holy and pure.
Keith Brooks sees the experience in Nehemiah 9 in a more positive way than the curse breakers:
“When we are seeking to God for mercy and relief in time of distress, it is an encouragement to faith to look back upon our own and our father’s experiences, noticing how all glory belongs to God and all shame to ourselves. When confessing our sins, it is good to reckon up God’s many mercies that we may see how ungrateful we have been.”39
Brown, along with others, lapses into medieval superstition with the curse mentality. The folklore of the late Middle Ages is the real tap root of the modern deliverance movement.
In the Bodleian Library in England there is a 15th century invocation used to break a curse. It is a representative of many such curses during a biblically illiterate and superstitious time:
“To relieve one who has been cursed. Say, in the name of God ye father, and his Son the Holy Ghost three persons one Trinity, is to comfort one of the ill-worked on my body, that has disturbed my body with evill payne [sic] from the wickedness. In the name of God. Amen.”40
Latin documents exist from the Middle Ages which give incantational prayers to get rid of demons.41
Brown maintains — again without Scriptural evidence — that demons and demon curses can come in by way of citizenship papers. This, according to Brown, was revealed to her and a co-worker through prayer:
“The Lord showed both of us at the same time. That certificate of citizenship was the legal doorway that allowed all the demons associated with her family line to have clear entrance into the United States! I had never thought of this idea before. As Ann burned the citizenship certificate of her ancestor, she not only commanded the demons out of her life, but also commanded all the demons associated with her family line to leave America forever. Then she asked the Lord to close that doorway so that they could not return. How many families have migrated to the United States over the years? As each individual became a citizen, a legal door was opened for all of their family demons. I wonder what a difference it might make if every Christian in America severed all ungodly inheritance and kicked their family’s ancestral demons out of the nation?”42
Apart from having no biblical basis for her teaching, Brown ought to be concerned that she does not catch a lawsuit for advising people to burn legal documents or documents that may be needed in the future. Her self-appointed authority is evident in the statement: “I never thought of it before.” Therefore, because she thought of it, it must be truth. Certainly no Bible writer ever thought of it.
Brown also teaches that Indian reservations are cursed ground. That would make a lot of soil in America cursed soil since at one time Indians wandered freely, worshiped, and buried all over. No one could be sure that they were not on cursed land. When the Jews took Canaanite land and built on it, no special exorcisms were required.
The Bible does not suggest cursed houses as Brown does.43 How we live in our homes is the more important matter. What we say and do in our homes and how we model Christ in our homes is the urgent message of the New Testament. Ephesians 4-6 lays out the kinds of conduct God wishes in our homes. Cement and mortar, glass and shingles do not carry demons. People’s activities and words either bless or “curse” and hinder the family members in that home.
To justify her view of demonic curses on a home Brown refers to Leviticus 14:33-45, which speaks of a “leprous plague” (which the Hebrew text indicates is persistent mold or fungus growing in the walls). The replastering or destruction of a house has nothing to do with breaking demonic curses.
Keil and Delitzsch shed light on the passage: “Vers. 54-57 contain the concluding formula to chap. xiii and xiv. The law of leprosy was given ‘to teach in the day of the unclean and the clean,’ i.e. to give directions for the time when they would have to do with the clean and the unclean.”44 So the mold and mildew in the home were used to teach an ideal and symbolic separation. Cleanliness in all aspects of life was used by God to portray His holiness and the holiness He required of His Old Testament people.
J.R. Dummelow, in his Commentary on The Holy Bible observes:
“This, like the leprosy of garments ... bears only an external resemblance to the leprosy of human beings. It is a fungus or discoloration making its appearance on the walls of houses.”45
Brown has invented a classification of demons called “watchers”:
“They are demon spirits placed at particular sites to maintain surveillance over the immediate area. These can be placed into objects, animals, or drawings. Animals are rarely used because they move about too much. In the last case, a person places a drawing of a watcher in a strategic spot and then returns later to communicate with the demon attached to the drawing to find out what went on in that area during his absence. The drawings may take different shapes, but they always contain eyes — or at least one eye.”46
The only “watchers” in the Bible are the Watchmen who guarded the gates and walls of ancient cities and God’s angels in Daniel 4:13.
Curse theology is itself a curse to the Church. It is speculative and extrabiblical. It plays into Satan’s hand by overstating his powers and misses the balance of systematic study of proper biblical demonology and Satanology. It sidetracks Christians and derails them from healthy growth. It fails to explain the origin of human trouble and dilemmas of life and offers a useless solution.
It minimizes the real power of the Cross in salvation and the power of grace and God’s Spirit in sanctification. It obscures the biblical means of grace and warfare outlined in Ephesians 4-6, Hebrews 12 and Romans 12. Rebecca Brown’s concepts are a failure biblically. They should be rejected and refuted.
Endnotes:
1. See further, The Great Christian Rumors by Rich Buhler.
2. See The Encyclopedia Of Jewish Religion, pp. 136-137.
3. The Quarterly Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, Oct-Dec., 1988, pp. 2, 10-11.
4. Bailey’s medical suspension for malpractice and abuse (supposedly after her conversion) along with the whole bizarre and sordid story was investigated and chronicled by Personal Freedom Outreach in several Journal articles. These articles have been compiled and are available in booklet form, Drugs, Demons And Delusions — A Christian Investigation of the Testimony and Claims of Rebecca Brown, M.D.
5. Rebecca Brown, M.D., He Came to Set the Captives Free, pg. 62.
6. Rebecca Brown, M.D., Prepare for War, pg. 224.
7. Ibid., pg. 35.
8. Rebecca Brown, M.D. with Daniel M. Yoder, Unbroken Curses. See pp. 149-175 for the biographical sketch of Daniel from which the information in this section has been acquired.
9. Personal interview with Sheriff Greg Baloun by M. Kurt Goedelman, April 2, 1996.
10. Ibid.
11. Lake Park (Iowa) News, Aug. 8, 1991, “Former resident faces state, federal charges,” pg. 1.
12. Department of Correctional Services, Third Judicial District, Pretrial Release form of Danie [sic] M. Yoder. Filed 91 Sep -9. Copy on file.
13. Bail Bond, Form 10-H-1, dated 91 Sep -9. Copy on file.
14. Information form, State of Iowa, Plaintiff, vs. William Joseph Stewart a/k/a Daniel Michael Yoder, Defendant. Filed 91 Oct 18. Copy on file.
15. Written Arraignment and Plea of Not Guilty, State of Iowa, Plaintiff, vs. Daniel Michael Yoder, Defendant. Filed 91 Nov 12. Copy on file.
16. Application and Order to Amend, State of Iowa, Plaintiff, vs. William Joseph Stewart a/k/a Daniel Michael Yoder, Defendant. Filed 91 Oct 18. Copy on file.
17. Pretrial Release form, op. cit.; Written Arraignment and Plea of Not Guilty, op. cit.; Plea of Guilty, Count II, State of Iowa, Plaintiff, vs. Daniel Michael Yoder, Defendant. Filed 92 Apr 29. Copy on file.
18. Ibid.
19. Plea of Guilty, op. cit.
20. Ibid., (upper case in original).
21. Judgment Entry, State of Iowa, Plaintiff, vs. William Joseph Stewart A/K/A Daniel Michael Yoder, Defendant. Filed 92 Apr 29. Copy on file.
22. Final Disposition Report, William Joseph Stewart A/K/A Daniel Michael Yoder. Filed 5/5/92. Copy on file.
23. Unbroken Curses, op. cit., pg. 51.
24. Ibid., pg. 60.
25. Ibid., pg. 70.
26. Ibid., pg. 72.
27. Ibid., pp. 75-77.
28. Ibid., pg. 13.
29. Ibid., pg. 15.
30. Ibid., pg. 17.
31. Ibid.
32. A saner, safer and more Scriptural view of the sanctification process (which is the historical orthodox view) can be found in the book Sin and Temptation — The Challenge to Personal Godliness by John Owen, abridged by James Houston and edited by Dr. J.I. Packer or The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.
33. Unbroken Curses, op. cit., pp. 24-25.
34. W.E. Vine, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, pg. 54.
35. Ibid., pp. 141-142.
36. Unbroken Curses, op. cit., pp. 30-32.
37. Ibid., pp. 33-34.
38. Vine, op. cit., pg. 45.
39. Keith L. Brooks, The Books of the Bible Summarized, pg. 92.
40. C.J.S. Thompson, The Hand of Destiny — Folklore and Superstition for Everyday Life, pg. 173.
41. See further, The Quarterly Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, op. cit., pg. 11.
42. Unbroken Curses, op. cit., pp. 39-40.
43. Ibid., pp. 86-87.
44. C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 1, pg. 391.
45. J.R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible, pg. 94.
46. Unbroken Curses, op. cit., pg. 96.