Ask Mark Duke, president of Freedom Foundation in Selma, about his relationship to God, and he will tell you he is “absolutely” a Christian. But many of his sermons delivered at The House of God (THOG) in Parker, Colo., a church some call a cult, have left people in Selma asking, “Who is Mark Duke and what does he really believe?”
The son of a longtime Southern Baptist preacher, Duke was raised in a Southern Baptist church and said he was saved at age 9 during a revival. While at a Royal Ambassador camp in Florida, he said he committed his life to “do some kind of ministry.” He was 12.
Although Duke graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., he said much of his ministry has been “involved in corporate America.”
“I did a lot of lay work for Reid Hardin, who started lay renewal evangelism at the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board in Atlanta,” Duke said. “The devil doesn’t do God’s work.”
Allan McConnell, president of Radar13 Ministries in Birmingham, said Duke constantly mentions working with Hardin to explain away criticism of his activities. Hardin passed away in 2002, but McConnell has spoken with a number of his former associates and family members, and all of them confirm that he never would have supported the things Duke is now preaching and teaching.
And as for Duke’s comment that the devil doesn’t do God’s work, McConnell said he is correct. “What the devil does do, however, is try to take credit for God’s work,” McConnell noted.
In the early ’80s, Duke said he was “licensed as a minister of God” by Raleigh Baptist Association when he was “a member of First Baptist Church, Cary, N.C.,” where his father served as pastor at that time.
According to Lynn Johnson, administrative and communications assistant for Raleigh Association, “He (Duke) was not licensed or ordained (by us). We didn’t find any record where we reviewed this candidate.”
Johnson, who looked through numerous files dating back to the early ’80s, noted that an association can only review a candidate for ordination and does not have the power to ordain or license. Only the local church can do that.
Alabama Baptist officials also verified that it is not general practice for associations to conduct licensing or ordination because those are functions of the local church.
Johnson said it is possible that First, Cary, could have ordained or licensed Duke without the association knowing about it. But officials at First, Cary, said they did not have records to verify either way and none of the current church staff was part of the church when he was there.
Still Duke claims the licensing to be true.
“I was also affirmed by The House of God,” he added.
According to McConnell, “affirmed” means Duke was declared the chosen one.
After serving in a Southern Baptist church in South Carolina and working in corporate America, Duke moved to Colorado and founded THOG in 2001.
THOG established a new covenant focusing on a Spiritual Rights Movement it described as “a group of Christ followers from all walks of life, who have come together and sacrificed greatly to see the glory of God’s church restored.”
According to a House of God document from 2005, the movement began a decade or so prior to the founding of THOG under the leadership of Bob and Edna Stewart, an Atlanta couple who mentored Duke “about how to live as a godly man.”
Edna Stewart, who is now deceased, called Duke a chosen one of God “to carry the gospel.”
In fact, Renee Windows, who was courted by THOG, said she heard Duke referred to as a prophet while getting to know the church.
A relative of current members of THOG said, “Mark Duke’s word was as good as God’s. The sense at the (House of God) meetings was that he got messages from God in the middle of the night to give to the people — a ‘new’ message. He always had knowledge that no one else there could have. He would use words (and phrases) like ‘revelations,’ ‘prophecies’ and ‘God told me this.’”
Some of Duke’s communications to House of God members were signed “from the desk of God.” Others were signed “Joshua” as in the biblical leader of Israel.
In 2007, Duke moved to Selma with Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization started by THOG in 2005. Even though he says he is “no longer with” THOG, Duke has spoken repeatedly of having a Spiritual Rights Movement in Selma and told House of God members in a sermon from April 2007 that they were going to build a church and bring a pastor down to Selma.
Shawn Samuelson, operations director and chairwoman of the board of directors for the foundation, said Duke “stepped down (at The House of God) when he moved to Selma.”
However, McConnell said several former and current members of THOG have confirmed that the church still considers Duke its pastor, referring to him as “the pastor.”
Duke and Samuelson also say the foundation is no longer part of THOG.
“There was a time that it was affiliated with The House of God because the few people that started it were from The House of God,” Duke said of the foundation. “There is nobody in leadership that goes to The House of God.”
However, three board members listed on the foundation’s Web site — Cheryl Preheim, Mark Isherwood and Fontella Pappas — currently reside in Colorado and are active members of THOG. Isherwood owns a marketing business called Freedom House Productions in Parker. Samuelson is listed as one of Freedom House’s employees.
In 2007, the foundation’s Web site, www.freedomfoundation.org, said, “The partnership between The House of God and the Freedom Foundation allows recipients to benefit from well-rounded support, including spiritual counseling to individuals and families that request it.”
Despite concerns over the doctrine of THOG, Duke said his theology is sound.
“My doctrine lines straight up with Southern Baptist doctrine,” he told The Alabama Baptist.
McConnell said months of researching Duke and THOG have revealed that their doctrine does not line up with Southern Baptist doctrine.
“In fact, he even says in his sermons that the Southern Baptist doctrine is a ‘crappy’ doctrine and that he was ‘baptized deep into the devil’s army,’” McConnell said. “Duke’s doctrines are completely antithetical to Southern Baptist doctrine, particularly on the deity of Christ and the simplicity of the gospel of grace. They simply do not line up.”
(Kristen Lindsey contributed)
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