Church of Christ With the Elijah Message
The Church of Christ with the Elijah Message is the name of three related church groups and a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, headquartered in Independence, Missouri. It split from the Church of Christ in 1943 in a dispute over claimed revelations given to its founder William A. Draves. Draves, an elder in the Fettingite group, claimed to be receiving messages from an angelic being who identified himself as John the Baptist—the same person who had allegedly appeared to Fettingite founder Otto Fetting, a former apostle of the Temple Lot Church of Christ. While many Fettingites accepted these new missives, some did not, leading Draves to form his own church. His adherents claim it to be the sole legitimate continuation of Fetting's organization, as well as that of the Temple Lot church. As of 1987, the church had approximately 12,500 adherents spread between Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Church of Christ "With the Elijah Message" meetinghouse in Independence, Missouri
Otto Fetting in 1916
William A. Draves
Church of Christ (Fettingite)
The Church of Christ, informally referred to as the Fettingites, is a denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement which split from the Church of Christ—informally known as "Hedrickites"— in late 1929. The faction was formally established on April 8, 1930, and an Associated Press report published in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times April 7, 1930, describes it as having been briefly named "The Church of Jesus Christ" and later, the "Church of Christ". It is informally referred to as the "Church of Christ (Fettingite)", after its founder, Otto Fetting, but this sect has never officially been named as such. Otto Fetting, an Apostle in the Church of Christ, was the alleged recipient of a series of messages delivered by John the Baptist concerning construction of a temple on the Temple Lot, along with other aspects of Hedrickite doctrine and practice. The rejection of his "Twelfth Message" by a majority vote of his fellow Apostles in October 1929 led to a split in the Temple Lot organization between those who rejected Fetting's messages and those who accepted them. The "Fettingites" subsequently established their own church organization.
Fettingite meetinghouse in Independence, Missouri