 About Us
We are a small Bible Believing Christian Church with a desire to share what we believe are basic Bible truths with any who are interested.
We meet in the Old Folks Hall on Bridge Street, Eltham, New Zealand at 10.30 am each Sunday.
Our History
Back in 1976 Richard Oliver, as a company representative first called on the Eltham Paint and Revival Book Centre (see separate PDF article, in the Poems Page/About Us: The Eltham Paint and Revival Book Centre) to sell paint and wallpaper. He there met Bill Bailey the owner operator. At that stage Richard was an ordained Presbyterian Elder.
On one visit Bill was reading his Bible and Richard, wanting to expound and show
off his knowledge of the Bible, asked Bill what he was reading. The answers Bill
gave made the Bible a new book to Richard, one that no longer just dealt with history but that was alive and very relevant for today.
It wasn’t long before the various Bible Study groups Richard led were being taught what he had learnt. He then found that the source for much of what he was learning was from an uneducated Bible based American preacher with an incredible healing ministry, William Branham. Always distrustful of any “out of the ordinary preachers”, especially Americans, Richard was nonetheless impressed with William Branham’s preaching as it not only revealed new truths hidden in the Bible but all that was said tied up with other books in the Bible and were in fact major Bible themes. It was only some years later in the early 1980’s that Richard realised that William Branham’s ministry was that of a God sent prophet. It was even later still he realised that this prophet is the one foretold in Malachi 4 and Revelation 10 v7. God both bringing the faith of His children back to that of the apostles and also revealing the mystery of God that no one was to know until the evening time.
In 1981 Richard and his wife Margaret moved to Eltham and under Bill’s encouragement a new Bible Study group was formed. Soon many of those from a previous group in North Taranaki added to the numbers. Within ten years this group had grown to a church that is now the Rapturing Grace Tabernacle in nearby Stratford.
Bill and Richard then started a new group in 1994 that met in Eltham, New Plymouth and Opunake. This group is the Message Church with Sunday services in Eltham, a Monday evening Bible Study in New Plymouth and a video tape evening (of sermons from sister churches) on Wednesday in Eltham.
Bill Bailey was the elder of the church until he died in February 2006.
Richard Oliver is the Pastor.
Richard is very happily married to Margaret and they have eight adult children, four boys and four girls, plus there are now nine grandchildren.
Our Beliefs
We believe that the Bible is God’s written Word. That Jesus Christ is God’s Living Word reconciling the world to Himself, and that the Spirit of Jesus has returned to live in the lives of true believers.
Without restricting or limiting our faith by making statements we also believe that:
God is creating a Bride, His true church, the citizens of the New Jerusalem
He is doing this by revealing His Word for today
A true revelation of God’s Word will always agree from Genesis to Revelation
The churches of the world have fallen into error and unbelief and although there are fine Christians in them the church organisations controls the people instead of the Holy Spirit
As always God has sent a prophet for this time to bring His people back to His Word
Historical, spiritual and Biblical evidence has confirmed William Branham is that prophet for our generation and that Luther, Wesley and the original Pentecostal blessings were moves of God for their day
That the Message the prophet William Branham brought is God’s move for this time
That the choice for many today is to either accept God’s Word or their denominational teaching as the Truth
Why An Eagle Logo?
The eagle is the emblem of the move of the Holy Spirit in this day. It is the fourth beast that surrounds the throne of God and is the only one that is not earth bound.
An eagle in Bible terms is a prophet.
The logo depicts a prophet bring the Word of God in the evening time.
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