The Two by Twos

A fellowship of home churches served by unpaid traveling ministers who go out in pairs. It takes no name, publishes almost nothing and passes its teaching on by word of mouth.

George Walker, letter to the U.S. Selective Service, 24 March 1942 (transcript on the RIS site, "WWII (G. Walker)")

Research Information Services (RIS), "Quotes from Workers": notes of sermons by named workers, "a few of the more interesting statements" chosen by RIS (an ex-member site; not published by the fellowship)

Lloyd Fortt, ed., Thus Saith: Quotations from Two-by-Two Workers (2010; reprinted by RIS). A former member's collection of worker sermon transcripts, convention notes and the list "Quotations by Workers" (QBW) gathered by Threshing Floor Ministries; not published by the fellowship

PierLuigi Zoccatelli, "Who Are the Two by Twos?", Bitter Winter, 14 September 2024 (translation of the late Italian scholar's encyclopedia entry)

Research Information Services (RIS), "Who Are the Two-by-Twos?" (ex-member summary)

Research Information Services (RIS), "A Short History Timeline for 'the Truth'" (ex-member timeline)

Telling the Truth, home page and fact sheet (an ex-member site owned by Cherie Kropp)

Rebecca Boone, Associated Press, "Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect," 16 December 2024 (reprint on BishopAccountability.org)

VICE News, "FBI Investigating an Insular, Nameless Religious Group Undergoing Sexual Abuse Reckoning," February 2024

WOWT Omaha, "FBI Omaha looking for abuse victims associated with religious group," 20 February 2024 (relays the FBI release)

Otago Daily Times (RNZ), "'The Truth' religious sect confirms NZ police investigation," 25 April 2024

RNZ, "FBI Enlists NZ Police To Investigate Sexual Abuse In Secretive Sect," 8 February 2025 (Scoop copy)

ABC7 San Francisco, "'Disturbing' new details emerge about Bay Area religious sect at center of FBI child sex abuse probe," 23 January 2025

Daily Maverick, "SAPS and FBI investigate child sexual abuse by secretive Two by Twos Christian cult," 22 June 2025

ABC News (Australia), "Former members of Two by Twos call for financial transparency to access abuse compensation," 11 January 2026

paNOW, "Former Saskatchewan members of secretive sect speak out on widespread allegations of abuse," 16 April 2026

CBC News, "Historical sexual abuse charges filed against B.C. minister belonging to church with no name," 8 March 2024

Wikipedia, "Two by Twos" (last resort; used only for the words of George D. Chryssides, Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements, 2001, p. 330, and J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, 8th ed., 2009, p. 554, as its footnotes quote them; the books themselves were not seen)

The fellowship began in Ireland in 1897 when William Irvine, an evangelist who had left the Faith Mission, took up the instructions Jesus gave the Twelve and sent out preachers without salary or purse. It grew by conventions, was held together by overseers after Irvine was set aside in 1914, and entered government records only under registered names. Its recent history is dominated by abuse allegations that became public in 2023 and by the FBI investigation that followed. The chart keeps that record in this part and out of the doctrinal parts.

Irvine's first independent mission

William Irvine, an evangelist of the Faith Mission in southern Ireland, holds his first independent mission in County Tipperary and meets Edward Cooney. The Associated Press says he founded the sect that year and "railed against the existence of churches." Members commonly deny that Irvine founded it, and say the fellowship goes back to Christ.

The first convention

The first convention is held at Rathmolyon, Ireland, and lasts three weeks. RIS records that those who attended took vows of poverty, celibacy, submission and self-denial, and that the first recorded mention of the "Living Witness Doctrine," the teaching that the gospel is heard from a living worker, is made there. The first workers reach North America in September of that year.

Conventions in North America

Walker's 1942 letter dates the first annual conventions in North America to 1906. By 1942, he wrote, the ministers in North America numbered over nine hundred and the home assemblies over three thousand.

Workers and friends

RIS dates the formal division of the fellowship into workers, who give up all possessions to preach, and friends, who are accepted as members without being required to go forth. Sunday house meetings and midweek Bible studies begin that year.

Irvine set aside

Irvine announces a new revelation, the "Omega Gospel," and a group of overseers excludes him from preaching at meetings and conventions. The overseers become the governing authority in their regions. At the outbreak of the First World War the group registers a name with the British government.

Walker's letter to the Selective Service

Asked for a fuller account so that draft boards could classify its ministers, the overseer George Walker writes the letter of 24 March 1942 that is quoted throughout this chart. RIS records that the group took the name "Christian Conventions" in the United States that year.

Dean Bruer and the overseers' letters

Dean Bruer, a regional overseer who had served in many states and countries, dies in an Oregon motel room in June 2022. Nine months later Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, writes to members that evidence on Bruer's phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused underage victims. The Associated Press quotes the letter: "Dean was a sexual predator." The letter reaches the public and, the AP reports, becomes a catalyst for a survivors' hotline and website. In April 2023 Darryl Doland, an overseer for Washington state, writes in a letter VICE News reports was sent to members that the leaders will report to the authorities any abuse of a present minor.

The FBI asks for victims

On 20 February 2024 the FBI's Omaha field office announces an investigation and asks the public to help find victims, possibly abused as far back as the 1980s. The announcement is quoted here as WOWT relayed it. In April 2024 the fellowship's New Zealand spokesperson confirms that police there are investigating at least one former minister. The Associated Press reports in December 2024 that survivors' sites had recorded allegations against more than 900 abusers in more than 30 countries. Those are the survivors' counts, not verified totals.

Police in other countries

In February 2025 RNZ reports that the FBI is sharing information with New Zealand police, that police had charged two men, and that William Stephen Easton, a former minister who pleaded guilty to abusing six boys, was sentenced to 13 years in December 2024. In June 2025 the South African Police Service confirms to the Daily Maverick that it is investigating a historic case in KwaZulu-Natal.

Status as of October 2026

The most recent confirmation found is from April 2026, when an FBI spokesperson told paNOW that the FBI is investigating abuse and criminal behavior in the group and still seeks victims. The spokesperson declined to give details of an ongoing investigation. No FBI charge against any member, worker or overseer, and no result of the investigation, was found as of 28 October 2026. In January 2026 ABC News in Australia reported that survivors were demanding that the leaders disclose the group's wealth.

William Irvine

A Scottish evangelist who left the Faith Mission and began the movement in Ireland in 1897. He was set aside by the overseers in 1914, went to Jerusalem in 1919, and died there. RIS and the AP call him the founder, and many members deny that he was.

Edward Cooney

A lay preacher who joined Irvine in 1901. RIS says he was excommunicated in 1928 for rejecting the organization of the overseers and the "Living Witness Doctrine." His followers, who keep neither the doctrine nor the office of worker, are a separate group.

George Walker

The overseer of the eastern United States who signed the 1942 letter. One of the first workers in North America, he lived to the age of 104.

Jack Carroll

The overseer of western North America, whose sermons and written notes for workers are quoted in RIS's collection. He died at Milltown, Washington.

The overseers today

No roster of overseers is published. The press has named individual overseers (among them Doyle Smith, Darryl Doland and, in New Zealand, a spokesperson, Wayne Dean), but none of these was found confirmed by the fellowship as in office in October 2026.

The cases the record supports. The Associated Press reports that Ruben Mata, a worker, abused dozens of boys and was convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case; he died in a California prison. CBC reported on 8 March 2024 that a minister in British Columbia had been charged with one count of sexual abuse and one of sexual exploitation over incidents said to date from 1989, and that none of the allegations had been proven in court. A 2026 paNOW report mentions a recent trial in New Westminster of a female worker, and gives no verdict. This chart found no outcome. CBC also reported that a worker named Aaron Farough was found guilty of two counts of child pornography and sentenced to 175 days in prison. RNZ reported that a second man, an 80-year-old who had been part of the sect, pleaded not guilty to a series of charges and was next due in court on 13 February 2025. No outcome was found.

What the overseers have said. The AP reports that ministry leaders "have publicly condemned the abuse" but that several declined to answer its questions, and that at least some regional overseers declined to adopt recommended child protection policies, saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament. VICE quotes Doland's April 2023 letter: "Going forward, we will have a zero-tolerance policy regarding CSA." Gary Paul, a minister in Washington state, told ABC7 in 2025 that he never saw abuse and found it hard to believe of the leadership. In New Zealand the spokesperson said that ministers are police vetted and trained in keeping children safe. All of these are reported statements, and the letters themselves were not seen.

What this chart does not claim. It does not state how many people have been abused in the fellowship or how many have been convicted. A survivors' investigator told paNOW that about 80 people in her database have been convicted and that most entries are allegations not tested in court. The FBI's investigation was described as ongoing at every date found, and the record shows no charge from it.

The Bible alone, in the King James Version, heard through a worker; doctrine and discipline are settled by the conventions and overseers.

The fellowship names the Bible as its only book. George D. Chryssides, a scholar of new religions, writes that the Two by Twos "use the Bible as their sole source of authority and have developed no statement of belief apart from Scriptures," and J. Gordon Melton writes that members believe "the Bible (King James Version) is the only textbook and that, to be effective, the communication of spiritual life must take place orally, person to person" (both as quoted in the footnotes of Wikipedia's article; the books themselves were not seen). The fellowship's own 1942 letter says where doctrine is settled: at the annual conventions, where "all matters pertaining to methods of work, doctrine, discipline of members, local elders, ministry, etc., are fully considered and settled," under overseers whom the ministers "accept guidance" from. Workers recorded in RIS's notes go further and say the written word does not stand alone.

At the annual Christian Conventions arranged at suitable times of the year in each State - and which practically one hundred percent of the members are present all matters pertaining to methods of work, doctrine, discipline of members, local elders, ministry, etc., are fully considered and settled.

Scripture is not the Word of God until it is spoken by a Worker.

God's word must be lived. It can't be captured on paper. The letter killeth.

The Gospel meeting and the home meeting use the King James Version in English, says RIS. The fellowship's practice of keeping its teaching out of print is the reason a chart cannot quote a creed. Melton, as Wikipedia quotes him, says members "issue no ministerial credentials or doctrinal literature," and adds, "The only printed documents are hymnals." Walker's 1942 letter, written for the government, is the nearest thing to a statement, and it says nothing of the Bible's place in teaching or of the worker's word.

Believers are immersed by a worker; in the recorded words of many workers, the new birth comes through receiving the ministry, and the blood of Christ avails for those inside.

The 1942 letter says "baptism by immersion" is taught and practiced, and RIS adds that sprinkling and infant baptism are opposed and that a convert must meet standards set by workers before baptism is granted. Telling the Truth says earlier baptisms are not recognized and a convert is baptized again by a worker. On how a person is saved, the recorded sayings of named workers, across several decades, put the ministry at the center. Bob Dye (1966) says the new birth is "receiving the messenger, the message, and receiving the Spirit of God," Walter Nelson (1967) that there is "no new birth without the human agency of the ministry," and Everett Swanson (1960) that "the blood of Christ only avails for those inside." Leo Stancliff's note of 1981 calls "the forgiveness of sins" "a fringe benefit," yet in a transcript of about the same year he says "Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins, to pay for our sins." Warren Wainwright says in 1988, "We do believe in the blood of Christ." These are the words of individuals in collections made by former members. No published statement of the fellowship on salvation was found, and the workers do not all speak alike.

Baptism by immersion and the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper is taught and practiced.

To be born again means to receive Christ which means receiving the messenger, the message, and receiving the Spirit of God equals obedience to the will of God.

My hope of salvation is the blood of Christ. But I would like to explain to you what it means. The blood of Christ is the ministry and the church in the home. Without the New Testament ministry you don't have the blood of Christ which includes the church in the home. The forgiveness of sins is a fringe benefit.

Other recorded sayings: "We get saved by getting in; we keep saved by fitting in" (Carson Cowan, 1969). "Grace is the ability God gives us to do His will" and "We do not believe in original sin" (Tharold Sylvester, notes). "Trusting in the Blood is the wrong thing. It will only bring disillusionment" (Walter Pollock, 1983). "The blood of Jesus can only cleanse us when we offer our bodies as a whole burnt offering" (Jack Forbes, 1952, in Fortt). Stancliff's "fringe benefit" line is a one-sentence note, with no place given, from the list "Quotations by Workers" as Fortt reprints it. His longer transcript, which Fortt says was typed and printed for distribution by the Two by Twos themselves, also calls the ministry "the foundation of Christianity" but affirms that Christ paid for sins. A member would answer that the notes are not the whole of what is preached, and that is why this chart rests on the pattern of many workers and not on one worker's sentence.

Taken every Sunday in the home meeting as a remembrance of the Lord's death; restricted to members baptized by a worker.

Walker's 1942 letter says the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper is taught and practiced. A site run by a former member, Telling the Truth, says it is served every Sunday with leavened bread and grape juice or wine in a common cup, and is reserved for baptized members approved by ministers. RIS says it is reserved for those baptized into the group. On its meaning, the worker Leo Stancliff, in a transcript of about 1981, calls it one of "two ceremonies in the New Testament," and says that "each time we do we are to remember the Lord's death until He comes again." He sets it against the Mass, which he calls "empty ceremony." No published statement of the fellowship on the Supper was found.

We are to examine ourselves and remember the Lord and what He did for us; his death on Calvary's cross all of this that He gave Himself for us. This is the breaking of bread, the communion.

Telling the Truth is a source made by a former member, and its words are not the fellowship's. Its phrase "baptized members approved by ministers" most likely describes who is baptized, since RIS says the workers set the standards for baptism, and it does not describe a separate test at the table. The same site says earlier baptisms are not recognized and each convert is baptized again by a worker, and Chryssides (as Wikipedia quotes him) says the group practices believer's baptism, "rebaptizing new members." A first-hand description of the meeting by a member or a visitor would still help.

Elders preside over home meetings; overseers over each region; workers are called mediators and are the channel of salvation.

Walker's 1942 letter describes two levels. In each home the meetings are "under the guidance of local Elders." Over the ministry in each field, "One Minister in each field is the Overseer for that field - to whom the other Ministers look for counsel and from whom they accept guidance," and the senior overseers "exercise - in fellowship with each other - a general supervision over the Ministry and membership." Ministers are appointed and devote their entire time to the work, men and women alike. Recorded workers describe the ministry's place in strong terms: an apostle "stands between God and sinful men," and "the workers are the mediators." Funds and the names of overseers are not published, say the outside sources.

One Minister in each field is the Overseer for that field - to whom the other Ministers look for counsel and from whom they accept guidance.

An apostle stands between God and sinful men.

We do believe in the blood of Christ. It has not been talked about enough in the past. The blood is part of the gospel but reconciliation is through this ministry. The workers are the mediators.

Walker's letter also says the overseers "exercise - in fellowship with each other - a general supervision over the Ministry and membership in the United States" (para. 9), and that "Definite fields of labor within each State are arranged for all Ministers by the Overseers to whom the Ministers are responsible" (para. 8). Telling the Truth says all elders and overseers are male, and that each region has a head worker who assigns fields.

In homes, with hymns, prayers and testimonies; no church building; the home meeting is held to be the scriptural form.

Walker gives the reason for meeting in homes in 1942: it "is scriptural." The senior overseer Jack Carroll said in 1951 that workers teach people "to worship God in spirit and in truth as those early Christians did in homes." RIS says the hymns in the home meeting are sung without instruments and that Gospel meetings use hymns "often with piano accompaniment." Prayer is made and members give testimonies, according to the two former-member sites. A senior worker in Boston in 1985 is recorded as saying "we should pray to our Heavenly Father rather than to Jesus," and Stancliff writes that Jesus "taught us to pray to the Father." The hymnal is Hymns Old and New, adopted in 1913.

The reason for meeting in homes was primarily because it is scriptural, the Christians during the first centuries of the Christian era met regularly for worship in homes, which fact is also borne out and supported by church history.

We make no secret of the fact that we are deliberately and purposefully teaching men and women the world over how to do without the hireling ministry and the public building, to worship God in spirit and in truth as those early Christians did in homes consecrated to God as recorded in the New Testament.

Melton notes that members "refuse to acquire church property." Convention grounds are a different matter: Telling the Truth says they are owned by members, and Australia's ABC reports yearly conventions "at properties around Australia." Walker's 1942 statement that "no church property or real estate has been acquired" is a statement about church buildings and not about those grounds.

Workers recorded as saying the Holy Spirit is not God; the Spirit is received with the messenger; the miraculous gifts were set aside once the covenant was established.

No published statement of the fellowship on the Holy Spirit was found. Recorded workers speak with more than one voice. Sydney Holt, in 1980, says "The Holy Spirit is not God," and Walter Pollock says "Jesus, God and Holy Spirit are one Being but not one God." Dale Bors, in 1979, says "It depends who we are talking to whether we believe in the Trinity or not." In the one recorded sentence on how the Spirit is received, Bob Dye ties it to the worker: "receiving the messenger, the message, and receiving the Spirit of God." On the gifts, Percy Fletcher, asked in 1957 why the workers do not heal or speak in tongues, answered that the miracles of the apostles' day "have been set aside after the covenant was established," and Rose Johnson (1979) is recorded as saying "Miracles were for the Jewish people, not for Gentiles." The scholar PierLuigi Zoccatelli notes that the denials of the Trinity come from sermons quoted by critics and former members.

The Holy Spirit is not God.

God has some spectacular, wonderful means of establishing His covenant in every age, and special miracles have been performed. But most have been set aside after the covenant was established.

Jesus, God and Holy Spirit are one Being but not one God.

The notes record workers' sayings that Jesus "wasn't God" and was "in this sense the same as what you and I" (John Porterfield, 1993) and that "The Trinity is one in purpose, but not in essence" (Sydney Holt, 1980). The notes show no agreed statement, and an answer from the fellowship's own overseers would be the proper test of whether these are the common view.

Christ will come again and God keeps the judgment; in some workers' recorded words, only the fellowship will be raised, and eternal standing turns on attitude to the workers.

The sources found state little on the last things, and most of what is stated is about who is in. Stancliff speaks of remembering "the Lord's death until He comes again," and Willie Donaldson is recorded as saying "God keeps judgment in His hands. He gave His servants the keys of the kingdom but He keeps the keys of death and hell." Merlin Howlett, a worker, in 1988: "We are the only people in the world that believe in the resurrection or will be resurrected." Jack Carroll in 1945 says that the attitude taken toward those who "have made themselves poor, homeless, and strangers for the gospel's sake will ultimately determine where you will be in eternity." No source found sets out the order of the return, the resurrection and the judgment.

We are the only people in the world that believe in the resurrection or will be resurrected.

For the spirit and attitude you assume toward those that have made themselves poor, homeless, and strangers for the gospel's sake will ultimately determine where you will be in eternity.

Everett Swanson, in 1985: "We can always judge the state of a person's salvation by his attitude towards the Workers." Howard Mooney, in 1950, says the Truth "could never" change. The sources are the sayings of individuals in collections made by former members. The fellowship publishes no statement on the end, and a statement from its overseers on the return of Christ and the judgment would be the proper source.

Hearing the gospel only from a worker

Salvation, in the recorded words of workers, comes through hearing a living worker, not through reading.

In the early years the teaching was called the "Living Witness Doctrine." RIS dates its first recorded mention to the 1903 convention, and Edward Cooney, who was later put out over it, wrote that Irvine had been persuaded "to accept the heresy that no one could be born again without meeting a living witness." Wikipedia says the term is no longer used, but the recorded sayings of later workers state the teaching without it. The doctrine should be kept apart from the ordinary Christian belief that the gospel is preached by sent men: the workers' sayings say the Bible read alone cannot save.

Faith cometh by hearing, not reading. No one can receive salvation simply by reading the Bible.

There would be many saved people if the written word could give life, but it takes the Living Word (the scripture being lived by a worker) to produce Life that is eternal.

No new birth without the human agency of the ministry. The ministry has a Master Key.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

The workers are right that the gospel is preached by men who are sent, and the fellowship stands nearer the New Testament here than churches that treat preaching as optional. "belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:14-17), and the word heard is the apostles' word, which is now written: John wrote "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ" (John 20:30-31). The written word is the same message and not a lesser one, and the Bereans are praised for checking even an apostle by it. To say the Bible read alone cannot save, and that the worker's life is the living word that does, puts the preacher where only Christ and his word stand.

The fellowship may answer that its workers do preach Scripture and that the saying about reading is meant against reading without obeying. The recorded sayings, though, say that reading cannot save and that the saved are known by their attitude to the workers. A teaching that the saved are known by their attitude to the preachers leaves a hearer no way to test the preacher by the book.

The unpaid, traveling ministry

Workers give up home, salary and possessions, travel in pairs, stay in members' homes and are the fellowship's ministers.

Walker's letter says the first preachers went out "two by two" and "without salary or making appeals for financial assistance," and that from the time of appointment ministers "devote their entire time and talents to the work of the Ministry." About half of the ministers in 1942 were women. RIS says that the 1903 convention called for vows of poverty and celibacy, and Telling the Truth says ministers are not permitted to marry. The notes give Jack Carroll's account of self-support: "We earn our living just as honestly as any farmer." Newman, a worker, says the only ministry recognized in eternity is one that goes out "poor, a stranger in the world."

without salary or making appeals for financial assistance, putting implicit trust in God

From the time of appointment, Ministers devote their entire time and talents to the work of the Ministry.

The only ministry recognized in eternity is the ministry prepared to go out into the world as Jesus did; poor, a stranger in the world. And we can never thank God sufficiently enough for this.

Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come.

Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses; no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.

Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working?

Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel.

Here the fellowship stands near the line, and the credit is plain. Jesus "sent them two and two" (Luke 10:1), told them to take no purse, and said "the laborer is worthy of his food" (Matthew 10:9-10), and the Two by Twos took that charge at its word. Paul says the Lord ordained that "they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14), so support from the hosts is not wrong. Two things go past the text. The first is that the Twelve's temporary mission to Israel is made the one pattern for all ministers for all time, though Paul chose at times to work for his own living (Acts 18:3). The second, if the sources are right that ministers may not marry, is that Paul asks, "Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles" (1 Corinthians 9:5-6). The ministry then holds a rule where the apostles held a right.

A fuller test sets the workers' place in the congregation beside the ministry in the New Testament. The workers are not elders chosen by a congregation. They are a body that stands over the homes, and the fellowship's recorded sayings call them mediators. That is tested under leadership.

No name, and no publicity

Members take no name and the fellowship avoids publicity, while its overseers register names with governments.

Members say they have no name. Walker wrote in 1942 that "incorporation and registration under a denominational name has not been necessary," yet the same letter bears the letterhead and the name "Christian Conventions," and RIS says the overseers registered that name in the United States in 1942 and similar names in other countries ("Assemblies of Christians" in Canada, "The Testimony of Jesus" in Britain). RIS records that when word of the U.S. registration spread in 1943, some who objected that taking a name went against the fellowship's teaching left, were put out, or kept silent. The scholar PierLuigi Zoccatelli writes that the conventions are held "without any form of publicity" and that "the names of the leaders are not disclosed to non-members." A worker recorded in 1985 says, "We shun all publicity for any written material could get into the wrong hands," and Everett Swanson asked a meeting not to record what was said. RNZ, reporting the FBI's request for victims, described a group "that traditionally has not had a name."

therefore no church property or real estate has been acquired by purchase or otherwise, and for this reason incorporation and registration under a denominational name has not been necessary.

We shun all publicity for any written material could get into the wrong hands. We must protect ourselves.

I would rather that you did not record what is said in meeting. If you need to remember what is said in this meeting the Holy Spirit will bring it to your remembrance. There are people who are trying to collect information about what we believe.

Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world; I ever taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and in secret spake I nothing.

For the king knoweth of these things, unto whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him; for this hath not been done in a corner.

but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:

A fellowship may decline a denominational name, and Scripture does not command one; the disciples "were called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 11:26), a name given by others. On the name alone the Two by Twos stand where many Churches of Christ say they stand. The fault is the concealment that goes with it. Jesus said, "I have spoken openly to the world" (John 18:20), Paul said "this hath not been done in a corner" (Acts 26:26), and Peter charged believers to be "ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). A fellowship that tells members it has no name while its overseers sign a name for the state, that keeps its teaching out of print, and whose workers have asked hearers not to record the preaching, has made its silence a rule and has put a light under the bushel (Matthew 5:14-16).

Set beside the Churches of Christ. The two begin from the same wish: to be only what the New Testament describes and to wear no human title. The Churches of Christ take "churches of Christ" from Romans 16:16 and say it describes the people and does not name a denomination. One congregation writes, "We are not affiliated with any denomination, including those who may have 'Church of Christ' in their names" (La Vista Church of Christ, quoted in this site's chart The Churches of Christ). The Two by Twos go a step further and take no name at all among their own, and Walker says a denominational name has "not been necessary."

Where the two agree. Neither binds a creed. Each says it follows the New Testament pattern and wears no human founder's name. Each has had an exclusive strand. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says some Churches of Christ representatives claimed the churches include the only known Christians, while others insisted on being "Christians only," and the historian Thomas Olbricht names "a continuing exclusivism" among their problems (both as this site's chart reports them). Workers of the Two by Twos are recorded saying that theirs is the only church Christ started. On the name alone, a fair reader should not count the lack of a title against either one.

Where they differ. The first difference is structure. The Churches of Christ have no governing body above the congregation, while the Two by Twos have overseers over each field, as Walker's letter openly describes. The second is being known. The Churches of Christ refuse the word denomination but put the words Church of Christ on the building and the website. A visitor can find the address, the hour and the elders, and can read what is taught in bulletins and in journals such as Truth Magazine. The Two by Twos tell their members there is no name, while the overseers registered names to deal with governments, and they keep their teaching out of print. A worker said in 1985, "We shun all publicity," and Zoccatelli says the leaders' names are not disclosed to outsiders. In the Churches of Christ the name is worn, and the question is whether it has become a badge. In the Two by Twos the missing name has itself become a mark of the true church, since Carroll says "You can tell whether a church is a false church or not if it was started by a man or woman." A name declined is a matter of title. Teaching kept out of sight is a matter of the gospel being kept in a corner.

What is owed to the Two by Twos. Their Gospel meetings are open to outsiders, as Telling the Truth records. Walker's letter set out the fellowship's ministry and government plainly for the government that asked, and the registered names served needs such as ministers' exemption in wartime. In 2023 and 2024 some overseers wrote to members, and a New Zealand spokesperson answered the press. The reasons the fellowship gives for keeping its teaching out of print, beyond Walker's note on property and names, were not found.

The one true way, started by Christ

Recorded workers say the fellowship alone was started by Christ and that a person cannot know God through other churches.

The notes record the claim in several forms. Jack Carroll: "We are the only church on earth that was started by Christ." Tharold Sylvester, in 1983: "We are not following some way founded in the early 1900s but it goes clear back to Christ." A senior worker in 1985: "You can only profess through our group. You cannot know our Heavenly Father through the traditional church." Not every worker speaks alike. Walter Pollock, interviewed in 1982, said, "We know that it began with a group of men in the British Isles around the turn of the century. That's as far as we have been able to trace it," and Willie Pollock said in 1988 that "there has not been continuity from Jesus' time until now," though a stump was left. Telling the Truth says most members are unaware of the fellowship's short history.

You can tell whether a church is a false church or not if it was started by a man or woman. We are the only church on earth that was started by Christ.

We are not following some way founded in the early 1900s but it goes clear back to Christ.

You can only profess through our group. You cannot know our Heavenly Father through the traditional church.

And Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him.

Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?

John said unto him, Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followed not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us.

And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The claim has an honest root: Christ said, "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against" his church (Matthew 16:18), and the fellowship wants to be nothing but that church. But the claim made by these workers is that the church has one door, a group, and that those in other churches cannot know the Father. Peter said, "in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:34-35), and Jesus told John not to forbid a man who did a mighty work in his name only "because he followed not us" (Mark 9:38-40). Paul asked a church split into parties, "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).

The claim that the fellowship was begun by Christ is a claim about history, and the dated record in the timeline shows an Irish beginning in the 1890s. The fellowship's own workers differ on it, as the quotations show. Where a worker says the beginning is not known beyond the British Isles in the early 1900s, the claim of the other workers loses its footing without any outside critic being needed.

The seven are weighed here as the other charts weigh them. Two cautions apply to this one. The fellowship publishes almost nothing, so a verdict can rest only on what the sources show: the 1942 letter and the recorded sayings of named workers. Where the sources are silent the verdict says so and weighs what is shown. And the Two by Twos are not yet drawn on the lineage chart. They appeal to the Bible alone, add no scripture, and put out their own founder in 1914 when he announced a new revelation, so they belong among the bodies it draws. Until their lane is added, the first five placements follow the criterion values this study proposes for it, and the reasons are given.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.

The fellowship names no creed beside the Bible and keeps the King James Version, and that puts it nearer the line than the many churches that bind a confession. But its workers say "Scripture is not the Word of God until it is spoken by a Worker," and the 1942 letter says doctrine and discipline are "settled" at conventions under the overseers. A spoken word that completes the written, and that a member has no place to test, is a rule beside the Scriptures. The man of God is "furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17) by Scripture, and the Bereans were praised for "examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), even when the one speaking was an apostle.

This placement follows the proposed lineage values (the rule of faith, silence and bound teaching all a step short of the furthest). The Bible is named as the rule, but a spoken word binds beside it. It is not counted as an added canon: the living-witness teaching is a reading of Romans 10 and Matthew 10 that the fellowship binds, not new scripture, and in 1914 the overseers put Irvine out when he announced a new revelation. Silence is read as command in the worker's life (celibacy, on the sources' account) and in standards such as modest dress and avoiding television, which Chryssides and Telling the Truth attribute to the group but which are not given here in the fellowship's own words. And the conventions bind teaching that the New Testament does not teach.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;

in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

The mode and the subject are right and are credited: the fellowship immerses professing believers, as Peter taught, and rejects infant baptism. But the recorded sayings of many workers, from the 1950s to the 1980s, put the ministry where Christ's blood stands: there is "no new birth without the human agency of the ministry" (Nelson), "reconciliation is through this ministry" (Wainwright), and "the blood of Christ only avails for those inside" (Swanson). Scripture says we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24-25), and "in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Ephesians 1:7). A salvation entered through the worker is a different gate from the one Peter preached (Acts 2:38). The verdict rests on that pattern, not on any one worker's sentence, and it is no less firm for being drawn from notes.

The proposed lineage values give one step from the line: believers are baptized by immersion, but no source ties baptism to the remission of sins, and entry is spoken of as "professing" at a Gospel meeting. The placement moves one step further because the sayings make the ministry the channel of the new birth and of the blood's effect, which is more than a mistaken purpose for baptism. Stancliff's often-quoted "fringe benefit" line is not leaned on: it is a one-sentence note, and his longer transcript affirms that Christ paid for sins.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within?

I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius; lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name.

The frequency is on the line and is credited plainly. Walker says the weekly Supper is taught and practiced, and the disciples "upon the first day of the week" gathered "to break bread" (Acts 20:7). It is kept in the home, without a priest or an altar, and Stancliff teaches it as Paul does: "we are to remember the Lord's death until He comes again," after each one examines himself, as "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) and "let a man prove himself" (1 Corinthians 11:28) require. That the ministers approve who is baptized and so who comes to the table does not count against it, since the church is to judge "them that are within" (1 Corinthians 5:12). One thing keeps it from the line. Every convert, by the sources, must be baptized again by a worker, whatever baptism he had before. A believer once immersed into Christ is turned from the table because of who immersed him, and Paul said "I thank God that I baptized none of you," "lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name" (1 Corinthians 1:14-15).

The proposed lineage values: frequency on the line, nature on the line, and access two steps from it. Their mean rounds to one step from the line. The owner's rule is that limiting the table counts only where Scripture is against the particular restriction. A gate kept by the ministers is not that: Paul's call to self-examination stands beside the church's duty to judge its members (1 Corinthians 5:11-13), and the two do not conflict. The test that counts is the one Scripture does not set, that the baptizer be a worker. The grounds are two former-member sources and Chryssides's note that the group rebaptizes new members, so a statement from the fellowship that it receives earlier immersions would move this.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.

The home meetings under elders are close to the line, since the apostles "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23). But above the home stands a ministry of workers, overseers over each field who arrange the other ministers' labors, and a convention that settles doctrine and discipline, so the home does not govern itself. Workers are called "the mediators," and an apostle is said to stand "between God and sinful men," when there is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Peter told elders not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:1-3). This course is already at the furthest point, so this series' rule for leaders who bind their own doctrine, which moves leadership one step further out, has no room to act.

The structure alone (elders in the home, overseers over fields, no local plurality with authority over its own flock) is placed furthest. Beyond that, the sayings say the workers bind doctrine: "God's servants are the understanding Authority of the word of God" (Willis Propp, 1979), and the conventions settle doctrine. Where an office binds doctrine of its own, this series moves leadership one step further from the line (Titus 1:9 and Galatians 1:8 hold leaders to the apostles' word). Here the course is already at the end, and it cannot go further.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,

Here the fellowship stands near the line, and the credit is plain. Its assemblies meet in homes, as the early church did in part (Acts 2:46), hold no building as a rite, sing hymns without instruments in the home meeting, and have testimony and prayer without a priest. Ephesians 5:19 asks for "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord," and the home meeting does just that. The Gospel meeting, by RIS's account, often uses a piano, which the New Testament does not command. Prayer, in the workers' recorded words, is made to the Father, as Jesus taught. The fault is small, and it comes from the piano in the Gospel meeting, not from the home or the singing.

The placement follows the proposed lineage values: music and added acts each one step from the line, and prayer to the Father on it. Music is the one criterion where the sources differ: the home meeting is without instruments, and the Gospel meeting often has a piano. The setting would be a step nearer the line if the Gospel meeting also sang without it.

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power? How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in thy heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

No published statement of the fellowship exists, and its recorded workers do not agree. Some say the Holy Spirit is not God, and others say Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are one being but not one God. Scripture speaks plainly: Peter said to Ananias, "why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit," and then, "thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:3-4), and the disciples are baptized "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). The Spirit is given his place with the Father and the Son. Where the Spirit is not God, and is received with the messenger, a worker stands where the Spirit should. On the gifts the credit is plain: the workers recorded say the miracles served to establish the covenant and were then set aside, which is near the New Testament, where the word "was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders" (Hebrews 2:3-4).

The placement is authored, from the recorded sayings of named workers. It is one step short of the furthest because the workers recorded do not agree among themselves, because the fellowship's overseers have not been recorded stating a view, and because the teaching on the gifts stands near the line. Fletcher's reason (each age has its own signs) is not Paul's, who says "that which is in part shall be done away" "when that which is perfect is come" (1 Corinthians 13:8-10), but his conclusion is the same.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The workers recorded hold that the Lord will come again and that "God keeps judgment in His hands," and that much is credited. Beyond it the sources say little, and the verdict rests on what is stated. Scripture says "all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth" (John 5:28-29), the good unto life and the evil unto judgment, and that God "hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:30-31). One worker's recorded words, that the fellowship alone will be resurrected, and another's, that a person's place in eternity is set by his attitude toward the workers, put the final judgment on a group and its ministers and not on Christ's judgment of every person.

The placement is authored. It rests on the exclusive sayings of Howlett, Carroll and Swanson, in collections made by former members, and is not raised higher because other workers leave the judgment with God. The fellowship's overseers could correct it by stating what is taught on the return of Christ and the judgment.

The Two by Twos hold much that Scripture also holds, and it should be said plainly. They put the Bible above a creed and keep a book, not a confession. They immerse believers and reject infant baptism. They keep the Lord's Supper every first day of the week, in the home, as a remembrance of his death, without a priest or an altar. Their workers teach that the miraculous gifts were set aside once the covenant was established. They have no clergy salary and no church building, and they send preachers out as Jesus sent the Seventy, on the Lord's own terms of food and shelter. They sent women into the ministry as well as men. Their meetings, hymns and testimonies are the work of members and not of a staff. Where the New Testament shows house churches, the Lord's Supper weekly and preachers without a salary, they are nearer than most.

The Two by Twos wanted to leave everything the churches had added and be only what Christ and the apostles planted, and on the home, the table and the absence of a creed they came closer than most.

But the added thing they kept is the most serious one. A living ministry stands between the hearer and the book, and the recorded words of its workers make it the gate of the new birth, the mediator and the test of salvation. The same fellowship that rejects every other human name carries a human office that its members are given no way to test, and a habit of keeping its teaching out of sight, which Jesus and Paul both refused: "I have spoken openly to the world" (John 18:20). The remedy is within reach and is not new. Let the book be read, let the preaching be tested by it, as the Bereans tested Paul, and let the fellowship be known by what it teaches, in the open, to everyone who asks.

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