Barbara Heinemann Landmann - The Community Rejects False Werkzeuge.

The Community Rejects False Werkzeuge.

Unfortunately, not everyone who claims to be a Werkzeug is a Werkzeug. Gruber and Rock acknowledged the existence of false Inspiration.

Gruber (1715) reports that the first false spirit made its appearance, "with false convulsions and false utterances," in a boy of 14 who thought he was moved by the Spirit. Johanna Melchior, an early member of the Community, denounced the false spirit "with great certainty and convincing power."

Gruber describes his own encounter with a false spirit.

I was befallen by an extraordinary shaking of the head and shivering of the mouth; and it has been proven a hundred times that such was not without significance, but indeed a true warning. (Gruber, 1715).

False Werkzeuge continued to be a problem for as long as the Community had Werkzeuge. Many years after the Community had settled in Iowa, Christian Metz, one of their Werkzeuge, writes:

There are many presumptuous members in our Communities who are always aspiring for something. The one wants to be an Elder, and the other even a Werkzeug; and the cause of it all is self-love and a false desire of the soul. (Metz, 1849)

Shambaugh (1908) reports that from the very beginnings of the Community, it was customary to appoint a committee to examine those who spoke by Inspiration. In many instances, the committee found an aspiring Werkzeug to be false, and they denied that person the privilege of prophesying.