Analysing A Path of Truth Detractor

In this post I dissect the words of a Path of Truth detractor showing how faulty logic and passion (emotion) combine in a toxic mix. From this I hope to show others now not to fall into the same trap. Victor Hafichuk will no doubt appreciate that I am ‘on his side’ with this post, but that is not the case . . . I seek only the truth. This is an important post for truth-seekers, especially those who have got tangled up with Path of Truth Ministries in any way.

Victor Hafichuck runs an Christian Internet Ministry called Path of Truth, oft-claimed to be a cult. Along with his long-serving off-sider Paul Cohen, he has for years preached his version of the Gospel. In essence his theology is a collection of fringe beliefs strung together in a coherent form that pretty much attacks the core belief systems of the mainstream Christian denominations. Good on ’em for that if he’s onto it! There is much meat to be eaten in that world if you have the guts to do it. Victor and Co clearly have!

As I try not to enter into theological debate (dueling Bibles doesn’t grab me as an effective use of time), I’ll leave it to others to argue the toss piece by piece, which some do quite vociferously I might add! I would say however that Victor keeps some very good company in all his teaching points and elucidates his position very well from scripture. That I too, had come to the same conclusions about many of his beliefs caught my attention and (if you ignore his arrogance and communication style when he feels threatened), I counsel people to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to Path of Truth.

Here then is the rub . . . Victor claims that he hears directly from Jesus, that the Spirit of Christ resides in him. I can concur with this. It is impossible for him to have said what he has said, done what he has done without this being at least partially true. BUT that this fact precludes error is a fallacy and the trap of pride that sets us all up for a fall. THAT is the failing of Path of Truth. They DO speak truth BUT they ARE not perfect. Victor errs in this matter in practice – he says on one hand that he is just another sinner saved by grace, but on the other he claims the right to judge and exercises it. This is the deception that PoT operates under and is the cause of all their troubles being attacked by all and sundry.

I’ve ‘bashed’ Victor and Paul enough in the past so will only summarise their failings here – it is HOW they conduct themselves with excessive judgmentalism that shows this pride in all its ugly glory.

I now come to the commenter (Nikki) from today and his words of relief that he had stumbled upon someone who had exposed PoT and therefore saved him from a waste of time digesting PoT materials. There’s a lot of revealing words in his comments which I reply to here in person [in bold] as if this was a private communication. In the comments on the original post I link to this page giving him the chance to read this directly:

And here I was, copying and pasting all the VAST amounts of information on the Path-of-Truth site so that I could go through it all slowly and carefully!

First, Nikki, thank you so much for swinging by and commenting as you have, baring your soul to the world so-to-speak. Doing this will have helped others I am sure. I would continue to do your research as you planned using PoT materials. The core teaching from Victor Haficuk is well elucidated, validated from scripture and has widespread but not a large following. It is a logical fallacy to believe in Common Knowledge thus just because something is mainstream, believed and promoted by the majority doesn’t necessarily make it right or true.

Take for example Victor’s teaching on Eternal Hell and Damnation. Within mainstream Christianity there are many people who doubt the traditional story that “Bad people rot tortured in Hell forever!” Translation of key words is disputed and obfuscation exists. While alternatives are certainly ‘fringe theology’ there are some very smart thinking people whom I have met and whom I respect enormously in their walk of faith who cannot except that a loving God would just “cast parts of His creation aside forever and ever amen and don’t look downwards into hell when you are in Heaven forever praising the Lord, Hallelujah brother!” Victor’s teaching is very well thought out and others DO concur. Write it off at your peril!

Then with some of the sacred cows in Christianity too there are serious questions that potentially give Victor good reason to be listened to. From what I’ve seen Victor Hafichuk is unique in that he has for a long time spoken publicly about his ‘fringe’ beliefs and while his collecting of fringe theology seems excessive, look at it from the other side . . . isn’t this what Jesus did and said in His Ministry? What if Victor IS right?

I recommend that as you digest PoT teaching material, you work hard to divine the message from the messenger. Unless you are interested in their human interactions (which I am) ignore their communications with others. It’s depressing reading in the large part. Likewise with their list of False Prophets. This is simply an ego thing on Victor’s part. He likes his conflicts to be publicly visible – it gives him validity (in his own mind). But the teaching is sure to raise a question or two. When you take the ideas PoT shares to others for analysis in the future (and this will happen naturally as you grow in faith and keep asking questions) note HOW the detractors deal with the ideas. Look at how they use scripture (or not) to validate their position. Most PoT detractors attack the organisation not the teaching.

I’m totally paranoid about being deceived

Ouch!! Nikki, this is great of you to admit but your paranoia sets yourself up FOR being deceived. When you fear (that is what paranoia really is, fear) something that is not the Lord, you empower that thing. When I fear an animal, or the Police or shame before a fellow man, I give them power over me. I run from the animal; I behave myself when followed by a Police car and I act in a socially appropriate way, all this done to avoid the consequences we fear. Of course some of this is natural and good but I counsel you to fear the Lord, for that is the beginning of wisdom.

Assuming that you are a Christian, somehow the Holy Spirit has affected in you a belief that Jesus is more than just a prophet who lived and died a couple of thousand years ago. Whatever or however that belief came about in you is the exact same source that will teach you and empower you to know the truth for the rest of your life. It is not up to Path of Truth, Victor Hafichuk, the church, the Pastor, the Evangelist, the Prophet, not even the Bible, least of all you (or me) to determine truth for you. It is up to Him, Nikki. When you trust (respect & fear) Him, then you will never be paranoid about being deceived again. This is the thing that Victor Hafichuk talks about and teaches (I believe) so well, in that it is when we trust Him that He shows us and leads us into all truth.

Doing this will enable you as even a young believer to mix and match it with some of the supposedly smartest, biggest, most famous people on the planet. It is the same ‘tool’ by which I can divine both the truth they speak AND their failures in logic and application within Path of Truth.

and I thank you for posting that e-mail “article” which enabled me to see the “true colours” of two humans – professing to be “men of YAHWEH” – when they are challenged. Embarrassment is often hidden under the cloak of belligerence and arrogance!

Yes and in this regards it is Paul Cohen who fails most spectacularly isn’t it? Paul is a VERY intelligent man, clearly gifted with words and one who has stood by Victor Hafichuk for decades. While he’s obviously not overly endowed with humility, Paul needs to be given this recognition for loyalty is an incredibly powerful and valuable thing. Paul’s pride though fails badly in the logic department. He’s not strong in this area and Victor hasn’t (probably can’t) help him out of the pickle he’s in.

The origins of Paul’s failure in logic is not actually anything to do with the Six Million figure or Jewishness or even anything theological, it is that decades ago he failed to apply logic correctly when Victor went to Israel and Paul got saved. My take on this is that Paul’s salvation undoubtedly came about because of Victor’s obedience and calling, thus Paul ‘owes him one’ spiritually speaking but that the soul-tie that developed between them has become an idol.

The proof of this is Paul’s undying belief in Victor as a prophet, sometimes against all reason accepting Victor and obeying him as if Victor was Jesus. You can see this in the communications I have released where Paul believes in the Holocaust story “because Victor does”.

Embarrassment too will continue to increase. This blog as far as I know is the only serious opposition in a public arena that Victor has ever experienced. It is also a serious challenge because I don’t engage on theology. That is a challenge for a ministry that has always operated on and with theological battles as its focus and strength.

There is more on all of this which I haven’t yet shared but basically there is continual conflict within PoT and what is put online by them is highly sanitised. I will be gradually sharing more as time goes on.

Personally, I would have been ever so grateful that someone more knowledgeable than I (and that goes for the vast majority ‘out there’ since I’m a very ‘new” Christian) took time out of his or her busy life to point out where I was mistaken or misinformed!

Nikki, there are millions of people out there who would love to help teach you and correct you. Whether they speak the truth or not though is the issue. Victor is one of those people. So am I but as I said before, the only voice that matters is His. The only truth that matters is what He wants to teach you today, here, now. You should be developing that relationship, treasuring it and be obedient to it.

In Jesus’ dying moments there were two people He ministered to in particular. Ignore the crowds, the employees of the state and His own team and focus on just the two who were in the same predicament as He was – strung on a cross. Jesus ignored one and taught the other. He spoke of a relationship of faith that gave a dying man hope and a future. How old [new] was that Christian when he recognised the truth? It may have been only minutes, yet he died probably knowing the Truth more than many of the ‘big’ Christians that have followed in the centuries that followed.

Pity Victor and Paul didn’t do the same thing and it is such a pity that they were not just a tiny smidgen more gracious!

Oh yes! How I too, like you, wish that Victor, Paul and Co had just a tiny smidgen of grace! On a balancing scale between love and truth, PoT operates at as close to full truth and zero love as you can get.

Search their website; speak to their followers; speak to the disenfranchised followers; speak to those who have engaged with them over decades and you will find it extraordinary hard to find people accuse them of loving too much. From their name; to their ministry conduct; to their teaching materials; to their marketing materials it is all truth, truth, truth yet the message of Christ was truth and love in equal mix. 

This all comes down to the leader, Victor personally. It is his personality; his view of life; a result of his life choices; culture; genetics; faith and circumstances all mixed together that makes PoT what it is. In some ways it is incredibly sad how someone like you (there are MANY others BTW) who are desperately keen to know the truth get burned off PoT because of their style.

The only ray of hope I can see is that the Lord who spoke to Victor is the same one who can and does speak to me, and you!

Now I simply need to push the delete button and dispose of the MANY pages and move on to (hopefully) someone less antagonistic and more gracious, which, in itself, is awfully hard to find with all the apostasy on the Internet and all the real kooks who speak such utter nonsense!.

Hah! I’ve given you my advice . . . DO read PoT materials and even swing by their chatroom on a Sabbath and talk and engage with them if you feel led to do so. BUT . . . always listen and obey the Master yourself!

I’ve spent more than 50 years as a truth-seeker Nikki. The greatest moment in my life was when I came to the knowledge that the truth is a person, the person of Christ. That seeding of faith was not a human act. I had been chanting and bead-counting for years and had digested much truth from Eastern religions. I spent decades in and out of the mainstream Christian denominations until around about a decade ago the Lord “called me out“. Fighting like a spoiled child I did obey and entered the big wide world with only Jesus as my spiritual leader/mentor/Pastor. I would never return even if you paid me a million bucks and see now more and more why it is so important for people to avoid “going under” [as they say here in third-world Samoa] another. We face the Maker alone, and if I had one paranoia (I don’t but if I did have this would be it) it is that I fail to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant!”

My last words, apart from thank you again for sharing are that the best way to learn is to teach. Teach the truth Nikki, and you will never be deceived. Fear the Lord and teach what He teaches you, either through blogging like I do or any other way you want and I suspect that you will never look back and will be a leader in your society!

To others I say thank you for swinging by. Many I know will share Nikki’s sentiments – IF ONLY Path of Truth Ministries would show a little grace, kindness or love! I am proceeding on the basis that a leopard never changes his spots, but also cognisant of the fact that since the cross the Holy Spirit has the authority to do whatever He wants to.

Have a great day!