George Geftakys slipped into a coma on August 11, 2014, and died at 6:15 p.m. He was buried in a private service at the Riverside National Cemetery. Your reflections prompted by this event are welcome here, on the website, and on the Facebook groups, “George & Betty Geftakys – Geftakys Assembly”, and “The Geftakys Assembly”. Elizabeth Esther Geftakys Henderson written about her grandfather’s passing on her blog and on her Facebook page.
In April George had had a stroke and a fall, from which he did not recover. He was placed in hospice care and given two to six months to live. Several former Assembly leaders considered visiting him to make one final appeal for a change of heart. However, his opportunity for repentance was past; according to a family member, he was not capable of coherent discussion due to increasing dementia.
A Geftakys Assembly Blog 
Great post, thank you. I love this whole blog as well.
I am 28 and I was born into The Assembly chapter out of Goleta. My family formally “stayed” until I was about ten years old, but we are all still picking up the pieces in our own ways.
At this time, I remember very little of my childhood up until ten years old. What I do remember was almost exclusively horrific, barbaric, and torturous. Physical, mental, and sexual abuse on a near-daily basis. A new friend recently told me, “People should have gone to jail for the torture you suffered,” and that put a pin in it. Guilt, shame, and fear consumed me.
I don’t remember any personal relationship with God or His Son, only fear of my parents, friends, and almost all other adults, in The Assembly or not. I was never safe. My childhood art was comparable to that of a serial killer. George was a mythologically horrifying creature and the first thing I remember was our family laughingly calling him “George Gives-Taxes” because fearful laughter was the only coping mechanism I knew.
I slipped into atheism like premade clothing by the time I turned 14 and stayed that way until 23. “I’m Christian if the Church will have me,” was my own personal excuse after the manner of James Joyce, but I truly doubted there was any God out of my own misery and ignorance, and I didn’t even consider myself any kind of victim. Nietzsche made way more sense, and makes far more sense than 99.9% of “believers” out there. I thought I was spoiled, arrogant, and privileged for my childhood, being born a middle-class, white man. I never considered that I suffered all-that-much, because I always said my suffering was fake in the face of the suffering of my parents, and, later, the Passion of Jesus.
I truly was arrogant, hard-hearted, and misanthropic, let alone totally lost and entirely miserable. I “succeeded” at many things — stellar high school and college GPAs, top-ranked colleges, romance, awards, athletics, accolades, promotions at work, success as an entrepreneur, etc. but nothing ever satisfied. Heartbreak and spiritual longing I wasn’t even aware of emptied me completely — I was unfaithful to my partner, I was expelled from my college, and the depression that once merely bubbled underneath now raged like a torrent. My inner thirst always returned and consumed all else.
By 22, I fell into drugs, irrational behaviors, and got arrested for a DUI after a breakup and my father’s cancer diagnosis. I wrote and published a memoir called B1 while in jail (named after my assigned cell block and also the “Be One” teaching). God found me. I don’t take any credit for finding God. Pure grace saved me from my small self’s delusion, self-hatred, and suicidal ways. But I still doubt I’ll ever be fully saved until God says to me, “Fear not for We are One.” I am long, long, long past receiving honor from men.
23-28 were spent in and out of hospitals after I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Reading Girl at the End of the World was transformative — As was The Bhagvad-Gita, the teachings of Buddha, the Koran, Ramana Maharshi, Yogananda, Adyashanti, and so many others. I have meditated a lot since I turned 23, I read scripture, and I finally realized I ought to read George’s books and see what all the fuss was about!
Spiritual Warfare reads like a guy just letting his inner monologue start rambling with absolutely no introduction, coherence, or grace — but that’s all-too-familiar to me. It sounds just like the inner voice I thought was me, myself, and I for at least 23 years and much of the last five.
George knew the Prince of This World as intimately as I believe I can say I do. I have empathized with Lucifer very, very intimately, and this is as it must be for me to forgive George. I can defend Lucifer’s role in God’s plan as easily as Christ’s, and I know Jesus did the exact same. Render unto Caesar. If my suffering can be of service to George’s eternal soul and to the world, I would find no honor greater than to lay down my life for my friends. If Jesus is my friend, so are George and Betty. If George and Betty get to go to Heaven, who wouldn’t? So I pray they get there.
When brother Bakht Singh happened to be in Oak Park, Illinois back around 1980 or so. I was invited to hear him speak so I went. At one point I simply told him “There’s sin in my life.” He responded very kindly and gently and said to me, “Leave it up to the Lord. Just leave it up to the Lord.” He said that and treated me much better and differently than some leading brothers including George Geftakys. I feel I am still being abused by some of these people spiritually. There is a book out there entitled “Spiritual Abuse”. I’ve never read it, although I think this is what I seem to be suffering to this day from many of these people. Whoever they are. Some I know who they are and those I don’t just seem to be joining in with the taunts that I’m often being bombarded with. Just merciless attacks by the devils crowd. I could go on and on. Yahweh knows. Never doubt that. For lack of energy I will cease at this point. Jesus said to His disciples just before He went to the cross. “Have faith in God”. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
Psalm 91:8-10
King James Version
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Steve Ferril oversaw us on our speck of dust in the San Fernando Valley, drove me to Fullerton on occasion. George Geftakys had some true servants, and Steve let me follow a calling overseas, not bogged down in American struggles. (But was I wrong! Struggles accompany those living godly lives anywhere.) Assemblies, Vineyard, Keith Green, Lonnie Frisbee, Bakht Singh, Gene Edwards… are bricks in the wall. Some stronger, some less so. Praise be to the Builder, the Architect, who chooses his building material and tries its quality. Good bricks trust the Builder, clay trusts the Potter!
You destroyed my childhood and forced me to live in a false reality. I hope he burns in hell and the same for the rest of the abusive elders in that cult. Damn you all.
“It will be terrible for people who cause even one of my little followers to stumble. Those people would be better off thrown into the deepest part of the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their necks.”
I learned much from George’s lectures. Just sitting there listening and seldom taking notes. Brother Bakht Singh was in my estimation a more devoted servant of God. I learned of Brother Bakht Singh through the assembly. Brother Bakht Singh came to Oak Park, Illinois and I was blessed to see him and hear him speak. It was in the basement of a Methodist church and folding chairs were set up for those attending with an aisle in between. I was sitting on the left side near the aisle. When he was through speaking he walked down the aisle toward the back of the room and as he walked by me I stopped him and made a generalized statement saying “There is sin in my life”. He simply looked at me and kindly said “leave it up to the Lord. Just leave it up to the Lord”. I learned a prayer from Brother Bakht Singh. He said when the devil tries to make you feel condemned because of a sin, you simply go to the Lord Jesus and say “Lord Jesus, that was my weakness and failure. Kindly intercede on my behalf and deliver me from Satan’s hands”. Who wants to be in the hands of Satan.
Once you are saved you are unconditionally saved forever. You cannot become unsaved. What you receive in heaven is conditional. The devil wants us to feel lost, hopeless, and forsaken. God gave us Jesus and the visible spectacle of his suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension that we might know that by believing in Jesus and His finished work upon the cross we would have everlasting life in His eternal kingdom. One of the hymns Brother Bakht Singh invited us to sing that night he spoke was “I am the Lords, Oh joy beyond expression”. He taught us that we are God’s personal possession. His peculiar treasure. Only a Christian can have the joy of knowing that. Only those who believe in Jesus, the Messiah. God is going to chastise us until the day we die. God is not going to be satisfied until he presents us before His throne faultless without blemish before Him. God allows circumstances in our lives to purify us. His grace is sufficient. It begins with believing and it ends with believing. Maybe that is why the Lord says, I am the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. The Lord our righteousness.
I have read many of Bakht Singh’s books and in the past had short correspondence by letter. I don’t intend to diminish him in any way by questioning why didn’t he see through Geftakys and encourage those in his movement to attend assembly meetings? Did a wolf in sheep’s clothing get a pass because he preached a similar “pattern” theology? Too much of a ‘guru’ devotion to leaders (even if good men as I presume B.S. was) bears some pretty mixed fruit, to put it mildly. I fear that some of us go soft on men like GG and groups like the assembly because we don’t want to face our own failure(s) in joining, participating in, and recruiting for such a dysfunctional and harmful individual fond reminisces of lectures notwithstanding.
Brother Bakht Singh was a selfless servant of God. He was a priest unto Gods people. Not the berobed, costumed type priests that most people are familiar with. He was holy, so he dressed and behaved in a manner that becometh holiness. He understood the weakness and infirmity of men and the flesh, so he was understanding and merciful to saints that were in disobedience and not walking in the way. The assemblies stressed walking with God. That’s wonderful, except that someone can be walking with God and ministering to the saints and then fall back into sin. To many of them, walking with God was a big ego trip. It made them feel better and more important than others when really they should acknowledge that they are nothing and anybody else is a better man than themselves. Brother Bakht Singh spoke of hard hearted believers that because of their hardness of heart drove people away from the meetings rather than making people feel welcome with mercy and love. There were some outstanding brothers and sisters that were obviously more Christ like than others and treated people as Jesus would treat people himself and they earned my respect above others. I was very severely judged by some, including brother George, to the extent of wondering if God loved me at all. It wasn’t that way with brother Bakht Singh. I told brother Bakht Singh that there was sin in my life, just making a generalization. He replied to me and said this, “Leave it up to the Lord, just leave it up to the Lord.” That’s all that he said. He didn’t ask me what the sin was or made me feel lesser of myself. Other people got into my face and made me feel uncomfortable. Brother Bakht Singh wasn’t like that. The Lord reward him for that. He took a great burden off of me by what he said.
I feel that since then, some 40 years ago I have learned much more about God than I knew then. God through visions that I have incessantly has lately at times been telling me that I am a prophet. Knowing the bible as much as I do that to me is a mouthful. Heavy duty. God has also been telling me that I am a miracle worker. I would like to work more miracles and greater miracles than I have seen. Mostly because of the people who need them. God has lately been telling me to be fearless. He told me in a vision how I am going to leave this world. This is what the vision said. God said, “When you leave this world, you am going to be beheaded, and you don’t have to be afraid because that is not going to happen until the time that it is meant to.” I told God after He began to tell me that I am a prophet that I felt greatly honored by Him in regard to that. I am greatly honored by God by all the wonderful experiences that I have with Him and all the wonderful things He tells me in my dreams and visions as well as what He reveals to me in His word. You can set up your computer to read to you brother Bakht Singhs books over the internet. God richly bess you above all that you have seen and experienced to this day. God multiply His grace, peace, and mercy unto you that you would visibly see and witness this yourself before your very eyes, and not just unto you but unto all Gods saints both living and dead. George said once that God is not through with us even after we are dead. I believe this. Peace be unto you.
From 1971 to 1979 I attended The Assembly in Fullerton at Hillcrest Park.
I was never aware of any perversions that George may have participated in during those years.
From the first day I attended to the last day, I have heard very few better preachers of the unadulterated Word of God than I have George Geftakys.
I have witnessed on several occasions the Spirit of God desend on his people after hearing the Word of God preached by George.
I am not Pentecostal!
I will always love George Geftakys.
He opened the Word of God to me, and for that I am forever grateful.
How the mighty are fallen.
GF
God is his judge, not us. Only our Heavenly Father knew what was in his heart those last days, moments.
May God have mercy on his soul. The great lesson of the assemblies can be summed up in the admonition of Isaiah 2:22 : “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils”. We were all guilty of putting this mere mortal on a pedestal, and it amounted to rank idolatry. Many of us were young, gullible, and completely devoid of any discernment. God forgive us. The leadership bears a very heavy responsibility. They could not have been ignorant of George’s true character, having served with him all those years. Mea culpas at the end notwithstanding, they chose to turn a blind eye to his sin. The silence of those who knew him from earlier days is even more astonishing. God was gracious to deliver me out of that corrosive system before the end with my faith intact. praise His name. I pray for all those he wounded, that God would restore they years…
Yes indeed! Go and wound no more….
I am brother Rufus Crawley of Tennessee. I and my family were in the Assembly in Tuscola, Illinois through the outreach in Champaign, from late 1978 to 1987 when we moved back to Tennessee. I did detect some issues brewing within the Assembly itself and with Brother George, as he was called. I thank God that I and my family did have to go through a lot of what so many people did with George Geftakys’s deception and cruelty. My heart goes out for all of those that were hurt by both him and his wife, Sister Betty. I only hope he repented before he passed on. My appeal to all that suffered harm from them is to forgive them because we all need to be forgiven, for we all are not without sin. My prayers go out unceasingly to all that were connected to the Assemblies, and that were hurt through his and her deception and cruelty. God is still in the healing business.
Let us leave judgment to the Lord. Only God knows the last conversation He had with George.
Blessings for your work on this
site! I think the issue of control overlaps in many assemblies, churches, groups, corporations.
People can hold Biblical standards and yet be so controlling. Even blind to it!
I am not sure what the future holds but we know who holds the future!
God bless you! Dios bendiga
I am watching a Spanish circle of assemblies from Central America who
have churches in USA and Canada! I will not name this group! But am hoping God will work to clean up them!
An old brother home with The Lord told his grandson years ago! Son go to seminary but don’t get a big head!
Enough said!
We do not have to correct everyone but we can pray that God will bring this!
I attended local San diego chapter assembly ( whatever you want to call it). I was a blessing for the most part. But placing George G on a pedestal like he was a super apostle was way over done. Leadership was told there was something off with the finances. A lot of people who were brought out to meetings had an inkling or feeling that the group was too controlling and trying to micro- manage people’s lives. At the end of the day, it was a sad ending to a ministry and church. But it is a reminder for all to stay humble and ask forgiveness daily.
I attended the Goleta, California assembly for two years during the 80’s. I had been a successful lawyer for several years in Denver, Colorado but I lost everything because of drinking and I was living in my van in California. I was a believer (which is why I am sober today) but I could not go to a regular church in those days due to being down and out. The Goleta Assembly, however, accepted me without reservation and I attended their services and got to know them all quite well. Without exception, they are the most decent people you would ever hope to meet. That includes George Geftakys. I never saw anything that might resemble hypocrisy but I sensed that George did occupy a position in the church that involved members serving him rather than God and this, of course, violates the “Him only shall you serve” portion of the Great Commandment. While that is wrong doctrine, it does not translate into a lack of love for God and one’s fellow man. Again, these people are about the most decent human beings I have ever met and that includes George Geftakys.. Arthur Weed
Arthur, with all due respect, ignorance is bliss.
You are extremely bitter and you’re filled with hate
Ray, your comment is not helpful as it stands. Constructive criticism might be helpful.
I was excommunicated from the Annandale assembly in 1995 for questioning some of the hypocrisy. George made it clear and the weak kneed leading brothers did his dirty work. But all along God was protecting my family and I by getting us out
I was forced as a child to attend the assembly. Never could fully embrace it. But my mother. ..Joan Hanson led me to the lord. I believe in God. I believe in his son. And through her guidance and backing up God’s word…by the bible. I became saved. George was a twisted joke in our family. His poetry rubbish. And I was told first hand about his adultery by one of his girlfriends. These people treated my family like garbage. My mother truly loves the lord and I know if she is not with him now…none of you will be. Run scared all you liars and users. Run scared. But those of you truly saved. Let George go. Get on with life. Revenge is mine . God’s words. Let him rein. He is angry. He is not meek. He will forever win over this sad world. Be afraid. I am. But I love him. I trust him. And hope to someday be with him. And kiss my mother. The true one. The blessed one.
Hello Amy – Thank you for your comments. I am glad your faith in Christ survived the twistedness of the Assembly. I am sorry for the loss of your mother. She was always gracious, even after we left the Assembly. She was broken-hearted after George was exposed – “We followed a man, we followed a man,” she mourned, instead of following Jesus. –Margaret
I left the Assembly in 1985 and this group leadership destroyed my life. George is the only one burning in hell now and everyone who has never repented of this evil. Sin and pride blinds us to our impeding judgment and accountability, this assembly evil was straight from the pits of hell. I’m a women and I have victory over men. I no longer let them rape my soul I am publicly confrontational and do not care what the devil thinks. I know you all and glad some made it out alive. I learn from godly Jewish scholars and George is a anti Christ.
I left also in 1985, and am learning from Messianic Jewish scholar Ariel. I got out in time more than the rest, but they did rape my soul also, I know exactly what you are saying. If it were scripturally allowed I would have sued for emotional damages! I still get head trips when I am under heavy attacks of guilt from Satan. I am Free, my Heavenly Father is so good.
praise the Lord Jesus Christ. I know pastor George Geftakis while come from to Indonesia..with bro Hendra G. in Bandung. He served at many university in Bandung…Thank Jesus He Finished in served of the Lord. Haleluya
No, he did not. He was a narccissist who gathered people around himself for his own self-centred purposes.