Updated at 9:55 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020: The team hosting the events posted on its website that the Bible stopped flowing with oil on Jan. 10, though they made no mention of this at its weekly gatherings since that day or when speaking to the Times Free Press nearly two weeks later. The group stopped distributing oil on Feb. 4 and will no longer hold services in Dalton, according to the online statement.
Chemical analysis tests gathered by the Times Free Press challenge the basis of a popular Dalton, Georgia, ministry that claims to have a Bible flowing with oil.
Each week, hundreds of people come to Dalton’s Wink Theater to see the Bible owned by Jerry Pearce. Those who gather described deep religious experiences when the oil Bible touched them. Others said the oil cured them of sickness or helped them kick addictions.
Through donations, Pearce and Johnny Taylor, the other leader of His Name is Flowing Oil, have made a full-time job of traveling the country with the Bible, estimating they have handed out around 350,000 free vials of the oil.
The Times Free Press wrote about the increasingly popular gathering in November 2019. The next day, someone contacted the newspaper saying Pearce was a regular customer at the Tractor Supply store in Dalton. The person said Pearce often bought large amounts of mineral oil – a clear oil similar in appearance to the oil Pearce claims is coming from his Bible.