John de Ruiter

Jasun Horsley's 2017 book Dark Oasis: A Self-Made Messiah Unveiled examines de Ruiter's life and teachings in critical and skeptical terms.

Further controversy arose in 2014 after the death of one of de Ruiter's female followers under mysterious circumstances and in 2017, after de Ruiter publicly admitted that he had had sex with a number of his female followers. He has referred to this as the Calling.

Controversy concerning the movement arose in 1999 when, in a public meeting, de Ruiter's wife confronted him after learning that he was involved with two daughters of a devotee who had invested into the organisation. The sisters, themselves followers of de Ruiter, would later sue him in court for support. In a sworn affidavit from Benita von Sass in 2013, she alleged that he claimed to be "Christ on earth" and "defying him was to defy truth, goodness and God. Accordingly, I (von Sass) obeyed and submitted."

In 1998, de Ruiter began to travel the world, visiting United States, England, Germany, the Netherlands, India and Israel, attracting large crowds and building followings in those countries, with some of his devotees accompanying him on his travels. His newfound admirers, most having heard about him through word-of-mouth, begun to emigrate to Canada and relocate to Edmonton to be near de Ruiter. By the mid 2010s, de Ruiter had gained thousands of followers.

De Ruiter's reputation rapidly spread when he began to hold meetings in a small bookstore off Whyte Avenue on Edmonton's south side. Within months, his following had grown too large for the bookstore. By the late 1990s, de Ruiter was teaching at Edmonton's Royal Acupressure Clinic, where his followers met several times every weekend.

Raised in Stettler, Alberta, de Ruiter worked as an orthopedic shoemaker in Edmonton's European Shoe Comfort. In 1983, he moved to Toronto to attended a Baptist seminary. After a year of study, feeling that the leadership was too rigid, he returned to Alberta and studied at the Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, remaining there for a year and deciding to intern with a pastor at Edmonton's Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

Born in Stettler, Alberta to a Dutch shoemaker, de Ruiter attended Bible college and interned with a Lutheran pastor before forming his own spiritual practice in the late 1980s. His charismatic presentation and teachings, characterized by one observer as "New Age gospel," attracted thousands of followers over the next few decades, with several academic scholars interpreting his movement as the possible beginning of a new religion.

In the late 1980s, De Ruiter left Bethlehem Lutheran, with five couples following him to his new ministry, where he offered an unconventional Christian message every Friday from one couple's home, The venue was later moved to his own home in Edmonton's east end, where it remained until at least 1996. Tithes from his followers allowed de Ruiter to devote himself full-time to his teaching.

John de Ruiter (born November 11, 1959) is a Canadian spiritual leader and author who conducts meetings in Edmonton, Alberta and abroad. He operates a centre called the College of Integrated Philosophy and conducts his seminars and lectures from the Oasis Centre, a large auditorium venue in west Edmonton also used to host weddings and events.

John de Ruiter was born on November 11, 1959, to Dutch immigrant parents in the town of Stettler in Alberta, Canada. His father was a shoemaker from Het Bildt in the Netherlands.