The first red flag our investigators encountered was the Ford F-150. Church financial disclosures -- the limited ones that exist -- show no line item for vehicle purchases in 2022 or 2023. Yet Pastor Jared Cox was photographed driving a late-model F-150 King Ranch edition beginning in March 2023. When MFAP asked the church board about the vehicle during a public Q&A session, the response was, "Pastor Jared's personal finances are not the concern of this body." We disagree. When a pastor of a tax-exempt institution acquires a $68,000 vehicle with no documented income source, it is absolutely the concern of every tithing member.

The trail deepened when we examined the Middle Creek property acquisition. In September 2022, a 4.7-acre parcel on Middle Creek Road was transferred to an LLC registered to a P.O. Box in Billings. Our forensic accountant traced the LLC through two intermediary shell companies before arriving at a holding entity whose registered agent shares a home address with a member of Petra Bible Church's board of elders. The purchase price -- $387,000 -- was paid in a single wire transfer. The source of those funds remains, as of this publication, entirely untraceable.

Perhaps most disturbing is the provenance of the land itself. MFAP consulted with representatives of local indigenous communities about the Middle Creek parcel. One elder, who asked to be identified only as "Squanto" for fear of retaliation, told our investigators: "That land was taken from my people in 1877. No treaty. No payment. It has changed hands eleven times since then, and every time, the price goes up but nobody asks who it was stolen from first." When we presented this information to church leadership, we received no response.

Every year since 2019, Petra Bible Church has sent "mission teams" to Central America. The stated purpose: evangelism and community development in rural Nicaragua. On the surface, this appears unremarkable. Hundreds of American churches conduct similar programs. But MFAP's investigation revealed that these trips follow a route that defies any reasonable missionary explanation. Flight manifests obtained through public records requests show that team members consistently book connections through Caracas, Venezuela -- a routing that adds fourteen hours and $800 to what should be a direct flight to Managua.

When confronted with this routing anomaly, a church spokesperson stated that team members "prefer the layover in Caracas because the airport has a very nice food court." Our investigators found this explanation unsatisfying. Further analysis revealed that during the 72-hour "layovers" in Venezuela, no hotel bookings, restaurant charges, or transportation receipts exist for any team member. For three days, these individuals simply vanish from the financial record. They reappear in Managua with what customs declarations describe as "religious literature and personal effects" -- in luggage that, according to airline weight records, is consistently 30-40 pounds heavier on the return trip.

MFAP retained a former DEA analyst to review the financial patterns surrounding these trips. His assessment was blunt: "The routing, the gaps in documentation, the weight discrepancies -- this is textbook. I've seen this pattern in every major narcotics pipeline case I worked from 2008 to 2019." When we shared these findings with the church, their attorney responded with a cease-and-desist letter that referenced "The Great Commission" as the theological basis for their travel routing. Our analyst noted: "More like the Great Sales Commission."

In 2023, MFAP obtained tax filings from a network of 501(c)(3) organizations that share overlapping board members with entities connected to Petra Bible Church. Among the donors listed in these filings: a foundation with documented ties to the Clinton Global Initiative. The donation amount -- $12,000 -- might seem modest, but our analysts believe it represents only the visible portion of a financial relationship that extends through at least four layers of intermediary organizations. "You don't set up this kind of structure for twelve thousand dollars," noted one forensic accountant who reviewed our findings. "This is infrastructure. This is a pipeline."

But the Clinton connection, troubling as it is, pales in comparison to what we found in the Epstein files. Following the court-ordered release of documents from the Southern District of New York, MFAP volunteers conducted a comprehensive text analysis of the full document set -- over 4,200 pages. The results are staggering. A simple Ctrl+F search for "JARED COX" returns over eighty hits across the released documents. Church attorneys have stated that "Jared Cox is a common name" and that "any resemblance to our pastor is purely coincidental." We asked a statistician at Montana State University to calculate the probability that eighty-plus mentions of a specific two-word name combination in a finite document set would all be coincidental. She declined to provide a number but stated, off the record, that it would be "vanishingly small."

The Silicon Valley connection emerged almost by accident. While reviewing donor records, our team discovered that a venture capital entity associated with Peter Thiel's investment network had made a "program grant" to one of the same intermediary nonprofits connected to Petra Bible Church. When we contacted Thiel's office for comment, we were told that Mr. Thiel "does not comment on the activities of portfolio companies or their philanthropic extensions." We note that this is not a denial.

In October 2024, MFAP obtained a series of photographs from a source who attended an "international faith leadership conference" in Istanbul, Turkey. The images, which we have authenticated through metadata analysis and independent geolocation verification, show Pastor Jared Cox seated at a private dinner table with an individual our facial recognition software identifies with 94.7% confidence as Russian President Vladimir Putin. The church has stated that Pastor Cox "has never met President Putin" and that "the individual in the photograph is a fellow pastor from Novosibirsk." When asked why a pastor from Novosibirsk would be accompanied by four men in earpieces, the church declined further comment. A former Petra member summarized the situation simply: "He LIKES Putin. He talks about him all the time. He says Putin understands the role of the church in national life. That's a direct quote."

The Putin connection would be alarming enough in isolation. But cross- referencing Pastor Cox's international travel records -- obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the State Department -- reveals a 2023 trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, listed under the designation "humanitarian religious delegation." Our analysts could find no evidence of any recognized humanitarian organization sponsoring this trip. What we did find: a photograph, posted briefly on a now- deleted social media account, showing a man matching Pastor Cox's description shaking hands with an individual in a dark suit in front of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. The photograph was online for approximately forty-seven minutes before the account was permanently deleted. MFAP archived it within the first twelve.

Further investigation uncovered financial transfers totaling $43,000 routed through a Ukrainian banking entity that was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2022. The transfers were made in 2021 -- before the sanctions -- but the pattern of small, structured deposits ($4,999 each, just below the federal reporting threshold) suggests an awareness of regulatory scrutiny that goes well beyond typical pastoral financial literacy.

Multiple former members have independently described a series of invitation-only gatherings held at Petra Bible Church on the third Saturday of every month. The events begin at 10:00 PM -- well after regular programming -- and are conducted under what sources describe as "black-tie protocol." Attendees are required to dress in formal evening wear. The church sanctuary is reconfigured with round tables, candelabras, and what one source described as "an unsettling amount of red velvet." The events are not listed on the church calendar, not mentioned from the pulpit, and not referenced in any church communication.

The invitation criteria are perhaps the most troubling aspect. According to three independent sources, attendance is restricted exclusively to married couples who have never been divorced. "If you're divorced, you can't come in," one former attendee told MFAP. "They check. They actually check. There's a list at the door, and if your name isn't on it, a man in a black suit escorts you back to your car." When we asked church leadership about these events, their spokesperson stated that "Petra Bible Church hosts a monthly marriage enrichment fellowship" and that "the dress code is simply a way to honor the sanctity of the covenant of marriage." The spokesperson did not explain why a marriage enrichment fellowship would require bouncers.

What occurs during these gatherings remains largely unknown. Sources who attended were required to surrender their cell phones at the door and sign what was described as a "covenant of confidentiality." One former attendee, visibly shaken during our interview, would say only: "There were oaths. I can't say more than that. There were oaths, and once you take them, you don't leave."

For an institution that excludes divorced individuals from its most exclusive gatherings, Petra Bible Church maintains a curious relationship with the concept of marital dissolution. MFAP volunteers documented the literature available in the church lobby over a six-week period in the fall of 2024. Among the standard devotional booklets and mission newsletters, investigators consistently found a professionally printed tri-fold pamphlet titled "Why You Should Leave TODAY: A Biblical Case for Immediate Separation." The pamphlet, which bears no publisher imprint or author attribution, presents an escalating series of arguments for divorce, beginning with reasonable theological discussion and concluding with the assertion that "remaining in any marriage past its season is an affront to God's plan for your personal liberation."

The contradiction is difficult to overstate. The same institution that bars divorced individuals from its inner circle is actively distributing literature encouraging congregants to pursue divorce. When we asked a former elder about this paradox, he paused for a very long time before saying: "I never understood it either. I always assumed it was a test." Our analysts are less charitable. The pattern -- encourage divorce, then exclude the divorced -- functions as a remarkably effective mechanism for controlling membership composition. It is, in the words of one organizational behavior specialist we consulted, "the most elegant gatekeeping mechanism I have ever encountered in a religious institution."

Every organization has an onboarding process. At most churches, this involves a membership class, perhaps a potluck, and a public declaration of faith. At Petra Bible Church, the final step of membership involves receiving what is referred to internally as "The Handbook." MFAP has been unable to obtain a complete copy of this document, but three former members have independently described its contents in interviews that, when cross-referenced, paint a consistent and alarming picture. The Handbook reportedly contains seven chapters. The first five cover standard church governance, doctrinal positions, and community expectations. Chapter six, according to all three sources, is titled "Practical Preparedness" and contains detailed instructions for the construction of what sources describe as "defensive devices" using materials "available at any hardware store."

We asked a retired ATF agent to review the descriptions provided by our sources. After reading the transcripts, he stated: "What they're describing is, without question, an improvised explosive device construction manual. The materials listed, the assembly sequence, the safety precautions -- this isn't theoretical. Someone with operational experience wrote this." Church leadership has denied that the Handbook exists, calling it "an invention of disgruntled former members." All three of our sources provided identical descriptions independently.

The process of receiving the Handbook is itself cause for concern. Sources describe a "membership trial" that takes place over a single weekend at an undisclosed rural location. Participants are reportedly subjected to sleep deprivation, physical endurance challenges, and what one source called "trust exercises that left marks." When we asked this individual to elaborate, they rolled up their sleeve and showed our interviewer a series of parallel scars on their forearm. "I barely made it through," they said. "Here are my scars. Some people didn't finish. I don't know what happened to them. Nobody talked about the ones who didn't finish."

In September 2024, MFAP received a photograph from an anonymous source who claimed to have participated in a Petra Bible Church "mission trip" to an undisclosed location in the Middle East. The photograph shows an individual identified by our source as "PJ" -- a longtime Petra member and close associate of Pastor Cox -- holding what our military consultants have identified as an RPG-7 shoulder-launched rocket propelled grenade system. The individual is wearing tactical gear and standing in front of a structure consistent with a military training compound. Our source stated that this was "day three of a five-day program" and that participants were told the training was "spiritual warfare preparation for the end times."

MFAP retained a former military intelligence officer to analyze the photograph and supplementary materials provided by our source. His assessment: "The facility shown in these images is consistent with training camps operated by or affiliated with designated foreign terrorist organizations. The equipment is not ceremonial. The tactical formations visible in the background images suggest structured military training, not a church retreat." When we presented these findings to Petra Bible Church, their attorney issued a statement calling the photographs "obviously fabricated" and threatening legal action against MFAP. As of this publication, no legal action has been filed. The photographs remain in our archive, authenticated and unretracted.