Healing Revival

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The Healing Revival was a Pentecostal and partially non-denominational revival movement in North America that took place between 1946 and 1958. It was closely connected to the practice of spiritual healing and had a great influence on the development of the Charismatic Movement .

trigger

The movement was triggered by the 1946 book “ Atomic Power with God through Fasting and Prayer ” by the Pentecostal evangelist Thomas Hall († 1994) and the first appearance of William Branham as a healing evangelist in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1946 , among other factors .

Protagonists

If William Branham played a major role in the movement, Oral Roberts surpassed him . Both have been referred to as the "giants of the healing revival". Other celebrities included Jack Coe , AA Allen , TL Osborn , William Freeman and many more. In 1951, the Voice of Healing magazine named 1,000 healing evangelists active in the United States.

marketing

In addition to large newspaper advertisements, radio advertisements and the proclamation of miraculous healings like in biblical times (" Bible Times are Back "), Oral Roberts published the monthly magazine " Healing Waters ", which soon afterwards published " The Voice of Healing " by Gordon Lindsay and those of other healing evangelists followed. " The Voice of Healing " originally began as an advertising magazine for William Branham's campaigns, but after his break in 1948, other healing evangelists were also included in it. The magazine became a fixture in marketing healing campaigns by aspiring protagonists. The "Christ for the Nations Institute" emerged in 1970 from the organization they created. The movement was also funded by Demos Shakarian 's " Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International " .

Decline

The decline of the Healing Revival after 1956 is attributed, among other things, to the lack of durability of the alleged healings, the associated decline in the number of people and the increasing financial burden on the individual communities. In addition, media such as television ( television preachers ) made large tented events superfluous. The non-denominational approach that was praised at the beginning had no equivalent in reality. The movement ended around 1958.

influence

It was no coincidence that the Latter Rain Revival emerged in 1948 . The Healing Revival was strongly linked to an end-time belief that was further fueled by the threat of the Cold War and the emergence of the UFO phenomenon and led many to believe in a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the seemingly powerful appearance of people like William Branham . The Healing Revival also forms the spiritual foundation of the charismatic movement of the 1960s, whose leaders were partly identical.

criticism

If proponents of the Healing Revival describe it as "the most extensive public display of miraculous power in modern history", the movement was already viewed very critically by contemporary witnesses. Christian spiritual healers were known from the appearance of John Alexander Dowie , Smith Wigglesworth, and FF Bosworth . Likewise their failures. The healing evangelists of the Healing Revival were also described as swindlers and charlatans who played with people's faith and hope.

The author Hank Hanegraaff described the entire Healing Revival as a "hoax".

literature

  • John Crowder, Miracle Workers, Reformers and the New Mystics , Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 2006
  • Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Looking For God in All the Wrong Places , Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee 1997
  • David Edwin Harrell, All Things are possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in modern America , Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana 1978
  • Walter J. Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide , Baker Publishing Group, Peabody, Massachusetts 1997
  • Jeff Oliver, Pentecost To The Present: Worldwide Revivals and Renewal , Volume 3, Bridge Logos, Newberry, Florida 2017
  • James Randi, The Faith Healers , Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York 1989
  • C. Douglas Weaver, The Healer-Prophet , Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeff Oliver, Pentecost To The Present: Worldwide Revivals and Renewal , Volume 3, Bridge Logos, Newberry, Florida 2017, pp. 129 f.
  2. ↑ Roy Weremchuk, THUS Saith the Lord? , Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 89
  3. ^ John Crowder, Miracle Workers, Reformers and the New Mystics , Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 2006, p. 317
  4. ^ C. Douglas Weaver, The Healer-Prophet , Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia 1987, p. 165
  5. ^ David Edwin Harrell, All Things are possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in modern America , Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana 1978, pp. 25 f.
  6. ^ The Voice of Healing. Shreveport, Louisiana, January 1951
  7. ^ David Edwin Harrell, Oral Roberts: An American Life , Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana 1985, p. 112
  8. ↑ Roy Weremchuk 2019, pp 129 et seq.
  9. ↑ Roy Weremchuk 2019, p. 125
  10. ↑ John Crowder 2006, p. 321
  11. ↑ See James Randi, The Faith Healers , Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York 1989
  12. ^ Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Looking For God in All the Wrong Places , Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee 1997, p. 173