Trails to Lakeland: Part 1 (A 4 Part Series on the Florida Outpouring Revival)

A few weeks ago I attended the Lakeland Revival. It continues to grow, influence and has no ending in sight. As this revival is spreading from Lakeland to around the globe I thought it would important to see where this revival comes from.

The following is Part 1 of a 4 part expose I have written. Over the next week we will travel through the trails of the revival, find the links, and see where this all really came from.

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To understand all whats happening in the Florida Outpouring Revival we must start in the 1940’s. In the 1940’s a guy by the name of Branham was sitting down by a river one day when an angel came to visit him. The angel instructed Branham to go out and heal people. Branham, with no questions asked, did what this angel told him to do. Throughout the rest of his life Branham claimed to follow the lead of this angel. He claims that the angel always told him what to do and without the angels instructions he was not able to heal people. Now in one of his books, Branham tells of how he is actually visited by many angels and how psychics and others have seen these ‘balls of light’ following him, which his pastor and other local pastors claims were actually demons.

Now at this same time another faith healer in England was also healing people through an angel. Harry Edwards, in England, was doing the same thing, though he began a few years before Branham. His healing ministry and angelic visits happened after he visited a psychic/fortune teller who had a vision of a ‘Christian’ healing ministry that Edwards would lead. Edwards though stuck to England more, was going as far as having legal support of hospital healing services.

Branham though used a more common approach of holding massive healing ‘revivals’ where thousands would show up and be healed, through the power of his angel. He also believed that both Zodiac and Egyptology were equal to Scripture as ways of communicating and understanding God and His will. Branham, along with his teachings (known at the Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God) , were officially rejected by the Assembles of God in 1948. These same teachings had been rejected as early as the Asuze Street Revival in 1906 but it was Branham’s (and Kathryn Kulhman’s) teachings that caused them to rise to the surface again in the 1940’s.

Branham had many followers who would travel with him and were blessed by him to carry on his gift. One of the main followers was a guy by the name of Paul Cain. Paul followed Branham soaking in all of his teachings. Then he met up with another preacher by the name of Bob Jones. Cain himself claims to have had a visit from Jesus while driving one day, where Jesus physically appears in his car and tells him not to marry his fiancé because Jesus was jealous of him. Cain also claims to have been visited by Branham’s angel at the age 8 and randomly throughout the rest of his life.

By 1950 this doctrine and those who teach it had world wide recognition. At this point a semi-unknown Bible preacher, Kenneth Hagin, was hosting a crusade when he claims Jesus walked into the room and then abducted him for a ride that ranged from going to heaven and hell to a meeting with a guy on horse while floating in deep space. This guy on the horse gave him a scroll which had the teachings of the Latter Rain movement on them. This preacher then is touched by Jesus and given a gift of healing. From this point on Hagin focused on the healing ministry and is visited on regular basis by this angel/visitor who he sometimes claims is Jesus himself and other times is just a messenger of Jesus.

From this point on Hagin would keep a close eye on the Latter Rain movement and Branham. In the 1960’s the movement rose up again, this time by Branham, his disciple Cain and by Hagin himself, though once again the mainline denominations spoke out against it. This time they called themselves the Manchild Company and claimed they were the only ones saved. Paul Cain was very involved with this group. Francis Frangipane was the voice of this group, but Brenham was one of its main leaders. This Manchild Company group starts a teaching about a group of military style radicals that destroy and overpower all those opposed to their beliefs until they control the earth, this group of militant radicals was called Joel’s Army (more on this later).

While this was all going on the ministries of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland were just coming to the national level. Both taught that we, as humans, have the power to create things out of nothing. Hagin claims that the Lord told him to follow his inner voice and promised him worldly riches if he did so. He goes on to teach that Christians are incarnates of God, just as Jesus was. The clincher for Hagin is the 8 visions he has had, most of which included angelic visitations.

Copeland followed along these same teachings. Claiming personal visits from Jesus, claiming that Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, and claiming that God is ultimately a failure Copeland found few friends in traditional Christian circles (his claims that Heaven was on a distant planet and that Satan owns and the controls of the earth also didn’t help). The place he did find a welcome was within the Word-Faith movement (known by most of name it and claim it theology) of which Hagin was one of the main proponents.

Soon these two pastors held crusades together and in 1974 Hagin started a Bible school were students were taught how to speak and interpret tongues, how to heal the sick, and listen to the ‘voice of reason’ within each of them.

At the same time that Hagin and Copeland were gaining notice across the nation another faith healer was big on the scene, a lady by the name of Kathryn Kuhlman. She too had begun in the 1930’s and 40’s. After an affair with a visiting pastor that caused her to lose her church and the failure of a secret marriage which she denied multiple times she began to focus on her healing ministry. Her crusades were some of the biggest and they too had angelic visitations. She always had a Catholic priest on the stage during the services and many Catholics would turn to her crusades instead of seeking out apparitions of Mary. Out of the revivals of Kuhlman came Oral Roberts and then in 1973 Benny Hinn.

More on that next time…

Part 2 is posted. All the sources will be linked on Part 4.

Thanks for reading

-welcome to the wormhole-