R. A. Torrey

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) was one of the foremost evangelists of his day. He was a great man of prayer who went around the world proclaiming the message of the gospel and helping men receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Even the great Evangelist D.L. Moody after hearing Torrey preach said, “you make my mouth water for Him.”

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The topic that R.A. Torrey struggled with for years was that of Divine Healing. This was due to the ministry of John Alexander Dowie. Dowie was a great pioneer of the healing message, yet was brash, aggressive, and would openly thrash and humiliate anyone who disagreed with his doctrine. After seeing the open feuds between Dowie and Moody, Torrey decided to stay away from the topic of divine healing all together. Yet, something continued to draw him to it over the years. He began to see people healed in his own meetings and at the time Aimee Semple McPherson brought another great wave of healing to the nation.

Towards the end of his life, he felt the need to respond to what he was seeing and published a little book called “Divine Healing.” Within the writings he said, “Does God heal in answer to prayer today? Does He really heal people who are beyond the skill of the physician and beyond all human help? Does he work miracles today? 

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To all these questions I reply, He does. Not only does the Bible teach it, but experience demonstrates it." Would Torrey have seen things in a different light if he had not encountered Dowie? Only God knows the answer to that question. Torrey died on October 26, 1928. His remarkable evangelistic campaigns remain, like those of his friend Moody, a hallmark of effective and memorable Christian movements.

Regardless of the actions of other ministers that were hurtful, Torrey decided to go with what God’s word had to say on the matter, and he left a legacy of faith proclaiming that God saves, God fills with the Holy Ghost, and God heals! Let’s all do the same!

KINGDOM GENERALS

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Fred Bosworth's Spiritual Journey

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Fred Bosworth's spiritual journey.

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A resident of Zion City named Mrs. Waldron attended a tent crusade under the ministry of Charles F. Parham and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues. When she brought the exciting news to Zion City, John Alexander Dowie was determined to keep the “tongues movement” out of his community.

 However, Bosworth and evangelist John G. Lake, who also lived in Zion City at the time, were hungry for the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. When Parham came to Zion City to preach on the baptism in the Holy Spirit a few years later, the Bosworths welcomed him into their home to hold meetings. 

Shortly after this, Fred Bosworth and Lake received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Together, they made a trip to Azusa Street in California to experience the Holy Spirit’s revival there and to seek answers to their questions from the Reverend William J. Seymour concerning this “new” work of God.

 After Bosworth received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he looked back at his early days of nomadic movements from one job to the other and said, “I wish someone at that time had told me about being baptized in the Holy Spirit. I did a great deal of drifting not knowing what the right place was for me.”

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The right place for Fred Bosworth became clear to him almost immediately. During the years that he lived in Zion City, he spoke of his fear that God would call him to preach the gospel. After receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, however, he became afraid that God would not call him to preach. At twenty- nine years of age, his life had been radically changed.

 He began to search the Scriptures on the Holy Spirit, such as Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire,” and Acts 19:2, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit would come, and that He would be the One to baptize the disciples in the Spirit.

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Bosworth also read some of the writings of A. J. Gordon, who spoke out forcefully on the scriptural proof for the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second and separate experience from salvation. “It is as sinners that we accept Christ; but it is as sons that we accept the Holy Spirit,” Gordon wrote as he expounded on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “We must withhold our consent from the inconsistent exegesis which would make the water baptism of the apostolic times rigidly binding but would relegate the Baptism in the Spirit to a bygone dispensation.”

Bosworth admired the wisdom of using biblical logic and the Word to defend the good news of the full gospel. It would become a hallmark for him in future debates on the healing power of God on the earth in modern days.

- GOD’S GENERALS ( The Healing Evangelists)

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John Alexander Dowie

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ARRESTED 100 TIMES WITHIN A YEAR

JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE  opened several large rooming houses called "Healing Homes." Here, the sick who had come for healing could find shelter and rest between the services held at Zion Tabernacle. Once there, they were able to receive constant ministry from the Word until their faith mounted to the place of complete manifestation. But the newspapers, mainly the Chicago Dispatch, were merciless, calling the homes "Lunatic Asylums" and continued to print every lie imaginable.

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Because of these healing homes, Dowie's enemies thought they had found a vulnerable spot. So early in 1895, they arrested him on the charge of "practicing medicine without a license." Obviously untrue, Dowie would have been the last person to allow medicine into his homes He hired a brilliant attorney, but he only kept Dowie advised of the legal matters.

 So Dowie chose to represent himself in court because no one else could articulate his call as accurately as himself. Dowie's superior intellect was not enough to overrule the evil jurisdiction of the court. Despite his profound arguments, the court fined him. But they never dreamed he would take the case to a higher court, costing much more money than the fines they had issued!

When he did, the higher court denounced the evil of the lower court, and reversed the decision.

The city hoped Dowie would get discouraged if they continued to arrest and fine him. So before the year was over, he had been arrested one hundred times. Although severely persecuted, he was never discouraged.

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 Persecution brought out great resiliency in his character. He actually thrived on his persecutors' affliction and interrogation. Evil will always try to persecute the power of God. But Dowie was super-naturally secure and anchored in bis godly authority. The supernatural never bows to the natural. 

 - GOD’S GENERALS ( “The Healing Apostle" ) 

 Roberts Liardon

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