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©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
The Healing Explosion
by M.H. Reynolds
©FOUNDATION Magazine, July-Sept 1987
The Healing Explosion! Charles and Frances Hunter! These
names may not be familiar to most Christians now, but they likely will be soon. The
Hunters and their relatively new Healing Explosion teachings are
rocketing them to the top of the Charismatic Movement, and the tremendous powers they
manifest in their public meetings are allowing them to gain publicity in the public press.
There are several reasons why this special warning is necessary now.
First -- The Hunters erroneously teach that all
believers should be able to perform miracles and healings as a necessary aid in winning
people to Christ and that all believers can be and should be TAUGHT HOW
to do this. Further compounding these errors, is their claim that such a program
is not only Scriptural but that God told them to launch such a ministry.
We warn that these teachings are dangerously deceptive, going far beyond the errors of
historic Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement. In these false teachings, the
Hunters are joined by John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Christian Ministries and author
of the books Power Evangelism and Power Healing. Be sure to read
carefully those sections of Pastor Costella's article, Deceiving
and Being Deceived in which he deals briefly with the deceptions promoted by Wimber
and the Hunters in their seminars at New Orleans.
Second -- The new and very attractive approach the Hunters
use in promoting their Healing Explosion teachings will certainly exert a
harmful influence upon those who lack spiritual discernment. Charles is not the usual
Madison Avenue, Hollywood-style Pentecostal orator, nor is Frances the usual flamboyant,
charismatic woman preacher. They literally disarm even their would-be critics by their
down-to-earth, folksy words and mannerisms. Their simple approach has an added appeal at a
time when many have been "turned off" by the high-pressure tactics of most
charismatic leaders.
Third -- The Hunters do manifest great power in their Healing
Explosion meetings. In fact, they probably demonstrate greater power in their
ministry than any other faith healers since Kathryn Kuhlman. At their slightest touch,
both Charles and Frances can put people flat on their backs on the floor, rendering them
unconscious for a few seconds or even several minutes. After such an experience, many
testify that they have received miraculous healings, baptism with the Holy Spirit or both.
(Note: In Pentecostal/charismatic terminology, such an experience is called being
slain in the Spirit or coming under the power, and has been regularly practiced
by "faith healers" all along. But it is important to remember that there is
absolutely no Scriptural instance of, nor Scriptural basis for, claiming that such an
experience is a manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. To the contrary, it is
evidence that a false spirit is at work.)
Fourth -- The Healing Explosion ministry
is particularly dangerous because of the systematic way in which its heresies are
inculcated to others. Their students are taught how to heal and do miracles
by attending 14 hours of training meetings called Video Healing Schools and by studying
their book To Heal the Sick. These Healing Explosion teachings
have now been packaged for worldwide distribution and are being translated into all the
major languages.
Fifth -- The enthusiastic acceptance of the Hunters' Healing
Explosion teachings by most of the major charismatic leaders guarantees its
continued phenomenal growth. Paul Yonggi Cho plans to indoctrinate the 500,000 members of
his church in Korea in the Healing Explosion program. Demos Shakarian, president of the
Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International has urged all its members to take the
Hunters' Video Training. A leader in the "700 Club" outreach ministry is working
to coordinate a program whereby their counselors can be trained and sent out to visit
those who call in for prayer and need healing. Three thousand healing teams representing
23 denominations have been trained in 212 Video Healing Schools in preparation for the
Hunters' next big meeting in Dallas, Texas. The Healing Explosion is
indeed exploding.
Sixth -- The Hunters' Healing Explosion program
will present special problems for faithful missionaries and national church leaders in
other parts of the world where people experience such tremendous physical and spiritual
problems. Those with great needs are particularly susceptible to "miracle
workers," and there is very little information or Scriptural teaching available to
warn and protect them against the satanic deceptions of the Healing Explosion
movement. The following excerpt provides an example of the impact this dangerous
phenomenon has upon works in foreign lands:
- This concept of believers healing the sick has rapidly received acceptance in other
countries. The first full-fledged overseas Healing Explosion was in Bogota, Colombia, last
year. About 6,000 persons were trained through videotapes lip-synchronized in Spanish.
In
July, the Hunters and the Barkers traveled to Brazil. There they conducted three Healing
Explosions under the sponsorship of the 13 million member Brazilian Assemblies of God.
The Hunters were overwhelmed by the response of the Brazilians. About 50,000 persons
filled the stadium and field in Belem.
"Charles began to minister the baptism of the Spirit, and there came a point where
we lost the entire service," Frances describes. "God literally exploded with a
crack that you could hear all overthe stadium -- a cracking sound like lightning hitting a
building. All of a sudden a wheelchair went up in the air and was passed overhead to the
stage, then another wheelchair, then a stretcher, then came crutches ... One young boy who
had been paralyzed from the waist down as a result of an automobile accident was instantly
healed. As the power of God touched him, he got up and ran all the way around the outside
of the stadium..." (Charisma, October 1987)
At the conclusion of this meeting, Frances Hunter tells how a local Brazilian pastor
who had refused to cooperate in the meeting in protest to the fact that she wore earrings,
sent a message of apology to her afterward, saying, "I have never seen
anything like this in all my life none of us ever saw anything like this in our
lives."
In a second meeting in Goiania, Brazil, it was reported that about eighty percent of
the 50,000 present at that Healing Explosion Service received the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. The Charisma article asks, "Can you imagine what happens
when a huge crowd like that begins to speak in tongues all at once? The answer? It
was a night to remember." As a result of these meetings, the Hunters are now
planning for Healing Explosions to take place in all of Brazil's 24 states. A
Healing Explosion is indeed taking place overseas.
- In addition to a third Healing Explosion in an auditorium in Campinas, the Hunters held
services in several churches with capacity crowds.
Beyond Portuguese for Brazil, the
Hunters are also producing video healing tapes in Spanish, German, French (for African
countries), Mandarin and Cantonese (for China) and Japanese (where Jim Randall of YWAM has
ordered several sets). They also have plans and a special vision for Eastern Europe with
translations being made in Russian, Romanian, Hungarian and other languages.
In the late 1970's, the Hunters were planning a multi-million dollar complex near
Houston's Intercontinental Airport. As part of the City of Light Center, they built a
1,500 seat auditorium that resembles a bright blue umbrella-shaped structure covered with
durable fabric. From 1981 to 1983, the Hunters had a school of ministry on the property.
They conducted classes on supernatural healing. During that time they taped most of their
present Video Healing School tapes.
The City of Light phase of the Hunters' ministry has closed. After their Healing
Explosions became so unexpectedly successful, Charles and Frances say God told them,
"Drop those extra weights."
The Hunters then placed for sale the 85 acres on which the auditorium and the Hunter
Ministries offices stood, appraised at $2.4 million. Frances says, "When we were
obedient to God to close these things that were good [in themselves], that's when the
Healing Explosions really took off."
Their staff now numbers 45 people, including a Dallas office that employs eleven.
Charles says the budget is now "slightly more than 2 million." Noting that the
earth's population recently reached five billion, Charles comments, "Jesus said,
'This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all
nations; and then shall the end come.' I believe five billion people are going to be
reached by ordinary believers doing signs and wonders so they will believe." (Ibid.)
Seventh -- The Hunters' outward spirit of humbleness and
their repeated statements to their audiences that the credit for any miracles or healings
belongs to God and not to them provides a facade which leads Christians to ignore their
false teachings. Many who claim to speak in the name of Jesus Christ or to perform
miracles in His name are impostors and deceivers. Jesus said, "Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast our devils? and
in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:21-23).
Believers with spiritual discernment should be quick to recognize the extreme danger of
making the performance of any miracle or healing the authentication of any person's
message.
It is especially important to understand that the power demonstrated in the ministries
of the Hunters, John Wimber and other charismatics who glory in "signs, wonders,
miracles, and healings" is not the power of the Holy Spirit, but rather an extremely
false and deceptive spirit. Such a conclusion is inescapable when their ministries are put
to the test of God's Word.
No Spirit-filled, Spirit-led believer could possibly have endorsed the
spiritual deception and wickedness that characterized the entire New Orleans Charismatic
Congress. No Spirit-filled, Spirit-taught leader could possibly have been part of a
program which so openly flaunted the Word of God in so many ways, yet Wimber, the
Hunters and most of the top charismatic leaders were there and provided encouragement for
the growing menace of satanic charismatic ecumenism.
At New Orleans, Charles Hunter made a number of significant remarks such as, "I
feel the Spirit here ... every Christian can heal ... this is the hour of the believer ...
unbelievers will be won to the Lord as they see miracles take place ... we're here to make
miracles happen."
Frances Hunter was recently quoted as saying, "The minute believers learn
how to heal the sick, they become immediate soul winners. Charles and I call it 'miracle
evangelism.'" Charles said, "I believe five billion people are going to be
reached by ordinary believers doing signs and wonders so they will believe. This is the
acceleration to wrap up this age."
What great deception this represents! To turn people away from the power of the Word,
the power of the Gospel, and to lead them to be receptive to miracles only serves to
condition the minds of people for the coming of the Anti-Christ who will bewilder and win
the world with his unprecedented display of miracles! To participate with charismatics in
an unscriptural, ecumenical program of world evangelism helps to build the harlot church.
To mix truth and error, as charismatics do, produces confusion and provides fertile ground
for Satan to sow his tares with impunity!
Much more could be written if space permitted, and God willing, much more will be
contained in future issues of Foundation magazine concerning the dangers of the
Charismatic Movement, especially the new deceptions involved in the ministries of John
Wimber and the Hunters. We cannot be true to our God-given responsibilities unless we
continually speak the truth in love, even when the truth hurts! God's watchmen
must blow the trumpet NOW!
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