George Bowie did not have any relations with the AFM as such and his work was not the product of any schism from the AFM. For this reason, 'there can be no doubt that the majority of the Lake family ended up by providing false healing testimonies for him [Lake] later on' (Morton 2014b, 12). [Links], Morton, B. 50 George Bowie was born in 1860 in Scotland and experienced the baptism of the Spirit in 1907. On 28 April 1898, Lake with the support of friends from Dowie's church, offered up prayers for the healing of his wife from tuberculosis (Synan 2006, 6). In research conducted I am able to conclusively prove thatJenny Lake did not die of malnutrition or exhaustion as reports have claimed. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids.v48i1.1792. Alvarsson's (2007, 184-187) critical discussion of divination among Pentecostals and their questioning of it as magic, when it is not entirely from a biblical or quasi-biblical context. A third method is the so-called 'distant miracle', where the preacher persuaded the crowd that their prayers would lead to a miracle somewhere else, as when Lake claimed that his prayers led to the Queen of the Netherlands to become pregnant (Lindsay 1972, 245-246). Pentecostalism: Origins and developments worldwide. of churches, and raised up over 1000 local ministers. Reflections of a hundred years of Pentecostal theology. 1937. 36 Susanto and Theron (2008, 175) show how it was divine love for the suffering that worked through Lake and made his ministry effective because it allowed him to identify with the afflicted and to feel in a physical manner the same pain as the sufferers did. Edited by R. Liardon, 10-23. Hague: Mouton. The big con: John Alexander Dowie and the spread of Zionist Christianity in Southern Africa Paper. From the minutes it is clear that the bookkeeping was transparent. 1999. 1985. [Links], Hudson, N. 2008. WWW.HEALINGANDREVIVAL.COM All God is not great: How religion poisons everything. Thomas 2010, 296-299 for a discussion of the Pentecostals' perception of demons as a source of infirmity. To this day some of Johns great grandchildren do not follow the Lord. [Links], Liardon, R. 2005. Pate (1991, 243) estimated that the Majority World mission movement was growing at five times the rate of Western missions, resulting in half of the world's Christians living in developing, poor countries. to start a healings room, and he agreed. Maggie Truter, the stepdaughter of a former minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, R.H. van de Wall, who joined the AFM and later became its general secretary, was ill in July 1909. [Links], Anderson , A.H. 2003. 29 Comaroff (1985, 11) calls the ministry of Lake's evangelical team the 'second evangelization' to emphasise the link between Dowie's missionary enterprises in South Africa and Lake's continuation (De Wet,1989, 34) 30 Fact is that Lake served as a champion of the poor and possessed, argues Anderson, A.H. (2003, 3), and the AFM grew exponentially amongst the dispossessed African and poor white Afrikaner victims of the defeat of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) (De Wet 1989, 39) 31 The implication is that Lake and his missionary community were not interested in spreading the gospel, or witnessing to their experience of the baptism with the Spirit, but that their only interest was in personal enrichment. 40 Dowie (Morton 2013b, 6) as well as Shembe placed used and discarded crutches all over the altar of their churches as Lake did. Morton (2012a, 109) contends that Lake and Bryant had dealings even before Bryant decided to leave South Africa. dissertation, University of Pretoria. Pentecostals share a restorationist primitivist drive (Klaus 2006, 2). [Links], Burgess, S.M. Pretoria: J.L. However, Letwaba testified to these miracles (Chandomba 2007, 21). These practices allowed the Zionist leaders like J.G. The gifts of the Spirit became magnified, and the discernment Will you take on the most radical call of all and be faithful to the precious gifts God has already given you? to Chicago to work with Dowie. We will see that John G. Lake was no such idol, he was an ordinary man who obeyed the voice of the Lord in radical and unprecedented ways. Lake's labours led to the establishment in South Africa of the Pentecostal movement, and specifically of the AFM of SA with 1.4 million members in South Africa and currently established in 29 countries of the world52 as well as African Pentecostal Churches, with somewhere between a third and a half of all southern African Christians now being members of these churches (Morton 2013a, 1).53 Morton (2012a, 115-116) claims that his analysis of historical sources demonstrates that Lake was a religious fraud, and that much of his sources had purposefully not been used by sympathetic religious historians to Lake's case before. At one stage, Lake in Liardon (2005, 173) defended himself against accusations that healings which occurred during his meetings were not divine. A final example is prayer for the dead, with Lake claiming to have experienced five dead people being restored to life during his stay in South Africa (Blake 2005, 160-161). 2008. His real-estate activities did not include ownership of any large buildings but consisted of buying dilapidated properties that he fixed and sold for a profit. In most instances statements are not substantiated by any historical references. [Links], Comaroff, J. These complaints and allegations were not started by Hezmalhalch, but he was influenced by them and he sided with the instigators of this campaign against Lake. 1988. heart the Methodist teaching on sanctification and sought it passionately. Johannesburg: Skotaville. The fundamental foundations of human morality are now being called into question. [Links], Anderson, A.H. 2012b. called away by a family crisis and never returned. However, the minutes of the meetings in the early AFM indicate that the church elected a treasurer and secretary at its earliest meetings and that individuals did not have access to money without the knowledge of the rest of the executive (Burger and Nel 2008, 44). Edited by C. Landman, 243-257. When she died Lake prayed for her and she was restored to life (diary of Lake, 6 December 1910).42 Later, Maggie's mother described the event without referring to Lake, leading Morton (2012a, 112) to conclude that Lake was not involved in the miracle healing. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 12 However, Morton's bibliographies in his articles betray that he is not knowledgeable about the many works reflecting research into the origins and development of the Pentecostal and Zionist traditions in southern Africa. 2001.
In this way the historian discredits Lake as well as the churches that flow from his work, as demonstrated by the way Morton (2012a, 116) ends his article, with a reference from the atheist journalist Christopher Hitchens (2009, 165) that such a story about the founder of a religious movement demonstrates what happens when a plain racket turns into a serious religion before our eyes. The doctors thought he was insane, so he challenged them to put a drop of the plague on his skin and watch it under a microscope. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cartledge 2008, 128). His brother was an invalid, one sister had extensive At the height of his hugely successful healing ministry in Spokane, John noticed that one of his daughters was longing for some one-on-one time with her father. For a discussion of the importance of healing, healing movements and ministers of healing in Pentecostal circles, cf. The early Pentecostal theology of Confidence magazine (1908-1926): A version of the fivefold gospel? In fact, he made some critical mistakes that any God fearing follower of Jesus would vow not to make. Morton (2012a, 114) acknowledges that none of these reports or letters were published and none of them are extant. 'Even in the event that Lake was a fervent Pentecostal at heart, nevertheless conscious deception lay at the centre of the religious activities of which he took charge' (Morton 2012a, 100).32 Another supposition that Morton (2012a, 100, 102, 109) uses is that Lake learned from John Alexander Dowie's original Zionist church, in the decade prior to his South African mission, the roguery and knavery that would characterise his ministry.33 He refers specifically to the utilisation of false testimonies34 about miraculous faith healing cures,35 the claim of raising the dead by which the divine healer proposed to have demonstrated his spiritual power, and the technique of precognition, consisting of the assistance of another person that would predict the imminent arrival of strangers with unusual powers. Pretoria: Unisa. 4 Seymour was a Holiness preacher before he attended Parham's Bible School in Houston, Texas in 1905 (Hammonds 2009, 6). [Links], Morton, B. Lake's mission was biblical, passionate, in the power of the Spirit, Christo-centric, and urgent, according to Klaus (2006, 3-4). [Links], Asamoah-Gyadu, J.K. 2002. John G. Lake astounded the medical officials because he, without any gloves or protective clothing began burying the dead. [Links], Hitchens, C. 2009. In August 1900 Lake's wife Jennie Moya: The Holy Spirit in an African context. [Links], Reidt, W. 1989. 33 'He [Lake] also made use of the full panoply of Dowieite tricks, ranging through all variations of the "fake cripple", the "distant miracle", the "supernatural showdown", and healing those afflicted by cancer through "tumor extraction"' (Morton 2013b, 14). receive prayer. The official church magazine published, right from its inception, a number of testimonies by people who were healed (Burger and Nel 2008, 56), a practice that was continued for many years. Vergelyking tussen die genesingsteologie van John G Lake en Hannes Jonker. To trust in medicine or other help prescribed by doctors was even seen as a form of unbelief and sin, 'to lean on the arm of the flesh' (Burger 1987, 180; cf. of the places he was asked to speak was Spokane, Washington. An African icon, John G Lake, is the founder of many churches which a hundred years later are still thriving in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana to date. The Apostolic Faith Mission in Africa 1908-1980: A case study in church growth in a segregated society. Copyright The Pentecostal movement. [Links], McGee, G.B. A Pentecostal outpouring of thirty-four years ago. When he went to pick up his bible it was opened to Acts chapter 10:38 which says: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Lake had a surge of faith in that moment and sent a telegram to Dowie asking him to pray. Jesus was accused in the same manner (Matt 12:24; Luk 11:15). In Pentecostalism in context. There are lots of books. DOI: 10.1080/17532523.2014.943924, 25-47. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17532523.2014.943924 (accessed on 23 May 2015). Turning Zionists into workers: An exploration of the economic strategies of the major Zionist churches during the second evangelization. Lake Was exposed to dramatic healing when he visited John Alexander Dowies ministry and was, in prayer, instantly healed of a rheumatism which had caused his legs to grow incorrectly. John grew up in a family environment which was plagued with sickness and death, it is said that his earliest memories were of sickness, death and funerals. 1989. Lake was from a large family, he had 16 siblings, 8 of which tragically died of various diseases. Ned Geref Teologiese Tydskrif46(1-2): 200-208. Vision of the disinherited: The making of American Pentecostalism. Eugene: WIPF & STOCK. Donald Gee was involved in the Pentecostal movement for 40 years and remarked that the small number of definite miracles of healing compared to the great numbers who were prayed for, made him sad (Gee 1928, 13). The wholesale generalisation about the history of the church is not discussed in terms of documenting any evidence that proves that the Shembe family was enriched unfairly. The early AFM did experience its problems and reacted to it on the highest level (De Wet 1989, 77). The cause of her death was malnutrition and exhaustion. The child died and the state claimed that the child could have been saved if the parents had allowed hospitalisation and medical care. He met Jennie Stevens and married her. [Links], Oosthuizen, C.G, 1987. Once he returned [Links], McGee, G.B. 14 Lake (among others) 'prioritized seeking for spectacular displays of celestial powers - signs and wonders, healing, and deliverance from sinful habits and satanic bondage' (McGee 1997, 329). 26 Lake's missionary group was not the first to bring the Pentecostal message to South Africa. Paper presented at the 24th biennial conference of the Southern African Historical Society, University of Botswana, Gaborone, 27-29 June 2013, 1-14. https://www.academia.edu/6779054/Turning_Zionists_into_Workers_ An_Exploration_of_the_Economic_ Strategies_of_the_Major_Zionist_Churches_during_the_Second_Evangelization (accessed on 23 May 2015).
