Hobart Freeman

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Hobart Freeman (October 17, 1920-December 8, 1984) was a charismatic preacher and author, who ministered in northern Indiana.

Hobart E Freeman
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Hobart E Freeman

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[edit] Early life

Hobart Freeman was born in Ewing, Kentucky, and grew up at St. Petersburg, Florida, where he became a successful businessman after studying at Bryant and Stratton Business Institute, despite being a high school dropout.

He was converted to Christ in 1952 at the age of 31, and baptized into the Southern Baptist Church.

He was called to the ministry, and educated at the Georgetown University College with a Bible and History major, and then at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (A.B., Th.M.) with an Old Testament major. He obtained a Doctorate of Theology with Old Testament and Hebrew majors from Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana, where he was appointed a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, and Philosophy and Ethics in 1961.

[edit] Publications

Freeman was the author of two books published by Moody Press of Chicago: An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets [1969] and Nahum Zephaniah Habakkuk: Minor Prophets in the Seventh Century [1973].

He later published another twelve books through his own publishing house, Faith Publications of Warsaw, Indiana, namely:

  • Angels of Light? Deliverance from Occult Oppression
  • Biblical Thinking and Confession: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year - Initially published as Positive Thinking and Confession
  • Charismatic Body Ministry: A Guide to the Restoration of Charismatic Ministry and Worship
  • Deeper Life in the Spirit [1970]
  • Did Jesus Die Spiritually? Exposing the JDS Heresy
  • Divine Sovereignty / Human Freedom and Responsibility in Prophetic Thought - Master Degree Thesis
  • Every Wind of Doctrine
  • Exploring Biblical Theology: A Systematic Study of the Word of God in Understandable Language [1985] - Published posthumously
  • Faith for Healing
  • How to Know God's Will - For Your Life and for Important Decisions
  • The Doctrine of Substitution in the Old Testament [1985] - Posthumous photocopy of a typed thesis
  • Why Speak in Tongues? The Christian's Three-Fold Ministry through Prayer in the Spirit

Two tracts, namely:

  • Occult Oppression and Bondage: How to be Free
  • The Purpose of Pentecost

And several hundred anointed teaching tapes.

Several of these books can be read online.

[edit] Teaching and Preaching

According to John Davis [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 27 September 1983], Freeman came to be "deeply influenced" by Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and E.W. Kenyon, who were leaders of the Word of Faith movement. However Freeman explicitly rejected their distinctive doctrine that Jesus died spiritually in Did Jesus Die Spiritually? Exposing the JDS Heresy, as Daniel McConnell pointed out in A Different Gospel. In his teaching tapes, he also repeatedly condemned the leaders and their teachings. Still Freeman did teach that healing was "promised in the atonement", and taught in the Bible, which he summarised in his cliché, "What I confess, I possess" in Faith for Healing, where he also taught that "Confession brings possession, for what you confess is your faith speaking."

These latter ideas aroused much opposition within the Seminary, and Freeman was asked to leave in 1963.

Freeman established his own congregation with Melvin Greider in 1963 in his own home at Winona Lake in nearby Kosciusko County, and built up a loyal following of over 2,000 members, not including some 15,000 in daughter congregations elsewhere in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri and Tennessee, as well in England, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Germany. A two-story meeting hall for the congregation was built in 1972 in neighboring Noble County, which Freeman named the "Glory Barn." Hundreds of people would line up for hours to be sure they would hear him preach the word of God. The local Press belittled them as the "Glory Barners."

Like many charismatic congregations, the "work of the Holy Spirit" was emphasised - with claims of miraculous healings, testimonies, speaking in tongues and believers being "slain in the Spirit". Freeman's teaching emphasized the "deeper life" in the Spirit, overcoming all things, separation from the world and its ways, trusting only in God for all things, the crucified life, and the true meaning of discipleship, as seen in the topics covered by his teaching tapes.

Christianity Today of November 23, 1984 was less charitable, saying that "According to Freeman's faith-formula theology, God is obligated to heal every sickness if a believer's faith is genuine. Faith must be accompanied by 'positive confession', meaning that believers must 'claim' the healing by acknowledging that it has taken place." This explanation is over-simplified, as Freeman taught that other Biblical preconditions must be met before healing could take place.

Hobart Freeman further said in Biblical Thinking and Confession, "We must practice thought control. We must deliberately empty our minds of everything negative concerning the person, problem or situation confronting us." After healing is claimed, any lingering symptoms were a Satanic deception which persisted while the Christian waited upon the "manifestation" of the healing that had been "claimed". If death intervened despite a positive confession, it was due to a discipline from God, a lack of faith or an unconfessed sin.

[edit] Controversies

From the beginning, Freeman's congregation was the subject of controversy.

At a meeting of the County Board of Health on October 23, 1974, Barbara Clouse, the Health Nurse for Kosciusko County was concerned that the Glory Barn was a major health problem and it would get worse. She detailed her concerns, saying that "Diabetics were not taking their insulin and pregnant women were receiving no pre-natal or post-natal care.". She continued saying that "They are laying dead babies and live babies next to each other on the altars and praying over them to get the live babies to bring life back to the dead ones. There was one woman in our county praying over a baby for four days before the funeral home got hold of it." [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 24 October 1974] Freeman was said to have been annoyed at the latter, so presumably this concern was true. [Email from Tom McLaughlin, Calgary 2005] It is interesting to note that the initial claim could not have been true as the Glory Barn did not have an altar.

Clouse's concerns where later supported by local hospital statistics for 1975/6, which suggested that women from the congregation who gave birth at home were over 60 times more likely to die than those who gave birth at hospital under medical supervision. Deaths of several women, infants and babies were reported, and the local media blamed Freeman's teachings as medical treatment had been declined or refused. [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 10 July 1976]

Deaths continued to be reported to the frustration of county law enforcement officials. [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 10 March 1980]

Shortly after they were publicised, the Glory Barn burnt down in the early hours of July 4, 1980. Six people escaped from the burning two-story barn. Two youngsters suffered burns before they were rescued from their bedrooms by their father Brendan Wahl. Fire brigades from North Webster, Syracuse and Cromwell fought the blaze for some two hours until dawn, which was subsequently investigated by the Noble County Police and Indiana State Fire Marshal. Rumour had it as arson, a fire started by the enemies of the Assembly. [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 7 July 1980] To date no culprit has been charged.

More deaths were reported [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 10 March 1980 & 13 March 1982], and eventually Hobart Freeman was charged with aiding and abetting these deaths by what was described as "negligent homicide". Daniel McConnell in A Different Gospel claimed that at least ninety members of the congregation died under Freeman's ministry.

[edit] Death

Two weeks before this matter was to come to court, Freeman died at his Shoe Lake home of bronchial pneumonia and congestive heart failure complicated by an ulcerated gangrenous leg. He had refused all medical help, even to the removal of the bandages so his leg could be cleaned out. [Interview with Mrs Freeman, Winnona Lake 1994].

This should not be surprising, for previously in Biblical Thinking and Confession, Freeman had said that "To claim healing for the body and then to continue to take medicine is not following our faith with corresponding action ... When genuine faith is present, it alone will be sufficient for it will take the place of medicine and other needs."

Freeman's death was not reported for at least 13 hours due to an all-night prayer vigil for his resurrection. [Kathy Muckle from an undated clipping from the Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union] For many months afterwards, his wife left his suit over the end of the bed, expecting him to one day walk in and have need of it. [Interview with Mrs Freeman, Winnona Lake 1994].

[edit] Legacy

In June 1985, Jack Farrell, one of the two assistant pastors hand-picked by Hobart Freeman, quit the congregation, telling "The Body" during the Sunday sermon, that they were still "in bondage" to their late pastor. [Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union, 10 September 1985] Some of the congregation also grew dispirited and left, which has been shared through a discussion group.

Others continued to sit under the teaching of one or other of Freeman's successors, which has also been shared through the same discussion group. These successors include Joseph (Joe) Brenneman, Steve Hill, Jerry Erwin, Bruce Kinsey, Tom Hamilton and Tim Neely, not all are generally acknowledged to be faithful to the teaching of Hobart Freeman. Continuing congregations include groups at Warsaw, Goshen and Indianapolis Indiana, Grand Centre/Cold Lake Alberta and Shelbyville Kentucky. [Personal observations & Discussion group

[edit] Sources

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