Hobart Freeman

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

Hobart E Freeman

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.

Publications

Freeman was the author of two books published by Moody Press of Chicago:

• An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets [1969]
• Nahum Zephaniah Habakkuk: Minor Prophets in the Seventh Century [1973]

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

• 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: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year
• 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] - Published posthumously
• Why Speak in Tongues? The Christian's Three-Fold Ministry through Prayer in the Spirit

Two tracts:

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

And several hundred teaching tapes.

Several of the books and tracts can be read online.

Teaching and Preaching

According to John Davis, Freeman came to be "deeply influenced" by Kenneth E. Hagin, John Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, T.L. Osborn and E.W. Kenyon, who were leaders of the Word of Faith Movement. However Freeman explicitly rejected their Doctrine of Identification, which asserted that Jesus died spiritually, and he also repeatedly warned his congregation about the leaders and their teachings.

Freeman's opposition to that doctrine was confirmed by Daniel McConnell. However McConnell also described Freeman as a "renegade preacher of the Faith movement" who "eventually broke with the other Faith teachers".

While the exact details continue to be debated, it is not unreasonable to include Freeman within the orbit of the Word of Faith Movement, as he also taught that healing was "promised in the atonement", which he summarised in his cliché, "What I confess, I possess" , and 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 get a good seat. 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 and literature.

Christianity Today was less charitable and overly simplistic, 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."

However Hobart Freeman also said "We must practice thought control. We must deliberately empty our minds of everything negative concerning the person, problem or situation confronting us." It has been claimed that he taught any delay in its manifestation was not a denial of the promise, but rather:

• A trial of the person's faith to work patient endurance,
• An unconfessed sin,
• Some failure to meet all of the conditions of that promise, and/or
• God having a higher purpose.

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." Freeman was said to have been annoyed at the latter, so presumably something in this concern was true. However, as the Glory Barn did not have an altar, let alone "altars", and was not supported from any other identifable source, this claim was obviously somewhat confused and overstated.

Clouse's concerns were 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.

Deaths continued to be reported to the frustration of county law enforcement officials.

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 parents Brendan and Peggy 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. To date no culprit has been charged.

More deaths were reported , and eventually Hobart Freeman was charged with aiding and abetting these deaths by what was described as "negligent homicide". At least ninety members of the congregation died during Freeman's ministry, which Daniel McConnell described as tragedic and preventable.

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, which in the weeks preceding had forced him to preach sitting down. He had refused all medical help, even to the removal of the bandages so his leg could be cleaned out.

This should not be surprising, for previously in Faith for Healing, 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 medicines and other aids."

Freeman's death was not reported for at least 13 hours due to an all-night prayer vigil for his resurrection. He was buried "in a pine box" with no public viewing and no graveside or memorial service. 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.

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. Some of the congregation also grew dispirited and left.

Others continued to sit under the teaching of one or other of Freeman's successors. 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.

Sources

• Faith Assembly of Warsaw
• Faith Ministries and Publications
• YesterYear in Print (Kosciusko County Indiana)
• Feedback regarding Dr. Freeman and Faith Assembly
• Freeman, Hobart E., page 316 in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, edited by Stanley M Burgess, Gary B McGee and Patrick H Alexander, Zondervan, Grand Rapids 1988
• A Different Gospel - A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement by Daniel Ray McConnell, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody MA 1988
• The Health and Wealth Gospel by Bruce Barron, Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL 1987