Craig Keener in his work, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament, mentions that “fourteen” raisings from the dead are attributed to “one of the most famous healing evangelists,”[1] a Pentecostal preacher from the U.K., named Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947). Keener adds that “Wigglesworth claimed that the greatest test of his obedience was when he called his just–deceased wife back to life but God told him to stop.”[2] (Really? The same God whose power allegedly raised her, also told him to stop? God should make up his mind.)
Contra the melodramatic tales of miracles that Wigglesworth shared in his sermons one should note the evidence Sandra Anne Carp uncovered concerning this Pentecostal legend.[3] Via extensive research she determined that “considerable diversity” exists “with regard to the exact number Wigglesworth raised,” and those who claimed larger numbers either were unable to provide reliable sources or retracted their claim. Moreover, during the many decades Wigglesworth preached he only reported four cases in which he raised the dead. And he only decided to share his own story of having raised someone five years after Pentecostal newspapers had already begun to report occasional raisings. And the very first time Wigglesworth reported each of his own four raisings it was to audiences on continents other than the ones where the raising allegedly took place, and only years after it allegedly took place, “in most cases it was over a decade later.”
The first person Wigglesworth allegedly raised from the dead was a young girl with tuberculosis in the U.K., which took place on or before 1908 when Wigglesworth was still in the plumbing business per his account, but the earliest record of Wigglesworth reporting it was when he was in New Zealand in 1922 where a local newspaper reported that Wigglesworth mentioned the girl was “nigh unto death,” but by the time Wigglesworth repeated the story in America that same year it was reported, “he saw her pass away.” And why report it fourteen years later and on continents other than the one on which it allegedly occurred? He had many preaching opportunities in the U.K. when he could have reported it during those intervening fourteen years.
The second person allegedly raised was Wigglesworthʼs close friend from childhood, Mitchell, in the U.K., who allegedly passed away right before Wigglesworth arrived at his house. Based on the storyʼs description it took place between 1909 and 1912, but the earliest known mention of it was in an American publication in 1914—in fact the American publication contains his earliest recorded claim of having raised anyone, because there are no records of Wigglesworth revealing such a story before 1914 in the U.K., not even during the Sunderland Conventions of 1912 or 1913. Those annual conventions were among the biggest U.K. Pentecostal platforms at the time, and Wigglesworth testified about various healings at them, without mentioning either Mitchell being raised or the young girl with tuberculosis. Carp finds it “rather suspicious” that “Wigglesworth felt prompted to reveal his story about raising Mitchell from the dead to an editor of a Pentecostal paper in America [rather than in the U.K. at major Pentecostal conferences].”
The third person was Wigglesworthʼs wife, Polly, whose death was mentioned briefly in the January 1913 edition of the British Pentecostal publication, Confidence. But Wigglesworth claims that soon after she died she was raised momentarily. Carp points out, “As in previous cases there is no mention of him mentioning this raising to his U.K. Pentecostal peers with the exception of one sermon published in 1937 [over two decades after the alleged miracle]. In fact his stories about the three U.K. raisings were all [initially] reported [on continents other than the U.K.] during his international ministry and years after the alleged raisings took place. Also, all three were revealed during his 1922 visit to America, his first recorded acknowledgment of raising Polly occurring only then...[Hence,] Wigglesworth appears to have been influenced by a desire to be more widely known, particularly among his American peers. Nor was there any U.K. newspaper coverage of any of his U.K. raisings. This is noteworthy considering that when Dorothy Kerin was allegedly raised from the dead in London in 1913 she received a great deal of attention, ‘visitors poured in, roads were blocked, reports appeared in London papers…’ Consequently, the evidence casts suspicion upon the legitimacy of Wigglesworthʼs revelations.”
The fourth and last person that Wigglesworth reported he had raised was an unnamed woman in Canada who suffered from a tumor. ”But [based on descriptions in his story] this would have taken place in 1914/15 and the only record of him reporting the story is in 1926 [over a decade later]...Also, Wigglesworth spoke at two major Pentecostal conventions after his 1914/15 North American trip; yet he gave no report of this raising.” Also noteworthy is that this womanʼs raising “appears not to have been reported to Body by Pastor Fisher, the man Wigglesworth claimed to have accompanied him. Finally, Wigglesworthʼs [first] recorded accounts [of this raising were] delivered while he ministered in the U.K. over a decade later [rather than in North America where this raising allegedly occurred]. Nor is there any record of him mentioning this [North American] raising during his return visit to North America in 1922 and subsequent North American visits; yet he willingly shared his U.K. [raising] stories [with his American audience].” Perhaps Wigglesworth knew that sharing a raising story on the same continent on which it allegedly occurred “may have been rebutted by Pastor Fisher or others, [especially] if it had been shared too close to the supposed event or publicized in the American Pentecostal papers.”
Carp concludes, “Wiggleworthʼs raising from the dead stories appear to be intentionally deceptive claims…There were other Pentecostal healing evangelists ministering around the world [with their occasional raising stories], but Wigglesworthʼs [dramatic sermons in which he spoke of having raised several] people from the dead [including a close friend from his childhood and his own wife] placed him in a legendary class of his own.” The legends surrounding Wigglesworth were “created by Wigglesworth himself. [They] evolved through his…subsequent portrayal of himself as a spiritual giant.”[4]
That Wigglesworth was indeed concerned to portray himself as a spiritual giant is also documented in Carpʼs thesis. Wigglesworth “placed great significance on the depiction of himself conveyed to others…[he told stories of obvious self–aggrandizement compared with the lack of faith of fellow Pentecostals, including his wife, and altered mission reports to inflate numbers of his healing and evangelistic efforts]…His concern about his standing amongst his Pentecostal peers was of considerable importance. He may have felt it was necessary to include an element of fiction, possibly in an attempt to defend himself and his ministry from critics [and gain more souls for what he was certain was his soon–coming Lord, i.e., Smith lived into his 80s and continued to preach that ‘We are in the last days, and before the Lord comes we trust to see the mightiest Revival the world has ever seen’].”[5] “Criticism [from fellow Pentecostals] appears to have brought feelings of insecurity to the surface; this may have inspired him to meet and even exceed Pentecostal expectations…He placed himself on a spiritual pedestal…unwilling to admit to imperfect faith [even] with regard to his need for glasses [since] this would have contradicted his ‘Apostle of Faith’ status [as a healer for whom health was granted those with faith]…He sought to eliminate the possibility of a flawed Wigglesworth.”[6] On one occasion Wigglesworth declared to the sick “Iʼll only pray for you once, to pray twice is unbelief.” The second night, a man approached the altar to receive prayer again and Wigglesworth, recognizing him, said “Didnʼt I pray for you last night? You are full of unbelief, get off this platform!” And on a number of occasions his approach to persons suffering from stomach complaints was to punch them in the stomach, sometimes with such force that it propelled them across the room because he believed he was dealing with satanic forces binding the afflicted. He even described cancer as “a living evil spirit.”[7]
But despite his belief in complete healing via faith, he suffered the loss of wife and son, the lifelong deafness of his daughter, and his own battles with kidney stones and sciatica. Carp concluded, “As a result of this investigation, I believe the mythology surrounding Wigglesworth has been created by Wigglesworth himself; biographers and later authors continued to further develop these myths.”[8]
Notes
[1] Keener, Miracles, v. 1, p. 421.
[2] Keener, Miracles, v. 1, p. 422 n.547.
[3] Carp, Sandra Anne, A Pentecostal ‘Legend’: A Reinterpretation of the Life and Legacy of Smith Wigglesworth. M.Phil. thesis (University of Birmingham, 2016).
[4] Carp, p. 85-100,159-167.
[5] Carp, p. 157.
[6] Carp, p. 159-160.
[7] Wilson, Julian, Wigglesworth: The Complete Story: A New Biography on the Apostle of Faith Smith Wigglesworth. (Tyrone, Georgia: Authentic Media, 2004), p. 82-83,120.
[8] Carp, p. 159.
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