Smith Wigglesworth

I've seen Smith Wigglesworth popping up a lot on these forums lately. Do we endorse him? Didn't he hit and abuse people in the name of Christ? How does this stand up to the fruit of the Spirit being "gentleness"?

Wigglesworth was asked this very question. He would say, "I don't hit people. I hit the devil (or the sickness) and the people get in the way."

I have read that he was a very gentle man. I have read of times when he counseled hurting people and his approach to them was with meekness and sympathy, often to the point of weeping over their problems. But He was not gentle toward sickness or the devil.

I might add, if you had a cancerous tumor and someone hit you as he prayed for you, but the result was instant healing of the tumor, I am not sure you would go away thinking that you had been treated ungently.

Jesus was definitely not gentle in the temple overturning tables nor when he rebuked the pharisees and called them hypocrites and a brood of vipers.

I wonder if we sometimes do not understand gentleness as God does. I also wonder how gentleness is balanced by authority and boldness.

It's not just his "It's real fire from heaven" false teachings, the man basically lost his family over this:

RE: "Over Smith's ministry it was confirmed that 14 people were raised from the dead"

"None are authentically documented as proved. The late Lester Summeral is responsible for many of the stories of the feats of Wigglesworth. Not one account of resurrection from the dead was ever authenticated [** except the ones that he hit very hard physically and seemed to have died from that, and came back to life moments later] Summeral was also the subject of a national TV expose of fraud and misuse of funds to do with his ‘Feed The Hungry’ operation. Summeral falsely prophesied that he would see the return of Jesus before the end of 1999 and that Jesus appeared to him and spoke this to him personally. When Summeral died he instantly became a false prophet.

Despite all the wild unsubstantiated healing claims, Wigglesworth’s daughter, who assisted at his meetings, was never healed of deafness. Wigglesworth also suffered for years with gallstones and later with Sciatica.

Mary Boddy, the woman who laid hands on Wigglesworth in 1907 when he was allegedly 'baptized in the Spirit', spent the last sixteen years of her life as an invalid. According to his own doctrine, Wigglesworth’s daughter should have been healed of deafness and he should have been healed of his own sicknesses. His wife should have been healed of the sickness that took her life (six years after Wigglesworth became a Pentecostal) and when she was but a young woman. His son, who died two years after that, should have been healed of the sickness that took him away in childhood." --- Terry Arnold [Smith Wigglesworth - The Facts]

What a tragic family story, anyone that didn't die or became chronically incapacitated ?,

Let's try to understand that some of the verifiable facts speak of a very different reality than all the unverifiable ones

"Wigglesworth was asked this very question. He would say, "I don't hit people. I hit the devil (or the sickness) and the people get in the way." "

That sounds nice and all but what on earth does that mean? How do you "hit" a sickness or even the devil? Since when does hitting something heal it, even in a spiritual sense? Sounds like a nice little christian sounding catchphrase he came up to justify his doctrine but which in reality has no meaning and really doesn't make any sense.

We have no example of anyone in the scripture striking them to heal them. The fundamental purpose of striking someone is causing harm, why would a Christian strike anyone?

That sounds nice and all but what on earth does that mean? How do you "hit" a sickness or even the devil?

This does not make any more sense than Jesus spitting in a blind man's eyes, and the result was that his eyes were opened. Smith Wigglesworth believed that demons cause much of the sickness and disease that he dealt with, and he would rebuke the demon causing the infirmity and many were healed. The woman that Smith hit in the stomach was healed. Smith Wigglesworth followed the leading of the Holy Spirit.

It is better to refrain from citing these statements if you are not 100% sure of their truthfulness.

Smith Wigglesworth was a very devout man. Do you have a better walk with the Lord than he had?

What will say to Smith Wigglesworth when you meet him in heaven one time? What if he was a genuine man of God? How will you answer God?

Paul healed many people but likely struggled with health issues himself.
He could have healed his companion Timothy, but instead suggested him to drink wine mixed with water.
He did not heal Trophimus but left him sick in Milet.

I don't want to derail this thread, but I think this applies. I am a FIRM believer in divine healing. I believe very strongly that Isaiah 53 speaks of physical sickness and disease. The new testament quotes this passage and verifies this with its commentary.

That being said, I have seen many times when people were healed immediately due to prayer. It happened to a man's knee the other day as I prayed for the man. He was headed for knee replacement and has not had pain in it or lack of strength since. I have also seen people who were prayed for many, many times and they have not yet seen healing manifested in their body.

We have to be careful that we don't factor our own humanity out of the equation. We don't always understand the why behind our circumstances. I believe by what I clearly see Jesus teaching in scripture that He desires to heal. I believe from other examples that faith is involved. I know that at the hands of Paul, many were healed. I also see where he left Trophimus sick at Miletus. Why? I am not sure. I don't blame Paul or Trophimus. I simply don't know.

The same is true with Wigglesworth. It is recored that he suffered kidney stones so badly that he lay in bed crying out in pain. Yet when it came time to preach, he got up, his pain completely left him, and then he would preach and see many people saved and healed. When he returned to his room, the pain returned. I don't completely understand that, but it does not discredit the word of God, nor does it discredit the genuineness of Wigglesworth's testimony or his walk with God.

Keep believing and keep praying for people to be healed. You are completely and concretely backed by what the atonement provided for the world and believers.

Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith
If we need healing or deliverance we are to ask HIM DIRECTLY
through prayer and He will heal us.

We do not need to go to men with healing requests
when we can approach Jesus Christ directly.

I've got healed more than once that way, the first time I was on the
way to see death within hours, before Jesus stopped it and saved my life.

Actually it could have gone either way twice, the other time was a traffic
accident where people didn't touch me while I was lying on the street
covered in blood, everybody thought I was dead.
I repented - was all my fault.

One day I jumped over something, landed badly, needed an
urgent operation, but Jesus healed me

My daughter suddenly couldn't walk anymore, needed an operation,
all doctors said the same, but Jesus healed her ...and so forth

Jesus Christ heals today, why would anyone consider anyone else?

George: Praise God for that testimony. I believe God's best is for a believer to believe God and receive from Him. However, I see the following in scripture as well.

The first is this, "Is any sick among you? Let him call upon the elders and let pray over him, anointing him with oil"

The second is that God uses some in the gifts of healing according to 1 Cor. 12. Not everyone has a relationship established with God in which they have faith to believe Him directly for healing in their own bodies. God can use another man in the gifts of healing to minister to that person, or to a lost man as well.

I do believe that the bible tells us not only to ask God for healing but also to exercise the gift of healing by faith.

It honors God to exercise what he has entrusted us to.
Not only that, it also it a command to follow.

Luke 9:2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Luke 10:9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

There is no verse in the bible that limits the gift of healing to the the early church . It is for us to use now.

I would even go so far and say that not using the gift of healing when we could have deprives God of an opportunity to show his grace and power. Disobeying the command grieves God.

It is our responsibility to use them. The preached word is the most important means to testify truth, followed by good works to show love but let us not demean healing and miracles. They are needed to testify Gods power.

My wife became first interested in God because she saw a miracle before her eyes. The rest followed later.

You got healed because you had faith. You exercised faith and Gods power was released.

It sounds very humble to say that only God heals, but the truth is, God needs our faith and action to release his power in that case. He wants us to participate in this business - as always. Unbelieve hinders healing.

We live in a part of Germany with very few Christians and only few and small fellowships. I pray that God will prove his power with signs and wonders to make people believe.

We need to recover healing and miracles in their right application and place regardless of what abuse has been done to it by others in presumption. That should not deter us.

I agree with James 5:14 regarding elders and: "the prayer
of faith shall save the sick" - I do not agree with Smith
Wigglesworth. Or any 'gifts ministry' that has its emphasis
on signs & wonders and the people that offer it
- instead on the glory that belongs to Jesus Christ.

Todd Bentley was another one of these faith healers
that hit a "Chinese guy so hard that a tooth popped
out of his mouth.” or an old lady "... there is this
old lady worshipping right in front of the platform
and the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, ‘Kick her
in the face with your biker boot.” Not surprisingly
his site is called "Fresh Fire USA".

"The prayer of faith shall save the sick" vs. "people that
punch & kick the sick". Sorry that is just not the same,
and never will be the same. One is eternal truth - the
other belongs in the trash can of history.

They misrepresent the Holy Spirit.