Hobart Freeman (October 17, 1920 – December 8, 1984) was a charismatic preacher and author, who ministered in northern Indiana and actively promoted faith healing.
Early life
Hobart Edward 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."Biblical Thinking and Confession: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year" By Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Publications, Warsaw IN 197?, back cover. He also contracted polio,John F. MacArthur in Charismatic Chaos says that (p237) "Hobart Freeman's theology did not let him acknowledge that polio had left one of his legs disfigured and lame. 'I have my healing' is all he would say when anyone pointed out the rather conspicuous inconsistency between his own physical disabilities and his teaching." and in later years "... walked stiffly ... with an obvious limp.""Never Far From Home" by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, page 72
Freeman was converted to Christ in 1952 at the age of 31, and baptized into a congregation within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Shortly before Freeman received "the baptism in the Holy Spirit", he survived a heart attack. He "claimed" his healing, disposed of his medications, and almost immediately suffered a series of angina attacks, which eventually subsided."Biblical Thinking and Confession: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year" By Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Publications, Warsaw IN nd, pages 49 & 50.
Note: The word "claimed" in this context does NOT mean he claimed that he was healed, but rather that he claimed the promise of healing that he believed was in the atonement. As such, the word is used in a theological sense rather than in an everyday sense.
Freeman felt called to the ministry, and was subsequently educated at the Georgetown College with a Bible and History major, and then at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (A.B., Th.M.) with an Old Testament major. In 1961, he earned a Doctorate of Theology from Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana with a thesis entitled "The Doctrine of Substitution in the Old Testament",Co-authors of this thesis included Richard Michalak, Charles Ware, George Brost, George A Brost and Kevin Magde. and was appointed a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, and Philosophy and Ethics.
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."Freeman: Mystic, Monk, or Minister?" by John Davis, Warsaw (Indiana) Times Union September 27, 1983, page 1a However Freeman explicitly rejected their Doctrine of Identification, which asserted that Jesus died spiritually,"Did Jesus Die Spiritually? Exposing the JDS Heresy" by Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Publications, Warsaw n.d. and he also repeatedly warned his congregation about the leaders and their teachings."Died Jesus Die Spiritually?" by Hobart Freeman, tape number 332, n.d.
Freeman's opposition to that doctrine was confirmed by Daniel McConnell."A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement" by Daniel R. McConnell, Hendrickson Publishers Peabody MA 1988 page 131 However McConnell also described Freeman as a "renegade preacher of the Faith movement""A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement" by Daniel R. McConnell, Hendrickson Publishers Peabody MA 1988 page xix who "eventually broke with the other Faith teachers"."A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement" by Daniel R. McConnell, Hendrickson Publishers Peabody MA 1988 page 82.
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",Healing in the Atonement by Hobart Freeman, tape number 115, nd and in Faith for Healing, where he also taught that "Confession brings possession, for what you confess is your faith speaking.""Faith for Healing" by Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Ministries and Publications, Warsaw IN nd page 10 These latter ideas aroused much opposition within the seminary, and Freeman was asked to leave in 1963.However Freeman said, while giving his testimony, that he was asked to leave the seminary due to his conservative view of scripture. See "Testimony of Hobart Freeman" by Hobart Freeman, tape number 111, n.d.
Freeman established his own congregation, subsequently known as Faith Assembly, with Melvin GreiderMelvin Lee Greider (b.April 23, 1936, d.April 16, 1980) served in the US Navy and became a biker and alcoholic before he converted to Christ. He died of a heart attack, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, which is located at the intersection of Epworth Forest and County Road 975 East in Tippicanoe Township. See Tippecanoe Township Cemeteries Online in 1963 in his own home at Winona Lake in nearby Kosciusko County. And for many years, worked 15–16 hours a day, seven days a week with seemingly indeflatable energy,"Biblical Thinking and Confession: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year" By Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Publications, Warsaw IN 197?, page 21. and at one point visited Israel."Biblical Thinking and Confession: The Key to Victorious Living 365 Days a Year" By Hobart E. Freeman, Faith Publications, Warsaw IN 197?, pages 51 and 52.
Within a few years, Freeman established a house church at Claypool in a "pink house next to the water tower", where the meetings followed a simple format:
After much singing and what sounded like people quoting the Bible, a tall lanky man, who looked remarkably like Billy Graham, walked stiffly to the front with an obvious limp. He was the pastor, Dr. Hobart Freeman, and he commanded everyone's attention. He had a Ph.D. in theology, and he was teaching the last in a series of messages on the book of Revelation. He spoke for an hour or more about the end of the world and the new heavens and the new earth. He spoke with the conviction that all these things were going to happen just like the Bible said. ...
That night ... [the] singing was even livelier than early that morning, and the message was about faith. This church believed that God would really answer their prayers if they just believed. The pastor told stories of people being healed of sickness and being protected in storms by commanding the winds to stop. He believed that his leg would be healed from the polio he had had years before. ... At the end of the service, we went to the front for prayers ....Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p72
From there the church moved to a three-car garage, then on to an old sheep barn near North Webster where they had been holding a coffeehouse ministry on Friday nights. The barn was owned by a burly, whiskery biker, Melvin Greider nicknamed Mack, a former alcoholic who had become a Christian, and was named the "Glory Barn" by Freeman. This ministry attracted hundreds of people, including some misfits but most were normal, serious-minded young adults. The local people referred to the Glory Barn in derision and spread exaggerated rumours about what was done there.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p81
This was not the opinion of those who sat under this ministry:
As we sat under Dr. Freeman's ministry, we saw his genius as a teacher. His theology was as solid as a Baptist minister, but he had the fire of a Pentecostal maverick like Smith Wigglesworth or William Branham. And he had the guts of the early martyrs. His manner was bookish, but he was such a skilled teacher that he kept our attention long enough to teach us biblical theology in terms we could understand. We eventually heard him teach on every passage in the Bible, and he backed up his positions, putting them in the context of church history and current events. All the reasoning was so logical it appealed to our minds as well as our hearts.
Eventually both the upper and lower levels of the Glory Barn were filled to overflowing. The floorboards bent and shook dangerously as the congregation danced "charismatic jigs" to the praise songs. They would travel long distances and stand in long lines early each Sunday morning to ensure a good seat. The many young assistant pastors had reserved seats up front.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p84 These young pastors travelled and spoke at meetings over a wide area. There was a worldwide following through his tapes and books.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p86 There were some 15,000 in daughter congregations elsewhere in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee and Florida, as well as in England, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Germany.
Freeman also began teaching college-level classes on Saturday mornings covering Old and New Testament theology, Christian ethics, church history and even Hebrew.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p83
In 1978 after conflict with the owner, Freeman took the congregation to a large circus tent just north of Warsaw and then on to another near Goshen throughout that summer and autumn. There was little protection from the wind and rain or the heat and cold. The nursery was a row of vans for the mothers and babies. Portable toilets were the only facilities. By winter a meeting hall had been built near North Webster in a cornfield belonging to one of the congregation.Don Nei has been suggested as the donor of the land for the new building, but no source was cited. There were large bathrooms, a nursery for the mothers and babies, and a meeting room large enough to hold 2,000 people which was often overflowing. It wasn't fancy for the floors were cement, and the walls were bare.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p85, 105 At the end of the summer of 1980 there was an epidemic of whooping cough that seemed to go through all the families of the congregation.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p109
Like many charismatic congregations, the work of the Holy Spirit was emphasized – with claims of prophecy, miraculous healings, testimonies, speaking in tongues and believers being slain in the Spirit.Never Far From Home by Cindy Barnett, Selah Publishing Group, Surprise, Arizona, 2005, p85, 105 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.
The authority of Freeman's teaching was regularly reinforced by his "prophecies", published with meeting notices, such as this from January 15, 1984. January 15, 1984 Prophecy given through Brother Freeman after the message: Overcomers – Avoid the Snare of Good Intentions For I the Lord your God have detected that in your midst stands the enemy. You have allowed the enemy to come in and rob you of your prayers and intercession on behalf of this body, and of your faith in the process.