WoF – Falling Asleep in Jesus

E. W. Kenyon

WoF critics are fond of pointing out examples of perceived discrepancies between the theology taught in the movement and the real life experiences of those who teach it.  For example, they have claimed that E. W. Kenyon, whose books have influenced many WoF teachers over the years, died of a malignant tumor.  Now, I recalled reading Kenneth Hagin’s account of Kenyon dying as an old man without any sickness, so when I came across these claims I was curious.  Obviously somebody’s wrong here, but who?  Did Kenyon die from old age, or cancer?  Here’s what Brother Hagin wrote.
 

“I like to check up on people. I like to follow those who inherit the promises. That’s why I teach those training for the ministry at RHEMA Bible Training Center each year from F. F. Bosworth’s book, Christ the Healer. I was personally acquainted with Bosworth. The last time I was in one of his meetings, he was 77. At 80-some-odd years of age, he announced one day, “This is the greatest day of my life. God has shown me that I’m going home.” He called in a friend for a time of visiting. Then he went home. Kenyon, too, went home to be with the Lord without sickness and disease at the age of nearly 81. He was holding Bible classes in Southern California shortly before his death, teaching several times a day. (His daughter, Ruth Housworth, who keeps his ministry and writings going stronger today than ever, said that the young people in the team which traveled with him had a difficult time keeping up with his pace.) He had just finished writing The Hidden Man of the Heart. And he came home to rest for a while. One morning his wife and daughter asked what he would like for breakfast. He replied, “You girls go ahead and eat. I don’t believe I will eat right now.” A short time later he was home with the Lord. He went home the Bible way without sickness or disease.”

In 1991 a man from England wrote to Ruth (Kenyon) Housworth concerning some information that he had received that indicated that Kenyon had died of cancer.  He was questioning Kenneth Hagin’s report of the details of Kenyon’s death.  Ruth responded:
“In answer to your questions concerning Kenneth Hagin’s statements about my dad, Kenneth Hagin is quoting facts which he received directly from me.  There have been many stories about my dad’s passing and I don’t know how they all started.  My dad never received any treatment for cancer.  He simply died of old age.  There are malicious rumors being said about my dad and other faith teachers today, and it is truly sad.”

 
Sad indeed.  In the name of the Lord and apologetics some people are spreading  misinformation about a man who died before most of them were even born, and were it not for the fact that Kenneth Hagin quoted him often none of them would even know or care about.  Much like Brother Hagin, Kenyon was preaching and teaching right up until a few months before he passed away at home.

So how did the tumor rumor get started?  McIntyre goes on to say that Kenyon’s daughter-in-law Jerry recounted the story of him falling from a hammock in 1947 and injuring his back.  She had her doctor examine his back and he discovered a large tumor which he assumed to be malignant.  No tests or x-rays were performed according to Jerry.  Kenyon’s daughter Ruth confirmed the hammock fall and injury, but was apparently never told of the tumor.

Jerry stated that he quickly recovered from the injury, and went about his business with no apparent sickness.  He spent the last three months of his life with his daughter Ruth and carried on as normally as you would expect any 80 year old to do until he died at home.  Jerry’s physician confirmed the death and apparently assumed that it was related to the tumor, so he listed that on the death certificate.  There are no records of any cancer treatment or autopsy to confirm the existence of cancer, according to McIntyre.  The testimony of his family members and the lack of any evidence to contradict their story would suggest that Kenneth Hagin’s account that was confirmed by Kenyon’s daughter Ruth is the accurate one.

Kenneth Hagin

Another example they often cite is that although Kenneth Hagin believed that Christians shouldn’t be sick, the fact is he died from heart disease and that disproves what he taught.  Is this true?  Well first of all, let’s establish what he taught.

Brother Hagin never said that if you live by faith you’ll never get old.  He never said that if you have enough faith you’ll never die.  Quite the contrary.  He said numerous times that if Jesus delays His return we’ll all die.  Our bodies are deteriorating because we’re all still under the general curse that came upon the earth after the fall of man.  He noted that the Apostle Paul said that the outward man is perishing. (II Cor. 4:16)  The fact that we’re getting old doesn’t mean that we have to suffer from sickness, however.  Let’s look at what Brother Hagin wrote in his book Seven Things You Should Know About Divine Healing.

“… in Exodus the 23rd chapter, God said:
And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread,
and thy water; and I WILL TAKE SICKNESS AWAY FROM THE
MIDST OF THEE. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be
barren in the land: THE NUMBER OF THY DAYS I WILL
FULFILL. —Exodus 23:25,26

A minister once asked this question: “If you are not going to
be sick, how are you ever going to die?” It tells you right here in
verse 26: “the number of thy days I will fulfill.”
God had promised He would take sickness from the midst of
them. That means that they just wore out, fell asleep, and went
home, bless God, without sickness …..

I am fully convinced—I would die saying it is so—that it
is the plan of Our Father God, in His great love and in His
great mercy, that no believer should ever be sick; that
every believer should live his full lifespan down here on
this earth; and that every believer should finally just fall
asleep in Jesus.”

So he acknowledged the fact that we’ll all grow old and die someday.  But he doesn’t believe that we have to die from sickness.  We can just die from old age.  Our bodies wear out and we just die.  We go from a worn out body into the presence of God.  That’s our Heavenly Father’s plan for us according to Brother Hagin.

So is that how he died?  That’s a fair question.  In the following audio clip you’ll hear a critic claim that Kenneth Hagin died from the heart condition he was supposedly healed of.
 

In fairness to this particular critic he does at least make an effort to be civil in his comments, but his comments are obviously based on ignorance.  First of all, he says that Brother Hagin was in a hospital.  Wrong!  He was bedridden at home.  (This was 1934, guy.)  Okay that’s not so bad, but then he says that he ended up dying from the thing he supposedly was healed from.   Kenneth Hagin was born with an incurable blood disease and a deformed heart.  He didn’t die from an incurable blood disease, nor did he die from a deformed heart.  He died from an old heart.  The doctors told him that nobody with his condition had ever lived beyond the age of 17.  He died at the age of 86.  So explain to us how “it didn’t work for him”.

Think about the people that Jesus healed.  Peter’s mother-in-law.  Jairus’ daughter.  Blind Bartemaus.  Lazarus.  Every one of those people eventually grew old and died, didn’t they?  By his reasoning Jesus must not have really healed them, either.

Then he says that Brother Hagin was in intensive care for nine or ten days, and then he says it was almost two weeks.  In fact it was five days.  If you’re going to offer a criticism of somebody’s theology based on how they died, it would behoove you to get your facts right.

In the next audio clip you’ll hear WoF critics claim that he died from heart disease.

Did he die from heart disease as they claimed?  Well again, he was 86 years old when he died in September of 2003.  The average life span for a white male in the US in 2003 was 75, so he lived eleven years beyond that.  He was old.  He was not sick, however.  Take a look at this video from the 2003 Campmeeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma in July – two months before he passed away.  This is a man who is supposedly dying of heart disease.
 

 
Yes, he’s old.  His voice isn’t as strong as it was in his younger days.  He can’t walk as fast, and doesn’t have as much energy.  But he’s not sick.  He’s still preaching.  Most people retire in their 60s or 70s, but he’s still going at 85.  Now take a look at this video from August of 2003, one month before he passed.
 

Hagin went to bed last Saturday feeling well, according to a news release from his ministry. He sat at the breakfast table Sunday morning and smiled at his wife, Oretha. Then he sighed, and his head fell to his chest.

 
He felt fine when he went to bed, and as I recall there were a couple of friends visiting with him and his wife that morning when he passed.  At 2 hours and 33 minutes into this video you’ll hear his daughter Pat talk about the fact that he died the day he collapsed, and that the hospital only managed to keep his organs working.  At 3 hours and 20 minutes in Ken Jr. talks about how he just “went to sleep”.