The Remarkable Exploits of David Hogan - He raises people from the dead; He is thrown supernaturally across rooms into walls; • He multiplies food; • He drives his vehicle underwater; Angels are assigned to him and have to go where he goes...

[Dr. AR Wingnutte, PhD - Conspiriologist]

The Remarkable Exploits of David Hogan
Astonishing Miracles or Incredible Hype?

by G. Richard Fisher

Suppose a minister got up on Sunday morning and told his congregation:

• He raises people from the dead;

• He is thrown supernaturally across rooms into walls;

• He multiplies food;

• He drives his vehicle underwater;

• Angels are assigned to him and have to go where he goes;

• He is miraculously transported from place to place without the aid
of planes, trains or automobiles;

• He is invigorated when new demons are unleashed on him;

• A demon has tried to tear out the innards of his child;

• He has a little son who has a hanky that is so anointed he can make
people fly just by shaking it at them;

• He has seen limbs grow on limbless people;

• He has seen the creation of new brains in a brainless baby;

• Jesus talks to his dog and horse;

• He has seen people fly around the room under the anointing of God.

However, this minister never raises the dead, levitates, multiplies
food, restores missing body parts or makes people fly there where he
preaches. He only reports that it happens elsewhere, without offering
any documentation.

That minister would be looking for a job in short order and people
would rightly conclude that he is either an unscrupulous show-off,
delusional or even worse. Any sensible congregation would want to
check his medical history and diet. They might even suggest someone
for counseling. Proximity and familiarity are the equalizers when it
comes to wild claims.

HOGAN THE HERO

Yet, David Hogan has made all of the above claims and many more. Hogan
bills himself as a “missionary” to Mexico. He says that he goes out to
20 tribes of “injuns.” He claims to be an “ultra-commitalist” and a
“martyr.” Hogan says he is a disciple of T.L. Osborn, whose
inspiration was William Branham. He appears regularly in Assembly of
God churches after having been spotlighted by the Brownsville Assembly
of God in Pensacola, Fla., at its School of Ministry headed by Michael
Brown. Hogan’s claims at the Brownsville School have been recorded and
are available from Brown’s ministry. It’s seven hours of video, on a
four-tape set, which currently sells for $48.00.1

On the video series, Brown introduces Hogan as one who has been
“driving out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead.” However, no
dead people were raised at Brownsville. All Hogan appears to have
raised is controversy and disappointment in some.

One person went so far as to bring a dead baby in an ice chest to one
of the Pensacola services. The Brownsville leadership could not
resuscitate the baby and it was laid to rest with no criminal charges
against the church or father, the local newspaper reported in a front-
page story.2

BACKGROUND

Hogan, who calls himself a “warlord,” is the son of the late Rev. O.W.
Hogan Sr. of West Monroe, La. Hogan’s mother, who lives with his
brother in West Monroe, refused an interview with PFO. She admitted
she had never seen these purported miracles but said she believed
every word David said.

Hogan was born and reared in Bastrop, 20 miles from West Monroe. He is
the director of Freedom Ministries, based on Freedom Ranch just
outside of Tempoal, Mexico. (Tempoal is off Highway 105, about 160 km.
southwest of the coastal city of Tampico, Mexico.)

By his own admission, Hogan has no training in any Bible school or
seminary. He was formally recognized by the Assemblies of God in
Baytown, Texas, at least on a district level, in December 1998.

The Renewal Journal of Brisbane, Australia, a pro-Pentecostal
newsletter, featured a message that Hogan delivered in November 1996
at the Christian Outreach Center in Brisbane. Hogan reported: “We’ve
had over 200 people raised from the dead in our work. ... I’ve
personally been in on 19 dead raisings and I know.”3

Christian Research Institute panned Hogan in its Christian Research
Journal, saying:

“...leaders at the Brownsville revival in Pensacola have begun citing
resurrections from the dead. For $75 the Brownsville Revival School of
Ministry will sell you a video series titled Faith to Raise the Dead.
Brownsville leaders are claiming that evangelist David Hogan and his
associate missionaries in Mexico have seen more than 200 raised from
the dead. The expectations of people have reached such a fever pitch
that some time ago a parent who lost a child put his baby on ice and
drove 350 miles to the Brownsville Assembly of God to have the baby
raised from the dead. To some, this father’s actions may appear
foolish. Yet, if God is indeed raising hundreds from the dead in
Mexico, it would be perfectly logical to think that He would also
raise the dead in the church whose ongoing revival is being touted as
perhaps the greatest in the history of humanity.”4

Last August, when Hogan appeared in Cortez, Colo., no one was raised
from the dead. He did bring an 8-year-old Aztec child whom he claims
he brought back from the dead. However, while in Cortez, Hogan visited
no morgues, funeral parlors or cemeteries. Apparently, he prefers the
sterile environment of a church where people can have safe frenzies,
anxious expectations and can be worked into altered states of
consciousness. Here, too, he is able to filter reality as they hear
him present himself as a super-missionary who is not afraid of the
devil.

One person attending the Cortez meetings said that Hogan claimed
supernatural transport from place to place. The eyewitness told PFO,
“David Hogan is gone and to my knowledge, all the ‘demon illnesses’
that were here when he came are here when he left. ... He also seemed
to avoid the people in the wheelchairs and there were a lot of them.”5

THE GREATEST

Watching Hogan on nearly seven hours of video is an exercise in
perseverance and overload. He claims to have been a “gang member” who
was told by other Christians to “calm down a little bit” for being
“too zelyous” [sic]. He has strange stage mannerisms and rambles
around the platform, hyperactively alternating from bouncing on his
toes, growling, talking — hands on top of his head, breaking into
screaming, “Jesus — Jesus — Jesus — Jesus — Jesus,” then chuckling to
himself and screeching “woweeeeeee.”

Hogan, in the first session at the Brownsville School, told students
he had personally been where 21 prople have been raised from the dead.
One might ask what service would have a collection of 21 dead bodies
but logic is suspended here. Hogan suggested from Mark 3 that he was
ordained just like the apostles (by Jesus) and apparently makes no
qualitative difference between himself and the Twelve.

Also in that first session he made this claim:

“I may be the most simple man you’ve ever met but you ain’t never run
into anybody in our generation that has touched as many dead men and
let ‘em get up as I have. How does that feel?”

Hogan, on the Brownsville video, goes through verbal and physical
antics describing his powers and comes across as confrontational,
pushy, crude and arrogant. More disturbing is that there is none of
the gentleness and humility prescribed by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:24-25
for godly teachers. There is none of the meekness and fear (respect)
mentioned in 1 Peter 3:15 (see also Colossians 3:12). He rails on
demons and rails on the people.

Hogan’s style has him coming across as a know-it-all. Confronting the
“enemy” may be one thing but Paul says of his approach to God’s
children: “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother
cherishes her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). Hogan batters his
audiences at times.

WHO YA GONNA CALL?

In the first session, Hogan tells of being born into the home of a
Southern Baptist pastor. He constantly tells of how misunderstood he
has been and continues to be. He credits this to his high level of
spirituality, boldness and faith. He does not skip a beat as he tells
of rotting corpses and bodies in other states of mortification
routinely raised back to life. He is the “demon buster” who withstands
warlocks and witch doctors. It is high drama — a gripping and
fantastic tale — with Hogan as the star.

Hogan also says on the video that he had a vision that was like a
“movie” in which he saw a bull in a field trying to open a nicely
wrapped present. The ferocious bull was unable to get into that
present despite his strength. Then a baby about a year old opened the
package with no effort. Hogan then asserts: “I said to Jesus, ‘You
make me that baby or I ain’t gonna preach.’”

He then says: “And so I decided that I was going to seek heaven until
the day came that I could walk up to a dead person and touch him and
watch he fly up from the dead.”

Believers can never tell Jesus what He is to do and set conditions for
obedience. Isaiah cried, “Woe is me” and pleaded with the Lord to be
sent (Isaiah 6). John fell at the feet of Jesus as one dead
(Revelation 1:17). Job was asked, “shall the one who contends with the
Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God let him answer it” (Job
40:2). Hogan needs to consider Job 40 and 41 and repent of his
incredible pride and arrogance. However, he can weave through a show
of humility that turns into pomposity.

RARE OCCURRENCES

Even the disputed passage in Mark 16:15-18 quoted by many Charismatics
does not mention ability to raise the dead. In the approximately 900
years from Elijah to the apostles, there are only nine specific and
clear miracles of this type mentioned. Averaged out, this would be one
every 100 years. It does not seem that raising the dead was normative
or expected but was dramatic and infrequent. The biblical pattern for
people rising from the dead is infrequent and the ability to do it is
clear and only connected to people unquestionably empowered by God for
this act.

The overwhelming majority of God’s people during Bible times were not
used in this way. John the Baptist was called the greatest of the
prophets and he “did no miracle” (Luke 7:28 and John 10:41). No one in
the Reformation claimed this, nor was it a claim in any of the great
revivals.

Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Job, Jeremiah and other heroes of faith
did not raise anyone from the dead. The Old Testament records three
raisings. Elijah performed one (1 Kings 17:17), then with his double
portion anointing, Elisha, his successor, performed two (2 Kings 4:32;
13:21). These obviously were to stir resurrection hope and a longing
for the eternal kingdom. It also was during a time of great unbelief,
apostasy and crisis when Baal worship had taken over Israel and the
miraculous was much needed.

In the New Testament, Jesus performed three raisings (Jairus’ daughter
in Mark 5:35, the widow’s son in Luke 7:11, and Lazarus in John
11:11). We could add Jesus’ own resurrection as a fourth. The
mysterious and sparsely described event that coincided with the death
of Christ (Matthew 27:52-53) with an undetermined number coming out of
the grave, like Lazarus, is an obvious attempt to show us that Jesus
is the Messiah with the power of life and death and that the final
victory awaits our resurrection and glorification (1 Corinthians 15).
Acts 9:37-42 speaks of Peter and the raising of Dorcas. Acts 20:9-10
describes the last one, although some dispute if it is a raising.

The Epistles nowhere hint that we should pursue attempts at raising
the dead or expect it but rather those dramatic divine interventions
in Scripture picture resurrection and glorification as connected to
the future Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The Zondervan Pictorial
Bible Encyclopedia makes the point:

“Since all these raisings were only signs of Jesus’ resurrection
power, they meant only a return to this mortal life; the final victory
over death waits until the End.”6

Do we believe that God can raise the dead? Absolutely! The big
question is “When?” The Scriptures are clear in Romans 8:23: “waiting
for ... the redemption of our bodies.” Resurrection is connected to
our glorification at Christ’s coming as is made abundantly clear in 1
Corinthians 15.

Hogan with his hype and claims of more than 200 raisings would have us
believe that he is greater than all the prophets and apostles, and
even Jesus Himself. There are fewer than a dozen pronounced raisings
in the Bible. Hogan outdoes them all and his miracles are almost
commonplace, if we believe his claims.

The Apostle Paul testified: “My manner of life from my youth, which
was at first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;
Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify” (Acts
26:4-5). Connie Horn notes:

“The above statement is taken from Paul’s testimony before King
Agrippa. In his case, Paul employed evidence that could be confirmed
by witnesses, if they were called upon to testify.”7

As has been established, the raisings of the dead in biblical history
are rare occurrences. People who have no historical perspective do not
realize this nor do they realize that modern claims of raising the
dead go back only a little more than 50 years. None of the modern
claims has ever been documented. Faith healers such as Oral Roberts
and Benny Hinn have had to disavow such boisterous assertions. No
proof with death certificates, doctors’ verifications or film exists
anywhere. PFO has dealt with the likes of Smith Wigglesworth and
others in past Journals.

Some of the modern claims are downright silly, as John MacArthur
shows:

“Jan Crouch, who with her husband, Paul, leads Trinity Broadcasting
Network (TBN), told a live audience in Costa Rica that ‘God answered
the prayers of two little 12-year-old girls to raise our pet Chicken
from the dead!’ Mrs. Crouch has recounted that same tale on TBN
broadcasts that air coast to coast and around the world.”8

The uniform history of the early Church was circulated by the fourth
century apologist and defender of the deity of Christ, Athanasius. In
a volume he distributed called Vita S. Antoni (The Life of St.
Anthony), it is stated: “For the working of signs is not ours but the
Saviour’s work.”9

HEAVEN CAN’T WAIT!

Hogan is part of a growing number of men who are in the line of Latter
Rain heresies that began to develop in the 1940s. In short, they teach
that we can have heavenly glorification now. It is called by various
titles, including “Kingdom Now,” “Joel’s Army,” “Restorationism,” “End
Time Prophets,” “End Time Restorationism” and “Manifest Sons of God.”
It teaches that a group of end-time super-apostles and prophets will
have more power than all the biblical prophets and apostles. They will
control death, disease, wealth, the world and be “little Christs.” Do
they believe their own hype or just get others to believe? Hogan has
his own twists and turns but in philosophy and teaching, he is in the
camp of the Kingdom Now advocates.

Some of the Kingdom Now teachers play it very coy and very smart by
only saying we are on the verge of this great miracle period. “Any day
now” is their anthem. We are just around the corner from emptying out
the hospitals, raising the dead, creative miracles and holding miracle
crusades where everyone is healed. Just keep your cash coming their
way and miracles are bound to break out. Benny Hinn has been promising
universal healing since 1979.

Kingdom Now is a delusion and a self-centered mania. It was described
back in 1982 by Pastor Wayne Benson of First Assembly of God in Grand
Rapids as “Charismatic humanism.”10 Unfortunately, Benson has jumped
into the “Brownsville river” and ignored his own warnings. That river
is full of aberrant whirlpools and heretical alligators.

Whether the proponents of Kingdom Now all believe it or just use it
for personal advantage and gain is beside the point. What ought to
concern believers is its unbiblical premise and the demeaning of the
biblical prophets and apostles. The confusion of biblical categories
and confusing of sanctification and glorification is to be deplored.

Apologist Robert Liichow of the Inner City Christian Discernment
Ministry says:

“Hogan’s beliefs parallel those of the fringe revivalist Franklin Hall
regarding raising the dead, levitation, etc. ... Hogan seems to be
spouting the old ‘Manifest Sons of God’ offshoot doctrines of the New
Order of the Latter Rain in the 1950s.”11

In speaking with an associate of Hogan’s ministry by phone in the fall
of 1998, the subject of Hogan’s claim to levitate was brought up. PFO
was informed that “David used to think and teach that Jesus levitated
him but now believes that the devil is messing with him” (though the
co-worker had not ever seen this and had only been told by Hogan that
it happened). If indeed the devil is levitating Hogan, he has a lot in
common with the witch doctors he claims to oppose.

ANYTHING YOU WANT

In the second session at the Brownsville school, Hogan leads off with
Matthew 21:22: “All things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive it.” Although Hogan intends it to mean that we can have
whatever we pray for, he tells stories that make it clear that he does
not always get what he wants.

No one would suggest that Matthew 21:22 gives a believer carte blanche
on any request. All the rest of Scripture must be taken into account.
The Geneva Bible in its note on Matthew 21:22 points out that:

“...the emphasis is on not doubting. Freedom from doubt arises from an
awareness that something is truly God’s will. True faith receives what
it asks for; trust in God is not presumptive arrogance but submission
to His will.”12

Neither Hogan nor anyone else would suggest in the end that we can
have absolutely anything for which we believe. Thus no one, not even
Charismatic extremists, would see Matthew 21:22 as absolute. As Dr.
Harry Ironside says:

“This is not to be understood as an assurance that God will grant
every request we make, or give us whatever we ask. To pray believingly
implies that we pray in accordance with the revealed will of God, and
that we do not regard iniquity in our hearts. But where one is right
with God Himself, and his prayer is in faith because in accord with
the known will of God, the divine response is sure.”13

FLY THROUGH THE AIR WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE

In the same session, Hogan claims that his family fasts every other
day of their lives and his wife, when in Mexico, fasts 21 days a
month. Bragging about fasting seems to violate Matthew 6:16-19 and the
whole tenor of that chapter in terms of public displays or public
boasting about religious deeds.

Hogan goes on to tell of his 8-year-old “son” whom he got out of “the
trash” in Guatemala. He claims that when his son shouts “fuego” (fire)
and waves his little hanky at people, “you are flying through the air
like you were shot with a gun — an 8-year-old boy — it’s amazing.”
Hogan spins these tales with a straight face. The Apostle Peter warned
us about those who “speak great swelling words of emptiness” (2 Peter
2:18). Hogan has to be either lying, hallucinating or admitting to
demonic activity here. There are no other choices.

EVERYONE MUST DO IT

Hogan goes on to preach from Matthew 10:7-8, albeit totally out-of-
context. The passage mentions healing the sick, raising the dead,
cleansing lepers, and casting out demons. Hogan fails to point out
some other things mentioned in the passage around verses 7 and 8 that
cast a different light on those activities.

Hogan tells his listeners that it was God’s will for all believers to
raise the dead since it was commanded. But is it? Hogan claims that
thousands of people have been healed in his ministry and that “every
part of the human body healed or recreated.” While he talks of his re-
creative powers, Michael Brown sits peering at him through thick
glasses and no one sees the discrepancy, even though Hogan later that
week talked about “eyes popping in heads.”

Hogan fails to tell his audience that Matthew 10:5 says, “go not into
the way of the Gentiles” (or Samaritans). Using Hogan’s logic, we
could only raise Jews from the dead. Then Jesus says, “take no wallet”
and no money or extra coat and shoes. Does Hogan really obey Jesus?
Are we to go totally without resources?

This obviously was a brief, limited, very circumscribed mission to
Jewish villages in which the apostles were given supernatural powers
to immediately pave the way for Jesus with messianic signs. Charles
Erdman says:

“It is evident that these injunctions were intended only for the days
when the apostles were preparing the way for the earthly labors of
their Lord. Many of these directions were purely temporary. Jesus
wished to impress upon them the fact that the time of his ministry
would be brief.”14

The Kingdom of Heaven at hand (verse 7) was embodied in Jesus the
King, yet Hogan has the audacity to share that he told a severely
crippled woman that when she looked at him she was looking at the
Kingdom of God.

HIGH NOON

Hogan goes on with more outlandish stories. He recounts a demonic
encounter by his then 4-year-old son. He then heard his son screaming
in pain and upon pulling up the boy’s shirt, saw a hand print on the
son’s side as the demon worked at pulling out the boy’s intestines.
Hogan says he prayed out in tongues and called out the name of Jesus
as the demon tortured the young boy. Nothing seemed to work as the
demon then tried to rip off the boy’s face. Hogan says he did not
realize that “he had stirred up some of the bigger demons that
surround the world.”

The physical attack stopped but resumed later causing the boy to go
deaf. Hogan then says he shut himself away in his room for five days
and fasted. He said he was determined to find out what was going on.
Then “Jesus spoke” and told him there was a warlock living nearby.

Hogan says he charged out of the house only to confront the “demon”
out on the street and like an old western movie, the “demon” was
waiting for a showdown right there. The strains of the High Noon theme
came to mind as I listened to Hogan tell of his cursing the warlock
“by the blood and power of the cross.” Hogan triumphantly reported
that the warlock fled and the boy’s ears were “instantly opened.”

Of course, there is not one verse in the Scriptures that would
indicate that demons can leave burning hand prints, rip out
intestines, rip off a face or limbs, and so on. Hogan’s assertions are
more fiction than Bible.15 The spiritual warfare chapter in Ephesians
6 teaches nothing like Hogan is suggesting and identify the foe as
“not flesh and blood” but as spirit entities (verse 12). These enemies
can be withstood with the armor of God, we are told.

Addressing the fact that demons are pure spirit and have no
physicality (no flesh, bones, hands, feet, that is, they are non-
corporeal), Dr. Merrill Unger, in his classic text Biblical
Demonology, affirms:

“The Gospels prove conclusively that demons are purely spiritual
beings, ... The spiritual nature of both Satan and his demon hosts is
graphically set forth by the Apostle Paul when he emphatically says
the believer’s intense warfare ‘is not against flesh and blood,’ but
against the non-material, the incorporeal, ... In like manner the
Apostle John bears witness to the incorporeality of the demons ...
Demons, hence, are scripturally presented as purely spiritual
beings. ... The specific attribute of ‘spirit’ is then immateriality,
incorporeality.”16

If and when demons possess the unsaved, their works may be seen
operating through a person but their nature and essence cannot be
seen. As pure spirits they have no body parts.

It should be noted that rabbinic superstition is responsible for the
kind of mindset perpetuated by Hogan. Merrill Unger again enlightens
us on this point:

“... the Rabbis divided demons into two classes: one composed of
purely spiritual beings, the other of half-spirits (‘halbgeister’).
The latter, as semi-sensuous beings, possessing a psycho-sarcous
constitution, involving them in physical needs and functions, could,
under certain conditions be seen, and were the source of endless
superstition. Scriptural truth, however, at once disposes of the
notion of ‘half-spirits,’ and with it the greater part of rabbinic and
ethnic demonology, where the essential characteristic of spirit is
violated. Presenting demons, then, as purely spiritual beings,
Scripture uniformly views them as above the operation of natural law,
and not subject to human visibility, or other sensory perception.”17

In the tragic Salem witch trials of the 17th century, so-called
spectral evidence was presented by those with overactive imaginations
and evil agendas.18 Bible-believing Christians believe in Satan and
demons but not in the caricatures of Hogan and others.

ANGELS OF LIGHT

Charismatic teachers sometimes claim to see demons but their
descriptions are usually cartoonish, grotesque and quite often
contradictory to others who report seeing the same thing. Though
angels, with God’s direction and permission, can take on the form and
appearance of men temporarily, there is no biblical warrant for
believing God has or will allow demons to do so. Hogan is attributing
far too much to demons and “sees” them everywhere.

Even 2 Corinthians 11:14 does not help those who push the unbiblical
notion of demons being seen or taking on physical appearances. Satan
can disguise himself as an “angel of light” which would be attractive,
not frightening at all. The context (Satan’s servants disguised as
servants of righteousness) is clearly teaching that Satan and demons
motivate and energize false teachers. They do not literally become the
teachers but operate through them.

DEM BONES, DEM BONES

As Hogan goes on, he tells of a woman who shattered her wrist and arm
and had bones sticking out every which way. He says his touch and
prayer brought the bones back together, closed the skin up and
effected a perfect healing. There is applause. However, if this were
true, we could send Hogan and his entourage to the trauma centers and
emergency rooms of hospitals and send the doctors home.

Hogan just plows on with one story after another. The miraculous
becomes mundane. He says that in Wawaco, Mexico, a woman was given a
new heart and her physical blindness was taken away. In another
village of the Aztecs he says he encountered a smelly, rotting leper
with no nose, ears, fingers or toes. Hogan says: “It was a human man
with leprosy” and he told the man, “You have a devil.” He goes on to
say that: “I lost my hand in the goo.”

Then Hogan reports: “We decided that it was alright to cleanse the
leper even though it was a little out-of-context.” For some reason
Hogan left the village with the job unfinished but returned a few
weeks later to find “a nice looking fella — pretty.” Hogan receives a
standing ovation. He resumes the story, telling them he grabbed the
man’s 2-week-old nose and the two brand new ears, saying that God had
created new fingers and toes and new skin. “Oops,” he comments, “I’m
not making it very far with this stuff” and then breaks out in a
whistle.

A woman then wanders forward to the front of the auditorium where
Hogan was speaking and he, after hearing her request, limply and
repeatedly hit her on the head with his handkerchief saying, “Fire of
God, Fire of Heaven.” Then the claims continue. He tells how he
watched a man grow new legs and feet from the knees down and there’s a
story about a girl who had no bones from the hips down. The girl grew
new bones in her legs, Hogan asserts.

ALL IN THE MIND?

In Hogan’s third session at Brownsville he tells his audience
something that is very telling and very troubling: “Take your wildest
imagination. ... ‘cause my Bible says that whatever things I can think
about, Jesus is going to do greater.”

That truly is an amazing statement and an amazing lie. No one’s Bible
says that anywhere.

We have heard of “name it and claim it” theology that is prevalent in
Charismatic camps but Hogan goes further with “imagine it and claim
it.” Our imaginations are fallen and tainted with sin. Almost every
reference in Scripture to the imagination or the word “imagine” is
negative (cf., Genesis 6:5; 8:21). Is this, after all, what it might
really be all about, Hogan’s “wildest imagination”?

Then Hogan says, “And I have a pretty serious imagination.” And he
goes on to say that he sits and thinks of Jesus taking over countries
and everyone getting saved and everybody getting healed. Could it be
in the end that most of the dramatic and miraculous parts of Hogan’s
stories are just part of his “serious imagination”?

The stories go on and on. They include the raising of two dead sisters
covered with lime and rotting for three days, which gets him wild
applause. Though the raisings were reported to have been done by
elders, the mother of the girls kneeled at Hogan’s feet and thanked
him. Hogan told the people at the Christian Outreach Center in
Brisbane: “They loved it when they got up, spitting that lime out of
their mouths.”19

THE NEVER ENDING STORIES

Also in the third session, he tells a tale of multiplying food. Hogan
says he prayed and the beans, rice and tortillas in the pots fed
thousands. Then he adds: “All the food that we fed when we went back
to the pots was still in the pot. ... Woooooo. ... Today, this day, it
is fulfilled in your ears.”

Hogan then informs the audience that he will not reveal the name of
the village for his next story. He says that 25 henchmen were sent to
kill him and his workers. Somehow Hogan and the group must have turned
invisible: “We walked right by ‘em. They never saw us. And I am not a
quiet individual ... Yahoooo.” He then relapses into a surly mode and
accuses the students there of “decadency” and “apathy” and verbally
beats them up for a time.

Then he is ready again for another story: “Let’s see what you can
handle — are you ready?” he teases. “Let’s see if you can handle the
real me. Most demons in humans can’t,” he boasts.

The next shocker unfolds: “We went into the house of a principality
and decapitated him [he laughs] and it’s pretty rough.” Hogan turns to
Michael Brown and asks: “But that’s okay. Can we get gross with it?
Tell it like it happened?” Brown nods approval.

Hogan then ominously informs his hearers: “But I can promise you this,
I’m a great friend but I make a lot better enemy. Just remember that
your whole life.” Hogan obviously meant demons as enemies but what is
frightening and confusing is that throughout his presentation he
refers to sins as “demons,” sickness as “demons” and some people as
“demons.” Where does that leave one when they have a falling out with
Hogan or disagree with him? The answer is obvious. This kind of
blurring of categories is divisive and unhealthy.

So Hogan says he took on “demonic royalty” and was able to “hold a
demon prince at bay.” He did it through “the blood protection of the
Holy Ghost” and then asserted: “‘Cause my Bible says that the Holy
Ghost shed his blood — in Acts it says that.” It does not say it in
Acts and this is total confusion and a torturing of Scripture. Jesus
Himself said, “a spirit does not have flesh and blood” (Luke 24:39).
Here we see again Hogan’s utter confusion in giving a spirit
corporeality.

The essence of the story is that two magic “warlocks” come on the
scene and Hogan stood “nose to nose” with those demons. Declaring the
blood of Christ and doing a jig on the stage for a while, Hogan tells
of a woman at the scene with dripping sores and “horns” attached to
her vertebrae and sticking out of her back. He demonstrated how he
tugged on the horns to make sure they were attached. He looked at the
“devils” and shouted: “You shouldn’ta, oughta had done that.” The
whole team ran outside into a field to face a huge invisible “giant”
demon who could see them but they couldn’t see it. After praying and
chanting the blood of Jesus at it, “the thing” exploded into a ball of
fire and flew over the mountain. A few days later, Hogan met the
“horn” lady and she was perfectly whole.

In that third session, Hogan mentioned being offered millions of
dollars but said he could not be bought. At the end of the session,
Michael Brown indicated that the offer of money was from major
networks wanting to film the miracles but Hogan would not take the
offer of money. Why not just let them film and document it all for
nothing? Why is it that reporters in and around his home town have
never heard of him?

HOLY GHOST CARWASH

In the fourth session at Brownsville School, Hogan gets even more
bizarre. He claims to have prayed a basketball-sized tumor from the
body of a woman.

He tells his audience that he has “two submarine trucks” that go
underwater even though “mechanically it is not possible.” His parallel
is Moses at the Red Sea and Joshua at the Jordan. In both of these
biblical instances, the water was stopped in some miraculous way but
Hogan presses on, undeterred by details. He drives down into the deep
riverbed as the water covers over the entire truck, he says. He tells
that as he drove under water, it was so dark he turned the lights on
and continued for a time, as the Brownsville students laugh with
enjoyment. “Great wash job, Holy Ghost,” he proclaims to the applause
of his gullible and accepting audience.

THE SHINING

Hogan goes on to ridicule the Brownsville lot for their “little river
party.” He then promised to “escalate a little bit.” He spoke of
himself as a train and told his audience to get on or be run over.
Hogan was agitated and suggested there was resistance with some there.

Coming off the Moses story and the shining of Moses’ face, Hogan
insisted that his face “a time and again has lit up really like a
light bulb.” Again, this could be very easily captured on video.

He went on to claim that he fasted for nine months and went into
seclusion and witnessed an appearance of Jesus. His description is
frightening:

“I am ripped off of that bed and slammed into the wall. It was not a
demon, it was the Holy Ghost. Revelation knowledge like I have never
known in my life began to unfold in my mind. ... [I began] writing
down pages and pages of revelation knowledge from heaven. ... This is
the big one!”

Perhaps Hogan has been in a pagan and occult culture so long he has
gone native. What he is explaining is a form of automatic writing and
is clearly a form of divination. The practice of automatic writing is
commonly done among spiritists and mediums. Josh McDowell and Don
Stewart explain automatic writing in their Handbook of Today’s
Religions:

“Automatic writing consists of producing written material by a medium
who is not in control of his conscious self. The subject matter is
said to be beyond any training, experience or knowledge of the
medium.”20

Automatic writing is a weak but demonic counterfeit of the real
inspiration of the Scriptures. This kind of activity, even if claimed
as “revelation knowledge,” is forbidden by Revelation 22:18-19.

Hogan then tells them: “Now I’m fixing to tell you something that
you’re gonna have a hard time with.” He says there is no part of the
human anatomy that he has not seen healed: “new brains, new hearts,
new livers, ... dead raising.” He tells them of a baby whose head was
split open when its head was dashed on a rock. They left the brains on
the rock and brought the brainless baby to the church. After four
hours of prayer, the baby came back to life and “brains were still on
the rock but he got some more now,” Hogan says.

Then Hogan related that in October 1995, the shekinah glory cloud
knocked out hundreds of people for hours at a church service. It was
followed by “open-eyed visions of King Jesus.” Some people flew like
someone shot them, Hogan says.

According to the Renewal Journal, Hogan offered in November 1996 this
version of the same October 27, 1995, meeting:

“I was trying to help, but I couldn’t help. People were just flying
everywhere. And these were ministers. ... I didn’t know that they had
been pinned down by the Holy Spirit all night long, all over the
place, stuck to the ground. Some of them had fallen on ant beds, but
not one ant bit them. ... When some people tried to get up, they would
go flying. It was awesome. ... The three of us were inside something
like a force field of energy. Anybody who tried to come into it was
knocked out. It was scarey” [sic].21

Jesus then appears at the October meeting and starts to read from a
list:

“I was looking around, and as he was reading from the list people went
flying through the air, getting healed and delivered. It was
phenomenal, what God was doing. And he’s done it in every service in
our work that I’ve been in since then. It’s been over a year. It’s
amazing. Wonderful.”22

Then he tells the crowd at Brownsville that he is asking Jesus to do
that right there for them. He tells them he is “exploding with fire.”
People began to scream, cry and wail. Hogan tells them, “You all are
easy targets” and begins to scream: “Fire! Fire! Fire!” as the
Brownsville students surged forward. Hogan ordered his men: “Get ‘em”
as the “impartations” are eagerly anticipated. As the session
concludes, there is no smoke, no clouds, not even a mist, just a lot
of people in a frenzy and wailing. Mercifully, the tape fades to snow
and finally ends.

WHO IS THE REAL DAVID HOGAN?

Folks in and around the quaint Louisiana town of West Monroe (Hogan’s
hometown) who know him are unwilling to speak about him. Hogan returns
to the city from time to time. His brother, O.W. Hogan Jr., pastors
the Freedom Church, described by one as a “river church in the flavor
of Rodney Howard-Browne.”

Some in West Monroe express that speaking about Hogan could be a
potentially explosive issue in the community with families taking
sides. Few want to risk such adversity by openly disagreeing with him.

Then others express a reluctance to speak negatively about a minister,
even if there are negatives. So there are many reasons for the jitters
when it comes to Hogan.

Yet, there are exceptions. Rev. Dale Walker of the Pinegrove Church
enthusiastically supports Hogan and has even sent one couple from his
church to Mexico to work there as missionaries at Freedom Ranch. That
couple has been with Hogan’s missionary efforts for nine years.
However, Walker cannot confirm if the couple has witnessed the surfeit
of “miracles” or not. Walker told PFO, “I believe God called David in
an apostolic work.”23

Walker has visited Freedom Ranch briefly, but admitted he had never
seen the healing or creative miracles personally. Walker says he prays
for the day he’ll do them, too. He expressed the sentiment that people
will have to make up their mind on the unusual claims based on the man
(Hogan) and not necessarily seeing it for themselves. He indicated
that Hogan is a no-nonsense kind of a guy who runs the ranch very
tightly, which disillusions some people who had gone there to work. He
also mentioned a former “disgruntled volunteer” who in the past had
been saying negative things about Hogan. Walker says in the end, the
question is, “Do we have faith in Hogan or not?”

It seems with David Hogan that people who know him either love him or
strongly dislike him — and some even fear him. Some see him as a good
man who does harmful things to others on occasion, namely being over-
controlling, while others see him as a bad man who does good to stay
in control of others.

There is talk in West Monroe by some of the “short-termers” that there
is absolute control on the compound in Mexico. There are also
whisperings about “survivors” who are “healing.” There are undertones
of families being hurt and destroyed by the excessive control. Some
even reluctantly tell that a falling out with Hogan leaves them
vulnerable to being called “demons” or “devils.” One family took five
years to recover from serving at Hogan’s compound. Some phone calls by
PFO for facts never were returned and it is obvious people are
reluctant to speak.

Even those who are willing to divulge some of the frightening details
do not want to be quoted by name because of fear.

THE AWFUL TRUTH

However, there are exceptions to those reluctant to speak out. One
such person is career missionary Alvin LaVaughn Landry, who is
currently with the Oasis World Mission in Perote, Mexico. Landry was a
lifelong friend of Hogan’s and served in Hogan’s mission from
1983-1993. Few have been closer. He tells a chilling story.

Landry openly disclosed that “David’s problems go way back and he has
been telling tall tales his whole life. I have caught him in so many
lies that I have lost track.”24 When asked if he thought Hogan was a
pathological liar, Landry said, “Yes” without hesitation.

Landry then offered:

“David picks up people to work for him that are insecure or with
troubled backgrounds or in a crisis. His main thing is control. He
controls like a gang leader. ... He uses all kinds of profanity and
covers it by saying that you should say all that is in your heart. He
has expressed very immoral and vulgar things about women using the
rationale that if you say it out, you won’t do it. ... He treats women
like mules. ... His authority can’t be challenged. ... Somebody needs
to stand up. ... He has serious mental problems.”25

Landry shared the history regarding the expulsion of most missionaries
from Mexico in 1987 (until 1991). Hogan was expelled because he
refused to obey the government regarding areas which were off limits
and went into Guatemala. Landry was able to keep Hogan’s work going
for over three years. Hogan returned in 1991 and Landry laid out a
plan for a center in Tempoal, which Hogan said he wanted to shelve.
Two months later, Hogan told everyone he had a “vision from God” and
unveiled the Landry plan as his own.

Landry’s comments became more ominous:

“No workers at Freedom Ranch have assets. He and his wife are the
board and own everything. The board of reference is only on paper and
knows little. David has huge assets in his over 200-acre ranch. ...
When you tell one lie after another like David does, you get hardened.
David has no conscience and does not know where the beginning and end
is of all the lies. If one person, just one, were raised from the
dead, it would be all over the Mexico newspapers. Most people in
Mexico have never heard of David Hogan. They only know of him in
America and down there no one would believe any of the reports. Sooner
or later, believe me, you will see buildings burning in Tempoal just
like Waco. David is paranoid and anti-government and he sees his
compound as an end time place of survival. With his personal slaves
and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank he knows he will
survive. He has huge investments.”26

When asked if Freedom Ranch had any parallels to Jonestown, and Hogan
to Jim Jones, he replied: “Most definitely.”

Hogan has mixed reviews as far as people are concerned. But the way in
which he distorts the Bible and then makes grandiose and unproven
claims is enough to reject his ministry. The people of West Monroe may
continue to take sides and debate about why Hogan does what he does or
if he even does what he says he does. But the issue for Christians
should be settled on biblical grounds and his unproven and
undocumented imaginings rejected.

CONCLUSIONS

David Hogan has the perfect ploy. The miraculous events are always
left in his wake; they always happen elsewhere and he has no
eyewitnesses to verify it. Even the inspired writer, Luke, in talking
of the certainty of his report, said it was because of the number of
“eyewitnesses” that we could believe his account (Luke 1:1-4). Paul
spoke of over 500 witnesses of Christ’s resurrection (1 Corinthians
15:6). Our faith is to be in God and His Word, not a man. Hogan offers
absolutely no documentation of any claims.

Hogan has not seen or experienced in reality what he says he has.
While he may believe them, we have no reason to believe him has
because he does not have one shred of documented evidence or proof of
his extreme claims. In his United States meetings, where all the drama
is being trumpeted, he never raises the dead, multiplies food, grows
limbs on others, or flies. He does not visit a morgue or empty
wheelchairs. There are no creative miracles or miraculous transports
to his cities of destination. There is no smoke, just smoke and
mirrors. According to his secretary, they have only heard the stories
of the submarine truck but have never seen it happen.

Hogan can make all the boastful claims he wants but the Church must
stand up and say, “Prove it!” The Apostle Paul commands us to “examine
everything carefully” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Hogan claims to be a
minister of righteousness and admits to a serious imagination. He is
so far outside the realm of the Bible in his teachings and
interpretations that he demonstrates he is only disguised as an
apostle of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13). There were 12 apostles and
Hogan is not one of them.

In this writer’s opinion, there are three basic things that fuel the
phenomenon of David Hogan. He boasts of two of them.

1. That he has a “serious imagination.” What augments and triggers
that may be extensive sleep loss,27 and lack of nourishment if Hogan
fasts as much and sleeps as little as he says he does. His imagination
is so extreme, he may be tapping into the occult because some of his
professed proclivities and practices are clearly spiritistic. It is
also possible that he has a form of autism which is defined as: “a
state of mind characterized by daydreaming, hallucinations, and
disregard of external reality.”28 Only his mother and doctor would
know.

Hogan is also immersed in the Aztec culture, which is superstitious
and whose people see all kinds of things in dreams and omens.29 One
can only wonder how much Hogan is tainted by that. We agree that he
has a serious and wild imagination. Hogan is so jaded he believes that
one can say whatever comes to mind in spite of commands in God’s Word
to the contrary (Ephesians 4:29-32; 5:11-12). It seems that Hogan is a
law to himself with a seared conscience.

2. That he makes a better enemy than a friend. Some people are afraid
of him and just stay out of his way. This gives him momentum. No one
wants to be labeled “a demon.” Intimidation, intentional or
unintentional, paves his way. Calling your opposition a demon is
clearly an attempt at control and intimidation. For Hogan, it works.
Alvin Landry, Hogan’s lifetime friend, has been demonized and labeled
a “devil.” PFO and this author are sure to be branded by Hogan with a
big “D.”

3. Some people want Hogan to be real. They have been primed by
teachers with Latter Rain heresies and promises that God will speak to
them. Their confidence in the Word as adequate has been undermined.
Some people want the stories and the sensationalism to be true more
than anything. They want phenomenon no matter what. Some have gone to
Freedom Ranch and have been disillusioned not because they are
deficient, but because they recognized the above. They are the truly
discerning Bereans who now struggle and grieve. I pray for their
“healing” and my heart really goes out to them.

My last word to David Hogan is — bring me to Mexico and show me:

• people being raised from the dead,

• people growing limbs,

• people shot through the air from a hanky,

• take me for a ride in the submarine truck underwater,

• levitate before my eyes,

• fill a room with clouds,

• let me fly around a room,

• provide brains for the brainless,

• all the other things you boast of.

Or better yet, just come here and do them — and PFO will publicly
retract its conclusions and withdraw this article. Yes, PFO does
believe that God can and does heal in answer to the prayers of His
people. Men’s claims or “serious imaginations” are another story.

Endnotes:

1. David Hogan, Faith to Raise the Dead. Pensacola, Fla.: Brownsville
Revival School of Ministry, four videotape set, #S-7, 1998. The tape
set originally sold for $69.95.
2. John W. Allman, “Revival prays to raise an infant from the dead,”
Pensacola News Journal, Sept. 20, 1998, pg. 1A.
3. Renewal Journal, Issue #9: Mission (1997:1), “Renewal: Brisbane.”
This entire article is available on the worldwide web at
http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal9/9g-hogan.html.
4. Hank Hanegraaff, “The Counterfeit Revival Revisited,” Christian
Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 4, pg. 54.
5. Personal letter to author on file.
6. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan Publishing, 1975, Vol. 5, pg. 73.
7. Connie Hicks, Days of Praise, June-August 1999, entry for August
24.
8. John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan
Publishing, 1992, pg. 16.
9. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, n.d., Vol. 4, pg. 206.
10. Wayne Benson, “You Can be Conned by the Cults,” sermon from First
Assembly of God, Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 15, 1982, tape #819, tape
on file.
11. Personal e-mail to author from Rev. Robert S. Liichow, 8/20/99.
12. The Geneva Bible, note on Matthew 21:22, pg. 1541.
13. Harry Ironside, Expository Notes on the Gospel of Matthew. New
York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1948, pg. 272.
14. Charles Erdman, The Gospel of Matthew. Philadelphia: Westminster
Press, 1948, pg. 82.
15. See, for example, “The Devil in the Disco,” Jan Harold Brunvand,
Too Good to Be True — The Colossal Book of Urban Legends. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, pp. 247-248.
16. Merrill Unger, Biblical Demonology. Wheaton, Ill.: Scripture
Press, 1952, pp. 62-63.
17. Ibid., pp. 64-65.
18. See further, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed —
The Social Origins of Witchcraft and David Brown, A Guide to the Salem
Witchcraft Hysteria. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
19. Renewal Journal, op. cit.
20. Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Handbook of Today’s Religions. San
Bernardino, Calif.: Here’s Life Publishers, Inc., 1983, pg. 249.
21. Renewal Journal, op. cit.
22. Renewal Journal, op. cit.
23. Phone conversation with the Rev. Dale Walker and the author, Aug.
30, 1999.
24. Phone conversation with the Rev. Alvin LaVaughn Landry and the
author, Sept. 9, 1999.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. See Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973, pp. 384-390.
28. Davis Guralnik, Editor, New World Dictionary. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1984, “Autism,” pg. 94.
29. See: http://northcoast.com/~spdtom/a-omen.html.



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http://www.pfo.org/exploits.htm

[testif...@gmail.com]

I was invited to a session with Hogan in Portland, OR about 2012 or so. I was absolutely horrified, as much from what I heard as the lack of perception of the body of Christ! I'm a Charismatic and I believe and have personally seen miracles, and casting out demons. But Hogan wasn't doing any of that. He was hostile, boastful, threatening and seemed to enjoy seeing what he could pull over on people. Also the workers who came with him seemed frightened or very tense or something that wasn't right. None of them were friendly. I wonder about many of these "healers' and miracle workers you hear. There is almost never a survivor, a video, witness, hospital or morgue records etc. Charismatics are criminally gullible it seems, while much of the rest of the Body of Christ is fearful and unbelieving of the even the possibility of miracles and deliverance.

[THR]

The History of Reiki

Reiki was discovered in Japan around 1850 by Mikao Usui. It is believed that he was from a wealthy family as he traveled to China and Europe for his education and only the wealthy could afford to do this for their children. This opportunity led him to become secretary to the head of the Department of Health and Welfare. At one point when Usui’s personal and business life was failing he went to Mt. Kurama where he had been before to meditate, hopeful that he would discover the answers to his problems.

Reiki Circles

Reiki Circles are held monthly for previous students and if you like bring a friend!

Reiki Lineage

One of the people that Takata Hawayo trained to be a Reiki Master was John Harvey Gray. This name is important as in 1979 he attuned Libby Barnett, who is Shima’s teacher and mentor to Reiki 1 and 2, Reiki Master and Master of Reiki Masters (FYI-Libby attuned me to all three.).

Another one of the 22 Reiki Masters was Barbara Lincoln McCullough. Barbara trained Judy-Carol Stewart of Houston, Texas and the 35th Reiki Master who attuned Libby Barnett to Reiki Master.

Libby’s close connection with these original teachers inspired her to preserve the integrity and authenticity of this ancient form of healing. These values were passed down to Shima.

As you can see from the background described above you are receiving the gift of Reiki – the ability to heal yourself and others through Universal Life Force Energy with a rare and very close connection to the Mikao Usui and the original 22 Reiki Masters.

The Original Reiki Masters initiated by Hawayo Takata

George Araki
Barbara McCullough
Beth Grey
Ursula Baylow (deceased)
Paul Mitchell
Iris Ishikura (deceased)
Fran Brown
Barbara Weber Ray
Ethel Lombardi
Wanja Twan
Virginia Samdahl (deceased)
Phyllis Lei Furumoto
Dorothy Baba (deceased)
Mary McFaden
John Harvey Gray
Rick Bockner
Bethel Phaigh (deceased)
Harry Kuboi
Particia Ewing
Shinobu Saito
Kay Yamashita (Takata’s sister)
Barbara Brown


Self Reiki

Reiki is also a self-healing modality that has the ability to put the “brakes” on the addiction to adrenalin that most people seem to have today. Rushing through life and trying to cram in as much as we can in a 24 hour period and in doing so leaving behind the connection to ourselves that is so vitally important.

Learning to love yourself, knowing your limitations, this is an integral part of Reiki practice. In learning this you can become a better Healer. After all how can you love and respect someone else if you don’t feel the same way about yourself?

During classes students learn how to develop their ability to meditate and to discover self, bringing together a whole new way of looking at their surroundings and events that happen in this stress filled life.



http://universalhealingarts.com/reiki/


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