25 Facts About Hobart Freeman

Hobart Freeman was a charismatic preacher and author, who ministered in northern Indiana and actively promoted faith healing.

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.

Shortly before Hobart Freeman received "the baptism in the Holy Spirit", he survived a heart attack.

Hobart Freeman "claimed" his healing, disposed of his medications, and almost immediately suffered a series of angina attacks, which eventually subsided.

However Hobart Freeman explicitly rejected their Doctrine of Identification, which asserted that Jesus died spiritually, and he repeatedly warned his congregation about the leaders and their teachings.

Hobart Freeman established his own congregation, subsequently known as Faith Assembly, with Melvin Greider in 1963 in his own home at Winona Lake in nearby Kosciusko County.

Hobart Freeman was the pastor, Dr Hobart Freeman, and he commanded everyone's attention.

Hobart Freeman spoke for an hour or more about the end of the world and the new heavens and the new earth.

Hobart Freeman spoke with the conviction that all these things were going to happen just like the Bible said.

Hobart Freeman believed that his leg would be healed from the polio he had had years before.

Hobart Freeman's theology was as solid as a Baptist minister, but he had the fire of a Pentecostal maverick like Smith Wigglesworth or William Branham.

Hobart Freeman's 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.

Hobart Freeman began teaching college-level classes on Saturday mornings covering Old and New Testament theology, Christian ethics, church history and even Hebrew.

In 1978 after conflict with the owner, Hobart 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.

Hobart 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 Hobart Freeman's teaching was regularly reinforced by his "prophecies", published with meeting notices.

Hobart Freeman would be walking with his wife, who would be wearing a denim skirt and carrying a baby, with several other kids in tow.

Two weeks before this matter was to come to court, Hobart Freeman died at his Shoe Lake home of bronchial pneumonia and congestive heart failure complicated by an ulcerated gangrenous leg, which in the weeks preceding had forced him to preach sitting down.

Hobart Freeman had refused all medical help, even to the removal of the bandages so his leg could be cleaned.

Hobart Freeman's death was not reported for at least 13 hours due to an all-night prayer vigil for his resurrection.

Hobart Freeman was buried in a pine box with no public viewing and no graveside or memorial service.

Hobart Freeman soon came to accept his death as the will of God, and encouraged the congregation to persist in their faith.

In June 1985, Jack Farrell, one of the two assistant pastors hand-picked by Hobart Freeman, quit the congregation, telling "The Body" during the Sunday sermon, that they were still "in bondage" to their late pastor.

Hobart Freeman was the author of two books published by Moody Press of Chicago:.

Hobart Freeman later published another fourteen books through his own publishing house, Faith Publications of Warsaw, Indiana, later to become Faith Ministries and Publications:.