THE CORRUPTION KATHRYN KHULMAN SAW IN THE HEALING MINISTRY 😭 When Kathryn saw an advertisement that a noted “healing evangelist” was scheduled to hold a tent meeting in Erie, she decided to go. Although Kathryn had strong reservations about the sensationalism that generally characterized such meetings, she knew she would never be satisfied until she attended a service. Perhaps, just perhaps, they had found the secret to releasing God’s healing power to the sick and dying. It was a difficult experience for Kathryn. One of the most difficult of her life. She drove to Erie alone, determined to remain incognito. The giant tent was located to the south edge of the city. The signs, as she entered the parking lot read, “MIRACLE REVIVAL. SIGHT FOR THE BLIND! HEARING FOR THE DEAF! POWER TO GET WEALTH!” Taking a seat on the back row, she waited. When the evangelist came on the platform, he came on as though shot from a cannon. At one point he got up and walked on the back of the long bench behind the pulpit. At another time, he leap-frogged over the pulpit itself. The audience was worked into a frenzy, screaming, wailing, almost beyond control. Kathryn later described it as a “nightmare come to life.” During the service, he auctioned off pieces of his old revival tent to the highest bidders, which he promised would bring health and prosperity to those who wore them on their bodies or slept with them under their pillows. As the meeting grew more intense the preacher began to scream, saying he felt a “spell coming on,” which he indicated was a “Holy Ghost unction” enabling him to lay hands on the sick and they would be healed. People in the congregation crowded into the aisles, swaying back and forth. When the meeting was at the peak of frenzy, a healing line was formed. This line belied the seemingly spontaneous nature of the meeting, for each person who wanted to be in it had previously been assigned a number at the gate. Thus, Kathryn noted with dismay, people had to wait, sometimes for days, to have their number come up. After all, the evangelist could only pray individually with so many people in one evening. The people lined up by the scores. One by one the evangelist went down the line, checking cards and slapping people on the head and commanding them to “BE HEALED.” Many of them keeled to the floor. Others screamed and shook. But Kathryn could not help but notice that the more seriously ill patients were steered out of the healing line to an “invalids’ tent,” away from the prying eyes of the public. While some of the people did seem to be genuinely helped—perhaps even healed—the vast majority of those who had broken their crutches had to be helped out of the tent by sympathetic loved ones—still unable to walk. To those, the preacher proclaimed that their faith was not strong enough, yet; that they should come back the next night for more of the same. In talking about that night, Kathryn said, “I began to weep. I could not stop. Those looks of despair and disappointment on the faces I had seen, when told that only their lack of faith was keeping them from God, were to haunt me for weeks. Was this the God of all mercy and great compassion? I left the tent, and with hot tears streaming down my face, I looked up and cried, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” Years later Kathryn wrote, “I could not see the hand of God in man’s superfluity of zeal, and I saw the harm that was being done in attributing everything to lack of faith on the part of the individual who had not received his healing. Inside myself, I was crushed. My heart told me that God could do anything; my mind told me that through ignorance and lack of spiritual knowledge, there were those who were bringing a reproach on something that was sacred and wonderful and accessible to all. No preacher had to tell me that the power of God was real … I was assured of these facts as I read the Word of God. The Word was there, the promise had been given. There was surely no changing of God’s mind, and certainly no cancelling of the promises. I think that no one has ever wanted truth more avidly than had nor sought it harder.” Yet she had not found the truth she sought for in the healing tent. It had to be found elsewhere. Fortunately Kathryn had learned a valuable lesson in her earlier days. She had learned that the only way to find truth was to come in sincerity and let the Lord give her the revelations from His Word. So, once again she turned to the Bible for her answers. “When Jesus died on the cross and cried out, ‘It is finished,’ He not only died for our sins, but for our diseases, too,” she told me. “It took several months for me to realize that, for I had not been taught there was healing for the body in the redemption of Christ. But then I read in Isaiah where ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed.’ I had no choice but to accept that Jesus did not die just to open the way to heaven, but to provide healing as well. “I knew that if I lived and died and never saw a single healing miracle like the apostles experienced in the Book of Acts, it would not change God’s Word,” Kathryn said. “God said it. He made provision for it in our redemption at Calvary. And whether I ever saw it with my earthly eyes did not change the fact that it was so.” - 📚 Daughter Of Destiny