Spiritual Blogs

Smith Wigglesworth was a poor Yorkshire plumber who became one of the most influential Pentecostal healing evangelists of the early twentieth century. After encountering the Pentecostal movement in 1907, Wigglesworth became convinced that the supernatural gifts described in the New Testament—including divine healing—were still active. His ministry soon became famous for dramatic healing services, powerful preaching, prayer, anointing with oil, and his sometimes startling physical methods of confronting illness. Followers reported cures involving paralysis, deafness, tumors, arthritis and other serious conditions. Wigglesworth also became associated with prayer cloths, which he sent to people unable to attend his meetings. But his most extraordinary claims involved resurrection from the dead. Stories circulated that Wigglesworth had restored several people to life, including, according to his own later account, his wife Polly after her death in 1913. He was eventually credited in Pentecostal tradition with raising as many as fourteen people from the dead, although the historical evidence for that number—and for the individual resurrection claims—is considerably less certain than the evidence for his preaching career and healing ministry. Wigglesworth's story lies at the intersection of faith, Pentecostalism, medicine and the supernatural. His followers regarded him as a powerful instrument of God; skeptics questioned the evidence behind the miracles. Today, his documented ministry and the extraordinary testimonies surrounding it remain one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of Pentecostal Christianity.