F. F. Bosworth

For a critical examination of the ministry of F. F. Bosworth, read F.F. Bosworth: The Man behind 'Christ the Healer' by Roscoe Barnes III and find updates on the Roscoe Reporting. published to his site: F. F. Bosworth.

Fred Francis Bosworth (1877-1958) was a "Faith Healer" and Pentecostal evangelist who toured with William Branham from the beginning of Branham's ministry[1] as his campaign manager.[2]  Bosworth joined William Branham to debate Rev. Best in Houston, Texas where Branham's famous Houston Photograph, or halo photo, was captured.[3]  Bosworth was well-respected in Pentecostal circles, claiming to have been one of those in attendance at the Azusa Street Revival.[4]  Bosworth was also a founding father of the Assemblies of God.[5]

Bosworth was a ranking member of John Alexander Dowie's "Faith Healing" commune in Zion, IL.[6] Dowie was an internationally famous "faith healer" and doomsday prophet[7] who claimed to be the "return of Elijah".[8]   Bosworth served as the leader of the band, as well as an assistant to Dowie during Dowie's tours to increase his reach of control.[9][10]  After Dowie's death and as Pentecostal founder Charles Fox Parham attempted to seize control of Zion City,[11] Bosworth joined forces with Parham against Wilbur Voliva, General overseer of Zion.  Having spent several weeks in both Frank Sandford's Shiloh commune[12] and John Alexander Dowie's Zion Commune,[13] Parham was familiar with the "faith healing" business and its inner workings.  Parham appointed Bosworth as one of the leading preachers in his quickly growing sect.

F. F. Bosworth, formerly conductor of the Zion City Band, is one of the head Parhamite preachers.  Notwithstanding the peculiarity of the Parhamite doctrine, the following is growing.  New theories and doctrines meet with a cordial reception at the hands of the former disciples of Dowie.[14]

By September 1906, the "Parhamite" sect in Zion grew to over a hundred people and their religious "healing" practices became more extreme.  Five of the Parhamites were arrested on charges of manslaughter after torturing one Mrs. Greenhaulgh to death.  Mrs. Greenhaulgh suffered rheumatism, and the Parhamites "broke her legs, her neck, her arms, and her ribs, and choked her until she died" in an attempt to "cast devils and evil spirits from her rheumatism racked body".[15]  Parham failed to seize control, however, and F. F. Bosworth left Zion City.  Immediately after leaving, Bosworth moved to Waco, Texas,[16] the future home of the Branch Davidians.[17]  Bosworth was creating a new religion, which at the time, happened to be the Assemblies of God.[18]  Bosworth founded one of the first Assemblies of God churches in Dallas, Texas.  After a disagreement eight years later over what was considered to be the "initial evidence of the Holy Spirit", Bosworth left the assemblies[19] and began touring the country as a "faith healer".  Coincidentally, Bosworth's early years in the Texas revival circuits coincide with Roy E. Davis' years in those same revival circuits.[20]

F. F. Bosworth and his brother, B. B. Bosworth, began touring as "faith healers" and Pentecostal evangelists under the auspices of the Bosworth Brothers Healing Revivals.[21]  Fred's ministry was extremely popular, though attendance suffered a minor setback when one "healed" in the meetings perished of the diseases which brought him to the "healer".[22] They were so popular among white supremacists that Bosworth was endorsed by[23] and financially supported by[24] the Ku Klux Klan.

Nevertheless, Bosworth was one of only a handful of people whose homes became meeting places for the early Pentecostal believers[25] and was highly influential in the spreading of Pentecostalism through his revivals.  Because of his position in Zion, Bosworth found it very easy to gain an audience, especially when joining together with Parham’s converts to the Apostolic Faith. When Evangelist L. C. Hall held revival meetings just outside of Houston, TX, Bosworth was selected to help attract crowds by using his Zion rank. The Houston Post advertised him as a "veteran revivalist in the Apostolic movement,"[26] and described him as the notable "F. F. Bosworth of Zion City (leader of Dr. Dowie’s famous orchestra)."[27]  But "divine healing" was a difficult theology to sell in Texas. Especially after the death of Bosworth’s young son and wife who died as an apparent result of overwork, influenza, and finally pneumonia, in what appears to be a battle with the Spanish Flu.[28]  The deaths of his family members did, however, free him from the family ties holding him back. The door opened for F. F. Bosworth to begin full-time evangelism.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Bosworth toured the United States and Canada under the auspices of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.[29] In one of his largest revivals in Ottawa, Canada, over 12,000 people were claimed to have been converted to the "Gospel of Divine Healing".[30]  From 1926 to 1928, he worked with Paul Rader in Rader's Chicago Gospel Tabernacle.[31]  In the 1930s, Bosworth started "The National Radio Revival Missionary Crusaders", pioneering radio evangelism.  Over a quarter of a million people wrote to the crusades by letter.[32]

In 1948 F. F. Bosworth joined forces[33] with William Branham as his campaign manager.[34]  He continued to tour with Branham until 1956[35] when he mysteriously disappeared from public view.  Though his publicists and partners in the ministry claimed that he died without any illness,[36] F. F. Bosworth's death certificate shows the contrary.  After suffering a massive stroke, Bosworth struggled with congestive heart failure for three years.  In the final six months of his life, Bosworth also suffered from lung cancer.[37]  William Branham also attempted to hide Bosworth's condition; Branham did not mention the critical illness and suffering; according to Branham, Bosworth "went in peace".  Instead of years of suffering, Branham claimed that Bosworth spent about an hour in a coma immediately prior to death, and shook hands with his converts.

The God of heaven rest the soul of Daddy Bosworth in peace. I too shall come to that end someday, and you too. Let me go like that in peace. While I'm here, let me do all that I can for the Kingdom of God.
- Branham, William. 1958, January 25. The Queen Of The South (58-0125)

And Brother Bosworth who just went home to glory…How many knowed F. F. Bosworth? Greatest saint of the day as I know. He went home to meet Jesus the other day, way in his eighties. He's at home tonight. Before he died, about an hour, he went into a coma, and raised up, begin shaking hands with the people he preached to years ago that's been gone. Just rejoicing and praising God, saying, 'I haven't seen you for years.'
Branham, William. 1958, February 7. Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever (58-0207)