False Teachers, John G. Lake, Bethel, Church HistoryDaniel LongHealing Rooms, Cal Pierce, John Wimber, William Branham, Alexander Dowie

3 Early Newspaper Articles Proving That John G. Lake Was a Fraud

False Teachers, John G. Lake, Bethel, Church HistoryDaniel LongHealing Rooms, Cal Pierce, John Wimber, William Branham, Alexander Dowie
3 Early Newspaper Articles Proving That John G. Lake Was a Fraud

John Graham Lake (1870-1935) was a leader in the early Pentecostal movement. In 1914 he started “The Divine Healing Institute,” as well as opening up what he called “healing rooms.” He ran these “healing rooms” from 1915-1920. He was a “faith healer” and Pastor of The Church of Portland.

In 1999 Cal Pierce reopened Lake’s “healing rooms” in Spokane, Washington.

Lake was convicted of “Blue Sky Fraud,” which landed him and his son Otto in jail. He used his church as a platform to sell stock to his parishioners from his mining schemes, even swindling $1000.00 from one couple.

“Reading John G. Lake furthered my quest along the way. His insights into the Spirit-filled life are the greatest I have seen anywhere. His insights and stories ruined me.”
— Bill Johnson "The Essential Guide to Healing"
“...So I visited their bookstores and picked up literature written by or about men like John G. Lake, William Branham, F. F. Bosworth, John Alexander Dowie, and so on. Their writings may not have convinced me that they had great theological insight, but they did convince me that they were not frauds.”
— Excerpt From: John Wimber. “Power Evangelism.” iBooks.

But John G. Lake didn’t just steal people’s money-he pretended to heal them, too. There is no evidence that any of the healings claimed by Lake were genuine. For example, a newspaper article called “Miracles Not Seen” reported that most of the people who did receive healing seemed to be hypochondriacs, while others with crutches and wheelchairs received no healing at all.

Mike Bickle is a huge fan of Lake, and his International House of Prayer Forerunner Bookstore sells John G. Lake’s books:

In the following video I present 3 newspaper articles proving that Lake was nothing more than a fraud. I put links to the original articles in the YouTube description:

For more research on this topic:

John G Lake’s Formative Years, 1870-1908: The Making of A Con Man by Barry Morton

(Stay tuned to The Messed Up Church, there is more to come on this topic!)

Daniel Long is the host of the Long for Truth YouTube channel, and co-host of the Messed Up Church podcast.