E.W. Kenyon on the Pages of F.F. Bosworth's Magazine

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 E.W. Kenyon on the Pages of F.F. Bosworth's Magazine 

By Roscoe Barnes III, PhD
Author, F.F. Bosworth: The Man Behind "Christ the Healer"
Copyright (c) 2019
#FFBosworth
#EWKenyon

Essek William Kenyon
(1867 - 1948)

F.F. Bosworth’s Early Reference to E.W. Kenyon

There is now evidence that F.F. Bosworth embraced the writings of E.W. Kenyon as early as 1928, about 20 years earlier than previously thought. Kenyon’s article, “The New Kind of Love,” appeared on pages 15 and 16 in the October 1928 issue of Bosworth’s magazine, Exploits of Faith. The article bears the byline initials, “E.W. K.,” which undoubtedly stands for "Essek William Kenyon."

It was once believed that Bosworth’s earliest mention of Kenyon was in 1948. Kenyon Scholar Geir Lie noted the mention in his excellent book, E.W. Kenyon: Cult Founder or Evangelical Minister (Refleks Publishing, 2003). He wrote:

In Bosworth’s classic, Christ the Healer, he mentions the fact that “most of the thoughts in this sermon [‘Our Confession’] I have brought together, by permission, from the writings of Rev. E.W. Kenyon.” Bosworth’s reference to Kenyon first appeared in the 1948 edition, though, while the book was first published as early as 1924.

Kenyon is the author of numerous books on faith, prayer and divine healing. He’s considered the father (or grandfather) of the modern Word of Faith Movement. He’s also the author of the book, The New Kind of Love (Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1942). His article of the same name is basically a devotional exposition of 1 Corinthians 13. A different version of the article appears in Chapter 22, the final chapter of his book. It’s titled, “The Love Law Interpreted.” Instead of using the word “Agape,” as in the 1928 article, the book uses the word “Love” throughout the chapter.
 
Historian Paul L. King, author of Genuine Gold: The Cautiously Charismatic Story of the Early Christian and Missionary Alliance (Word & Spirit Press, 2006), was hardly surprised by the appearance of Kenyon’s article in Bosworth’s publication. After all, he explained, Kenyon had close ties to the Christian & Missionary Alliance, Bosworth's denomination, and he ministered in some of the same circles as Bosworth. He and Bosworth had friendship with some of the same church leaders.

In an email dated, Aug 9, 2018, King wrote that while he had not seen the 1928 article mentioned above, he was well informed about Bosworth’s mention of Kenyon in his book on divine healing. He wrote:

I have not seen this article before. As you know, the 1948 edition of Christ the Healer has about twice the content of his 1924 edition (I did a study to compare the two editions). Kenyon is not mentioned in the 1924 edition, nor is the material of which Bosworth says he learned from Kenyon. Kenyon did have some associations with the Alliance in the 1920s, and Paul Radar, president of the Alliance after Simpson, was the director of Kenyon's school for a short time after he left the presidency of the Alliance in 1924.

Citing a section in his book, King explained that Kenyon “maintained a positive relationship with The Christian and Missionary Alliance for several years.”

For a look at Kenyon's article, see below. A photo copy is included. Actual copies of the Exploits of Faith magazine are available through the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (iFPHC.org).

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Exploits of Faith
October 1928
(Pages 15, 16)

The New Kind of Love

By E.W. K.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Jesus came from above,
With a new kind of love,
To a world that is ruled by hate;

But this new kind of love,
Fore itself never strove,
In this world that is ruled by hate.

In the scientific world new words are being born continually, new inventions demand new terminology, new discoveries require new nomenclature.

So it was in the days of Christ. He brought a new element from heaven and found no word then used by men that would express it, so He made a new word which would express His new thing to men. His new word was “A-ga-pe”.

What was this new thing? It was a new kind of love that He was introducing into the world. The old “philo” love was all that man had ever had. It was the kind He mentioned in Luke 6:32, “If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? For even the heathen love those that love them.”

Men loved for what they could get, loved as long as they got what they wanted, but if thwarted, their “philo” love turned to hatred. The old human love was born of selfishness. The old “philo” love allowed plural marriages, it gave no homes, simply habitations where people existed.

This new kind of love is defined in Paul’s first great letter to Corinth, thirteenth chapter. Here he gives a photograph of it, describes it minutely so one may know it when he sees it. He tells us how utterly empty and vain is mere “philo” love.

One by one he marshalls the achievements admired and desired most by men and contrasts them with this kind of love.

1. “If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”

Here the linguistic art is carried beyond the five hundred languages and dialects of men, and reaches up into the realm of angels. How men, institutions, and nations would vie with each other in giving honors, medals, and degrees to so great a linguist. He could unravel the mysteries of ancient monuments, and let the light of the past flood the present. Yet with all this, plus languages of angels, if he has not found in all his findings this new kind of LOVE, “he is nothing”. This new method of reckoning changes everything. How humiliating to be written up from this point of view! Man has been proud of his abilities and achievements, but by this new standard man is a failure, all his efforts have been from the wrong motives.

2. “If I have the gift of prophecy.”
Wonderful gift, the ability to foretell the future, to present the events of the ages to come, to write history and chronicle events years before the actions are born, if, with all this added to a supernatural gift of tongues, I am yet without this new kind of LOVE, I am nothing.

Here are fifteen mighty facts about this new kind of love:

1. Agape suffers long, and is kind. Philo, or human love, may suffer for a time, but is seldom kind.

2. Agape envies not. It is human to envy, it is divine not to.

3. Agape vaunteth not itself. Man is a boaster, self ran the first advertising agency.

4. Agape is not puffed up. If there is something to make us humble (besides our failures) it will be a blessing to our friends who endure our egotism.

5. Agape does not behave itself unseemly. Man has ever made a fool of himself because of his selfishness; this new kind of love is a balance wheel to the human. How we need it! How we dishonor the image in which man was made!

6. Agape seeketh not its own. This is contrary to every law of fallen man. Self preservation is the first law he enacts, and one he never breaks. Now here comes a law out of the heart of heaven, so new, so revolutionary, that we fear it. Think of never looking at your OWN, but always helping others. Strange, indeed.

7. Agape is not provoked. Wonders never cease! The old version made it easier, “is not easily provoked”: but to say flatly, “is not provoked”, almost takes one’s breath away. Yet that is what this new kind of love can be, even in weak humans such as we are! This new kind of love, called by Jesus, “agape”, is a wonder.

8. Agape takes no account of evil. It must be of a heavenly sort to do this. Think how natural it is to pass judgment upon another. But here is a new kind of power that takes suspicion and bitter criticism out of us. This new kind of love is not of earth.

9. Agape rejoiceth not in unrighteousness. Some of us may be shocked to know how much of our dream material is in sympathy with unrighteousness. How we rejoice over our enemy’s fall, or trials! How we long for revenge! But this new kind of love does away with all this.

10. Agape rejoices with the truth – only the truth never sides with wrong, even when that wrong would seem to bring happiness.

11. Agape beareth all things. No word back; no retaliation, simply bears all things, in a sweet strong way.

12. Agape believeth all things. Faith is the first fruit of this new kind of love. Men of great love, this new kind of love, will be men of great faith. It is natural to believe in one we love. This new kind of love is a faith-maker.

13. Agape hopeth all things. This new kind of love runs the first real optimism factory. Here Hope is a made on a solid business basis, the real hope, built to live, to stand. All other hopes are built on sand hills, this on the eternal Rock of heaven’s foundation.

14. Agape endures all things. Here is the test of the reality of it. Endures in cold and storm, in failure and success, in sickness and health, in poverty and riches, in good report and bad, in shame and evil repute. It never lets go, it has the grip of heaven’s love. Poor human love fails here as did the magicians of Egypt when the test of life came to them. Human love fails, this new kind of love endures.

15. Agape NEVER FAILS. Over against the universal bankruptcy of human love here is a love that never goes into bankruptcy.

Here is a power that conquers hell, a power that conquers self!

Here is the mother’s hope, here is the father’s power.

Here is the Christian’s never failing means of success.

Here the preacher wins, and the evangelist sees victory in every field.

Blessed Agape! The new kind of love which Jesus introduced by way of the Cross. – E.W.K.

This article appears in the October 1928 issue of Exploits of Faith, the magazine published by F.F. Bosworth. It is available through the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (iFPHC.org)

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Visit the F.F. Bosworth page here. Questions about the research and commentary on F.F. Bosworth may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III, Ph.D., via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com. For updates on F.F. Bosworth history, simply follow this blog or @bosworth_fred and @Roscoebarnes3 on Twitter. #ChristTheHealer #BosworthMention #BosworthMatters