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Jack
Coe was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma one of seven children
to George and Blanche Coe. Jack’s early years at home were
filled with deprivation due to his father’s [George] addiction
to gambling and alcohol. After an episode of gambling where
the family lost everything, Blanche left George and moved the
children and herself to Pennsylvania, but soon reconciled with
George. It wasn't long before George was back to gambling and
drinking, and Blanche left him, this time taking their only
daughter with her. George could not cope with raising six boys
and soon Blanche returned for the boys. However, the reunion
with the children dissolved when she could not take care of
this large family by herself. At age nine [1927] Jack and the
oldest boy was placed in an orphanage, where he stayed until
about 1935, when at age 17 Jack left the orphanage.
Before his conversion to Christianity,
Jack's life was filled with uncertainty and drinking. His
alcohol consumption brought a warning from his doctor that he
was on the path of dying at a young age. Coe continued
drinking and wandered between California
and Texas,
constantly pledging to God that he would stop. Years later,
Coe would recount the experience that turned his life around.
Jack testified that the Lord spoke to him during one of his
drinking binges and said “This is your last chance.” Jack
shook off alcohol and soon became a devout Christian attending
church and studying the Bible. Jack attended Southwestern
Bible Institute at Enid,
Oklahoma (an Assembly of God Bible school),
but he left the school after the start of World War Two and
joined the Army. Coe continued his ties with the Assemblies of
God, and preached several meetings while he was in the Army
[eventually being ordained in 1944]. Coe said that he felt
truly called to ministry [this is during 1945] after he
experienced a divine healing from malaria, in which the
doctors said they couldn’t treat, and announced that God had
called him to heal the sick, cause the blind to see, and
restore hearing to the deaf. True to his word, Coe soon began
traveling the country. A year later [1946] Coe and his wife
Juanita sold their house and bought an old truck and used tent
and began to live on the road as itinerate preachers, taking
the message of God and healing to whoever would hear them.

Coe was dynamic and enthusiastic in
his beliefs. Coe knew Oral Roberts and was taken in by
the size of Robert’s revival tent. One day Coe went to a
Roberts’s tent meeting and measured his tent. He then
ordered one bigger. Coe was not bashful about announcing
that his tent was the largest in the world [220 feet by
440 feet] seating over 22,000 people-bigger, he claims,
than the one Barnum-and-Bailey Circus used.
In 1950, Coe left as co-editor of the
Voice of Healing magazine and began his own magazine,
which he called the Herald of Healing. Coe had worked
with fellow evangelist Gordon Lindsay on the Voice of
Healing, but Jack wanted his own magazine. The magazine,
at the time of his death, was circulating at around
350,000 copies. Around the same time Coe opened a
children's orphanage at
Waxahachie, Texas,
and built the Dallas
Revival
Center which became one of the
largest churches in Dallas
by 1954.
Coe’s revival messages centered upon
healing, and he was adamant about not taking medicines and
visiting doctors. He preached and taught that consulting a
doctor was connected with the mark of the beast. During an era
that some call the “Religious Wars,” the Assemblies of God
expelled Coe (1953) on the grounds the he was "misleading the
public." Coe was also accused of having an extravagant
lifestyle and home. Upon hearing that, Coe printed pictures of
four homes owned by some top officials in the AG and the homes
of himself and three other men who worked with him. To Coe's
defenders, the homes of Coe and of those who worked alongside
of him were modest compared to the church officials. It is
probable that Coe was not being singled out because other
noted evangelists were being pressured to be more orthodox in
their beliefs, preaching, and claims.
Coe
taught and preached fervently on divine healing. It
would be during a revival service he was holding in
Miami,
Florida in 1956, that Coe’s beliefs would be
brought into the national arena. Coe was arrested and
charged on February 6th, 1956 with practicing
medicine without a license. This was a felony conviction
in the state of Florida.
His arrest stemmed from an incident that occurred during
a crusade in Miami,
Florida. Coe had prayed for a boy, George
Clark, who was stricken with polio. Coe told the boy's
mother (Mrs. Ann Clark), "If you believe Jesus heals the
child, take the braces off, and leave them off." She
removed the braces from the boy's legs, but as he
attempted to take a step, he collapsed to the floor.
Mrs. Clark did not immediately put the braces back on
her son, but soon the boy's legs began to swell she took
him to a doctor. The doctor said the braces need to be
on the boy, but first she consulted with Coe via a
letter.
Coe failed to answer her letter, so she contacted the
police. Coe’s trial brought national attention to
healing revival movement. It is reported that the Miami
Herald newspaper switchboard was overloaded with
telephone calls and broke down due to its inability to
handle the capacity of calls. After a short but highly
publicized trial, the judge dismissed the case.
Actual Dade
County court records reflect reasons
why the judge dismissed the case. In the opinion of the
judge, there was overwhelming evidence in the form of
testimonies from individuals who claimed to have been
healed by God through the ministry of Jack Coe. It was
also noted that medical professionals were often in
attendance at the services and were prepared to submit
medical evidence to substantiate the claims of actual
healings. Furthermore, Jack Coe never claimed to be a
healer, but he only prayed for the sick. Although faith
healers and their doctrine of divine healing remains a
highly controversial subject, there are undisputable
facts, evidence and testimonies worthy of consideration.
Just a few months later (December
1956) Coe was hospitalized after he fell ill while
holding a revival at Hot Springs,
Arkansas. What Coe felt was just fatigue and
exhaustion caused by his demanding schedule, was
actually bulbar polio, and he succumbed to this disease
in just a few weeks at Dallas
Parkland Hospital,
on December
16, 1956.
Jack Coe during his brief tenure
[1944-1956] was an up and coming evangelist whose
unfortunate death while in his 30s cut short his
ministry and it would be speculation to claim Coe’s
influence was generational. After his death, A. A. Allen
bought his tent and continued on with large tent
meetings. Coe’s magazine ceased publications, his
Jack
Coe Revival
Center was renamed, and his
orphanage is under other’s care. However, Coe is viewed
as a pioneer by Oral Roberts, Kenneth E. Hagin, and
several others, and acknowledge him as a trailblazer in
the faith and healing movement.
Dallas
Revival
Center was located at
2127 South Corinth St Rd.
They also had a Christian day school there K-12. Many
well known evangelists came from every where to speak.
One well known pastor, who was just
a child when he preached there years ago, Tommy Barnett,
now pastors a large, well-known church (Phoenix First
Assembly of God) in Phoenix,
Arizona.
Jack Coe's son, Jack Coe, Jr. is
now a preacher with a healing ministry
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