Keeping the Promises

By Glenn E. Kunkel

This book seeks to glorify God in concrete ways by discussing miracles and other answers to prayer with their contexts in Bebe (Harrison) Patten's life. The text should interest both young and older Christians as it confirms the truths of Scripture. As Bebe is being filled with the Holy Spirit at age 16, she hears God's promise to use her to build a school for ministers and other Christian workers.
A central event in the book sets the usual "runaway" story on it head. In leaving home to prepare for her ministry, she is running toward the Father and to the truth. Her unbelieving parents, unable to understand her new-found love in her religious experience ("craziness" to them), are ultimately converted to Christ. The 16-year-old girl evangelist exemplifies courage and conviction, with natural and spiritual gifts, the latter being motivational springs from God that keeps her all her life.
The book is filled with other conflicts, as Bebe must believe God for everything, sometimes even food and rent. She becomes an example not only of faith but of great perseverance in faith, as she continues to believe God's promise for the rest of her life. having no other financial support. Bebe Patten predated the feminist revolution in the U.S. by at least 30 years, proclaiming women's rights, including the right to preach in the early 1930s. And with that message, she spoke out against racial segregation. Her ministry takes the reader back to a pre-television, pre-technology-gadget era when many more people went to church and believed in God and the Bible. The persecutions she suffered are also reminiscent of an earlier age; yet she never lost sight of her mission to establish a school. That school is now Patten University. She experienced the value that all things are possible with God. The book will appeal to a wide range of Christians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477275313

Glenn E. Kunkel

Dr. Glenn Kunkel is a retired English professor who taught for 38 years in Patten Academy and Patten College. He was a participant-observer in the Bebe Patten ministries for more than 50 years. He is also the author of Winning the Race: The Ministries of Dr. Bebe Patten.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Oakland’s Greatest Revival (1944):

Context of God’s Promised School

BACKGROUND TO THE OAKLAND BIBLE INSTITUTE (OBI)

Bebe Harrison, a 16-year-old, sat alone yet not alone, on a train from Detroit to Los Angeles. She had left home, despite her parents’ strong objections and her love for her family, to fulfill a promise. She had recently been called to preach and baptized in the Holy Spirit (1929), the greatest experience of her young life. In it God promised to use her, if she would be faithful, to establish a school for ministers. She didn’t quite understand the promise, but said, Yes, Lord.

Bebe’s parents and maternal aunts, university professors, were unbelievers, so they just couldn’t understand Bebe’s craziness over religion. What could be crazier, they thought, than for a 16-year old girl to want to go to an obscure Bible College in Los Angeles, nearly 2,500 miles from home?

She had graduated early from high school with honors, and her parents had promised her a tuition-paid education at Cornell University. She was an accomplished pianist and a champion swimmer, with four long-distance trophies from events of the Amateur Athletic Union. A girl with great promise, she had given it all up for the love and grace she found in Christ and her calling to the ministry.

Her family and relatives, not having experienced God’s love or His ways, were dumfounded when she told them God’s will for her life. But she had heard a call far greater than those made by voices of earth, and she had committed all she had been, or ever would be, to the One Who had called her. She loved her mother and father dearly, but she also believed what Jesus said, He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:37, NKJV). And she had already learned the Great Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark: 12:30, NKJV).

Bebe’s father, Newton Harrison, had told her, Bebe, if you go to Los Angeles, you won’t get one red cent from me. But Bebe believed in the promises of her God and her calling to preach. With all due respect, she would go. She knew that her earthly father would keep his word, and her Heavenly Father would keep His.

Her family and relatives, all good and upright people, were nearly speechless as they sat in the Harrison’s living room on the morning of the 16-year-old’s departure. To that very day they hoped she would come out of her craziness. But no, the transaction she had made with God was sealed. She had to phone the taxi company herself and take a taxi to the train station alone. She had already bought her ticket and her luggage out of a short-term job she had.

In Los Angeles, with no source of income, Bebe had to learn to live by faith. She prayed, worked and preached, and graduated from LIFE Bible College in 1933 as class valedictorian. She preached nationally for two years with girl musicians and then married Tom Patten. The couple held evangelistic campaigns for nine years in 38 states, attracting thousands nightly and leading multitudes to the Lord.

This book is a case history of one of God’s servants hearing His voice and His promises and doing His will through grace, answered prayers and miracles. It discusses the steps that Bebe (Harrison) Patten took to fulfill the major promise He made to her. His love and grace flooding her heart were the motivational mainsprings of her life.

The author knows of no other book in print that discusses answers to prayer on a theme related to one promise over 75 years.

THE 19-WEEK OAKLAND REVIVAL

We now move ahead 15 years to the context of the promised school.

In early 1944, 30-year-old Bebe was in the sixth week of her evangelistic campaign in Oakland, preaching to several thousand each week. It was the greatest campaign she had ever conducted, and some say the greatest Oakland has ever seen.

As Bebe stood in the lobby of the City Club Hotel one evening, before entering the auditorium to preach, she praised God for His blessings, for always providing places to preach, meeting the needs of the ministry and, most important, for using her to win precious souls to Him.

Lingering in the hotel lobby, she thought about her 1940 revival campaign in Anniston, Alabama, where she preached three times a day in a big top tent seating 5,000 and spoke three times a day on the radio. After she had preached there for eight weeks, sometimes speaking out for women’s rights and sometimes against the evils of segregation, someone set her tent on fire. It was a total loss, except for the party’s musical instruments. Bebe and her husband, Tom, had sacrificed to pay off the tent but unwisely (they said) had not insured it. Bebe took the loss to the Lord in prayer, and He assured her that He would provide another tent. On the day of the fire she told her radio audience, The tent’s gone, but we’ll have another one up tomorrow. Come to the meeting. We’ll be out for only one night.

The next afternoon a new tent was trucked in and erected on the same lot. Thousands of seekers and worshippers thronged the tent, more than before. The Lord had again been faithful. He blessed the young couple during their remaining weeks in Anniston, as 1,200 souls testified to conversion there. By the time the Pattens left town, every need of the ministry had been supplied, and they had enough money left to go to Chicago and open the next evangelistic campaign.

Of course, she couldn’t know it then, but she would suffer more arson fires in Oakland.

The answer to Bebe Patten’s prayer after the tent fire in Anniston and hundreds of other prayers are part of the background and history of the promised school.

So this is a story of Bebe (Harrison) Patten’s unusual faith, born from the love of God in her heart and an unwavering commitment of her all to do the will of God, whatever it might require. We shall see how it worked in Oakland’s greatest revival, then in the founding of the promised school in 1944 and its development throughout the next several decades.

To God be the glory forever!

A PRELUDE TO THE PROMISED SCHOOL

Dr. Bebe Patten and her husband, C. Thomas Patten, arrived in Oakland in early January 1944, after nine years of teamwork in national evangelism. God had called them here to conduct a revival, as He had in other cities in 38 states. They came with hearts filled with faith, with just their car, some books, a few suitcases and personal things. As independent evangelists they had no financial or other support, but they were filled with the Spirit of God. Their only initial support for the Oakland meetings came from the Bebe Patten Radio Club, organized by supporters in other cities some years before. Members sent the Pattens enough money to launch the Oakland revival.

Dr. Patten had no idea that the Lord would use her to establish institutions here. And she had never connected Oakland with God’s promise of a school. She had simply answered, Yes, Lord, when He called her here. She believed that at the end of a number of weeks of ministry in Oakland, He would call her to evangelize somewhere else.

But God had a plan to fulfill here.

The stage was being set for opening of the Oakland Bible Institute during the Nineteen-Week Revival, which ran from January 9 to May 21, 1944, and through the first two months of the Extended Revival, which ran from July 1944 to January 1950.

The school, promised by the Lord 15 years earlier, was to become proof of Bebe Harrison Patten’s unusual faith, born from an unwavering commitment of her all, past, present and future to the will of God. We shall see how it worked in Oakland’s greatest revival, then in the founding of the promised school and its development over the next several decades.

This book cites hundreds of answers to prayer in the life and ministry of Bebe and her supporters over 75 years. The author knows of no other book in print except this one, which glorifies God for answers to prayer in an individual and the institutions he/she created under one constant theme over such a long time. The book, then, is a unique depiction of faith in action, bearing fruit according to promise.

To God be the glory forever!

Fulfillment of God’s Promises

As noted, God promised Bebe, when she was filled with the Holy Spirit (in1929) that—if she would be faithful—He would give her a school for the education of pastors and Christian leaders (craziness to her family). Fulfillment of that promise began in her Nineteen-Week Oakland revival.

She demonstrated that faith believes and waits, waits and believes.

She and her husband, C. Thomas Patten, arrived here in early January 1944, after nine years of teamwork in national evangelism. God had called them here to conduct a revival, as He had in other cities in 38 states. They came with hearts filled with faith, with just their car, some books, a few suitcases and personal things. As independent evangelists they had no financial or other support, but they were filled with the Spirit of God. Their only initial support for the Oakland meetings came from the Bebe Patten Radio Club, organized by supporters in other cities some years before. Members sent the Pattens enough money to launch the Oakland revival.

When Bebe arrived in Oakland, she had no idea that the Lord would use her to establish institutions here. And she had never connected Oakland with God’s promise of a school. She believed that at the end of a number of weeks of ministry in Oakland, He would call her to evangelize somewhere else.

Someone has said, No word from God shall be without power. From the opening night of the Nineteen-Week revival, Oakland was shaken by the power of God. The altars were filled every night with souls coming for salvation or recommitment to Christ. Many servicemen and women stationed in the Bay Area, or returning from the war zones, were converted. Dr. Patten’s prayers and sermons brought the Holy Spirit’s conviction upon the unsaved and the backslidden, and upon uncommitted and lukewarm Christians who needed a rekindling of the fire of God in their lives. In one sermon and one altar call, she appealed to all of these types.

An estimated 7,000 people accepted Christ during the 19-Week Revival.

OUTGROWING THE INITIAL LOCATION

The revival began in Oakland’s Elim Tabernacle, pastored by Rev. John Hubbard. Soon after the opening, crowds overflowed the building, so the meetings were moved to the largest auditoriums in Oakland. On weeknights they were held in the 1,000-seat City Club Theater; on weekends in the 2,500-seat Scottish Rite Auditorium, the Armory and Exposition Building, the 1,800-seat Oakland Auditorium Theater, and the 7,000 seat Oakland Auditorium Arena. As many as 5,000 attended a single weekend service in that pre-television era.

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Nineteen-Week Revival, Oakland

PROMOTING THE NINETEEN WEEK REVIVAL

The Pattens conducted two radio programs daily and took out full-page ads in the Oakland Post Enquirer and the San Francisco Examiner. An advertising salesperson at the Examiner, after selling Brother Patten an entire back page ad, said, That’s the largest ad sold to an individual in the history of this newspaper. An Oakland Post-Enquirer salesperson told him the same thing.

Handbills were printed by the thousands and distributed by supporters throughout the Bay Area. (The author of this book found a card in a telephone booth advertising Bebe Patten’s meeting in 1945 and was led to attend the revival. There he remained, becoming a student of OBI and eventually a professor in Patten College.)

Advertisements appeared on the outsides of busses and on large commercial billboards, at entrances to Oakland and the Bay Bridge and downtown Oakland at 17th and Harrison Streets. The billboards pictured Dr. Patten with an open Bible, gesturing toward an audience against the background of a cross. HEAR THE WOMAN EVANGELIST was written in large letters. This was in 1944, a time when women seldom preached. The billboard’s art and message were the same as those used in Dr. Patten’s ten-week campaign in Chicago in 1942.

The advertising fell on fertile ground, especially in the hearts of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen stationed at or passing through the Bay Area’s military bases. Thousands of them came to the Lord, and many were called to attend the Bible institute.

EARLY SUPPORTERS

Thousands who heard the Pattens’ broadcasts throughout Northern California came to the nightly meetings. Many supported them with their giving, and some were led by the Holy Spirit to become intercessors so the work might go on in spiritual power.

Though Bebe was an independent preacher, several Oakland ministers supported her meetings from the beginning. Rev. Irving Ford, pastor of Grace Assembly of God, Oakland, dismissed his Wednesday night meetings for several weeks and led his congregation to Dr. Patten’s meetings. Until he passed away at age ninety-eight he remained a friend of Dr. Patten. Other supporters included Evangelist Jack Neville, Rev. and Mrs. Sharratt, Rev. and Mrs. Myron Sackett (of the Foursquare Church), Evangelist Jack Martz, and Rev. and Mrs. Conrad Smith. Non-Pentecostal evangelical churches (Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and others) did not support the ministry, as they generally did not support women preachers and Pentecostals.

CRITICAL SPIRITS

But not far into the revival, criticisms of Dr. Patten began to surface. Some found her straightforward tell-it-like-it is style uncomfortable. In contrast, most of the congregants rejoiced in her preaching style, for it reminded them of Jesus’ speaking to the Pharisees. We knew that such preaching exposes hearts, brings conviction, and causes men and women to repent and seek the Lord. We also knew the gentleness and love in the Holy Spirit that Dr. Patten demonstrated in her altar work and biblical counseling. She often showed a mild-mannered, disarming response to criticism that seemed at odds with her sometimes sharp preaching.

But persecution lay ahead. Some failed to understand the power of the Holy Spirit in the meetings, sweeping over individuals, bringing great joy and spiritual freedom. And others were troubled, even angered, by the power of God, as some were angered in the meetings of Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and other firebrands of the eighteenth century Prophetic School. People in her meetings were often caught up in the Spirit, shouting and praising the Lord, as in the old-fashioned prayer meetings and revivals. These phenomena were joyfully received by the great majority but labeled by some as emotionalism and fanaticism, as similar phenomena were in Edwards’ and Wesley’s day. Those who regularly attended the Revival, however, knew that Dr. Patten kept the services in order.

The fact that she was a highly successful independent evangelist did not set well with some Oakland ministers. Perhaps she advertised too heavily for some. Perhaps, with the thousands of people streaming into the city’s largest auditoriums, she was too successful for some. A few criticized her white preaching gowns. And some were opposed, in any case, to a woman preaching.

How different were the attitudes of these Oakland preachers from many she had known throughout the United States, including Dr. J. Frank Norris, a nationally prominent Baptist. He once said to her, I don’t believe in women preachers, but I believe in you.

But despite criticism and some rejection, Bebe, the former teen rebel and runaway-from-home was a stalwart soldier of the cross, inspiring great faith in her hearers. (She prayed through before 1944 for her parent’s salvation.)

Could envy and jealousy have played a part in the criticism by Oakland’s religious leaders? No other preacher—man or woman—had ever had so much success in Oakland for so long. Not even the great evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, whose success in Oakland was quite limited in comparison to that in other cities.

What besides jealousy or envy could explain the attitudes that some Oakland preachers exhibited when, at the end of the nineteen weeks, Bebe offered them an opportunity to follow up on her converts. She asked two or three of them, Would you like to join my revival this last week? (She expected to go and preach in another city.) I would like you to take these converts. I have names and addresses.

Can you imagine what they said? We don’t want your converts.

You… don’t… want… my… converts? So you don’t consider them to be God’s converts? You don’t consider that they are born-again souls?" So different, again, was their response from that of ministers in the southern states, who often cooperated with her and were glad to follow up on souls she had brought to Christ.

HOLY SPIRIT WEEK

The last days of the Nineteen-Week revival, May 15-20, 1944, was Holy Spirit week, as it had been throughout Dr. Patten’s national revivals. In the 1,800-seat Oakland Auditorium Theater she preached for six nights on the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The altars were filled nightly. About 300 received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that week. Many were healed in their bodies.

Thus, Bebe’s Spirit-filled ministry of soul winning, spiritual empowerment and divine healing provided a fitting context for the founding of God’s promised school for ministers and Christian workers.

Near the close of the Nineteen-Week Revival, about 5,000 people heard Dr. Patten tell her life story in the Oakland Arena, From Pool to Pulpit, with film highlights and the Word of God. It told the story of her teen-age swimming championships in Detroit and her earlier evangelistic ministry. It illustrated what the power of God can do through a willing vessel. Several hundred people responded that night, some to accept Christ for salvation and some for recommitment to the Lord.

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Dr. Bebe Patten and C. Thomas Patten

On the final night of the Nineteen Weeks in the City Club Theater, Bebe preached what she thought was her farewell message in Oakland: I Have Fought a Good Fight.

THE EXTENDED OAKLAND REVIVAL

Following are highlights of the nightly revival, which continued from July 1944 to 1950.

Dr. and Brother Patten left Oakland for Chicago in mid-May, 1944 to keep another commitment. While driving out of Oakland Bebe saw a large neon sign above a church: Jesus Saves. As she meditated on its message, God spoke to her heart, asking her to return to preach in Oakland. As always, when He led her to preach in a certain city, she said, Yes, Lord.

The couple settled some business in Chicago and returned to open the Extended Revival in Oakland. She preached from July 9, 1944 through August in the City Club Theater, the 7,000-seat Oakland Arena (now the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) and the 1,800-seat Oakland Auditorium Theater (now the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium). Then from September 3 through October 20 she conducted meetings in San Francisco’s Scottish Rite Auditorium. Finally, she resumed the Oakland revival nightly and on Sundays from late 1944 until 1950, mainly in the City Club Theater.

DIVINE HEALINGS

In her Bay Area meetings, Bebe followed the patterns established in her national ministry, placing primary emphasis on the salvation and spiritual renewal of souls. On Friday nights, however, she preached faith-building sermons to prepare people for the prayer of faith to be healed. She asked those who needed healing to line up one by one, then anointed them with oil and prayed for them in the name of the Lord, according to James 5:14-15.

Healing week was another feature. In a campaign of ten or more weeks, she would preach for a week on texts that apply to healing and pray for the sick every night of that week. Many hundreds were healed—some instantly. Some were healed of sicknesses and afflictions that doctors had pronounced incurable.

Dr. Patten was never regarded as a faith healer or a healing evangelist. She simply obeyed the Scripture by encouraging faith and praying for those in need of healing. She never claimed that God heals everyone. She knew that believers learn valuable lessons in sickness and affliction and that God sometimes permits us to suffer in ways that will be for our good and His glory. Sometimes He doesn’t heal us until we surrender ourselves completely to Him. Her ministry proved that, despite all of the arguments against healing, God does heal—sometimes instantaneously and miraculously.

Among the most outstanding miracles during the nineteen week revival was the healing of fourteen-year-old Buddy Baker of osteomyelitis of the femur. Buddy had been operated on at Children’s Hospital, Oakland, and was told that there was no hope for his leg.