Biography
James Gordon Lindsay was born and raised in an atmosphere of healing and Pentecostal experience. He was born in Zion City, Illinois, on June 18, 1906. His parents were Thomas Lindsay and Effie (Ramsey) Lindsay. They were followers of John Alexander Dowie, a famous healing evangelist. When the city went bankrupt, after the fall of Dowie, the Lindsay family moved to a Christian community in California, led by Pisgah Finis E. Yoakum, and then to Portland, Oregon. He converted during a meeting led by Charles Fox Parham, the initiator of the Pentecostal movement in Topeka, Kansas. He then developed a relationship with John G. Lake, who started the Divine Healing Mission, in Spokane, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Lindsay traveled with Lake in the campaigns of California and the southern states. Then he became a pastor of a Foursquare Gospel church in California, but returned to Oregon, where he married Freda Schimpf.
When World War II broke out, Lindsay accepted a call to become pastor of a church in Ashland, Oregon. In 1947 he resigned the position to become William Branham's manager. Soon after Lindsay's publication, The Voice of Healing, appeared in 1948, Branham announced his retirement from the revival circuit. The news came as quite a blow to Lindsay who had just begun the revival publication to cover Branham's meetings . Revivals and coverage of other evangelists began to appear in the magazine as it circulated nationwide.
The group sponsored the first convention of healing evangelists in Dallas, Texas during 1949 began to function as a loose fellowship of ministers called Voice of Healing. Other well known members included Oral Roberts and T.L. Osborn. As the popularity of some members rose they left the fellowship to establish their own organizations and publish their own literature.
Lindsay's own work began to move in the direction of missions. He began sponsoring missions programs in several foreign countries and started a radio ministry. During 1956 he conducted a Winning the Nations Crusade sending teams of ministers all around the world. The Voice of Healing magazine changed names briefly to World-Wide Revival in 1968 before the final change to Christ for the Nations. One of Lindsay's last visions before his death was a bible training institute in Dallas, Texas. Christ For The Nations Institute began in 1970 and has trained thousands of students from around the world.
Lindsay was a prolific writer, publishing over 250 volumes of historical and doctrinal books on the healing revival movement. His ministry came to a halt with his sudden death April 1, 1973. Lindsay's wife Freda and family continued the work he began. Christ for the Nations, Inc. has five main facets: a national church program; a national literature work; a Jewish mission in Israel; national and international Bible training schools; and a prayer and tape ministry.
Gordon Lindsay was also the first Evangelical preacher/writer to see a link between the UFO phenomenon of his day and the fallen Angels/Nephilim in Genesis 6. He wrote several books about the subject, as well as articles in the Voice of Healing Magazine.
Then, Lindsay accepted an invitation to pastor a church in Ashland, Oregon in early 1940. In 1947 he had heard and found William M. Branham, who was having a significant success in the ministry of evangelism. He resigned and became campaign manager Branham. In order to promote the campaign, Lindsay started the "Voice of Healing", in April 1948. It was a magazine of wide circulation in the south. Branham was having struggles and announced that he was no longer able to do the evangelistic meetings. This was devastating for Lindsay, and his team, as the focus for him out of the ministry was on the ministry of Branham. Jack Coe came as a co-editor of the magazine ... He began to focus on other ministries, like Jack Coe, Oral Roberts and AA Allen. The Voice of the healing group sponsored an evangelistic healing convention in Dallas, Texas and Kansas City in 1950. Eventually, some of the ministers involved has developed its own magazine and the group became too small.
Lindsay, as well as Charles Cullis (70 years earlier), felt there was need for a literature that covered the history, theology and healing experience. He wrote over 250 books and pamphlets, besides being a regular contributor to the magazine "Voice of Healing". Feeling a call to develop missions and evangelistic work, he has sponsored campaigns to international missions. He wrote the literature that was sent around the world through a native literature. He started a radio program and along with WA Raiford, founded the International Club of Churches and Ministers of the Full Gospel. During 1956, he held a Winning Cross of Nations, in order to send teams of ministers to the whole world! The magazine "The Voice of Healing" changed its name to Christ for the Nations.
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