A. A. ALLEN

The Miracle Man

From the Moonshine Woods to Miracle Valley

Full Name: Asa Alonso Allen
Born: March 27, 1911
Died: June 11, 1970
Nationality: American
Known For: Healing evangelism, deliverance ministry, tent revivals, radio and television broadcasting, Miracle Valley
Ministry Organization: Miracle Revival Fellowship
Associated With: The post-war American healing revival

Asa Alonso Allen, better known as A. A. Allen, was one of the most dramatic, influential and controversial evangelists of America's post-war healing revival.

He emerged from a childhood he later described as marked by severe poverty, instability and alcohol, became a Pentecostal pastor, and eventually built one of the most recognizable independent healing ministries of the 1950s and 1960s.

Allen preached beneath enormous revival tents.

He broadcast through radio and television.

He built Miracle Valley in the Arizona desert.

He preached healing, salvation, deliverance, faith and supernatural intervention.

And through his ministry, younger evangelists such as R. W. Schambach were deeply influenced.

To his followers, Allen was a fearless preacher through whose ministry extraordinary healings and deliverances occurred.

To his critics, he represented some of the greatest dangers of independent revivalism: sensational claims, aggressive fundraising, weak accountability and unresolved questions concerning his private life.

His death in a San Francisco hotel room in 1970, accompanied by official findings involving alcohol, created a painful contradiction with both his preaching and the story he had told about his childhood.

For that reason, A. A. Allen remains one of the most complicated figures in modern Pentecostal history.

His story cannot responsibly be told as pure triumph.

But neither can his influence simply be erased.

EARLY LIFE

A. A. Allen was born on March 27, 1911, near Sulphur Rock, Arkansas.

Much of what is known about the most dramatic details of his childhood comes from autobiographical accounts later circulated through his own ministry.

Allen described growing up in severe poverty and instability.

Accounts associated with him portrayed his parents as involved in moonshining and described alcohol as a destructive presence within the family environment.

Because many of these details originated from Allen's own later testimony, they should be understood as autobiographical claims rather than independently documented descriptions of every aspect of his childhood.

Nevertheless, Allen clearly came from circumstances far removed from privilege.

The future evangelist who would one day command enormous crowds began life in rural poverty.

There was also a tragic irony that would become apparent decades later.

Alcohol featured prominently in Allen's testimony about the environment from which he believed Christ had delivered him.

Alcohol would later become inseparable from the controversy surrounding his death.

CONVERSION

Allen did not begin life as a Pentecostal preacher.

As a young man, he experienced what he described as a dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ in connection with a Methodist revival.

The experience redirected his life.

He married Lexie Scriven, who shared the difficult early years of his ministry.

Allen eventually entered Pentecostal Christianity and became associated with the Assemblies of God.

He was ordained and served in conventional pastoral ministry.

Before the tents, radio broadcasts and miracle campaigns, A. A. Allen was a local pastor.

He preached sermons.

Visited church members.

Managed congregational responsibilities.

And ministered within denominational structures.

But Allen increasingly believed that he was called to something beyond the ordinary local pastorate.

Then he encountered the ministry of another rising healing evangelist.

THE INFLUENCE OF ORAL ROBERTS

In 1949, Allen attended a healing campaign conducted by Oral Roberts in Texas.

America was entering the great post-war healing revival.

Large tents were being erected across the country.

Evangelists preached salvation and divine healing.

Thousands gathered.

Testimonies of miracles circulated widely.

Allen was deeply affected by what he saw.

Oral Roberts was preaching to crowds far larger than those Allen had known in pastoral ministry.

People were coming forward for prayer.

Healing testimonies were being announced.

The atmosphere was filled with expectation.

Allen became convinced that God could also use him in healing evangelism.

But according to his later testimony, he did not simply rush out to imitate Roberts.

He turned toward fasting and prayer.

THE FAST THAT CHANGED HIS MINISTRY

Allen later described an intense period of fasting and prayer during which he sought God concerning supernatural power.

He wanted to understand why the miracles recorded in Scripture did not appear more consistently within Christian ministry.

According to Allen's testimony, God began revealing spiritual conditions that he believed were necessary for powerful ministry.

These included:

Prayer.

Fasting.

Faith.

Consecration.

Obedience.

And separation from compromise.

Allen regarded this period as a spiritual commissioning.

Historically, it is important to identify the story as Allen's own testimony concerning his encounter with God.

But whatever the exact nature of the experience, its effect upon his ministry was unmistakable.

Allen emerged with extraordinary confidence.

He was ready to enter the healing revival.

THE GREAT REVIVAL TENTS

During the 1950s, A. A. Allen became dramatically different from the conventional pastor he had once been.

His preaching became known for its intensity.

He proclaimed:

Salvation.

Healing.

Deliverance.

Faith.

Judgment.

And the supernatural power of God.

Like other evangelists of his generation, Allen discovered the effectiveness of the travelling revival tent.

A tent could be erected almost anywhere.

It could accommodate far more people than many churches.

And the structure itself became part of the attraction.

Eventually, Allen operated an enormous revival tent promoted as one of the largest in America.

Thousands gathered beneath the canvas.

Music filled the meetings.

People shouted and wept.

Healing lines formed.

Testimonies were given.

Crutches and wheelchairs sometimes became visible symbols associated with claims of healing.

For Allen's followers, these represented evidence that Jesus Christ still heals through the power of the Holy Spirit.

From a historical standpoint, however, individual healing claims must be distinguished from independently verified medical evidence.

Many survive primarily through testimony.

But within Allen's revival world, expectation was central.

The message was simple:

Tonight could be your miracle.

THE POST-WAR HEALING REVIVAL

A. A. Allen belonged to a remarkable generation of American healing evangelists.

Among the best-known were:

William Branham.

Oral Roberts.

T. L. Osborn.

Jack Coe.

A. A. Allen.

Through networks connected with publications such as The Voice of Healing, these evangelists became nationally recognized personalities.

They sometimes shared audiences and platforms.

But the revival movement also became competitive.

Who had the largest tent?

Who attracted the largest crowds?

Whose ministry reported the most extraordinary miracles?

Who had the largest radio audience?

Who possessed the strongest mailing list?

The healing revival was becoming more than a collection of individual meetings.

It was becoming a movement.

And large movements required substantial finances.

MIRACLE REVIVAL FELLOWSHIP

As Allen's ministry expanded, tensions increased between him and denominational oversight.

Eventually he moved increasingly into independent ministry.

The Miracle Revival Fellowship became the organizational structure surrounding his work.

Independence gave Allen enormous freedom.

He could determine how meetings operated.

How the ministry expanded.

How funds were raised.

Which testimonies were publicized.

And how media was used.

That freedom contributed to remarkable innovation.

But it also created serious questions about accountability.

Without strong denominational structures around him, the ministry became increasingly centered on Allen himself.

That strength would later become one of its vulnerabilities.

THE MIRACLE REVIVAL HOUR

Allen recognized the possibilities of mass media.

Through the Miracle Revival Hour, radio carried the atmosphere of his campaigns far beyond the physical tent.

Listeners could hear preaching.

Music.

Shouting.

Testimonies.

Fundraising appeals.

And Allen's distinctive voice.

Television eventually extended the visual impact even further.

Allen's ministry was ideally suited to television.

Packed tents.

Healing lines.

Crutches.

Wheelchairs.

Emotional testimonies.

Public prayer.

All of these could now be transmitted into people's homes.

At the same time, his organization developed an increasingly sophisticated direct-mail operation.

The ministry used:

Magazines.

Books.

Letters.

Prayer cloths.

Revival announcements.

Fundraising appeals.

And other devotional materials.

Allen was participating in the creation of an integrated model of modern revival ministry:

Tent. Radio. Television. Publishing. Direct Mail. Partner Giving.

The revival tent was becoming a religious media enterprise.

MIRACLE VALLEY

Allen eventually pursued an even greater vision.

In the Arizona desert near Douglas, Arizona, he acquired property that became known as Miracle Valley.

The location developed into the headquarters of his ministry.

A church was established.

Training facilities were developed.

A Bible college emerged.

Publishing and administrative operations expanded.

Students and workers came.

Miracle Valley represented Allen's attempt to transform travelling revival into permanent institution.

The tent could move.

But Miracle Valley could remain.

Evangelists could be trained there.

Literature could be produced.

Broadcasts could be prepared.

Workers could be equipped.

To supporters, Miracle Valley symbolized faith.

A ministry centre established in the desert.

But as the institution grew, so did the financial demands and controversies surrounding Allen.

HEALING, DELIVERANCE AND SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTATIONS

Allen's services often moved beyond conventional expectations of Pentecostal worship.

Healing remained central.

But deliverance from demonic oppression became increasingly prominent.

Allen preached aggressively concerning spiritual warfare.

He encouraged believers to expect direct supernatural intervention.

Extraordinary manifestations were also reported.

Among the better-known claims were testimonies concerning supernatural oil appearing on people's hands.

Allen and his supporters interpreted such experiences spiritually.

Critics questioned them.

The same tension surrounded many healing claims associated with the ministry.

People testified to:

Restored hearing.

Improved sight.

Freedom from paralysis.

Tumours disappearing.

And deliverance from demonic oppression.

Many believers remained convinced that they had encountered the power of Jesus Christ within Allen's campaigns.

Yet not every testimony possesses independent medical documentation.

A responsible historical account can affirm the sincerity and importance of the testimony while distinguishing it from independently established clinical evidence.

THE KNOXVILLE CONTROVERSY

One of the major crises of Allen's ministry occurred in 1955.

While in Knoxville, Tennessee, Allen was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

The accusation was especially damaging because Allen preached holiness and deliverance, while his own childhood testimony had emphasized the destructive effects of alcohol.

Allen strongly denied wrongdoing.

He portrayed the incident as unjust treatment and, in part, as opposition against his ministry.

Supporters often interpreted the controversy as an attack against a man being used by God.

Critics saw it as evidence of serious private problems.

The episode contributed to tensions with denominational leadership and became an important turning point in Allen's movement toward greater independence.

The controversy never completely disappeared.

Years later, questions surrounding alcohol would become even more serious.

MONEY, FAITH AND FUNDRAISING

Mass revival ministry required considerable resources.

Tents had to be transported.

Workers needed salaries.

Radio airtime had to be purchased.

Television production was expensive.

Millions of pieces of literature had to be printed and mailed.

Miracle Valley required ongoing financial support.

Allen became known for aggressive fundraising.

Letters encouraged supporters to give financially.

Prayer cloths and other devotional materials could accompany ministry appeals.

Giving was sometimes presented within language involving faith, blessing and supernatural expectation.

Critics accused Allen of commercializing miracles.

Some Pentecostal leaders believed these methods risked manipulating vulnerable people.

Allen and his supporters believed the appeals were necessary to finance evangelism and worldwide ministry.

This tension between faith, fundraising and religious media would continue long after Allen's death.

Later televangelism would face many of the same questions.

R. W. SCHAMBACH

One of the most important ministers influenced directly by Allen was R. W. Schambach.

Before becoming an internationally known evangelist himself, Schambach spent important years serving alongside A. A. Allen.

He experienced the revival campaigns from the inside.

He saw:

The crowds.

The preaching.

The fundraising.

The healing lines.

The pressures of mass ministry.

And the extraordinary atmosphere of expectation.

Schambach absorbed aspects of Allen's preaching style and aggressive approach to faith.

He later carried that tent-revival tradition into another generation.

He also became one of the most important storytellers preserving memories of Allen's ministry.

“YOU DON'T HAVE ANY TROUBLE”

One testimony became especially associated with both Allen and Schambach.

Schambach repeatedly told the story of a mother who brought a severely disabled child to one of Allen's meetings.

According to Schambach's account, the child suffered from multiple serious physical conditions.

The mother desperately wanted prayer.

Schambach later testified that during the campaign, the child experienced extraordinary physical restoration.

The story became one of the best-known miracle testimonies associated with Allen's ministry.

Schambach used it while preaching one of his signature declarations:

“You don't have any trouble. All you need is faith in God.”

Historically, the story should be understood as Schambach's repeated testimony concerning what he said he witnessed, rather than as independently established medical documentation.

But its influence became enormous.

Long after Allen's death, Schambach continued telling the story.

In this way, the revival survived through testimony.

INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE

A. A. Allen's direct international ministry was not as extensive as that of some contemporaries such as T. L. Osborn.

Nevertheless, his influence crossed borders.

Books.

Sermons.

Deliverance teachings.

Audio recordings.

Healing literature.

And revival publications travelled internationally.

Within rapidly growing Pentecostal and charismatic communities, particularly in parts of Africa, teaching concerning healing, spiritual warfare and deliverance found receptive audiences.

It would be historically inaccurate to suggest that African deliverance Christianity originated with Allen.

African Christianity possessed longstanding indigenous traditions concerning healing, spiritual warfare and supernatural intervention.

However, Allen's ministry became one of several international Pentecostal streams that interacted with these developing movements.

Through literature and ministers influenced by the American healing revival, aspects of Allen's methods continued travelling long after his death.

THE DANGERS OF PERSONALITY-DRIVEN MINISTRY

By the late 1960s, A. A. Allen had built something extraordinary.

The poor boy from rural Arkansas now presided over an international religious organization.

There were:

Massive tents.

Broadcasting operations.

Publishing.

A Bible college.

Miracle Valley.

A large supporter network.

And an internationally recognizable ministry identity.

But much of the structure revolved around one person.

A. A. Allen.

This revealed one of the great vulnerabilities of personality-driven institutions.

When the founder is strong, the institution can appear unstoppable.

But when the founder struggles or disappears, the organization itself can become unstable.

Allen's ministry was approaching that test.

DEATH IN SAN FRANCISCO

In June 1970, Allen was in San Francisco.

On June 11, 1970, he was found dead in a hotel room.

He was only 59 years old.

News of his death shocked followers.

Then came the findings surrounding the circumstances of his death.

Official reports attributed Allen's death to serious alcohol-related causes and complications.

For critics, the findings appeared to confirm suspicions that had followed him since the Knoxville incident.

For supporters, the circumstances were more difficult to reconcile.

Some challenged aspects of the narrative.

Others chose to emphasize the ministry years and testimonies of people who believed their lives had been changed through Allen's preaching.

But the contradiction became impossible to ignore.

The child who had described alcohol as part of the brokenness of his early home.

The preacher who proclaimed deliverance.

The evangelist who called others to consecration.

His life ended amid official findings involving alcohol.

The conclusion was deeply tragic.

FAITH, INFLUENCE AND HUMAN WEAKNESS

Allen's death raises a difficult question.

Can someone genuinely influence thousands of lives while privately struggling?

Christian history repeatedly demonstrates that public influence does not necessarily remove private weakness.

Allen's ministry produced people who testified that they encountered God.

He also generated serious controversies and legitimate concerns.

Those realities do not have to be artificially separated.

A historically responsible biography should resist two extremes.

Allen should not be transformed into a flawless spiritual hero.

But neither should every aspect of his ministry be dismissed automatically because his life ended in tragedy.

The entire story matters.

Faith.

Influence.

Weakness.

Ambition.

Controversy.

And consequence.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MIRACLE VALLEY?

Allen's death revealed how dependent Miracle Valley had been upon its founder.

The institution entered a difficult period.

Leadership changed.

Financial problems developed.

Different organizations later became involved with the property.

The Bible college struggled to maintain the momentum of Allen's era.

Further disputes and tragedies occurred at the site in later decades, although those later events should not simply be attributed to Allen himself.

The giant tent disappeared.

The enormous crowds moved elsewhere.

And Miracle Valley never again carried the same influence it had possessed during Allen's lifetime.

But the ideas surrounding his ministry survived.

ALLEN'S SPIRITUAL DESCENDANTS

Allen's long-term influence is easier to see in methods and ministry culture than in the survival of Miracle Valley itself.

Healing evangelism continued.

Deliverance ministry expanded dramatically.

Religious broadcasting grew into a global industry.

Direct-mail fundraising became highly sophisticated.

Prayer cloths and other points of contact remained part of sections of Pentecostal and charismatic practice.

Miracle testimonies became central to religious television.

Evangelists continued preaching that supernatural Christianity should be experienced rather than treated merely as theological theory.

R. W. Schambach became one of the most recognizable ministers carrying forward Allen's tent-revival style.

Allen's archived sermons, books and recordings also continued reaching younger Pentecostal and charismatic ministers who had never seen him preach personally.

Sometimes institutions disappear while ideas survive.

HERO, FRAUD OR SOMETHING MORE COMPLICATED?

A. A. Allen is difficult to place neatly into one category.

Was he a hero?

A fraud?

A gifted evangelist?

A deeply flawed man?

History may require a more complicated answer.

He clearly inspired enormous faith among his followers.

People travelled considerable distances to attend his meetings.

Many testified for the rest of their lives that they experienced healing, deliverance or spiritual transformation through those campaigns.

He also helped pioneer ministry techniques that would become increasingly common.

At the same time, serious questions remain concerning:

Fundraising.

Accountability.

Extraordinary miracle claims.

Alcohol.

And the circumstances surrounding his death.

Those questions should not be erased to protect his reputation.

But his genuine historical influence should not be erased merely because controversy exists.

Both belong to the story.

LEGACY

A. A. Allen helped shape the world of modern healing and deliverance evangelism.

His methods anticipated many features that later became common within charismatic media ministry:

Large-scale revival campaigns.

Healing testimonies.

Deliverance preaching.

Radio.

Television.

Direct mail.

Partner-supported ministry.

Prayer cloths and points of contact.

Institution building.

And testimony-driven preaching.

He was part of a generation that believed the supernatural ministry described in the New Testament should remain visible within modern Christianity.

For Allen's followers, Jesus Christ was not merely the healer of biblical history.

Jesus Christ still heals.

They believed the Holy Spirit still delivered people from demonic oppression.

They expected miracles.

That expectation became one of the strongest features of the revival culture Allen helped represent.

WHEN THE TENT CAME DOWN

There was a time when thousands gathered beneath A. A. Allen's enormous canvas tent.

They arrived carrying sickness.

Pain.

Poverty.

Addiction.

Fear.

Desperation.

And expectation.

Allen stood before them declaring that nothing was impossible with God.

Some left convinced they had experienced miracles.

Others remained skeptical.

But the meetings became part of the history of American Pentecostalism.

Allen emerged from a childhood he described as marked by poverty, instability and alcohol.

He became a Christian.

A pastor.

A healing evangelist.

He watched Oral Roberts and began imagining another dimension of ministry.

He fasted and believed God commissioned him for supernatural ministry.

He built giant tents.

He entered radio.

He embraced television.

He established Miracle Revival Fellowship.

He built Miracle Valley.

He trained ministers.

He influenced R. W. Schambach.

And his preaching travelled far beyond the United States.

Yet extraordinary success could not eliminate human contradiction.

His independent structure gave him enormous freedom, but also raised serious questions concerning accountability.

And his sudden death at fifty-nine left followers with a painful final chapter.

Perhaps that is why A. A. Allen's story still deserves to be told.

The history of revival is not the history of flawless human beings.

It contains faith.

Sacrifice.

Powerful testimony.

Human weakness.

Ambition.

Failure.

Controversy.

And grace.

Allen should neither be idolized nor casually erased.

His claims should be examined.

His controversies should be acknowledged.

His influence should be recognized.

And the testimonies associated with his ministry should be presented for what they are — testimonies — while distinguishing them from independently verified evidence.

The great tent is gone.

The healing lines ended decades ago.

The crowds disappeared.

But echoes of that revival era remain throughout modern charismatic Christianity.

The expectation of miracles.

Deliverance from demonic oppression.

Mass evangelism.

Religious broadcasting.

Partner-supported ministry.

Testimony-driven preaching.

And the conviction that the Gospel should not only be heard—

BUT DEMONSTRATED.

Asa Alonso Allen.

A. A. Allen.

The Arkansas boy.

The pastor.

The healing evangelist.

The broadcaster.

The institution builder.

The controversial revivalist.

A man whose ministry carried extraordinary influence — and whose life also carried extraordinary contradiction.

A GENERAL OF IMPACT