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A. A. Allen (March 27, 1911 - June 11, 1970) was born Asa A. Allen at Sulphur Rock, Arkansas into the Methodist church.^[1] His middle name, given only as "A." on his birth certificate, was changed to "Alonso" at around age four.

A later Pentecostal convert, Allen’s life and methods were not without controversy and as with many of the other tent evangelists, he was the recipient of much criticism and personal scrutiny. Allen died in June of 1970 in San Francisco, and was buried at his evangelistic headquarters, at Miracle Valley, Arizona.

Early life

Asa A. Allen's father was an alcoholic and his mother a full blood Cherokee Native was said to be cavorting with other men^{[citation needed]}. At age 23, Allen was converted at the Onward Methodist Church in Miller, Missouri in a revival where two women were preaching. Later, he learned of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost from a Pentecostal preacher who was conducting meetings in his home. He soon felt the call to preach and allied himself with the Assemblies of God and subsequently obtained ordination from them in 1936. In 1947, Allen was pastoring a large A/G church in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While attending an Oral Roberts tent meeting in Dallas (1949), Allen was convinced that a great revival was ahead and that God was moving across the land with displays of great power. Allen later testified that as he left that meeting, he was filled with such conviction for the lost to receive God's miracle-working power that he asked his church board to allow him to start a radio program. They refused. Allen soon resigned from his church and began to hold revivals, and it would be during this point that Allen started his Healing Revival Campaigns.

Revivalist

In 1955 Allen purchased a tent for $8,700 that would seat over ten thousand people, and Allen was soon one of the major healing evangelists on the revival circuit. Allen’s revival meetings were similar to the other leading evangelists of the time (such as Jack Coe, Oral Roberts, and William Branham) where there would be an extended time for music and testifying, then a sermon, then an appeal for those in need to come forward and be prayed for. Allen opened his revival meetings to all races, and his interracial meetings drew criticism, but Allen used the criticism as a platform to preach upon. Allen often felt that he was heavily persecuted because he believed God could work miracles, but it would be an incident in 1955 that would have a dramatic impact upon his work and his affiliation with the Assemblies of God.

In 1955, Brother Allen was on his way to the tent meeting with two other ministers, and they stopped for a snack at a restaurant. Brother Allen only had a glass of milk. As they started back down the road to the tent, Allen complained of feeling sick, and wondered if the milk had been sour. He pulled over to the side of the road to give the wheel to one of the other ministers, and suddenly there were cops and press reporters pulling up behind them. He was charged with drunk driving. He paid the fine because he did not want the distraction of fighting it in court. But he and the preachers***with him always believed that the incident had been a planned set-up.

This incident and other disagreements led to Allen and the Assemblies of God having a parting of the ways..^[1] The claim that he "jumped bail" is not factual. He founded Miracle Revival Fellowship in 1956.^[1]

Allen continued on the revival circuit, and in 1958 he purchased a tent that could seat over 22,000 (the tent was the one used by evangelist Jack Coe up until his death in 1956). Allen became one of the first evangelists to call poverty a spirit and believed in God's ability to perform miracles financially. At the height of his ministry, Allen had over 350,000 subscribers to his ministry’s magazine-Miracle Magazine.^[1] The magazine retold stories sent in by admirers claiming Allen cured the sick, but gave a disclaimer that the magazine does not "assume legal responsibility" of its accuracy.^[1]

At a revival meeting on January 1st, 1958, at Phoenix, Arizona Urbane Leiendecker, a recent convert, approached Allen and offered him 1280 acres (5.2 km²) of the finest land in Arizona.."^[1] Within days a deed was recorded in the name of A.A.Allen Revivals, Inc. at the Cochise County Courthouse. Using this property, Allen founded a Bible School in Miracle Valley.

His teachings on prosperity were a major theme in his meetings during the 1960s. He began selling "prosperity cloths" for $100 and $1000 dollar donations.^[1] Furthermore, he claimed to have "visions, divine voices, and prophecies."^[1]

Death

Allen died at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, California on June 11, 1970 at the age of 59. The coroner's report concluded Allen died from liver failure brought on by acute alcoholism A few weeks after his death, the Miracle Valley office received a large check in the mail from a Los Angeles Coroner, who confessed that he had received the money from a large, politically influential church, and at their request, had altered the death certificate in exchange for the money. A few weeks later the coroner was found dead.****.^[1] There was a "report" that Police found his body in a "room strewn with pills and empty liquor bottles." This was "urban legend" without foundation of truth.

Three weeks before Allen's death, a rumor went around the country that he was dead. This, together with the confession of the deceased coroner, seem to speak of foul play being involved, but nothing was ever pursued about it. Allen was buried at Miracle valley, Arizona

After death and memory

After Allen’s death in 1970, Reverend Don Stewart became head of the association, changing the name to The Don Stewart Evangelistic Association. The activities of the association were then moved to Phoenix and the Bible college continued to operate in Miracle Valley until 1975. Rev. Stewart had been trying to sell the school since 1970, but seemed to have no success. Later he was approached by the Hispanic Assemblies of God who obtained the campus by a 20-year lease agreement for one dollar a year, in which they opened a Spanish-speaking Bible college known as the Southern Arizona Bible College.

In 1979 Miracle Valley came to a close after bankruptcy hearings.^[1] In the middle '80's, a sect from Chicago moved to the settlement of private homes on the other side of the highway from the campus. These people were led by a Sister Thomas. They were very suspicious, withdrawn, and hard to deal with. The tension reached a pitch, when one day there was a very large riot, in which some were injured and Mrs. Thomas' son was killed. .^[1]

Legal problems occurred when in 1982, A. A. Allen's main administration building and his vast warehouse were set fire by an arsonist(s), which resulted in the total destruction of the facilities. The insurance company paid 1.5 million dollars for the reconstruction of the large building, or one million dollars for a 'cash-out.' Don Stewart wanted to take the cash-out; however, the Spanish Assemblies of God (Central Latin American District Council of the Assemblies of God) wanted the facilities to be rebuilt.

It was agreed upon by all that the Don Stewart Evangelistic Association (later known as Don Stewart Ministries, Inc.) would accept the insurance money of one million dollars for Miracle Valley, and the Assemblies of God would receive the Miracle Valley campus consisting of 15 buildings and nearly eighty acres of land for six dollars which equated into the one dollar per year for the previous six years. However, Don Stewart forced the Assemblies of God to maintain a Bible College for a minimum of twenty years, or the property would revert back to his ministry. In 1995, exactly twenty years later, the Assemblies of God closed Southern Arizona Bible College and put the campus up for sale. It appeared they incurred the same problem that faced Don Stewart from 1970-1975, there were no takers on the property.

In 1998, a group of ten people from the Melvin Harter Ministries, Inc. came from Ohio to view the campus. The next year, Miracle Valley Bible College was purchased by Melvin Harter Ministries, in August 1999 and the school continues under the administration of Melvin Harter as the Miracle Valley Bible College & Seminary where students are taught in classical Pentecostal theology.

Allen's Influence and Ministries

Allen’s influence upon the mid twentieth century’s revival movement thought at first seemed to be coming to an end in 1955, was soon booming and his apparent downfall from the Assemblies of God was almost insignificant. Allen became one of the first to develop a national television ministry and broadcast prophecies and deliverances from demons over the airwaves. At his peak, he appeared on fifty-eight radio stations daily, forty-three TV stations, and even owned an airfield with 150 aircraft.^[1]

References

• • • Reverend H. Kent Rogers, Reverend Robert Schambach
      • Miracle Valley Archives,Reverend Paul Cunningham, Reverend Melvin Harter

External links

• God's Generals : A.A.Allen

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