Bob Larson Ministries

Analyst Comments [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com’s Take
July 2003
By Dan Wray, Research Fellow



Doing What Jesus Did?
WWJD? “What would Jesus do?” The popular question forms the basis for Bob Larson’s offer to teach an elite core group of volunteers how to have unlimited spiritual success, master the miraculous, wage effective spiritual warfare ministering to friends and loved ones tormented by demons and the devil, and become equipped to lead the End Times Revival. To qualify, applicants must first make arrangements for a sizable, tax-deductible financial gift to Bob Larson Ministries.

“Do What Jesus Did”
Ostensibly motivated by “a vision to fulfill the mission of Christ,” Bob Larson Ministries (BLM) centers around an intense effort to convince the evangelical church that demonic activity in myriad forms is the greatest danger facing Christendom today, and that Bob Larson’s deliverance ministry offers the only real hope. Introduced on the ministry website as “an expert on cults, the occult, and supernatural phenomena,” Larson travels extensively, confronting demons associated with every conceivable infirmity of the human condition, identifying “generational curses” as the cause of broken relationships, dysfunctional families and person to person abuse, preaching deliverance to captives (Lk. 4:18) in churches, conferences and public auditoriums, and encouraging ticket holders that they can “do what Jesus did,” according to John 14:12. Larson’s ministry style is a blend of earnest evangelistic appeal and “in your face” confrontation, tinctured with a compendium of psycho-scriptural words and phrases, against the backdrop of an ever-present presumption of Biblical authority. Scriptural references notwithstanding however, Larson’s actual methodology as evidenced in promotional literature and training excerpts is curiously unburdened by lengthy Biblical exposition, bearing more similarity to psycho therapy, with references to dissociative behavior, multiple personality disorders and repressed memory.

“Greater works than these”
A prolific author with reportedly 29 books to his credit – among them Larson’s Book of Spiritual Warfare, Larson’s Book of Cults, and the novel Dead Air – Larson’s ministry resource outlet distributes his own curriculum almost exclusively. In consideration of the number of available standard reference works on cults, one may wonder why Larson’s ministry resources do not include any but his own. In addition to books, audio tapes and videos Larson has taken his message to the airwaves, appearing on such regularly scheduled broadcasts as Oprah, Montel, Larry King, The O’Reilly Factor, and Politically Incorrect as well as having been featured on Internet outlets such as MSNBC. Larson has produced his own radio call-in show, and hosts a weekly television broadcast featuring live ministry segments. But by far his most provocative ministry feature is the Spiritual Freedom Conferences, purportedly featuring the occult unmasked, without the glamour of celebrity, “an invisible war with spiritual grenades exploding everywhere in the audience.” According to ministry publicity, during these conferences Bob Larson “calls these evil spirits forth to face God's judgment.” Face to face, Larson confronts a range of evil forces, oppressing, possessing, in some manner apparently tormenting the individual, until “deliverance” is apparently won and the person is restored in full view of the audience, many of whom appear to be praying in support of the warring minister. It is these center stage – critics say staged – exorcisms which draw the greatest criticisms, many insisting that the deliverances appear contrived, are not subject to any objective verification and range far outside any New Testament parameters. Conversely, it is these climactic moments which provide many ministry supporters the evidence of real healing and life-change for which they search.

DWJD Institute / Club
BLM offers numerous ministry resources for sale and has partnered with Lifeline Communications, generating user-proportionate revenue, it is unlikely that any single stream of donor support equals that represented by the DWJD Institute where, for a tax deductible gift of $1,999, duly qualified DWJD Charter Members ($4,000 buys Elite Charter Membership) may then take advantage of further continuing education resources at special prices, presumably also tax deductible. Membership gift payments may be deferred over a 12 month period; payment for continuing education modules must be made in advance. Other ministry resources include Spiritual Freedom Personal Coaching, available for those who desire the focused assistance of a personal coach in their walk with God – a spiritual 12 step program – for $199 per week, including program amenities. It is Larson’s vision that BLM trained teams perpetuate the work begun at Spiritual Freedom Conferences, “mainstreaming the ministry of inner healing and exorcism,” thus witnessing the power and authority of Jesus.

Donor support
Faith based ministries depend upon the regular financial contributions of ministry supporters. In this respect, Bob Larson Ministries is typical. In addition to support revenue generated by means already mentioned, BLM encourages loyal supporters to consider financial investment-gifts of $25,000 to $100,000 and greater, promising contributors enhanced access, personal communication and conference-meeting opportunities with Larson himself, as well as personal certificates of competency and participation in leading the End Times Revival, to be spearheaded, in Larson’s view, “by those who understand the supernatural.”

A Prophet without honor
Bob Larson Ministries has drawn continued criticism, the most recurring and persistent coming from a relative few and focusing primarily in two areas.
1Sensational ministry emphasis upon demonic activity. BLM’s apparent “stock-in-trade” is crisis intervention in the experience of troubled individuals, with almost invariable explanation that the cause of distress has been incontrovertibly linked to the activity of demons. While the N. T. is replete with evidence of the reality of Satan and fallen spirits, Larson critics cite a virtual absence of any reference to the other areas of enmity for the Christian, namely the world system, and the flesh. BLM ministry resources are given almost entirely to Satanic phenomena, with explanations and recommended intervention strategies only marginally drawn from Scripture.
2)Details of Bob Larson’s private life. Charges of impropriety in private life have dogged Larson in recent years, making much of sensational print and broadcast media allegations concerning Larson’s marital history, personal and ministry associations, and apparent lavish lifestyle. Whether correct or not, in the whole or in part, Larson’s explanations have satisfied very few and done little to blunt the criticisms. Additional criticism has focused on Larson’s fictional accounts of Satanic Ritual Abuse in novels such as Dead Air, involving such explicitly lurid details of ritual sexual abuse of children that filtered internet searches for purposes of literary review have produce restricted access alerts, prompting some to term Larson’s fiction “Christian pornography.”

In the view of BLM supporters, the ministry is serving a vital function within the Body of Christ, “doing what Jesus did,” exorcising demons anywhere and everywhere they may be found. To skeptics, Christian and otherwise, Bob Larson is alarming in the extreme, taking wholesale advantage of doubts, uncertainties and fears for financial gain. At the very least, his ministry and methods are controversial and provocative, sharply dividing opinion among Bible believing Christians as well as secular professionals.