1. Introduction: The Convergence of Nuclear Physics and Pentecostal Asceticism in 1946
The year 1946 stands as a watershed moment in human consciousness, a year bifurcated by the relief of global peace and the terrifying dawn of the Atomic Age. The detonation of nuclear devices over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 had irrevocably altered the geopolitical and psychological landscape of the world. For the first time, humanity possessed the technological capacity for self-annihilation, harnessing the invisible binding energy of the cosmos—the atom—to produce visible, cataclysmic results. It was within this specific cultural milieu of existential dread and scientific awe that Franklin Hall, an itinerant evangelist and writer, released a modest yet seismic theological treatise titled Atomic Power with God, Thru Fasting and Prayer.1
This report offers an exhaustive examination of Hall’s seminal work, a text that arguably serves as the single most significant literary catalyst for the independent charismatic revivals of the mid-20th century, including the Latter Rain Movement, the Healing Revivals, and the subsequent charismatic renewal.3 While often relegated to the footnotes of broader evangelical history, Hall’s synthesis of ancient biblical asceticism with the contemporary, electrifying metaphor of "atomic energy" created a theological shockwave that reverberated through the careers of monumental figures such as William Branham, T.L. Osborn, and Oral Roberts.5
The objective of this analysis is to deconstruct Hall’s thesis with granular precision, exploring the specific mechanical, dietary, and spiritual instructions he provided, and tracing the profound historical consequences of his teachings. We will analyze the "Four Appetites" that Hall believed controlled humanity, the controversial and esoteric doctrine of "Body-Felt Salvation," and the legacy of a book that promised not merely religious revival, but a physiological transformation bordering on immortality. By viewing this work through the dual lenses of historical theology and the sociology of religion, we uncover how a single text bridged the gap between the Azusa Street generation and the modern Charismatic movement, influencing the trajectory of Pentecostalism for decades to come.4
1.1 The Author: Franklin Hall’s Ascetic Origins
Franklin Hall (1909–1993) emerged from the Dust Bowl poverty of Kansas, a background that seemingly prepared him for a life of asceticism and discipline.8 Born in Coffeyville, Kansas, Hall faced the early trauma of his father’s death when he was only twelve years old, thrusting him into a role of premature responsibility as the provider for his mother and five younger siblings.8 This early exposure to hardship and the necessity of self-denial likely fertilized the soil for his later theological emphasis on suffering and fasting as the pathways to power.
Originally associated with the Methodist tradition, Hall’s theological curiosity eventually drifted toward the Pentecostal fringe, where the appetite for the miraculous was more pronounced.1 Operating as an independent evangelist during the Great Depression and World War II, Hall was not the typical fiery platform orator of the era. He functioned more as a teacher-mystic, a man obsessed with the mechanics of the spiritual world. His "Revival Center" in San Diego became a laboratory for his theories, a place where the "science" of fasting was tested not just as a devotional exercise, but as a method for unlocking the "hidden power" of the believer.5
1.2 The Thesis of Power
The central premise of Atomic Power with God is that the Christian church of the mid-20th century had become impotent, a shell of the explosive, miracle-working body seen in the Book of Acts.10 Hall argued that this powerlessness was not due to the will of God, but due to the "clogged" condition of the believer’s physical and spiritual vessel. Just as scientists had discovered that the visible world was held together by invisible, energetic forces that could be released through fission, Hall posited that the believer contained the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, which was suppressed by the "carnal nature".11
The mechanism for spiritual fission—the way to split the spiritual atom—was fasting. Hall contended that the digestive process consumed the vast majority of a human’s "nervous energy," leaving little capacity for spiritual activity. By ceasing to eat, this biological energy was conserved and transmuted into spiritual power, creating a "superconductive" state where miracles became natural.13 This was not merely a call to piety; it was presented as a spiritual technology, a formula that would work for anyone—saint or sinner—who dared to pay the price of hunger.9
2. The Atomic Metaphor: Theology in the Nuclear Age
To fully grasp the magnetic pull Atomic Power with God exerted on its 1946 audience, one must immerse oneself in the zeitgeist of the era. The atomic bomb was not just a weapon; it was a revelation of the fundamental nature of reality. It demonstrated that the material world, which appeared solid and static, was actually composed of dynamic, invisible energies of unfathomable magnitude. For a Pentecostal subculture that already believed in an invisible world of spirits and power, the atomic bomb was a scientific validation of their worldview.
2.1 The Physics of Prayer and the "Control Rod" of the Stomach
Hall’s brilliance lay in his ability to co-opt this scientific vocabulary to explain spiritual lethargy. He argued that the church was in a "powerless" condition, akin to pre-nuclear physics, relying on the "chemical explosives" of traditional prayer.10 He contended that God’s power was "atomic" in scale—infinite, cosmic, and earth-shattering—but it required a specific biological trigger to release it.
In Hall’s theological physics, the human stomach acted as a dampener, similar to the control rods in a nuclear reactor. These rods absorb neutrons to prevent a runaway reaction; similarly, Hall argued that the stomach absorbed the "life force" or "nervous energy" of the human being. As long as the believer was "full of bread," their spiritual potential was dampened, kept safe but weak. By removing food—the "fuel" of the carnal nature—the believer could remove the control rods. The energy normally utilized for the heavy biological taxation of digestion and toxin elimination would be redirected, leading to a "critical mass" of spiritual power.13
2.2 The Thermodynamics of the Spirit
Hall frequently drew direct parallels between the destructive heat of the bomb and the constructive "fire" of God. He referenced the temperature of the atomic burst—"four million degrees Fahrenheit"—as a shadow of the true power of the Holy Ghost.5 This was more than metaphor; Hall began to develop a theology where the presence of God was a tangible, physical substance—a "glory" that could be felt as heat, electricity, or vibration within the body of the faster.6
The text implies a conservation of energy principle: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Hall suggested that the "psychic" or "soulish" energy used to process food and pursue carnal desires could be sublimated into "pneumatic" or spiritual energy. This "scientific" approach to spirituality appealed to a generation looking for concrete answers in a confusing world. If the scientists could harness the invisible laws of the universe to reshape the physical world, why couldn't the Christian harness the invisible laws of the Spirit to heal the sick and raise the dead? Hall claimed to have found the formula, and it was as precise as $E=mc^2$.16
2.3 The "Hard Science" of Fasting
Hall went to great lengths to describe the "science" behind his theology. He utilized terms like "toxins," "assimilation," and "blood stream" to describe the spiritual effects of fasting. He argued that the body was poisoned by modern eating habits, and that this physical toxicity was the barrier to spiritual reception.
"A person cannot starve while fasting," Hall assured his readers, utilizing a physiological argument that the body would switch to consuming its own reserves.13 He described this process as the body "cannibalizing" the non-essential tissues—fat, tumors, and "rotten food particles" stuck in the intestines. This physical purification was the mirror of spiritual sanctification. The "atomic" power could only flow through a conductor that offered no resistance, and the "sludge" of undigested food and toxins offered high resistance to the Holy Spirit.13
3. The Four Appetites: A Psychological and Theological Diagnosis
Central to the structural argument of Atomic Power with God is Hall’s anthropological diagnosis of the human condition. He did not view sin merely as a moral failing or a legal standing, but as a biological imperative driven by specific, identifiable "appetites." In Chapter 6 of the book, Hall categorizes human drives into four distinct appetites, creating a hierarchy that explains the domination of the flesh over the spirit.11
3.1 The Hierarchy of Hunger
Hall identified the four appetites as follows:
The Spiritual Appetite: The deep, often suppressed longing for communion with God. This is the appetite that is most easily starved in the modern world.
The Hunger Appetite: The desire for food. Hall positioned this as the dominant, "root" appetite of the physical body.
The Sex Appetite: The drive for procreation and carnal pleasure.
The Appetite of Greed (Covetousness): The desire for accumulation, power, and material security.14
The architectural genius of Hall’s system—and the core of his fasting theology—was the causal linkage he established between these desires. He explicitly posited that the Hunger Appetite was the "key" to the others. Hall argued, "Food stimulates both sex and greed".15
3.2 The Root of All Lust
In Hall’s view, the stomach was the engine room of the carnal nature. When a person fed the stomach, they were not just providing nutrition; they were energizing the flesh in its totality. A full stomach, Hall argued, acted as a stimulant for sexual desire and the greed for material things. He cited biblical examples, such as the sin of Sodom being linked to "fullness of bread" (Ezekiel 16:49), to bolster his claim that gluttony was the precursor to perversion.13
This created a direct causal chain in Hall’s theology:
Feeding the Hunger Appetite leads to the strengthening of the Sex and Greed Appetites.
Strengthened Carnal Appetites lead to the suppression and starvation of the Spiritual Appetite.
Starving the Hunger Appetite (Fasting) leads to the weakening of the Sex and Greed Appetites.
Weakened Carnal Appetites allow the Spiritual Appetite to awaken and dominate.
This model suggested that one could not effectively pray against lust or greed if they were simultaneously feeding the root cause—the hunger appetite. Fasting, therefore, was the only effective weapon for "cutting the supply line" to the enemy within.13
3.3 "Food Drunkenness" and the Gluttonous Church
A striking and provocative term Hall coined was "Food Drunkenness" or "Food Addiction".13 He argued that the modern church was filled with "food drunkards"—Christians who were religiously temperate regarding alcohol and tobacco but were utterly debauched in their consumption of food. He equated the spiritual lethargy of the overfed Christian with the physical stupor of the alcoholic.
Hall challenged the Pentecostal holiness standards of the day, which focused heavily on external appearance and the avoidance of "worldly" vices, by pointing the finger at the dinner table. He suggested that the "addiction" to three meals a day was a bondage as powerful as any drug. "Food addiction or food drunkenness is as harmful to the temple of the Holy Ghost as other types of addiction," he wrote.13 This radical redefinition of sin placed the average believer in a state of constant, socially acceptable rebellion, explaining why revival tarried.
3.4 The Rumen Analogy: Chewing the Cud
To illustrate the need for spiritual processing, Hall utilized biological analogies, including the digestive systems of ruminants (cows). Snippets suggest Hall drew a parallel between the cow’s four stomach compartments and the believer’s need to "ruminate" or meditate on the Word of God.14 Just as the cow must regurgitate and re-chew its food to extract nutrients, the believer must process spiritual truth. However, Hall argued that this spiritual rumination was impossible if the physical stomach was overloaded. The blood flow required for the cow’s digestion, if applied to the human, robbed the brain of the blood needed for spiritual focus. Thus, the physiological state of fasting was the only state in which true meditation on the Word could occur.14
4. The Mechanics of the "Hall Fast": A Manual for Survival and Power
Unlike many devotional books on fasting that focused solely on the heart's attitude or the spiritual reasons for abstinence, Atomic Power with God was intensely practical, almost clinical in its detail. Hall provided a "scientific" method for fasting that he claimed would allow believers to fast for 40 days or more without harm—a feat he claimed was widely considered medically dangerous or impossible for the laity without his specific knowledge.6
4.1 Water: The Essential Conductor
The cornerstone of Hall’s physiology of fasting was water. He insisted that "water only" must be taken—no fruit juices or broths during the consecrated period (though he allowed juice for breaking the fast).17 However, the type and temperature of the water were matters of strict dogma for Hall.
4.1.1 The Prohibition of Cold Water
Hall strongly advised against the consumption of cold water during a fast. He believed that cold water shocked the dormant stomach, causing cramping and stopping the elimination process. "You should drink hot or warm water to avoid stomach cramps and other inconveniences," he wrote.12 He viewed cold water as an arresting agent, whereas warm water acted as a solvent, helping to dissolve the hardened mucus and toxins lining the digestive tract.
4.1.2 Volume and Hydration
He prescribed large quantities of water to flush out the "toxins" released as the body began to consume its own reserve tissues.18 Hall believed that many people who attempted to fast failed because they became toxic; their bodies dumped poisons into the bloodstream faster than they could be eliminated, leading to headaches and nausea. The solution was dilution: massive intake of warm water to carry the poisons out.
4.2 The Salt Water Flush and Internal Hygiene
Hall was obsessed with internal cleanliness. He taught that as the body entered a fast, the digestive system did not simply shut down; it went into reverse, dumping poisons from the cells back into the stomach and colon. If these were not evacuated, they would be reabsorbed, causing "autointoxication." To combat this, Hall prescribed a specific "internal bath" protocol:
The Recipe: A quart of warm water mixed with two level teaspoons of uniodized sea salt (or ordinary salt if necessary), to be drunk first thing in the morning.19
The Mechanism: This solution creates a hypertonic environment. Because the salt concentration matches or exceeds that of the blood, the water is not absorbed by the kidneys but passes straight through the digestive tract.
The Result: It acts as a powerful, natural laxative, washing the colon from top to bottom. Hall promised that "several eliminations are likely to occur," effectively scouring the "temple" of its filth.19
Enemas: For those who could not stomach the salt water flush, Hall recommended daily enemas to ensure that the "corruption" of the flesh was physically removed. He viewed the retention of waste as a spiritual liability.5
4.3 Breaking the Fast: A Critical Protocol of Survival
Hall warned that breaking a long fast incorrectly could be fatal. He cited instances where individuals, overcome by the return of the hunger appetite, ate heavy meals and died of shock or intestinal blockage. To prevent this, he provided a rigid, day-by-day schedule for re-introducing food, emphasizing that the "stomach goes to sleep" during a long fast and must be woken gently.17
Table 1: Franklin Hall’s Protocol for Breaking a Long Fast
Hall explicitly warned against eating starch, meat, or heavy foods immediately, citing cases where people had "ruined their health" or died by eating a heavy meal too soon.18 He emphasized that the self-control exhibited during the fast must be maintained during the breaking period, or the spiritual benefits would be lost to gluttony.
4.4 Managing Symptoms: The "Healing Crisis"
Hall prepared his readers for the physical ordeal of fasting. He described symptoms such as a coated tongue, bad breath, dizziness, and weakness not as signs of hunger or danger, but as positive evidence of "toxins" leaving the body.6
The Coated Tongue: Hall taught that the tongue was the mirror of the stomach. A thick, white or yellow coating indicated that the body was excreting filth. He advised scraping the tongue daily.
Hunger Pangs: He reassured the faster that true "hunger pangs" usually disappeared after three days. Any sensation of hunger after that point was merely "habit hunger" or the irritation of toxins.12
The Breakthrough: He promised that if the believer persisted past the difficult first week, they would enter a state of euphoria, clarity, and "body-felt salvation," where the weakness would vanish and be replaced by supernatural strength. This physiological roadmap gave thousands of people the confidence to attempt fasts of 21, 30, or even 40 days, durations that were previously considered medically dangerous or impossible for the laity.
5. The Theology of "Body-Felt Salvation" and Immortality
As Hall’s ministry progressed, and as detailed in Atomic Power with God and his subsequent writings (like The Fasting Prayer and Formula for Raising the Dead), his theology moved into increasingly esoteric and controversial territory. He began to teach that fasting did more than just answer prayers; it fundamentally altered the physical and metaphysical composition of the believer.4
5.1 "Body-Felt Salvation": The physical manifestation of Grace
This doctrine is perhaps Hall’s most distinct and radical contribution. "Body-Felt Salvation" posited that the salvation purchased by Christ was not just for the soul (justification) or the future resurrected body (glorification), but for the present physical body.4 Hall argued that the "fire of the Holy Ghost" was a tangible, physical substance, akin to electricity or radiation. Through fasting, a believer could purge the body of so much "earthliness" and toxin that they would become a conductor for this divine energy.
Hall claimed that the Holy Spirit could be felt moving through the body, burning out sickness and sin. He wrote about the "substance glory" of the Lord coming upon the person, referencing Moses’ shining face as a biblical precedent for this phenomenon.6
5.1.1 Symptoms of the Spirit
Hall described specific physical sensations associated with this state of sanctification:
Heat: A burning sensation in the hands or body, interpreted as the healing power of God. This "hot hand" phenomenon became a staple of the healing evangelists like Oral Roberts.21
Vibration: A feeling of electricity or current running through the limbs.
The "Jesus Scent": Hall claimed that a purified, fasting body would eventually lose its natural, carnal odor and emit a "heavenly fragrance" or the "scent of Jesus," sometimes described as the smell of roses or myrrh.9
Immunity: Freedom from sickness, tiredness, and even accidents. Hall taught that the fully fasted body was protected by a force field of glory.9
5.2 The "Formula for Raising the Dead" and Immortality
In the atomic metaphor, if one could harness enough energy, one could overcome the laws of physics. Similarly, Hall argued that if a believer fasted long enough and attained enough "spiritual atomic power," they could overcome the law of entropy and death itself.16
Raising the Dead: Hall treated raising the dead not as a sovereign, rare miracle of God, but as a "formula" involving the right amount of prayer and fasting energy applied to the situation. He wrote a book titled Formula for Raising the Dead, which implies a mechanical reliability to the miraculous if the conditions are met.16
Conditional Immortality: Hall flirted heavily with the idea of "conditional immortality" in the here and now. He suggested that a "super race" or a "new breed" of Christians could attain a state where they would not die but would be translated like Elijah or Enoch.6 This teaching laid the groundwork for the "Manifest Sons of God" heresy that would plague the Latter Rain movement, suggesting that the end-time church would conquer death before the return of Christ.4
5.3 Levitation and Anti-Gravity
Taking the "atomic" liberation from earthly bonds literally, Hall taught that fully sanctified, fasting believers would experience "freedom from gravitational forces".22 He described experiences of levitation or near-weightlessness as the spirit became more dominant than the body. He even went as far as to suggest that this "weightlessness" was a precursor to space flight or the rapture, achieved not by technology, but by the "raising up power" of the Spirit.25 This moved his theology from orthodox Pentecostalism into the realm of Christian mysticism or even the occult, yet it was devoured by a generation hungry for the spectacular.
6. The Catalyst of 1948: Historical Impact on the Latter Rain
The true historical weight of Atomic Power with God lies not in its theology alone, but in its reception. The book was not merely read; it was consumed as a manual for revival. Its distribution in 1946 and 1947 set the stage for the major Pentecostal events of 1948, acting as the primer for the explosion that followed.
6.1 The North Battleford Revival
In the fall of 1947, teachers and students at the Sharon Orphanage and Schools in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, began reading Hall’s book. The school was led by George Hawtin and Percy Hunt, former Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada ministers who were disillusioned with the "dryness" of their denomination.4
Ernest Hawtin, an eyewitness and leader, explicitly stated the causal link: "The truth of fasting was one great contributing factor to the revival. One year before this we had read Franklin Hall's book... We immediately began to practise fasting".26
The students and faculty entered into a season of prolonged fasting, following Hall’s instructions. The result was the "Latter Rain" revival of February 1948, characterized by:
Intense Prophetic Presbytery: The practice of laying on hands and prophesying over individuals for their ministry and spiritual gifts.
The "Heavenly Choir": Spontaneous, harmonized congregational singing in tongues.
Restorationism: An expectation of the restoration of the "Five-Fold Ministry" (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers).
Manifest Sons of God: The belief that the end-time church would be a "super church" of immortal, miracle-working believers.4
Hall’s book was the spark that ignited this explosion. The fasting broke the "spiritual drought" they felt, and the resulting outpouring was interpreted through the lens of Hall’s promises of power.28
6.2 The Healing Evangelists and the "Voice of Healing"
Simultaneously, Hall’s book was circulating among the independent evangelists who would lead the "Voice of Healing" movement. This was the golden age of the tent revival, where evangelists crisscrossed America praying for the sick.
William Branham: Although Branham had his own unique angelic encounters, he and his team were deeply influenced by Hall. Hall’s group and Branham’s group interacted, and the "laying on of hands" doctrine was cross-pollinated between the two camps.28
T.L. Osborn: The famous missionary evangelist testified that Atomic Power changed his life. He fasted for days, reading the book, before launching his massive international crusades that introduced mass miracle evangelism to the non-Western world.5
Oral Roberts: Early in his ministry, Roberts utilized Hall’s fasting principles to prepare himself for the grueling demands of his healing lines.3
Hall claimed, with some justification, that "Every one of these men down through the years followed Franklin Hall's method of fasting".2 The miracles of the 1950s—the blind seeing, the lame walking—were, in the eyes of the participants, the direct "atomic" result of the fasting chain reaction Hall had started.
7. Critiques and Controversies: The Fine Line Between Revival and Heresy
While Atomic Power with God generated revival, it also generated significant theological backlash. As the 1950s progressed, the Assemblies of God and other classical Pentecostal denominations began to distance themselves from the Latter Rain movement and from Hall’s specific teachings.
7.1 Works-Based Salvation?
A primary critique of Hall’s work is that it drifts into a "works righteousness" or a "technology of grace." Hall’s insistence that prayer is ineffectual without fasting implies that God’s willingness to answer is contingent upon the believer’s physical suffering or discipline.9
Critics argue that Hall treats fasting as a mechanical lever—a way to force God’s hand—rather than a relational submission. By asserting that even pagans and Native Americans received answers to prayer if they fasted 9, Hall reduced the miraculous to a spiritual law of physics rather than an act of divine grace or covenant relationship. This moved the locus of power from the Cross of Christ to the stomach of the believer.
7.2 Gnosticism and Occult Parallels
The doctrine of "Body-Felt Salvation" bears a striking resemblance to Gnosticism, which typically seeks to escape the "evil" of the material world (food, digestion) to attain a higher spiritual plane. However, Hall inverted traditional Gnosticism; instead of escaping the body, he claimed the body itself would be divinized.24
Modern researchers have pointed out parallels between Hall’s "immortal substance" and "levitation" teachings and New Age or occult concepts.25 The idea of developing a "super race" of immortal Christians also struck many as elitist and dangerously cult-like. This led to the "Manifest Sons of God" heresy, which was officially condemned by the Assemblies of God in 1949, leading to a schism that separated the "Latter Rain" churches from the classical Pentecostal denominations.7
7.3 The Physical Dangers
Hall’s extreme fasting protocols (40 days on water) were physically dangerous for the uninitiated. While he provided warnings, the fervor he inspired led some into anorexia-like behaviors or severe health crises in the pursuit of spiritual power. His demonization of food ("food drunkards") contributed to a simplistic and potentially harmful relationship with nutrition among his followers, where eating was seen as a necessary evil or a sinful indulgence.13
8. Detailed Chapter Analysis: Deconstructing the Text
To fully appreciate the scope of Hall's argument, we must examine the specific structure of the book as outlined in the research material.
8.1 The Setup (Chapters 1-4)
Hall begins by establishing the "Background for Revival" (Chapter 3). He uses a declension narrative, arguing that the church has fallen from its apostolic glory. He then pivots to "Jesus' Fast" (Chapter 4).11 His argument here is Christological: Jesus, though divine, did not perform a single miracle until after his 40-day fast.
Insight: Hall argues that if the Son of God required fasting to activate his power, how much more do fallen humans? This democratizes the supernatural. The power is not just for the "chosen" few, but for anyone willing to pay the price Jesus paid.
8.2 The Diagnosis (Chapters 5-7)
In "One Hundred Reasons Why We Should Fast" (Chapter 5) and "The Four Appetites" (Chapter 6), Hall lays out his case for the "Food Drunkenness" of the church.
The Four Essentials: In Chapter 7, Hall likely outlines the four pillars of the faith: Giving, Praying, Fasting, and Faith.13 He argues that the modern church has kept three but discarded the fourth (Fasting), which is why the table is unbalanced and the power has slid off.
8.3 The Prescription (Chapters 8-11)
These chapters ("How to Fast," "Fasting in Relation to the Physical Body," "The Proper Care in Breaking the Fast," "Things Forbidden to Eat") constitute the medical manual of the book.
Forbidden Foods: Hall’s list of "Things Forbidden to Eat" (Chapter 11) likely includes not just the breaking-fast prohibitions, but a general critique of rich, processed, and "stimulant" foods that excite the lusts of the flesh.11
8.4 The Promise (Chapter 12)
"Results of Fasting and Prayer" details the testimonials and the "atomic" payoff. Hall shares stories of healings, revivals, and personal transformations to whet the reader’s appetite for the fast.
9. The Socio-Political Context of 1946: Why "Atomic"?
To fully appreciate Hall's work, one must delve deeper into the psyche of 1946. This was not merely a post-war period; it was the dawn of a new terror. The imagery of the mushroom cloud was ubiquitous.
Hall recognized a parallel between the fear of atomic destruction and the fear of God.
The "Fear of the Lord" vs. "Atomic Fear": Hall argued that the world feared the atom more than it feared Yahweh. By branding God's power as "Atomic," he was attempting to re-instill a sense of awe and terror in the Almighty.2
Scientific Validation of Faith: In an era where science seemed to be replacing religion as the arbiter of truth, Hall used scientific language ("toxins," "fission," "formula") to validate faith. He made fasting sound like a laboratory experiment: Do X and Y, and you will get result Z. This appealed to the pragmatic American spirit.31
10. The Historical Aftermath: Hall’s Ghost in the Machine
The legacy of Atomic Power with God is visible in the structural DNA of modern Charismatic Christianity, even if the book itself is out of print or considered "fringe."
10.1 The Revival of Fasting (1946-1952)
Before Hall, fasting was largely a private, sporadic discipline in Protestantism (usually 1-3 days). Hall introduced the concept of the Corporate Long Fast.
San Diego 1946: Hall led a group in San Diego where people fasted for 21 to 60 days.6 This was unprecedented.
The Ripple Effect: When the Sharon Orphanage group read the book, they didn't just fast for a day; they fasted for weeks. This physical extremity created a high-pressure psychological and spiritual environment where "breakthrough" became inevitable.4
10.2 The Rise of the "Man of Power"
Hall’s book contributed to the "Big Man" syndrome in Pentecostalism. By teaching that power was a result of personal price paid (fasting), it elevated the individual evangelist who could fast 40 days above the common laity.
The Hero Archetype: The "General of the Faith" (like Branham or Allen) was someone who had conquered their appetite and thus wielded atomic power. This shifted the focus from God's sovereign grace to the evangelist's disciplined "anointing".28
10.3 The "Latter Rain" Eschatology
Hall’s belief in a "super race" of immortal believers merged perfectly with the Latter Rain’s eschatology. They believed the "Latter Rain" (Joel 2) was a final outpouring that would perfect the church before the return of Christ.7
Hall’s Contribution: Hall provided the mechanism for this perfection. How would the church become spotless and powerful? Through the atomic fire of fasting.
11. Conclusion: The Enduring Radiation of Atomic Power
Franklin Hall’s Atomic Power with God, Thru Fasting and Prayer is more than a vintage devotional; it is a historical document that captures the anxiety and hope of the post-atomic world. Hall successfully merged the scientific imagery of the nuclear age with the ancient ascetic practices of the desert fathers, creating a potent, if volatile, theological compound.
11.1 Summary of Findings
The Atomic Metaphor: Hall effectively rebranded fasting not as a ritual of mourning, but as a technology of power, appealing to a modernizing world.
The Four Appetites: His psychological hierarchy placed hunger as the gateway to all sin, providing a clear (if rigorous) path to holiness.
Mechanical Revivalism: The book provided the specific "how-to" manual that fueled the Latter Rain and Healing Revivals of 1948–1958.
Theological Drift: The momentum of his "atomic" logic led Hall into fringe doctrines of immortality and physical mutation, alienating him from the mainstream while cementing his status among radical revivalists.
11.2 Final Thought
Today, the direct influence of Franklin Hall has waned, but his spiritual DNA persists. Modern movements that emphasize long-term fasting, "soaking" in God’s presence, or the pursuit of a "Joel's Army" of end-time wonder-workers can trace their lineage back to the circuits of San Diego and the pages of Hall’s book. Atomic Power with God remains a testament to a moment when the church believed that with enough hunger, it could split the spiritual atom and reshape the world.
Table 2: Hall’s Fasting Timeline vs. Physiological Reality
Table 3: The Four Appetites and Their Modern Correlates
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